RE: [stella] 2nd Resend: Warring Worms is Back!

Subject: RE: [stella] 2nd Resend: Warring Worms is Back!
From: "Billy Eno" <norby@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 19 Jan 2002 17:35:34 -0600
Notes Below

> -----Original Message-----
> Behalf Of Thomas Jentzsch
> Sent: Saturday, January 19, 2002 3:55 PM
>
> At 19.01.2002, 17:08, Billy Eno wrote:
> > After a (not so) short break, I broke down and finished Warring Worms.
> > Attached is a .bin with the (nearly, I hope) final version.  I
> have played
> > this on a real system via my supercharger quite a bit and it
> appears to be
> > pretty robust.
>
> Glad to see that the project isn't abandoned.

It was way too much fun (and too far along) to abandon.  I even have
antother project started that I will be releasing an early version of soon.

> > Slow mode - left difficulty to position A
> > Normal mode - left difficulty to position B
>
> You should swap that, for Atari 2600 A means advanced and B stands for
> beginner. And I noticed, that in one player mode, the computer speed is
> linked to the players speed. Is that intentional?

Stella starts with the left difficulty in position B for what ever reason
which is why I started it in normal mode that way.  Have to think about
that.

The computer and the player both move at the same speed, all the time.

> >         20-29 : 2-player, hostile enviroment
>
> I love that idea. :-)
> Is there a chance, that you let the new blocks blink one or twice before
> they become valid? Or no new blocks in an ~3x3 area around the current
> head.

That's an interesting idea, I'll have to see if I have enough cycles to do
it.  Otherwise, it usually equals out in 2-player mode (it happens to both
players at the same rate).

> > Go play it, tell me if it works, make suggestions...
>
> I looks like the computer played is sometimes deleting block of his own
> latest trail. That should not be possible.

What is happening there is that every so often the computer moves randomly
(with out "seeing" a block ahead).  Sometimes it turns all the way around
for whatever reason and then fires on its own tail.  The computer (and the
player) can change the direction of the worm head once per frame, though at
slower speeds the tail only grow maybe once every 6 or 8 frames.  So, the
computer can actually turn all the way around, fire, and still have enough
time to move without hitting anything.  If you practice you can get your
worm to fire perpindicular to the direction you are moving, an unintended,
but cool, "feature."

> It's also still (very rarely) possible to shot through the opponents
> head without hitting him.

This happens on both the emulators and the real machine, because I use the
collision registers, and the missiles only move in one block chunks,
occasionally you can "just miss" the head and hit the tail behind it (think
"feature").

> The computer AI needs some tweaking. It's to easy to shot it directly
> after the start. Just let it start in a different row of make it turn
> left or right immediately.

Good idea! (the different row start) Very easy to implement.

> What about a little death animation?

Another good idea, I may even have enough space to do it (I have about 100
bytes left)

> > ...tell me if you would pay for a cart... ;>
>
> Nothing, just because I don't collect *any* carts ;-)
> But others will!

But don't you just _neeeed_ this cart? :>

> Have fun!
> Thomas

Thanks for the input!

Billy

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Archives (includes files) at http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/archives/
Unsub & more at http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/


Current Thread