Re: [stella] Star Fire: Advice on radar needed

Subject: Re: [stella] Star Fire: Advice on radar needed
From: Manuel Polik <cybergoth@xxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2002 22:56:43 +0200
Hi Chris!

>On Wed, 16 Oct 2002, Manuel Polik wrote:
>> I'm currently doing the radar screen and have some
>> positive results, as you can see in the attached BIN.

>wow.  I like it!

Thanks!

>> Now my idea was, to reduce the radar to 50% of the
>> current size and to make it part of a 6-char display.

>> An advantage of this would be, that it'd be 
completely
>> without any flicker.

>I actually like the flicker!
>It adds to the "electronic instrument" feel of the 
radar.

Hehe, that's cool, yes. Sometimes it even gives you 
"phantom readings" :-)


>But are you displaying the starfield too?  I've shot 
all the ships, but
>there are many objects left in the radar display.  
These are very
>distracting for me....

Ooops! Phew, I was so busy with the radar, I didn't even 
try shooting...

What you see are the ships. They're still there, but 
invisible. You'll notice that the Radar even shows your 
own shots :-)

I'll fix this, right now it's displaying everything all 
the time...

>I think I'd like the radar above the viewport.  Could 
be just my Defender
>brainwashing coming back to haunt me though. :)  

:-)

>How are you doing the
>radar?  Is it a 6-digit routine?  

I have absolut ship positions ranging horizontal from 0-
255 and vertical from 0-127. What you see on the big 
screen is one quarter of it (0-127 / 0-63) 

For the radar I basically just LSR those values :-)

Right now the complete radar is drawn with the ball, 
actually it's just a minituarized version of the big 
kernel.

>Is there time to draw other things with
>the playfield?  Fuel guages, damage indicators, other 
instuments in general.
>I don't know exactly what you're going for, so these 
might be useless...

Well... one is leading to the other. With the current 
display I fear I can't display too much other stuff.
Maybe I can display 1-2 sprites on the left side of the 
radar.

Depending of what I can display, this might turn into 
game features... hm... :-)

Some of the gamplay mechanics of the Star Fire arcade I 
don't like. For example when you dodge enemy fire, your 
laser get's heated. Strange logic. Kind of like 
refueling in Scramble by bombing the fuel-tanks :-)

Another thing, in the arcade you insert coins to buy 
fuel. If you shoot enough targets, you get extra fuel 
for free. Actually you always die on the time-limit, not 
by gettting destroyed. Another thing that needs to be 
adopted for the VCS version...

I'm currently thinking about rather doing real attack 
waves, maybe enemy waves alternating with asteroid 
fields.

I wouldn't need laser heat and fuel gauge then, But 
something like a timer backed shield system.

So I should at least find a way to display the current 
shield state & score.

At the moment, this seems to be the minimum I _need_ to 
display and it seems it's already the maximum _can_ 
display :-)

Greetings,
	Manuel

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