Hi Albert!
> Okay, I finally had a chance to play this yesterday for a bit, using both
> StellaX for Windows and Z26 (running in Windows 2000). In Stella, the ball
> is not visible, so there was no way to advance to the next level.
I never tried this with StellaX. The ball is actually a ball object. Does anyone know if StellaX has a problem with displaying the ball object? I don't think I'm doing anything illegal to display it.
> When I fired up the
> game in Z26, the moving walls were not positioned on the left side of the
> screen, but were instead about 3/4s of the way over to the right.
>
Yeah, I thought that was okay because really a title screen should be displayed until you start the game :)
> When I
> hit Reset, they were then positioned correctly and operated as expected.
> And the ball was visible. :)
>
> However, the game was running very slowly in Z26.
I have that problem with Z26 using NT and XP. I think the original speed is okay on the real console.
> Gameplay-wise, I agree with Manuel's comments about not always being able to
> get the ball without dying. This virtually guarantees that the game will
> force you to die at some point, no matter how well you've mastered the game.
> And for me, this is pretty frustrating. However, I'm sure this can be
> addressed by deviating a bit from the original game. :)
>
> Also, is there some reason why the moving walls need to go in one direction?
Not really, I just did it to keep with the original A8 game.
> It might be interesting if they could move either left or right, instead of
> always from the left. Then perhaps ball placement at the top could be
> somewhat randomized, rather than always stuck to the left on that top row.
> In addition, maybe you could add some additional gameplay elements, like
> "bonus" items to pick up, such as one that might cause the walls to freeze
> for a few seconds. Maybe another could "teleport" you up a row or two. Or
> slow the walls to 1/2 speed. Or make a few of the walls "disappear" for the
> rest of this level. And there could be bad ones also, say, one that puts you
> back at the beginning of the level, or (*gasp*) doubles the speed of the
> walls. You could represent these items fairly simply, even as big-honkin'
> pixels that only vary in color.
>
> I think the game's coming along quite nicely and I look forward to your
> continued progress! Keep up the great work!
WOW!!! Thanks for the suggestions Al. I like all of them. Now I have to figure out how someone with my little experience can implement them :) I have to agree that these elements would make a good game GREAT. I'll take all of these and put them in an archive of things to do.
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