A really good day coding today. I think this sucker might
just be able to fly in time for Philly!
I got Paul's kernal working pretty well...it is really nice to
be flicker free. A few issues I could use some help with,
I'll talk about that in a second.
A second big improvement was an idea of AtariAge Al's...
he said that it's not fair that the computer can flap so
quickly, so fast, so I've added a rate limitor that really
makes the computer much less skillful. (It sounds a little
too mechanical/rhythmic when it flaps, but hey). Basically,
there's an upper threshold on how fast it can flap, it needs
its rest.
Also in terms of physics, I sped the ball up a touch, and also
made flaps a little stronger. I think it was getting too painful
to have to press the button quite that much to stay in place.
(Not too too bad on a keyboard, but depending on the joystick's
button, kinda painfil)
Oh, and Pterry's flapping around in a much more interesting
pattern. It really does add a nice element of...not quite chance...
unexpectedness...to the game.
So finally, here are the 4 problems I have w/ the kernal.
I don't think any are really really show stoppers, but they're
toughies...
* I had to modify Paul's kernal to use indirect addressing
for the players, so the overscan could determine if it's wing
up or wingdown. Unforunately, when I went to do the same
thing for Pterry, I done ran out of time, big time, and my
scanlines started going crazy.
Now, brute force, I probably still have enough ROM space
to have two kernals...one for pterry wing up, one wing down.
But that is BRUTAL, and if someone can show me a way to
avoid that, I'd appreciate it.
* Also, the players aren't quite touch the 'floor'...and the right
player has some shrinkage issues, the last line gets cut off
when it's at rest.
* Another issue, but a small and liveable one, is that when
pterry cross a point about 3/4 over on the screen, each shifts
down a pixel. With the ball it's not noticeable, with Pterry
a bit more so.
* finally, the kernal uses some extreme cleverness with ENABL...
but it seems limited to one scan line. Which isn't too terrible,
but I wonder if I should try and see if there's any room for
a multi scanline ball or not, timing wise...
well, those are the primary issues I think I only have a tiny
chance of being able to deal with on my own, so if someone wants
to play squeeze the kernal, I'd be your bestest friend in the
whole world.
A list of by TODOs and DONEs on
http://alienbill.com/joustpong/
Latest source:
http://alienbill.com/joustpong/20040226.source.txt
Latest binary:
http://alienbill.com/joustpong/20040226.bin
Thanks! I'm really getting psyched about releasing at Philly...
maybe sign a few carts, run a tourney...and maybe even one
other surprise I'm trying to cookup w/ Al...
--
KirkIsrael@xxxxxxxxxxxxx http://kisrael.com
"I would have made a good pope" --Richard M. Nixon
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