Subject: RE: [stella] Generic kernal or just build a game? From: stella@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Date: Sun, 14 Mar 2004 21:34:24 -0600 |
Eric, Yeah, I figured 99% (if not 100%) of all Stella games have their own kernals, even if just modified versions of their predecessors'. As you stated, it would just be nice to attempt a generic kernal for the sake of experience. I think my requirements were just a bit too ambitious though. The definition of each "object" (sorry for the OOP speak) included properties like X, Y, delta X, delta Y, color, and naturally a shape pointer. HA! Needless to say, I was getting discouraged -- hence my post. I do want to continue building a generic kernal though. I'm going to cull the requirements down to... say... "Atari 2600 Pac-Man" levels. Well, maybe not that barebones, but one shape, one color, multiple copies, and probably "dumb" flickering to start with. The major sticking point will likely be that pesky horizontal positioning. I'll be referring frequently to this excellent document, I'm sure: http://www.io.com/~nickb/atari/doc/nb6502_1.txt I might concurrently work on a game idea that would translate well to Stella. I don't remember the name, but it was on a Compute! Gazette diskette (I think) for the Commodore 64. The concept was basically Breakout in the round, where the center of the screen contained a solid rectangle of blocks and the player had two paddles that rotated around the center opposite each other, as illustrated in figure 1. XXXXXXXX X . X X XXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX X X XXXXXXXX fig. 1 Technically, this could all be built using playfield graphics and a ball (or missile (or player)). I don't think I'd need to use any special tricks, except to create the non-mirrored playfield. Also some timing considerations for getting the paddles to be a different color than the blocks. Anyway, I'm sure as simple as this seems to me right now, I'll probably hit some technical (or mental) roadblock that will make me hang up my Atari paddles for good. :) j/k Thanks for your response! -Lee -----Original Message----- From: owner-stella@xxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-stella@xxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Eric Ball Sent: Sunday, March 14, 2004 7:49 PM To: stella@xxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: [stella] Generic kernal or just build a game? > Anyway, my question is: Is it worthwhile to build a generic kernal or > should I dive right into game-specific kernal development? I believe that most 2600 games use a kernel designed specifically for the game. Each game has a different set of requirements, thus needing a unique kernal. This isn't to say that a hypothetical semi-generic kernel wouldn't have some value. (prototyping maybe?) If nothing else, doing one will provide you with significant experience and techniques and routines which you can reuse in the future. Thought - a "generic" 2600 kernel would probably have similar capabilites as the 5200 in low-res mode. :-) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------ Archives (includes files) at http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/archives/ Unsub & more at http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archives (includes files) at http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/archives/ Unsub & more at http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/
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