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2 players 1 joystick


SpiceWare

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  • For 2 player alternating games you can now select from 1 or 2 joysticks
  • Select-a-color for monochrome games. Select from the 16 base colors for NTSC (13 base colors for PAL).
  • respawn window size shrinks every 45 frames instead of every 60 frames.
  • Fixed a bug introduced in the last update that allowed the players to respawn on top of each other.
  • Fixed shield luma-cycling for monochrome games.

Changing the PLAYERS menu option caused a lot of code to be changed, so let me know if you see any odd behavior. Game logic is controlled by variable MM_PLAYERS. Before the change, MM_PLAYERS could have these values:

0 = 1 player

1 = 2 players

2 = fight

3 = co-op

 

after the change the values are now:

0 = 1 player

1 = 2 players, 1 joystick

2 = 2 players, 2 joysticks

3 = fight

4 = co-op

 

 

Updated menu

blogentry-3056-0-44555700-1344803400_thumb.png

 

orange you glad you can select your own color now?

blogentry-3056-0-60764900-1344803409_thumb.png

 

ROMs

spacerocks20120812_NTSC.bin

spacerocks20120812_PAL.bin

 

Source

spacerocks20120812.zip

 

 

 

Addendum:

slower flash

spacerocks20120814_SLOWER.bin

 

asymmetric flash

spacerocks20120814_ASYMMETRIC.bin

 

flash just option name

blogentry-3056-0-81873100-1344955996_thumb.png

spacerocks20120814_OPTION.bin

 

 

 

Addendum 2:

 

darker asteroids in monochrome games

blogentry-3056-0-46058300-1344969534_thumb.png

spacerocks20120814_luma_8.bin

 

variable asteroid luma in monochrome games

blogentry-3056-0-79758800-1344969526_thumb.png

spacerocks20120814_variable_luma.bin

10 Comments


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I haven't played enough to give good feedback on the re-spawning, but I did try out the two player mode with alternating players (1 joystick). I found a small bug in that once a player dies his shot continues. The Asteroids for the next player then appears on the screen with the previous players shot, and if it hits an asteroid then the new player gets the points for something they didn't do.

 

I made a savestate if you need it, but I think the explanation is clear enough. In the savestate it shows the player 2 starting the very first time already at 20 points from player 1's dying shot.

 

 

I think in one player mode the shot continuing makes sense. What would happen though (in 1 player mode) if you died your the final death, and your shot continued and destroyed something which gave you enough points for a new life. Would you still be permanently dead or would you live again?

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Good find on shots, that should be an easy fix.

 

 

Good question - I would have expected you to live again, but in reviewing the code just now I see that once END_OF_GAME_DELAY gets set the game is going to end in 2 seconds. I've modified the bonus life routine to reset EOGD so you'll get to play that extra life.

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I like the select-a-color option. It's hard to see the color you're selecting though until you move off of that option. Maybe if the menu flashing were slowed down, or if the colored part of the flash stayed on longer than the gray portion did.

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Yeah, it is a tad hard to see the color. I've added a few test builds (NTSC). One that flashes at half the speed, one that flashes asymmetrically, and one that flashes just the option name.

 

I'm partial to just the option name, though there is a minor issue in that the multicolor asteroids have a little bit of flashing as the blue is used to color some of the asteroids.

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I added a couple more builds to get feedback on for the monochrome games. One has a darker luma for the asteroids so when flicker does occur it shouldn't be as noticeable. The other has variable luma for the asteroids.

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I like the option one as well, except for the blinking rocks (minor gripe though), my second choice would be half-speed. In either case, I think they'd work better if flashing with a brighter value than gray. Maybe a gradient to match the rest of the text, but starting from white:

 

menuluma.png

 

As for the other test builds, I don't care for the variable luma rocks (too far away from the vector look). The darker luma works better, but I'm not sure I like it as well as the bright luma. I'd have to check it on a real TV, and I don't have a working 2600 at the moment (still).

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I think it was darker because the same gray is used to flash START. I'll double check though. Could just change START to RED and thus have an RGB menu.

 

 

I normally play multicolored which uses random luma values. When I play tested monochrome on the sixer I found the flicker to be distracting which is why I decided to try the random luma and lower luma builds. I'll probably go with the lower luma.

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Yeah, I'm going with 8 for the monochrome asteroid luma - I just spotted this in the source for the mulitcolored asteroids:

// select color based on level, add a random luminance

// from 4 thru 11 (so asteroids are not too dark or too bright)

color = (LEVEL_NUMBER[player] << 4) + (Random32() & 7) + 4;

 

The other thing it does is gives the asteroids their own luma value. The luma values used are:

4 - player 2

6 - UFO (small enemy)

8 - monochrome asteroids

10 - Saucer (large enemy)

12 - player 1

14 - score

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