espire8
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Blog Comments posted by espire8
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Hey Darrell, amazing progress! This slick kernel you put together with the list of what it can do just got me into thinking as well.
I know the use of two sprites pieced together for that fancy explosion was not practical to use in the new reboot of Frantic, and I must admit to myself that I do miss the novelty of that explosion affect. But concerning the player now being able to shift right/left on any scanline in this new kernal may present a possibility to bring back the fancy explosion. I suppose as was done to the rocks in Space rocks, I can use that same trick to mimick the fancy explosion into a single sprite and use the shifting method to preserve the same "wide" look to it and retain most of the visal likeness and color.
I'm not sure how much processing time this would use up as I do understand this may get in the way of how you're trying to free up as much time and space for the in-game speech which takes priority over all else, but what do you think of the revamped explosion idea?
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hehe...Just read your reply here right after I PMed you.
Yeah, that's a better option, OPTION looks like a winner!
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You can fit the word SPECIAL by cutting out a letter in the word SHIELDS to SHIELD in the singular.
Seems I can't post attachments in the blog, so I'll PM you the altered screen shot sample.
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First download!
Man, the mines are a real challenge now! Much, much better!
It's the best of both Asteriods and Deluxe in one game! So well done!
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Thanks for this update! All the additions are great! The rematerializing ship is awesome! even with your place holder it does make a world of difference for the game play! Can't wait for when Nathan's updated graphics are in place!
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Been playing this a lot without friction option and tried using the classic cheat of leaving one asteriod on screen and just constantly thrust while picking off ufos. It works for the most part and I love the continued momentum.
Just to note that the player ship's top speed is not as fast as arcade asteriods. I think the arcade's top speed is about double what space rocks is currently. I also think using invulnerability for 1 sec after hypersace will make it too easy for the cheating technique and if a player were to constantly hyperspace.
I also like how the player's next ship can respawn in different areas instead of only dead center. In FIGHT mode, that will keep the rival player (and respawning player) guessing where it may appear without the other player tying to snipe a shot by firing towards the center during a respawn.
The best way I feel hyperspace respawn were handled was in Vectrec's built-in Mine Storm game.
The reverse explosion affect was very good eye candy as well as helping the player see for 1 sec where the ship will reappear while being immune and not able to control the ship until it fully rematerialized. Too bad no continued momentum were present, but Space rocks may have an opprotunity to build on that idea. Worth a thought maybe.
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I did liked the continued momentum at first because it was radicaly different. Sort of adds to the risk of using hyperspace too often as a cheating technique as is often done in the arcade version, but that feature may not be for everybody.
But the idea of tying it in as an option along with the FRICTION selection sounds awesome!
One other solution came to my mind that may help reduce the chance of a wipe out while keeping the momentum in there is having the ship re-materialize when coming out of hyperspace. Like the way it's done for the ship in Defender, using a reversed animated explosion converging to where the ship will reappear for about 1 second before it comes out of hypersdpace with continued momentum. That may help players spot their ship in time to take evasive action to avoid collision with an asteriod.
Sort of adds to the intensity of that "narrow escape" adrenilin which I think would be way cool!
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This keeps getting better.. love the new ufo design!
I also like how when I get hit by enemy fire from UFOs, my next ship respawns while the UFO is still on screen, giving me another chance to take revenge on the bandit! Unlike the atari version that forced you to wait until the UFO left the screen and made it's escape.
One thing that does bother me in this build however is discovering when I enter into hyperspace after thrusting, my ship continues it's momentrum when I come out of hyperspace. At first I thouhght "Cool!" But then I often get killed because I don't catch where my ship is at in time before colliding with a rock.
Might have been cool if I can activate my shield to avoid that kind of wipe out, but that's not available together with hyperspace.
I think it's best to have the ship come out of hyperspace in standing position instead.
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Played the updated build. The new 2x large rocks look better now.
I see you implemented the temporary immunity from the 7800 version along with the competitive mode. Good idea! That would help during competitive mode so players won't get snuffed out immediately when their next ship comes into play.
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Very well done for a test I'd say.
I'm not sure if Random's comment is refering to both shifted and non-shifted rocks but I do see a vast improvement between the two on many of the still frames (I'd post some example snap shots - but there seems to be no way to post them here
). Although the shifted rocks have 24 positions compared to 32 for the non, there's barely any noticable difference in the number of positions while both rocks are rotating at the same frame rate as I see it.I would suggest that the rotation frame rate for some of the rocks be speeded up because it does help eliminate any noticable difference in the number of positions, and those rocks will look and animate so much smoother too.
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Will co-op have a competitive mode too? As in the 7800 version where both players are able to blast one another?
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Hey! Neat idea..
I like what you did with the paddles.
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Hmm.. perhaps I should do a larger size sample for the scorpion as with the traditional tank.
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Maybe you should try again. Perhaps it 's a bug since the forum's been upgraded.
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Oh my. You beat me to it.
I were about to send you a revised menu mockup.
Anyway, thought I suggest a 2-page title screen instead of a single page screen with all the listed options overpowering the title itself.
I'll post you the mocks anyway for you to look at shortly since you plan to do more revisions.
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How about adding an option for number of lives to start with (1, 3, 5)
and bonus life option (every 1000; 2000; 5000; and no bonus).
I'd like to see a continue feature option as well (on/off). To let players continue on the last ramped up difficulty setting before the last game was over, and with the score reset to zero too.
The last option I were thinking of: since the tanks will have homing missile option, how about giving the humanoid a special move option (on/off)? I don't know what kind of special move yet. Maybe an evasive roll by holding the button down while double tapping forward or backward? Or be able to "lock" your aim? ie: the last aim the player had while stationary before letting go of the fire button will be the same fixed aim when firing while running in any direction. Just some ideas.
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Yeah, I think getting screen shots from mame is a good idea.
Watching the posted videos, I noticed in coleco's version it has different art for the central computer than the arcade. The case may be with the robot factory too. But I never got that far playing in either version, so I really don't know if they do look different.
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Nice big Otto, and multi-coloured too!
Now I know the power plant and central computer will look just as cool.
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Ooo.. that's a whole lot smoother than the atari version! Very cool.. I'm gonna have to animate Otto's bounce!
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Wow! great job! That all sound nice and clear. The slower, deeper voice got a good heavy robot feel to it and sound best to me.
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Hmm.. I personally would perfer at the very least the 2 words "Intrudrer Alert!" instead of eliminating the samples and no voice at all.
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I guess the phrases i mentioned above can be concidered for the AtariVox version then?
I can see 5 simple phrases from out of the 5 words you're currently going with:
"Get the humaniod"
"Get the intruder"
"Intruder alert! Intruder alert!"
"Alert!"
"Chicken!"
That's a good enough alternative for people w/out the AtariVox.
True, the game don't need the voices to be enjoyable. However, instead of concidering to eliminate the voices altogether, you should at the very least keep the two words "Intruder alert!" for when Evil Otto appears - which I think is very much a help and part of the game play to warning the player. I know it's not essencial, but it does help the game play in a small way. And maybe keep the word "Chicken" too, because it's not a random in-game phrase, but rather it's a triggered comment to the player, lowering his esteem for actually chickening out of a fight.
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The increase of 467 bytes when using "human" + "oid" instead of "humanoid" got me to thinking that with the current simple phrases I can treat "get the" as a single word - it saves 494 bytes! Of course that limits flexibility.
Cool! At least we figured something out by experimenting!
If you can save nearly 500 bytes that way, then maybe combining the words "must" and "not" will help further. (1115 + 1003) - 494 = 1624?
And the words "like" and "a" as well. It's worth a try.
Here's another try. I have 3 combined words in this new list. maybe still workable.
Sample 1 ["Alert!'] 1204
Sample 2 ["Chicken!"] 1271
Sample 3 [..escape!"] 1433
Sample 4 ["Got..] 1139
Sample 5 ["Get the..] (998+842) - 494 = 1346
Sample 6 [..humaniod!"] 1894
Sample 7 [..intruder!"] 1764
Sample 8 [..like a ] (1133+836) - X = ?
Sample 9 [ must not] (1115+1003) - X = ?
Sample 10 [..robot!"] 1514
Sample 11 [Fight] 1144
Some phrases it can have: (combined words are underlined)
"Intruder alert! Intruder alert!"
"Get the humaniod!"
"Get the intruder!"
"Chicken!"
"Fight like a robot!"
"Got humaniod! Got intruder!"
"Humaniod must not escape!"
Robot shot by player's bullet from off a wall:
"Alert! Intruder got robot!"
"Human got robot!"
Robot shot by robot's bullet from off a wall:
"Alert! robot must not fight robot!"
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Any space saved for "human" would just be used to store "oid".
How bout just using the word "human"?
"The human must not escape." "Got the human. Got the intruder."
It deviates a little from the original but the phrase still works and I feel is a good enough fall back to the atari vox..
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I'll be watching as much of the 8 hours. I like animation especially by student projects. Thanks for the link!