Archon 2600

[vdub_bobby]

If one has enough RAM, an Archon kernel would be feasible using the techniques here.  Contrast isn't great, but it should be playable.

 

The player 1 difficulty switch selects whether to use 'flicker blinds' mode (a la Basic Programming) or straight venetian blinds.  The character shapes are not set up for the latter, but you can see how they look anyway.

938683[/snapback]

Very interesting demo! Doesn't even look too bad in emulation.

[supercat]

Nice job. I just tried it on a Krok Cart, and on my TV the flickering yellow characters look good. The blue ones are faint, especially on a light square. I wonder if you could improve this with a change of color?

938724[/snapback]

 

I changed the code to flicker-blinds the squares as well as the text. As before, left difficulty freezes the flicker. Incidentally, I also rotated the board 90 degrees to the right. Although I didn't redo the kernel to take advantage of this, it makes the board symmetrical (don't ask why I didn't think of this before). If I were to redo the kernel, I could save seven cycles per scan line.

arc.bin

[Zach]

I changed the code to flicker-blinds the squares as well as the text.  As before, left difficulty freezes the flicker.  Incidentally, I also rotated the board 90 degrees to the right.  Although I didn't redo the kernel to take advantage of this, it makes the board symmetrical (don't ask why I didn't think of this before).  If I were to redo the kernel, I could save seven cycles per scan line.

939056[/snapback]

Nice, now the yellow and blue characters are easy to see. On the down side, the whole board flickers and is a little rough on the eyes. I wonder if a different color scheme would help? I've noticed in Asteroids, some objects flicker better than others, depending on their color.

[Cybergoth]

Hi there!

 

I hate to say that, but while this is an amazing tech demo, I don't think this board can feel like Archon. It's just too small and too static.

 

After thinking this through and through for years now, I think the best port you can make would be something like "Archon Arena":

 

It'd skip the whole board. There'd be just the two army rows facing each other. Full sprites, full detail, no flicker.

 

Taking turns, each player would just call for a battle. Like for example yellow would select a unicorn to fight blues shapeshifter. Next turn blue would select a banshee to battle a yellow pawn. Once selected, both opponents would move to the middle and when they meet there, it'd switch to the battle screen.

 

For balancing the two players, I'd make the background darker each time yellow wins, and brighter each time blue wins.

 

Greetings,

Manuel

[Zach]

Archon Arena is a clever idea, Cybergoth. I'm not ready to give up on the board though. How about this? It has 81 cells with the same number of black, white, and neutral positions.

Edited January 27, 2006 by Zach

[Cybergoth]

Hi there!

 

I'm not ready to give up on the board though. How about this? It has 81 cells with the same number of black, white, and neutral positions.

 

This is a very clever layout. It seems like you've taken Roberts board layout idea a while ago one step further.

 

It pretty much captures the "look" of Archon, so for this!

 

I still see several problems though (besides from generally turning this mockup into working code )

 

- It'd need a cursor.

- The power-spots are missing.

- It's still a static solution.

 

Well, I have ideas for two of these:

 

- The power spots could possibly be indicated by a "glowing" PF/BK color.

- While the pieces move to their new positions, the other pieces could be made invisible.

 

Greetings,

Manuel

[mos6507]

Archon Arena is a clever idea, Cybergoth. I'm not ready to give up on the board though. How about this? It has 81 cells with the same number of black, white, and neutral positions.

939295[/snapback]

 

I am confident this kernel could be made into a game. It would be interesting how the game dynamic would change with a narrower board.

 

Very impressive work.

[mos6507]

Hi there!

- It'd need a cursor.

- The power-spots are missing.

- It's still a static solution.

 

 

I think the cursor and power spots an be indicated on a blank scanline between blocks, so they would UNDERLINE the block. It's tough because the kernel looks a little tall to keep adding scanlines.

 

Not sure if anything can be done with the missles or ball.

[supercat]

Borrowed sprites from C-64 version.

arc.bin

[mos6507]

Borrowed sprites from C-64 version.

939639[/snapback]

 

Can you really have an arbitrary piece, yellow or blue, at any point on the board?

 

Also, what is your strategy in doing the color cycling squares?

[supercat]

Can you really have an arbitrary piece, yellow or blue, at any point on the board?

Yup.

 

Also, what is your strategy in doing the color cycling squares?

 

Color them solid dark, or else 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, or fully white. The squares as shown are in the halfway stage.

[mos6507]

Color them solid dark, or else 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, or fully white.  The squares as shown are in the halfway stage.

 

So it's like pulling a window shade down?

 

Interesting solution although I would try to make them animate smoothly instead of just doing it in 1/4 steps.

 

What banking scheme are you using? The file was 32K so I'm guessing it's a 32K Superchip.

 

Also, with 9 objects across, what exactly is your sprite setup?

[supercat]

Interesting solution although I would try to make them animate smoothly instead of just doing it in 1/4 steps.

 

Well, I think Archon had five levels of darkness, so if one were trying to be faithful to the game I would think that's what one should use. Though if one is really going to be faithful to the game one would have to worry about licensing which would probably tend to put the kibosh on the whole deal.

 

What banking scheme are you using?  The file was 32K so I'm guessing it's a 32K Superchip.

 

Well, this thing is hardcoded for whatever pattern of objects I specify in my QBASIC code-generator program. To be a playable game, there would have to be a pretty hefty chunk of RAM available. I don't know exactly how big, since I did not optimize my code's RAM usage, but it would probably have to be bigger than 2K, and possibly bigger than 6K.

 

Also, with 9 objects across, what exactly is your sprite setup?

 

Alternating lines of five and four. Use the player 1 difficulty to freeze the flicker and you can see. The kernel is something of a cross between "Video Chess" and "Basic Programming", but with some other wrinkles thrown in to allow the assymmetric playfield (which now turns out to be unnecessary).

[Cybergoth]

Hi there!

 

Though if one is really going to be faithful to the game one would have to worry about licensing which would probably tend to put the kibosh on the whole deal.

 

Don't think so. Archon is owned by Freefall Associates and they've been very friendly towards fanmade Archon versions. IIRC they even supported one project with the original source code

 

Greetings,

Manuel

[Schmutzpuppe]

Don't think so. Archon is owned by Freefall Associates and they've been very friendly towards fanmade Archon versions. IIRC they even supported one project with the original source code

939778[/snapback]

But the source code isn't available to the public or do you have any download link?

Would be cool

Archon is one of my all time favourite.

[Cybergoth]

Hi there!

 

But the source code isn't available to the public or do you have any download link?

 

The project was residing here: http://www.archonevolution.com/

 

But I can't access it today. IIRC the source wasn't publically available.

 

Greetings,

Manuel

[mos6507]

Well, I think Archon had five levels of darkness,

 

I thought it was 8, same level of greyscale that the Atari 8-bit supports.

[Rom Hunter]

Six.

 

Black - Blue - Purple - Green - Cyan - White

 

I'm talking about the C64 version here.

 

[mos6507]

Six.

 

Black - Blue - Purple - Green - Cyan - White

 

I'm talking about the C64 version here.

 

941389[/snapback]

 

The reason they colorcycled the C=64 is because it doesn't have enough greyscale. The original intention of the programmers was greyscale. You get a much better sense of transition that way so you can anticipate the white and black phases. Otherwise you have to memorize a sequence.