Missile or ball "rope"?

[Yosikuma]

Are ropes like the ones seen in Jungle Hunt or Pitfall a possibility in bB? How would one go about doing this?

[+Random Terrain]

At one time, bB was going to have that feature:

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/122024-64k-bb-games/?p=1483436

I've started on scrolling in the multisprite kernel, and it's "sort of" working, and I have what I'm calling "vectors" working in the standard kernel, but need to add compiler support for them. By "vector," I mean you are able to turn a missile into a line or an arc connecting two points, for example like the Pitfall vines. Or you can also use a missile as a "fake player" by varying the width, or you can shift a player object per line to make it look more interesting, like the cows in Stampede or the dolphin in Dolphin. The only drawback to this is the HMOVE "comb" at the left edge of the screen, but there seems to be no way around that.

atariage.com/forums/topic/169278-looking-for-a-post-by-batari-about-wriggling-sprites/?p=2094491

IIRC, I think I had trouble getting the "wiggling sprites" to fit properly with all of the assembly directives in the standard kernel, and doing something like a vine would have required a ton of data - i.e. a table for every possible frame, as opposed to Pitfall which calculated the vine within the kernel. I tried to implement a calculated vine like that but could not make it work. I'll look into it again someday.

[Yosikuma]

Well that is unfortunate. I can certainly understand but it's still unfortunate. A game idea I had rattling on in my brain was dependent upon more freedom with missiles and balls, so I will need to think of something else, I suppose ...

[+SpiceWare]

so I will need to think of something else, I suppose ...

There's always the assembly route. If you're not familiar with 6502 programming then start off with Easy 6502. After that, work your way through my Collect tutorial. I put way more comments in my source than normal, which should help a 6502 newbie get up to speed.

[Yosikuma]

Actually, that was my next course of action. I kind of figured that I'd be trying to do too much with Batari (as I've been pouring over RandomTerrain's materials on it for a while now), so I just need to bite the bullet and do it. My last attempt at 6502 assembler was 30 years ago and didn't exactly go well, so here's hoping this goes a little better now. :: laugh ::

[gauauu]

My last attempt at 6502 assembler was 30 years ago and didn't exactly go well, so here's hoping this goes a little better now. :: laugh ::

 

That's how I was -- I dabbled it in years ago until just recently when I picked it up to try out Atari dev. It was much easier to get going than I expected. (although I still have more trouble than I should with a few simple math operations that should be easy). Give it a whirl, you may have a lot of fun re-learning it. (I did)

[+SpiceWare]

Also check out jEdit. Besides the syntax highlighting, being able to compile your code then launch Stella is very handy.

[+Random Terrain]

Actually, that was my next course of action. I kind of figured that I'd be trying to do too much with Batari (as I've been pouring over RandomTerrain's materials on it for a while now), so I just need to bite the bullet and do it. My last attempt at 6502 assembler was 30 years ago and didn't exactly go well, so here's hoping this goes a little better now. :: laugh ::

 

Related link:

 

randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories.html#assembly_language

[+Gemintronic]

There's always the assembly route. If you're not familiar with 6502 programming then start off with Easy 6502. After that, work your way through my Collect tutorial. I put way more comments in my source than normal, which should help a 6502 newbie get up to speed.

 

There may yet be a way to keep his current batari BASIC efforts and have his cake too. If an assembly routine can be made bB friendly he can keep the overall game structure bB code and use his own assembly for the advanced ball/missile mangling needed for the rope. That has the added benefit of filling in a missing feature for all the rest of the bB community.