Plink

[+SmittyB]

Good to know, thanks. There's still a possibility it could be a PAL thing, but I'd expect it to be flaky on NTSC if anything.

If it's fine for others on PAL meaning it's just my paddles then I'm happy to call this one done.

[+SmittyB]

14 minutes ago, sramirez2008 said:

<Edit> Any chance of adding SaveKey support?

I might be able to do that. I did try previously but didn't have enough space left in the 7800basic reserved area, it seems now I do.

I'll see if I can work something out.

 

 

Edit: I could maybe save the top few scores, but I can't use the 7800basic high score displays as I definitely don't have space in the reserved area for those routines.

[RevEng]

Heads up the last 7800basic release added support for hiscore.asm to be inlined in a non-permanent bank, provided you only call the high score routines from that same bank.

 

 

[+sramirez2008]

57 minutes ago, RevEng said:

Heads up the last 7800basic release added support for hiscore.asm to be inlined in a non-permanent bank, provided you only call the high score routines from that same bank.

 

 

Niiice!

[+SmittyB]

I'll see how it goes with the standard high score routines, but I'm thinking I might still try writing my own to keep a consistent visual style.

[+SmittyB]

If it all works well in NTSC this may be the final build, and I'll consider it such unless anyone finds bugs.

I found that I was getting heavy jitter from my paddles near the edge of their rotation where they're not worn smooth (they are clean though) so I upped the 'TIMEOFFSET' in 7800basic's paddle code from 10 to 64 to move the readings away from the edges and that's sorted it out nicely.

• Made the intro extra swanky
• Added high score screen (shows top 5 scores)
• Added high score saving via HSC / Savekey as per 7800basic's handy support for such things
• Added AtariVox speech  ("Plink", "Solo", "Doubles", "High scores", "High score!", "Extra Ball")
• Optimised some stuff and performed jiggery-pokery that I don't remember the details of
• Re-added full paddle trails in 2 player on NTSC machines. (Seems to be handling it okay in emulation)
• Reduced paddle jitter
• Select + Reset on power up will reset all scores to zero
• In 2 player games, if somebody loses control of the ball the other player stays in front. (Previously both players moved back but it meant player 1 would tend to get the ball first)

Plink_20201213_4.bin Plink_20201213_4.a78

[gambler172]

and now....back to SOTA ?

[Trebor]

Just a quick play video spreading a little more love...I do need more practice though:

 

 

[SlidellMan]

Judging by the latest video, the use of semitone sound effects and what appears to be 320 mode backgrounds are quite impressive. Possibly one of the best 320 screen mode games I have seen.

[+SmittyB]

Thanks for the video Trebor.

 

26 minutes ago, SlidellMan said:

what appears to be 320 mode backgrounds

The whole game is using the 1bpp 320A mode. I'm scrolling the background in RAM which is kind of a massive waste of CPU power, but it means the scrolling uses the full 320 pixel resolution rather than the 160 possible positions had I been shifting the background objects and then doing some other stuff to update the side with new graphics.

[+Muddyfunster]

 

31 minutes ago, SmittyB said:

I'm scrolling the background in RAM

I love that effect  ?

[Trebor]

14 hours ago, SmittyB said:

Thanks for the video Trebor.

My pleasure. 

 

In the video's beginning it may be noticed, there's a little back a forth between the options at the title screen. One reason was to show what was available, but another huge reason is to find where the paddle controls 'kick-in' and picks up the clock and counter-clockwise movements of the controller.

 

One humble suggestion here is perhaps for a game to start without the ball or field moving - just allowing the paddle to move up and down. 

 

It allows the player to find the 'sweet' spot for paddle movement.  Once the player acclimates to the paddle control and sensitivity, the button on the paddle control is pressed, ball is released, and then the game starts where it currently begins now.

[+SmittyB]

When a game starts the ball is uncontrolled so will bounce back and forth horizontally with no repurcussions to the player until a player hits it to gain control of it, and as it starts by moving away even if the paddle is in the right spot there should be enough time to move away if so desired.

Unless there's demand for it I don't think I'll add a serve button.

[vhzc]

Congratulations for your nomination in the Homebrew Awards!

It's was fun to see all the steps from your first discord post about a pong game to this gorgeous final version.

[+SmittyB]

Thanks very much. Things moved a bit quicker when I scrapped the original version and used what I'd learnt to start again, and it was certainly a pain in the neck in many ways, but I achieved what I set out to achieve and I'm very happy with how it turned out.

[SlidellMan]

Hey, congratulations on getting nominated. By the way, I see where you were coming from on doing that side project. Truth be told, I had to take time off of Heofonfir by working on another engine in 7800Basic and making music.