Possibilities...

[Jess Ragan]

Aseprite is fun to mess around with it, isn't it? It also doubles as a model for perspective ColecoVision games, since you can keep tabs on color information in your tiles. Hey, would this work on a real ColecoVision? Aseprite makes sure of it, without the heartbreak of psoriasis and color clash.

 

Anyway, here are two mock ups of games that could exist on the ColecoVision, exactly as you see them here. The first is an adaptation of Rock-Ola's Eyes which I'm calling Eyeballin'. The second is a port of an Apple II game I liked, called Millennium Leaper. Making this artwork lets me decide which games would be feasible to port to the ColecoVision, and as you can see, these two are definite candidates. (The lead characters would be made of two sprites stuck together, explaining the extra color.)

 

It's not to say that these games are in any immediate danger of being ported to the ColecoVision, but let's just say that I like to keep my options open. I would like to do a maze game, if I can figure out how the pathfinding works, and Eyes would be the one I'd pick.

[+nanochess]

The easiest path-finding for games is more or less like this:

 

1. Is the current enemy in an intersection? If yes then goto 2, else move in the current direction.

2. Check the available paths for moving (North, South, East, West). Typically just check if the direction is open.

3. If only one path is available, go in that direction (required if your maze has closed corridors)

4. If two paths are available, choose the one that doesn't go back.

5. If three or four paths are available, choose the one that goes in the direction of the player (a common trick here is trying a vertical direction if it was moving in the horizontal direction, and vice-versa)

6. When three or four paths are available, you can also choose a random number, so the enemy sometimes chooses another direction.

 

In some games, once you are in the enemy's sight, it keeps the same direction until reaching the coordinate where it "saw" the player. The remaining of the algorithm tends to be the same.

 

In some games, the path-finding is simply random, once it reaches an intersection, it chooses randomly any of the available directions.

 

 

[ctelkin19]

Eyes was such a great game IMO.  A local convenience store where I grew up had a rotation of games and Eyes was one of my favorites.  Seems like the 'perfect port' for a CV title