Warlords - More than One Fireball?

[Great Hierophant]

As much as I love the Atari 2600 version of Warlords (although Castle Crisis for the Atari 8-bit machines isvery hard to ignore), the one fireball limit tends to be somewhat limiting. With one ball it can be very difficult to get down to one player and win the game, especially when you are sharing a side. Is it possible to achieve more than one ball? While the TIA only has room for one ball object, that object can be updated every line. When two balls are on the same scanline, they would flicker but should still be visible.

[NE146]

I've always wondered this myself

[Mindfield]

I'm sure they could have multiplexed the ball sprite, but it may not have occurred to them at the time. Or perhaps they didn't have enough cycles left in the kernel they developed to accomplish it.

 

Either way there are tricks you can use to kill off the last castle if they're in a difficult location. If you're quick enough you can draw him up to the corner of his castle, then quickly flick round and hit his hindquarters. Then there's the ghost trick. The other players, despite being dead, still roam around as if they weren't (which you can see whenever the screen flashes). Although they can't stop the ball, they can redirect it if you fire it at them. Great for making boomerang shots.

[Great Hierophant]

Super Breakout and Fireball (Starpath) feature multiple ball boards, but they are using the missiles and players, not the ball. So I believe it can be done.

[tiggerthehun]

If I were such a Lord, verily I would decree that all Lords must have two balls. A Lord with one is but half a Lord.

[Nukey Shay]

It's possible with the existing ball if additional ram can be found (to store the second ball's variables). Looking through a quick disassembly, I can't tell if $80 and $81 are used at all. I did notice that 14 bytes of romspace can be saved right off the bat in the repositioning routine.

 

Change this...

;A=reposition value

LF000: CLC           ;2

      ADC    #$36   ;2 offset

      PHA           ;3

      LSR           ;2

      LSR           ;2

      LSR           ;2

      LSR           ;2

      TAY           ;2

      PLA           ;4

      AND    #$0F   ;2

      STY    $F8    ;3

      CLC           ;2

      ADC    $F8    ;3

      CMP    #$0F   ;2

      BCC    LF018  ;2

      SBC    #$0F   ;2

      INY           ;2

LF018: CMP    #$08   ;2

      EOR    #$0F   ;2

      BCS    LF021  ;2

      ADC    #$01   ;2

      DEY           ;2

LF021: ASL           ;2

      ASL           ;2

      ASL           ;2

      ASL           ;2

      RTS           ;6

 

to this...

LF000: CLC           ;2

      ADC    #$20   ;2 offset

      ldy    #$00   ;2

      EOR    #$FF   ;2 0-159 is now 255-96 

      CLC           ;2

Divide:

      INY           ;2

      ADC    #$0F   ;2

      BCC    Divide ;2

      SBC    #$07   ;2

      ASL           ;2

      ASL           ;2

      ASL           ;2

      ASL           ;2 move into top nybble 

      STY    $F8    ;3 save Y to a temp

      ORA    $F8    ;3 ...and move into low nybble

      RTS           ;6