In Development: Asteroids clone

[Albert]

The screenshots look great, need to try this out on real hardware. :D

 

..Al

[GameEngine]

...it does have numerous timing issues (i.e. things speed up and slow down)...

 

It is hard not to love the amount of action you put on the screen. Please don't fight the speed ups to much. Hectic is good. Thanks for the great demo.

[+MrFish]

Thanks for the comments. I need to see about adjusting the size of the rocks (among other things). Originally the asteroids had full use of the entire screen but personally I didn't like the fact that playfield objects could be in the same spot as the score and ship display. To me it made it difficult at times to check the score and/or ships remaining. Perhaps I can give the ship/score display priority so that other playfield objects appear to pass under the ship/score display rather than just EORing with it (like everything else). I can also try moving the ships remaining and shield time remaining to the same line as the score as you suggested.

 

You can always expand the vertical playfield size. It looks like you're using the standard 24 scanline border on top and bottom. Even if you leave 8 scanlines on the top and bottom, that would still add 32 scanlines to your current display.

[Gury]

tjb: Great to see a project which seems to be finished in the future.

 

MrFish: I also thought about using upper and bottom 2x24 scanline range. TV sets have got more space to play around, but older ones were very limited in using those ranges. I already used upper second and third black mode line for title and information. What do you thing, is it safe to use all space from position 0 to 39 (or whatever gr. mode is in place)? Do you think the bottom black scanlines (or at least first two black mode lines) are safe to use, more particular, on older TVs? Because it is no problem with new TV sets and monitors.

[Rybags]

I'd go for a situation of leaving the first 8 pixels (H) unused if possible. Probably do the same vertically (top/bottom).

So that would give you a workspace of 312 h by 224 v.

[Heaven/TQA]

yup. when doing the Metagalactic Llama conversion I realised that even with a modern TV (Sony) even in "wideplayfield mode" ther first/last collum (8 pixels) are not visible.

 

but in Asteroids I guess you can go for fullscreen but take care regarding the static display. And take care...increasing screen size increase your workload for the gfx engine...

[Rybags]

With PAL you can typically assume the user will see all the display vertically or at worst have several scanlines clipped at the top and/or bottom.

 

NTSC is different, as the Atari is displaying all but 22 scanlines that the TV standard allows, whereas PAL displays all but 72 scanlines.

[Gury]

I'd go for a situation of leaving the first 8 pixels (H) unused if possible. Probably do the same vertically (top/bottom).

So that would give you a workspace of 312 h by 224 v.

One more stupid question. Do you mean leaving first 8 pixels on the first blank mode line or throughout the screen for every line? Same for right side.

[Rybags]

Sorry, I meant leave columns 0-7 blank (if you're talking Graphics mode 8 here).

 

Like having LMARGIN of 1 in Gr. 0 (try it, POKE 82,1 in BASIC).

[Gury]

O thanks, I understand now. I really have to experiment with my TV set, as emulation is something different. I will make standard playfield size for any display choice, including usage of blank mode lines.

[+MrFish]

tjb: Great to see a project which seems to be finished in the future.

 

MrFish: I also thought about using upper and bottom 2x24 scanline range. TV sets have got more space to play around, but older ones were very limited in using those ranges. I already used upper second and third black mode line for title and information. What do you thing, is it safe to use all space from position 0 to 39 (or whatever gr. mode is in place)? Do you think the bottom black scanlines (or at least first two black mode lines) are safe to use, more particular, on older TVs? Because it is no problem with new TV sets and monitors.

 

Yea, I always thought the overscan problem was exagerated. Even back in the day, my tv never required use of the the standard border sizes. I was happy when I found out I could change them. I guess Atari just wanted to make sure for the worst possible situation. I always leave 8 scanlines blank for the top and bottom of the screen (16 total).

 

As far as using the entire screen, there may be cases where it doesn't matter. If you need to test it out in an emulator, use one of the full-screen clipped modes. It'll give you a good idea of what effect it will have on gameplay, etc.

[ac.tomo]

Personally I'd like to see a duplicate of the arcade, so for rotating asteroids I'd prefer a deluxe version was made so as you have the option of playing 'arcade asteroids' (which was always something missing on our atari's) and the 'deluxe' version where rotating asteroids might not be the only improvement you'd care to make. I always think the simpler it is in a basic game (not coding wise, though) the better, asteroids is a very simple game and that's what's gives it's timeless quality, I think if you start dabbling with the basics, unless you pull it off you just might end up with another binnable copy or flopped clone. So, like I say, what's really missing is a duplicate of the arcade, if you want to try to better that then go ahead and take a gamble and call it the deluxe version or whatever, anyway whatever the outcome, good luck, I look forward to seeing the result.

Edited July 3, 2008 by ac.tomo

[ac.tomo]

Personally I'd like to see a duplicate of the arcade, so for rotating asteroids I'd prefer a deluxe version was made so as you have the option of playing 'arcade asteroids' (which was always something missing on our atari's) and the 'deluxe' version where rotating asteroids might not be the only improvement you'd care to make. I always think the simpler it is in a basic game (not coding wise, though) the better, asteroids is a very simple game and that's what's gives it's timeless quality, I think if you start dabbling with the basics, unless you pull it off you just might end up with another binnable copy. So, like I say, what's really missing is a duplicate of the arcade, if you want to try to better that then go ahead and take a gamble and call it the deluxe version or whatever, anyway whatever the outcome, good luck, I look forward to seeing the result.

[ac.tomo]

Sorry for the duplicate, my apologies.

[miker]

Hi! just discovered this one here!

 

Cool game. But yes, it will be great to expand playfield's size (just as Rybags descibed above).

 

I think that collision detections have to be corrected. I keep on crashing being "just-about" the asteroid (not even touching it).

 

And the Hall of Fame seems to be buggy a bit.

 

I keep the finger crossed for finishing this piece!

 

Thanks for sharing wour work.

 

Greetings!

 

miker

 

P.S. Is 8-bit version also planned?

[Pacfan97]

No offense, but Rasteroids is REALLY HARD!!!!

 

 

[+therealbountybob]

No offense, but Rasteroids is REALLY HARD!!!!

 

 

Was this released on the A8 or still a WIP?

 

Not played it yet but found a traditional looking version on Atarionline.plAsteroids II

[tjb]

No offense, but Rasteroids is REALLY HARD!!!!

 

 

 

No offense taken. The game is still a WIP. For one thing the timing is way off, as you destroy Asteroids the remaining ones get faster. This is not intentional BTW.

 

Did you play it on real hardware or using an emulator?

 

tjb

[tjb]

No offense, but Rasteroids is REALLY HARD!!!!

 

 

Was this released on the A8 or still a WIP?

 

Not played it yet but found a traditional looking version on Atarionline.plAsteroids II

 

I initally wrote it on the A8 then ported it to the 5200. Eventually there will be versions for both. I do have it setup for conditionally assembly but I haven't been good about updating the A8-specific code. I liked the 5200 because the controllers have two fire buttons and a keypad. I use one button for fire and the other to engage the shield. The keypad is also used.

 

tjb

[+MrFish]

I liked the 5200 because the controllers have two fire buttons and a keypad. I use one button for fire and the other to engage the shield. The keypad is also used.

 

The Atari 8-bits have a whole keyboard to use. The original Asteroids doesn't use a joystick. It uses 5 buttons.

 

Optionally, the 8-bit version could be programmed to use a sega gamepad. From what I understand, at least one extra button can be utilized on these controllers.

[tjb]

I liked the 5200 because the controllers have two fire buttons and a keypad. I use one button for fire and the other to engage the shield. The keypad is also used.

 

The Atari 8-bits have a whole keyboard to use. The original Asteroids doesn't use a joystick. It uses 5 buttons.

 

Optionally, the 8-bit version could be programmed to use a sega gamepad. From what I understand, at least one extra button can be utilized on these controllers.

 

Good points. Ideally I'd like to allow the user to customize the controls. It might be interesting to play using only the keyboard. When you say Sega gamepad, are you referring to the Genesis gamepad? Does it have to be modified?

 

tjb

[+MrFish]

I liked the 5200 because the controllers have two fire buttons and a keypad. I use one button for fire and the other to engage the shield. The keypad is also used.

The Atari 8-bits have a whole keyboard to use. The original Asteroids doesn't use a joystick. It uses 5 buttons.

 

Optionally, the 8-bit version could be programmed to use a sega gamepad. From what I understand, at least one extra button can be utilized on these controllers.

Good points. Ideally I'd like to allow the user to customize the controls. It might be interesting to play using only the keyboard. When you say Sega gamepad, are you referring to the Genesis gamepad? Does it have to be modified?

 

Yes, I'm refering to the Genesis controllers. As far as I know, they do not need to be modified.

 

I did a search on the 8-bit forums and here, to see if there was any specific information on reading the other buttons, but only found references to it being possible.

 

However, Gem Drop definitely uses a Genesis controller for the extra buttons. The distribution disk also contains the source code, which should be helpful in figuring out how he did it. It can be found here: Gem Drop

Edited January 5, 2010 by MrFish

[+MrFish]

I liked the 5200 because the controllers have two fire buttons and a keypad. I use one button for fire and the other to engage the shield. The keypad is also used.

The Atari 8-bits have a whole keyboard to use. The original Asteroids doesn't use a joystick. It uses 5 buttons.

 

Optionally, the 8-bit version could be programmed to use a sega gamepad. From what I understand, at least one extra button can be utilized on these controllers.

Good points. Ideally I'd like to allow the user to customize the controls. It might be interesting to play using only the keyboard. When you say Sega gamepad, are you referring to the Genesis gamepad? Does it have to be modified?

 

Yes, I'm refering to the Genesis controllers. As far as I know, they do not need to be modified.

 

I did a search on the 8-bit forums and here, to see if there was any specific information on reading the other buttons, but only found references to it being possible.

 

However, Gem Drop definitely uses a Genesis controller for the extra buttons. The distribution disk also contains the source code, which should be helpful in figuring out how he did it. It can be found here: Gem Drop

 

I just had a look at the source code, and it looks like the second button uses PADDL0 register (228 = not fired). This still doesn't conclusively answer whether or not the controller has to be modified to work this way.

 

I have one at work set aside that I was planning on buying. I'll get it and see if it produces the desired results unmodified. I'm curious about this myself, as I would like to utilize this controller for some games I have planned.

[tjb]

I just had a look at the source code, and it looks like the second button uses PADDL0 register (228 = not fired). This still doesn't conclusively answer whether or not the controller has to be modified to work this way.

 

I have one at work set aside that I was planning on buying. I'll get it and see if it produces the desired results unmodified. I'm curious about this myself, as I would like to utilize this controller for some games I have planned.

 

It would be ideal if new games could take advantage of the controller. Did you by chance extract the Action! source file from the .atr file. I've been looking for a utility to do this and have tried a couple with no results.

 

tjb

[+MrFish]

I just had a look at the source code, and it looks like the second button uses PADDL0 register (228 = not fired). This still doesn't conclusively answer whether or not the controller has to be modified to work this way.

 

I have one at work set aside that I was planning on buying. I'll get it and see if it produces the desired results unmodified. I'm curious about this myself, as I would like to utilize this controller for some games I have planned.

It would be ideal if new games could take advantage of the controller. Did you by chance extract the Action! source file from the .atr file. I've been looking for a utility to do this and have tried a couple with no results.

 

Sure... here you go. No problem.

 

Gem Drop Sources.zip

 

MakeATR is the utility needed to get at the source files. The disk is a MyDOS disk, and the files are in a subdirectory ("source").

Edited January 5, 2010 by MrFish