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Ideas on how to improve/complete a couple of old Vectrex games I started


gorf68

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Hey by the way gorf68, I've since tried out Geometry Wars. ... I do see now how easily and satisfyingly it might translate to a real vector game. But I'm afraid it is way too hectic of a game for Vectrex to handle! ... Seems like you would have to scale the enemy hoards down considerably, which might really make it a whole different game. ... A whole new game would be my personal preference anyway though. ;-)

Edited by gliptitude
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VTwist seems to mostly have a problem with beam-zeroing on the real Vectrex, the frame-rate looks ok.

 

I've been away a bit recentl, so havent had the time to update my blog page... Maybe this weekend.

 

 

After reading 'Christopher Tumber's account' I think I'm possibly 'fudging' the 3D drawing routeans a Bit much for the real Vectrex to deal with properly. I'm just using the standard draw routean to re-position and draw lines to make the background moovement, but I'm using a combination of ADD, NEG, and LSR instead of multiply loops to change the 3D objects size. The objects are DRAW on screen and limited to single sized-line chunks, so a bouble-sized line would have to be made up of two 'single sized' lines strung together.

This dosn't use the normal drawing routean, and dosn't handle '3D zooming' in the normal way, it seems faster but not as predictable, or smoothe! I've go a lot of mooving lines on the screen here compaired to most of the vectrex content, so I have to watch the frame rate (flicker).

Edited by gorf68
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  • 1 month later...

I haven'y had much time to work on these lately, but the Vtwist program is more-or-less getting there now. It has all the hit-routeans working, and the boss screen is up and running. I still have to add some hit/explosion animations and put some sound in though...

I've uploaded the latest bin to my blog, if anyone is interested in taking a look. Don't believe the blog text though - I haven't got round to updating that yet.

 

There are still some graphical anomolies when running it on a real vectrex though!

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I haven'y had much time to work on these lately, but the Vtwist program is more-or-less getting there now. It has all the hit-routeans working, and the boss screen is up and running. I still have to add some hit/explosion animations and put some sound in though...

I've uploaded the latest bin to my blog, if anyone is interested in taking a look. Don't believe the blog text though - I haven't got round to updating that yet.

 

There are still some graphical anomolies when running it on a real vectrex though!

 

Well I downloaded and tried it out. Also downloaded "Lamps".

 

I could not get either of these .bin's to write to my VecFlash. Both produced a write error. ... So I don't know how the revised program runs on Vectrex.

 

I did get the new vtwist.bin to run on an emulator. I see that you switched directional controls to the joystick, that you implemented left and right kick actions, changed/added some sprites and implemented a countdown timer. ... Looks like it is coming along and becoming more of a "game".

 

I couldn't tell if I was hitting things or not or how to pick up the hour glasses. Didn't reach the boss screen. ... I'd spend more time with it if I could get it to flash and run on Vectrex...

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There is a free program called V-Model, which you can use to draw your graphics. This program will turn your drawing into Vectrex-ready code (in the form of a text file), which you can copy and use in your own program.

 

 

Wow, people are still using that thing?

 

If you haven't read Christopher Tumber's account of programming VFrogger, you might find it helpful. I just read it, but it will hopefully be more useful to you. He explains his process of attaining some goals with the display of his game, eliminating distortion, optimization etc.:

 

http://vectrexmuseum...RCE/PROGGER.TXT

 

Chris Salomon did vfrogger, btw. His work was hugely pioneering - Using the hardware wait states to do game processing and calculations instead of the more standard [frame] [calculations] [frame] model.

 

I did write a tutorial back in the day, but it's much more of an intro to 6809 programming than to Vectrex hardware (never got back to it...)

 

http://www.playvectrex.com/designit/christumber/tutorial.htm

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Wow, people are still using that thing?

 

 

 

Chris Salomon did vfrogger, btw. His work was hugely pioneering - Using the hardware wait states to do game processing and calculations instead of the more standard [frame] [calculations] [frame] model.

 

I did write a tutorial back in the day, but it's much more of an intro to 6809 programming than to Vectrex hardware (never got back to it...)

 

http://www.playvectr...er/tutorial.htm

 

Ha ha. Yes, I was referred to V-Model by Mr. Pelonis, who apparently still uses it all the time! I guess YOU made that one? Maybe I've got THAT Vectrex Chris correct? ... Sorry for the mixup, and thanks for your Vectrex stuff. ;-)

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Ha ha. Yes, I was referred to V-Model by Mr. Pelonis, who apparently still uses it all the time! I guess YOU made that one? Maybe I've got THAT Vectrex Chris correct? ... Sorry for the mixup, and thanks for your Vectrex stuff. ;-)

 

Yeah, V-Model was something I threw together in an afternoon or so 'cuz I got tired of graph paper and particularly doing rotation sequences by hand. Kinda amazing people are still using it. Def nice to hear!

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I've added some hit graphics to let you see when the dimonds and birds have been kicked, and a sound to let you know when the timer has been picked up. I've also tweeked some of the collision routeans, and foxed a few animation bugs...

 

I'll put the latest version up on my blog soon. I really have to just look at some sound/music now, and tydy up some more of the glitchies.

 

 

I've also been tinkering with the idea of writing a tutorial manual that's based around proctical examples that built up into a rudimentary game, pong or breakout, or snake maybe... something like that.

I've got a fair bit of experience writing used guides and technical reports, so I should hopefullt make a half-decent attenpt as this.

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I've also been tinkering with the idea of writing a tutorial manual that's based around proctical examples that built up into a rudimentary game, pong or breakout, or snake maybe... something like that.

I've got a fair bit of experience writing used guides and technical reports, so I should hopefullt make a half-decent attenpt as this.

 

That would be awesome!

 

I suggest you proofread for grammar and spelling before you publish it though. ;-)

 

It can get especially confusing when you are talking about program commands that are not recognizable words, and where every character has to be correct.

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Hey by the way gorf68, I've since tried out Geometry Wars. ... I do see now how easily and satisfyingly it might translate to a real vector game. But I'm afraid it is way too hectic of a game for Vectrex to handle! ... Seems like you would have to scale the enemy hoards down considerably, which might really make it a whole different game. ... A whole new game would be my personal preference anyway though. ;-)

oh, geometry wars! well you could make a simplified version with different controls. because i LOOOOOVE that game, i would say geometry wars: galaxies the best wii game of all time :)
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