Detecting long-presses

[nsn]

Hi!

 

I need a second "gesture" in my game (to switch between different display modes), and I don't want players to have to reach for any of the h/w switches on the console - so I want to detect whenever the player presses the fire button for a significant duration (say 500ms?)

 

Are there any best practices to do this? Preferably w/o using a byte of ram for counting frames?

 

I'm using plain assembler, no bAtari basic

 

thanks!

[ZackAttack]

I think you have to count frames. For 500ms it's only 5 bits though. Just increment the variable every frame. And with $e0 if button isn't pressed. If count exceeds threshold switch modes. You could make $20 the flag for displaying the other mode so you switch modes for free once it counts to 32 frames. Then you can and with $C0 regardless of the display mode and releasing the button switches back to the original mode.

[nsn]

OK, I'll just count frames then

 

thanks for the quick answer!