dhalsimrocks

Thanks for all the answers/replies. I had a feeling much of what I was asking was dependent upon my particular project, but I wanted to make sure. I don't like to make assumptions. I'll definitely check out a lot of source on Minidig. RiverRaid will be particularly useful. Haha... that's already happened to me like three times. I'm expecting more. I'm almost certain I'll forgo the asymmetrical playfield. I think I can still do what I want without it. I intend this to be an ongoing project, something that may take years or not get finished at all. However, I've had so much fun thus far that I can see myself coming back to it regularly as I learn more or figure out new things. Thanks again, and I'll probably have more questions soon enough.

Hey, first post here. Just a little background on me... I have a degree in computer science, graduated in 2002, have done a fair bit of programming in C. So I'm not totally new to programming. I've been doing it for over 10 years. Just... not in assembly. A month or so ago I decided it would probably be fun to write a game for the VCS and started devouring all the tutorials and 101's I could find, including a lot of documentation here. It has been extremely helpful getting me started and I already understand a lot about the VCS, 6502, the TIA, etc. I'm going to be using assembly because a) I'm not afraid of it and b) I've been wanting to learn it for years and this is definitely facilitating that, and rapidly. I've come a long way in just a month. My game is a vertical scrolling shooter, by the way. Nonetheless, I'm finding myself with some questions. I would like to eventually "complete" this game and have it as an ongoing project. So I'd like to make some good design decisions right now. So on to my questions: 1 line kernel vs 2 line kernel My impression here is that a 2 line kernel keeps the TIA's state the same for two scanlines, thereby giving an additional scanline's worth of cycles for whatever you need (setting an asymmetric playfield or something), and also having the effect of lowering the vertical resolution (which seems to me could also reduce graphic sizes since it effectively turns an 8 byte graphic into 16 visual). So is my impression correct? Also, I'd love to see a good example of a 2 line kernel in case that's what I should be considering. Asymmetric Playfield I understand exactly how this works and I've implemented it myself in practice projects. I also realize it's very expensive to do. Is it something I could realistically do in a vertical scrolling shooter? Since asymmetric playfields have to be done in the display kernel, would having a 2 line kernel be the best way to go about this? Code Arrangement Ok, so I know that vertical blank, horizontal blank and overscan are great opportunities for calculations, sprite positioning, collision detection and such. Is there any convention for what is typically done during those different non-display periods? Or is it really just preference? Symbols that begin with a dot/period I've read some source code that have symbols that start with a dot/period. What is the reasoning behind this? My text editor (vim) even displays them in different highlighting color. It looks something like the following: lda #$83 sta someVariable cmp otherVariable bne .doSomething ; other stuff .doSomething ; more stuff What can I realistically do? In playing other VCS games, I've seen 3 different ways of displaying a ship's gunfire. I see the ball used, P0 and P1 missiles and in Solaris, I noticed Neubauer was actually using the player graphic. Demon Attack does the same thing with the enemy fire, AND I like Demon attack's multiple rounds/bullets/beams. I like that VERY much. I'd like to have as much gunfire on screen as possible, both from the player's ship and the enemies. I know there's going to be a limit, but I do want to go as far as I can with it. Ideally, I'd like to be able to fire more than just one ball or missile at a time and it seems like the player graphic is the way to go about it, but I'm guessing that would come with a sacrifice. Is it possible to duplicate the missile without also duplicating the player? One thing I do NOT want is the missile (if I use it) to track the position of the player ship, such as with Megamania or River Raid. Is that a matter of writing to the proper TIA register? Ok, that should be good enough to start. There will be more I'm sure.