The logic to show the shields is now in place. The shields are not yet tied to the paddles - they currently move around by themselves. Now that I know positioning ranges for the shields I can figure out how often the paddles need to be read, which determines the frequency I'll be able to use. In Warlords only 1 paddle is read every screen update, yielding 15 spspp(samples per second per paddle). A "smoothing" function is used to smooth out the action over 4 frames to make it look better. If I'm able too I'll use supercat's 4 paddle routines(for 60 spspp). If I don't have enough cycles for his routines, I'm pretty sure I can read 2 paddles every screen udpate yielding 30 spspp.

The red/yellow block moving in the middle is where the dragon will be. I'm going to try something like the technique used in Dolphin for a large, yet detailed, character.

An interview with Matthew Hubbard

Quote

SS: How did the idea for Dolphin come about?

 

MH: I wanted to make a game where the main characters were a little bigger than normal on the 2600, using double-size mode and line-by-line single pixel shifting. I experimented with making a dolphin animation, and everyone who saw the early screens knew immediately that the pixels represented a dolphin, so I moved forward from there.

Turning dead player's black (so their kings don't show) causes a fireball to become invisible as well. I've opted to have the fireballs fast cycle (each fireball will be cycle between being drawn by the ball, missile 0 then missile 1). You can simulate dead players by using the difficulty switches - the left switch controls player 1, the right player 3.

BIN mm.bin

Source Medieval_Mayhem.zip