Planet Bob

I dunno... I think it looks pretty good. The ships are a bit narrow, but could you make them nine pixels wide, using the missile for the extra width? Or is that still too narrow?

I dunno... I think it looks pretty good. The ships are a bit narrow, but could you make them nine pixels wide, using the missile for the extra width? Or is that still too narrow?

 

Since this is already using both sprites, it'd probably require both missiles and the ball to create a decent looking rocket. And the rocket will change color when flying through the rows.

 

But having this demo and MAME side by side, doesn't the VCS version look miserable?

I think "miserable" is too harsh a word. But I agree it would be much better to be able to match the proportions of the original game elements more closely. I guess that's one of the problems not just with the 2600, but in bringing any vertically-oriented game into a horizontal format.

Hm... I'd still be interested in wether any of our resident VCS superbrains would think that a horizontal scrolling (a 32 pixel range) Multi-RESP and/or Meltdown kernel would be possible?

 

Just phantasizing here, but if a Multi-Resp kernel could do a sprite and an adjacent missile at once _and_ be moved horizontally at the same time, One could do 4 9-Pixel wide invaders and have the second sprite free for the rocket. I think it'd be a major pain to get such a kernel working though

 

(I think if possible at all, we're talking Galaxian here, with a complete bank full of kernels?)

I dunno, maybe my love for Galaxy Wars isn't as pure as yours, but I'm not seeing the "miserable" when I do a side-by-side comparison.

 

Looks pretty good to me. When you say 1:1 you've gotta mean gameplay and game elements, not graphics, or...? I mean, the original had 240x224 resolution, you can't do 1:1 with a 160x200 2600. You really think it looks that bad?

 

And as for the rocket changing color as it goes up the screen...it does the same in MAME.

 

You could probably get a decent looking rocket out of both missiles and then flicker/resuse the ball for the falling shots.

Looks pretty good to me. When you say 1:1 you've gotta mean gameplay and game elements, not graphics, or...? I mean, the original had 240x224 resolution, you can't do 1:1 with a 160x200 2600. You really think it looks that bad?

 

Look and Feel mostly. The resolution requires compromising, sure, but if you're getting too off, you end up with a clone, not a conversion

 

And as for the rocket changing color as it goes up the screen...it does the same in MAME.

 

Good catch!

Plain 8-Bit sprites are too small for the desired effect: even when using 5-in-a-row instead of 4, the gap between them is just too wide.

Here's a thought... can you make the gaps smaller, then mask off either side of the screen with the playfield so you kept the right number of aliens? This would effectively make the game narrower (more like the arcade game).

 

It would be similar to bezel overlays in MAME.

I think, or at least based on my experiments, that a multi-RESP kernel with a single sprite will limit the sprites to 6 pixels wide if you want them to be able to move with single-pixel resolution. I think it's because of the timing of RESPs, in that you can only place them in 3-pixel increments, and so "moving" the sprites by one pixel requires 3 copies of the 6-wide sprites, each bit-shifted in the 8-pixel space.

 

That aside, IMO, the demo looks great!

I think, or at least based on my experiments, that a multi-RESP kernel with a single sprite will limit the sprites to 6 pixels wide if you want them to be able to move with single-pixel resolution.

 

Unless you get really tricky with your kernel, the allowable area for a sprite will be an 8-pixel-wide box that moves in 3-pixel chunks. The simplest way to deal with this aesthetically is to draw your object six pixels wide so that it can move smoothly. Depending upon the design of your object, though, it may be possible to animate it to take advantage of the fact that you do have an 8-pixel-wide area. For example:

********
*------*
********

-*******
-*-----*
-*******

--******
--*----*
--******

---*****
---*---*
---*****

.  ******--
.  *----*--
.  ******--

.  *******-
.  *-----*-
.  *******-

.  ********
.  *------*
.  ********

 

The character in this case grows and shrinks, with the maximum growth corresponding to those frames where it's lined up on a 3-pixel boundary. Doing that would entail some changes to the game graphics, but they might be workable. As for using RESPx to place a player and a missile, that does work; the missile must be the next pixel following the player. Your minimum practical spacing would probably be 27 pixels in that case (two STA RESPx and one ST* COLUPx).

 

Note also that getting any of the multi-RESPx objects close to the left edge of the screen will be tricky, and involves some aspects of the HMOVE pulser that emulators may not handle correctly.

I think, or at least based on my experiments, that a multi-RESP kernel with a single sprite will limit the sprites to 6 pixels wide if you want them to be able to move with single-pixel resolution. I think it's because of the timing of RESPs, in that you can only place them in 3-pixel increments, and so "moving" the sprites by one pixel requires 3 copies of the 6-wide sprites, each bit-shifted in the 8-pixel space.

 

I fully understand. What you said opened my eyes again

Ok, that most definitely rules out this technique for this particluar purpose I think.

 

That aside, IMO, the demo looks great!

 

Thanks! I can try some suggestions cast here, like adding the missiles for 9 Pixels and artificially narrowing the display.

 

Any final word on the Meltdown technique from someone? Can this technique scroll horizontally or will it work only on a few fixed spots?