Game Idea: Rip Off 2600

[+johnnywc]

Hello all,

 

I just finished school yesterday and I'm ready to dive into a homebrew idea for the 2600. My idea is a 2600 version of Rip Off! I did a search on the Atari Age forums and found this thread about a guy who wanted to do it but there was never any discussion of *how* it could be done.

 

Anyway, for those of you not familiar with the game, it's a fantastic 1 or 2-player cooperative game where you control a tank that can rotate 360 degrees (similar to combat/asteroids). The object is to protect 8 fuel pods in the center of the screen from being "ripped off" by up to 3 attacking enemy tanks. You protect the pods either by shooting missiles bullets at the tanks or ramming into them. The enemy ships do not fire missiles; they are armed with short range "lasers".

 

Overall, a pretty simple game that is easy to play and addictive (at least the arcade game is) and is great with 2 players and I would love to be able to play it on a 2600.

 

To make a reasonably complete version of Rip Off, the follow would have to be displayed simulataneously:

 

- up to two player tanks displayed at once.

- up to three enemy tanks displayed at once.

- a number of pods. 8 is how many were in the arcade; 4 would be acceptable.

- one bullet for each player

- short range "lasers" for the enemy tanks. think of this as being just a link protruding from the tank in the direction that it is facing.

 

For a simple game, it doesn't lend itself nicely to the 2600 programming paradigm, requiring up to 5 sprites to be displayed at once with no vertical separation. This assumes, of course, that the pods, missiles and the lasers are all rendered using the ball, missiles and playfield.

 

So, the question is: is this game possible? If so, what is the best way to do it? What does everybody recommend? Here are my thoughts... be aware that I've never "finished" a 2600 game but I have dabbled enough in the programming to be aware of it's limitations (to an extent)...

 

- for a one player game, multiplex player 1's tank and 1 of the enemy tanks using player 0. multiplex the other two tanks using player 1.

- for a two player game, multiplex player 1's tank and 1 of the enemy tanks using player 0. multplex player 2's tank and the other 2 tanks using player 2.

- player 1 and one of the tanks multiplex missile 0 for their missile and laser, respectively.

- player 2 and the other two tanks multiplex missile 1 for their missile and laser, respectively. Only one of the two enemy tanks could fire a laser simultaneously.

- the ball is multiplexed for the pods. this could also be the playfield graphics, but the course resolution wouldn't work and this would also force the playfield to be asymetrical. another thought is to have the playfied display the non-moving pods, and have the ball multiplexed to display moving pods (the pod would be 4 color clocks wide to accomodate the resolution of the playfield).

 

I would love to hear everybody's thoughts on this and thank you for taking the time to read it!!

 

PS I'm not doing this for the money either...

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Hm, too much multiplexing will probably result in too much flicker. Especially the pods (and the limited number of shots) will be a problem.

 

Probably you have to adapt the gameplay and also use playfield graphics.

[kisrael]

Personally, after looking at how much Wizard of Wor shares graphics --one player is used for 6 monsters! -- I'm not as much of a flickering skeptic as i used to be... it seems almost a point of pride with [stella] not to flicker, or to only flicker when neccesary (like flicker if they're on the same line, otherwise don't) but if you choose some decent colors (like, dull colors on black I think...or maybe bright colors, I forget) I think it can be ok.

[Cybergoth]

Hi there!

 

Personally, after looking at how much Wizard of Wor shares graphics --one player is used for 6 monsters! -- I'm not as much of a flickering skeptic as i used to be... it seems almost a point of pride with [stella] not to flicker, or to only flicker when neccesary (like flicker if they're on the same line, otherwise don't) but if you choose some decent colors (like, dull colors on black I think...or maybe bright colors, I forget) I think it can be ok.

 

Well, Wizard of Wor is the perfect example of how it's not to be done. I can't play that for more than 10 minutes because the flicker is driving me nuts.

 

Greetings,

Manuel

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I can't play that for more than 10 minutes because the flicker is driving me nuts.

Same here. Even just 10 minutes are too long for me.

[kisrael]

I can't play that for more than 10 minutes because the flicker is driving me nuts.

Same here. Even just 10 minutes are too long for me.

Well, I guess that explains the [stella] tilt against flickering :-)

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Well, I guess that explains the [stella] tilt against flickering :-)

Activision could do without, why shouldn't we?

 

Actually Qb, Marble Craze and Star Fire (almost) constantly flicker, Thrust sometimes too, my Robot City WIP is completely depending on flicker etc.

[+johnnywc]

Thank you all for your input. I'm going to start small and get a ship on the screen, get it to rotate and move around, applying friction, etc. The more I think about the pods, the more I think I'm going to do them in playfield graphics, but I'll try to avoid the asymetrical playfield by utilizing a ventian-blinds technique if possible. I can also make sure that only one pod appears per 4 scan lines to avoid this issue also. When a pod gets picked up, I can use the ball sprite to represent the fine movement with the enemy tank, and when it's dropped (enemy tank is destroyed), position the pod in the closest 4-scanline area that is available.

 

The ball can be mutliplexed when more than one pod is stolen at a time (usually only happens on the higher levels), but I can limit this to 2 max and use logic to make sure that each pod is taken in a seperate direction, again avoiding flicker. This will leave the 2 player sprites to represent (at max) 5 objects (4 in a one player game) and the two missiles to handle the player missiles and the enemy lasers.

 

I know it's a lot to do in a kernel I'm sure - does it sound possible??? I'm going to start right away and hopefully will get something going in the near future. If you guys have any other suggestions they're more than welcomed!!

 

Thanks again!!