Break it! Arcanoid Clone - but better...

[Heaven/TQA]

while searching for the Tronic paper mags... i found this game: Break it! ehm...I know some of Oliver's game but this one I never discovered...

 

check it out as it's a far better and far more "Atari like" Arkanoid clone...

 

http://atari.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=5035

[mimo]

Thanks, I love Arkanoid and this does look a lot better than the official one

[happymonster]

Looks good. How do they do these 4 multi-coloured sprites at the top?

 

Seems to be using 4 colours in the main playfield, maybe they could have used the 5 colour character mode for an extra background/brick colour?

[Heaven/TQA]

i assume he uses PMs for more colours...simply press F8 and check the displaylist... (i haven't done yet)

[happymonster]

But there appears to be 4 2-colour sprites occupying the same scanlines. Who does that work?

[emkay]

But there appears to be 4 2-colour sprites occupying the same scanlines. Who does that work?

 

!Software-Sprites!

 

[happymonster]

One bitmap colour and one sprite per enemy?

 

Does that mean the enemies will change one of their colours as they move down the playfield?

[emkay]

One bitmap colour and one sprite per enemy?

 

Does that mean the enemies will change one of their colours as they move down the playfield?

 

You must not think that complicated

They are simply software sprites.

 

The game uses a good mix of software sprites and PM graphics.

 

The bad thing about Arkanoid versions on the A8: They suffer by the 160x200(100) movement of the ball.

The resolution of 320x200 for ball and "paddle" movement was higly recommended.

So a serious Arkanoid on the A8 would have needed some hires mode with PM overlay.

[Heaven/TQA]

happymonster...

 

start the game... press F8 to enter the monitor and enter

 

A 60ec

 

then enter LDA #$e0

 

press return

and go back to the game by enter CONT.

 

and you see what is soft sprite and for what the players are used...there is no real hard trick used... just clever usage.

Edited February 8, 2008 by Heaven/TQA

[+CharlieChaplin]

Well,

I always thought Break it! was released in some german magazine - but I guess that was wrong...

Anyways, I personally prefer Unicum (which was released in Happy Computer magazine), another great Arkanoid clone...

-Andreas Koch.

[Heaven/TQA]

Andreas, just checked Unicum 1+2 at Fandals site...not bad... but without enemies and not so colourful?

 

http://atari.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=3371

[Heaven/TQA]

btw. Oliver's Wizzball Clone "Zauberball" use nice soft sprite routines as well... he seems quite good as non professional in the end... I guess Emkay mentioned Zauberball already.

[+CharlieChaplin]

Yep,

and I already mentioned Zauberball here at atari-age some years ago - but then (Heaven) you did not like it. Regarding Break It!, I do not like the controls of this game - nice gfx but bad controls, whereas Unicum has simpler graphics but much better controls and therefore is much more playable... but thats only my opinion... At last there are so many Breakout and Arkanoid clones available, that one does not really need the original+commercial games by Atari and Taito... -Andreas Koch.

[happymonster]

Ah! It is using a character mode for the enemies as well. That's what a soft-sprite routine is? Must use a bit of memory for the character sets then?

[ZylonBane]

Ah! It is using a character mode for the enemies as well. That's what a soft-sprite routine is?

No.

[happymonster]

Can you please explain what it is and how it works then ZB?

[Heaven/TQA]

Zylon ment that the term soft sprites does not depend on the gfx mode you using... the term in general is used if you are not using the "hardware sprites" so instead you are using software...so your software can render sprites in char mode or in gfx mode... f.e. the games zone ranger or asteroids render enemies into gfx mode while break it! renders sprites into characters...

 

or take Dropzone. Some enemies are hardware sprites (the clouds f.e.) while others are charbased ones...

[happymonster]

Ok. So each image needs to have pre-shifted horizontal and vertical characters (for Break it!)?

[Heaven/TQA]

yes and no...there are tons of ways you can do that... preshifted, shift in realtime, preshifted data while copied into desired chars etc etc etc...

 

welcome to the world of game coding...

[TMR]

yes and no...there are tons of ways you can do that... preshifted, shift in realtime, preshifted data while copied into desired chars etc etc etc...

 

And don't get us started on objects that are mixtures of hardware and software sprites...! On the subject of preshifting, there's no need for vertical preshift since you can do the writing into the block of characters with an adjustable loop so you just change the height over eight pixels with that and then move the characters; an 8 by 16 pixel object needs a three by three character block and it's probably most sensible to arrange the characters in columns for speed.

 

welcome to the world of game coding...

 

...you might want to start ordering ibuprofen in bulk. =-)

[happymonster]

Of course for 2D stuff it's now extreemly easy to do things without bumping into limits on the PC.

[Shannon]

Hey thanks for posting this. I was just thinking how yawnworthy the official "arkanoid" release is.

[Oswald]

better?

 

[happymonster]

I liked Arkanoid on the Atari.

[Tezz]

...you might want to start ordering ibuprofen in bulk. =-)

LOL. too tru I certainly live on it.