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Paddle Party Development Diary


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Tweaking the Handball screen design.

 

My brain is too tired for programming today, so I am fooling around with graphics and colors.

 

Here are some different ideas for the Handball screen. What do you think? Do you like any of them? Hate any of them?

Let me know....

 

1. Deep Purple:

 

post-14916-0-86562100-1336319564_thumb.gif

 

2. Purple and Black:

 

post-14916-0-98466300-1336319599_thumb.gif

 

3. Plain Black:

 

post-14916-0-74090200-1336319621_thumb.gif

 

4. Dark Green:

 

post-14916-0-76984900-1336319654_thumb.gif

 

5. Color Squares accident (it was an accident, but it looks kind of interesting - maybe I could use colored square to make a more colorful background...)

 

post-14916-0-66078800-1336319718_thumb.gif

 

I vote 1

absolutely not 5

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Ok, I got two votes for the green and black version, 2 votes for the purple version, and 1 vote against the purple version.

 

(Version 5 wasn't really a potential version - it was a just a reminder that I could use the "colored squares mode" to get some more colors on the screen. Someday I'll mock this up so it is easier to visualize...)

 

In any case, I am going to go with the green and black version for now...

 

 

post-14916-0-01917100-1336582235_thumb.gif

 

 

Catsfolly...

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Air Hockey (WIP)

 

This game still has some serious collision code "issues", but this is what it looks like today...

 

post-14916-0-52868500-1336716065.gif

 

 

(The real movement is smoother than the gif file version...)

 

Catsfolly

 

I LOVE IT! Fantastic physics simulation! :) I can't wait to play it.

 

-dZ.

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  • 1 month later...

Pixels Gone Bad!

 

This is my best bug so far (in this game...).

 

Currently, I am trying to add my work-in-progress colored squares Bresenham-Dz circular type explosions to the "Tennis in Space" game.

 

Occasionally, when I try to stop the scrolling and start the explosion, the scrolling meteors, instead of freezing in place, start shooting across the screen at rocket speed, totally messing up my animations.

 

But it does look kind of cool. Mixing colored squares and regular graphics definitely has potential.... ;-)

 

post-14916-0-61908300-1339426031.gif

 

 

Catsfolly

Edited by catsfolly
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Looks cool! I guess the only problem with mixing Color Square and regular modes is if your background cards have detailed graphics. In such cases, the unused Color Square squares will be cleared, distorting the overall image. However, in your case, I don't think there's any danger in that, for the background is just a star-field.

 

-dZ.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Looks cool! I guess the only problem with mixing Color Square and regular modes is if your background cards have detailed graphics. In such cases, the unused Color Square squares will be cleared, distorting the overall image. However, in your case, I don't think there's any danger in that, for the background is just a star-field.

 

-dZ.

Yeah, Joe's color square routines assume that all the background cards are set to color square mode.

 

I first changed his code to automatically set the "color square" bits, but this caused random color square "bits" to be set on the fringes of my circle.

 

Now I set the card to 4 black pixels if it is not already a color square card. As you said, I can get away with this in a star field game.

 

Here is the latest version of the explosion, without the bugs...

 

post-14916-0-06080000-1340241938.gif

 

 

Catsfolly

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Looks cool! I guess the only problem with mixing Color Square and regular modes is if your background cards have detailed graphics. In such cases, the unused Color Square squares will be cleared, distorting the overall image. However, in your case, I don't think there's any danger in that, for the background is just a star-field.

 

-dZ.

Yeah, Joe's color square routines assume that all the background cards are set to color square mode.

 

I first changed his code to automatically set the "color square" bits, but this caused random color square "bits" to be set on the fringes of my circle.

 

Now I set the card to 4 black pixels if it is not already a color square card. As you said, I can get away with this in a star field game.

 

Here is the latest version of the explosion, without the bugs...

 

post-14916-0-06080000-1340241938.gif

 

 

Catsfolly

 

Man, I can't wait to play this. It looks impressive!

 

-dZ.

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Trail experiment number #1

 

Here is an experiment with trails in the Air Hockey game:

 

 

post-14916-0-05198100-1340469458.gif

 

 

I think it looks good at some angles and speeds.

 

What do you think?

 

Catsfolly

 

It looks awesome! Just one suggestion, how about "fading" the colour as the circles trail off? You could start with White, then Gray, then Dark Blue, or something like that.

 

-dZ.

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Trail experiment number #1

 

Here is an experiment with trails in the Air Hockey game:

 

 

post-14916-0-05198100-1340469458.gif

 

 

I think it looks good at some angles and speeds.

 

What do you think?

 

Catsfolly

 

That looks really good, but I found myself watching the trail so much I became distracted from the puck, so maybe, as DZ and Groovy suggested, something a little more subtle?

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Trail experiment number #1

 

Here is an experiment with trails in the Air Hockey game:

 

 

post-14916-0-05198100-1340469458.gif

 

 

I think it looks good at some angles and speeds.

 

What do you think?

 

Catsfolly

 

That looks really good, but I found myself watching the trail so much I became distracted from the puck, so maybe, as DZ and Groovy suggested, something a little more subtle?

 

Actually, fading the circles would look so cool, that it would grab my attention even more! :)

 

-dZ.

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Thanks for all the input.

 

I thought the tan color was pretty subtle. So I'm surprised that some people think it is distracting.

 

Having different images for the trail (smaller, faded out, etc), is problematic.

 

In order to position the trail image on every vertical position, I have to have 8 copies of the image in memory, which uses up about 14 cards of GRAM memory. There are only 64 cards available, and I also need to use them to draw pucks and paddles and playfields and seven-segment displays, etc, so it is tough to justify using a lot more memory for just an effect.

 

I'll try changing the colors and see how that works.

 

Thanks,

 

Catsfolly

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Thanks for all the input.

 

I thought the tan color was pretty subtle. So I'm surprised that some people think it is distracting.

 

Having different images for the trail (smaller, faded out, etc), is problematic.

 

In order to position the trail image on every vertical position, I have to have 8 copies of the image in memory, which uses up about 14 cards of GRAM memory. There are only 64 cards available, and I also need to use them to draw pucks and paddles and playfields and seven-segment displays, etc, so it is tough to justify using a lot more memory for just an effect.

 

I'll try changing the colors and see how that works.

 

Thanks,

 

Catsfolly

 

Just to be clear, I do not find it distracting at all. I said that as a joke because they look so cool, it's mesmerizing. :)

 

The Tan colour is indeed subtle. I was just suggesting "fading" the colour to give it a bit more flair. But it certainly does not need it.

 

-dZ.

Edited by DZ-Jay
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More Trail experiments

 

My research into trailing edge technology continues:

 

I tried different colors to get a fade-out effect (thanks for the suggestions...)

 

The best colors (for my light blue background) appear to be white, tan, and gray.

 

Here is how it looks:

 

post-14916-0-07204100-1340547860.gif

 

I also tried erasing half the pixels in the trailing image circle (creating a kind of dotted line effect).

This makes for a more subtle effect, but also exposes the Intellivision's blockiness.

 

Here is an example:

 

post-14916-0-28798000-1340547972.gif

 

What do you think? Am I on the right trail?

 

Catsfolly

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More Trail experiments

 

My research into trailing edge technology continues:

 

I tried different colors to get a fade-out effect (thanks for the suggestions...)

 

The best colors (for my light blue background) appear to be white, tan, and gray.

 

Here is how it looks:

 

post-14916-0-07204100-1340547860.gif

 

I also tried erasing half the pixels in the trailing image circle (creating a kind of dotted line effect).

This makes for a more subtle effect, but also exposes the Intellivision's blockiness.

 

Here is an example:

 

post-14916-0-28798000-1340547972.gif

 

What do you think? Am I on the right trail?

 

Catsfolly

 

I think the first one is fantastic--a keeper! It looks very good, and the sequence of colours really do the trick. The second one it's a bit weird. Not bad, but the blockiness distorts the circles; and since they are so fleeting, it's hard to make them out.

 

I vote for the full circle, fading colour, special effect (experiment #1).

 

-dZ.

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By the way, do you suppose the goal posts are separated much too widely? It looks like it would be hard to miss a goal--and just as hard to defend it!

 

-dZ.

That may be true.

Alternatively, maybe the paddles should be bigger. But they might look too blocky that way (and it changes the physics a bit).

 

Currently, there are still serious physics and collision bugs in Air Hockey, and the Ai is as dumb as dirt. So it is hard to evaluate the game play at this point.

 

The next step is to write the code to allow the player to put the paddle on the puck and move the puck around the screen. Once I have that it will be easier to test and fix the collision code.

 

Also, with all this "creeping featuritus", it looks like my dream of fitting into 16k words is fading fast. I guess it's time to learn about cart.mac....

 

Catsfolly

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Also, with all this "creeping featuritus", it looks like my dream of fitting into 16k words is fading fast. I guess it's time to learn about cart.mac....

 

Catsfolly

 

I know what you mean. I went through the same realization, and it was a real shock to my expectations when I broke out the 16K word ROM layout.

 

However, once I came to terms with it and allowed myself to absolutely ignore the ROM size completely, things changed for the better. When I accepted the fact that I had "all the DECLEs I could ever want for anything," that's when my animation sequences flourished into fancy and elaborate cartoons.

 

I admit that my code is bloated and my animation technique is so primitive, it consumes large amounts of ROM for the smallest details. I'm now down to 8.8K left out of the 42K layout, mostly taken by animation graphic tiles. That's unconscionable! And I'm ashamed of it. :(

 

On the other hand, it allowed me to concentrate on what's really important: making the game fun and cool. :)

 

-dZ.

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