Adventure: Sword with a giant point or giant handle?

[Machine]

Here is the problem:

 

 

Maybe it should have been:

 

 

[+cvga]

Or switch direction depending on which side of the square it's on.

[Asaki]

I always thought it was a spear.

[zzip]

 How about a sword like this?   Instead of arguing if it's a sword or an arrow,  then we could argue "is it a sword or corn-on-the-cob?"

 

[bluejay]

I always saw it as an arrow, but now that you guys mention it, I see it as a sword with a guard! Warren Robinett should have put his efforts into designing a more convincing sword than adding an easter egg to the game.

[MrBeefy]

Doesn't matter to me if I get them with the pointy end or bludgeon them with the handle. As long as the duck dies and I get my chalace.

 

I actually looked at it as more of a spear myself.

[TrekMD]

8 hours ago, Machine said:

Here is the problem:

 

 

Maybe it should have been:

 

 

The middle design I think would have worked best to make it clear that is a sword.  What is it?  One more square?

[Machine]

It is approx one more square.

[zzip]

13 hours ago, TrekMD said:

The middle design I think would have worked best to make it clear that is a sword.  What is it?  One more square?

It's probably 8 pixels wide, and adding one more pixel would be a big deal because it would double the bytes or add more code on a system where every byte counts.

 

But the current sword is 5-bytes high, and I think you can design a more convincing sword using the same 5 bytes.

[TrekMD]

Yea, I know with the 2600 even one pixel makes a different.  That's why I asked. 

[+cvga]

5 hours ago, zzip said:

It's probably 8 pixels wide, and adding one more pixel would be a big deal because it would double the bytes or add more code on a system where every byte counts.

 

But the current sword is 5-bytes high, and I think you can design a more convincing sword using the same 5 bytes.

 

2 hours ago, TrekMD said:

Yea, I know with the 2600 even one pixel makes a different.  That's why I asked. 

 

True but sliding the guard down one pixel would have changed anything and would have made it more obvious. Flipping it so that the handle is always closer to the square would helped too.

[quohog]

No, it's a sword with a giant, pointy tip, because if you hold it the other way your collision box is smaller. You want the big arrow out front to catch the most dragons. Sorry, that's just Sword Math™.

[HDN]

I've seen it as a sword with a guard since I realized I could kill dragons with it! Before then, I was like "what's this giant arrow for?"

I first played the NOAC version of Adventure on my Jakks Pacific joystick plug and play back when I was younger.

[roadrunner]

I always thought it was a arrow too.

 

[+D Train]

On 10/12/2020 at 3:45 PM, quohog said:

No, it's a sword with a giant, pointy tip, because if you hold it the other way your collision box is smaller. You want the big arrow out front to catch the most dragons. Sorry, that's just Sword Math™.

This is an answer I can get behind.

 

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[Eltigro]

On 10/12/2020 at 2:45 PM, quohog said:

No, it's a sword with a giant, pointy tip, because if you hold it the other way your collision box is smaller. You want the big arrow out front to catch the most dragons. Sorry, that's just Sword Math™.

 

Little known fact...  Sword Math™ was a canceled Edutainment version of the SwordQuest series...  honest...

[Eltigro]

But on topic...  I think I always thought it was an arrow, too.  

 

Would the middle graphic in Machine's post work if a pixel was taken off the other end?  

[zzip]

On 10/17/2020 at 9:49 AM, Eltigro said:

 

Little known fact...  Sword Math™ was a canceled Edutainment version of the SwordQuest series...  honest...

The math program nobody could figure out, with weird mini-games.

[MrBeefy]

On 10/12/2020 at 2:45 PM, quohog said:

No, it's a sword with a giant, pointy tip, because if you hold it the other way your collision box is smaller. You want the big arrow out front to catch the most dragons. Sorry, that's just Sword Math™.

This by far is my favorite answer. 

[Raiu]

The dragons are facing left, and the sword is pointing right, because you're a warrior, not a backstabbing thief.

 

Anyway, I tried to redesign it a few years ago, making it look like this: 

 

 

[7800Knight]

When I used to play Adventure on my Atari 2600 back in the 1980s in my Ridgewood, New York apartment, I always saw it as being a giant arrow.

[+GoldLeader]

I saw it as  a sword,  but sometimes pretended it was an arrow, to slay what I figured were dragons, but the kind of dragons that resemble duck-billed dinosaurs...

 

[7800Knight]

Same here!  I always saw them as being ducks, not dragons.