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Post by gliptitude on Mar 10, 2021 14:50:07 GMT -5
I was thinking it could plug in player 2 and maybe both controllers would be operable and no menu selection required. You could slap the regular controller to escape.
Bigger problem might be that the button it has is kind of like a gas pedal and not great for hammering on rapidly.
.. I'm having my best games playing with an Atari arcade stick using the VecAdapt and Atari add-on, but it makes escaping impractical, (requires pressing a button on the adapter then down on the joystick). I'm also cheating with rapid-fire, my preference.
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Post by hcmffm on Mar 10, 2021 17:55:25 GMT -5
Just a quick (but likely important) question: Does the Atari Driving Controller have two separate buttons? Or is it just one button? One button would be bad, as there are at least two buttons needed for the game: fire & escape. ... Perhaps "Escape" could be triggered by pressing the button for a longer time. Just an idea... |
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Post by Peer on Mar 11, 2021 2:53:59 GMT -5
Just a quick (but likely important) question: Does the Atari Driving Controller have two separate buttons? Or is it just one button? One button would be bad, as there are at least two buttons needed for the game: fire & escape. ... Perhaps "Escape" could be triggered by pressing the button for a longer time. Just an idea... "This is your friendly flight computer. If you are facing immediate extinction, please press the emergency-escape button and hold it for three seconds, and I will be happy to transport you out. Or whatever debris is left of you by then..." 
Sorry, couldn' resist 
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Post by Peer on Mar 11, 2021 7:15:46 GMT -5
Hey Peer This is awesome! Thanks again for your great work! I would like to lend you my driving controller. Unfortunately I only have one, otherwise I would donate one to you. But I would gladly pay the shipping costs! By the way, I'm from Hamburg. Hi tatanga, "und Moin Moin nach Hamburg" 
(I grew up in Niebüll in Nordfriesland and I studied in Kiel, so I know the whole northern area quite well.)
Thanks for your kind offer! Unfortunately, right now, I do not think that trying the Atari Driving Controller on this game will really make sense. I will write a bit more about this in my answer to one of the other recent posts.
Cheers, Peer
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Post by Peer on Mar 11, 2021 8:20:14 GMT -5
many thanks also to you for having considered lending me an Atari Driving Contoller! I will get back to that topic in another post. Thanks for the feedback, and congratulations to your +50%, that is cool!Nice ideas, but I am afraid there is nothing I can do in this regard. I have only 20 bytes of ROM left. The current computations for the star field are all very simple (and efficient), and I want to stay within the 32K. I tried this during development. With no starfield at all it definitely does not look as good. Well, of course, I have to say this Ok, here is a bit of an explanation regarding the two versions. At one point during development, I realized that I could not fit all the constellations I had in mind into 32K. At the same time, I was inventing the background story, and I could not decide on certain details. My twin kids (a girl and a boy) added their parts to the story, and they both wanted to be the heroine / hero. So I decided to do some kind of alternate reality / parallel universe thing (or should I say twin universe?), and that is how the two versions came up.
They are virtually the same game. Especially the game-play itself (the levels with all their details) is completely identical, except for the names of the constellations. So it does not really matter which version you are playing.
{Here is a spoiler list of all the (subtle) differences between the two versions.}- The titles and the constellation shown on the title screen (well, obviously)
- The constellations are split according to Zodiac constellations, and non-Zodiac constellations
- The look of the Gyromancer ship
- The looks of (most of) the enemies (but only the looks, not their behavior)
- The looks of the mines (but only the looks, not their behavior)
- The looks of the rocks (but only the looks, not their behavior)
- The look of the Gyromancer shield, it also turns clockwise in one version, and counter-clockwise in the other
- The sounds of the shots and the laser are slightly different in both versions
- The names of the protagonists (Zar-Astra vs. Zar-Astro)
- Some other details (King Zar-Athustra vs. Queen Zar-Athustra, Zar-Ruman being an Astronomer / Astrologer)
- Probably some other minute things I forgot here
Many Cheers, Peer
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Post by tatanga on Mar 14, 2021 14:27:44 GMT -5
Moin @hdpfpj ! Good news: All this time I thought that I had bought two driving controllers after all. Now I have good news: I have actually found my second driving controller. I will gladly send it to you free of charge and as a gift if you are ok with this. In fact, some Vectrex games use a combination of driving controller and standard controller. See this video!Maybe something like this is possible for you. |
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Post by VECTREXER on Mar 14, 2021 16:19:41 GMT -5
Ok, here is a bit of an explanation regarding the two versions. At one point during development, I realized that I could not fit all the constellations I had in mind into 32K. At the same time, I was inventing the background story, and I could not decide on certain details. My twin kids (a girl and a boy) added their parts to the story, and they both wanted to be the heroine / hero. So I decided to do some kind of alternate reality / parallel universe thing (or should I say twin universe?), and that is how the two versions came up.
They are virtually the same game. Especially the game-play itself (the levels with all their details) is completely identical, except for the names of the constellations. So it does not really matter which version you are playing.
Simply wonderful and special! A gift , forever given. Well done! |
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Post by Peer on Mar 15, 2021 8:58:14 GMT -5
Moin @hdpfpj ! Good news: All this time I thought that I had bought two driving controllers after all. Now I have good news: I have actually found my second driving controller. I will gladly send it to you free of charge and as a gift if you are ok with this. That is very kind of you! Many thanks in advance for your support! I will send you a pm.
Many Cheers, Peer
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Post by Peer on Mar 18, 2021 7:07:20 GMT -5
… to keep you posted: I am working on beta 1-3 right now which should be available shortly …
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Post by Peer on Mar 20, 2021 3:06:47 GMT -5
Moin @hdpfpj ! Good news: All this time I thought that I had bought two driving controllers after all. Now I have good news: I have actually found my second driving controller. I will gladly send it to you free of charge and as a gift if you are ok with this. Two days ago, tatanga sent me his spare Atari Driving Controller as a gift for the project lab. I openly want to thank him here for such great support! The Vectrex Community rocks!
This is especially nice as one of the students of the current 2021 Academy class is planning to implement a simple racing game. I will see if we can do an additional spinner version of that game.
I will also see if I can get the Spinner to work with Gyrostro[nomy|logy], but that might take some time. Right now I am preparing Beta RC version 1-3 which will fix one serious bug and contain some other changes. Hopefully, this will go out this weekend.
Many Cheers, Peer
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Post by Peer on Mar 25, 2021 14:11:26 GMT -5
Greetings everyone,
Beta RC version 1-3 of Gyrostronomy and Gyrostrology is now available. The following issues have been addressed: - Visibility (brightness) of enemy shots improved
- Potential crash fixed which could occur if the VIDE device was used in the very final stage of the game. Fortunately, no one got this far yet
- A rare exceeding-of-50Hz-framerate issue fixed
- Several minor performance improvements, which, in total, allowed for the following enhancement:
- The player can now fire 5 (instead of previously 4) shots in a volley (there can now be 5 active shots at the same time): more action, better chances of survival
Please let me know how you like the 5-instead-of-4-shots thing and if this causes any noticable drops in performance or flickering.
Have fun! Peer
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Post by 8-Bit Waves on Mar 29, 2021 19:55:50 GMT -5
It looks great but I can't stay alive very long. I'm probably in the minority here but standard Gyruss controls are completely unplayable to me. Control B in the NES version is the only way I can play these types of games. Check it out here.I'd love it if you could add that control method as an option. If not I understand. Great work either way! |
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Post by hcmffm on Mar 30, 2021 15:51:12 GMT -5
It looks great but I can't stay alive very long. I'm probably in the minority here but standard Gyruss controls are completely unplayable to me. ... At first I had problems with the controls, too. But when playing a bit more it's pretty intuitive, I think. Or perhaps in your words: By the time you get used to the odd unusual control. |
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Post by 8-Bit Waves on Mar 30, 2021 17:46:26 GMT -5
At first I had problems with the controls, too. But when playing a bit more it's pretty intuitive, I think. Or perhaps in your words: By the time you get used to the odd unusual control. I'll have to practice more then. I've always struggled with controls in Gyruss, Wormhole, etc. I'm not sure I'll ever get used to it. I'll definitely try though as this game seems very well done. |
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Post by Peer on Mar 31, 2021 8:43:53 GMT -5
I'll have to practice more then. I've always struggled with controls in Gyruss, Wormhole, etc. I'm not sure I'll ever get used to it. I'll definitely try though as this game seems very well done. Thanks a lot for your feedback and your comments! Back in the 80ies, I loved Gyruss not despite, but because of its new and peculiar way to control the ship For me, Gyruss wouldn't be Gyruss without that specific method of steering. Same as it wouldn't be Gyruss without the Toccata as background music (or rather that version of Bach's Toccata by the band "Sky"). My personal view of the Gyruss control is as follows: For me it is the only way of controlling the ship on its circular track that does not involve any kind of confusion. Think of it. The ship moves exactly according to the joystick movements. At any time, joy-left causes the ship to move left, joy-right to move right, and joy-up to move up, and joy-down to move down. On its circular track. Hand-eye coordination is never reversed. With the other method that was mentioned here (joy-left moves the ship clockwise and joy-right counter-clockwise, or vice versa), you will always have some reversal somewhere (left is left and right is right on the lower half of the circular track, but then left is right and right is left on the upper half of the circular track). I have actually tried that method during development, but I found it much more complicated and confusing, especially when the action gets heavy. If your ship has come to a stop, and then suddenly you have to evade some enemy shots, well, you have to adjust your joystick movements depending on whether you are on the upper or the lower half of the circle. Maybe it's just my old brains, but I find it much easier if the ship then moves exactly according to the direction of my joystick. Here is how I play Gyruss: I do not move the joystick in a cross-wise fashion (left-right-up-down with going back to center zero inbetween). I move the joystick on its outer circular rim, in a circular fashion. Thus you get an even better correspondence of the joystick's movements and the ship's movements. The position of the joystick on its rim is the same as the ship's position on its circular track. And one can easily train this. The constellation selection uses the very same method of steering as it is used for the ship. Just train to move the selector of the constellation dial. Of course, the Gyruss method is a bit more difficult to use when the game is played in an emulator, using the arrow keys of the keyboard. But in my opinion it works really well with the original Vectrex joystick on the real console. I do not know what the long-term effects on the mechanics of the joystick are, but hey, blame the Kon-Army for inventing this method of steering Many Cheers, Peer PS: I am preparing beta version 1-4 right now. This will "only" contain some performance improvements, and I think I will call it a final release rather soon. |
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