Vectrex Academy 2022

[VectorX]

^Could be no news is good *fun* news

[Peer]

Jun 22, 2022 15:27:18 GMT -5 hcmffm said:

Pretty quiet here these days... ...probably everyone busy implementing, compiling, and testing...

Yes, correct. Both of your statements

It has been a bit too quiet. My bad. As usual The end of the semester is rapidly approaching, and there are lots of things I have to prepare for the upcoming exams. And the students have indeed been busy working on their projects. Not sure, if you (all out there) have already noticed: There is one more test binary available, project "Bubble Splitter". And project "Space Shooter" has announced beta-release status.

Many Cheers,

Peer

[Peer]

Breaking the silence

I forgot to mention this in my last post. At the last classroom meeting, we discussed some of the pitfalls of compiler optimization. Especially, why compiler warnings should never be ignored and why we have configured gcc6809 to treat warnings as errors, causing compilation to abort. In addition to that, we looked at several methods how to display a player’s score efficiently. This was not only about alternatives to the BIOS Print_Str() routine, but also about efficient conversion of binary numbers to decimal strings.

Cheers,

Peer

[D-Type]

Jun 24, 2022 8:02:56 GMT -5 Peer said:

Breaking the silence This was not only about alternatives to the BIOS Print_Str() routine, but also about efficient conversion of binary numbers to decimal strings.

How about not displaying a number, just a single-line pointer to where a number would be on the overlay. Screen calibration is the users problem. That would be the Forth programming way of doing it anyway :-)

[Peer]

Jun 24, 2022 8:24:56 GMT -5 D-Type said:

Jun 24, 2022 8:02:56 GMT -5 Peer said:

Breaking the silence This was not only about alternatives to the BIOS Print_Str() routine, but also about efficient conversion of binary numbers to decimal strings.

How about not displaying a number, just a single-line pointer to where a number would be on the overlay. Screen calibration is the users problem. That would be the Forth programming way of doing it anyway :-)

Depending on the type of game you probably have to put A LOT of numbers on the overlay ...

[hcmffm]

Thank you for your replies and update, Peer. Your good - without your initiative, enthusiasm, and extra hours we wouldn't hear and know anything about the Hochschule Pforzheim and students wouldn't even know about the existence of the Vectrex. So there's no complaint and we're waiting patiently and eagerly for any news.

I'll try to check-out "Bubble Splitter" and write up some feedback on the week-end. And sure enough I'm nosey to see how "Space shooter" has progressed.

[hcmffm]

I've just downloaded and tried out the latest beta release of Space shooter. As usual, latest version can be found in the

Vectrex Academy 2022 Project Gallery

.

Space shooter has matured. My long feedback can be found above - below please find various additional suggestions. Beta release of Space shooter seems stable to me - while playing no crash occured.

Asteroids a bit dim
Currently, asteroids look a bit dim to me and thus are hard to see. (I play via PC and browser and it's bright outside so maybe this is just a problem of mine. And good thing is that this increases difficulty - so just keep it the way it is now ).

Larger and random explosions
Currently, all explosions look the same. And explosions are a bit small.
Suggestion: Explosions could be random graphics and larger. This would look cool and make the game even more appealing.
EDIT: I just had a look at the classic Minestorm and there explosion are not random, either. Increasing size of explosions might be a good thing, though.

Transition time between levels
At the end of each level a summary with new level number and score is displayed.
Currently, the summary is displayed just for a very short time.
Suggestion: Prolonge display time of "next level" screen so that players can read level and score without a haste and even have a short pause.

"Next level" screen: Number of lifes and Power-ups
At the end of each level a summary with new level number and score is displayed.
Currently, number of lifes and power-ups aren't displayed.
Suggestion: Number of lifes is an important information which should be added to the "next level" screen. Power-ups might be displayed also but this is not so important.

Background: Starfield
Currently, there are the asteroids, enemies, and shots but no background graphic.
Suggestion: A moving starfield (small slow and fast dots that move downwards) would add much to the athmosphere of the game.
EDIT: Starfield is already there - I just couldn't see when playing on PC.

Game over screen: Layout and level
Currently, the "PRESS 4 TO GO HOME" is in the middle of the screen while score is at the bottom of the screen.
GAME OVER

PRESS 4
TO GO HOME

 SCORE
 00134


Suggestion: Add "Level" and change order of text a bit:

- GAME OVER -

  LEVEL
   003

  SCORE
  00134

 PRESS 4
TO GO HOME




PS: Took me a short while to recognize where intro sound sequence originates from. Solution can be found here.

- o -

[Peer]

Thanks a lot, Helmut, for taking another look at  Space Shooter. One thing is confusing me. The game does have background stars, and they have been there from an early version on. I cannot check right now, but the stars should definitely be there in the beta release, as I saw them on the real console last Monday. I will test this tonight.

[Peer]

Ok, I checked. The background stars are there, and they are nicely visible on a real console. Possibly the vector brightness does not show up appropriatly in certain emulator default settings?

[drsnuggles]

Jun 26, 2022 11:20:59 GMT -5 Peer said:

Ok, I checked. The background stars are there, and they are nicely visible on a real console. Possibly the vector brightness does not show up appropriatly in certain emulator default settings?

i also checked and "oh my god it's full of stars" in browser emu

[Peer]

Jun 26, 2022 12:47:50 GMT -5 drsnuggles said:

Jun 26, 2022 11:20:59 GMT -5 Peer said:

Ok, I checked. The background stars are there, and they are nicely visible on a real console. Possibly the vector brightness does not show up appropriatly in certain emulator default settings?

i also checked and "oh my god it's full of stars" in browser emu

Yep   Just tried Space Shooter in your emulator on my android device. And I can confirm, "the pod bay door is wide open" 

[hcmffm]

Thank you for your pointing me to the stars, Peer and DrSnuggles. I've loaded the Space Shooter binary onto a VecFlash and tried on a real Vectrex: Stars are shining bright and can be seen easily. Actually, I even think their intensity could be even a bit lower. I've tried again in the webbrowser and there it's really hard to see the stars but yes, they are there. So forget about my suggestion and sorry for the confusion.

Note: Review for Bubble splitter still needs another 1-2 days - but it will come...

[Peer]

Jun 26, 2022 14:20:53 GMT -5 hcmffm said:

Thank you for your pointing me to the stars, Peer and DrSnuggles. I've loaded the Space Shooter binary onto a VecFlash and tried on a real Vectrex: Stars are shining bright and can be seen easily. Actually, I even think their intensity could be even a bit lower. I've tried again in the webbrowser and there it's really hard to see the stars but yes, they are there.

"per aspera ad astra" 

[hcmffm]

Bubble Splitter

Took a bit till I found time to have a look at Bubble Splitter and write up something - but here it comes. Bubble Splitter is designed and developed by "WoodPeaker". An early test version of Bubble Splitter is reviewed, here, you'll find the game in the Vectrex project gallery.

· GENERAL NOTES

The title "Bubbler Splitter" says it all: In Bubble Splitter your task is to split up bubbles into smaller ones by shooting at them. It's like a bit like Asteroids and Minestorm but you control a human and left and right are the only directions. Bubbles flying around remind me a bit of Pong.

· WHAT I LIKE
+ Smooth animation.

+ Game idea - a mixture of various games

+ Animation when finishing a level

+ Blinking and Invulnerability while (re)spawning

· BUGS
None found - game is still under development.

· SUGGESTIONS
Less luck and more skills

Currently, when playing a lot of luck and little skill seems to be involved. I guess this is due to the player's shot and the high maximum speed of bubbles.

Suggestion: Player skills should be emphasized more. E.g. player's shot could be changed so that more precise shooting is required. And (maximum) speed of bubbles could increase less quickly. Instead of super fast bubbles there could be more slow bubbles to increase difficulty.

Shooting: Laser
Currently, when shooting a vertical line appears. The line doesn't move even though you control the player. This looks a bit strange and not realistic because when moving after shooting the shot (laser?) seems come out of the nothing.

Suggestion: Shorter and faster shot instead of a long, slow line. Alternative suggestion: While shooting you cannot move the player. This will make the game even more difficult and the player has to plan his/her shot.

Player graphics, Gun

At first, I thought that you control a CR90 Corllian Corvette like in Star Wars. It took me a while till I realized that this is not supposed to be a space ship but a human that stands or lies on the ground with a gun.

Suggestion: Improve player graphics and perhaps change it to something more suitable for children. E.g. player might shoot with a dart, or spit, or ... If desired I could make a draft.

Bouncing bubbles

Currently, bubbles bounce a lot and are very fast: Bubbles bounce when hitting the ground, they bounce when hitting left/right side of the screen and they even bounce when hitting each other. Bubbles behave much like balls and not so much like bubbles.

Suggestions:

- Less bubble bouncing, e.g. no bouncing when hitting another bubble, and no hitting when hitting left/right side of the screen.

- New bubbles might drop slowly from the top

- Perhaps bubbles could have something like gravity and smash/explode once they hit the ground. Explosion might kill player when close.

- There could be (side) winds which influence bubbles.

- Bubbles might combine into a larger bubble or bubbles might stick together and fly around together.

- Bubbles fly around slowly (It will take a lot of bubbles to make this challenging for the player but that would look cool.)

Alternative:

The bouncing of several balls looks quite cool. Perhaps you stick to the current bouncing, add many more "balls" that fly (slowly) around, bounce very often and change the scenario to Brownian molecular motion and change game title to something like "Molecular fight" or "Thermal fight". Just an idea...

Bubble graphics and size

Currently, bubbles look much like bouncing balls and not so much like bubbles.

Suggestion: Avoid large bubbles - all bubbles could be much smaller and differ less in size. Try to improve graphics, e.g. by adding a reflection. If desired I could make a draft for the bubbles with small reflection.

Random movement, size and speed when splitting

Currently, when a bubble splits into two bubbles both bubbles have same size and same delta X and delta Y resulting in a symmetric flying.

Suggestion: When splitting each bubble should have a random size and a its own random delta X and delta Y to avoid symmetric flying. This is more natural and will look more realistic.

Button 4 for shooting

Currently, for shooting you press button 1

Suggestion: In most Vectrex games, button 4 is used for shooting.

- o -

[Peer]

while (1)

{

Wait_Recal();

Intensity_7F();

Reset0Ref();


Print_Str_d(0, -64, "THANKS A LOT, HELMUT!\x80");


}


Additional note:

"Bubble Splitter" is a clone of the classic game "Bubble Splitter" It can be found here: www.spieleklassiker.com/spiel/Bubble+Splitter

The protagonist is a human, using a blowtube, which explains the behaviour of the shot. The behavior of the bubbles is also modeled after the original game.

Cheers,

Peer