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Post by Mayhem on Apr 28, 2014 14:27:54 GMT -5
Taiwan 3000 UI-UK serial 008523A checksum 7931 - looks correct. Kousokousen serial 3xxxxx checksum B796 - looks like this:
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Post by 50tbrd on Apr 28, 2014 14:55:57 GMT -5
HK 3000 C1 0116074 - OK HK 3000 C1 0101354 - OK HK 3000 C1 0056465 - OK
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Post by christophertumber on Apr 29, 2014 13:39:09 GMT -5
Thanks everyone for your help!
I'd like to try and address the common misalignment problems this week-end. I have some ideas to play with and probably enough Vectrex to sanity test but I'm sure I'll be back looking for those "worst case" scenarios.
It's looking like the major problem in my previous post is really uncommon if not unique which is good news because fixing it would mean abandoning this approach and I'm not sure this kinds of levels would be possible (at the very least would require custom optimized drawing routines for each level rather than the current general routine being used now = much bigger ROM size)
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Post by christophertumber on May 1, 2014 0:37:07 GMT -5
New build. Press buttons 1 and 2 to increase/decrease calibration. There's considerable room for improvement here and finer control but I hopefully it's a reasonable proof of concept. Attachments:SPECTRE.BIN (24.32 KB)
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Post by christophertumber on May 1, 2014 8:14:34 GMT -5
Obviously Targ and Spectar are pretty simple games. I'd like to take that a whole lot further, but without breaking the fundamental mechanics which I think work so well (I don't really want to introduce a bunch of different enemy types, weapons or power-ups).
Here's the current design docs, we'll see how much actually makes it:
Driverless cars. Script kiddies. Anarchist collective Spectre. You must drive the streets of the cities of the future eliminating the threat.
Two types of enemies; drones and Spectre. Spectre is more agressive, shoots back. When the Spectre is killed it rises again, taking over one of the drones. Save stranded pedestrians.
Scoring is 1 point for a pedestrian or dead drone. Value rises by 1 point each time for sequential actions of the same type. ie; Pick up a pedestrian for 1 point. A second pedestrians for 2. A third for 3. Kill a drone and it's 1 point. Pick up a pedestrian and it's back to 1 point again. Killing the Spectre is worth double the current value of drones and counts towards drone sequence. Killing all enemies OR saving all pedestrians ends level.
Optimum scoring is therefore to concentrate on either pedestrians or enemies. And to only kill Spectres.
(Alternately each level might have it's own scoring rules where certain sequences trigger bonus points. Similar to rhythm games. That might be too complicated.)
Level design will try in some way to represent cities and also make this strategy difficult (ie; placing pedestrians on main routes, especially escape routes; creating bottlenecks for enemies that will be difficult to pass without killing them).
For example, San Francisco would feature a single lane (bridge) between left and right edge of the screen. London would be an endless roundabout because Griswalds. Rome would have a big open area in the middle for the Colosseum.
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Post by VectorX on May 1, 2014 9:16:36 GMT -5
^Neat ideas!
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Post by christophertumber on May 4, 2014 22:55:32 GMT -5
SPECTRE.BIN (24.54 KB) A bunch of progress this week-end even though I didn't get to spend nearly as much time as I would have liked. Enemy designs are quite minimalist right now and I kind of like the look but may or may not stay that way. Basically a "playable" game now, except for the never-ending part. Change log: Changed enemy designs Explosions when enemies die Spectre - Twice as fast as normal enemies, regular enemy transforms when Spectre is killed Scoring (see above) Score and High Score display To do list: Spectre shots Explosion when player dies Player lives left Game Over Sound Music Level intro screens Title screen Level designs Bug - You can shoot explosions Collision detection seems buggy Hitting explosions kills you (interesting and makes game harder but should probably be fixed) Possible additions: Multiple Spectres (level dependent) Enemy speed is currently constant Levels need substantial redesign. Right now it's way too easy to just stay in the outer rim and pick off any enemies that make it out there - Need to break-up that outer ring on most levels.
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Post by VECTREXER on May 4, 2014 23:36:29 GMT -5
How about EEPROM (flash) Save for scores and level attainment?
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Post by centaura on May 5, 2014 5:56:55 GMT -5
I´m on travel and missing your last improvements, but of course I think the calibration option is a great point, since we all wish our vectrexes finely tuned, but often this isn´t possible in a "fast way", for some mates.
About levels design, it could be a fascinating challenge, to find a way to increase the paths difficulty. Maybe with more "labyrinthine" structures. (An extra idea you could like is the design of "alive" levels: little passages across walls being opened and closed, in a random or scheduled running. It could give a lot of dynamism)
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Post by christophertumber on May 5, 2014 9:40:32 GMT -5
How about EEPROM (flash) Save for scores and level attainment? Needs to work with a standard PCB, presumably Harvey's. Not sure if it's capable?
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Post by christophertumber on May 5, 2014 9:52:35 GMT -5
(An extra idea you could like is the design of "alive" levels: little passages across walls being opened and closed, in a random or scheduled running. It could give a lot of dynamism) Hrm, I did something similar with Quadraside, one of my unfinished (huh, a theme...) Atari 2600 games (multi-player Pong with dynamic playfield). Couple ways that could work, technically, on Spectre - either hosting level data in RAM or changing the pointers to the ROM tables. The latter would eat ROM space and be more limited but easy to do, the former a little RAM heavy and extremely flexible but would require a lot more development if I want to be able to define truly fluid levels (ie; wall movement "rules" rather than switching between static alternate layouts). Potential level design problem with you or enemies getting "trapped" in sections of the screen which become walled off (which could be interesting if done on purpose). Have to be careful about introducing good camping spots.
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Post by VectorX on May 5, 2014 12:20:14 GMT -5
Potential level design problem with you or enemies getting "trapped" in sections of the screen which become walled off (which could be interesting if done on purpose). Have to be careful about introducing good camping spots. Sometimes things like that can even work out: like in Robotron: 2084, when those blasted Enforcers (I think they're called) get "stuck" in corners, that was actually a bug. Since they found that to be more interesting rather than a hindrance they ended up just leaving it in.
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Post by christophertumber on May 5, 2014 14:34:05 GMT -5
Sometimes things like that can even work out: like in Robotron: 2084, when those blasted Enforcers (I think they're called) get "stuck" in corners, that was actually a bug. Since they found that to be more interesting rather than a hindrance they ended up just leaving it in. I'm thinking of stuff like some levels of Gauntlet where you open a "door" that's a big wall section and suddenly a huge wave of monsters rushes you...
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Post by VectorX on May 5, 2014 16:51:00 GMT -5
Ha, stuff like that would be a pretty nasty surprise!
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Post by VECTREXER on May 5, 2014 17:31:00 GMT -5
My "daily driver" Vectrex seems to like the previous version (post at Apr 30, 2014 at 10:37pm) calibration feature.
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