VCS: Space Rocks

[SpiceWare]

The solid medium asteroids is due to a bug in Stella. I sent Stephen the fix and it's been applied to the latest version of Stella.

I don't think the ship can be any "smoother". I do know that Nathan's planning for additional ship graphics with thrust exhaust flames. The large asteroids can be smoother though - David Vazquez, who did the graphics in Medieval Mayhem, sent this in to show Nathan how to use the line-by-line shifting of the 2x sprites to get a better appearance(the same technique is used for the dragon in MM). The asteroid on the right is the new image using shifting. Nathan's been busy with RL so hasn't had much time for Space Rocks the past couple of weeks. He thinks he might be able to get back to the graphics this weekend.
rockrotator.jpg

The "heartbeat" sound is planned. I also need to look into a siren sound for the enemy saucers. One problem is there can only be 2 concurrent sound effects, so I might leave out the siren sound as the enemy shots could be considered warning.

I revised the asteroid speeds about a month ago but don't recall getting any feedback after the change. Are they too slow, too fast? Have you tried the different levels? There's Kids, Easy, Normal and Hard and they start at different speeds. The speed tables are easy to change, I generate them using an Open Office spreadsheet.

[Philsan]

Nuova versione con modalità a due giocatori competitiva e grandi asteroidi!
http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic...5#entry2546516

[SpiceWare]

• New medium asteroids and saucer/UFO
• Updates to ship acceleration and inertia
• Faster asteroids
• shots now start at nose of ship instead of center of ship
• revised screen-wrap logic

http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/148/entry-9248-spiffy-saucer-ufo/

[SpiceWare]

_All the other things are really great, except of game's speed...
You know, as I already said, I think that speed has a huge matter in the original Asteroids' gameplay...

Have you had time to try the latest with the changes in ship handling and asteroid speed?

[MacDLSA]

Sorry... there was an important soccer match between Italy and Germany.................................
AND WE WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Well... I just tried your latest release, but I have a very short time to "catch" all the improvements (time for sleep here ) ...
Let me try again tomorrow !

But... WOW ! I think that the speed is now kinda' matched to the original !

[igorstellar]

GOOD !!!!
thanks !!!

I like this games ( I must confess that I like every games .... )

[SpiceWare]

Ah, well congratulations! I find the game to be a lot more challenging with the new speed. Before I'd play the hard level and it was still a bit to easy. Now I can't get the same scores when playing Normal that I used to get when playing Hard.

Another new update:

• hyperspace momentum tied to menu option FRICTION - if friction is on then you'll stop moving when you come out of hyperspace. If friction is off you'll continue moving when you come out of hyperspace.
• "implosion" sequence when coming out of hyperspace to make it easier to find your ship
• initial asteroid count tied to LEVEL. Kids level starts with 2, Easy 3, Normal 4, and Hard 5
• 2 second delay before returning to menu after final death
• If you have 9+ lives the lives digit will display X for eXceeds 9
• beginnings of a demo mode
• last scores removed from main menu (they get displayed during the demo)

http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/148/entry-9260-hyperspace-revisions/

[SpiceWare]

Visible thrust flames and other changes. After watching somebody play, I decided to split the difference on the prior speed boost.

http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/148/entry-9269-visible-thrust/

[SpiceWare]

Wow, almost a month since the last update. Was busy getting my home ready for my folks to move in, they've been living out of country the past 13 years and are staying with me until their furniture gets shipped back from Africa and the renters move out of their home. Also had a bug show up in Space Rocks at some point and had to roll the source back to July 1st and redo the changes I'd been working on.

Newest build is here, it has new explosion graphics for the large & medium asteroids as well as the ship. To save space the medium explosion is reused for the UFO. The ship's explosion is played back in reverse for the "return from hyperspace" sequence.

http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/148/entry-9338-over-two-weeks/

[SpiceWare]

New graphics, revised explosions (they now move), numerous bug fixes

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/197315-space-rocks-2600/page__st__50#entry2575049

[SpiceWare]

• revised respawn logic
• alternating 2 player games can now share a single joystick, handy if you just have one Starplex controller
  
• You can now select from all 16 (13 for PAL) base colors for the monochrome games as opposed to just white, blue or green
• preliminary heart beat sound.
• preliminary new enemy. Only appears if Level is set to Normal or Hard.
  spacerocks.bin_2.jpg spacerocks.bin_4.jpg
  spacerocks.bin_3.jpg spacerocks.bin_5.jpg
• many other minor tweaks and bug fixes

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/197315-space-rocks-2600/page__st__75#entry2595624

[SpiceWare]

Lots of changes in the latest build including, but not limited to:

- new sound effects by Bob DeCrescenzo.
- hyperspace "cool down" timer. You used to be able to just hold DOWN w/out fear of getting killed as you'd repeatedly warp out without getting killed and just wait to let go of the joystick when you appeared in a clear section of the screen.
- a lot of revisions to Magna-Mines (the new enemy) including a new menu option to enable/disable it.
- new control menu option to specify joysticks or gamepads. The "down" feature(hyperspace, shields, 180) gets remapped to a second fire button if the player is using a gamepad. I've tested the following gamepads:
* Amiga CD32
--- Red = Fire
--- Blue = "down"
* Genesis
--- B = Fire
--- C = "down"

double-section Magna-Mines
spacerocks.bin_8.jpg

New menu, both players using a joystick
spacerocks.bin_1.jpg

player 1 using gamepad, player 2 using joystick
spacerocks.bin_4.jpg

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/197315-space-rocks-2600/page__st__175#entry2607932

[Philsan]

Nuova versione: http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic...5#entry2609685

[SpiceWare]

Any artistic members here? The label contest is underway!

http://atariage.com/features/contests/SpaceRocks/

[MacDLSA]

Hi Darrell !

Sorry... I had been "off" since many days
Well, seems that the "ultimate" release match the kinda' state-of-the-art Asteroids game !!!
Except of 2 things, both already mentioned before:
_the first is the slower, if compared to the original Asteroids, game speed, again
_the second is that greater asteroids vector shaped (simulated vector mode = on) still turn into solid shape when hit for the very first time
I also see that in the PAL version the B/W mode selection is no longer available (hehe, I already said I'm a fan of the original B/W vector tube display... ).

OH ! I'd be glad to draw some (good ?) layouts for the cartridge and the box, too, maybe with my "white label series" livery, as I did for the "Arcade series" VCS carts !