Resource centre for ZX Spectrum games
using Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy game engines
Archive of the
Manic Miner & Jet Set Willy Yahoo! Group
messages
|
|
|
|
|
||
| Previous in thread |
|
Next in thread |
Message: 5017
Author: Alexandra
Date: 06/11/2005
Subject: Re: JSWED: Andrew's comments (Chapters 11, 12, 13)
I'm not sure about JSW64's policy of using the Cell-Class 1 pixel-
pattern for disassociated colour-attributes. Manic Miner uses
seemingly random pixel-patterns - my guess is that it runs through
memory (even after the cell-class definitions) looking for the first
occurrence of the colour-attribute, and using the next 8 bytes as
the pixel-pattern.
I liked that little detail. Not only can you do solid colour-blocks
like in the Erix1 engine, but you can have the platforms (water) in
any colourscheme you like. This leads to very attractive rooms.
Only thing that stopped me using it is the fact that you have to
update the whole screen yourself if you change the colours, and I tend
to do that a lot!
Seeing as Variant Z represents screen-layouts with arbitrary colour-
attributes, why not allow the room's 256 free bytes to be used as an
overflow-buffer where extra sets of colour-attributes and pixel-
patterns can be stored if the author so wishes? If the game-engine
didn't find the colour-attribute in the cell-class definitions, it
would resume searching for it in the free bytes.
That sounds like a good idea!
Did I read somewhere that the items in a Bonus Room don't count
towards removing Maria? Sacrilege!
No, that was probably me asking if John could program it like that.
But I've worked out a different way to be sacreligous with items
instead :). (I won't go into details since I've spoken about too many
unstarted game ideas!)
It's really cool that the screen colour-cycles when you get an extra
life, as in Manic Miner. Indeed, that made my day when I saw it. (Really) Perhaps certain JSW games could give you an extra life after you've
collected a certain number of items, or exceeded a certain score (to
which points are awarded for collecting items and visiting rooms
that you haven't visited before).
This is something I've been hoping/asking for for a while now. It
makes a lot of sense. It would mean a room with a stockpile of items
would have strategic significance. Also, I think overall JSW games are
TOO HARD and players need extra lives not to be discouraged. It would
be nice to play the occasional game without cheating ;)
* If you have two conveyors trying to pull Willy in opposite
directions, the one under his right character-column takes
precedence.
It's also interesting how opposing adjacent ramps interact.
Sendy
|
|
|