Main > Software Forum
"Computer Space" Sim / Clone Not available On This Site Anymore
DaredevilDave:
Thanks raph, I just read that page, or most of it. That is one detailed guy! Which is cool for me. And man that would be cool to slowly bring back to life one of these cabs like that. I don't have the know how but I love that stuff.
Totally fascinating how that machine works. I always thought I might have a vague understanding of what it means when someone says a game machine is "IC" based or runs off of hardware. Now I actually do to some extent. What a trip!
I'm designing the saucer now. I'm trying to make it look authentic, so perfect square pixels are kind of out. I've got it mostly figured out. I've been watching videos very closely trying to get the shape just right.
On some of them it looks like the saucers have a type of propeller thingy on the left end, but I don't see that in all videos. It's in the one I linked to above. Like the side view of a propeller.
Do the saucers have these "propellers" or this some kind of artifact I'm seeing?
I will do some research on gameplay, like how often the saucers move, and how far. How often they shoot. Maybe I can find some info. If not I'll use a stopwatch and a ruler (haha) on all the video I can find.
I've never tried recreating someone else's video game before.
Edit to add:
Can someone help me out with Youtube tags? I will post some videos when I can.
DaredevilDave:
Progress:
- Starfield background is the same as the original.
- Player ship moves, turns and fires missiles.
- Player missile is steerable.
- Two enemy saucers move randomly. Timing needs work (on everything) but it's in the ballpark.
- Enemy saucers can be destroyed when shot, or crashed into.
- I made a screen "flash" for when there is a death, but it's just a start and not used yet.
I will make a to-do list as soon as it is shorter than my "done" list ;)
It's a pretty simple game, of course, so it's an easy job. Getting it to look and play authentic is where the work will be.
I'll get some pics up and hopefully a video too tomorrow/today (Saturday).
Looks like I'm doing this! I am a game developer so this is right up my alley. I want it to be perfect and will work at it until it is. Well... close anyways ;)
ETA:
I read that the Saucers shoot toward whatever "quadrant" the player ship is in and not using any fancy math for targeting. Their shots seem pretty accurate so I'm guessing the quadrants are small (not really quadrants).
1500points:
The fpga for this is already done and working. I have been waiting for someone to assemble some for sale as complete fpga without having to be an fpga dev to get it going
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
DaredevilDave:
Here is a screenshot of the game so far.
Disclaimer: Nothing is finished or looks the way it will when complete. Just posting this to prove I am actually doing this ;)
- Saucers fly and shoot randomly for now. They move approximately the same speed and directions (eight) as the original game
- Player ship is fully controllable and shoots steerable missiles
- Saucers and ships need redesign until I can get them right (graphics)
- Score is kept although I have no scoreboard yet.
Again, this will work with popular front ends and will be free. I'm not exactly crazy about this game (Computer Space), but I thought it would be cool to have a decent version of it available for multi-arcade cabinet use. I can't believe nobody has done this.
Other notes:
The player ship is built with individual "pixels". I did this so that when the ship rotates it will "warp" a little bit as the pixels find the closest position for themselves. You can see that in the image.
The ships pixels don't look right but it's okay for now.
The saucers are just animated sprites.
The game play works fine. In fact it's almost done. I need to get the saucers shooting as they should, which will take about 20 minutes. The graphics and finer touches will take a little time, but not much.
If anyone else reads this and is interested please let me know. It helps motivate me knowing I'm not the only one. And anyone with access to a real machine - I would love to pick your brain and have you maybe test this for me when ready! :) I will update the game for as long as it takes until a consensus is reached that it is good.
ETA:
I'm going to make some images for the score numbers. I want to recreate the way they look and a font is too clean, plus I can't find a good one anyways. The numbers on any images and videos I can find are far from perfect looking (which is cool!). I think the method with which they are displayed gives them an overlap look where the lines intersect.
Posting this video again:
DaredevilDave:
Score and timer works with deliberately funky looking custom sprites for "fonts".
The numbers are the same size as the original game, and are in the exact same spot. if you look at the real game, the numbers in relation to the background stars are virtually the same. I need to alter the color and maybe blend them in a little in some way.
The game is almost entirely functional now.
- game doesn't end when the timer reaches zero.
- I need to program in the functions for Start, quarters, etc for front ends.
- no sound yet
- Saucers "AI" doesn't exist yet. Should be about 3 lines of code :)
This is all very easy stuff, just a matter of me taking the time to do it. Then I will fuss with the graphics a bit.
Comments?
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version