Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: leapinlew on September 19, 2008, 08:14:55 pm
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Attached are 2 screen shots. In Asteroids, it displays 3 ships in reserve but that includes the ship your using now. In Galaxian, it displays 2 ships in reserve, but the ship your using is not included in that total.
Asteroids is an example of showing 1 ship if you are on your last man.
Galaxian is an example of showing 0 ship's if you are on your last man.
Which is the correct way?
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Galaxian's method is the optimistic approach & my preference.
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I always hated playing a new game and seeing 1 for lives left, dying, and then seeing game over. I was always like "Crap! I was under the impression I had 1 life LEFT!"
Meh, doesnt really matter tho...
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Galaxian's method is the optimistic approach & my preference.
I think the reasons (for showing that last life icon) might be an unintended programming detail. For example, maybe the program counts three lives as "0, 1, 2" instead of the way we do it ("1,2,3"). Maybe the atari programmer dude was aware of this and thought players would appreciate seeing that last life as an icon on the screen. Who knows...
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Hate the Asteroids way... Probably wouldn't matter if you didn't play a lot of games that did it the other way, but it sucks to lose your last guy thinking you actually have another in reserve.
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Definitely the Galaxian way ...
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I dont think I've seen a poll reply that lopsided since the "Can Chad load MDF the right way?" poll
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but then again, you always wish during the heated moment that you can have another extra man but couldn't.
This is the only game I managed to get LOTS of SHIPS ;D
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Ummm ... Depends.
I usually prefer that number of lives displayed not include the one being played.
But...
A homebrew developer I know had one spot on the screen that rotated the display of score, level and lives. Displaying a score, then level and then nothing was a bit confusing. So he changed the number of lives to include the current life to give the display context.
- Mark
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i had to be different....just to be weird
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No, the real question is: what is the real year zero?
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I'm used to zero shown as last player for most games (as it's the most common) now, but I don't like the idea of zero.
First of all, part of the issue is the wording of the "players left". The OP used "players in reserve", and if those words were used, of course I'd expect zero to shown on last player, as "reserved" means "not in use". But if I was on my last player, I'd say, "I have one player left," which leans toward showing one. I'll call zero shown as "players reserved", and one left as "total players left".
Some games need to show total players left; the one OTTOMH is atari 2600 kaboom!, where the "players left" was actually part of what caught the bombs. And don't remember which ones, but I prefer games that offset or bracket the current player apart from the "players in reserve". Something like the following:
^ ^ [^] <--- the current used one braketed and in color
Again, don't remember which one, but a tag team fighter game shows both players, the one in use in color, the one not used greyed out, and if "dead" were grey and 'X'ed out.
The reserved type has the same issues with me. If it's a reserved type, it has to start with three in the queue and none active in the screen, and one the queue has to disaper at the same time the one on the screen appears, preferably in a synced fade in & fade out visual cue (and repeats each time you die), or something like that so I know those shown are in reserve and not total left. I think part of it is that reserved type shows only two, so it feels like I start with two players (I'm used to three players).
Basically, I can live either as long as it's explicit in which one it is. If it's not explicit, I don't like like them.
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My point was that it's arbitrary. With a game like Phoenix, where it uses number values, one might argue it's more sensical to number them according to total left, but I would argue the other way. In school I was taught that what's over there isn't over here, and most games I was familiar with through those years used that rationale - though this could turn into a philosophical question.
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How do you PRONOUNCE Galaxian though?
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How do you PRONOUNCE Galaxian though?
Just like everyone else
Gal-AYE-Zeon
Duh.