Tron Tank Maze Design

Posted by Cybergoth, 22 March 2007 · 137 views

Hi there!

I find the design of the maze in the Tank level of the Tron Arcade very interesting:

Posted Image

Not only is it avoiding symmetry, there's also two spots (aside the middle section) where it "violates" the chosen raster.

Tron 2600 Test:

Better Proportions:

2nd Effect:

Color Melt:

Interleaved:

Greetings,
Manuel

Attached Files

tron.zip (374bytes)
downloads: 91
tron.zip (374bytes)
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tron.zip (434bytes)
downloads: 66
tron.zip (388bytes)
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tron.zip (405bytes)
downloads: 78

Nathan Strum
Mar 22 2007 2:26 PM

"Violates the chosen raster"?

Sounds like a line out of a sword and sorcery novel.

"Lo! He violates the chosen raster! He must pay the ultimate penalty!"

(Seriously though... I don't know what you mean by that. Sounds cool, though.)

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Cybergoth
Mar 22 2007 2:31 PM

I just highlighted it for you. Maybe that makes more sense than my words

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Nathan Strum
Mar 22 2007 2:54 PM

Thank you. That makes sense now.

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vdub_bobby
Mar 22 2007 3:08 PM

That is really weird.

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Cybergoth
Mar 22 2007 3:15 PM

Just finished a binary for you guys. Too much flicker for that silly effect, no?

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vdub_bobby
Mar 22 2007 3:30 PM

Cybergoth, on Thu Mar 22, 2007 2:15 PM, said:

Just finished a binary for you guys. Too much flicker for that silly effect, no?

Yes.

What is the point of those glowing bricks? Do they do anything?

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Cybergoth
Mar 22 2007 3:56 PM

According to Nathan they just glow

BTW: Nathan, do you think it's vertically too squashed? Not much that could be done about it though: As is there's already only 24 lines left for score/state display.

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Nathan Strum
Mar 22 2007 4:12 PM

Cybergoth, on Thu Mar 22, 2007 2:56 PM, said:

BTW: Nathan, do you think it's vertically too squashed? Not much that could be done about it though: As is there's already only 24 lines left for score/state display.

It's bound to get squashed, but as long as the tanks still fit, it's fine. Looks good to me. (The mockups I did had the maze symmetrical. I don't think it would hurt the game if you needed to go that way.)

And if you turn on the phosphor effect in Stella, the flicker doesn't hurt quite so much.

(But I don't think it's worth it for the eye candy. I'd have to look at it on real hardware to tell, though.)

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Cybergoth
Mar 22 2007 4:33 PM

Nathan Strum, on Thu Mar 22, 2007 11:12 PM, said:

Would be cool if you could try some things with tanks, it'd be very interesting to see how they fit in. I will try keeping the original layout as long as I can

Nathan Strum, on Thu Mar 22, 2007 11:12 PM, said:

And if you turn on the phosphor effect in Stella, the flicker doesn't hurt quite so much.

(But I don't think it's worth it for the eye candy. I'd have to look at it on real hardware to tell, though.)

I have another idea for those blocks, but am too tired already to try it still tonight...

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mos6507
Mar 23 2007 1:36 AM

With playfield, I think it's much better to go with interlacing rather than flicker because it is something that covers the whole screen. It worked okay with Ladybug but the flicker really has to be a last resort.

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Cybergoth
Mar 23 2007 2:22 AM

mos6507, on Fri Mar 23, 2007 8:36 AM, said:

100% agreed. I'll try something like that.

@Nathan: I added a second binary with better proportions. If you'd say that they're *much* better for the tanks, we need to think about making that work... (maybe removing the bottom lane?

)

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Cybergoth
Mar 23 2007 1:57 PM

The longer I'm staring at this maze, the more oddities I find. This time I realized that it is actually missing one vertical wall...

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Cybergoth
Mar 23 2007 2:47 PM

So, done with the 2nd effect. Less flicker, but less effective. Is that a good compromise? Or should I better give up on the glow-blocks?

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vdub_bobby
Mar 23 2007 2:53 PM

Cybergoth, on Fri Mar 23, 2007 1:47 PM, said:

So, done with the 2nd effect. Less flicker, but less effective. Is that a good compromise? Or should I better give up on the glow-blocks?

Hmmm. I don't like it too much, maybe - they are dimmer than the regular walls, rather than brighter. Maybe do a straight flicker (i.e., frame 1=no glow blocks, frame 2=glow blocks) with the two frames different colors? Get the regular walls a mixed color and the glow blocks a brighter color?

Or can you use any of the other objects for the glow blocks?

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Cybergoth
Mar 23 2007 2:58 PM

vdub_bobby, on Fri Mar 23, 2007 9:53 PM, said:

Or can you use any of the other objects for the glow blocks?

Well, the Ball has the color of the maze and the missiles the color of the sprites and actually do I need all sprites and particles for other things already.

I'll experiment some with the alternatives you suggested

(A problem with them is that the mixed colors naturally will be brighter than the solo color, though.)

EDIT: Doesn't work. See the new attachment.

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vdub_bobby
Mar 23 2007 3:28 PM

Cybergoth, on Fri Mar 23, 2007 1:58 PM, said:

vdub_bobby, on Fri Mar 23, 2007 9:53 PM, said:

Or can you use any of the other objects for the glow blocks?

Well, the Ball has the color of the maze and the missiles the color of the sprites and actually do I need all sprites and particles for other things already.

That's what I figured.

Quote

EDIT: Doesn't work. See the new attachment.

Yeah. That was kind of a longshot idea.

What about striping (no flicker)? Regular maze on even lines, glow blocks on odd lines? Then you could even easily make the glow blocks actually glow (vary intensity). And maybe interlace flicker? That would be better than your first straight-flicker binary, though maybe still too much flicker.

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Cybergoth
Mar 23 2007 3:39 PM

I knew I should've kept that block-only data. Off we go recreating it...

EDIT: Now this indeed has a certain charm! Added yet another try

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vdub_bobby
Mar 23 2007 4:22 PM

I like this one!

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Cybergoth
Mar 23 2007 5:26 PM

My favourite so far as well.

This also adds a scannline to the rows, so with 13 scannlines this is now residing right in the middle between the original maze (12) and the better proportions maze (14).

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Cybergoth
Mar 24 2007 2:06 AM

I should add that I'm not sure wether it can really be done this way, as it requires writing the playfield on every scannline and those sprites and missiles sure need some cycles too...