AtariAge Forums: AtariAge Forums -> Zach's Projects

Three years ago I would not have thought this kernel was possible.

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There is no game logic at this point. The program just allows three players to place their stones on the board, all using the left joystick.

Note that the cursor does not move into the top row yet. There is certainly room for improvement, but this is good enough to show how a Go-Moku kernel would work. The next steps will be to implement the top row, make the cursor more responsive to the joystick, and to put in diagonal movement. I would have done more before releasing it, but I need to get back to Four-Play.

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When you are finished trying out Conquest of Mars and the other MCG releases, check out the latest version of Four-Play with four difficulty levels.

Note some changes to the controls:

• RESET now takes you to the title screen
  
• FIRE does not switch sides anymore, but at the end of a game, resets the game at the current level.
  
• To switch sides during a game, flip the LEFT DIFFICULTY switch. It's not effective during the thinking process. Again, you can use this feature to watch the computer play itself.
  
• The COLOR B/W SWITCH controls randomization. Set to B/W to turn it off. This feature is for testing, and useful if you want to replay a game.

This version is getting close to complete. The only things left to do are tweaking the difficulty, more sound effects, bonus games, and of course, testing.

I'll appreciate feedback on difficulty. If you find Level 4 to be easy, about how long are you willing to wait between moves in order to be...

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Here is the demo recently shown at the Midwest Gaming Classic. It includes substantial improvements over the last release:

* Title screen
* Board and marbles made taller
* All winning combinations highlighted when a player wins in more than one direction.
* Entire board blinks when game ends in a draw.
* Barndoor effect and a stable scanline count during the thinking process.
* Game responds to immediate threats and wins instantaneously.

The most difficult programming is over. Now it's just a matter of finishing up some final details.

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If anyone needs to reach me, please be advised that due to moving, my internet access will be less frequent than usual. Four-Play is still on schedule, and is planned for release in a few months. I'll try to synchronize the release with any events that AtariAge may attend in the summer.

Now that the 2005 tax deadline has passed, I'd like to share some words about where a large part of that money goes. These quotes come from two speeches by WWII general and Republican president Dwight D. Eisenhower, and are still relevant today.

Source

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Tonight I finished off the last few puzzles. The most difficult by far was #19, where I was stuck for months:

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Even when you've solved all 24 puzzles in Marble Jumper it still has replay value, because you are not likely to remember all the solutions. Indeed I doubt I could complete #19 again without spending a long time.

I finally decided to wean myself off z26 logs and learn to use to the Stella debugger. It will obviously make homebrewing easier once I get used to it.

I am trying to set a break when PF1 is set to $aa. I tried the instruction below, and the program is clearly not breaking when the condition is met. Does anyone see what is wrong?

breakif { *PF1 == $aa}

These are comments on the issue of WMD's that was used to justify the Iraq invasion. They originally appeared in another blog entry, and I have moved them here.

It started with this post:


The rest of the comments follow. I don't think I can move posts directly, so I have copied and pasted as quotes. Feel free to continue the conversation.

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My Four-In-A-Row board game has been playable for some time now, so now I'm just polishing things up. Of course, this list is subject to change.

1) Stabilize scanlines per frame during thinking state.
Thanks to Fred and John for their help.

2) Title screen graphics
Big thanks to Nathan for the title artwork. You are looking at an actual screenshot above. I've managed to animate the colors in the text, a first for a 52 pixel image. There is still a little bit of work left to do, but it's nearly finished.

3) Improve thinking time when there is an immediate threat
This will be easy. Just search the 7 columns for an immediate threat, and block the first one found. If there is more than one threat, it doesn't matter which one is blocked, because the opponent has already won.

4) Fix "draw" bug
The game freezes if the AI determines that the game will end in a draw within a few moves.
...

[attachment=852:attachment]Squares A and B are exactly the same shade of grey. Source