Pong with powerups

[Legend]

Has anyone made a version of pong with powerups? LIke being able to hold the ball, make the paddle bigger/smaller, Make the ball move slower or faster. The powerups might appear randomly on the screen and the player who hits it gets the power. Just wondering if this has been done yet or something like it.

[Bakasama]

Doesn't that mean Pong with Arkanoid power ups?

[potatohead]

I think being able to put "english" on the ball would be cool, in combination with the power ups! That way, it's a game to get them, and attempt to put the other player off balance.

 

Some powerups:

 

English - or not... see above

 

hold ball

 

advance paddle position forward

 

sticky ball

 

random bounce

 

little ball

 

big ball

 

two balls --player releases a ball, and another one, and triple score if other player misses both sequentially, otherwise ordinary score based on remaining ball. No point given for miss of first ball.

 

fat paddle

 

narrow paddle

 

reversed paddle

 

random paddle - jitters for a while

 

two paddles -- one in front, one in ordinary position

 

god wall - player can't miss for a while

 

bullets - get three shots at the other player

 

gravity ball - ball attracted to players paddle, motion influences ball movement

 

center wall, for a mini break out session, with a risk of point given, should player that has the ball miss!

 

bent paddle - for limiting possible returns to other player

 

invisible paddle

 

switch controls! - for a time each player gets the other players paddle, point given to non-controlling player for a miss, so the game is just mirrored for a short time

 

Call it battle pong!

[Bakasama]

I've always had this idea that the ends of the playfield would have spikes so instead of the ball going out of bounds it would get impaled and scream.

 

About the powerups, I had this idea of blocks in the field. When a player hits the block(s) with a ball might release a random powerup.

[Mord]

I've always had this idea that the ends of the playfield would have spikes so instead of the ball going out of bounds it would get impaled and scream.

 

You make pong balls cry.

[vdub_bobby]

You guys have seen FlapPing, right?

 

Not exactly what you're talking about, but in the same vein.

[Legend]

English - or not... see above

 

hold ball

 

advance paddle position forward

 

sticky ball

 

random bounce

 

little ball

 

big ball

 

two balls --player releases a ball, and another one, and triple score if other player misses both sequentially, otherwise ordinary score based on remaining ball. No point given for miss of first ball.

 

fat paddle

 

narrow paddle

 

reversed paddle

 

random paddle - jitters for a while

 

two paddles -- one in front, one in ordinary position

 

god wall - player can't miss for a while

 

bullets - get three shots at the other player

 

gravity ball - ball attracted to players paddle, motion influences ball movement

 

center wall, for a mini break out session, with a risk of point given, should player that has the ball miss!

 

bent paddle - for limiting possible returns to other player

 

invisible paddle

 

switch controls! - for a time each player gets the other players paddle, point given to non-controlling player for a miss, so the game is just mirrored for a short time

 

Call it battle pong!

 

Those sound like cool powerups. Wish I was a programmer. I was just asking if the idea had been done before or if anyone was working on something similar.

[LS_Dracon]

Yes, me.

SuperPong

 

But it's an endless project, I have no intention to release on cart.

 

Endless because times from times I have a new idea or new optimizations to put on it.

(now I remember that I need to test a new code for the sprites...)

[Devin]

Perhaps combine Pong and Breakout.

 

Behind each player, there is the wall of bricks. When you miss a ball it collides of the a wall and destroys a brick - just like in good ole breakout. First player to get the ball through the wall, wins.

 

I've attached an UGLY mockup. It might look better horizontal or with better colors. Anyway, at least the mockup shows what I was talking about.

Edited April 20, 2009 by Devin

[Nukey Shay]

Too deep of a wall...the game could play itself too much. Maybe alter the paddle object to be a bar when the player misses...so that you need to guide a gap in the bar to the ball to let it out.

[vdub_bobby]

Perhaps combine Pong and Breakout.

 

Behind each player, there is the wall of bricks. When you miss a ball it collides of the a wall and destroys a brick - just like in good ole breakout. First player to get the ball through the wall, wins.

 

I've attached an UGLY mockup. It might look better horizontal or with better colors. Anyway, at least the mockup shows what I was talking about.

There is exactly that variation of FlapPing

FlapPing features two primary game variations, a "classic pong" mode which resembles the classic Pong arcade game, and "poorlords", where each player must defend a wall in a manner similar to the arcade game Warlords.

[Devin]

There is exactly that variation of FlapPing

 

Whoops! Please ignore me then. :-)

Edited April 20, 2009 by Devin

[gobo]

I made something like that in Atari BASIC for the 8-bits back in the day called TV JAJI. It used joysticks and the ball was kind of jerky. I always wanted to update it to use a better ball. I did/do have a paddle version somewhere that offered better control. With the joysticks you would move left and right and press the button to speed it up. Once you get the hang of it it works ok. The playfield is horizontal and there are 2 walls of rocks via breakout. If you miss a ball it takes out a brick. If you volley for a while another layer of wall appears and the paddles move closer. The ball also can turn into a bomb and if a player misses it takes out a huge chunk of wall. If a bomb gets through the wall it throws rocks/bricks out all over the playfield for the ball to bounce off of. During the game objects appeared randomly in the playfield and if the ball hits one going in your direction it will attack you in some way. I believe the ball can also turn into a bird that will lay eggs that hatch if they are hit a few times. When the ball gets by your wall the plunger goes down a notch until you loose. There is also "sudden death rocks" that appear randomly that will make the next player loose if it doesn't hit a rock and gets past a wall. Anyway its here if you are interested:

 

http://atari.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=5010

[+Nathan Strum]

Perhaps combine Pong and Breakout.

 

Behind each player, there is the wall of bricks. When you miss a ball it collides of the a wall and destroys a brick - just like in good ole breakout. First player to get the ball through the wall, wins.

 

I've attached an UGLY mockup. It might look better horizontal or with better colors. Anyway, at least the mockup shows what I was talking about.

There's a pretty good Flash game (Super Villain Smash Out) on Disney's TV games website. It's similar to "Poorlords" - it's basically Pong, but with Breakout bricks between the two players, and powerups. Essentially head-to-head Arkanoid. Pretty cool concept, and probably doable to some degree on the 2600.

Edited May 7, 2009 by Nathan Strum

[tremoloman2006]

The remake version of Pong for the PS1 is an excellent game with powerups. One of the few remakes I've found that was done right!