5 replies to this topic

[radiohead]

I just got the Jakks 13 Game Plug N Play Paddle (less than $6 bucks on Amazon!) and I've been getting back into playing Warlords.

I see somebody has created a fabulous Arcade port for 2600 called "Medieval Mayhem", but has anyone done a simple graphic hack of the original 2600 Warlords?

More to the point, the castle always bothered me. In the arcade and in "Medieval Mayhem" it looks like a castle, but on the original 2600 version, it looks like the side view of a Star Destroyer.

It shouldn't be any harder than this, right? (depending on the allotted size of the existing sprite)

X X X X

X X X X

XXXXXXX

XXX

XXX

XXX

Anyone ever tried something like this, or could try something like this?
I'm no programmer so I don't know.

If this is out there or can be done easily, I'd love to find out!

Edited by radiohead, Sun Sep 18, 2011 9:37 AM.

[SpiceWare]

radiohead, on Sun Sep 18, 2011 9:32 AM, said:

I see somebody has created a fabulous Arcade port for 2600 called "Medieval Mayhem"

Thanks!

Quote

In the arcade and in "Medieval Mayhem" it looks like a castle, but on the original 2600 version, it looks like the side view of a Star Destroyer.

The castle? I think you mean the warlords. The castles are the purplish parts with chunks missing, the warlords are in the 4 corners and colored to match the shields.


The warlords aren't drawn using a sprite - the Atari only has 2 sprites and Warlords uses them to draw the shields. The sprites can be reused in different horizontal zones w/out any problem, but to reuse them in the same horizontal zone would require flicker. That would complicate the collision detection (ie: the fireball could fly thru the shield on the frames that a more detailed warlord was being drawn).

The warlords in corner are drawn with the 2 missiles, which are 1 bit objects. They are a single pixel that can be drawn 1x, 2x, 4x or 8x. The warlords are drawn using 1x, 2x, 1x, 2x, 4x (with an extra 1x on the right side). Like the sprites, the missiles are reused so the warlords can be drawn on the top/bottom.

In Medieval Mayhem, I draw the warlords using the playfield, which is the same object that's used to draw the castle walls. There's only 40 playfield pixels across the screen (they're 4x the size of the pixels that draw the sprites/missiles/ball). I use the "score mode" setting to color them the same color as the player. In Warlords, the same technique is used to draw the scores - that's why they're so chunky looking.

I don't know if it'll help, but I did some analysis of Warlords to see if I could hack in multiple fireballs. I eventually decided it would be better to just rewrite it from scratch.

[radiohead]

Thanks for the info. Just recently discovered your "Medieval Mayhem" and it's great.

Warlords was one of those paddle games that I didn't appreciate enough when I was younger, (mostly played the 1 player games Kaboom & Breakout.) Always thought it was supposed to be walls protecting colored castles in the corners. But to me, they never real looked like anything. So they're the actual Warlord, huh? Thanks for clarifying.

I guess I'm the kind of forum poster that homebrewers hate: suggest a hack without any understanding of how the coding works or the effort involved.

I'll continue playing your game and Warlords on the plug n play. Thanks!

[Cebus Capucinis]

Medieval Mayhem is easily one of the best homebrews ever made, you mean! Easily a solid contender for the #1 spot.

[SpiceWare]

No problem!

When you stop to think about it, Warlords is just 4-player-head-to-head-Breakout.

[disjaukifa]

Cebus Capucinis, on Tue Sep 20, 2011 6:51 PM, said:

Medieval Mayhem is easily one of the best homebrews ever made, you mean! But Frantic is the only contender for the #1 spot.

I'm sorry Cebus but I have to disagree with your statement, so I fixed it

Edited by disjaukifa, Fri Sep 30, 2011 6:05 PM.