29 replies to this topic

[BigO]

Did the original Pong tend to get stuck in "loops" where if neither paddle is moved the ball will just bounce back and forth between them? I suspect the answer is probably yes.

I started this up in Stella and couldn't figure how to move the paddles (I rarely use Stella). It scored twice on each side then got itself into an infinite volley.(paddles partially off the bottom of the screen, never moved from startup)

Edited by BigO, Fri Nov 26, 2010 7:49 AM.

[djmips]

BigO, on Fri Nov 26, 2010 7:48 AM, said:

Did the original Pong tend to get stuck in "loops" where if neither paddle is moved the ball will just bounce back and forth between them? I suspect the answer is probably yes.

I started this up in Stella and couldn't figure how to move the paddles (I rarely use Stella). It scored twice on each side then got itself into an infinite volley.(paddles partially off the bottom of the screen, never moved from startup)

Yes the original could get stuck in "loops" if both players were good. And they could cooperate and just bounce it back and forth and presumably leave the machine.

I've updated the download to include a cfg file that will default the stella controls to mouse and keyboard (arrows)

[stephena]

djmips, on Fri Nov 26, 2010 3:03 PM, said:

BigO, on Fri Nov 26, 2010 7:48 AM, said:

Did the original Pong tend to get stuck in "loops" where if neither paddle is moved the ball will just bounce back and forth between them? I suspect the answer is probably yes.

I started this up in Stella and couldn't figure how to move the paddles (I rarely use Stella). It scored twice on each side then got itself into an infinite volley.(paddles partially off the bottom of the screen, never moved from startup)

Yes the original could get stuck in "loops" if both players were good. And they could cooperate and just bounce it back and forth and presumably leave the machine.

I've updated the download to include a cfg file that will default the stella controls to mouse and keyboard (arrows)

The 'cfg' file you included is a disassembler configuration file, used by the internal Distella code to represent how the disassembly should look. If you want to include automatic setup for the game itself, you need to include a .pro file (game properties are stored in the .pro file).

[djmips]

stephena, on Fri Nov 26, 2010 4:44 PM, said:

djmips, on Fri Nov 26, 2010 3:03 PM, said:

BigO, on Fri Nov 26, 2010 7:48 AM, said:

Did the original Pong tend to get stuck in "loops" where if neither paddle is moved the ball will just bounce back and forth between them? I suspect the answer is probably yes.

I started this up in Stella and couldn't figure how to move the paddles (I rarely use Stella). It scored twice on each side then got itself into an infinite volley.(paddles partially off the bottom of the screen, never moved from startup)

Yes the original could get stuck in "loops" if both players were good. And they could cooperate and just bounce it back and forth and presumably leave the machine.

I've updated the download to include a cfg file that will default the stella controls to mouse and keyboard (arrows)

The 'cfg' file you included is a disassembler configuration file, used by the internal Distella code to represent how the disassembly should look. If you want to include automatic setup for the game itself, you need to include a .pro file (game properties are stored in the .pro file).

I see, well, so I would have to include a 'stella.pro' file with the configuration below. But that leaves a problem I don't know how to solve, which is that I don't know to feasibly append this to the user's stella.pro on multiple platforms or provide a way of launching with a -propsfile option. It seems that the Stella app is biased against paddle games it doesn't know about.

"Cartridge.MD5" "3e21b5356ea6d61a5fedb5493534c62a"
"Cartridge.Name" "apong.bin"
"Console.SwapPorts" "YES"
"Controller.Left" "PADDLES"
"Controller.Right" "PADDLES"
""

[stephena]

djmips, on Fri Nov 26, 2010 10:23 PM, said:

stephena, on Fri Nov 26, 2010 4:44 PM, said:

djmips, on Fri Nov 26, 2010 3:03 PM, said:

BigO, on Fri Nov 26, 2010 7:48 AM, said:

Did the original Pong tend to get stuck in "loops" where if neither paddle is moved the ball will just bounce back and forth between them? I suspect the answer is probably yes.

I started this up in Stella and couldn't figure how to move the paddles (I rarely use Stella). It scored twice on each side then got itself into an infinite volley.(paddles partially off the bottom of the screen, never moved from startup)

Yes the original could get stuck in "loops" if both players were good. And they could cooperate and just bounce it back and forth and presumably leave the machine.

I've updated the download to include a cfg file that will default the stella controls to mouse and keyboard (arrows)

The 'cfg' file you included is a disassembler configuration file, used by the internal Distella code to represent how the disassembly should look. If you want to include automatic setup for the game itself, you need to include a .pro file (game properties are stored in the .pro file).

I see, well, so I would have to include a 'stella.pro' file with the configuration below. But that leaves a problem I don't know how to solve, which is that I don't know to feasibly append this to the user's stella.pro on multiple platforms or provide a way of launching with a -propsfile option. It seems that the Stella app is biased against paddle games it doesn't know about.

"Cartridge.MD5" "3e21b5356ea6d61a5fedb5493534c62a"
"Cartridge.Name" "apong.bin"
"Console.SwapPorts" "YES"
"Controller.Left" "PADDLES"
"Controller.Right" "PADDLES"
""

Unfortunately, yes, that is correct. The user could always manually copy and paste the entry you've provided directly into their own stella.pro file. Currently, there's no way to just drop a custom, per-game properties file into a directory and have Stella see it. Adding such a feature might be easy enough to do, and I'll consider it for the next release.