Animation in games

[wlkim]

So after having not touched a Vic in years, I've one a fairly decent setup on ebay to augment one I'm about to pull out of storage. In anticipation of this I've started playing games on the Vice emulator and I'd never realized the vast difference in quality with respect to object movement between game titles.

For example, I think games like Super Amok are pretty smooth while Frogger was just awful. I'd put Gorf somewhere in between. For crying out loud, they couldn't do better than that for a commercial coin-op port?? (This assumes I was playing the "official" frogger).

Which games do you think have the smoothest object movement? How about the most horrible object movement?

Bill

[MacbthPSW]

For example, I think games like Super Amok are pretty smooth while Frogger was just awful. I'd put Gorf somewhere in between. For crying out loud, they couldn't do better than that for a commercial coin-op port?? (This assumes I was playing the "official" frogger).

Because the VIC doesn't have hardware sprites or even a proper bitmap mode, all animation and movement have to be done by redefining characters. At worst, this means that e.g. your player will move a full character (8 pixels) at a time, and any background graphics behind the player will be completely obscured.

The hardware sprites on the C64, for example, allow smooth one pixel movement, and also allow a transparent feature, so graphics can be seen behind the transparent parts of the sprite (instead of the sprite being a solid square/rectangle).

This of course can be simulated to some degree in the VIC, but at the cost of a lot of extra CPU and/or memory use. Note that it's easier/cheaper to do the smooth animation when there aren't any background graphics, or at least if they're kept simple.

I've been working on a VIC 20 game, so I've been learning this stuff the hard way - my C64 game that I'm porting made good use of the sprites and hardware smooth scrolling, so I'm trying to find the best compromise with my code.

[wlkim]

Because the VIC doesn't have hardware sprites or even a proper bitmap mode, all animation and movement have to be done by redefining characters. At worst, this means that e.g. your player will move a full character (8 pixels) at a time, and any background graphics behind the player will be completely obscured.

Oh I agree with you wholeheartedly there. My second machine after purchasing my Vic in '82 was an Atari 130XE on which I'd coded a bit of assembler that used that machine's player-missile graphics (like C64 sprites, only less of them). The reason I picked on Frogger was that most of the action (except for your frog) is solely on the X-axis, so you'd think that they'd precalcuate or render at least one intermediate step for the logs or cars as opposed to doing full character sized jumps.

I had a choice as to which machine to play starting a few months ago since between work and school I've managed to squeeze in some time for a hobby, and I chose the Vic.. mainly because it was my first machine. I'm now gaining respect for the people who developed good games on it as the more I research the hardware the more I find out how difficult it is to get things to look good.

Like many of us there were games that never appeared on our beloved machine that I wish really would have. As a project I've thought of actually trying to do a port of coin-op just for the hell of it and as a learning experience. Will I finish? I don't know. To me it really depends upon whether or not I get a decent pixel pushing routine going to deal with shape manipulation (i.e. software sprites).

The short list is:
- Phoenix
- Ladybug
- Vanguard

My problem is that I know how things work on an Atari.. I know how to use vertical blank interrupts, player-missiles, etc. The Vic is a new world for me since (as you've pointed out) you have to do so much of this in software, and at 1Mhz everything counts! I think Vanguard is probably out since without hardware scrolling and my noobness it would be a disaster.

So how's that game coming?

[aneurysm]

When I was a kid I remember being blown away by the smoothness of Omega Race and Pole Position.

[Jeff-20]

Actually, I find games with lesser animation such as GRIDRUNNER much more enjoyable than the "smooth" movements of ROBOTRON. Speed can greatly compensate for lack of animation. Remember persistance of the eye.

[fgasking]

Check out Moons of Jupitor by Romik... really smooth rotation of the main ship

[Schema]

Check out "Shadowfax" - the animation is incredible!!