fried mon calamari
Well-Known Member
Looking great, Doc!
I really enjoyed seeing it "in person" last weekend.
Very impressive!
I really enjoyed seeing it "in person" last weekend.
Very impressive!
Last Starfighter video game project - COMPLETED
- Thread starter Rook 3
- Start date
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eaviii wrote:<HR></TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS=$row_color>
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If I recall correctly, aren't the polygons in the movie game faceted? not smoothed over? Just mentioning in case you were going for accuracy.
eaviii wrote:<HR></TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS=$row_color>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><HR></TD></TR></TABLE><SPAN CLASS=$row_color>
If I recall correctly, aren't the polygons in the movie game faceted? not smoothed over? Just mentioning in case you were going for accuracy.
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JediDave wrote:<HR></TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS=$row_color>
If I recall correctly, aren't the polygons in the movie game faceted? not smoothed over? Just mentioning in case you were going for accuracy.
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Indeed- Better model thanks to Miniaturizer Ray in place now- Doing my best with accuracy- I think it will definitely look close but, given my skill set and the programming language, I doubt exact. For what it's worth, it's seems to be playable (you never know when you start if it will be fun).
Most recent subroutine in development, the scanner. I have had a hell of a time with the scanner in the right upper quadrant of the HUD. It is a locked object (which places it in a fixed screen position independent of the camera position and orientation). It is the best way I know of doing a HUD. Unfortunately, it has all sorts of weird rotation implications, etc. Finally got it working in terms of correct movement and mapping objects in 3d space to the orb (which is really cool by the way). The perspective is the problem. The orb seems askew even when properly aligned (the same way an orange held 6" up and 6" over from your right eye would look, rather than looking down an axis view from navel to stem). May need to move the HUD further away from the camera or add correcting angles (though this gets weird when rotating along 3 axes). Any Dark Basic guys got thoughts on this, let me know.
All that being said, the mechanics (Rotating the scanner relative to the ball turret and mapping coordinates) are working fine. Hoping to get a working demo out soon with at least the light target phase and then multiple fighter squadrons attacking. Subroutines are written just integrating and working on the structural arrays for gameplay. Need to work a little more on the scout ship (green guys) flight patterns and the asteroid part (gameplay seen in the early part of the movie). Next step sound I think . . .
By the way, most of the game seems scripted in the film with the identifiable parts being:
- Intro "Greetings Starfighter"
- Target light practice
- scout ships and asteroid surface level
- then multiple fighter waves
- command ship
- stars flying by between sectors
The game shown definitely does not address the frontier or the tunnel chase. Other levels?
Doc
JediDave wrote:<HR></TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS=$row_color>
If I recall correctly, aren't the polygons in the movie game faceted? not smoothed over? Just mentioning in case you were going for accuracy.
</TD></TR><TR><TD><HR></TD></TR></TABLE><SPAN CLASS=$row_color>
Indeed- Better model thanks to Miniaturizer Ray in place now- Doing my best with accuracy- I think it will definitely look close but, given my skill set and the programming language, I doubt exact. For what it's worth, it's seems to be playable (you never know when you start if it will be fun).
Most recent subroutine in development, the scanner. I have had a hell of a time with the scanner in the right upper quadrant of the HUD. It is a locked object (which places it in a fixed screen position independent of the camera position and orientation). It is the best way I know of doing a HUD. Unfortunately, it has all sorts of weird rotation implications, etc. Finally got it working in terms of correct movement and mapping objects in 3d space to the orb (which is really cool by the way). The perspective is the problem. The orb seems askew even when properly aligned (the same way an orange held 6" up and 6" over from your right eye would look, rather than looking down an axis view from navel to stem). May need to move the HUD further away from the camera or add correcting angles (though this gets weird when rotating along 3 axes). Any Dark Basic guys got thoughts on this, let me know.
All that being said, the mechanics (Rotating the scanner relative to the ball turret and mapping coordinates) are working fine. Hoping to get a working demo out soon with at least the light target phase and then multiple fighter squadrons attacking. Subroutines are written just integrating and working on the structural arrays for gameplay. Need to work a little more on the scout ship (green guys) flight patterns and the asteroid part (gameplay seen in the early part of the movie). Next step sound I think . . .
By the way, most of the game seems scripted in the film with the identifiable parts being:
- Intro "Greetings Starfighter"
- Target light practice
- scout ships and asteroid surface level
- then multiple fighter waves
- command ship
- stars flying by between sectors
The game shown definitely does not address the frontier or the tunnel chase. Other levels?
Doc
How about a "Defense of Starfighter Command" level or something? I know in the movie they used a mass driver weapon to knock it out, but a lot of film based games have levels that are not quite out of the film.
You could shoot asteroids out of the sky or something...
This sounds very, very cool.
You could shoot asteroids out of the sky or something...
This sounds very, very cool.
That is a superb thought, Stormleader- Much of the gameplay isn't shown so I think carefully inserted movie based levels would be cool as long as they seem correctly interspersed with the movie screens shown.
Thought I would post some more screen caps (some are dark on my desktop but fine on my laptop- go figure)- I left them unmodified-
The intro with a few reworked models and lighting-
The scanner subroutine- I used the different colored blips for coordinating mapping so I knew exactly how an object on screen was moving and correlated that to scanner movement- The final will be yellow mostly as in the film-
The red triangle below is the target in space represented by the red dot in the scanner- The yellow dot is actually offscreen behind the turret- The two large blue triangles are light targets near the ship and are the white targets on the scanner-
The light target arrays with multiple targets in space moving in different directions and explosion arrays/correct targeting in place-
All in all moving along-
Doc
Thought I would post some more screen caps (some are dark on my desktop but fine on my laptop- go figure)- I left them unmodified-
The intro with a few reworked models and lighting-
The scanner subroutine- I used the different colored blips for coordinating mapping so I knew exactly how an object on screen was moving and correlated that to scanner movement- The final will be yellow mostly as in the film-
The red triangle below is the target in space represented by the red dot in the scanner- The yellow dot is actually offscreen behind the turret- The two large blue triangles are light targets near the ship and are the white targets on the scanner-
The light target arrays with multiple targets in space moving in different directions and explosion arrays/correct targeting in place-
All in all moving along-
Doc
One thing to consider about this, is that in the film the game is basically a training sim for people to fight the Ko-Dan. Now since (IMHO) the Star League figured their squadrons of starfighters would defend them from the Ko dan, it's possible to assume that they never saw the possibility that Starfighter Command itself would come under attack.
Having said that, since there's "hundreds of worlds" in the Star League, it would be safe to assume that perhaps knowledge of the Ko Dan "meteor gun" was attained through espionage.
Following that, for another section of the game, perhaps a colony or outpost could come under attack and you'd need to destroy the incoming "meteors."
Since in the on screen game we see Louis get taken out by a missile, perhaps there could be a "mini mission" halfway in, where a Ko Dan missile carrier or torpedo fighter is launching missiles at the player. The player must dispatch a set number of waves of missiles, then defeat the "torpedo ship" to complete that stage of the game.
If you're allowing a user selectible dip switch setting for difficulty, these two suggestions could be adjusted up or down in difficulty depending on the dip switch settings.
Keeping in mind that Alex (in the film) is assumed to have been playing this game, say, all summer. It makes sense that the game would be difficult and that him reaching the "Record Breaker" screen would take some effort. Now, if you're not that good of a game player, you could turn the difficulty down and reach the record breaker. Or, if you're a "gamer," you could turn it up and make the playing time worth your effort. No good (or great) arcade game ever let's a half hearted player play all the way through on one token. It rewards lazyness.
Have you thought about adding a "high score" table and retaining the player's high scores, even after power down?
Most games from that era (1984) did not retain high scores, but personally, I'd welcome the ability if it was offered. Or for the perfectionists, leave it as a user selectible dip switch setting, to save the scores in RAM until the power drops, or save it to some non-volitile (NVRAM) style source. Or somehow save it as a TXT file? I don't know, I'm just tossing out ideas.
As always, the progress keeps looking better and better with each passing month! Thanks for the effort!
Rook
Having said that, since there's "hundreds of worlds" in the Star League, it would be safe to assume that perhaps knowledge of the Ko Dan "meteor gun" was attained through espionage.
Following that, for another section of the game, perhaps a colony or outpost could come under attack and you'd need to destroy the incoming "meteors."
Since in the on screen game we see Louis get taken out by a missile, perhaps there could be a "mini mission" halfway in, where a Ko Dan missile carrier or torpedo fighter is launching missiles at the player. The player must dispatch a set number of waves of missiles, then defeat the "torpedo ship" to complete that stage of the game.
If you're allowing a user selectible dip switch setting for difficulty, these two suggestions could be adjusted up or down in difficulty depending on the dip switch settings.
Keeping in mind that Alex (in the film) is assumed to have been playing this game, say, all summer. It makes sense that the game would be difficult and that him reaching the "Record Breaker" screen would take some effort. Now, if you're not that good of a game player, you could turn the difficulty down and reach the record breaker. Or, if you're a "gamer," you could turn it up and make the playing time worth your effort. No good (or great) arcade game ever let's a half hearted player play all the way through on one token. It rewards lazyness.
Have you thought about adding a "high score" table and retaining the player's high scores, even after power down?
Most games from that era (1984) did not retain high scores, but personally, I'd welcome the ability if it was offered. Or for the perfectionists, leave it as a user selectible dip switch setting, to save the scores in RAM until the power drops, or save it to some non-volitile (NVRAM) style source. Or somehow save it as a TXT file? I don't know, I'm just tossing out ideas.
As always, the progress keeps looking better and better with each passing month! Thanks for the effort!
Rook
Excellent thoughts Rook3- I like the idea of a missile shooting miniboss- Have been writing the subroutines upfront for variable difficulty (lesson learned from Space Paranoids)- Will definitely have a high score table that saves to a .dat file if desired (have the algorhithm from the Space Paranoids final)and savable game dipswitch settings (also to a .dat file). One of the things I love about Dark Basic is the ability to save string and numeric data to data files-
Doc
Doc
If you're going to do a high score screen, Alex Rogan should have a bazillion million points.
Another update- Still adding subroutines- Got the scout ships running now along with the flight over the asteroid seen in the first of the movie where Louis loses the game- Anyway definitely, definitely getting there- A sudden burst of enthusiasm on Bishop of Battle on other forums but I MUST FINISH STARFIGHTER- To paraphrase Clark Griswald, it has become a quest, a quest for fun-
[image]http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=16596&t=i[/image]
[image]http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=16595&t=i[/image]
It is by will alone that I set my thoughts in motion-
Doc
[image]http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=16596&t=i[/image]
[image]http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=16595&t=i[/image]
It is by will alone that I set my thoughts in motion-
Doc
Very productive fortnight indeed- Just got back from a 2 week tour of WWII pacific isles- Great trip but tons of down time (almost 7 days at sea)- Guess what I did with much of the cruise sleep/eat time. That's right, I finished a working demo of Starfighter. I am mailing out the site update CD to Gawker (my webmaster tomorrow). We will hopefully have the demo for download within the week.
The demo is a 3 level playable demo with light targets, the scout ship asteroid level, and the fighter level. Currently, the demo repeats the fighter level over and over until the player dies. Since the last update, I have included ALL gauges (all weapons, player damage, target damage, and lockon warning). The 3d scanner works pretty well and is actually essential to gameplay. All player weapons work including the proton bolt (a seeking missile). The player death scenes and weapons recharge rates are incorporated. There is of course the updated intro and between level transition screens.
The most notable absence is SOUND. The intro dialog plays but beyond that I did not have the software I needed to dissect the audio for the game so that will be next I suspect. I did incorporate false MAME boot screens so it looks like an arcade machine booting up. These cover the rather long loads for artwork, models, and arrays. The program stands at 234MB uncompressed right now but I suspect that will improve somewhat when I filter through the bulkier bitmaps. The game may run slowly on older machines (I have a 6 year old pII 128ram anntique vid card Windows 98 which runs it but it takes a long time to boot and stutters during heavy bitmap shuffling- Still, it runs). I suspect the slow down will improve when I get it into an installer and decompress/decrypt the current format. It is currently a DarkBasic FULL executable which is self decompressing each run and a little slow on older machines.
Ultimately, the software is coming along very very well (I have crossed the great master array hump that unites all subroutines). I am posting a number of screen caps in the meantime.
Doc
[image]http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=17406&t=i[/image]
[image]http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=17407&t=i[/image]
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[image]http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=17410&t=i[/image]
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[image]http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=17417&t=i[/image]
The demo is a 3 level playable demo with light targets, the scout ship asteroid level, and the fighter level. Currently, the demo repeats the fighter level over and over until the player dies. Since the last update, I have included ALL gauges (all weapons, player damage, target damage, and lockon warning). The 3d scanner works pretty well and is actually essential to gameplay. All player weapons work including the proton bolt (a seeking missile). The player death scenes and weapons recharge rates are incorporated. There is of course the updated intro and between level transition screens.
The most notable absence is SOUND. The intro dialog plays but beyond that I did not have the software I needed to dissect the audio for the game so that will be next I suspect. I did incorporate false MAME boot screens so it looks like an arcade machine booting up. These cover the rather long loads for artwork, models, and arrays. The program stands at 234MB uncompressed right now but I suspect that will improve somewhat when I filter through the bulkier bitmaps. The game may run slowly on older machines (I have a 6 year old pII 128ram anntique vid card Windows 98 which runs it but it takes a long time to boot and stutters during heavy bitmap shuffling- Still, it runs). I suspect the slow down will improve when I get it into an installer and decompress/decrypt the current format. It is currently a DarkBasic FULL executable which is self decompressing each run and a little slow on older machines.
Ultimately, the software is coming along very very well (I have crossed the great master array hump that unites all subroutines). I am posting a number of screen caps in the meantime.
Doc
[image]http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=17406&t=i[/image]
[image]http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=17407&t=i[/image]
[image]http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=17408&t=i[/image]
[image]http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=17409&t=i[/image]
[image]http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=17410&t=i[/image]
[image]http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=17411&t=i[/image]
[image]http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=17412&t=i[/image]
[image]http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=17413&t=i[/image]
[image]http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=17414&t=i[/image]
[image]http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=17415&t=i[/image]
[image]http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=17416&t=i[/image]
[image]http://www.fotoheap.com/image.php?on=207&an=672&in=17417&t=i[/image]
"The new phone books are here. The new phone books are here."Just a heads up- The site is still being updated (Gawker is fast by God) but the download is available. Just double click the banner "The Last Starfighter" at http://www.roguesynapse.com/games/last_starfighter.php. You will also need the Usuzi free font installed. Remember there is no sound after the intro dialog. Hope you like it- still needs polish and a few more levels. Working on an infinite frontier for a meteor gun level.
The Starfighter model is Miniaturizer Ray's (this is obvious because it is far superior to my stuff). The asteroid and starfield are freeware.
An aside, the site update also has the little Bishop of Battle demo (just the talking head, no game play), a Death Race portion is being added, and Space Paranoids/Daphne cab/other stuff being added.
Hope the wait is worth it- Still working on things-
Doc
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