Split Second

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Skadiet
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Joined: Sun Jan 14, 2018 7:50 pm

Re: Split Second

Post by Skadiet »

Completely understood! I appreciate all the enthusiasm and constructive feedback!
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mitch3a
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Re: Split Second

Post by mitch3a »

I'd never heard of this device but its awesome how it definitely looks like a handheld and weirdly enough feels like your playing one even though you're on a console... which I'm guessing was the point so AWESOME job.

My only suggestion is it might be nice to give some sort of label/description to the game as you're choosing which one. So instead of having to know what games 1-8 are, have some info on screen about what it is. I could see the alternative argument that its a part of the handheld and therefore should remain as is, but I think this would be one improvement worth making and could be displayed outside the handheld itself.

I'd also second the suggestions around showing the dimmed led's when they're off, but saw your note about technical limitations. Those two nits aside, this seems to accomplish exactly what you wanted. Great job!
Skadiet
Posts: 10
Joined: Sun Jan 14, 2018 7:50 pm

Re: Split Second

Post by Skadiet »

mitch3a wrote:My only suggestion is it might be nice to give some sort of label/description to the game as you're choosing which one. So instead of having to know what games 1-8 are, have some info on screen about what it is. I could see the alternative argument that its a part of the handheld and therefore should remain as is, but I think this would be one improvement worth making and could be displayed outside the handheld itself.
I might be able to look into this! Thanks for the suggestion.

For the past week or so I've been playing around with different ways of showing the "off-color" on the game board. Some are OK. First, I tried adding the $08 off-color with the existing game screen border. See split_second_013.png.
Then I tried getting rid of the border all together. When I got rid of the border, I tried using a $07 background with a black off-color (see split_second_012.png), an $07 background with an $08 (dark greenish) off-color (see split_second_011.png), and then finally a black background with an $08 off-color (see split_second_010.png).

The one thing I haven't tried so far is any of the fancy flickering tricks or alternating horizontal lines each NMI due to development time constraints. But I'd still like to eventually give it a shot.

Also, after working on this for a week I accomplished two stretch goals:
  • 1) Enabled basic RLE compression on the background graphics. Thanks for the nudge @FrankenGraphics
    2) Added a slightly modified @tepples NTSC/PAL/DENDRY detector. (Modified because at the end of the algorithm I had to subtract by #$09 instead of #$0A to give me the right answer - would anyone off the tops of your heads know why??)
In the game, I was able to successfully detected the different TV regions. The timer in the game now works appropriately for NTSC and PAL. But I haven't had a chance to change the sounds / any color palettes etc. yet.
Attachments
split_second_013.png
split_second_013.png (3.55 KiB) Viewed 11138 times
split_second_012.png
split_second_012.png (3.33 KiB) Viewed 11138 times
split_second_011.png
split_second_011.png (3.33 KiB) Viewed 11138 times
split_second_010.png
split_second_010.png (3.24 KiB) Viewed 11138 times
lidnariq
Posts: 11429
Joined: Sun Apr 13, 2008 11:12 am

Re: Split Second

Post by lidnariq »

If you don't mind one more random guess for something that might work, here's a thought:
split_second_suggestion.png
split_second_suggestion.png (1.38 KiB) Viewed 11121 times
Looking at pictures of the actual device, the difference between "segment is off" and "there's no segment here" is very subtle, much more subtle than any pair of colors the NES really has.
Skadiet
Posts: 10
Joined: Sun Jan 14, 2018 7:50 pm

Re: Split Second

Post by Skadiet »

In case people are curious, I added a new version of the ROM in the OP.

In this new version, I added in the background "off colors" as discussed in above posts. Hopefully this will help make the game more intuitive to first-time players. I also fixed some of the glitches that I found when testing on original hardware and made *an attempt* :) at enhancing the graphics.

Enjoy!
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samophlange
Posts: 50
Joined: Sun Apr 08, 2018 11:45 pm
Location: Southern California

Re: Split Second

Post by samophlange »

I just had a chance to try this out, it's a solid effort! Completing a round and improving your score is really satisfying. :D
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