Attract Mode
It is sort of interesting as you get into deep programming and especially if you have a little time, you really start to think-and-rethink what you have done... even on this project, Owen and I go back and forth of topics thinking it is great, but once you get into it, you may run into a technical hurdle or maybe it just isn't as good as you might have thought it was going to be.
That sorta happened with the Attract mode for sure. Back in 1997 when I released the 'Return to VAXXX' ROM hack. I did a reverse zoom effect of the text coming in under the logo.. sorta like a rubber stamp effect. I was going to do the same thing and then I got inspired by my Robotron 2084 machine which was programmed by Eugene Jarvis (software architecture by Larry DeMar). I always loved Robotron for many reasons, but the crazy color cycling effects were used in such a hypnotic way... they were fantastic.
TANGENT: When I was a kid growing up in State College, PA. We had several great arcades, but in reference to Robotron, my best memory was at an arcade called Campus Casino. Campus Casino, was wall to wall carpet and was a giant room approximately 40'x120' so it was huge. Pool tables in the back and rows of alternating pinball machine and video game islands coming out from the walls in symmetric patterns. In the middle of it all was the 6 foot high cylindrical change desk (which was also covered in carpet). You had to reach up to this guy up there, give him your cash and he would unload his quarters on you. Of course, this was the 70's so there was so much cigarette smoke, that you could only see the vending machine in the back behind the pool tables by their diffuse glow. This is the arcade where the Robotron masters would play and the volume for Robotron specifically was cranked... high. This was the place to go if you want to show your chops on Robotron. Good stuff... pretty sure Campus Casino is like a women's clothing store now... Sigh.
I started thinking about stuff I could do on Major Havoc: The Promised End (MHTPE). On the Atari hardware for MHTPE, the video system had a few tricks in the design. The first was a basic 'flash' color where the lines cycled through all the colors in the palette quickly (very similar to Williams). The 'flash'color was global in that any object that used this 'special' color would be drawn the same color at any one time, however it's colors were changing sorta constantly and giving it a pulsing glow. Then there is the 'Sparkle' effect. In comparison, the SPARKLE changes colors along the line, sorta like it is all flecky and then within the line, some specific colors cycle, so it gives the line a shimmery effect in a different way.
For the attract mode on MHTPE, I basically combined both of these effects on top of each other along with some fade-in/fade-out cycling to make a 3 layer burrito of color effects. Because the timing is offset, you end up getting a fairly diverse set of effects which take a very long time to repeat fully and they interact sort of like harmonics of guitar strings, where each effect is a different string. You get beat notes and everything... just visually. This is also something that can only be done on a vector monitor in some ways because on a Raster Monitor, you don't have the luxury of being able to draw graphics over the top of each other at the same time.
I have only looked at the effect in MAME so far, and it looks pretty cool. Once we get it on a real vector monitor, Im hoping it still looks as cool. 👍
Anyway, here is a video clip... tell me what you think....
TRIVIA: There is something new in here besides the logo... do you see it?
That sorta happened with the Attract mode for sure. Back in 1997 when I released the 'Return to VAXXX' ROM hack. I did a reverse zoom effect of the text coming in under the logo.. sorta like a rubber stamp effect. I was going to do the same thing and then I got inspired by my Robotron 2084 machine which was programmed by Eugene Jarvis (software architecture by Larry DeMar). I always loved Robotron for many reasons, but the crazy color cycling effects were used in such a hypnotic way... they were fantastic.
TANGENT: When I was a kid growing up in State College, PA. We had several great arcades, but in reference to Robotron, my best memory was at an arcade called Campus Casino. Campus Casino, was wall to wall carpet and was a giant room approximately 40'x120' so it was huge. Pool tables in the back and rows of alternating pinball machine and video game islands coming out from the walls in symmetric patterns. In the middle of it all was the 6 foot high cylindrical change desk (which was also covered in carpet). You had to reach up to this guy up there, give him your cash and he would unload his quarters on you. Of course, this was the 70's so there was so much cigarette smoke, that you could only see the vending machine in the back behind the pool tables by their diffuse glow. This is the arcade where the Robotron masters would play and the volume for Robotron specifically was cranked... high. This was the place to go if you want to show your chops on Robotron. Good stuff... pretty sure Campus Casino is like a women's clothing store now... Sigh.
I started thinking about stuff I could do on Major Havoc: The Promised End (MHTPE). On the Atari hardware for MHTPE, the video system had a few tricks in the design. The first was a basic 'flash' color where the lines cycled through all the colors in the palette quickly (very similar to Williams). The 'flash'color was global in that any object that used this 'special' color would be drawn the same color at any one time, however it's colors were changing sorta constantly and giving it a pulsing glow. Then there is the 'Sparkle' effect. In comparison, the SPARKLE changes colors along the line, sorta like it is all flecky and then within the line, some specific colors cycle, so it gives the line a shimmery effect in a different way.
For the attract mode on MHTPE, I basically combined both of these effects on top of each other along with some fade-in/fade-out cycling to make a 3 layer burrito of color effects. Because the timing is offset, you end up getting a fairly diverse set of effects which take a very long time to repeat fully and they interact sort of like harmonics of guitar strings, where each effect is a different string. You get beat notes and everything... just visually. This is also something that can only be done on a vector monitor in some ways because on a Raster Monitor, you don't have the luxury of being able to draw graphics over the top of each other at the same time.
I have only looked at the effect in MAME so far, and it looks pretty cool. Once we get it on a real vector monitor, Im hoping it still looks as cool. 👍
Anyway, here is a video clip... tell me what you think....
TRIVIA: There is something new in here besides the logo... do you see it?
I was MUCH younger when I wrote that code. Not my best effort, but happy to answer questions.
ReplyDeleteOpps, ended too early. Good to see MAX appear! :-)
DeleteI like the pulsing colors. Do know that it was a CHEAP animation trick in the day. We often used that to make things move without really moving them.