Project 8: Atari 2600 Game
Jennifer Whitlow
Chris Occhipinti
Chris Henderson
Progress Report Tuesday, November 29, 2005:
Today our group made good progress on the Atari 2600 project. After class, we all three met to discuss our roles within in the group, a schedule to meet to work on the project, and a design for our game. We decided that the roles would be as follows: Jennifer-Producer, Chris H.-Designer, and Chris O.-Programmer. We originally decided to Monday through Thursday from 3 until 4 or 4:30. I am sure this will change daily due to unexpected conflicts and work for other classes.
Our design for our game consists of two player sprites that each have missiles. We are going to duplicate the player sprite so that we can use the second sprite for the center missile. Each player is bound to his side of the playing field and can move within that boundary. In between the two sides of the playing field is a missile sprite that is shooting missiles at random intervals at each of the players. The object of the game is to shoot at the other player without being hit by the center missile or the other player. After a given amount of time the game will move to a new level. In each level, the sprite in the center begins to shoot more missiles more often. When one player gets hit, the other player gets a point and the game goes back to an earlier level in the game.
Progress Report Wednesday, November 30, 2005:
Today our group met to begin programming and working with the code. Chris O. set up the first sprite and gave him the ability to move with the joystick. We duplicated the first player sprite to make the second player sprite. When we added code to make him move with the joystick, both players moved together and could not be controlled separately. So, we sent Ian and email in hopes that maybe he could help us figure out how to make both players move independently. For the purpose of getting our code to compile for the initial demo in class on Thursday, we took away player 2's movement and let only player 1 move. We were able to compile the code that we had written and prepared to demo that code in class. After being able to compile our code, we saved it and began to experiment with Batari to see what was possible. We figured out how to change the color of the playing field and the sprites. Chris O. figured out how to allow the user to select the color of the background he/she wished to play on. We also learned how to work with the score and timer.
We had trouble deciding on a name for our game because the boys wanted a really cool name. So, we used a thesaurus to find synonyms for the word elimination. There were some very interesting names. However, in the end we decided to name the game Elimination. We plan to meet for this project again on Monday due to another big project due on Friday and a paper due Thursday.
Progress Report Monday, December 5, 2005:
Chris O. and Chris H. met today to work on the project and figure out the problems with the second player. Jennifer was unable to meet because she was sick. Today's meeting was very productive and a lot was accomplished. Chris and Chris added Elimination into the background of the play field. Both players can move and shoot missiles at each other. They figured out how to make each player's score increase by one point when the other player has been hit by a missile. This meeting was very successful due to the large amount of progress made on the project. All the code was able to compile and be run in Stella.
The current schedule for our meeting times for the remainder of the project is Wednesday afternoon and Thursday afternoon. We hope to have the code finished by Wednesday, so that Thursday and Friday can be used for play testing and creating the website for the project.
Progress Report Tuesday, December 6, 2005:
After talking to Ian in class, we discovered that we could not have two player sprites and a center sprite. So, we changed our idea so that instead of a center sprite, there is now a ball that just bounces around the screen and gets bigger after hitting a player a certain amount of times. So the players must avoid the other players missile and the center ball. It is almost like an Atari version of dodgeball.
We changed the name from Elimination to Eliminator. This decision was made because we decided to have Eliminator appear on the opening game screen. The opening game screen changes colors and show Eliminator across the play field. When the user presses F2, the game begins and the color of the play field is the same color that was on the opening screen when the player pressed F2.
There is sound that plays along with the game, but it currently is just an annoying sound. We are in the process of fixing that problem, so that the sound actually sounds decent.
After class, we added the center ball and just set it to move on a specific pattern in four directions: NE, NW, SE, SW. Whenever the ball hits a player it resets in the center of the screen and changes direction. After it hits a player 3 times, the ball gets larger.
Progress Report Thursday, December 8, 2005:
We presented our project in class today and received feedback from Ian and the other students. Everyone enjoyed the game, and we realized the game is quite addicting. We received suggestions of making each player's boundaries smaller, and continue to make them smaller as the game goes on.
Before the presentation, we got the ball to bounce in a more random pattern. However, there are some problems with the ball's movement. There is a glitch sometimes when it hits the boundaries on the two sides of the playing field. It just sort of flickers. These issues were fixed after class on Thursday afternoon. The boundaries are set and more apparent for each player. Also, the ball bounces off of the boundaries and does not flicker.
Friday, we will meet as a group to make the webpage and perform additional play tests. We will also fix any errors or glitches in the program.
Progress Report Friday, December 9, 2005:
Today, we created the website for the game. The website contains all of the progress reports and the code. We also increased the speed of the center ball and of the player missiles. We added borders to the edges of the screen and made it to where each time one of the players score equals 3, the walls enclose. We increased the initial size of the center ball so that it is easier to see.
We performed play tests to make sure that everything ran correctly and that the game was interesting. In our opinion, we feel that this game is quite addicting and very entertaining. We hope that you enjoy playing it!