I have had a couple busy months (not on the programming front). I have made some minor code adjustments here and there but no significant game developments. I am still working on implementing the stage change code, with the lightning and rain, so that once I have that solidified making the snow stage should be easier.
Over the last couple months Bag Boy! was featured on Zero Page Homebrew channel where they played the game in essentially a God mode, where they got the general feel for what was going on. One suggestion someone had made on their channel was to make the top customer the manager yelling at Bag Boy Q-Bert style. I loved this for multiple reasons, one being it easier to identify the sprite in my code and typing so instead of referring to "Customer 1" and "Customer 2" or whatever, I can refer to one of the sprites as a "Manager." The other reason was for aesthetics and visual variation. It is a simple way to add something to the game without really adding something to the game. I also thought it is a nice callback to the classics.
I spent a couple days trying to develop some sprites and code for the talk bubble but after some thought and simplification, I worked it into the power-up code since I had intended to have the power-ups appear less frequently. I didn't quite like the appearance since I had to place the bubble several pixels above the Manager to avoid flicker. I do not want any prolonged flicker in the game other then the periodic flicker from the shopping cart crossing the path of a car. I had also planned on programming the sprite to be activated only when the symbol would be over one of the letters that spell "GROCERY" since it would stand out since the sprite was single color, with the symbol being clear.
Then today I was playing Q-Bert on my Flashback Portable and noticed the way the speech was implemented in the game. While I was thinking more along the lines of the arcade game with the speech bubble, the Atari port had the symbols just off to the side of Q-Bert.
A quick rewrite of some code got me this:
So while this little bit of code was a slight detour, I am quite pleased with the outcome.
I will probably mess with the configuration of the symbols. I have so far settled on this:
I had thought that having them bunched up a little closer with the pound symbol on top made it more readable. Saved 400 bytes doing it this way. Adding the cursing added virtually nothing to the original code.
Over the last couple months Bag Boy! was featured on Zero Page Homebrew channel where they played the game in essentially a God mode, where they got the general feel for what was going on. One suggestion someone had made on their channel was to make the top customer the manager yelling at Bag Boy Q-Bert style. I loved this for multiple reasons, one being it easier to identify the sprite in my code and typing so instead of referring to "Customer 1" and "Customer 2" or whatever, I can refer to one of the sprites as a "Manager." The other reason was for aesthetics and visual variation. It is a simple way to add something to the game without really adding something to the game. I also thought it is a nice callback to the classics.
I spent a couple days trying to develop some sprites and code for the talk bubble but after some thought and simplification, I worked it into the power-up code since I had intended to have the power-ups appear less frequently. I didn't quite like the appearance since I had to place the bubble several pixels above the Manager to avoid flicker. I do not want any prolonged flicker in the game other then the periodic flicker from the shopping cart crossing the path of a car. I had also planned on programming the sprite to be activated only when the symbol would be over one of the letters that spell "GROCERY" since it would stand out since the sprite was single color, with the symbol being clear.
Then today I was playing Q-Bert on my Flashback Portable and noticed the way the speech was implemented in the game. While I was thinking more along the lines of the arcade game with the speech bubble, the Atari port had the symbols just off to the side of Q-Bert.
A quick rewrite of some code got me this:
So while this little bit of code was a slight detour, I am quite pleased with the outcome.
I will probably mess with the configuration of the symbols. I have so far settled on this:
I had thought that having them bunched up a little closer with the pound symbol on top made it more readable. Saved 400 bytes doing it this way. Adding the cursing added virtually nothing to the original code.
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