RE: Tempest/Vector Breakout (was Tempest Multigame)

> Add one more vote to the "jump to the default on power-up" camp. Also,
> what
> do you mean by "closing the test switch on power-up" ? Do you mean
> that
> instead of going into test mode the menu would display? How would you
> then
> go into test mode?
>
Right-- so the problem with having the machine boot to the "default"
game immediately is how do you get to the menu to change games? I need
some kind of input to tell me that we no longer want to auto-boot the
game and instead run the menu. I originally though of just holding down
"fire" and hitting the menu button, but for those that don't have a menu
button it could be tricky to hold down fire and turn on the machine.
Since the "test mode" switch stays closed it seems like a good candidate
for an input. (Actually, I guess I could have it work with both "fire"
and/or the "test" input. That would let me use P1+P2+Fire as the
Pc-esque "three finger salute" to call the menu. ;-)

If the test-mode switch remains closed when the game starts, it'll go
into that game's test mode. VBreakout probably won't have a test mode,
and Vortex and Aliens have only partly completed test code-- so you
don't want to run self-test in them. (if you do, you need to recover
the machine by turning the power off and on)

> >Right now it just takes coins and gives one credit per coin. I could
> >have it follow the actual "bonus" coin credit stuff like Tempest did,
> >but it seemed like a lot of extra work for something maybe one person
> >ever would ever notice. ;-)
>
        [...]

> As for "Free Play" mode, I know you aren't a big fan of it, but it
> keeps
> little hands out of the coin mechs. I really hope you get this
> working.
>
It's a no-brainer to code up. I just needed to find the @!#$!@#$
dipswitch to read the settings. (Thanks DaveF!) Turned out I was only
looking at "sheet three" of the schematics-- some kind of brain-fart on
my part... Oh, well...

I don't have anything against free-play modes from a conceptual
standpoint-- my beef is that some games treat free-play the same as if
coins have dropped. In some games that means the display just sits at a
screen saying "press start" and the demo mode/title screen/etc.
disappear forever.

[...VBreakout difficulty...]

> I think the one-size-fits-all approach is more than acceptable. Just
> make
> the game get progressively harder as play continues.
>
Yep, I think that's the plan at this point.

> It is amazing that you've done any of this in the first place. No
> matter
> what you do you can be sure that everyone here truly appreciates it!
>
Thanks-- just continuing my tradition of not allowing anything
electronic the house to escape the tell-tale scars of my tampering with
it. (I'm getting "better" in my old age though-- I actually waited
until *after* the cable-guy left before I took apart my new cable-modem
this morning... ;-)

FYI, the Tempest Multigame circuit boards are finished and I verfied
that they're good. (Heh-heh, works better if you solder all the pins on
the EPROM... ;-) It'll take a while to get stuff built up, so I'll just
wrap up the menu system and get sound into Breakout. I should be
shipping pretty much on schedule-- probably starting next week.

Remember-- I've got a cut-off on the pre-order pricing for next Monday!
(Looks like about half of you that expressed interest have sent in
orders so-far.)

-Clay
Received on Wed May 26 16:09:21 1999