Asteroids - asteroids(JM_07-13-08)

[JoyMonkey]

Very much a work in progress as I get to grips with how the themes work. The video overlay is a rip-off of Dazz's Robotron one. I'm still not 100% happy with how the asteroid particles move.

I also tried to get the classic Asteroids "dip....dip...." sound to play in the background by making it a looping SWF and putting it in artwork4, but it's got issues (the sound keep looping when you scroll to another game and HyperSpin locks up when you try to escape out of the game menu with Asteroids selected).

To do: Add a rotating ship that fly's in now and then. Add one of those evil saucers that fire randomly in all directions.

[Dazz]

It has a classic look to it. I like.

Are you using an animation for the asteroids or are you using them as a particle effect? I think a particle effect would probably work better for their movement. I don't think any of the default animations will really do them justice.

For the sound, you can add Background music... What you might want to do is see if there is an .mp3 of Asteroids sounds and simply place it in the Background Music folder with the same name as the rom name. I don't know if mp3 background music loops or not though... so if the mp3 is short it might stop after one play.

[JoyMonkey]

They're rotating particles right now, they drop down from the top similar to the DrMario particles and rotate around a little. Is there an explanation of the particle options anywhere?
Also, all my asteroid shapes are identical (it's a teeny SWF less than 1kb). How did you manage to get different invadies to display in Space Invaders?

[Dazz]

There really isn't a good explanation of the particle options, but Bill posted this one site that had a GUI that you could test with and get the code for your particle. This is what I used for my particle effects, but I can't seem to find that site right now. Hopefully Bill will chime in here and post the link again to the particle GUI.

I completely forgot how I did the invaders... I think each invader is in it's own frame in flash. I'll need to open the file and remember how I did it.

[BadBoyBill]

First off great theme!

A particle system might not be the best choice for this theme because only two things could happen.

1. The emitter is off the screen on one side so it will only look like the particles come from one side of the screen.
2. The emitter is centered and made the size of the screen, but then it will seem like asteroids are just poping up from anywhere on the screen.

I think a normal swf would be good for this part, just have some crazy guides all over the screen and make the asteroids follow them , maybe a longer movie to give a random appeal. I can make it for you if you like. Should only take a couple of minutes.

As for the random particles, this is a pretty neat feature. You make a swf file with a different picture on each frame, use as many pictures as you like. Set random frame in the xml for particles to true. Then the emitter will just poop out pictures from different frames. And even each frame can be its own movie and not just a picture so thats how you have random animated aliens.

One thing is I would like to see the logo for the theme much bigger, but it does look good either way I'm sure.

You can use this site to play with particles and get settings.
http://rogue-development.com/pulse/explorer/Particlr.swf

[RetroBorg]

I like it! Nice work there JoyMonkey. :D

[JoyMonkey]

Thanks for the comments and tips. I think I'm starting to get the hang of things.

I've got an SWF file with a different asteroid shape on each frame and that working great; I've got them all emmiting at random angles from the center of the video.

My other main problem is sound; the SWF with the looping sound that I've got keeps playing after you move from Asteroids on the wheel. I tried setting it to just Repeat a few times in Flash, but the same thing happens. Is there a way to get the swf to stop in HyperSpin, or am I doing something wrong exporting from Flash?
Or did I just uncover a HyperSpin bug here?

[brian_hoffman]

Looking good!

[Dazz]

Thanks for the comments and tips. I think I'm starting to get the hang of things.

I've got an SWF file with a different asteroid shape on each frame and that working great; I've got them all emmiting at random angles from the center of the video.

My other main problem is sound; the SWF with the looping sound that I've got keeps playing after you move from Asteroids on the wheel. I tried setting it to just Repeat a few times in Flash, but the same thing happens. Is there a way to get the swf to stop in HyperSpin, or am I doing something wrong exporting from Flash?
Or did I just uncover a HyperSpin bug here?Here, try this file (http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/downloads/asteroids.mp3) <-- right click, save as. I just edited an mp3 that I had of Asteroids in Soundbooth. It was only a couple seconds long, but I turned it into 2 minutes long. Just place this file into HyperSpin\Media\MAME\Sound\Background Music and it should be close to what you were trying to achieve.

[JoyMonkey]

Thanks for the idea, but I think I found another solution.
I'm trying to keep my filesizes as small as possible, so instead of using a 2mb mp3 like that, I made a 1 second long looping wav and brought it into flash; I made an swf that runs at 1 fps and put the wav on each frame, saved the swf in the background folder and presto - a 3kb looping 'da da da'!
I'm fairly happy with the theme now (though I think I still need to introduce a saucer that fly's in every now and then), so I'll upload this version to the downloads section in a minute...

[Dazz]

Yeah, I think your idea sounds better than mine... The mp3 isn't as clear as what you used.

[BadBoyBill]

Hmm.. this theme isnt working for me, theres only an artwork2, but no flying asteroids at all. Can someone double check the download? I moved it to the user themes section for now until we hand you the HT badge. Just wanna check out some of your themes first and see if any adjustments are needed.

EDIT: Ok NM, I was using a build without the particle support, alright I like the use of the particle system of having the asteroids come out from behind the video.
Having the video hide the emitter area was a great idea.

I edited the settings slightly in my download and like this effect, you had the width and height at 1.5 each , I changed the width and height of the emitter
box to give it a more random effect rather than every asteroid coming from the same exact point and angle. Also when I did that I had to move the box to
a location closer to the video. Try these if you get a chance.

x = "200"
y = "200"
width = "200"
height = "200"

200, 200 is relative to artwork1's location so I brought it in some. Great theme.

[JoyMonkey]

That does look better, thanks!

When you exit out of the MAME menu with Asteroids selected, does the 'da da da' sound continue for you? I just noticed this again. I thought I had that licked with my magic swf background file, but I guess not :(

[BadBoyBill]

You found a bug!, I'll get on that thanks.

[JoyMonkey]

The lower section of the screen was looking a little barren, so I put together a control panel graphic (using the vector CPO from Localarcade and some button photos from Google Image Search). It'll probably be a while before I get comfortable enough with Flash to add the evil saucer, so I'm calling this done.


(for now) :D

[BadBoyBill]

I fixed the bug you found, will be in the next release.

[Circo]

Please add this video to the asteroids theme download :)

By request www.emumovies/hyperspin/asteroid.flv

Done at a higher res to look better in theme

[Circo]

After playing with it, this would look MUCH better as a full screen video instead of a preview window, loses detail when shrunk up. Anyone else agree?

[paulstevens]

I agree with Circo that this theme might work better with the video as the background.

Don't get me wrong, the theme is nice!!! But the problem is with the attract video. Vector games or other games with thin single pixel lines are gonna get messed up when shrunk and in particular when rotated. If the video was not rotated, then the lines might look better. My opinion of course.

Is there a way to turn off the background noise? Not all themes need them!

[paulstevens]

The sound is embedded in the asteroid.swf file in the background directory.

To turn it off, I renamed the file, but now I get the "No Image Found" in the background.

BBB you might want to either have a hook in the code to allow for .SWF files sounds to be turned off / adjusted, or you might want to implement some sort of rule for themes suggesting not to do certain things that might not be controllable thru HS.

I suppose I could create my own theme if I don't like something, but I can see lots of creative use of sounds where I'm just an old school dude who doesnt want background sound other than that provided in the original game.

Yeah old fart here.

[BadBoyBill]

Not sure if thats feasable at the moment, the theme would have to be created without the sound effects for now, I'll look into it.

[eddie1984]

Sorry to Hi-jack, same game different subject, does anyone know why X-Arcade joy won't control this game?

[SORHP]

Eddie, you have to press tab and change the controls in mame to your joystick and buttons, (press tab while you are in the game)

[eddie1984]

Cheers SORHP - I'll give it a go tonight. I have already set the controls in MAME though and all other games work apart from actuated games like Pole Position that originally had a steering wheel. Is this the same thing?

[Secret80'sMan]

Also remember to mirror the original left, right, thrust, fire button layout as closely as possible. Using a joystick for this game is cheating. ;-)

[eddie1984]

SORHP - Worked a treat cheers :-)

Secret80'sman - I just changed the Button1&2 to operate from the stick, thrust and fire are the same as they were. I guess I am too young to remember this game properly (33), I only ever played it with a joystick :-(

I'm learning more and more each day :-)