Re: Bill Budge & pinball

[aa382@Freenet.carleton.ca (Marc Sira)]

In a previous article, s924105@yallara.cs.rmit.OZ.AU (Cameron Silver) says:

>These ideas are all very nice. Id love to see a realistic PCS for the GS. I am
>sceptical however that it can be pulled off. The physical playfield wouldn't be
>to hard to design, the GS is definatle capable enought; the area were it falls
>apart (IMHO) is software. Pinball machines of today are extremely complex when
>it come to software. Switches in certain parts of the playfield activate certain
>parts of the program, complex timeing is also involved. I'm not saying that it
>can't be done, or even not to try, I think we should go for it!

Um, I think you overestimate the complexity of the software. They _are_ complex,
certainly, but I think a lot of them run on 6502's (yep). That may exclude the
newer games with evil video-modes; video-modes should be stepped on crunchily
in any event.

The timing is scarcely more complex than something like the MOD players
available, or that cool effect in DuelTris where you send blocks at your
opponent. ;)

If anything would be taxing, it would be providing a "realistic" enough
simulation of a pinball bopping around inside a machine. You'd probably
want it to simulate the physics involved at a resolution a bit higher than
what's actually displayed on the screen, for instance. I still don't imagine
it would particularly tax the machine (though I'll readily cede to any 65816
programmers waiting to pounce on this thread)...the thing would be to have
really slick graphics and (especially IMO) sound. 
-- 
Marc Sira                  |
aa382@freenet.carleton.ca  |  "Your god drinks...p-p-peach nectar."
toh@micor.ocunix.on.ca     '