Another improvement is that both players now get to see both the planet and the sun
This wasn’t easy to add for player 2, as the accuracy of matrix maths at big distances is a challenge in 6502
But they’re an important part of the immersion, and those mode 1 suns are just so darn pretty…
(4/6)
I’ve been beavering away at two-player #BBCMicro Elite
These videos show the most recent improvements: laser beams, hit counters, two-player dashboard, planets, suns and more accuracy
It’s quite difficult to film!
See the thread for a tour of what’s new…
(1/6)
#retrocomputing #retrogaming #8bit
My next task is to apply the game’s enemy AI routines to player 2, as it’s really difficult to demonstrate or test two-player Elite with just one pair of hands
Then I can add missiles, game configuration, a game over screen and Delta 14B support, and we’re pretty much there
It’s going well!
(6/6)
And finally, the game is now noticeably more accurate
I originally used the game’s 8x24-bit dot-product routine to calculate ship positions, but that only uses half of each 16-bit orientation vector
I’ve now built a 16x24-bit routine, and it’s a fair bit smoother
Slowly getting better!
(5/6)
The headline feature is that two-player Elite now has frickin’ laser beams
And there’s a hit counter too
So dogfights can either be “last one standing” or “first to 100 hits” (say)
And the laser types are configurable - military lasers really make that hit counter go brrrr
Game on!
(2/6)
The two-player dashboard is now wired up to show each player’s status
Each compass points to the other player, so you can track down a faraway opponent
The scanner is shared using different colours for each player - it works well
The only part that doesn’t work (yet) is the missile counter
(3/6)
