Clowns

HudsonArcade

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So... what can be changed that would make the game more interesting?

Code:
mspaeth@E6440 /cygdrive/c/games/mame/roms/clowns
$ tasm -80 -b clowns_z80.asm
TASM Z80 Assembler.       Version 3.2.1 October, 2012.
 Copyright (C) 2012 Squak Valley Software
tasm: pass 1 complete.
tasm: pass 2 complete.
tasm: Number of errors = 0

mspaeth@E6440 /cygdrive/c/games/mame/roms/clowns
$ diff clowns.bin clowns_z80.obj

mspaeth@E6440 /cygdrive/c/games/mame/roms/clowns
$

Hardly any empty space in the ROMs, but we can add another.
 
I just did an initial push up to github.

The code is pretty well formatted and cleaned up, but it's a monolithic block at this point, and the labels are meaningless hex, so it's not very readable.

Like some of the other early 8080 games, this uses a crude pseudo-code interpreter (maybe originally FORTH, like the astrocade games?) for a lot of the program sequencing, with 16 operators, but all the real heavy lifting is done in asm.
 
What about Arkanoid style upgrades that drop from popped balloons?

catching them anywhere on your see-saw could:
- increase the see saw size
- slow the speed of falling man
- makes the man/men bigger so the can touch more balloons on each jump
- spawn another man or 2 (losing all but one keeps the game going)
- makes the balloons move left/right faster
 
Absolutely love the idea of Ark style dropped bonuses!
 
You're really overestimating the capabilities of Midway 8080 hardware -- the RAM is pretty limited.

Changing balloon speeds / direction is a possibility.
Changing the horizontal / vertical speed calculations wouldn't be too hard.

Changing the see-saw size would require having different sets of gfx, as well as redoing the angle calculations.
 
Would adding another ball (man) or two be pretty difficult?

Yeah, most of the Akka style upgrades aren't going to be possible with that spare sliver of spare space, but any upgrade at all would be awesome for sure.
 
The only thing I'd change about Clowns is making it so P1 is on the left.
 
So... what can be changed that would make the game more interesting?

Code:
mspaeth@E6440 /cygdrive/c/games/mame/roms/clowns
$ tasm -80 -b clowns_z80.asm
TASM Z80 Assembler.       Version 3.2.1 October, 2012.
 Copyright (C) 2012 Squak Valley Software
tasm: pass 1 complete.
tasm: pass 2 complete.
tasm: Number of errors = 0

mspaeth@E6440 /cygdrive/c/games/mame/roms/clowns
$ diff clowns.bin clowns_z80.obj

mspaeth@E6440 /cygdrive/c/games/mame/roms/clowns
$

Hardly any empty space in the ROMs, but we can add another.
There's a clone called Nyankoro that adds a large singular target that swings by when a row is cleared.

Maybe some extra static targets that blip into existence when a full board is cleared, similar to Cutie Q.

If a player is playing one man for a long long period of time, maybe some balloons can start appearing at lower levels to catch the player off guard. Like the random ducks that appear in Carnival if you waste too much time on a level.
 
Last edited:
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