[Jayenkai]

The original gained a wee bit of a following here, so here's the semi-sequel..
actually, Tetripong was "the sequel", so.. um.. this is .. um..   ... 
Meh, it's a game, whatever!

Centipong 2 : Gentler, Calmer, Crazier

Featuring
Paddles
Balls
and Pods!

and all made with BlitzMax, using Jay's BlitzMax Framework, operating at up to around 75% of it's possibilities!  It's getting there, slowly but surely!

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/Ia7ap-FxDSk&amp;ap=%2526fmt%3D18&amp;rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/Ia7ap-FxDSk&amp;ap=%2526fmt%3D18&amp;rel=0</a>

Windows
Linux (Compiled under Ubuntu 9.10)

Any issues, let me know.
Ta muchly!

[Cymon]

Wow, I... don't know what to say. You know I love you but... I may just go back and play the original.

I mean, good job on the techincal backed and all, I know that'll help you in the future, but it just doesn't have the punchyness of the original. Seems like a step backwards actually. The glow isn't as genuine (I guess because it couldn't be generated the same way) the graphics seem too sharp, and their's no additional powerups from last time.

I don't know if you can find the old thread, but I had some suggestions for powerups last time. Here's a few that came to mind this time:

• A fan to blow pods back up, kind of a vertical anti-gravity field that is stronger/weaker depending on proximity to the paddle
• Lasers, an Arkanoid staple.
• Bigger paddle, see Lasers.
• Smaller paddle, see Bigger paddel and Lasers.
• Add the mushroom spawning monsters from centipede. And did the spider spawn mushrooms too or was he just to annoy the player. Still, bouncing your ball off that suddenly could be frustrating.

Here's another thought: If you have to change the graphics for technical reasons go whole hog. Full color sprites, backgrounds whatever. Make it look like a SNes remake (like everything else done in gamemaker... you are using gamemaker now, right?)

[Jayenkai]

Gamemaker!!?

BlitzMax..

I know I should have this highlighted somewhere, but I kinda rushed things last minute and forgot to pop it in.. Hold the right mouse button!  That'll be the net..

But you're right.  This is in MANY ways, not quite as good.
There's many reasons, but mostly it's a case of getting halfway through, then realising I'd pretty much done it all before.  There was nothing "!!NEW!!" I could add, and I kinda fell out with the game in general..
So, yeah, it's not really all there..

The only reason I forced myself to finish this is pretty much the same as Munky Train 2, a few weeks ago.
This is still me testing out my new engine (as, in fact, was the original Centipong)
I'm throwing a great big pile of quite-large sprites around.  There's particles being seperately counted, and the glows are also in their own little counted layer.  And then there's all those little numbers all over the place, too!

The engine should be keeping track of things, removing whatever's unnecessary, and hopefully allowing the framerate to keep up.
It's my test, and with great big (for me!) 128x128 alpha transparent scaled and rotated sprites, all being imagecollided and checking against each other constantly, it's the type of test that I think was really needed.

.. Better than a "here is some pitchures!" styled test engine, anyway!!

I trust that Mark did a good job with BlitzMax.  ..  But I like to be sure of these things!

[Tam Toucan]

Yeah it doesn't rock like the first one, I think it's the way it's either too calm or too manic. Probably the hardest thing to do in a game, that ethereal feeling, and with having done this so many times now I'm impressed you found the motivation. Looking forward to the next one, as always!

Do you have plans for your framework? Are you going to release it for others?

[Jayenkai]

I'm going to shove the source on my site when I'm done, but you should all know I'm a very very set-in-my-ways old-skool coder, so..  ..  you know.. be warned

Surprisingly this game's taught me that there's even MORE stuff to add into the framework.  These things are never quite done, are they!

It'll be done soon, hopefully!

[d3v14n7]

Grabbed this.
Centipong is one of my favourite games on my phone.
Cheers.