RE: New Vector Games

> IF you can link 2 cabs together, I'd like to see some flavor of
> X-pilot
> run on there.
>
X-pilot good. X-tank better! ;-)

> BTW, forget any shared memory scheme, go serial.
>
I was going to say the same thing, but without CAN. A lowly 9600bps
serial link can shove about 16 bytes per frame at 60Hz, or just update
data at 30Hz (still plenty fast) for 32 bytes per update. If you want
one machine to be "server" and shove the position data for all shapes
every frame that still gives you 8 objects (2-byte position info)
without doing anything sneaky.

You can always just transmit the control status (buttons) and let each
game run calculations locally too. Lower bandwidth. Probably easier to
write too. (Serial routine data gets parsed and plugged into the button
status variables.) A couple stored AT commands let you do modem play
easily with plain serial too... ;-)

> Oh, allow team play by using the linked ships from Space Duel in a
> networked game - in the scrolling caverns of course :-) And what ever
> you
> do don't put in anything that resembles a "plus sign" that can kill
> you.
>
Hmmm. I'm sure Mike Balfour or someone could add serial support to MAME
so you could go multi-player against PC-owners too. ;-)

-Clay
Received on Thu Dec 17 18:22:36 1998