Pinball Molly

[PhilOfPerth]

New opening act for Pinball Molly v1-3!

Brilliant opening effect!

Some places where ball gets "locked" into bouncing  between two buffers are a bit repetitive, and  the flippers could maybe be a bit quicker, but a very nice game!

I score you an A+, bplus!  

[bplus]

Hi @PhilOfPerth Thank you for your feedback!

Yeah repetitive bounces even after I fixed Kickers with see: ba = line

Code: (Select All)

' collision Kickers
    For i = 0 To 2
        If _Hypot(by - k(i).y, bx - k(i).x) <= k(i).r + br Then ' left kick
            FC3 k(i).x, k(i).y, k(i).r + 15, &HFFFFFFFF
            _SndPlay bell
            score = score + 100
            ba = _Atan2(by - k(i).y, bx - k(i).x) + Rnd - .5 ' avoid infinite loops
            bx = k(i).x + (br + k(i).r) * Cos(ba)
            by = k(i).y + (br + k(i).r) * Sin(ba)
            bs = bs * 1.3
            bdx = bs * Cos(ba): bdy = bs * Sin(ba)
        End If
    Next

Rnd -.5 gives us a range of -.5 to .5 that's radians, in degrees that's close to 30 degrees, oh I thought it closer to 60, hmmm.

So without that line in there you'd still be testing the first game! You'd have a hell of a score

The faster the flippers move up and ball drains downs, the more likely the ball jumps past contact with a flipper and hits bottom.

Have your noticed, sometimes the ball is past the flipper but will bounce back into play because it is not down the center enough to detect it near screen height, meanwhile the code that keeps ball inside the circle background takes effect and bounces ball back.

Pinball is tricky coding challenge

I don't think it's been done before in Basic? except by Rod at JB & LB but he didn't use flippers? I am sure it's been attempted but flippers are difficult.

[bplus]

Recalculate randomness added to Kickers: -.5 to .5 = range of 1 Radian. 1/3.14 ~ 1/6 of circle or 60 degrees. That is enough randomness to the kicker!

OK I tweaked allot of stuff based on my own and Phil's feedback.

#1 I cut off the bottom of screen by 20 pixels but left circle radius and positioning alone except for flipper bases raised by 20 pixels and then tips of flippers raised when down.
This eliminates potential bounce back into play a drained ball.

#2 Replay game now by InsertQuarter routine that now Frees images when complete. So that is improved and more portable.

#3 Cooled down Kicker action and sped up flippers.

I think the play is still good if not better. The ball is more likely to pass through a flipper tip but needs more testing.

Feedback is very helpful and I need ideas for Christmas Themed Pinball Game.

Pinball Molly v1-4 with assets

  Pinball Molly v1-4.zip (Size: 649.22 KB / Downloads: 18)
Update: all better now

[bplus]

OK download copy tested and v1-4 looks good. So far no balls dropping through the flipper! yea!

So flipper action makes a difference, 5 balls will drain fairly quick with 0 flipper action:
   

But WOW! whole new High Score from v1-4 !!!
   

Beat that!

[SierraKen]

This time I got 30,700 on a full game.  

For the Christmas one, I suggest a black board with a ball a bit brighter than these. The bumpers could be Christmas Tree bulb decorations that flash on and off when they are hit. The different colored lights will be enhanced with the black board background. I would add lots of Christmas sounds too. When the game is over you can have a hilarious sound effect like, "The dogs ate the Christmas Dinner, time to go out to eat." I would also make the bumpers and anything else the ball hits, much, much smaller than Molly's. That way you can add a bunch more stuff on the screen. Classic pinball machines have those popups that pop down when hit and give a score. They also have the rails where if the ball goes into a certain area, the ball goes up across the board on 2 or 3 rails and comes down somewhere else. Plus there's the way you can pull back the pin and let go of the button and the pin shoots the ball onto the board to start the game. Plus the board can have a bunch of flashing lights. Oh and a High Score. Oh and if you want something really wild, you can make the whole board like a Christmas Tree and hit decorations off of it. LOL You can use any of these ideas or none.

[bplus]

Nice, thankyou Ken.

Oh yeah the ball plunger, maybe put that over to right side, a power bar like I use in pool.

Everything smaller, fit more stuff! Sounds good too. Come to think, more stuff would fit if square off corners.