Trigger Happy : Videogames and the Entertainment Revolution
Videogames first came on the market thirty years ago as a marginal technological
curiosity. Now they are virtually everywhere. Videogame sales have equaled
movie sales. They are played by more adults than children, and game design
can even be studied in college. Yet videogames are still often viewed as
a minor form of entertainment, at best shallow, or at worst harmful.
Click on the book to find out more, and order.
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After the usual introduction, counting through the Jaguar years, almost,
but not exactly the the same boring title screen appears. "Is it time for
a new title?"
Bad / Ball 4? Yes, this binary includes a game, not a very big one,
but at least it is original, and free, and it's just a beginning, although
I am not promising anything. The game is for 1 player versus Jaguar, or for
2 players. It supports the Team-Tap unit, useful to BJL/JagOS users for team
play. |
The title screen isn't anything new, (except there are more background objects)
but "Go Play Ball" is new, to start a game.
The other way to generate a menu is to allow the user to move up and
down the menu with the joypad, and to indicate which menu item is selected
by highlighting it. I prefer this though as it means more movement on the
menu screen. I will code one of the other kinds of menus for a future demo.
They're just as easy really. |
The options screen offers real options now we have a game to play. The Tramiel'd
or Mintered colour scheme option lives on, but you can now choose to use
a Teamtap or not, and choose to play against the Jaguar or another human.
BJL users may wish to use a Team-Tap to avoid having to remote the BJL lead
to play 2-player.
There is another tiny Easter Egg on this screen if you have a
play with the options and other buttons. It's just a tribute egg. |
As usual there are two options from the main menu, which lead to text screens
giving more details of what has been done in the demo, some details of how
it came about, and some technical details. The general information is under
"Introduction" and the more technical detail in "Coding".
The background object bounces around to make it more interesting, and
is dimmed a bit in order to make the foreground text more easily readable
than it was before. |
The game is simple, and boring at first, but it soon gets more interesting.
Just hit the ball when it is your colour, it changes every time you
hit it.. The person who keeps their balls longest, or the first person to
reach 1000 points, is the winner. Oh, yes, once you reach a number of
collective score levels the ball get faster, and then you get more balls
in play.
The Jaguar plays well too, and you will likely see this message before 100
points! |
Read about BadCode Easter Eggs
BadCoder has included a number of Easter Eggs in his code, and this page
gives details of them, along with some background information on how Easter
Eggs originated.
Click here or on the picture to find out more. |
 Download this binary for Atari Jaguar subject
to my terms and conditions shown on my homepage. If you have not read them,
do not download this file. Note that this .ZIP file must be decompressed
using a tool such as Unzip or Pkzip, before use. |
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