TENiS: simple ball game for RISC OS

Hello,

I’ve written another simple game in BASIC. This one is called TENiS – it’s based on tennis but it’s a bit different, so I’ve spelled it with just one N to make it clear that there’s a difference.

Here it is: http://dusthillguy.ddns.net/folder/files/quickupload/tenis.zip

The goal of the game is to keep the ball in the court for as long as possible, by using your racquet. You must control the racquet by using your mouse. The game will end once the ball falls outside of the court.

The game runs in MODE 32, but I’ve designed the code so that you can change the mode (to 13, for example) and things should still work much the same. This is because, from what I’ve observed, it seems like you can’t depend on certain modes being available on different monitor configurations, and it’s not assured that you’ll get the specific MODE that you requested.

I hope the game will work on everyone’s different system configurations without any problems, but I can’t guarantee that it will. If you try the game, please let me know if it works or not on your system.

Also, if anyone has an old Archimedes system set up and running, please try this Archimedes specific version I made, and let me know if it works: http://dusthillguy.ddns.net/folder/files/quickupload/arcver.zip
I would try it on my A3010, but I’ve lost my bus mouse.

- Patrick

Hi Patrick,
This is brilliant! I wasn’t expecting it to be in 3D.

Played on my ARM X6.

Tony

A challenging game but as Anthony points out works superbly on ARMX6. Could be additive.

Arcver works perfectly on an Archimedes A310, I had first to set the screen resolution to MODE 15 so that shadowscreens work, and then run it (otherwise flickers with a CRT monitor). Nice game! But how can I give the ball more forward speed at times?

Hello Patrick,
The game is great – very addictive! :) It works flawlessly on Raspberry Pi 1, 2 (older model) and 3, all under RISC OS 5.23.

Hello,

Thanks everyone for the replies.

Tony,
Thanks! This was my first time really trying to do something in 3D, it wasn’t as tricky as I thought it would be, and I was surprised at how it turned out. I’ll probably be making more 3D games.

Richard, Krzysztof,
Thanks for trying, good to know it works on your systems.

jan,
Thanks very much for trying it on your A310, I’m glad that it worked – I put a fair bit of effort into getting the code as efficient as I could make it so it’d run playably on the older hardware. Also good to know about it needing to be MODE 15, I’ve made an updated version of the archimedes version with that change: http://dusthillguy.ddns.net/folder/files/quickupload/arcver2.zip

About the forward speed, my intention was for the ball to move fairly fast, but not too fast. But after testing the game for a while, I can see how it could be a bit too slow for some players.
You could try changing line 1940 in PROCcollision, where it says “* 2”, and change it to “* 3”.
That would be line 990 in PROCl in the archimedes version.

I hope that my bus mouse will turn up eventually so I can try it myself on my A3010.

- Patrick

MODE 13 for the game (arcver) itself is good; but there seems to be an issue with Riscos 3.11 (and older ROMs) where, when you use shadow screens, the MODE in which you click the game, should use an amount of screenmemory where 2 or more game screens fit in. So in case of 2 screenfuls of MODE 13, you need 2* 80Kb, and MODE 15 provides this 160 Kb. As example of this take Hodgepodge, a type-in cellular automaton from Acorn User, from very long ago. *Configure screensize 160K also did not help in my case. So MODE 13 for the game is OK, just start it from a mode that can provide the memory for 2 MODE13 screens. It turns out that inserting: 20 MODE 15 (in line 20, before 30 MODE 13 ) does the trick; YMMV. Perhaps this anti-flicker measure is only needed for CRT monitors, too.

Is the source code available? I’d like to create a BBC BASIC mouse-controlled game, where the player sprite is the mouse pointer (much like how TENis operates), but have no clue how to accomplish this.

It’s BASIC, so you can just open it in an editor and look at it.

Neat game! It blows my mind that this is in BASIC!

Are the links to the game which appear in Patrick’s posts current? It just times out in NetSurf.

It’s a dynamic DNS address – the same thing I use for my Pi just beside me.

Patrick’s server is probably turned off. He last posted on November 22nd, so if he’s around reading this… ask David for some webspace so your game can always be available! ;-)

Tenis is available in the !store if that helps…

Patrick’s server is probably turned off.

It should be back now. I’m not sure what was wrong – it seemed like the noip client had stopped updating, even though the process was still running. I restarted it and it started working again.

I restarted it and it started working again.

You can eliminate that bit of work (and problem) by following up on the suggestion from Rick about requesting webspace from David Fuegey’s setup.
I’m surprised he’s not popped up with that suggestion himself.

Rick did :)
But yes, free webspace waits you. Just drop me an email.