From: jmunkki@vipunen.hut.fi (Juri Munkki)
Subject: Re: ARASHI 1.0a on sumex-aim
Keywords: Arashi Storm Tempest
Reply-To: jmunkki@vipunen.hut.fi (Juri Munkki)
Organization: Helsinki University of Technology
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 18:21:09 GMT

In article <1h3etdINN4g1@hpscit.sc.hp.com> klui@corp.hp.com (Kenneth K.F. Lui) writes:
>I've had a Tempest machine for some time now, but haven't played
>it for quite a while.  Arashi is a very good attempt at capturing
>the feel of Tempest.  Here are some suggestions at making the
>game as-Tempest-as-possible.

Some of the differences are intentional, some are there because I
hadn't even seen a Tempest machine in five years, when I started
writing the game. My main interest was in making the game interesting
to play.

>1. Spikers turn into tankers once they reach back towards the end
>of the tube.  (Spikes stay where they are, of course).

I didn't know this and it's quite hard to change now.

>3. The message "AVOID SPIKES" appear on levels 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8
>before shooting down the tube.  Enemies that are at the edge of
>the tube disappear; the crawler remains on the screen.

This is important in the arcade version, but since playing on the Mac
doesn't cost anything, it didn't seem important to me. Mike seems to
be working on this though...

>4. Spikes don't appear on level 3.

Arashi is programmable with ResEdit. This one of the things that you
can change yourself very easily.

>5. Fuseballs never traverse more than one lane, in either
>direction, when they reach the top of a tube.  They'll go back
>down a bit, move to another lane, come to the edge, and so on.
>Once there are very few enemies left--probably less than 5 or so
>(I'm not sure about the exact amount)--then fuseballs all go to
>the top of the tube and traverse its circumference.  When fuse-
>balls travel the length of the tube, they stay between two lanes
>and can't be shot--they're only vulnerable when they move from
>lane to lane (that is, from the middle of two lanes to another
>adjacent middle).

I kind of like the way fuseballs work now. It's not all that
different from what you describe. Arashi is probably a bit more
difficult in this respect.

>5a. Likewise for pulsars, they don't traverse the circumference
>of the tube until it's time for fuseballs to stay at the edge of
>the tube.

I had a lot of trouble remembering how pulsars should work... I'm
still not sure hwo they work, because my memories are clouded from
the amount of testing that I did with Arashi/STORM.

>6. Tankers, spikers, pulsars, and flippers are the only enemies
>that shoot back.  Shots do not appear out of nowhere.

In Arashi, spikers are the only ones that shoot back. Every spiker
shoots once when it is born. This should be easy to change, but
I don't think it would have a big effect on the gameplay.

>7. When the crawler is shot, the enemies stop moving.

I kind of like my version better. It was also easier to implement
that way.

>8. If the crawler is captured by a flipper or pulsar, both
>parties go down the tube.

Minor cosmetic point. I also think that most of my explosions are
different from Tempest. I have no memory of what explosions look
like in Tempest.

>9. If the last crawler is captured by a flipper or pulsar, both
>parties, along with the tube disappears into "infinity."

This would be a nice effect. I had no memory of this.

>10. The invisible levels appear as white outlines in the level
>selector.

Very easy to do.

>11. The crawler don't go to the next level until all enemies
>have either been destroyed or are at the top edge of the tube.

In Arashi, spikers are the only exception. They are not counted
as regular enemies. Instead, they are a part of the spike.

>12. Multi-colored tankers don't exist in Tempest.  Only their
>centers tell the player what types of tankers they are:
>	blank = carries flippers (1 or 2)
>	colored as a pulsar = carries pulsars (1 or 2)
>	multi-colored = carries either 1 or 2 fuseballs or
>			1 fuseball and 1 pulsar (rarely)

Having never played beyond the yellow levels, I didn't know how
pulsar or fuseball tankers should work.

>13. The coloring scheme for the invisible is the same as the blue
>levels, except the grid is not visible.  If interested, I'll post
>the correct color schemes for all levels.

This is something that you can do yourself. The colors are relatively
easy to change with ResEdit. With a bit to trickery, you can use the
clut/palette editor feature of ResEdit.

>14. When you reach a new level, the grid along with the enemies
>circling at the bottom, spikes, and the crawler are all visible.
>When you get to the invi's, you don't see anything until you
>start a particular level in Arashi--which is not true of Tempest.

Again, this doesn't really affect the way the game is played.

>15. Each "dot" circling at the end of the tube corresponds to an
>enemy.  On Arashi, levels with spikes don't seem to follow this
>convention.  (i.e. There are no dots at the end, but spikers and
>fuseballs still come up.)

As I said, spikers are special in Arashi. The dots correspond to
regular enemies. They turn the same color the enemy is and approach
the grid when they are activated. When there are no dots and all
the enemies are on the rim, you advance to the next level. This is
something I knew about and tried to reproduce it carefully, because
if there are no dots there and you still have a superzapper, it's
usually wise to fire that zapper and get rid of most of the bad guys.

>Just my initial impressions.  Great work!!  Hmm, gotta power the
>game up tonight and have a go at it...

I'm glad you like it. Mike was a bit worried that Arashi wouldn't be
well received after the way some of the recently released games have
been treated on comp.sys.mac.games.

-- 
  Juri Munkki					       Windsurf: fast sailing
 jmunkki@hut.fi					      Macintosh: fast software
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games