Hi Tom.
I certainly think your correct with incrimental movement speed which
increases gradually to a maximum, this is certainly the way most classic
games worked, however I would not confuse these sorts of things with
realistic physics sinse the physics in most classic games is anything but,
indeed the behaviour and in game movement of objects is usually calculated
to be consistant within that game's frame of reference mor than any sort of
realistic representation of the time things take to move in reality.
To take one example, mega man's basic shot moves roughly at what I believe
is two or three times his walking speed. most enemy shots move faster or
slower, but even the fastest projectiles in the game such as Dr. Wily's
plasma shots move at roughly the same speed Mega man does when he does his
very smallest jump. This means that a skilled player can do tiny jumps over
each shot and not be hit, but make the jumps too big and though you'll miss
one shot the next will hit you on your way down.
In reality this makes absolutely no sense, sinse it'd be very difficult to
have anything (much less deadly energy blasts), move so slowly that someone
would be able to jump over them. In the context of the game world however it
makes an awsome challenge, and one which requires true mastery from the
player.
Of course, plenty of classic games did have surfaces as you describe which
affected the player's movement, but these were usually just like the
aforementioned plasma, ie, calculated to be good obstacles for the player
rather than to be realistic.
For example I am currently trying Super castlevania again (last time I
didn't get past world 7). There is one stage which takes place over mud
pools. If you get Simon belment dropped in the mud he takes roughly half a
second to sink up to his head level and then it's curtains, meaning you need
to be pretty quick to press jump to hop out again.
Again, completely unrealistic, but a real challenge in the game.
This isn't to say realistic physics is a bad idea. Obviously for any sort of
sim game, and for games that attempt to mirror a realistic experience of
combat or weapon use rather like the call of duty style fps genre, or even
some of the less radical sf themed fps games, however for the sort of
classic atari or Nes style games we're discussion, heck even for snes style
more complex side scrollers such as Super Castlevania I'd personally argue
that realism isn't as important as a coherent set of game mechanics that
contribute to the over all challenge.
Thus for example if you decided to have say a side scrolling jungle level
ala Tarzan Jr or Q9, but have the player chased by a rampaging rhino and
needing to jump over tracts of long grass which would halve their movement
sppeed while traversing them, well that would be a pretty fun challenge
irrispective of whether grass is really that urcsome or not.
Beware the grue!
Dark.
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