Contents  Where Did We  Leave Off?  Next Piece Please  I Can't See It!  The New Text  Wanna See This  Too?  Scoring and Levels  Until Next Time  Printable version  Source & Demo     The Series  Part 1  Part 2  Part 3  Part 4  Part 5  Part 6

Where Did We Leave Off?

Okay, time to get back to work. During our last session we added in the totally awesome sound effects (Thanks EvilX -- http://www.evilx.com), and we made some simple screen transitions. I also showed the solution to the rotation problem we had. It may not sound like much, but trust me those things had a significant impact on the game.

Before I get into this article's topics, allow me to sidetrack a little bit. I have received numerous eMails lately asking me to add feature X, Y, or Z to SPACE-TRIS. As much as I'd like to ... I won't, and here is why. I simply don't have the time, or the space to add in everybody's wishes. Many of the suggestions are very good ones, and, I too have numerous ideas that could be integrated into the game. The trouble is that this article series isn't about making a commercial-level game. My sole goal is to introduce you, the reader, to game concepts implemented in assembly language.

Often times, a feature asked for is something I have already covered the basis for in this series. At those times, I suggest that you add those features yourself. Other times, I may not have covered that type of concept at all. Those are the things you need to let me know about. Send me an eMail saying "Hey Chris, try and cover blah-blah-blah...". Then, I will attempt to fit it in, or at least add it to my list of needed articles for later. This way, a little bit of everything is covered instead of one main concept and 300 variations of it.

Enough of that, what are we going to cover today? You don't know! In that case I had better let you know exactly what I am up to. Or should I just leave it as a surprise? Ah, okay ... I'll let you, and just you, in on the secrets.

We'll start off by adding in the ability to see the preview piece, which means we'll have to add a preview piece to our list of needed data (duh!). Once that is taken care of we'll add the ability to draw text of different font sizes -- this will take a few new routines and alteration of an old one. Then, we'll write the code to draw text for our level, score, and the current lines we have earned. Finally, we can add the scoring system along with a primitive level system. I had originally hoped to write the code that would save and load our games, but I just didn't have the time to get it in. So, it looks like that little feature gets pushed off to the last article.

Okay, that is the plan. So, I suppose I should stop chattering and get to the good stuff.

Next : Next Piece Please