GX-Pong

[XeNoMoRPH]

GX-Pong // 2025 - for GX4000 
Code + Sound: S.Waywood Graphics + Desing: Oncle Ced & Viny-Kun

[Gryzor]

Well, it looks nice and very faithful, but I don't know why it would need colour? Also, what GX tricks does it use?

[andycadley]

Weirdly pleasing if probably entirely silly.

[dthrone]

This was done 'to order' for @OncleCed.  It is his design, I think it is based on some Pong variant.  It is just supposed to be a fun little mini-game for his GX Grand Tour stand.  It is of course not trying to push any limits.  I'm expecting people at first glance to think 'this game could have been made in BASIC' .  

A couple of design notes if you're interested.  The ball (square!) can move in 22 different directions and there are 16 different collision surfaces, in four orientations, 10 of which are moving.  When the ball strikes a moving surface it will transfer momentum to the ball.  So the physics of the game is not so trivial.

The game play area is a full overscan screen and of course it runs at 50fps.  Those big score numbers are quickly updated using colour swaps so there is no need to write any graphical data.  It might not be obvious at first but one of those numbers is actually a hardware sprite and the other is a software sprite. 

Anyway, see if you can beat the 'hard' mode 

[eto]

I'm expecting people at first glance to think 'this game could have been made in BASIC'

But only if those people never made a game in Basic. Sprite movement is much too smooth for BASIC. 

In a world where the Plus would have been used in schools I guess it would have been a great exercise to learn the the basics of sprite movement, collision detection, physics and general GX 4000 programming.

[dthrone]

Well, it looks nice and very faithful, but I don't know why it would need colour? Also, what GX tricks does it use?

Regarding the colour, with 4 paddles moving on the screen it starts to get a bit confusing so the colour is there to help distinguish them.  I kept the colours flat and fairly pastel so it didn't end up getting too far away from the Pong 'look'.  

[Shaun M. Neary]

As a big pong fan, I can't wait to give this a go when I get home later this evening! 

[cwpab]

It would be nice to also be able to play regular Pong (not sure if already implemented).

[OncleCed]

Hello, this request, kindly accepted by Stephen, is for a stand telling the story of video games from the 70s to the mid-90s. Stand of 20 machines; almost all Amstrad including 10 GX4000 and 4 Amstrad PLUS.
 
The stand should be ready for a pop culture convention which will take place in November 2026 in France ; I am one of the organizers.

I admit that I am surprised to see people asking for a classic pong game without color, I was already afraid of criticism because it did not fully exploit the console, ha ha. 
 
 It's a real creative exercise. I'm working on the level design of a Space Invaders game, witch my friend Viny-Kun, again for my booth.