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THE MIXER
I got the idea for the Mixer level when I discovered a previously unused sprite buried in the original graphics ROM. It showed a tilted pie that was spilling over. Could it be that the original game designers were, at one time or another, going to have the pies fall off the end of the conveyor? Since this idea never made it into the original game, I decided to use for a new level--and the Mixer level was born!
The Mixer level carried over the same pies and conveyors found on the Cement level. But since I didn’t want it to be a repeat of that level I needed to add some new challenges. The first thing I added was the pie-filling station, or what I call “the mixer”. The mixer would dump pie filling (cement) into the empty tins and send them on their way. The Mixer graphic was made using an elevator truss sprite (from Elevator level) combined with an oilcan sprite (from the Barrels level). In the early versions of the level, the Mixer was stationary. But I found that by animating it to raise and lower while it was filling, I was able to provide an obstacle both above and below the conveyor.
Making the pie tins appear “empty” took a bit of trickery. This was accomplished by using a solid black square sprite. The black square sprite was assigned a higher priority so that it would appear over the lower-priority pie sprite. The black square would mask out part of the pie sprite and make it look empty. This same masking effect can be seen at the end of all the original levels when Kong appears to be climbing “off” the screen. Using masking sprites and combining multiple sprites allowed me to create new graphics that didn’t exist in the original game. Another graphic that I made using these techniques was the sleeping Kong seen in one of the intermissions.
One big challenge in programming the Mixer level was trying to organize all the sprites so that they had the appropriate “priority”. As described above, a sprite’s priority determines whether it goes “in front of” or “behind” other sprites. This was especially important on the lower conveyor where multiple sprites would intersect at once. Here I had to make sure that the black masking sprites went “in front of” the pies but “behind” Jumpman. It was also important that the ladder went “in front of” the masking sprites but “behind” the pies. Follow that? It may not seem like a big deal, but this constant re-shuffling of priorities was a big headache. I actually had to use two ladder sprites with different priorities to solve the dilemma described above.
For some of the final touches I experimented with different color schemes for this level. I tried red and then blue before I finally decided that it should have the same yellow/orange color that the original Cement level had. For some more final touches I added animated wheels to raise/lower the mixer and added animated flames that flare-up when the pies fall in the fire.
(The following photos show the level as it progressed through the production stages)
Click here to move on to the The Refinery!
Website Content © 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 Hyperspace Arcade Entertainment. All game names, graphics, and logos are copyrights of their respective owners.
I got the idea for the Mixer level when I discovered a previously unused sprite buried in the original graphics ROM. It showed a tilted pie that was spilling over. Could it be that the original game designers were, at one time or another, going to have the pies fall off the end of the conveyor? Since this idea never made it into the original game, I decided to use for a new level--and the Mixer level was born!
The Mixer level carried over the same pies and conveyors found on the Cement level. But since I didn’t want it to be a repeat of that level I needed to add some new challenges. The first thing I added was the pie-filling station, or what I call “the mixer”. The mixer would dump pie filling (cement) into the empty tins and send them on their way. The Mixer graphic was made using an elevator truss sprite (from Elevator level) combined with an oilcan sprite (from the Barrels level). In the early versions of the level, the Mixer was stationary. But I found that by animating it to raise and lower while it was filling, I was able to provide an obstacle both above and below the conveyor.
Making the pie tins appear “empty” took a bit of trickery. This was accomplished by using a solid black square sprite. The black square sprite was assigned a higher priority so that it would appear over the lower-priority pie sprite. The black square would mask out part of the pie sprite and make it look empty. This same masking effect can be seen at the end of all the original levels when Kong appears to be climbing “off” the screen. Using masking sprites and combining multiple sprites allowed me to create new graphics that didn’t exist in the original game. Another graphic that I made using these techniques was the sleeping Kong seen in one of the intermissions.
One big challenge in programming the Mixer level was trying to organize all the sprites so that they had the appropriate “priority”. As described above, a sprite’s priority determines whether it goes “in front of” or “behind” other sprites. This was especially important on the lower conveyor where multiple sprites would intersect at once. Here I had to make sure that the black masking sprites went “in front of” the pies but “behind” Jumpman. It was also important that the ladder went “in front of” the masking sprites but “behind” the pies. Follow that? It may not seem like a big deal, but this constant re-shuffling of priorities was a big headache. I actually had to use two ladder sprites with different priorities to solve the dilemma described above.
For some of the final touches I experimented with different color schemes for this level. I tried red and then blue before I finally decided that it should have the same yellow/orange color that the original Cement level had. For some more final touches I added animated wheels to raise/lower the mixer and added animated flames that flare-up when the pies fall in the fire.
(The following photos show the level as it progressed through the production stages)
Click here to move on to the The Refinery!
Website Content © 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 Hyperspace Arcade Entertainment. All game names, graphics, and logos are copyrights of their respective owners.