h a l f b a k e r yWhy not imagine it in a way that works?
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Picture it. A giant three dimensional double-buffered geodesic icosahedron. Inside the icosahedron, are thirty, forty, maybe fifty fully 3-d rendered paddles controlled by players logged in from all around the world. Capable of 360 degree rotation along any axis, with full pitch/yaw/roll, players around
the world will compete to play the ball which comes shooting at them from any angle at insane speeds. Of course there's a variety of cameras, from "in-paddle" fixed to an aerial shot to a fixed perspective camera. Garaud shading for the entire arena (fog of war perhaps?) Picture all the players fighting to get the ball, but also trying to dodge one another's paddles, block each other's shots, and jostle the other paddles into corners where they can more easily miss. Of course this gets accompanied by irc-style chat where idiot kids can say "l4m3r d00d! 3y3 p0ngx0r3d j00!"
Gouraud explanation.
http://www.howstuff...com/question484.htm
[Cedar Park, Oct 04 2004]
Pong to the edge of the universe
http://www.madblast...oska/humor_pong.swf
[rrr] posted this on another pong idea here. hockwave/Flash player req'd. Funny and an amazing piece of animation. [bristolz, Oct 04 2004]
[link]
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Of course there's a wide variety of zoom options. The icosahedron can be rotating, itself (you can tell i've been playing with Newton on my SGI), and the game host can set a wide variety of options, from elasticity to gravity (if any) to rotation speed to the curvature of space-time.... |
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It would cross the line from half-baked to positively absurd to say the entire engine is coded in a language like Postscript or PL/SQL or OCCAM. But it's fun to imagine. |
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Pong was a great game that worked well in two dimensions between two players. To add an extra 28-48 players and an extra dimension of movement would entail more rule changes than you describe here. So many rule changes would be necessary it would become a different game perhaps. Less than half-baked I reckon. |
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I started out on a 2600 and had over 85 games I used to stack up to see how high I could get them. What started out as inspiring technology seemed to get crappier and crappier as time went on.. Or maybe it was having to see Colecovision, Nintendo and especially what computer games (C64 and Atari 800) could do that made the old 2600 look so long in the tooth.. |
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As far as *PONG* goes, I had the one where it was like 65 games (all pong with different titles and slightly different rules) and it was pretty cool... Actually pong is qute respectable when you consider how simple the concept is versus how much fun is had playing it. |
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Changing the rules would be for the sequel, Massively Multiplayer Online Pong II: Vice City. ;) |
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I suspect you're going to want to include a ratio of the number of balls to the number of players, otherwise the game would be much too boring for 30 people. |
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//So is that Paint Drying game from Sega. I hear it was big in Japan, anyway..// |
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Do you mean Make Trax, by Williams, ca 1981? |
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why restrict yourself to 3 dimensions? the possibilities really are infinite if you don't... |
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//Changing the rules would be for the sequel, Massively Multiplayer Online Pong II:// 'The Bat Stops Here'? |
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It's basically "Virtual Dodge Ball", right? Not that I know of such a game. I remember loving it as a kid. "Line Dodge" and "Circle Dodge" were other names for it, I believe. |
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// I started out on a 2600 and had over 85 games I used to stack up to see how high I could get them // |
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Wow, the 2600 was even fun when turned off. What modern system can claim that? |
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Lets start smaller and go two-dimensional. You can still have lots of players if you make the board circular. Simple but still fun. |
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You'll need random powerups that your paddle can pick up: |
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Shield Technology - allows the ability to pick up one shield power up.
Missle Technology - allows the ability to pick up one missle power up.
Engine Technology - allows the ability to pick up one engine power up.
Arcane Technology - allows the ability to pick up arcane power up. |
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Frost Shield - freezes enemy paddle who bumps you for a few seconds. One charge activates for 15 seconds.
Flame Shield - shortens enemy paddle width when you are bumped, and lasts a few seconds.
Energy Shield - randomly moves the enemy paddle (without owner control) who bumps you for a few seconds. |
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Ice Missiles - allows one shot of missle perpendicular to your paddle. A paddle hit by an ice missle freezes for a few seconds.
Fire Missiles - allows one shot of missle perpendicular to your paddle. A paddle hit by a fire missle will shorted its width for a few seconds.
Lightning Missiles - allows one shot of missle perpendicular to your paddle. A paddle hit by a lightning missle will lose control and be randomly moved about for a few seconds. |
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Impulse Engine - allows a manueverable velocity increase for a few seconds.
Ion Engine - allows a non-manueverable, huge velocity increase for a few seconds.
Warp Engine - allows to a burst of very fast acceleration in one direction without collisionfor a few seconds in the z-axis. |
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Arcane healing - allows instant repair to damages of one's paddle.
Arcane regeneration - allows a faster rate of repair in one's paddle.
Arcane cloaking - makes one's paddle invisible to others for a few seconds.
Arcane teleportation - makes one's paddle randomly displaced a short distance from one's original position. |
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