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Hello Everyone, SpaceBall is a psychadelic circular pong-like game which was inspired by Octopong, a simple game made by Super Nova on the TGC forums:
http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=124440&b=8

This version is effectively a beta version, so if you have any comments or ideas, or find any bugs,
please let me know. I would also be very grateful if you could just tinker around with the variables
in the Options menu (going back to the menu saves your options) and find out what speeds work best
with what modes.

Feel free to play around with the media and data, and see if you can decrypt the highscores

All the media in SpaceBall was created by me, unless otherwise stated in sources.txt. (please read it!)

For those who are interested :
Total spaceball lines = 1895 +- 5 (game+menu)
Total time taken : 38 days
STARTED at 7:04 pm 22 February 2009
FINISHED at 5:56 pm 30 March 2009

Future version:
different high score saving system
remember the last name entered in the high scores window
convert background song .wav to .mp3
figure out a way to make it work on machines without directX 9.0c, if possible
enlarge the playing area - Fullscreen default
Random obstacles that appear in the playing area for a few seconds and deflect the ball when hit.
Speed decreaser (maybe have a very tiny circle appear for 1 second that you have to click to activate).
Portals that teleport the ball to a different location.
Additional paddle that appears on the other side of the current paddle and lasts for a while.
Trick balls that randomly appear to try and make you lose track of the real ball.
Grav ball, ball gets attracted to paddle
Black holes, obstacles that throw ball off its path (i.e. gravity)
Ball enlarges/shrinks, depending on [powerups]?

Download Links
http://www.freewebs.com/aralox2/SpaceBall.zip
http://files.filefront.com/SpaceBallzip/;13526290;/fileinfo.html

Screenie:


High Scores!
My all time single player high score, with default settings, is 25.
if anyone beats, let me know and ill put it up =)

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Looks cool . Nice approach on pong.

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Just downloaded and played a few games and I must say, very impressive. Everything from the menu to graphics works well together. I got a hi-score of 16, but I know I could do better with a few more goes.

Only thing I noticed that needs improvement is the large wav file (17MB), which could be greatly reduced in size if converted to an mp3 or another sound format.

Thank you for mentioning Octopong, I'm glad someone turned the idea into a fun to play game.

EDIT:
Just played a few more times and got a new hi-score of 20.

There was one other thing I noticed, I had to re-enter my name alot of the times I played (sometimes I didn't, I couldn't determine why sometimes I had to re-enter it and other times I didn't).

I think it should keep track of the last name you entered, and only be blank the first time you start the program.

Other than that, can't wait to take on the AI!

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Thanks for checking it out, and thank you also for the suggestions!
so far the improvements i will make are

-save the previous high score name entered
-improve high score system

ill put that up in the first post

btw, i actually found the high scores window pretty annoying after a while, so maybe ill make it so it only enters a new high score if you beat the previous one, or something like that. give me suggestions!

oh and hitting enter is a fast way of closing the high score window

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Thanks to Super Nova for these:
enlarge the playing area - Fullscreen default
Random obstacles that appear in the playing area for a few seconds and deflect the ball when hit.
Speed decreaser (maybe have a very tiny circle appear for 1 second that you have to click to activate).
Portals that teleport the ball to a different location.
Additional paddle that appears on the other side of the current paddle and lasts for a while.
trick balls that randomly appear to try and make you lose track of the real ball.


By the way, i have to mention that i wont be able to work on spaceball very much right now, i have just too much schoolwork to handle. Im just amassing every idea i can get, so i can make spaceball even more fun to play. after all, this is for you guys!

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Hello Aralox, I am here on behalf of the DBP Buddies asking if we may place your excellent game on our website at http://dbpbuddies.co.cc/, we would be very grateful to have your game on there and would love to see more from you in the future. It is very interesting to see how many time pong can be remade, but there is always something special about it...

Please if you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact any of the DBP Buddies staff..

Best Regards Lucifer1101

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Nice spam......also, your site gives me all kinds of fatal errors...

@Aralox - You should check out the Pong models Josh Mooney made in his "100 models" thread on the 3D board - they fit perfectly with the style of your game, and I'm sure Josh would be glad to see them come to use .

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Bmac i am sorry for the spam its just that i would have difficulty wording it in another way for every post, as for the site it is currently down and cmk is working out some of the kinks and should be up in no time, you can check out the post through the link in my sig if need be...

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E-Mail is a better way that comes to mind...

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sorry i dont understand...

sorry for sidetracking your post also Aralox..

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No worries at all.
I feel honoured that would put my game up on your website, thank you. =D

@BMacZero - I had a look at josh mooney's pong models, and by god they are amazing. Thanks for the heads up, im gonna ask him if i can use them.

and lol at your sig- in jokes just go on and on dont they?

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Hey Aralox, game looks great, it gave me inspiration for my game (galaxy pong) and i love the circular pong feel

i also added you to the website:
http://dbpbuddies.co.cc/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=55:spaceball&catid=42:pluginsother&Itemid=61

so feel free to tell me if we are missing something. Love the game, innovative to me

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I am so psyched that someone would be inspired by my creation - thanks so much for that.
i commented on your page ^^