moving through a bullet-hell via stylus?

mirkvid · Post by **mirkvid** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 5:13 pm

so i was playing New Super Mario Bros. the other day and found a mini game where you drag a bobomb around the screen while trying to avoid fireballs. the longer you survive, the more fireballs start to appear. it felt very shmup-like to me and thought it would be cool to implement this idea in a shooter. the only problem with it is that the stylus blocks your view to part of the screen!

anyone else try this game yet?

Dylan1CC · Post by **Dylan1CC** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 6:39 pm

^^^^

I really like this minigame myself and like you, found it to have a little bit of a manic shmup feel. It's even more fun in 2 player and gets scary hectic when your bobombs bump into each other.

FatCobra · Post by **FatCobra** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 6:42 pm

Why not? Although wouldn't a shmup with stylus control have the same problems as a mouse-driven shmup? (I.e. ship drifts a little due to inerta)

Vexorg · Post by **Vexorg** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 7:11 pm

There are games on the PocketPC that control in this fashion (Darklaga and Claygun come to mind right offhand) and it does work, but it does have its issues (the main one being that the stylus can obscure a portion of the screen and cause problems.)

EOJ · Post by **EOJ** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 7:24 pm

Maybe using a transparent stylus would alleviate some of the screen problems?

ill6 · Post by **ill6** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 7:26 pm

With a transparent hand?

EOJ · Post by **EOJ** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 7:27 pm

Of course.

DJ Incompetent · Post by **DJ Incompetent** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 7:37 pm

Warioware Touched has a shmup stage. In the boss part of Ashley's stage (goth chick with the background vocals), you control a moving Earth with the stylus and dodge everything. Later you get an autofire weapon and take on some boss.

Stylus shmups wouldn't work unless the game was designed with some Centipede/Millipede or Space Invaders type of movement restrictions to keep your stylus or hand from getting in the way. You'd have to be constricted to the bottom right of the screen (right-handers) or the bottom left (left-handers) for it to work. Maybe some game where you're just a private operating one of many ball gun turrets on a B-19esq airship in some war, only the ball turret itself has some limited dodging capabilities on wires or cables or somethin'.

Thinkin' aloud.

I'm more excited for the stylus possibilities of light gun games. Point Blank DS is a great example. What if Nintendo brought back Battleclash or Metal Combat? Those games for the old SNES Super Scope. That would rock, wouldn't it? I mean, they're not technically FPSs, and they're not technically shmups, but the charging and deflecting and countering and blowing bosses up piece-by-piece is awesome madness. Feels as quasi-shmup as Rez does I guess.

It's worth mentioning anyway. Sorry if ya felt OT'd.

Anybody remember Zap 2016 for the PDAs? Were they ever stylus controlled?

mirkvid · Post by **mirkvid** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 7:46 pm

i think it would work if the action was displayed on the TOP screen, while you control on the bottom screen. someone get me a DS devkit!

DJ Incompetent · Post by **DJ Incompetent** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 8:02 pm

mirkvid wrote:i think it would work if the action was displayed on the TOP screen, while you control on the bottom screen. someone get me a DS devkit!

It's not impossible

the2bears · Post by **the2bears** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 8:12 pm

mirkvid wrote:i think it would work if the action was displayed on the TOP screen, while you control on the bottom screen. someone get me a DS devkit!

Don't need one, homebrew on the NDS is pretty advanced

Bill

Minzoku · Post by **Minzoku** » Sat Aug 05, 2006 9:07 am

I actually play Internet freeware games with my graphics tablet... it's there, and less stress than a mouse. The problem is when I play a dodging game, even though my stylus is out of the way, I can "teleport" by lifting the stylus off the tablet. This seems like a great cheat, but if I don't know EXACTLY where to put my stylus back, I could teleport straight into an obstacle

DJ Incompetent · Post by **DJ Incompetent** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 4:22 am

Minzoku wrote:I actually play Internet freeware games with my graphics tablet... it's there, and less stress than a mouse. The problem is when I play a dodging game, even though my stylus is out of the way, I can "teleport" by lifting the stylus off the tablet. This seems like a great cheat, but if I don't know EXACTLY where to put my stylus back, I could teleport straight into an obstacle

Sounds like you know how to turn every PC shmup into a game of Asteroids.

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 11:39 am

FatCobra wrote:Why not? Although wouldn't a shmup with stylus control have the same problems as a mouse-driven shmup? (I.e. ship drifts a little due to inerta)

"Inertia" is usually programmed right into a game to simulate real-life inertia. Think back to any Arkanoid-with-a-mouse clone you've played on PC - computer mice stop pretty much instantly.

@ DJ