A bit of a strange request, but does anyone know if it is possible to program pinball in Flash?
I have only seen a Shockwave version so far…
I’m sure pinball is possible, but it wouldn’t be super easy. It would probably just be time-consuming. Right now I am working on a 1-player Risk-type game with AI. And hopefully I will be able to make a chess-type game after that… those are what is planned for my future projects…
an intriguing idea to be sure.
I’ve been thinking more and more about games. I’d like to program a solitar game… but pinball is more entertaining. I’ll certainly be looking into it, even if others have already done it.
I’ve got ideas running around my head right now Kit.
I agree with Lavaboy… the hardest part will be the curved change in direction.
I’m going to have to take a look at that book I think, before I’ll be able to figure it out. My father might also be able to supply me with some ideas. He sent me Physics for game developers for xmas… but I’m only on the second chapter in that one.
ugg. I hate physics.
some good ideas here. I’m likin… I’m likin.
agreed.
either delete that post yourself, or a moderator will soon.
It’s something that one of the Marketing bods here have suggested for the Churchill funsite. Trouble is, I’m not sure my AS skills are quite up to that yet. 
I’ve been looking around the Web, see if anyone has done it before, but I can’t see a Flash version. Altoids has got a good Shockwave one, but I don’t knoe Director Lingo. And we don’t have Director anyway…
Cool. I’d like to see that when it’s done.
The pinball thing is a great idea, just not sure how to go about it… Basically Churchill want to add more games and that to their site. I’ve come up with this Memory card game thing, and a Tetris clone, but I think they’ll want more. So if anyone has any ideas…
Excellent… 
I have ideas, but they all kind of hit obstacles of a mathematical nature. The ‘ball bouncing off objects thing’ is enough to set me into a panic. 
Yeah, that’s the kind of stuff I have problems with. Great for a computer programmer isn’t it? I go to pieces when heavy maths is involved. Just can’t get my head round it most of the time.
I’ve had a look at some of the Flash Games books here in England, and nothing so far covers Pinball…
Cool link, thanks. 
It’s not as good as the one on Altoids, but that was a Shockwave file, not Flash. It’s basically the right thing I’m aiming for though. Now just to find out how to write it…
you shouldnt be afraid of calculus!
Oh, but I am. Pointers in C++ I can handle. Object Orientation not a problem. But mention the word calculus and I have a nervous breakdown. At least I know it can be done.
Think I’m going to head over to Waterstones tomorrow lunch time and try and find a book for the company to buy me.
that’d be a fun idea
right now I’m working on my own version of a node garden.
Actually… Come to think about it… (I ran across here to double check any threads I missed last ngiht before I take a shower and gte ready for work work… hehe)
Let’s see here… Pinball… I’ve never done this before have I? cough…
hehe… I’ve tried my hands at things around the pinball world but at the time my AS skills were like a duck trying to cross an oil filled pond… Difficult and near impossible… But now that I’ve developed I fully understand some of the possibilities.
Instead of making complete hittests with all the objects put all the objects in an array… Along with this array…
pinObjects = new Array();
pinAngle = new Array();
pinBounce = new Array();
pinDirection = new Array();
Now… I’ve always said that machines now-a-days can handle alot of variables and that’s true… So instead of Making the computer do alot of calcuating, sotre as many values as you can in memory holders or variables. It’s alot (alot) faster this way.
You can store how much force it can apply when hit (bumper for instance) and in what direction the force is applied. You can also set up points of hitting that sets flags and everything.
Of course… Use the ball dot version instead of object hittest object… It’ll be faster that way and you don’t have to test out the entire object
Um… Hope this helps you out some… GOnna hop in the shower and then go back to work.
Peace
I’ve come up with yet another way to decrease the amount of work load placed on your computer…
Divide up the board into regions… Those regions will specify exactly what objects to check for hitTests for… Instead of having it check for all the hitTests across the entire board (because that would almost be around 100+ objects).
Take a gander at that… When the ball is in a certain region… it will make calls to that regions hitTest checks for the objects in that region… If it’s not in those regions… Tough ****… It won’t call the objects in the other regions cause it isn’t close to them…
You can also divide this into 6 regions and make it even faster… But I wouldn’t suggest dividing it even further because then it’ll become a hassle remembering stuff…
Another tip from the twothumbsthatrock guy :-p
I know for sure you can program pinball in flash… I’ve been kinda working on that.
there’s a book called Flash MX Game programming that I’m studying from… that’s where they have that example…
for the whole “bouncing off” thing… you need to have objects with properties for their surfaces (like the angle, etc…) that way you can calculate quickly where the ball is going to go…
the thing that messes me up though is concave surfaces… I still dont know how to work that out… (concave surfaces, like the top of the board…)
you shouldnt be afraid of calculus! (which is what you’re going to have to use with the concave surface)
But… I mean, Flash wont be able to handle it, so there HAS to be an easy way of doing it…
well… I mean, now that I think of it, all you would have to do is take the derivative of the curve at the point where the ball hits… I mean, that’s the behavior of the ball with whatever surface it hits… easy, right?
well… you need to have an equation for the curve to start with… you can’t just draw it… that’s what sucks…
Kirupa might have a problem with this…
