1987 · Electronic Arts

Skate or Die!

This minisite was contributed by unorig, air. It’s currently claimed by unorig who is editing it to reach a Gold tier standard.

The Pool Joust from the code: an empty pool, a padded pole that changes hands every five passes, three computer skaters with their own habits, and a match won like deuce in tennis.

01 · The event

Knock the other skater off

Two skaters ride an empty swimming pool, and the one holding the pole tries to knock the other off. Fire swings the pole for 32 frames, then rests it for another 32 before it can swing again ($205A, $2073). The opponent can be a second player or one of three computer skaters, chosen on a screen of portraits before the match ($2086).

The opponent-choice picture, drawn from the joust's memory: the bitmap the game copies under the I/O area at $C000, its screen colours at $E400, and its colour-RAM nibbles at $E000.

The joust is the only event that does not start at $0880: its file loads to $0820. Both of its pictures arrive packed with the same run-length scheme as the half-pipe ($2169), and the choice picture is kept in the RAM beneath the I/O chips, where the VIC can still show it from bank 3.

02 · The hit

Close enough, and swinging

A hit needs the pole to be mid-swing and the two skaters to be close ($1A85): neither already knocked off or climbing out, not both on the deck, less than 8 apart across the pool, and less than 15 pixels apart on the screen, counting across and down together. The holder scores a point and the other skater is thrown: the body flies off along the ramp while the board rolls on ($0FF3).

Tricks are chosen as on the Freestyle ramp, with a push left or right below the coping, but any landing is accepted: in the joust no pose counts as a fall ($10E2). The only way down is the pole.

03 · Passes and rounds

Five passes with the pole, then it changes hands

Each time the skater without the pole reaches the top of a wall, a pass is used ($0FD1). A small counter beside the holder shows 5 down to 1, and after the fifth pass the pole goes to the other skater. When both skaters are back on the deck the round ends, and the next starts with the pole in the hands of the skater who did not start the last one ($1792).

04 · Winning

First to three, by two clear

The scores show as -0-, -1-, and -2- until someone reaches 3. From then on each side shows the lead instead ($1B3C): --- for the skater behind, TIE when level, ADV one ahead, and WIN two ahead. The match is first to three points with a two-point lead, like deuce in tennis.

The joust hands the event manager no score, only a 1 for the winner, in the first skater's slot or the second's ($FE03, $FE0C). A computer opponent's win is not recorded at all.

05 · The computer skaters

Three personalities, one joystick routine

The computer plays by building a joystick byte as a player's stick would give it ($1D4F). The three opponents, Poseur Pete, Aggro' Eddie, and Lester ($2F61), differ in a few numbers and a routine each ($1E01):

Poseur PeteAggro' EddieLester
Frames between decisions ($2F69)1571
Stops closing in, holding the pole, within ($2F7D)1253
Keeps away, without the pole ($2F85, $2F81)8 to 2010 to 3015 to 45
Habitsdrops in at once, turns at randomdrops in when the player is high on the right, turns towards or awaywaits a random time, times its tricks by the player's speed and height ($1F54)

The distances are in the game's units across the pool. Holding the pole, every computer skater swings as soon as the player is in reach ($0DB8).

Lester was meant to do one thing more. Lester's routine starts with a call to an RTS ($1F73), and the code just after it, which would set how far Lester keeps away along the ramp, never runs.