OK - since I'm finally registered now, I think I'm also entitled to a wish list (in order of importance - the first being the most important)

1. The pop-pop Network Lounge definitely DEFINITELY needs a chatroom. This is one of the most basic things that all network games have. Why doesn't pop-pop already have this feature? Think about it - it would make tournaments so much easier to do.

2. The computer players need to be a lot better. I know that the PC version of pop-pop will be out soon and there will be a lot more people on the tracker (where I will probably find people to play against who are better than the computer), but when I'm travelling with my brother's iBook, I don't always have access to the internet.

3. Better graphics. I would love to be able to play pop-pop at a resolution of 1024x768. That would just be sweet. I also would like to see better water effects too. I don't know what the frame rate of the game is like on other computers (with water effects switched on), but on my computer, it's dog slow (about 30 fps). pop-pop is one of those fast and frantic games that really needs to be played with a frame rate of at least 60 fps (just play 2 mins into a round in expert mode and you'll see what I mean....)
Couldn't the newer graphics cards nowdays handle lush, smooth, clear, pixel-perfect graphics at a high resolution? As it stands, I don't like the water effects. They also look blocky too.....

4. pop-pop should have a seperate setting for the brick animations. It would be really cool if I could maybe have the brick animations on and the water effects off (if you know what I mean).

5. Make the pop-pop tournaments a bit more official. I would love the whole tournament thing to be run through Ambrosia Software. Who knows, maybe you could offer prizes to the winner too....

6. Release an official level editor to create custom levels for pop-pop.

Thanks for listening.

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Quote

Originally posted by Helix20:
**OK - since I'm finally registered now, I think I'm also entitled to a wish list (in order of importance - the first being the most important)

1. The pop-pop Network Lounge definitely DEFINITELY needs a chatroom. This is one of the most basic things that all network games have. Why doesn't pop-pop already have this feature? Think about it - it would make tournaments so much easier to do.
**

Probably unlikely to happen, as that's hardly the first time that request has come up. If you run pop-pop windowed, you can have another chat program up too on even the smallest modern monitor. There's no space for it in the 640x480 network lounge screen anyway.

Quote

Originally posted by Helix20: **
2. The computer players need to be a lot better. I know that the PC version of pop-pop will be out soon and there will be a lot more people on the tracker (where I will probably find people to play against who are better than the computer), but when I'm travelling with my brother's iBook, I don't always have access to the internet.
**

True, would be nice with some better AI, I agree - though it's only really fun in network mode anyway. (Perhaps that is a chicken and egg thing) Just making the game faster would help this, and last I heard this was on the cards.

Quote

Originally posted by Helix20: **
3. Better graphics. I would love to be able to play pop-pop at a resolution of 1024x768. That would just be sweet. I also would like to see better water effects too. I don't know what the frame rate of the game is like on other computers (with water effects switched on), but on my computer, it's dog slow (about 30 fps). pop-pop is one of those fast and frantic games that really needs to be played with a frame rate of at least 60 fps (just play 2 mins into a round in expert mode and you'll see what I mean....)
Couldn't the newer graphics cards nowdays handle lush, smooth, clear, pixel-perfect graphics at a high resolution? As it stands, I don't like the water effects. They also look blocky too.....
**

Nooo! Just run windowed - even on a 22" screen at 1600x1200. It may look a bit like a postage stamp there, but it's usually better than full screen. besides, better graphics = slower game, and speed is critical to pop-pop's fun (IMHO). Especially if you're only getting 30fps. Having said that, when I was using my iBook, I considered 30fps to be exceptionally good, and played several 6-8 min rounds on expert with it!

Water looks okay when it isn't blown up to silly sizes on large displays, and to be honest, you don't really notice it anyway when the going gets frantic. FYI, I can get about 7-80fps with water on on my comp, assuming there isn't too much else happening onscreen (i.e. no Ioni etc).

Also, don't forget that pop-pop was around (at least in beta) long before quartz extreme, and custom C graphics code (I'm guessing it is C or C++) is often notoriously had to upgrade or even maintain.

...

No comments on the rest, but they sound okay
Thought I'd play devil's advocate though

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Quote

Originally posted by Crono:
**
Water looks okay when it isn't blown up to silly sizes on large displays, and to be honest, you don't really notice it anyway when the going gets frantic. FYI, I can get about 7-80fps with water on on my comp, assuming there isn't too much else happening onscreen (i.e. no Ioni etc).
**

Oh really? That's actually not bad! If I turn the water on on my computer, I only get bout 30 fps. What computer do you have? I have an iMac DV SE 500 Mhz - maybe that's too slow.....? With the water off, I get around 90 fps....

I'm intending to get a new powerbook (12 inches) over the summer. That surely has enough power to run pop-pop at a fast framerate....

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I've just thought of a brilliant idea for a future version of pop-pop:

During online play, I think that pop-pop should have a news-ticker running in the corner. The news-ticker should report to all players playing pop-pop if someone else joins the network lounge. This way, players who are already playing pop-pop have the chance to change opponents. What do you think about my idea?

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Quote

Originally posted by Helix20:
**I've just thought of a brilliant idea for a future version of pop-pop:

During online play, I think that pop-pop should have a news-ticker running in the corner. The news-ticker should report to all players playing pop-pop if someone else joins the network lounge. This way, players who are already playing pop-pop have the chance to change opponents. What do you think about my idea?

**

Hmm. Distracting while playing? Taxing on modem users? If you want to see who's in the lounge, (and have a fast connection), run in pop-pop in a window and have your browser open to the web tracker.

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If you think I'm being mean, please tell me. I was actually going for NASTY!!

Wouldn't it be cool if we could observe other online games during play? that way, we would all be able to watch the finals in our tournaments....

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Quote

Originally posted by Danny:
**Anyways, for .2 the bug that still annoys me the most is, if your computer sleeps while pop-pop is open, upon waking the mouse is disabled--not in the tracker or the select screens, but only in the game itself. The workaround is to quit the game every time either before entering sleep or after waking, but that can get a little annoying... and even worse is if you forget and are then stuck with a non-working paddle! I don't know if this afflicts anyone else, but it's been a constant problem in my case.

**

Hmmm. I tried opening up pop-pop (1.0.3fc3), starting a game and then paused it, and told my computer to sleep. All worked fine when it awoke, and the cursor/mouse worked fine. So, the next update may fix this problem for you. I'll try settting my Mac to sleep faster and try playing a low level game, and see if it goes to sleep during an open game (can it actually do that?)

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If you think I'm being mean, please tell me. I was actually going for NASTY!!

(This message has been edited by jinx (edited 06-21-2003).)

Three bugs I've run into: (OSX 10.2.6)

1. Occasionally (usually at the beginning of a round) the ball will break through more bricks that it seems like it should with no or little charging beforehand. This one's hard to reproduce, so maybe it's my imagination.

2. Someone else metioned this too, I think: on quitting the game, the Finder's menu bar gets messed up, but not other apps.

3. This just cropped up recently: I'm trying to start a PVP (same computer) game, but the only two buttons that appear are the Vs. Computer and Net Game options. Both mice are plugged in, and restarting doesn't make a difference. I'm trying reinstallation next, just curious if anyone else has had this one?

And a question: would it be possible to use other MAD/MOD music files other than the ones Pop-Pop comes with?

Thank you, by the way, for making one of the best shareware programs ever. Well worth the price.

Reinstalling it did fix the missing PVP button, so that's all good.

Quote

Originally posted by CapnChunky:
**Three bugs I've run into: (OSX 10.2.6)

1. Occasionally (usually at the beginning of a round) the ball will break through more bricks that it seems like it should with no or little charging beforehand. This one's hard to reproduce, so maybe it's my imagination.
**

This generally happens when the ball is released hitting the exact outside corners of the bricks. As it kills one, it ricochets into the neighbor, and continues up hitting several others. I think of it more as a bonus if you can reproduce it, rather than a bug.

Quote

Originally posted by CapnChunky:
**
2. Someone else metioned this too, I think: on quitting the game, the Finder's menu bar gets messed up, but not other apps.
**

Hmm, I've not seen this happen, but will watch for it.

Quote

Originally posted by CapnChunky:
**
3. This just cropped up recently: I'm trying to start a PVP (same computer) game, but the only two buttons that appear are the Vs. Computer and Net Game options. Both mice are plugged in, and restarting doesn't make a difference. I'm trying reinstallation next, just curious if anyone else has had this one?**

Glad to see reading your subsequent post you've solved this.

Quote

Originally posted by CapnChunky:
**
And a question: would it be possible to use other MAD/MOD music files other than the ones Pop-Pop comes with?

Thank you, by the way, for making one of the best shareware programs ever. Well worth the price.**

Yes you can replace the MADK files. Previously posted by Sheldon:

Quote

It has a "Songs" folder in the "Data" folder, and, number one, it will only take MADK files (not MOD or XM or S3M or other module formats), and number two, if you want to put new files in the "Songs" folder for pop-pop to play, the new songs have to have the same name as the original songs, e.g. the new song that replaces J9_TOUR.MADK will also have to be renamed J9_TOUR.MADK.

For more information, go (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/webboard/Forum67/HTML/000322.html")here!(/url) And next time try searching before asking a question. Thanks!

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If you think I'm being mean, please tell me. I was actually going for NASTY!!

(This message has been edited by jinx (edited 07-06-2003).)

Mm. What I should have asked was, "Are the music filenames hard-coded?" but I guess so, then. I just thought it would be a nice feature to be able to drop my other MADs in the folder and have pop-pop play from the additional files as well as the originals...

I have only experienced one bug with pop-pop, when the game is starting up if I double click (when the progress bar is up), it ocassionally quits and I end up at my system login screen. I am running 10.2.6 on an G4 800mhz imac.

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I was wondering about parking at the Special Olympics, do they still just have the two spots near the front?

Quote

Originally posted by jasonhe:
**It always crash on my Windows XP Home Edition.

**

hello jasonhe! welcome to the boards!
As of now, pop pop is a Mac only game, which would explain your problems... However, it is being ported to Windows as we speak: check out (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/news/upcoming")Ambrosia's upcoming page(/url) for info on this. I hope to see you and many other Windows poppers on the tracker: the game could always use a little boost in players!

edit: I just remembered a little annoyance I had with pop pop on my 17 inch imac g4 running 10.2.3. When i am playing a full screen game than hit command f to play in a window, the cursor is still present in the finder, and located directly over the apple menu. whenever i click the mouse in the pop pop game, it opens and closes the menu in the finder. Not really a problem, but kind of obnoxious...
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:)™ "why buy postage stamps when we can make our own?"
The Dead Milkmen, Swordfish

(This message has been edited by (edited 08-02-2003).)