Scrolling FROGS? Help! Opinions needed!
Ok, this is a big one (for me 😉 ) …
Some weeks ago I finally figured out ho to do a decent scrolling on the ATARI STe with my humble GFA basic – a first glimpse is visible as the page scrolling effect in the latest FROGS release 1.1

But I could not let go and I re-wrote the complete graphics drawing routines of FROGS using my new knowledge. For me this is first and foremost a proof of concept, of what is possible. In FROGS it is not much more than a nice effect, not really adding to the gameplay. But in theory I could apply the same idea to “Laserball 2015” and make it a completely new scrolling experience (lots of work!!!)

https://youtu.be/nD8IMFrdUj0

But the result is a mixed bag on another level:
- on an STe even with all that scrolling going on, the new logic pushed the possible frame-rate from 19 to a staggering 24 frames/second. (2 AI Frogs, Music playing)
- BUT on a standard ST missing the blitter the frame-rate drops from 15 to an unusable 8 frames/second.

So applying this to a new release would basically make FROGS a “STe-only” game.
And the same would happen to Laserball, if I use the technique there.
(having two drawing routines one for STe and one for ST would make the code very clunky)

Opinions please!
- What do you think about the scrolling effect in FROGS – does it add to the crazy action? Or is it distracting from the gameplay?
- What is more important? higher frame-rate/scrolling on an STe or playability on both ST+STe?

(Video recorded with Steem SSE emulating an standard 8mhz STe, 1mb ram)

Thanks!