Posted August 31, 2017 by ltpitt
#user-request #timer #PICO-8 #LUA
Time for a new feature update!
Thanks to a suggestion from the kind nighteye424 Pong-ino now feature a small pause before spawning the ball.
To implement this feature I had to implement a timer which is a key concept in Interactive Computer Programming.
An Interactive application is generally working because of an endless loop and this makes timing trickier. If you have any experience with Arduino I think you've already experienced this kind of challenge.
A good way to brush up skills is trying to implement a Digital Stopwatch (with Start / Stop / Reset / Time Lapse and any feature you can think of).
Digging a bit I've found a very nice implementation in PICO-8's LUA made by BenWiley4000, here it is:
https://github.com/clowerweb/Lib-Pico8/blob/master/timers.lua
I've implemented it in my code and it seems to work very well.
The graphics are very basic for the moment (just a white text with another black text mimicing a shadow with an offset of 1 pixel) but I am happy with the integration.
I will work again on the graphic part to make it more eye pleasing soon :)