Singe API for Scoreboards (USB and Bezel)

[DirtBagXon]

Singe now has the ability to create Bezel Scoreboards, or use the Arduino USB Scoreboard, for player Scores, Lives and Credits.

scoreBezelEnable               (bool, type)
scoreBezelClear                (void)
scoreBezelCredits              (credits)
scoreBezelTwinScoreOn          (bool)
scoreBezelScore                (player, score)
scoreBezelLives                (player, lives)
scoreBezelGetState             (void)

The type for board styles are:

0 - IMAGE - Standard Dragon's Lair IMAGE Bezel Scoreboard
1 - BEZEL - An unlabelled, and re-positioned, version of the above for use with transparency and bezel backgrounds.
2 - USB - Use the Arduino USB Scoreboard. Use -usbscoreboard argument to configure hardware.
3 - PANEL - Use the Dragon's Lair external multi-screen Panel based Scoreboard. Only in -8bit_overlay

Games

Game LUA will need to be adjusted to enable, and update, the scoreboard using the API calls above.

A basic example is as follows:

Enable BEZEL style scoreboard, including Player 2 elements:

scoreBezelEnable(true, 1)
scoreBezelTwinScoreOn(true)

Then DIM the Player 2, six segment score display, by default, as we want to use it for auxiliary functions:

scoreBezelScore(2, -1)

Set some global variables to ensure updates are only made on an event:

BulletsPrev = 0
LivesPrev = 0
ScorePrev = 0

We then alter a drawLives() function to draw only on updates to Player 1:

function drawLives()

        if not (iLives == LivesPrev) then

                scoreBezelLives(1, iLives)
                LivesPrev = iLives
        end
end

Do the same with drawScores()

function drawScore()

        if not (iScore == ScorePrev) then

                scoreBezelScore(1, iScore)
                ScorePrev = iScore
        end

end

Bullet games can do something similar, we can blink something on Player 2 Score panel and use the Lives panel for bullets:

function drawBullets()

        if iBullets == 0 and bRealShow == false then

                blinkTimer(0.5)

                if heartbeat then
                        scoreBezelScore(2, -3)
                else
                        scoreBezelScore(2, -2)
                end
        end

        if not (iBullets == BulletsPrev) then

                scoreBezelLives(2, iBullets)
                BulletsPrev = iBullets

                if iBullets > 0 then
                        scoreBezelScore(2, -1)
                end
        end

end

Note: Show constraint on blink intervals, as some displays may have issues.

Finally, update Credits whenever they are changed:

    iCredits = iCredits - 1
    scoreBezelCredits(iCredits)
...
    iCredits = iCredits + 1
    scoreBezelCredits(iCredits)

Runing Hypseus

hypseus, after 0db8c36, does not need any arguments to allow the Scoreboard API.

However, you may wish to resize, or position, the bezel with the following arguments.

-scorebezel_position
-scorebezel_alpha
-scorebezel_scale

A background bezel can offer labellling to a transparent scoreboard bezel:

-bezel

See an demo of MadDog McCree running the BEZEL Scoreboard via API calls, using the above examples:

Call Arguments

scoreBezelEnable(true) - Enable/Disable the Bezel. (Boolean).

scoreBezelClear() - Will clear all LEDs to the OFF state until next update.

scoreBezelGetState() - will return boolean true/false if Bezel has been enabled.

scoreBezelTwinScoreOn(true) - Will allow score/lives update to Player 2 panels. Otherwise the LEDs will show OFF

Passing a score, or lives, value in the minus range to scoreBezelScore() or scoreBezelLives() will give the following results.

-1    - LED panel all off
-2    - 'dash' across LED panel
-3    - 'Spacer' across LED panel - full transparency via alpha switching.
-4    - 'H' across LED panel
-5    - 'A' across LED panel