I think keyboard control is fine, but it would be more intuitive for cubers if you used keys matching standard notation - U,E,D, B,S,F, L,M,R for the faces and slices, X, Z and Y for the whole-cube rotations, and consistently had the unshifted key rotate clockwise and the shifted key anticlockwise. As it is there's no consistency ... K rotates its face clockwise, but H rotates its anticlockwise.
Wasn't aware there was a standard notation, I wanted to use a shape on the keyboard. Thanks for the info, may look at adding those combinations as an option.
There's a whole world of cubing, with websites and YouTube channels and speedsolving competitions. All the way back in the early 80s there was a newsletter, and that's where the standard notation was first published, by David Singmaster. The faces are lettered based on their orientation with respect to the person holding the cube: the one facing the cuber is F for Front, the one facing away from them is B for back, the one to their left is Left and the one to their right is Right. Now, the other two faces would be Top and Bottom, but that would introduce a collision on the letter B, so Singmaster instead uses U for Up and D for Down.
A letter by itself indicates that you should rotate that face a quarter turn clockwise. A letter with a prime/apostrophe, like R', means you rotate it counter-clockwise, and would naturally map to the shifted face letter on the keyboard. A letter followed by the number 2 indicates a 180º rotation, and it of course doesn't matter whether you do it clockwise or counter-clockwise.
The middle slices names are less obvious but fairly mnemonic. The horizontal slice between U and B is E for Equator, and "clockwise" is reckoned looking down through the Up face; the vertical slice between L and R is M for Middle, and clockwise is reckoned looking through the Left face; and the other vertical slice between F and B is called S for Standing, and clockwise is reckoned looking through the Front face.
For whole cube rotations, you use axis notation: the X axis runs between L and R, the Y axis between U and D, and the Z axes between F and B, and the name of the axis means to rotate the whole cube 90º around it. Direction around Y is the same as E, and direction around Z is the same as S, but perhaps confusingly, rotation around X is reckoned the opposite way it is for M, with X denoting a clockwise rotation as seen through R. This is consistent with the right-hand rule for algebraic axes, though; in each case you reckon clockwise by looking from the positive direction along the axis back toward the origin (which is at the center of the cube).
Not bad and interesting idea, but this game needs a joystick control additionally, for rotating the cube.Besides that, I like the idea, to bring the Rubiks-cube to the C64. One could, for example, combine the joysticks four directional keys with the firebutton and since the steering directions could then always be mapped to the cube's rotation directions, it would naturally be more intuitive, than keyboard controls and likely easier to remember.
One could have a controllable cursor e.g., directly on the cube (a small blinking sign), that the player can move back and forth, through all the single visible parts on the cube, by using the joystick's four directions. Then, depending on, where the player has positioned this cursor on the cube, the user could then rotate that specific section of the cube, by holding down the firebutton and moving in one of the four directions. Then, the player could release the firebutton again, place the cursor somewhere else on the cube and then rotate this part of the cube, and so on and so on. Of course, just a suggestion :-)
Interesting idea, thanks for that. I see what you mean about the joystick use being more intuitive, particularly with the direction. Challenge with that is to highlight the row/column to be moved - it was pretty difficult, technically, to display all of the colours in 3D as it is.
(1) The specific section you are currently on, could blink back and forth between its normal color and black,, so that it should remains clear, where on the cube you are located. Black could be used here, because it's not one of the cube's standard colors.
Or (2) only the outline of the section you are currently on, could be displayed in black (instead of the normal blue). Even that alone, should actually be sufficient, to make it visible to the player, where on the cube he is currently located.
Perhaps one of these two approaches could be implemented somehow?Unfortunately, I am not a programmer myself, so I cannot say exactly what's technically feasible and what's not. But I do think, that at least one of the two, should technically be possible.
Yeah, I was thinking along similar lines as number (2). I think that would also be more obvious when switching between the rows/columns by moving the joystick. Thanks for your suggestions, that's really useful.
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The controls take a little getting used to, but it's a functional game. I included it in my video along with other games released in May.
I think keyboard control is fine, but it would be more intuitive for cubers if you used keys matching standard notation - U,E,D, B,S,F, L,M,R for the faces and slices, X, Z and Y for the whole-cube rotations, and consistently had the unshifted key rotate clockwise and the shifted key anticlockwise. As it is there's no consistency ... K rotates its face clockwise, but H rotates its anticlockwise.
Wasn't aware there was a standard notation, I wanted to use a shape on the keyboard. Thanks for the info, may look at adding those combinations as an option.
There's a whole world of cubing, with websites and YouTube channels and speedsolving competitions. All the way back in the early 80s there was a newsletter, and that's where the standard notation was first published, by David Singmaster. The faces are lettered based on their orientation with respect to the person holding the cube: the one facing the cuber is F for Front, the one facing away from them is B for back, the one to their left is Left and the one to their right is Right. Now, the other two faces would be Top and Bottom, but that would introduce a collision on the letter B, so Singmaster instead uses U for Up and D for Down.
A letter by itself indicates that you should rotate that face a quarter turn clockwise. A letter with a prime/apostrophe, like R', means you rotate it counter-clockwise, and would naturally map to the shifted face letter on the keyboard. A letter followed by the number 2 indicates a 180º rotation, and it of course doesn't matter whether you do it clockwise or counter-clockwise.
The middle slices names are less obvious but fairly mnemonic. The horizontal slice between U and B is E for Equator, and "clockwise" is reckoned looking down through the Up face; the vertical slice between L and R is M for Middle, and clockwise is reckoned looking through the Left face; and the other vertical slice between F and B is called S for Standing, and clockwise is reckoned looking through the Front face.
For whole cube rotations, you use axis notation: the X axis runs between L and R, the Y axis between U and D, and the Z axes between F and B, and the name of the axis means to rotate the whole cube 90º around it. Direction around Y is the same as E, and direction around Z is the same as S, but perhaps confusingly, rotation around X is reckoned the opposite way it is for M, with X denoting a clockwise rotation as seen through R. This is consistent with the right-hand rule for algebraic axes, though; in each case you reckon clockwise by looking from the positive direction along the axis back toward the origin (which is at the center of the cube).
That's really useful. Thanks for the information, may take a look at that when I get the time.
Not bad and interesting idea, but this game needs a joystick control additionally, for rotating the cube. Besides that, I like the idea, to bring the Rubiks-cube to the C64. One could, for example, combine the joysticks four directional keys with the firebutton and since the steering directions could then always be mapped to the cube's rotation directions, it would naturally be more intuitive, than keyboard controls and likely easier to remember.
One could have a controllable cursor e.g., directly on the cube (a small blinking sign), that the player can move back and forth, through all the single visible parts on the cube, by using the joystick's four directions. Then, depending on, where the player has positioned this cursor on the cube, the user could then rotate that specific section of the cube, by holding down the firebutton and moving in one of the four directions. Then, the player could release the firebutton again, place the cursor somewhere else on the cube and then rotate this part of the cube, and so on and so on. Of course, just a suggestion :-)
Interesting idea, thanks for that. I see what you mean about the joystick use being more intuitive, particularly with the direction. Challenge with that is to highlight the row/column to be moved - it was pretty difficult, technically, to display all of the colours in 3D as it is.
Maybe it could be implemented in one of two ways:
(1) The specific section you are currently on, could blink back and forth between its normal color and black,, so that it should remains clear, where on the cube you are located. Black could be used here, because it's not one of the cube's standard colors.
Or (2) only the outline of the section you are currently on, could be displayed in black (instead of the normal blue). Even that alone, should actually be sufficient, to make it visible to the player, where on the cube he is currently located.
Perhaps one of these two approaches could be implemented somehow? Unfortunately, I am not a programmer myself, so I cannot say exactly what's technically feasible and what's not. But I do think, that at least one of the two, should technically be possible.
Yeah, I was thinking along similar lines as number (2). I think that would also be more obvious when switching between the rows/columns by moving the joystick. Thanks for your suggestions, that's really useful.