5/6/2006: Pinheads
Wondering why you can't always duplicate your killer strikes in the new Pogo bowling game?
Here's the reason. They've set it up so the pins vary by a pixel here and a pixel there in various frames. Even if you use a precision method to line up the ball, it's not going to hit the same every time.
These screenshots have been sharpened up a bit but they're not resized and have been cropped with identical pixel counts. Note on the left that pins #8 and #9 are directly behind #2 and #3, but on the right the rear pins are each set in a bit toward the center. Also compare the different placements of pin #7, the bottom edges of pin #1, and the difference in how much of the top of pin #5 you can see behind pin #1 in the two shots:
For these two I was trying to make a "close-up" illusion comparing different #7 and #10 placements, which worked fine.. But when I cropped them using the same pixel coordinates, I was surprised at the relatively huge vertical difference. The pins on the left are quite a bit "closer" to you when you're bowling. Also, like the pair above, the #1 pin is set forward more than it is on the right, and there are quite a few differences in the spaces between various pins:
The game is pretty realistic so it's tempting to go at it like real bowling - throw a fast ball, use a curve, etc. - but that doesn't work well because it isn't bowling. It's a video game. The pins fall according to math, not physics. And since it's a Pogo video game it's got built-in and possibly random tweaks to "favor the house." Ten pins with four one-pixel variables in any of four directions each makes for a pretty high number of placement combinations to mess up even the most sure-fire precision placement plan you come up with.
I wouldn't be surprised if the guide dots on the alley also shift a bit with each frame to make even more variability to foil those high scores - that would be just like Pogo.
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