OK, I'm new to this DB thing (hehe), but I do have some QBASIC experience (liek that REALLY means anything). I have a general idea for Pong AI. You could set up stages, with the requirement to reach the next stage being to reach score 7 before the computer (shouldn't be too high as to create boredom in one stage). In the first stage, you could set the AI paddle to follow the ball, therefore hitting it. You could add in a descently small sized random number (RND(7)). -EDIT: Oops, forgot to mention that the random number is determined each time the player hits the ball.-If 0 to 3, the center of the paddle will follow the ball at the pace of the ball. If 4, then the paddle will lose a
little speed, most likely still able to return the ball. If 5 it get slower, 6 even slower, and 7 the slowest and will
definetly miss the ball. The player (if they are not blind) will beat the level.
On the higher levels, you could add in another variable to the mix. The ball will undoubtably be coded to move faster at this point (building speed with each level), but also, for every time the player successfuly hits the ball in a row, the chances that AI will miss the ball increase. At higher levels, the first several hits from the AI are sure hits, whereas each continues volly will increase the AIs chance of failing (moving too slow to hit the ball). You could create a variable to keep track of every consecutive hit by the player, then add that into the formula for the CPU AI. I have not fully worked this into code, as this is just an idea. I feel that this would put in a very realistic AI, getting tougher each stage, but with an element of suprise, coming from the random number in the AI equation.
This would also make the game much more fun, adding more of a deminsion of challenge. In the original Pong (the first with the AI), you set the difficulty at the beginning of the game, and it remainded the same all the way through. This way, it gets more challenging, making the player want to keep playing.
This is just an idea for a Pong AI. If anybody would like to try this idea out in your game, please let me know how it goes!
