private function pauseGame(e:Event = null):void {
            var collectible:Collectible;
            if (isPaused)
            {
                btnPause.gotoAndStop(1);
                trace("game is active");
                    var r:int = numChildren -1 ;
                    while ( r > -1 ) {
                        var myMC:MovieClip = (this.getChildAt(r)) as MovieClip;
                        var m:int = collectibles.length - 1;
                            while ( m > -1 ) {
                                collectible = collectibles[m];
                                    if ((myMC == collectible.graphic)){
                                        if (collectible.behaviourType == 3){

                                            if (myMC.currentFrame > 1){ 
                                                if (myMC.totalFrames > myMC.currentFrame ){
                                                trace("starting correct movieclips " +r);
                                                myMC.gotoAndPlay( myMC.currentFrame );
                                                m = -1;
                                                }
                                            }
                                        }
                                    }
                                m--;
                            }
                        r--;
                    }
            } else {
                    btnPause.gotoAndStop(2);
                    trace("game is paused");
                    var r:int = numChildren -1 ;
                    while ( r > -1 ) {
                        var myMC:MovieClip = (this.getChildAt(r)) as MovieClip;
                        var m:int = collectibles.length - 1;
                            while ( m > -1 ) {
                                collectible = collectibles[m];
                                    if ((myMC == collectible.graphic)){
                                        if (collectible.behaviourType == 3){

                                            if (myMC.currentFrame > 1){ 
                                                if (myMC.totalFrames > myMC.currentFrame ){
                                                trace("stopping correct movieclips " +r);
                                                myMC.gotoAndStop( myMC.currentFrame );
                                                m = -1;
                                                }
                                            }
                                        }
                                    }
                                m--;
                            }
                        r--;
                    } 
                }
            isPaused = !isPaused;  // Reverse the game.isPaused boolean value
        }

My Collectibles.as contains many of the variables I needed to access and once I had that the casting of object as movieclip was the key.

Michael Thanks so much, Jim

… thoughts right now are that I need to selectively do so.

ie if displayobject is a collectible type 3 then treat as movieclip .

Other wise seem to be getting some issues. And those are the only objects that are of concern.

Your logic is good, there’s just one little thing (which I haven’t covered in this tutorial) that you need to change.

This line here:

if object(r) == Mov*

First, rather than object(r) you should use this.getChildAt(r), like you’ve done above.

Second, to check what class an object is, you can use the is keyword, rather than ==.

So here’s a new if statement:

if ( this.getChildAt(r) is MovieClip )

Or, you could check:

if ( this.getChildAt(r) is Enemy )

…and so on.

Then, to stop the animation, you can simply do:

this.getChildAt(r).stop();

Actually, that might not work — Flash doesn’t know for sure that an object you obtain using getChildAt() has a stop() function. You have to tell it, “it’s OK, this is a MovieClip, so it’ll have stop()“:

( this.getChildAt(r) as MovieClip ).stop();

So, as says, “treat this as a MovieClip”.

Hope that helps

        private function pauseGame(e:Event = null):void
        {
            // Update the pause button based on the isPaused flag 
            if (isPaused)
            {
                btnPause.gotoAndStop(1);
                trace("game is active")
            } else {
                    btnPause.gotoAndStop(2);
                    trace("game is paused")
                    trace("Number of children of Stage: " + numChildren);
                    var r:int = numChildren -1 ;
                        while ( r > -1 ) {
                            trace(r);
                            trace("child at 33" + this.getChildAt(33));
                            trace("name " + this.getChildAt(r));
                            trace(this.getChildAt(r).name);
                            // if object(r) == Mov* then gotoAndStop  currentFrame somehow need to accomplish this or have that same effect
                            r--;
                        } //ends testing for moving objects when game is paused
                }
            isPaused = !isPaused;  // Reverse the game.isPaused boolean value
        }

the relevant output for traces returns this 33 child at 33[object MovPeople3] name [object MovPeople3] instance5575

At this time I am pretty positive the instance name is not being recognized from the formation of the movieclip in the flash cs3 and I suspect that is my biggest issue to tagging the current frame .. but not at all sure .. lots of research but no joy so far. that’s why posted to you.

exported to actionscript not on first frame Class setting = parkinggame.MovPeople3 Base Class = flash.display.MovieClip

Thks for perusing this much appreciated. Jim

What does your code look like at the minute?

You can use .stop() and .play() to pause and resume the animation of the movie clips, or .gotoAndStop( frameNumber ), .gotoAndPlay( frameNumber ) and .currentFrame to stop and play the animations at certain frames.

i’m trying to pause them along with pausing the game in general but cant seem to get true instance name while looping through the children of display object. If you could point me in right direction or something would be awesome as this might be last major hurdle I have not fixed yet after a month of reading and building. Thks, jim

Ditto for the boundaries (though this was an honest mistake on my part, at first). I really think it helps you more if you work out how to fix the problem yourself — as long as the tutorial teaches you enough to be able to do that, of course.

Cheers for sharing that code! Like you say, I’m sure it will help some people

if (this._x>=500) {

this._x = 500;

} else if (this._x<=0) {

this._x = 0;

}

if (this._y>=400) {

this._y = 400;

} else if (this._y<=0) {

this._y = 0;

}

}

this is for my unfinished-dumped-project-game. Would be cool if you added it, would help some people