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Grail of the Gods


Kiwi

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I stumbled into the Intellivision programming forum and saw, http://atariage.com/forums/topic/275233-grail-of-the-gods-rogue-like-or-mini-rpg/. So I decided to take a look at his source code to add in graphics tileset for the level and the monster. I did the same for the PC version of Sword of Fargoal. Eventually I 3D rendered a grail and then pixeled it to fit the Intellivision colorstack specification. Then I decided, why not make a Colecovision port of the game? It exist on the Intellivision, Dark Basic, and TI99/4A. The source code are available.

The only thing I couldn't transfer over is the maze generation. It seems to requires number bigger than 8-bit in order to draw the maze. So, I got the idea from majestyx version to do a mappack. There's 29 different map, majority been taken from the level generated from the Intellivision version. There are some unique maps that have a treasure room guarded by a later level monster, a gauntlet which you fight through every enemy in the game, chess piece map, and etc. The item and monster are place randomly based on the rules provided. I added more adjectives to the weapon and armor in jest since they do break easily, just like Zelda:Breath of the Wild. I added animation and sound effects for the battle. I added easy mode to add 10 more HP, atk, and armor every level up. Easiest mode add 20 HP,atk,and armor.

Here's a youtube video: Gauntlet on depth 6.



I tried to restrict it to only show up after depth 6, but it got buggy that the case got taken and won't load the monsters and items that's not the gauntlet map. You might survive it at level 1:depth 1 who knows.
No music because I'm not brave enough to compose one.

And it is my birthday month and wanted to contribute something for the Colecovision, enjoy: GrailoftheGodbugfix2.rom

Edit:If you have the first 2 ROMS, it contains bug that lead to a black screen due to lack of wall for the objects. So GrailooftheGodbugfix2 is the fixed version. I deleted the first 2.

Added on 2/27/2019:
Source code: GrailoftheGod.zip

Edited by Kiwi
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  • 4 weeks later...

Thanks for releasing this .ROM! It's a fun, quick, wonderful game. Reminds me very much of the Caverns of Freitag. I've found what may be a bug. Occasionally the game locks up and/or goes into an infinite loop when a level is finished. The screen clears and flashes purple and the game remains unusable until the user exits and restarts. It may just be an emulation bug; I'm using ColEm, but I've reproduced it also on CoolCV.

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Thanks for releasing this .ROM! It's a fun, quick, wonderful game. Reminds me very much of the Caverns of Freitag. I've found what may be a bug. Occasionally the game locks up and/or goes into an infinite loop when a level is finished. The screen clears and flashes purple and the game remains unusable until the user exits and restarts. It may just be an emulation bug; I'm using ColEm, but I've reproduced it also on CoolCV.

Thank you for letting me know.

 

It probably couldn't find where to place an object. I went to add fail safe to the function to see if when it check 255 times and can't find the number of walls that the object need, it'll change border color to what number of wall it needs(cyan 7, green 4, blue 2), and reduce the wall needed by 1. I only played it on BlueMSX.

 

I fixed depth 6 bug where it didn't load any objects for all maps. The one map that doesn't randomize is the monster gauntlet map where you have to fight every pair of monster that's in the game to get to the staircase/grail. Turns out one variable was also using the temporary variable. So creating another variable fixes that. The game only uses 36 bytes of RAM.

 

One bug I know that your corpse can fight the next monster in line, and that monster can rekill you. I decided to leave it in since it need to leave the routines to get to the main loop to exit the game loop.

Edited by Kiwi
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Thank you! I'm testing the new version now. Yes, I had also previously noticed that some levels would be empty- no monsters, treasures, and only an exit. Many thanks and much appreciation for all the ROMS you've released of your games. They've provided hours and hours of quality entertainment.

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Thank you for letting me know.

 

It probably couldn't find where to place an object. I went to add fail safe to the function to see if when it check 255 times and can't find the number of walls that the object need, it'll change border color to what number of wall it needs(cyan 7, green 4, blue 2), and reduce the wall needed by 1. I only played it on BlueMSX.

 

I fixed depth 6 bug where it didn't load any objects for all maps. The one map that doesn't randomize is the monster gauntlet map where you have to fight every pair of monster that's in the game to get to the staircase/grail. Turns out one variable was also using the temporary variable. So creating another variable fixes that. The game only uses 36 bytes of RAM.

 

One bug I know that your corpse can fight the next monster in line, and that monster can rekill you. I decided to leave it in since it need to leave the routines to get to the main loop to exit the game loop.

I like this game a lot. Thanks for sharing it. I was able to finish it on the easiest level a couple of times with the original rom on ColEm. As pointed out, the sixth level was empty one time and another time it was the seventh level. Working on completing the regular level.

I tried the fix rom but it kept crashing to a black screen for me randomly. Tried a few times but kept happening.

This is a fun game though. It has the feel of an Intelevision game.

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I like this game a lot. Thanks for sharing it. I was able to finish it on the easiest level a couple of times with the original rom on ColEm. As pointed out, the sixth level was empty one time and another time it was the seventh level. Working on completing the regular level.

I tried the fix rom but it kept crashing to a black screen for me randomly. Tried a few times but kept happening.

This is a fun game though. It has the feel of an Intelevision game.

Can you tell me what is happening before the crashes so I can narrow it down? I only played it on BlueMSX.

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Can you tell me what is happening before the crashes so I can narrow it down? I only played it on BlueMSX.

 

When I exit the door on a screen it just goes black. Last time it happened on level 10. I was using ColEm. I'll try BlueMSX, ect. to see if it happens on them. I don't get it on the original rom.

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Can you tell me what is happening before the crashes so I can narrow it down? I only played it on BlueMSX.

 

I make it through twice on CoolCV with no problem. I went back to ColEm and again it crashed to a black screen on about level 10 when exiting through the door. I'll try BlueMSX tomorrow. Getting a little tired of the game now.

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I've thoroughly tested the bugfixed rom as well, and the "level clear" bug is still there. It appears randomly upon exiting a level. Once it even appeared after clearing level 1. I am using ColEM. The "empty level" bug is gone. I've made it through the game several times, though. The level clear bug appears on in every mode, ie normal mode and "levelup" mode. The screen freezes and blinks purple very quickly with no interaction possible again until the emulator is reset. I tried again on CoolCV and made it through the entire game twice, then started a new game, and the level clear freeze came up after clearing level 4. It may be related to your randomizer / "placement of objects" code, but I'm not sure.

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I looked into it. Turns out my failsafe function wasn't working since the fail variable was resetting back to 0 in the loop instead of going up to 250 like it wanted.

Some of the maps have a lot of hallways. After the game place your player and the stairs/grail. It place the item first, which needs 7 walls. So the issue that the monster need exactly 4 walls, and the trap needs 2 walls. So the fail state reduce the number of walls that the item needed, and it loops back to 8 then count backward.

post-24767-0-06366300-1521514179.gif
Map 25 for example have a lot of hallways.

I got it to happen in BlueMSX and able to get the map number from the debugger, which helps narrow down the issue. I left the border color change in indicating it can't find the wall it needed.

Here's the for sure fixed ROM:GrailoftheGodbugfix2.rom

And added 1 new map that I was going to replace one of the map to the fixed bug version.

Edited by Kiwi
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I looked into it. Turns out my failsafe function wasn't working since the fail variable was resetting back to 0 in the loop instead of going up to 250 like it wanted.

 

Some of the maps have a lot of hallways. After the game place your player and the stairs/grail. It place the item first, which needs 7 walls. So the issue that the monster need exactly 4 walls, and the trap needs 2 walls. So the fail state reduce the number of walls that the item needed, and it loops back to 8 then count backward.

 

attachicon.gifgrailmap25.gif

Map 25 for example have a lot of hallways.

I got it to happen in BlueMSX and able to get the map number from the debugger, which helps narrow down the issue. I left the border color change in indicating it can't find the wall it needed.

 

Here's the for sure fixed ROM:attachicon.gifGrailoftheGodbugfix2.rom

 

And added 1 new map that I was going to replace one of the map to the fixed bug version.

 

I ran this new rom through to the end three times on ColEm on very easy level and there were no problems. I think you might have it. I'll try other difficulty levels though.

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  • 11 months later...

I forgot to attach the source code, so the first post now have the source code attached. I been browsing and experimenting with Arduboy stuff and they share source code, plus the other version of Grail of the Gods have release their source code. Plus, the game is finished and I don't feel it is right to publish it on cartridge, so source code is provided for those who are interested in coding for Colecovision in C.

Edited by Kiwi
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  • 1 year later...

Sorry I hadn't commented on this earlier, but you did an awesome job on this! Being that I owned a CV & a TI at the same time back in 1983, this is like reliving 8th & 9th grade for me. Plus with the enhanced version for TI available, it's way cool how this project took on a life of its own. Thanks for the port to CV~!

 

Note that it's also available for the Radio Shack MC-10 (programmed by Jim Gerrie), which is where I got the inspiration to make the all-text TI edition of it.

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