Cave-In (PAL50/60 versions available)

[gambler172]

Thanks to everyone for all the comments and suggestions, I appreciate it. I can probably add a "boulder run" room to the game in the same way that I added the railcar mini-game, it's a separate kernel that runs outside of the main game loop. That avoids the problem with the lack of cycles in the main game. It still involves a lot of trial and error testing, and I've been so busy at work and at home lately I just haven't had any time to work on this. I'm going to try and get back to this as soon as I can!

 

Steve

Hi Steve

Cannot wait to see the "Boulder Run" room,or how about a "Boulder Dash"like room?

greetings Walter

[+Atarius Maximus]

I'd like to think that this game is really close to being completed now. I've used some of the suggestions and made a few more changes to the game.

 

There is now a "boulder run" room that is used in four different places in the game and a "poison arrow" room that is used in two different places in the game. In the boulder run screen, there is a large boulder that will roll towards you, either up or down the screen depending on which side of the room you entered. Running directly through the middle of the boulder will take away almost all of your health - you definitely don't want to get hit! The poison arrow room was also inspired by an Indy movie scene - there are arrows that continuously shoot from both sides of the screen that you have to run through and avoid.

 

I spent a considerable amount of time cleaning up code and trying to sqeeze in the falling rocks in the locked cave rooms - I really want that feature to be in there. One of the things that I removed from this version was an enemy behavior. The enemies used to occasionally stop and move around without chasing you. They now will constantly chase you. That one little change made a big difference in ROM Space and in cycle saving. I tested the new version with the addition of the falling rocks again yesterday on real hardware and it works almost perfectly, there is a barely perceptible screen shake when they fall now, compared to a major screen shake the last time I tried this. I think I'll be able to get that feature working. In additon, I added the "screen shake" earthquake whenever the rocks are falling, which I haven't tested on real hardware yet. Assuming that works when I test later today, it would likely mask the slight screen shake, since the screen is supposed to be shaking anyway.

 

The music had to be removed from the titlescreen as well. It caused the screen to jump. I did as much code cleanup as I could, and it improved, but it still shakes. I decided to move the music routine to the "game win" screen, which I think works out well as a "reward" for completing the game. It should work fine on that screen, the game end screen is a much simpler game loop that should have plenty of free cycles to play the music in addiiton to displaying the screen.

 

The last suggestion that was made that I kind of liked but I'm a little torn on is a game timer. Should this be a timed game where you will slowly lose health, even if you're not doing anything? It may not be possible anyway, as it would probably require a couple of variables to keep track of time, and I think I'm about out of them.

 

I'm including a test vesrion of this game (adv177-test.bin) that places you inside the white castle, where you can sample the boulder run and poison arrow rooms quickly, as well as the falling rocks. Just move up from the room you start in, you'll run into both of those rooms pretty quickly.

 

Believe it or not, I've now used almost the entire 32k of ROM space for this game, there's only 739 bytes free:

 

96 bytes of ROM space left in bank 1

104 bytes of ROM space left in bank 2

118 bytes of ROM space left in bank 3

116 bytes of ROM space left in bank 4

135 bytes of ROM space left in bank 5

101 bytes of ROM space left in bank 6

68 bytes of ROM space left in bank 7

1 bytes of ROM space left in bank 8

 

Steve

adv177.bin

adv177_test.bin

adv177source.txt

[gambler172]

Hi Steve

great work.The minigames are great.I will check it on real hardware in the next days

greetings Walter

[+Atarius Maximus]

I had some time this afternoon to check it on real hardware and make some more changes to fix the issues that I came across. This version works great on real NTSC hardware, and includes all of the features I wanted. I'm now going to start some serious playtesting...the game itself is almost done now.

 

This version has only one major change over the last, I added difficulty switch options:

 

Left: A – Enemies are always at top speed, B - Normal Enemy movement.

Right: A – Lose one health unit with each room Change, B – No health reduction.

 

I thought the health reduction when changing rooms was a good compromise for espire8's suggestion. It still allows you to take a breather on a room with no enemies, but will still force you to make some intelligent choices when changing rooms, and more careful about being hit by enemies and obstacles. Combined with the faster enemies as the other difficulty switch option, it should make for a fairly challenging game.

 

There's been lots of changes since the last time I posted the instruction manual, so I've updated it and I'm posting it again. There is quite a lot to the game now, so it's almost a must read if you're playing the game for the first time. It does reveal quite a bit about the game however. The final, published manual will probably leave out some information for you to discover yourself in the game.

 

Steve

adv178source.txt

CaveIn_Instructions.doc

adv179.bin

Edited October 29, 2007 by Atarius Maximus

[espire8]

I thought the health reduction when changing rooms was a good compromise for espire8's suggestion. It still allows you to take a breather on a room with no enemies, but will still force you to make some intelligent choices when changing rooms, and more careful about being hit by enemies and obstacles. Combined with the faster enemies as the other difficulty switch option, it should make for a fairly challenging game.

Steve, you out did yourself.

 

The idea of reducing health for moving into the next room is even better than a timer! and far more realistic being that the player's health remains stable when idle. Not only did you perserve a built-in pause feature, but you also made it a difficulty option as well -not a compromise, but actualy a major improvement, and it plays extreamly well.

You surely had the right idea, and I'm thrilled you were able to free up enough cycles to keep the falling rocks!

The vertical layout of the boulder run scene is very well done and it still surprises me every time I run into it... like i'm not expecting it and I often jump at the moment it starts,..it's suspenceful! and the arrows are such a refreshing challenge too! The small rocks that fall from the ceiling is really cool (keeps me in the game much better) although I think the falling rock noise seems to sound annoying to me after a short while. Perhaps a low rumble sound would sufice?

 

Anyway, the gameplay now has the proper balance and is just so much fun to just run around and gasp as I suddenly find myself riding on a railcar,.. avoiding falling rocks, boulders and spears! It's certainly not just about shooting monsters anymore, and keeping Indy alive is just as involving as the quest itself!

 

I think a nice short looping Raiders theme music for the win game screen would be the perfect payoff for finishing the adventure. I'm really tempted to try one if there's room for it.

 

Steve, this is the kind of wonderful game I would personaly like to do a label for if you'll let me.

[+Atarius Maximus]

Hi Steve

great work.The minigames are great.I will check it on real hardware in the next days

greetings Walter

 

Thanks Walter. I'm glad you like the new sections of the game. In regards to your suggestion about a "boulder dash" like game, I'm afraid that's just not going to work. It was a good idea, though!

 

I thought the health reduction when changing rooms was a good compromise for espire8's suggestion. It still allows you to take a breather on a room with no enemies, but will still force you to make some intelligent choices when changing rooms, and more careful about being hit by enemies and obstacles. Combined with the faster enemies as the other difficulty switch option, it should make for a fairly challenging game.

Steve, you out did yourself.

 

The idea of reducing health for moving into the next room is even better than a timer! and far more realistic being that the player's health remains stable when idle. Not only did you perserve a built-in pause feature, but you also made it a difficulty option as well -not a compromise, but actualy a major improvement, and it plays extreamly well.

You surely had the right idea, and I'm thrilled you were able to free up enough cycles to keep the falling rocks!

The vertical layout of the boulder run scene is very well done and it still surprises me every time I run into it... like i'm not expecting it and I often jump at the moment it starts,..it's suspenceful! and the arrows are such a refreshing challenge too! The small rocks that fall from the ceiling is really cool (keeps me in the game much better) although I think the falling rock noise seems to sound annoying to me after a short while. Perhaps a low rumble sound would sufice?

 

Anyway, the gameplay now has the proper balance and is just so much fun to just run around and gasp as I suddenly find myself riding on a railcar,.. avoiding falling rocks, boulders and spears! It's certainly not just about shooting monsters anymore, and keeping Indy alive is just as involving as the quest itself!

 

I think a nice short looping Raiders theme music for the win game screen would be the perfect payoff for finishing the adventure. I'm really tempted to try one if there's room for it.

 

Steve, this is the kind of wonderful game I would personaly like to do a label for if you'll let me.

 

Thanks for the compliments, espire8. I appreciate all the extra help you've given me on this game with the titlescreen, sprites and your gameplay ideas.

 

You were right about the earthquake sound when the rocks are falling. I wanted some kind of sound in there - so I lowered the volume on that sound effect. It should be much less annoying now. This new version I'm posting corrects a few more minor items that I've been putting off - the hidden switch room was changed with an updated "switch" sprite that's just a simple round button that disappears when you press it. Sound issues were also corrected in that room. One other item that I hadn't thouht of was the crown piece rooms in the caves. They use the ball, and so does the falling rock. I disabled the falling rocks in those rooms so you could still pick up the crown piece.

 

I've had several offers to help with music (and I appreciate those offers!), but I know it's very time consuming to code music and I didn't really expect anyone to jump in and finish a song for me. If you want to take a look at http://www.alienbill.com/2600/basic/music/, I directly copied his music engine into my game, so if you created a song using his music engine I could directly paste it into my game. He's got a nice tutorial on that page about how to translate a simple song into his engine.

 

I've talked to Albert about a cartridge release quite some time ago, and we've already got Dave Exton lined up to do a label for the game. He may already have one done, I haven't been in contact with him about it recently. Thanks so much for the offer though!

 

Steve

adv180source.txt

adv180.bin

[Albert]

I've talked to Albert about a cartridge release quite some time ago, and we've already got Dave Exton lined up to do a label for the game. He may already have one done, I haven't been in contact with him about it recently. Thanks so much for the offer though!

 

Steve

You should contact him, I know he's eager to do the label for this game.

 

..Al

[+Atarius Maximus]

I've talked to Albert about a cartridge release quite some time ago, and we've already got Dave Exton lined up to do a label for the game. He may already have one done, I haven't been in contact with him about it recently. Thanks so much for the offer though!

 

Steve

You should contact him, I know he's eager to do the label for this game.

 

..Al

 

Yes, I was planning on contacting him soon.

 

I had time to go home for lunch today, so I made a few more tweaks and did some more testing on my cuttle cart. Everything looks good, I couldn't find any major bugs or compatibility problems. I made a few more minor changes today, but this really should be about it now except for a music update for the end of the game screen. I'm really out of ROM space now to make any more major revisions, but there's enough space left to make minor changes & tweaks if I would happen to come across some problems in the game.

 

Changes for this revision:

 

1. Changed the random locations of the hidden keys for the locked cave entrances.

2. Changed the boulder movement in the rail car sequence when there is a collision.

3. All screens (except for hidden rooms and mini-games) now have the earthquake effect when you fire your gun, however you only get the falling rocks when you're inside of a locked cave. If you touch the playfield, you get the rumble sound. When you fire your gun, it's still just the gunfire sound.

 

Now I need to get started on a final revision of the instuction manual and map!

 

Steve

adv182.bin

adv182source.txt

[+Atarius Maximus]

Almost Done!

 

I'm working with David Exton now on coming up with a label for the game, and hopefully it will be on sale in the store before the end of the year. I'm also working on an instruction manual and map to go along with the release of the game.

 

This version I would consider to be the "release candidate", and I could really use some help playtesting it. I've got all of the final tweaks and enhancements I wanted, and now I just need to keep playing the game to make sure there's no bugs. I'm using about 31.2k of ROM space, so there's not much room for new additions. It can take over an hour to beat the game, so anyone else that's up for it, I'd love to see someone else play through the whole game and make sure everything works as expected. The time consuming part is finding all of the keys, as they're randomly scattered around the mine every time you start.

 

The only thing that's left to do is change (or eliminate) the song that plays at the end of the game when you win. It does seem to cause a slight screen jitter, so I may have to get rid of that feature entirely. I really wanted some music in the game, but that just may not work out. Even with a static playfield and one sprite on the screen that never moves, the basic, stripped down music engine still causes a slight screen shake. Having a single voice song may work (just removing the bass track...I haven't tried that yet), although it wouldn't sound great.

 

Anyway, here it is....

 

Steve

CaveIn_RC1.bin

[+Nathan Strum]

I guess I need to check this forum a little more often.

 

Really impressive game! I'll look into testing this on my Krokodile Cart sometime this weekend.

 

I read the docs and the entire thread, just to catch up on things. It's taken me a couple of days, otherwise I would have posted sooner.

 

I have a few comments, most of which have already been touched on at some point. But here they are, for what they're worth.

• This has the best player-death animation in a 2600 game!
  
• I'm really impressed by the size of the game and the designs of the layouts.
  
• Nice variety in the mini-games. It really helps distinguish it from just being a run-around-and-shoot-stuff game.
  
• The sprites look great - but it would be really nice to have them animated. Even just a simple two-frame animation would add a lot of life to them. Even at the expense of fewer, different sprites.
  
• I'm not a big fan of the enemies passing through the walls. I'd rather see them have to obey the same laws of physics that I do. I think it would also make them more challenging to get around, especially in certain room layouts.
  
• I'm also not a fan of unlimited ammo. There are a lot of unused rooms that would be great places to put ammo boxes (a simple ball would do for that). Especially some of the dead-ends, since often, there's no reason to go all the way to the ends of those rooms. If there was ammo in there, there would be more incentive to get into some of those nooks and crannies, and risk getting past the bad guys.
  
• The transition to the mine cart is a bit abrupt. I think it would work better if you had to get up onto the mine cart, and then it would take off, rather than just finding yourself in it and out of it again.
  
• The keys look a lot alike. How about really different designs for each one? They could even have names associated with them, to make them memorable.
  
• I kind of miss having a score, although the inventory makes up for it. But could there be more things to collect? Like gold bars? Again, it would be a good use of the unused rooms (and wouldn't require using a sprite - just a missile or ball).
  
• It'd be great to have some of the venomous critters spit at you. It'd make them a bit more challenging to deal with.
  
• Music would be great to have in this. Have you asked around the main Homebrew forum for help? There are quite a few programmers good at optimizing and writing music that might be willing to contribute. I don't know how many of them even know this game is this far along (I sure didn't).
  

I've thrown together a short animated GIF, with a couple of these ideas:

• Perhaps the three squares (crown pieces) in the inventory could be used for gold bars instead. Then the crown would be shown in pieces, as you find them. When you get all three, you see a full crown - but it's still not assembled. After it's assembled your inventory changes color (to gold, for instance).
   
  
• Also shown is an idea for representing ammo in the inventory. The ammo within the mazes would be a simple box (using a ball or missile) and each box would contain six bullets (this is used to good effect in Wolfenstein VCS). In the inventory, you could show up to 12 shots in the same space the gun took up before. Switching to the gun power-up could then give you more powerful shots, but only six of them.
   
  
• Finally, a different take on the keys. From left to right: The Skull Key, The Spider Key, The Evil Eye key. This would visually distinguish the keys from each other, and add a little more to the backstory.
  

Sorry for the lateness of these suggestions. Hope they can be of some use.

 

[gambler172]

Hi Steve

Checked your actual version. Works right so far.A new map would be good,because the random keys make the game much more difficult.And i have one question.Do you loose energy,while walking?

Because,while walking around(and having only small energy),suddenly i ran out of energy and died.But i did not touch an enemy or a lava wall.And what does it have with the medicin potions,you find in the game?

Sometimes,when taking one,it seems,that i do not get more energy.

"Cave In"is really great and my game of the year.

greetings Walter

[+Atarius Maximus]

Hi Nathan,

 

Thanks for your reply! Your suggestions are excellent, and worthy of a reply to each point.

 

I guess I need to check this forum a little more often.

Really impressive game! I'll look into testing this on my Krokodile Cart sometime this weekend.

I read the docs and the entire thread, just to catch up on things. It's taken me a couple of days, otherwise I would have posted sooner.

 

Thanks! I'm hoping that the game works ok on a Kroko cart and a real 2600, I've only been able to test it on a 7800.

 

I have a few comments, most of which have already been touched on at some point. But here they are, for what they're worth.

 

[*]This has the best player-death animation in a 2600 game!

 

Thanks! You can give credit to espire8 for that, he created all of the animation cells for that for me. It turned out great.

 

[*]I'm really impressed by the size of the game and the designs of the layouts.

 

Thanks again! I created the map before I really had an idea of where I was going with the game. I really just wanted to make a large map to explore, and I figured I'd flesh out the details later. I always wanted an adventure game on the Atari that was much larger than the original Adventure, but I aslo didn't want it to be an endless repetition of the same screens, like the invisible mazes in the Adventure remake 'Indenture'.

 

[*]Nice variety in the mini-games. It really helps distinguish it from just being a run-around-and-shoot-stuff game.

 

I wish I could add more, but each one takes up a ton of ROM space. They all have to be their own mini-kernel, it just does't work to add them in to the main game loop.

 

[*]The sprites look great - but it would be really nice to have them animated. Even just a simple two-frame animation would add a lot of life to them. Even at the expense of fewer, different sprites.

 

It's been awhile since I've tried, but the method I'm using for selecting enemy sprites makes it very difficult to animate them. They are loaded during the "change rooms" subroutine, so the code for changing enemy sprites is not in the main game loop. As a result, there is no easy way to change the enemy sprite once the room has been loaded up. I know I'm doing that now with the health pack, but the method I'm using is very inefficient, it wouldn't work well for animation. I'll give it a shot again, but I just don't think I'm going to be able to do it.

 

[*]I'm not a big fan of the enemies passing through the walls. I'd rather see them have to obey the same laws of physics that I do. I think it would also make them more challenging to get around, especially in certain room layouts.

 

Agreed, it would add a whole new dynamic to the game if the enemies couldn't pass through walls. I was always thinking of the original adventure while I was working on this game, and the dragons could pass through walls in that game. While it may be possible to add this now, it would probably require removing an existing feature. The last feature I added was the falling rocks in the locked cave rooms, and that tooks hours of tweaking and code optimization to make it work. Adding a major revision like that now may not be possible - but it is a very good idea, and I'll give it one more shot.

 

[*]I'm also not a fan of unlimited ammo. There are a lot of unused rooms that would be great places to put ammo boxes (a simple ball would do for that). Especially some of the dead-ends, since often, there's no reason to go all the way to the ends of those rooms. If there was ammo in there, there would be more incentive to get into some of those nooks and crannies, and risk getting past the bad guys.

 

Limited ammunition is something that I attempted in an early revision, and I never got it to work correclty. I never developed a method to count the number of bullets fired correctly, holding the button down continuosly always screwed up my gun counter. I can look into that option again, but the same problem of limited ROM space and cycles may prevent it.

 

[*]The transition to the mine cart is a bit abrupt. I think it would work better if you had to get up onto the mine cart, and then it would take off, rather than just finding yourself in it and out of it again.

 

This I think I could update fairly easily, as the mine cart screens are in their own loop. I look into adding a screen on both ends where you have to enter and exit it.

 

[*]The keys look a lot alike. How about really different designs for each one? They could even have names associated with them, to make them memorable.

 

This is a fantasic idea, I'm not sure why I didn't think of that to begin with. I will definitely change that. Would you mind if I used the exact sprite designs for the keys in your screenshot? I really like them.

 

[*]I kind of miss having a score, although the inventory makes up for it. But could there be more things to collect? Like gold bars? Again, it would be a good use of the unused rooms (and wouldn't require using a sprite - just a missile or ball).

 

Yes, I'd thought of that, but without a score I couldn't think of a reason that you'd want to go find and collect them. Any ideas? I had originally used the health packs that appeared as gold bars that increased your score, until I switch the score to an inventory system.

 

[*]It'd be great to have some of the venomous critters spit at you. It'd make them a bit more challenging to deal with.

 

Another very good idea, but I don't have a good way to do that. One missile is used for the player's gun, and the other missile is used so the player sprite can be multicolored (a bB limitation). I supposed I could use the ball for that, but they the enemies could not fire when the ball is already on the screen, which would be on the screens where you pick up crown pieces, when the rocks are falling, and when you're carrying the shield. I could also run into ROM space and cycle issues with this one, as it would take a lot of code to make that change. This one is worth a shot using the ball though, I do a little testing and see if it's possible.

 

[*]Music would be great to have in this. Have you asked around the main Homebrew forum for help? There are quite a few programmers good at optimizing and writing music that might be willing to contribute. I don't know how many of them even know this game is this far along (I sure didn't).

 

I am SO bad at creating music. The music that's in there now is the theme music from Joust Pong, because I pulled the demo music engine directly from Kirk's page and inserted it into my game. I recently discovered that it causes a slight screen jitter, so I may not be able to use it even if I did create my own tune with it.

 

You're right, most (or all) of the homebrew authors probably don't even know this game exists, as they probably don't frequent this forum. I've never felt very comfortable asking for help in the homebrew forum, as I know everyone is very busy with their own projects, and creating music for the 2600 is not something you can do in just a few minutes - it's a pretty big favor to ask. I'll go ahead and make a post in the homebrew forum, maybe someone would be willing to help.

 

[*]Perhaps the three squares (crown pieces) in the inventory could be used for gold bars instead. Then the crown would be shown in pieces, as you find them. When you get all three, you see a full crown - but it's still not assembled. After it's assembled your inventory changes color (to gold, for instance).

 

That's a good idea too, but it may not be possible. The inventory is still based on the bB score routine, which means I can have 10 distinct objects that are displayable on the screen. I just change the numbers in the score to object sprites. I'm using 5 digits now: 3 Keys, 1 Crown Piece, & 1 Gun. I'd need to use a different digit to represent each section of the crown. If I made each crown piece represent a specific section, I wouldn't have enough, I'd be one digit short:

 

Digit 1: Key1

Digit 2: Key2

Digit 3: Key3

Digit 4: Gun

 

Digit 5: XXX Complete Crown

 

Digit 6: X00 Piece 1 Collected - Piece 2 No - Piece 3 No

Digit 7: 0X0 Piece 1 No - Piece 2 Collected - Piece 3 No

Digit 8: 00X Piece 1 No - Piece 2 No - Piece 3 Collected

 

Digit 9: X0X Piecd 1 Collected - Piece 2 No - Piece 3 Collected

Digit 10: XX0 Piece 1 Collected - Piece 2 Collected - Piece 3 No

Digit 11: 0XX Piece 1 No - Piece 2 Collected - Piece 3 Collected

 

If I made the crown assemble in order from left to right no matter which cave you visited first, it might work:

 

Digit 1: Key1

Digit 2: Key2

Digit 3: Key3

Digit 4: Gun

Digit 5: XXX Complete Crown

Digit 6: X00 Piece 1 Collected - Piece 2 No - Piece 3 No

Digit 7: 0X0 Piece 1 No - Piece 2 Collected - Piece 3 No

Digit 8: 00X Piece 1 No - Piece 2 No - Piece 3 Collected

 

The 3 squares could then be used for represeting the gold bars - but how would that fit into the storyline, and what would be the motiviation for collecting them? I'm still not sure if this is all completely possible, as the inventory system I developed is horribly inefficient. It uses a ton of ROM space, and adding what you're suggesting could add dozens of lines of if-then statements.

 

[*]Also shown is an idea for representing ammo in the inventory. The ammo within the mazes would be a simple box (using a ball or missile) and each box would contain six bullets (this is used to good effect in Wolfenstein VCS). In the inventory, you could show up to 12 shots in the same space the gun took up before. Switching to the gun power-up could then give you more powerful shots, but only six of them.

 

I may be able to do something like this if I could figure out the code for making the shots limited in the first place, but it would have to be instead of the crown piece idea mentioned above - due to the limited amount of sprites that can be included in the inventory, and the number of conditional statements that have to be added to that subroutine.

 

[*]Finally, a different take on the keys. From left to right: The Skull Key, The Spider Key, The Evil Eye key. This would visually distinguish the keys from each other, and add a little more to the backstory.

 

I definitely like this idea, I'll be making that change.

 

Sorry for the lateness of these suggestions. Hope they can be of some use.

 

Thank you very much for all of the suggestions. I really appreciate it, and I hope I can implement some of them. I've made so many concessions and tradeoffs to get the game to where it is now - it's so hard to make a game absolutely perfect and get everything you want included within the constraints of the 2600. I think the game would still stand pretty well as it is now, even if I can't make any more changes, don't you?

 

Steve

[+Atarius Maximus]

Hi Steve

Checked your actual version. Works right so far.A new map would be good,because the random keys make the game much more difficult.And i have one question.Do you loose energy,while walking?

Because,while walking around(and having only small energy),suddenly i ran out of energy and died.But i did not touch an enemy or a lava wall.

And what does it have with the medicin potions,you find in the game?

Sometimes,when taking one,it seems,that i do not get more energy.

"Cave In"is really great and my game of the year.

greetings Walter

 

Check your difficulty switches, you probably have your right difficulty switch set to A. I recently made a change and added some difficulty options. The left difficulty switch controls the speed of the enemies, and the right difficulty switch controls how your health is reduced. Changing the right difficulty switch to A will cause your health to decrease by 1 point every time you change rooms.

 

Here's a quick rundown of how the health system works:

 

You start out with 80 points of heatlh and 8 health blocks on the screen. Each block of health on the screen represents 10 health points. When you're hit by an enemy, one point is removed. After you are hit 10 times, you'll lose one block on the screen. When you pick up a health pack, the current 10 point health counter is reset to full, so you won't actually see an onscreen improvement in your health bar, because it resets your current health block to the full 10 point amount.

 

The health reduction idea was proposed by espire8, and I thought it would make a good difficulty switch option. It increases the difficulty of the game quite a bit, so I didn't want to make it a default option.

 

Steve

[+Nathan Strum]

Thanks! I'm hoping that the game works ok on a Kroko cart and a real 2600, I've only been able to test it on a 7800.

I tested it some this weekend, and from what I've seen, it seems to be working fine. No rolls or glitches that I could see. I'll revisit it some more this week, as I have time.

 

I did notice one thing though, that when you go into a room with a gate (or the fountain), if you fire your gun behind the gate, the sound effect will "stick" on. This happens in emulation, too.

 

Would you mind if I used the exact sprite designs for the keys in your screenshot? I really like them.

Please do!

 

You're right, most (or all) of the homebrew authors probably don't even know this game exists, as they probably don't frequent this forum. I've never felt very comfortable asking for help in the homebrew forum, as I know everyone is very busy with their own projects, and creating music for the 2600 is not something you can do in just a few minutes - it's a pretty big favor to ask. I'll go ahead and make a post in the homebrew forum, maybe someone would be willing to help.

It never hurts to ask. I think they would be surprised at the scope of this game.

 

Thank you very much for all of the suggestions. I really appreciate it, and I hope I can implement some of them.

You're welcome! I try to give feedback on any projects where it's asked for. I know it's not all going to get used, but maybe it will spark something else that's useful.

 

I've made so many concessions and tradeoffs to get the game to where it is now - it's so hard to make a game absolutely perfect and get everything you want included within the constraints of the 2600. I think the game would still stand pretty well as it is now, even if I can't make any more changes, don't you?

Agreed. At some point, you have to call it "done", or it never will be. And ultimately, it has to be your game, and you have to be the one satisfied with it. You can't put everything in a 2600 game. I think that's really the challenge of it all - deciding what absolutely must go in, to make the game what you want it to be.

 

Whatever the final details, it's an impressive game, and nobody should ever complain about it being too short.

[+Nathan Strum]

Incidentally, if Dave Exton wants to use the batariBasic logo in the manual, I can send him the Photoshop file of it. Just have him PM me. (A JPEG version is available here.)

Edited November 5, 2007 by Nathan Strum

[+Atarius Maximus]

Nathan,

 

I went through all of your suggestions very carefully, and unfortunately I couldn't use most of them. The bottom line is I just don't have the ROM space or machine cycles to implement them.

 

This revision fixes some bugs that I found and adds a few minor updates. I'm now down to about 500 bytes free.

 

Overview of what's new since CaveIn_RC1 (V185)

1. Fixed sound bug when firing gun underneath locked cave gate (gunfire sound would remain on)

2. Fixed bug when exiting locked caves (character was unable to exit).

3. Fixed bug when leaving boss monster room after picking up crown (falling rocks were wrong size)

4. Fixed bug - when picking up a health pack in crown piece room, the crown piece would disappear.

5. Updated key graphics to make them more unique (Used your key graphics)

6. Updated railcar minigame so that you fall into the mine shaft and land on a railcar when you enter.

7. Updated railcar minigame so the character will duck and flinch when hit by a boulder.

8. Added option for gunshots that cannot pass through walls.

9. Changed Console Switch options:

Color/BW:

BW – Enemies are always at top speed.

Color - Normal Enemy movement.

Left:

A – Gunshots cannot pass through cave walls.

B – Gunshots will pass through cave walls.

Right:

A – Lose one health unit with each room Change

B – No health reduction when changing rooms.

 

So, after several days of trying new things and testing, the only major change to gameplay is the option to make your gun unable to shoot through walls. the updates to the Railcar sequence were really just visual. Also, because of the lack of ROM space now, I don't think adding music is going to be possible. The largest contiguous block of space I have now is 199 bytes in bank 5, that's probably not enough to add a tune.

 

Time to do some more playtesting and make sure there are no more bugs in the game. Hopefully no more will be found.

 

Steve

CaveIn_RC2.bin

[+Atarius Maximus]

This revision fixes some more bugs and adds a level select screen. The difficulty switches no longer do anything.

 

Game 1 - Novice

 

Shots fire through walls

enemies move at normal speed

no health reduction when changing rooms

keys are always hidden in the same rooms

 

Game 2 - Beginner

 

Shots fire through walls

enemies move at normal speed

no health reduction when changing rooms

key locations are randomized

 

Game 3 - Intermediate

 

shots cannot fire through walls

enemies move at top speed

no health reduction when you change rooms

key locations are randomized

 

Game 4 - Advanced

 

shots cannot fire through walls

enemies move at normal speed

health reduction when you change rooms

key locations are randomized

 

Game 5 - Expert

 

shots cannot fire through walls

enemies move at normal speed

health reduction when you change rooms

key locations are randomized

You start out with no gun - you'll have to find it.

 

Edit: Binary removed.

 

 

Steve

Edited November 10, 2007 by Atarius Maximus

[+Atarius Maximus]

I found a bug when playtesting the latest binary, the health reduction part of the game stopped working after you picked up the gun upgrade. That's been fixed.

 

Also, Instead of pushing fire to start the game on the level select screen, push right on the joystick. This was necessary because pushing the fire button on the titlescreen also registers as a fire button push on the level select screen, and it automatically started game 1 when you pushed fire from the titlescreen. I don't know how to get around that problem yet.

 

I did a quick one minute check of this binary on real hardware and it seems to work ok.

 

Steve

cavein_rc3.bin

Edited November 10, 2007 by Atarius Maximus

[MausGames]

To do a joystick button pressed, released, and pressed again:

 

If joy0fire && k = 0 then k = 1

if !joy0fire && k = 1 then k = 2

if joy0fire && k = 2 then do whatever

 

 

I know it sucks, but it's the only way I know how to do this...

[+Atarius Maximus]

To do a joystick button pressed, released, and pressed again:

 

If joy0fire && k = 0 then k = 1

if !joy0fire && k = 1 then k = 2

if joy0fire && k = 2 then do whatever

 

 

I know it sucks, but it's the only way I know how to do this...

 

Thanks Maus, I'll give that a shot when I get some time. I just played a little more, and fixing one bug caused another. Now after you pick up the gun upgrade and leave that room, you can no longer fire at all. It will be easy to fix, I'm just out of time tonight to fix it and post an update.

 

Steve

[+Nathan Strum]

I went through all of your suggestions very carefully, and unfortunately I couldn't use most of them. The bottom line is I just don't have the ROM space or machine cycles to implement them.

Such is life. Maybe they'll come in handy for some future game.

 

Found a bug (or at least a glitch) in the latest binary:

 

When you go a couple of screens to the left (from the start), then descend into the dark tunnels, there's a brief flash right before the lights go out, where you see these two screens (I caught them with the Stella debugger):

 

 

 

By the way - I like how you drop into the mine car now.

Edited November 10, 2007 by Nathan Strum

[+Atarius Maximus]

I went through all of your suggestions very carefully, and unfortunately I couldn't use most of them. The bottom line is I just don't have the ROM space or machine cycles to implement them.

Such is life. Maybe they'll come in handy for some future game.

 

Found a bug (or at least a glitch) in the latest binary:

 

When you go a couple of screens to the left (from the start), then descend into the dark tunnels, there's a brief flash right before the lights go out, where you see these two screens (I caught them with the Stella debugger):

 

 

 

By the way - I like how you drop into the mine car now.

 

Nathan,

 

I found and fixed the problem with entering and exiting the dark rooms, that's been there from the beginning. It flashes on and off the screen so quickly, it never really bothered me that much.

 

I'll be posting a new update with lots of bug fixes and a few new enhancements soon.

 

 

EDIT: This problem has been fixed in the latest revision, CaveIn_RC6.bin.

Steve

Edited November 21, 2007 by Atarius Maximus

[+Atarius Maximus]

To do a joystick button pressed, released, and pressed again:

 

If joy0fire && k = 0 then k = 1

if !joy0fire && k = 1 then k = 2

if joy0fire && k = 2 then do whatever

 

 

I know it sucks, but it's the only way I know how to do this...

 

Thanks Maus, I'll give that a shot when I get some time.

 

Steve

 

Thanks so much for the tip, it works perfectly!

 

 

 

Attached is the latest revision, CaveIn_RC5. There were numerous bug fixes, and some changes to the difficulty levels:

 

Game Modes:

 

Game 1 - Beginner

 

Shots fire through walls

enemies move at normal speed and never have a fast attack

no health reduction when changing rooms

keys are always hidden in the same rooms

 

Game 2 - Novice

 

Shots fire through walls

enemies move at normal speed with occasional fast attacks

no health reduction when changing rooms

key locations are randomized

 

Game 3 - Intermediate

 

shots cannot fire through walls

enemies move at top speed all the time

no health reduction when you change rooms

key locations are randomized

 

Game 4 - Advanced

 

shots cannot fire through walls

enemies move at normal speed with occasional fast attacks

1 point health reduction when you change rooms, after you are down to 3 health blocks left

key locations are randomized

 

Game 5 - Expert

 

shots cannot fire through walls

enemies move at normal speed with occasional fast attacks

1 point health reduction when you change rooms, after you are down to 3 health blocks left

key locations are randomized

You start out with no gun - you will have to find it.

 

Game 6 - Insane

 

shots cannot fire through walls

enemies move at top speed all the time

1 point health reduction when you change rooms, after you are down to 3 health blocks left

key locations are randomized

You start out with no gun - you will have to find it.

Your gun will occasionally jam and can't be fired - it will make a "jammed" noise but not fire.

there is no 'longer shot' gun upgrade, the gun will fire only half the normal distance.

falling rocks in the locked caves will fall twice as fast

Enemies will die after attacking and hitting you 8 times.

 

Steve

CaveIn_RC5.bin

Edited November 14, 2007 by Atarius Maximus

[gambler172]

Hi Steve

I had some time to check your actual version of "Cave In".Works nice so far,but i found a little bug????

Have a look at the screen photo,i took.When shooting the enemy,i could not reach the medical kit.

greetings Walter

[+Atarius Maximus]

Hi Steve

I had some time to check your actual version of "Cave In".Works nice so far,but i found a little bug????

Have a look at the screen photo,i took.When shooting the enemy,i could not reach the medical kit.

greetings Walter

 

That's been fixed in this version, as well as whole lot of other minor tweaks, fixes, and gameplay adjustments. I've gotten lots of feedback and suggestions via PM, and I've been trying to incorporate all of the new ideas I've had for the game. The graphical glitch that Nathan described when entering and exiting the invisible maze rooms has also been fixed. I've been working on changing some aspects of the game to try and make it more fun to play...I hope everyone agrees.

 

I've reduced the number of games from six to three, as many of the options were not different enough to warrant their own level. Here's how the game is set up now:

 

Gun Change - You cannot fire the gun a 2nd time until the bullet has traveled the entire distance it shoots, or until it hits a wall.

There is no longer a gun upgrade - it's now just a room where you can recover your gun. The gun now always shoots at maximum distance.

I found that the distance the gun fired did not affect gameplay enough to make it worth being it's own game option.

 

Locked Cave Change - You now cannot exit the caves with the crown pieces until you have found the individual crown piece. This does not apply to the final (green) cave.

 

Enemy death change - It's very minor - but the enemies now explode in 'blood red'.

 

Powerup Change - I updated how the powerups are displayed on the screen, they should now always be reachable. I also increased their size.

 

Default options for all games - shots cannot fire through walls, enemies will die after attacking 7 times.

You lose your gun if you drop one health block, enemies will now drop a gun too sometimes (in addition to the health pack) if you don't currently have one.

You will move more slowly when your health bar gets down to 3 blocks or less.

Note: Enemies will not drop a gun for you in Games 2 & 3 until after you've found the gun for the first time.

Additional Note: Search well for the keys in each room, some areas of the room may not drop the key, others will.

 

Game 1 - Beginner

 

Enemies move at normal speed and never have a fast attack

No health reduction when changing rooms

Keys are always hidden in the same rooms

You start the game with your gun - but can still lose it.

 

Game 2 - Intermediate

 

Enemies move at normal speed with occasional fast attacks

1 point health reduction when you change rooms only after you are down to 3 health blocks left

Key locations are randomized

You start out with no gun - you will have to find it.

 

Game 3 - Advanced

 

Enemies move at top speed all the time

1 point health reduction when you change rooms at all times

Key locations are randomized

You start out with no gun - you will have to find it.

Falling rocks in the locked caves will fall twice as fast

 

I think that's all the changes. I'll update the instruction manual with these changes and post an udpate of it soon. This version has not been playtested very much yet, and I still need to test this on hardware, but it should work ok. There's now only 35 bytes free out of 32K.

CaveIn_RC6.bin

Edited November 22, 2007 by Atarius Maximus