Bee Ball - 2600

[LS_Dracon]

It's easy port to SECAM, if you have a PAL version, as stella programming guide say, both had same screen format, just needed change the colors.

 

I don't know about colors limitations, but secam had a good looking black and white image... If it's intentional, secam consoles give priority to B/W televisions, maybe make sence in end of 70's.

Edited November 27, 2007 by LS_Dracon

[kenfused]

At any rate, why is SECAM limited to so few colors? That sure is quite a contrast from the PAL and NTSC versions!

 

..Al

If it is like the 8-bit computers I think they use the 3 bit brightness to actually select colors (hue is ignored). I am guessing one bit is R, G and B which can then be mixed for 8 colors. Probably similar to a CGA type color in its capabilities. Of course I might be completely wrong in my understanding. I am guessing it was cheapest to do it that way.

[Albert]

I just played the latest version and it looks and plays great! However, I ran into an interesting bug while playing. At one point, and I'm not sure how it happened, the computer's racket became "detached" from the computer player, in a fixed "x" position on the screen. I happened to have my camera setup, and was able to take some video of what happened. Eventually the computer fixed itself, after I finally took a stab at getting the ball over the net (looks like when the computer raised his racket in defense).

 

The game was playing the racket "swooshing" sound repeatedly while the racket was screwed up. It stopped once I finally took a swing. You can hear this in the video:

 

http://www.atariage.com/temp/beeballbug.avi

 

..Al

[LS_Dracon]

And here's the new roms. Fixed (I hope) this raquet bug.

 

If you find bugs, please let me know

Edited December 1, 2007 by LS_Dracon

[+Nathan Strum]

Two things:

 

First, I found a bug. Sometimes, the ball will pass right between your racquet and head. Shown here, as the computer hits it right through my bee:

 

http://muse2.calarts.edu/~nstrum/misc/racquetbug_web.mov

 

Second, the AI is excellent now - except you can still bounce the ball off your paddle, and stroke it past the other bee during a serve. But just barely, and not all the time.

 

At 27 seconds and 59 seconds, the AI successfully defends against this. It's almost there! If he could just respond a tiny bit quicker, you'd have it!

 

http://muse2.calarts.edu/~nstrum/misc/beeballserve3_web.mov

 

The game is great fun! And, apart from that one AI issue, nicely challenging.

[LS_Dracon]

Tanks for help, Nathan.

 

-Incremented by 1 pixel the head butt tolerance.

 

-Fixed the block code, I need work in it more, becouse now is the upper area the problem...

 

-Title screen in PAL version get a downgrade, sadly, I need use that bytes for AI.

Edited December 8, 2007 by LS_Dracon

[rheffera]

Fair enough dracon. I will test it shortly

[LS_Dracon]

Ok another update :

 

- AI fixes

- Net is 2 lines lower

- 100% of rom space used.

 

People, as no more rom space, the game is finished!

 

Sorry to not use all of ideas posted here, I'm novice programmer, and don't have a good skill to explore at maximun the 2600.

Originally this game was to be single player, with no button use.

Entire game was re-coded 2 times, and every single code (movement, collisions, button moves, animations, ball, kernal, AI etc...) was rewrite at least 3 times!

90% Of codes in this game I never use before, the true only sprite draw and a bit of animation I already had study. The fractional movement, 48 bit sprites, repositioning multiple objects, music, AI etc... is completly new for me.

 

I need say thanks for everyone who tested this game, and give-me feedbacks.

Thanks to Albert, Nathan Strum, SpiceWare, Impaler_26, BlackJack, rheffera, Alex_79, R-Type2600, Cybergoth, espire8 and all people from Atari Age forum

 

Special thanks to Michael (SeaGTGruff) he post nothing in this topic, but help-me in the first bug I fond, in prototipe version. This game I started to code in Dez/06 so 1 year working on it, I need some days of vacation

 

Just for curiosity, in fist post I told this game was created by one friend. He create the main game concept (that is, bee using raquets). This port to Atari 2600 is very different, in original the bee don't use button, you can't do a stroke or block. Don't have a Bee Judge serving balls and other things. But the interesting, this friend create this concept based in a mosquito character I create in 2003. I draw some sprites and he use some elements in his game. I don't have the original game anymore, I lost it, but I found a SnapShot, see the image below.

Bee_Ball_NTSC_7.0.bin

Bee_Ball_PAL_7.0.bin

[+Nathan Strum]

Outstanding work! The AI is vastly improved, and very challenging now. (In fact, it just beat me 8-10 and was ahead of me 6-1 at one point.)

[rheffera]

I will test this final version on pal hardware. Do you have any plans to produce it in cartridge form, dracon?

[+Nathan Strum]

I have one final suggestion.

 

Out-of-bounds markers, at either end of the court:

 

Not sure if that can even be done or not, but I thought I'd mention it.

 

I know it's already implied that if the ball goes offscreen, it's out-of-bounds. But sometimes, it seems to hit right at the corner, and still be counted out of bounds.

 

I think with a marker there, it would be a little easier to see exactly where that point is, since if it hit on the marker, it would be considered in-bounds.

Edited December 4, 2007 by Nathan Strum

[rheffera]

PAL version works perfectly

[Gateway]

Hi Dracon,

 

I only recently have been following your progress on this game and finally tried it out tonight, playtesting your final version. I wanted to give a perspective of a player who hasn't been "getting good" at this game through each update to the bin file( though their comments and suggestions were all valid and some good ideas )

 

It took me a few games to understand the mechanics of the bees and how the judge bee works. Most of my losses of the ball were just missing the serve from the judge bee until I got a hang of his pattern.

 

The opponent AI if very fluid and, as somebody else mentioned, moves likes a human opponent might move his bee. I found the funnest part of the game is setting up a block of the opponent's shot and counterstriking his "spike" against me. Also, the ball bouncing off the top of the net is cool especially if it happens after bouncing off the "headbut" by my bee or the opponent's bee.

 

I tested the ntsc version through z26, so I am sure I would have better scores using a joystick on the real hardware, but I still find the gameplay fun and exciting! The graphics are great, especially the hovering effect of the bees and their wing animation. I can't comment on the sound FX as I don't have working speakers at the moment, but all in all, I would like to see this game make it onto a cartridge in the AA store or sold another way. I would buy this game!

 

Weston

[Albert]

I would like to see this game make it onto a cartridge in the AA store or sold another way. I would buy this game!

 

 

 

..Al

[Mark2008]

Ok another update :

 

- AI fixes

- Net is 2 lines lower

- 100% of rom space used.

 

People, as no more rom space, the game is finished!

 

Sorry to not use all of ideas posted here, I'm novice programmer, and don't have a good skill to explore at maximun the 2600.

Originally this game was to be single player, with no button use.

Entire game was re-coded 2 times, and every single code (movement, collisions, button moves, animations, ball, kernal, AI etc...) was rewrite at least 3 times!

90% Of codes in this game I never use before, the true only sprite draw and a bit of animation I already had study. The fractional movement, 48 bit sprites, repositioning multiple objects, music, AI etc... is completly new for me.

 

I need say thanks for everyone who tested this game, and give-me feedbacks.

Thanks to Albert, Nathan Strum, SpiceWare, Impaler_26, BlackJack, rheffera, Alex_79, R-Type2600, Cybergoth, espire8 and all people from Atari Age forum

 

Special thanks to Michael (SeaGTGruff) he post nothing in this topic, but help-me in the first bug I fond, in prototipe version. This game I started to code in Dez/06 so 1 year working on it, I need some days of vacation

 

Just for curiosity, in fist post I told this game was created by one friend. He create the main game concept (that is, bee using raquets). This port to Atari 2600 is very different, in original the bee don't use button, you can't do a stroke or block. Don't have a Bee Judge serving balls and other things. But the interesting, this friend create this concept based in a mosquito character I create in 2003. I draw some sprites and he use some elements in his game. I don't have the original game anymore, I lost it, but I found a SnapShot, see the image below.

 

 

Looking at your screenshot, makes me think you really need a colecovision port!

 

I do a little bit colecovision coding...pm me, if you want to talk about it...

[LS_Dracon]

I tested the ntsc version through z26, so I am sure I would have better scores using a joystick on the real hardware, but I still find the gameplay fun and exciting! The graphics are great, especially the hovering effect of the bees and their wing animation. I can't comment on the sound FX as I don't have working speakers at the moment, but all in all, I would like to see this game make it onto a cartridge in the AA store or sold another way. I would buy this game!

 

Thank you Weston, the sound fx is my weakness, but I hope people get fun playing this game.

 

The manual and cart looks better than I was figured.

 

PM sent Mark.

 

Edit : Here's a new video, for you watch the evolution of this game.

Bee-Ball Final Video

Edited December 18, 2007 by LS_Dracon

[Gateway]

I would like to see this game make it onto a cartridge in the AA store or sold another way. I would buy this game!

 

 

 

..Al

[Nognir]

Congratulations to your game LS_Dracon!

 

It will be a pleasure to write a review about it on my page

Hope to get it very soon!

[LS_Dracon]

I'll be glad Nognir, let me know when the review is done

[Tom_Explodes]

Whew! I just played the rom of this for the first time. Man, was that hard. I started getting the hang of it after the first game, though, and I did a little better the second time. This is really very good. I might have a complaint or two about the movement speed of my player, but, that's probably just my own suckage. Hehe. Seriously, this is great. Good work!

[tremoloman2006]

Very nice work! This is an EXCELLENT title! I can't wait to purchase one!

[LS_Dracon]

Thanks Tom and Tremoloman, the latest binnaries posted here is exactly same you find in a cart.

[Tangentg]

So I tried version 7.0 on Stella... I don't get it, every time the ball drops on my opponent's side I get 0 points but every time it drops on my side my opponent gets 1? and it looks like if I'm out of bounds my opponent gets a point but if my opponent is out of bounds they also get a point... The ball also goes through the racket so much... No explanations were given in the first post about how any of this worked...

Edited January 25, 2019 by Tangentg

[+Nathan Strum]

Odd... it was working fine, but now I'm seeing some scoring bugs, too. Also, the ROM loaded once with garbled graphics (this is in Stella 6).

Edited January 25, 2019 by Nathan Strum

[alex_79]

I just played a few rounds and scoring seems to work the same both in Stella 6.0 and real hardware for me. Remember that you can only score a point if you have the serve (indicated by the arrow on the bottom of the screen). That's mentioned in the first post:

- Added serve rules (like in old volleyball rules). You need serve ball to score a point.
See the pointer in score.

As for the garbled gfx, that's actually a bug in the game: it doesn't initialize the decimal flag. You won't see this if you just load the game from the harmony menu (as the menu itself clears the D flag), but it might happen randomly when putting the game on a real cart.

In fact It happens on my hardware if I flash the harmony in single game mode too.

If it happens, you just have to powercycle the console until the glitch goes away. (Better leave the console off a few seconds before turning it on again, if you do it too quickly, it seems to keep the last state of the flag)

In stella, do the same by resetting the game with CTRL+R.

Stella 6.0 defaults to randomized CPU state, which is a more accurate representation of real hardware, while in Stella 5.x the default was to have it cleared (you can change that behaviour in the "developer tab" if you like).