102 replies to this topic

[GroovyBee]

These are some screenshots from another WIP called Worm!

Level 1 :-



Level 2 :-



Help Brian the worm avoid the mushrooms and eat the flowers to escape from the garden. If you eat the mushrooms, bump into a wall or bite yourself you'll lose a life. Every time you eat a flower you get a little longer until you've eaten your fill. Both the flowers and mushrooms are placed in the gardens randomly. As you progress through the game you start each level longer than the last with more flowers to eat and mushrooms to avoid. After a certain number of levels you'll begin to get faster too.

This is another game written in my 7800 "C" development system. Instead of the normal NOVICE, STANDARD and EXPERT level selection I've opted for the following player changeable features :-

SLOW, NORMAL, FAST and TURBO speed.
SHORT, NORMAL and LONG worm lengths.
Eat SOME (50%), MOST (75%) or ALL (100%) of the flowers.

For more adjustment you can also start with an extra 2 lives using the left difficulty switch or add an extra 10 mushrooms using the right.

Still to do :-

- "Jingles" for completed level and game over.
- Title page music.
- SaveKey support.
- High score chart.
- More levels.
- Probably a delay when you start each level to get acclimatised to the flower/mushroom placement.
- Extra lives every 10K points.
- Maybe some "power-ups".

I'm hoping to add up to 16 levels in total (depends on ROM space). I might also add "arcade mode" where you just play the first level (its an open arena) over and over.

The game works in NTSC and PAL.

Now the low down on availability If you were previously on Shawn Sr.'s pre-order for Vong (and paid for it) you'll be upgraded to this game automatically. 25 extra carts will be made available at the end of February. The 25 are in addition to those people who paid on the original Vong pre-order. All carts will have a unique number on the title page of the game and the cart's front label.

When the carts are ready Shawn Sr. will be opening a new thread to take orders for the game.

[Shawn Sr.]

It took 6 months longer than originally expected cause of the problems with the previous title BUT this game "Worm!" is at least 10 times the game you would have previously recieved. I am deeply sorry and I thank you all for being patient while waiting out the unexpetected delay. I really hope the greater game of "Worm!" will show everyone how much I appreciate your patience as I found not only a suitable but better replacment game to warm up your 7800's with

[nonner242]

I want!

[DracIsBack]

Nice guys!

[Mayhem]

Scrolling levels? Looking good... you know, I had recently thought about what was going on with the previous Vong orders. Guess that's answered!

[TrekMD]

This looks very nice!  I will eagerly wait for mine.  

[Chris Leach]

and you are gonna sell this 7800 classic remake of an old nice game?  put me on the list, but I want mine with a box dog!

[GroovyBee]

Mayhem, on Tue Feb 2, 2010 8:24 PM, said:

Scrolling levels? Looking good... you know, I had recently thought about what was going on with the previous Vong orders. Guess that's answered!

Yep! Its a scrolling game in 160B mode (13 colours). The levels only scroll left and right.

[GroovyBee]

Chris Leach, on Tue Feb 2, 2010 8:47 PM, said:

and you are gonna sell this 7800 classic remake of an old nice game?  put me on the list, but I want mine with a box dog!

Shawn Sr. is handling the list. Keep an eye out for it . Not sure how expensive a "box dog" is to ship to the US . What sort of dog do you want?

[RayXambeR]

Interested by this game
I think I am on the previous Vong list. But I haven't paid if I remember well.

Edited by RayXambeR, Wed Feb 3, 2010 11:30 AM.

[save2600]

Look cool! I've been meaning to ask Shawn Sr. what that game was in his avatar. lol

[DracIsBack]

GroovyBee, on Wed Feb 3, 2010 5:22 AM, said:

Yep! Its a scrolling game in 160B mode (13 colours). The levels only scroll left and right.

I like that you're really pushing this aspect. So many games avoid using lots of colors.

Man, you have a lot of projects on the go! Don't overload yourself. :-)

Edited by DracIsBack, Thu Feb 4, 2010 7:21 AM.

[mimo]

Glad my Vong order went tits up:D

[King_Salamon]

Shawn... I want one of these!  This looks good!

[thursday83]

Please count me in for a cart.  Thanks much.

[Shawn Sr.]

[GroovyBee]

I'd better get a move on and get the game out the door .

[GroovyBee]

Double post.

[supercat]

Do you allow for smooth motion of the worm segments?  If I can get my PC set up, I'll try to dig up a worm test I did using 320-pixel 4-color mode.  Unfortunately, I can't get the same code to work in both emulation and real hardware; I think I've posted my test on AA, but I forget whether it was the hardware or emulator version.  The basic trick is to define four character sets (if you want the worm to move in four 'steps' per character cell) and have 32 characters for the worms:

• 4 with the head entering a cell (from up/right/down/left)
  
• 4 with a body segment entering and a head leaving on the opposite side
  
• 4 with a body segment entering and a head leaving after a 'right' turn
  
• 4 with a body segment entering and a head leaving after a 'left' turn
  
• 4 with a body segment entering and a body segment leaving on the opposite side
  
• 4 with a body segment entering and a body segment leaving after a 'right' turn
  
• 4 with a body segment entering and a body segment leaving after a 'left' turn
  
• 4 with just a body segment leaving

This makes it look as though the worm is being animated along its entire length, even though it's really just an illusion.  Only the head and tail of the worm need to be updated each time it's moved; the body can just stay as it is.

[GroovyBee]

supercat, on Wed Feb 10, 2010 6:18 PM, said:

Do you allow for smooth motion of the worm segments?

Nope! Its character cells in 160B mode. The game scrolls the background left/right at certain points which does "smooth" it out.

Quote

  If I can get my PC set up, I'll try to dig up a worm test I did using 320-pixel 4-color mode.  Unfortunately, I can't get the same code to work in both emulation and real hardware; I think I've posted my test on AA, but I forget whether it was the hardware or emulator version.

If you want me to help out getting the code going on a real machine just let me know. There isn't enough "zone time" left to do much in 320B if you're using a couple of 5 byte indirect access display list entries. If the display looked weird did you enable kangaroo mode? That mode doesn't work like you think it would with kangaroo mode disabled .

Quote

  The basic trick is to define four character sets (if you want the worm to move in four 'steps' per character cell) and have 32 characters for the worms:

Sounds like a good trick.

[supercat]

GroovyBee, on Wed Feb 10, 2010 6:33 PM, said:

If you want me to help out getting the code going on a real machine just let me know. There isn't enough "zone time" left to do much in 320B if you're using a couple of 5 byte indirect access display list entries.

I really need to dig out my code and see what I was doing, but my recollection is that I did some sort of modification to the display list each scan line (I forget exactly why, but I think I was re-using display list entries).  On the emulator, those modifications affect a different scan line from what they do on a real 7800, which throws things off.

[GroovyBee]

supercat, on Thu Feb 11, 2010 6:36 PM, said:

I really need to dig out my code and see what I was doing, but my recollection is that I did some sort of modification to the display list each scan line (I forget exactly why, but I think I was re-using display list entries).  On the emulator, those modifications affect a different scan line from what they do on a real 7800, which throws things off.

Did you account for the fact that while MARIA is displaying the current video line its pulling in data for the next one simultaneously?

[supercat]

GroovyBee, on Fri Feb 12, 2010 4:22 AM, said:

Did you account for the fact that while MARIA is displaying the current video line its pulling in data for the next one simultaneously?

I am, but the emulator does not do so accurately.

[GroovyBee]

supercat, on Fri Feb 12, 2010 6:11 PM, said:

I am, but the emulator does not do so accurately.

As I mentioned in one of my other posts the 7800 emulators are good enough to play the back catalogue of games. Hopefully we'll get a better emulator sometime soon.

Unfortunately, as soon as you start to push the envelope with new things its best to use real hardware with the 7800 at the moment.

[retroclouds]

The screenshots look really cool! Any chance we can see a youtube video of this game in action ?