102 replies to this topic

[GroovyBee]

retroclouds, on Sun Feb 14, 2010 1:41 PM, said:

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

I'm hoping to get a binary out this week then everybody can play it.

Personally speaking I hate youtube's policies so you'll never find any videos on there done by me.

[retroclouds]

GroovyBee, on Sun Feb 14, 2010 1:57 PM, said:

retroclouds, on Sun Feb 14, 2010 1:41 PM, said:

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

I'm hoping to get a binary out this week then everybody can play it.

Personally speaking I hate youtube's policies so you'll never find any videos on there done by me.

Thanks I'm looking forward to that. I'll have to check how to get an Atari 7800 emulator running. Will try with MESS.
Never owned an Atari so that will be fun  

[GroovyBee]

retroclouds, on Mon Feb 15, 2010 1:55 PM, said:

Thanks I'm looking forward to that. I'll have to check how to get an Atari 7800 emulator running. Will try with MESS.
Never owned an Atari so that will be fun  

I'd recommend ProSystem emulator if you run Windows. You can get version 1.3e from the forum here :-

http://www.atariage....81#entry1766481

[GroovyBee]

Just a quick update :-

- 8 levels are in.
- Title music is in but I need to rewrite my music driver to use sound volume envelopes. TIA music is just so annoying without them .
- Several little bug fixes.

Still to do (before a release in the next few days) :-

- High score table and name entry.
- A delay to acclimatise the player to the bricks, flowers and mushroom arrangement.

For the high score table I'm going to show initials, score and the settings to achieve that score as little symbols e.g 3/5 hearts, blobs for worm length etc.

[Shawn Sr.]

GroovyBee, on Tue Feb 16, 2010 11:14 AM, said:

Just a quick update :-

- 8 levels are in.
- Title music is in but I need to rewrite my music driver to use sound volume envelopes. TIA music is just so annoying without them .
- Several little bug fixes.

Still to do (before a release in the next few days) :-

- High score table and name entry.
- A delay to acclimatise the player to the bricks, flowers and mushroom arrangement.

For the high score table I'm going to show initials, score and the settings to achieve that score as little symbols e.g 3/5 hearts, blobs for worm length etc.

[GroovyBee]

Find attached the first binary release of Worm! :-

 worm!.20_02_10.1.09.a78   16.13K   105 downloads
 worm!.20_02_10.1.09.bin   16K   93 downloads

CC2 users will need the following information :-

7800_16K 78BIOS

For control options and difficulty settings please see the first post.

Bug reports, comments and suggestions welcome.

Still outstanding :-

- Level acclimatisation delay.
- Title page music (disabled until I rewrite the sound/music driver).
- Game over/level "jingles".
- Extra life every 10K points.
- SaveKey support.
- More levels (if ROM space permits).

[retroclouds]

This game is fun! This is the first time I was looking forward playing a game that
doesn't run on a TMS9918 (I'm a TI & coleco fan).
I'm not disappointed, the scrolling is so cool.

ok, not knowing anything about the 7800 and its limitations:

1) Would it be possible to add a moving enemy object, like lets' say a snail or ant ?
2) Put in a timer ?

After playing the 2nd time I was able to put in a high score, but I could not finish entering my initials.
I thought that I could finish by pressing 'X', but that didn't work.
Sorry I don't know the ProSystem emulator that well, so I'm probably doing something wrong.

Excellent stuff, I love the graphics and gameplay  

[GroovyBee]

retroclouds, on Sat Feb 20, 2010 1:37 PM, said:

This game is fun! This is the first time I was looking forward playing a game that
doesn't run on a TMS9918 (I'm a TI & coleco fan).
I'm not disappointed, the scrolling is so cool.

Thanks for the compliments. I'm glad you're enjoying the game.

Quote

ok, not knowing anything about the 7800 and its limitations:

1) Would it be possible to add a moving enemy object, like lets' say a snail or ant ?
2) Put in a timer ?

Both are possible but its going to be tight on ROM space because its a 16K game. After I've added everything on my list I'll see how much space is left. If I do version 2 of the game, extra features e.g. "power-ups" etc. are also a possibility because I'll move up to a 32K ROM then.

Quote

After playing the 2nd time I was able to put in a high score, but I could not finish entering my initials.
I thought that I could finish by pressing 'X', but that didn't work.

In the ProSystem emulator the left fire button is "Z". I think you've found a "cut and paste" bug there (I lifted the high score code from another game). I'll fix that in the next release.

Quote

Excellent stuff, I love the graphics and gameplay  

Thanks for another compliment. There aren't many graphics in the game so my programmer art doesn't look too bad .

[DracIsBack]

Looking good. I'm still trying to get the hang of it, but look forward to investing more time today.

[Shawn Sr.]

DracIsBack, on Sun Feb 21, 2010 6:01 AM, said:

Looking good. I'm still trying to get the hang of it, but look forward to investing more time today.

Please post any bugs if you find any also please.

[gambler172]

Hi Mark
Plays very well,but is damn hard,even in the lowest level.If i loose a life and start again,i often loose again,cause runing into something too fast.......But maybe,my reactions are too slow.....
greetings Walter

[GroovyBee]

gambler172, on Mon Feb 22, 2010 1:28 PM, said:

Plays very well,but is damn hard,even in the lowest level.If i loose a life and start again,i often loose again,cause runing into something too fast.......But maybe,my reactions are too slow.....

I'll make sure that there is a delay when you start the level in the next version. This will allow you to see the obstacles around you and react in time, hopefully .

Also check your difficulty switches. The left one controls 3 or 5 lives and the right one adds an extra 10 mushrooms to the level.

The next version will also have title page music and SaveKey support.

[HammR25]

I was playing with on easy with a short snake and had to eat all the mushrooms.  When I got done with all the mushrooms it didn't go to the next level. That happened twice.

Oh and it's not just you Gambler.  The delay should help.

[GroovyBee]

HammR25, on Mon Feb 22, 2010 11:30 PM, said:

I was playing with on easy with a short snake and had to eat all the mushrooms.  When I got done with all the mushrooms it didn't go to the next level. That happened twice.

I've not seen this bug before . What did the flowers remaining number say at the bottom of the screen? Its located next to the flower graphic.

If it happens again can you do a "save state" on the game and PM me the file?

Quote

Oh and it's not just you Gambler.  The delay should help.

The delay will be added in the next version.

[GroovyBee]

HammR25, on Mon Feb 22, 2010 11:30 PM, said:

I was playing with on easy with a short snake and had to eat all the mushrooms.  When I got done with all the mushrooms it didn't go to the next level. That happened twice.

Found it! I do most of my testing on the default settings so this one slipped under the net . It'll be fixed in the next release.

[HammR25]

Glad you found it because I usually play on my CC2.  I'm an emulator snob.

Oh and it's a fun game.  I've always enjoyed snake games.  This version is different than most so that's good.

Edited by HammR25, Tue Feb 23, 2010 8:56 AM.

[GroovyBee]

Find attached the latest version :-

 worm!.24_02_10.1.11.a78   16.13K   73 downloads
 worm!.24_02_10.1.11.bin   16K   69 downloads

What's new in this release :-

- Title page and idle sequence music.
- Game over sound.
- Level completed animation and sounds.
- When you start a new level the worm is now asleep (and animated as such). As soon as you move the stick the worm will begin to move in the direction selected. There is no time out, you have to move the stick to start the level.
- Bug fixes

I was going to implement a delay when the level started but decided that it would be better if the worm could be "activated" when the player was ready. Let me know if it adds/detracts from the game.

Still to do :-

- Put SaveKey support back in. It was buggy so I've disabled it in this build.
- Make the high score initials persist between game sessions and make it look less visually cramped.

I think its getting very close to a release candidate now. As always, more testing and bug reports would be good.

[DracIsBack]

Trying out. I've come to realize I'm not really good at WORM games. Game looks cool. It's just a user problem.

[GroovyBee]

DracIsBack, on Wed Feb 24, 2010 8:56 AM, said:

Trying out. I've come to realize I'm not really good at WORM games. Game looks cool. It's just a user problem.

Thanks for testing it out anyway.

[gambler172]

Hi Mark
I just checked the actual bin.The idea with the sleeping worm is great and makes playing much easier.But i found a bug.While playing,suddenly there were some graphic bugs.
Have a look at the photo.The game did not crash,but the bugs stayed.
greetings Walter

[GroovyBee]

gambler172, on Wed Feb 24, 2010 11:33 AM, said:

I just checked the actual bin.The idea with the sleeping worm is great and makes playing much easier.

That's one vote in favour of the worm sleeping staying then .

Quote

But i found a bug.While playing,suddenly there were some graphic bugs.
Have a look at the photo.The game did not crash,but the bugs stayed.

I'm not sure what you mean by graphics bugs. I've looked at the image and it looks OK apart from the purple ghosting. Is that what you mean? Is it a PAL or NTSC machine?

[GroovyBee]

Find attached the latest version :-

 worm!.25_02_10.1.12.a78   16.13K   72 downloads
 worm!.25_02_10.1.12.bin   16K   69 downloads

What's new in this release :-

1) When moving left/right the only valid directions are now up/down and similarly when you move up/down the only valid directions are right/left. This means that you can no longer double back on yourself immediately and makes the game much less "twitchy" as a result .

2) SaveKey support is now fully working.

3) High score initials are remembered between games (not when you power the game off and back on though).

Still to do :-

Improve high score cursor display when changing initials.

As always, comments, suggestions and bug reports welcome.

If anybody can duplicate Gambler172's bug report please let me know.

[HammR25]

My only suggestion for the game is to add a bonus timer so a person who clears the screen quicker gets more points.  I like the sleeping snake to start the level. I was annoyed with being able to kill myself by accidently pressing back onto myself so I'm glad you've changed that.

[GroovyBee]

HammR25, on Wed Feb 24, 2010 8:12 PM, said:

My only suggestion for the game is to add a bonus timer so a person who clears the screen quicker gets more points.

I'll have a think about that. There isn't much space in the status area to put a countdown timer. I'm also running out of space for extra graphics too .

Quote

I like the sleeping snake to start the level. I was annoyed with being able to kill myself by accidently pressing back onto myself so I'm glad you've changed that.

Looks like its 2 votes for sleeping snake and 1 vote for less "twitchy" controls .

[TrekMD]

You can add my votes for the sleeping snake and the less "twitchy" controls.