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http://www.atariage....ng-6-years-ago/
My attempts to program the 7800 since 2001 have basically culminated in a game.
2001 - started to try to program the 7800
2003 - created a scrolling graphics engine during a very late night. I wanted to write Mega Man. I got stuck with some of the complications, and abandoned it.
2009 - started the original atariage thread. Community support prompted me to add a few tweaks such as ladder support. It wasn't very exciting though. Started Arkanoid instead.
2010 - moved across the country, and put my development system away.
2011 - got set up again, and ported my development system to a new laptop. Arkanoid got shelved, since I had renewed interest in my first engine.
From here, I spent 1-3 hours every day working on the engine until about April. After that, some sporadic work got the game engine and level design complete.
With the help of a few people (that I'm very thankful for), I got past some crappy hardware issues, and now it can go public.
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Ok-- on to the stuff that people care about.
The game is called "Get Lost".
You are a ninja in training. After completing the most rigorous training course for your instructor, he had one final request for you, before you can truly be called a "master". He asks that you go to another world-- a strange world with a Fire Castle, an underworld, and lots of strange surprises. Your task is to collect all of the gems in that world. How many gems are there? Well... that's part of the mystery. Your instructor has never been too talkative.
You ready your ninja stars and weaponry, but just as you were about to leave, your instructor stops you.
"I have one condition on this quest". You nod your head, ready for anything.
"Every ninja must learn the most important part of training-- nonviolence. You must not harm anything."
You are stunned, and put your weapons away. This truly will be the hardest quest you have ever undertaken.
It's ok though-- you just keep telling yourself that Pitfall Harry never had a gun.....
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Gameplay is simple-- the button lets you jump.
Left/right move you left and right. Up and down move you up and down on ladders.
Pressing the button on a ladder will have you let go of it.
Pause will pause the game.
Bats, spikes, and fire are deadly; avoid them at all cost.
There are checkpoints throughout the game; they look like up-arrows. Touching a checkpoint will allow you to start there whenever you die.
There are rumors of a "wise one" who may help you on your quest, if you get desperate. You'll have to find him, though.
Feel free to explore-- the world is bigger than you think. And, there are lots of surprises and features.
Here's some pictures:
It will auto-detect PAL vs. NTSC.
Oh, and if you're going to post something that's far along in the world, please use a "spolier tag", to prevent others from missing out on the fun surprises.
One final note. This game is HARD. But, with perseverance, you can pick up every single gem and win the game.
For now, the game will alert you if you've finished it, but there are no end credits-- yet.
Things left for me to do in the game:
- on real hardware, some versions experienced a "black screen" or weird graphics glitches that would happen occasionally. It sucks, and I don't know how to fix it.
However, this most recent build hasn't showed that problem... yet.
- I want to design a better splash screen on power-up
- I want to program a better ending / credits screen
- I need to code up sone music (in progress). It's planned as TIA (don't freak out, read below).
The game is not planned to take advantage of XM.
I have good reason for that actually-- this is going to be my first release (hopefully), and I want to just be within the rigid original parameters of the system.
I know, I know, it's "somewhat the same", but for me, I want to see what all I can squeeze in just 32K. So, no XM sound at this point. Please don't ask.
Since the music will be TIA, I will do it the best that I can. And, I plan to have it disable-able (so, sounds only) via difficulty switch.
So, on to the game.
One note I have for new players-- try not to get too frustrated with it. There are some really taxing parts.
My best score for beating the game is 1 hour, 4 minutes, and 55 seconds. During that game, I died 109 times.
So, that should give you some indication as to the difficulty and length of the game (and I've played it a LOT).
It does get easier with time, and some of the puzzles are tough-- this is intentional. But, it can be done with perserverance.
And, you do get better as you play.
I've programmed this in a bit of a vacuum, but I like the general philosophy of sharing with the community at some point.
Doing so has generally led to better games with more polish. Note that this is kind of new for me, so I'm a little nervous to do this.
Hopefully, I'm making the right decision here. I think I am.
Anyway, something for 7800 fans out there. I hope you enjoy playing it as much as I have enjoyed writing it.
Here's the ROM:
20120629_getlost.a78 32.13K
211 downloads
20120629_getlost.bin 32K
134 downloadsBest regards,
-John
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