Alien Inbound

[GadgetUK]

v0.6 is available for download.

 

http://www.c5softwar...ds/Alien0.6.zip

 

This is pretty much complete now. I may do some more optimisation and there will be a whole new image set added in when I get the 'enhanced images' at some point in future once 108 stars gets time The only thing not working is enhanced graphics atm. Everything else should be functional, i've fixed a tonne of bugs since the last release and improved various things. Only small tweaks and bug fixes in future release. If you spot any bugs please let me know.

 

EDIT: 1st bug i've noticed. If there are 3 people in a room (room full, cant have more than 3), then you try to go into grille you cannot.

Another, when character dies if menu showing its not cleared automatically.

Edited May 13, 2013 by GadgetUK

[4ever2600]

This is great work youre doing GadgetUK. Ill let you know if I find anything else. Huge fan of the original c64 game.

[GadgetUK]

This is great work youre doing GadgetUK. Ill let you know if I find anything else. Huge fan of the original c64 game.

 

Thanks, what may need tweaking is the balance. The Alien doesn't kill as quickly as C64 version and its much more prominent than C64 version. Similarly Alien doesnt die as quickly, it can take a lot of damage and this version has a few things C64 didnt, like the Alien will flee on higher difficulties if outnumbered by more than 2 people in room, or if its health is low. Android has a chance of 'turning' when 50% of the time has passed, at that point you have to kill the android to be allowed to launch shuttle. Android can do some annoying things as well, but I wont spoil it.

 

If crew take too much dmg or morale drops too low they will panick if they are attacked, may drop their items and will flee to the nearest room.

 

Tracker can detect Alien and Jones and sounds twice as fast to show both are nearby. Tracker detects nearby rooms and under floor of those rooms.

 

Alien and Android use vents, ive kept jones out of vents as it may be too hard trying to find him.

 

Catbox needed in slot 1 to capture Jones. All other items except tracker provide different chance and damage values.

 

More crew in a room shows as a red number on avatar. Moving to a room with live people in increases morale, as does collecting useful items. Being in a 'party' increases chances of attack, and also increases chances of the surviving because the alien may swap targets depending on who's attacking it.

 

Other things that lower morale:- being attacked, entering a room with a dead body, entering tunnels, dropping items.

[GadgetUK]

I also need to make the music loop, and to try and stop sound effects stopping each other. They are on different channels but I think the init code of each sound effect stops the existing ones playing, I will look at that later. I fixed the two issues last night that I already spotted in 0.6.

[Der Luchs]

Great Run Gadget!

All Spots on you :-)

[Felyx]

Thanks for sharing this I will give it for lunch to handy...Yum!

[LX.NET]

Gadget, I tried the game again. I couldn't find any bugs yet (except maybe a glitch with a very large action menu wrapping around). I will have to read the manual or look at a walkthrough to figure out the game. I never played it on the C64, so I am finding it a bit confusing with the alien attacking and me not being able to do anything back (that seems to help). So, positive news about no apparent bugs or hangs. Really nice piece of work. Thanks man. Going to be a classic!

[108 Stars]

What is confusing me a bit is that because of the small Lynx res there is a lot of status displays missing from the C64. Most seem unimportant, or appear on-screen elsewhere, but I noticed the characters' condition seems to be missing, at least I don't recall seeing it in the version before.

 

 

And according to he Wiki, the condition has impact on the gameplay. Characters who are in bad psychological condition take longer to react to the player commands, they can even panic and run away or get a nervous breakdown and be uncontrollable.

 

It's really quite ingenious and complex; characters get stressed more when they are alone, when they don't have a weapon or a bad one, or when they find a crewman's corpse, or even worse see him get killed.

 

Some characters are more stable than others from the start.

 

So some display of the status would be very helpful I believe.

 

And I agree, seeing that the character actually does attack or do any damage would help too.... not sure how this is handled on C64.

 

 

I am also working on the enhanced graphics. Some things will look nice, but of course there is little I can do with the map screen; it will look better, but the res is too low for much detail.

I am trying to liken the important places on the ship to the ones from the movie though, which is why this takes a while. I was surprised to find out that the programmers forgot to include the mess hall in the game, where the alien bursts out of John Hurt's chest! There is no such room!

 

Here's two tiny previews of WIP:

 

[4ever2600]

Nice! I like the improved graphics, they are right on par for the course! You are correct on the characters mental state as to how long it takes them to react etc. That was one of the more interesting points of the C64 version. Great work, both of you!

[LX.NET]

Okay, I thought morale was showing in the top left corner. Must be something else then, but can't check right now.

[GadgetUK]

Due to screen size it was difficult. Ver 0.6 onwards has the morale under character name. As i posted a few back its affected by people in room, items, location, grille / tunnels etc. a character with low morale and health will run off when attacked. I may see if I can squeeze a few more bytes in to make them completely out of control. Theres a lot different in v0.6 onwards!

 

Thanks for feedback, those newer graphics look amazing 108!!!!!

[108 Stars]

Due to screen size it was difficult. Ver 0.6 onwards has the morale under character name. As i posted a few back its affected by people in room, items, location, grille / tunnels etc. a character with low morale and health will run off when attacked. I may see if I can squeeze a few more bytes in to make them completely out of control. Theres a lot different in v0.6 onwards!

 

Thanks for feedback, those newer graphics look amazing 108!!!!!

 

Thanks a lot,

good to hear morale is in version 0.6, I just didn't have time to try it out yet. Or I did have time, but Robotron got in my way when I turned on my Lynx.^^

[GadgetUK]

No worries! Anyone testing this please use v0.6. I will probably upload v0.7 over the next few days (bug fixes and code changes ready to support 108s gfx for later).

[GadgetUK]

v0.7 is up. I've fixed more stuff and added room damage and support for fires and the extinguisher. Fixed stuff, tweaked stuff so its more inline with the original, and plays a bit better. Difficulty tweaked as well, and i've added a 3rd game length. An interesting fact about the original version and a bug I noticed - If you chose a 'short' game the timer goes twice as slow as the 'long game' despite it killing 3 of the people off, so in effect the short game on the C64 is twice as long as the long game but with only half of the characters. I've changed that so it runs twice as long if you chose medium, and even longer if you chose the longest mode.

 

The alien hits a bit harder now, fires can be started by incinerator, android or alien. Room damage is shown in bottom right of screen. If room damage reaches 100% hull breaches and its game over.

 

I still need to re-optimise at some point as ive had to segment more code in this release so its a little slower than previously.

 

http://www.c5software.co.uk/downloads/Alien0.7.zip

[Atari_afternoon]

Thank you

[108 Stars]

I wish I wouldn't suck so hard at this game.^^

[4ever2600]

Cant wait to play tonight.

[Der Luchs]

What do you think of In Game Music in the Enhanced Version? A little Dark Bass-driven Tune?

[GadgetUK]

Can't do music yet in game until I find a way of overlapping sounds.

[Der Luchs]

I think we need a Thread at Atari Lynx Programming where all Coders share their knowledge

about their Music experience. That would be helpful...

[Der Luchs]

Something like this for the Alien Attack ^^

http://www.atari-lynx.de/Gadget/AlienAttack.mp3

[GadgetUK]

That's very cool!!! ...but i've got zero RAM left. It has been a nightmare fixing bugs and trying to tweak a few things ready for 108's images. There's no way I can squeeze background music in without major changes and I am moving onto JackAttack.

 

Here's v0.8. I've tidied a few things up added an intro, made cosmetic changes - silly things like alignment of things, the 'move' box zooms in instead of out, and numerous other small changes - I've run out of RAM for text and images are no good now either due to RAM and segment issues - Already worried about the number of segments 108's images will need...

 

Previously only up and down on D pad worked for navigation, i've now added option to press left which just goes through your 'live' characters, or press right to go to the last target of the alien - so when its attacking you can find out specifically who its attacking and dont need to scroll through all the crew.

 

Please let me know if you spot any problems - The one I cannot even re-create due to not having enough ram to force the scenario is when the menu list is long. I have code in there for when there are more than 7 menu options it should start at the top and overlay the avatar and shade the background in so you can still read everything ok - but its untested until I can create a suitable scenario by playing.

 

eg.

 

In the airlock control room you could have these options, not sure if any more is possible? I thought the extinguish option would be but you need that in slot 1 which means you wouldnt see 'catch jones'.

attack

move

use

get

drop

open airlock1

open airlock2

get jones

 

http://www.c5softwar...ds/Alien0.8.zip

 

Edited May 24, 2013 by GadgetUK

[Der Luchs]

 

 

Zero Ram...

Ok, now for real, let's vote for a RAM MOD and if we got enough who are interested, let's find someone who can do this

Edited May 24, 2013 by Der Luchs

[Der Luchs]

OMG The Intro is awesome!!!! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[Uzumaki]

Better skip on internal mod. It would limit future games to just a handful who has the skill to do internal mod.

 

OTOH if you could build a pass-through cart like Game Genie style that has extra RAM, it could be used by anyone, including those who are banned from touching screwdrivers, to have expanded RAM for future games. The only problem is finding source of connector to mate with the cart, maybe use something different so that cart can't be used in Lynx without RAM board? 40 pin IDC connector is dirt common and cheap, they have been used in PATA hard drive for many years and would probably work, the RAM board that plugs into Lynx has one side of IDC connector, and the game cart that requires has the mating connector to plug in.

 

It might present problem with Lynx 1's side loading design but Lynx 2 is more common anyway RAM cart wouldn't interfere with normal gameplay.