40 replies to this topic

[Sprybug]

Well I've spent about a week on it so far and here's what I've got so far. Don't go too far passed the loopty loop or else it will reset the game in an emulator or it will crash it on a real Atari. That's because it runs out of level data. So far things are going well and I'll also be able to make these levels 4 times larger than in Princess Rescue because all of the platform pieces are in ROM and I use the level data now to call them up instead of going byte by byte like I did in PR. I'm also planning to have the levels in two halves (an upper and a lower. You'll get to the upper part by springboarding). I'm also going to incorporate the overhead world map style of SMB3 to make the game very replayable. On the overhead map you go from level to level on route to Eggman which is always going to be in a different place. Most of the time you won't have to play all the levels to beat it but the goal is to get all 5 gems from him (have to beat him 5 times). So, this is just an example partial level that I got so far. Programming in things piece by piece. You can run around, jump, do the loopty loop, get the same 3 rings over and over again, etc. Plus as an added bonus let him sit for a few seconds and he'll do his thing and I think you know what that means.

I know there are a lot of bugs right now but it's a work in progress.

Attached Files

•  zippy01.bas.bin   32KB   1238 downloads

[atari2600land]

This is amazing. I'm speechless.

[stardust4ever]

Sprybug, you've gone and done it again!

[Cybearg]

Man, I am so jealous of your game-making skills...

[Cebus Capucinis]

Wait, so I was right? Awesome! This game looks excellent so far and I'm sure you'll make it even better -- your coding skills amaze me!

[stardust4ever]

Maybe he can finish that blue hedgehog game that was being worked on.....

"Acoustic the Non-Infringing Cerulean Porcupine"

Who says I'm not.........*grins and walks away*.

[Byte Knight]

You are the platform game-programming master! Great start!

[Sprybug]

Thanks. Progress report. I've got a partial level made with more platforms, tv item boxes, invincibility and shields. So far its working. I've still got to add slowing down momentum in ball form and not popping into the skid sprite in mid-air when reversing your path. I'm also aware of the skid running bug too. Trying to keep this all within 2 drawscreens per game cycle (Princess Rescue was 3). Having to make my code really tight on this one.

[stardust4ever]

Thanks. Progress report. I've got a partial level made with more platforms, tv item boxes, invincibility and shields. So far its working. I've still got to add slowing down momentum in ball form and not popping into the skid sprite in mid-air when reversing your path. I'm also aware of the skid running bug too. Trying to keep this all within 2 drawscreens per game cycle (Princess Rescue was 3). Having to make my code really tight on this one.

You're making me drool: 16-bit Hedgehog shoehorned into an Atari VCS? Yes, please!

[mkiker2089]

I didn't think it was possible to make a fun Sonic game on the 2600 but I could be wrong. It looks good so far. One question though, is jump supposed to be tied to the ball form also? Wouldn't in be better to have ball form be down on the joystick?

You have to include 2 button support for the Genesis controller. It just has to be done that way.

[mkiker2089]

Any word on a real Bioshock 2600?

[Sprybug]

I didn't think it was possible to make a fun Sonic game on the 2600 but I could be wrong. It looks good so far. One question though, is jump supposed to be tied to the ball form also? Wouldn't in be better to have ball form be down on the joystick?

You have to include 2 button support for the Genesis controller. It just has to be done that way.

All the Sonic games I have played you automatically ball up on a jump. if you didn't, you wouldn't be able to "pop" the enemies in regular form. Also, when you build up enough speed in the Sonic games, hitting down will ball you up and you can roll. In Sonic 2, they added the press down then jump to start spinning out and then letting go of the button makes you take off. I do plan on doing both of these things, just haven't added them yet.

[mkiker2089]

I've only played the PS3 ones and I thought after the jump you returned to standing. This game has me stay a ball. I don't know which is better though as I really don't know Sonic. I was a Nintendrone as a kid. Actually I loved Sega but couldn't afford one so had to leach on friends with one and Golden Axe.

Anyway, I like it so far and will gladly test out any additions you make. I didn't think it was possible but you seem intent on proving me wrong.

[stardust4ever]

You have to include 2 button support for the Genesis controller. It just has to be done that way.

Genesis two botton support is unnecessary IMO. The original sonic only used one button. A, B, and C all mapped to "jump". The only other button was start to start the game and pause.

[kaz321123]

This is an incredibly nice start to this homebrew! I can't wait to see the final version!

Wow I just noticed that sonic does stand and look impatient in your game. Awesome attention to detail! I just love it.

Edited by kaz321123, Thu May 30, 2013 2:05 PM.

[Sprybug]

I've only played the PS3 ones and I thought after the jump you returned to standing. This game has me stay a ball. I don't know which is better though as I really don't know Sonic. I was a Nintendrone as a kid. Actually I loved Sega but couldn't afford one so had to leach on friends with one and Golden Axe.

Anyway, I like it so far and will gladly test out any additions you make. I didn't think it was possible but you seem intent on proving me wrong.

Never played any Sonic game past Sonic Adventure 2 (not including the 3DS kart game). I don't remember in my little demo above if I have him returning to standing form after landing his jump, but he is doing it now with my current code, unless you have some momentum built up in a run then he'll stay balled up and roll along the ground until momentum runs out or you change direction. I just added a different momentum algorithm for his ball form on the ground (takes 6 times as long to come to a stop) and am just about out of RAM already. I tried to add a cavernous area of the level but it was just proving too difficult to do with the background/platform detection. However I came to a realization last night that the first zone of levels is the only set that has that kind of setup and the last 3 zones all follow a more traditional playfield is all solid and can't be walked through, which will allow me to be a lot more flexible with the level design in those zones. It means more code that I'll probably do in a separate bank but it'll be worth it. Hopefully 32K will be enough. I do want moving platforms (that stay moving this time) and would love to use a missile to act as the moving platform (make it thicker), but lost my ability to use them when I used colors in both P0 and P1. However I did read somewhere that someone was still able to use missile 1 after using the playercolor tables on both sprites, so we'll see what I can squeeze out of that if anything.

[Mr SQL]

Awesome Sprybug! Just gave it a try, I like the way Sonic does the loops

[stardust4ever]

Never played any Sonic game past Sonic Adventure 2 (not including the 3DS kart game). I don't remember in my little demo above if I have him returning to standing form after landing his jump, but he is doing it now with my current code, unless you have some momentum built up in a run then he'll stay balled up and roll along the ground until momentum runs out or you change direction. I just added a different momentum algorithm for his ball form on the ground (takes 6 times as long to come to a stop) and am just about out of RAM already. I tried to add a cavernous area of the level but it was just proving too difficult to do with the background/platform detection. However I came to a realization last night that the first zone of levels is the only set that has that kind of setup and the last 3 zones all follow a more traditional playfield is all solid and can't be walked through, which will allow me to be a lot more flexible with the level design in those zones. It means more code that I'll probably do in a separate bank but it'll be worth it. Hopefully 32K will be enough. I do want moving platforms (that stay moving this time) and would love to use a missile to act as the moving platform (make it thicker), but lost my ability to use them when I used colors in both P0 and P1. However I did read somewhere that someone was still able to use missile 1 after using the playercolor tables on both sprites, so we'll see what I can squeeze out of that if anything.

Sprybug, while you're at it, be sure to throw in full color backgrounds too, with parallax scrolling just like the Genesis had!

LOL!

On a more serious note, this is awesome! I love how Sonic taps his feet if you take too long, just like in the game!

Edited by stardust4ever, Thu May 30, 2013 7:12 PM.

[Sprybug]

Sprybug, while you're at it, be sure to throw in full color backgrounds too, with parallax scrolling just like the Genesis had!

LOL!

On a more serious note, this is awesome! I love how Sonic taps his feet if you take too long, just like in the game!

Sure! Let me fuse a Genesis to an Atari first and then I should be able to get that working.
Well, I wasn't able to get what I wanted out of what was left with the missile registers to make a working platform, so I'm doing kind of what I did in Princess Rescue. As soon as Zippy jumps on one of these platforms they'll start to spaz out graphically and then disappear a second later, so it acts like those dropping/disappearing platforms.

[BrianC]

Have you played the SMS Sonic 1? It had simpler level design and a couple auto scroll levels. Would it be possible to do something akin act 2 of the bridge zone?

[lapetino]

This is amazing! Keep up the great work. This is very exciting stuff...nice job, and thanks for sharing your talents with us all!

[Sprybug]

Have you played the SMS Sonic 1? It had simpler level design and a couple auto scroll levels. Would it be possible to do something akin act 2 of the bridge zone?

Sure did. I had a Sega Game Gear with that game back when it was new, which essentially was the same as the SMS version. It didn't even have a loop and when you lost your rings, you lost them all at once with just one dropping off the screen and no way to get them back. I'm out-doing that with the loop that you guys have already seen, and I'm going to do some tricks which I've already thought out so when you lose your rings they fly out in a bunch and land on the platform below with your chance to regain some of your rings. I don't recall what each level did though. Did act 2 of bridge zone auto scroll?

[BrianC]

yeah, it was act 2 that auto scrolled. I love the Bridge Zone music too.

[stardust4ever]

Sure did. I had a Sega Game Gear with that game back when it was new, which essentially was the same as the SMS version. It didn't even have a loop and when you lost your rings, you lost them all at once with just one dropping off the screen and no way to get them back. I'm out-doing that with the loop that you guys have already seen, and I'm going to do some tricks which I've already thought out so when you lose your rings they fly out in a bunch and land on the platform below with your chance to regain some of your rings. I don't recall what each level did though. Did act 2 of bridge zone auto scroll?

There's an original pirate NES game called Somari (which is a combination of "SOnic" and "MARio", and also sounds strangely similar to "Samurai") Anyway, it is a Sonic 1 clone with Mario mascaraing as Sonic and wearing his blue shoes. It's a fairly faithful port of Sonic1 for the Genesis, but it has issues like spike pits you cannot jump out of (which means if playing the game with an "infinite health" Game Genie code, you will have to reset if you get stuck in a spike pit) and other poorly designed level elements. I've never made it to some of the later levels but I hear they are even buggier than Green Hill Zone. The NES can't handle the necessary number of sprites to create a proper ring explosion, so no matter how many rings you accumulate, you only drop a maximum of three collectable rings. And just like the original Sonic game, if you lose all your rings and take a hit, you die. Also some pretty cheesy sprite flicker going on with the large sprites in the boss battles.

The Atari is severely limited in the hardware department compared to the NES, so you've really got your work cut out to make this a convincingly good game that's worth playing. I'm by no means saying it can't be done, and I sincerely hope you can pull the impossible like you did with Princess Rescue!

[Sprybug]

There's an original pirate NES game called Somari (which is a combination of "SOnic" and "MARio", and also sounds strangely similar to "Samurai") Anyway, it is a Sonic 1 clone with Mario mascaraing as Sonic and wearing his blue shoes. It's a fairly faithful port of Sonic1 for the Genesis, but it has issues like spike pits you cannot jump out of (which means if playing the game with an "infinite health" Game Genie code, you will have to reset if you get stuck in a spike pit) and other poorly designed level elements. I've never made it to some of the later levels but I hear they are even buggier than Green Hill Zone. The NES can't handle the necessary number of sprites to create a proper ring explosion, so no matter how many rings you accumulate, you only drop a maximum of three collectable rings. And just like the original Sonic game, if you lose all your rings and take a hit, you die. Also some pretty cheesy sprite flicker going on with the large sprites in the boss battles.

The Atari is severely limited in the hardware department compared to the NES, so you've really got your work cut out to make this a convincingly good game that's worth playing. I'm by no means saying it can't be done, and I sincerely hope you can pull the impossible like you did with Princess Rescue!

Oh yeah, I've played that, or I should say TRIED to play it. It was an awful, awful, awful port. Let me elaborate then on my plans for the losing of the rings. I plan on making a completely new sprite that has multiple rings in it. On the Atari your sprite may have a limitation of 8 pixels in width, but the height can be as long as you want. So when the rings fly out I plan on make a sprite that has a quite a few rings in one sprite, being many pixels high. Then I'm going to use the NUSIZ register to make 2 duplicate copies across the board to make it look like a big pile of rings without flickering. Then when they land, I plan on having a different sprite for those that'll have 2 rings overlapping each other in one sprite and then duplicating that twice with NUSIZ. When you run into one, you get two of your rings back, meaning you can get 6 back in total when you lose all your rings. I use the NUSIZ register to get the 3 rings that you can collect when you see them. Then I use player0 and player1 coordinates, math and the process of elimination to figure out which one you touched to collect and then readjust the coordinates of the ring sprite if necessary or/and change the NUSIZ register. It's why you can touch the middle ring first and you'll still have the same two to the left and right of Zippy.