winkdot Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 (edited) Thought I would post my very first Atari 2600 game made with batari. Doing this taught me a little bit and made me appreciate more than ever the great coders from the past and on this web site. This game is a 4k game (I didn't use it all). I did this one in about a week of part time work so there could be all sorts of errors. If you try it out let me know. I used the standard kernel but I think I will try my hand at the DPC+ kernel next. The setup. On the planet Uttertopia destructive mutant cows began appearing and eating all the trees. Alarmed, the inhabitants of the planet mounted an attack to wipe them out before all was lost. Your briefing: You will have three ships to complete the task. If you fight well we will have enough time to provide a re-enforcement. The mutant cows have developed an outer shell on their bodies that are impervious to our firepower. It has been discovered the only way to destroy one is to hit it at a soft spot on the head. Because of methane gas buildup our ship engines will not be able to enter the lower atmosphere as time progresses. The cow will run by the tree and eat some of it. If the cow eats the entire tree then methane gas will build even more. If the cow eats 4 trees too much methane will be generated and your ship will crash. The status bar on the bottom right will indicate how many trees have been destroyed. If your ship is shot down there is still a chance to take out one more cow by crashing upon the deadly mutant cow. There are rumors the mutant cows have developed a SOB weapon in addition to their deadly cowpies. Proceed with caution! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks for the comments. I have made suggested improvements to the cowpies movement. Also added Methane buildup effect on the players ship. Player crash updates. Now possible to hit a cow during a ship crash. Added a 4th level. It gets pretty difficult for me here. Let me know what you think. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Version 0.3 adds changes to playfield, some audio changes, scoring adjustments, enemy AI (if you can call it that) changes. Progress to next level at 1000 points. Crash on cow is now worth 500 points. Let me know if there are issues. Thanks! Version 0.4 adds trees (well actually tree). The cow will run by the tree and eat some of it. If the cow eats the entire tree then methane gas will build even more. If the cow eats 4 trees too much methane will be generated and your ship will crash. The status bar on the bottom right will indicate how many trees have been destroyed. cow-0.5.bin cow-0.2.bas.bin cow-0.3.bas.bin cow-0.4.bin Edited March 6, 2015 by winkdot 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retro Lord Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 Screenshots would be nice =) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZackAttack Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 Congrats on your first game! I'd like to suggest you change the cowpie behavior so it doesn't follow the cow's horizontal movements. Occasionally the cow moves while a cowpie is flying and it looks weird when the cowpie follows the cow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinroh Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 Sounds fun man, I'll have to give it a try when I get home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinroh Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 I needed to read haha, threw me off when I hit the body and nothing happened. Then I hit the head and figured it out. Cool spin on the Space Invaders style. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Atarius Maximus Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 Very original concept! Here's a few screenshots for those that are curious. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winkdot Posted January 8, 2015 Author Share Posted January 8, 2015 A little time has passed with no reported comments on version .02 So should I remove the 0.1 version? New to this and not sure what the proper protocol is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinroh Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 Wow, I didn't even realize there was a .2 version! Maybe bump the thread every time there's a new version. I'll check it out later when I'm at my PC. Sometimes people will keep old builds there, and just denote one as the latest version, but it's up to you if you wanna keep the old builds there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinroh Posted January 9, 2015 Share Posted January 9, 2015 Very cool, just played it. Got to the purple ground stage and man, did it get tough. Addicting! The sounds make great feedback, and it's got a good progression of difficulty. The only constructive criticism I can think of is that the cow pie firing sound gets stuck or stays on too long and gets kind of BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ grating on your ears. Maybe the background could be jazzed up too. Other than that man, it's sweet. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winkdot Posted January 9, 2015 Author Share Posted January 9, 2015 Thanks much Jinroh. Love the input! I've done some changes to the sound and hopefully it's better. I have also slowed the ships decent when it's hit to give the player a better chance of crashing into the cow. Will post the update if I don't think of something else to add. At this point there are 4 levels of difficulty. I can't get to the 4th level unless I code the way there. So it might ramp up too quickly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinroh Posted January 9, 2015 Share Posted January 9, 2015 Ah nice, glad I could help. I'll have to try crashing into the cow. That sounds pretty rad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winkdot Posted January 11, 2015 Author Share Posted January 11, 2015 Version 0.3 update adds changes to the playfield, some audio changes (hope its a little better), scoring adjustments, enemy AI (if you can call it that) changes. Progress to next level at 1000 points. Crash on cow is now worth 500 points. Let me know if there are issues. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PFL Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 Nice stuff. Looking forward to trying out the new build. Screw Pigs in Space - We've got Cows in Spaaaaaace! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winkdot Posted February 20, 2015 Author Share Posted February 20, 2015 A new improved Cows!!! Now with Trees! (well, tree to be more exact). I didn't realize that there were no trees in the game for the cows to eat as mentioned in the setup.... so.... now there is a tree. The cow will run by the tree and eat some of it. If the cow eats the entire tree then methane gas will build even more. If the cow eats 4 trees too much methane will be generated and your ship will crash. The status bar on the bottom right will indicate how many trees have been destroyed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winkdot Posted March 6, 2015 Author Share Posted March 6, 2015 Likely final Cows, version 0.5 Minor graphic update. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neotokeo2001 Posted March 6, 2015 Share Posted March 6, 2015 I would let the player suffer a little longer in their defeat. Have the UFO on the ground a few seconds before going to the Game Over Screen. Since the player can get extra points crashing into the cow, how about a sound effect to show that something happened. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winkdot Posted August 28, 2015 Author Share Posted August 28, 2015 A lets play video of Cows by Killa. This was my first attempt at trying to write a 2600 game. Killa will be looking for more 2600 homebrews to do lets plays on so drop a comment on him of homebrew games you would like to see. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arenafoot Posted May 28, 2020 Share Posted May 28, 2020 (edited) It is with a sad heart, I would like to let all of the Atari community know that I just found out Ed Riley "winkdot" passed away last October. Ed was a programmer who created at least 7 known Atari 2600 homebrew games: Cows (2015), Alien Pinball (2015), The Deep (2015), Orb (2015), Doom Patrol (2015), Shark Jaws + (2018), and The Goons (2019). Ed helped me to cover two of his titles, The Deep (volume 2) and Doom Patrol (volume 3) for my book series. When I reached out to him for the title Orb, was when I found out about his death from his daughter, Lindsay. As we never met in person, we had several conversations thru the AtariAge forums and on Facebook. He had plans in 2018 to come to the Houston Arcade Expo and attend my book signing there but, medical issues came up and he had to cancel. In honor of Ed, I have made a dedication ROM pack of his games and a document contained within the pack with information about him. I know Ed would want as many people to be able to play his games as possible. May you get a perfect score playing your games in Heaven. Brian Matherne https://amazon.com/author/brianmatherne https://tiny.cc/Atari2600Homebrew Winkdot dedication .zip Edited May 28, 2020 by Arenafoot 1 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted June 13, 2020 Share Posted June 13, 2020 (edited) We'll be playing Cows on tomorrow's (Sun Jun 14) ZeroPage Homebrew stream LIVE on Twitch at 11AM PT | 2PM ET | 6PM GMT! Hope everyone can watch! Twitch Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/ Games: Jumper (2006) by Steve Engelhardt (@Atarius Maximus) Mega Man (2009) by David Galloway (@djmips / Code & Art) and Tommy Montgomery (Sound) Paranoid (2020 WIP) by @eshu Cows (2015) by Ed Riley (@winkdot) Galagon (2020 Harmony Games #4) by John Champeau of Champ Games (@johnnywc), Nathan Strum (@Nathan Strum / Graphics and Design), Ross Keenum (Music and Sound), Dave Dries (Packaging) (SET VIDEO TO 1080P60 FOR FULL QUALITY) Edited June 15, 2020 by ZeroPage Homebrew 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarthDuke Posted May 29, 2021 Share Posted May 29, 2021 Sounds like a fun game. I love hacks of old games, but it's also cool to find all new games too. Very good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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