Port Laser Blast (Activision) to 8-bit

[peteym5]

This had been on my list for like 5 years now. Had it partially completed. I had been planning to do my version of the game from scratch. Originally it was to be part of a multi-game cartridge, then considered for a stand alone. I am concerned about putting a "Weak" game on cartridge with Video61 because it may not sale a lot of copies. I know some people had past issues with KJMANN12, but he is totally not involved with anything I do now.

 

However instead of a multi game cartridge, what I can do is have the game play like its 2600 counter part, and include several similar games that share a common set of subroutines, fonts, and sprite data. Several varients of the same game selected on the title screen by pressing select/option. Think about 2600 Combat, by pressing option, you can play with different obstacles, go to planes, 3 vs 1 big, etc.

 

Variants I already considered: 4 tanks on the bottom; changing their distances apart; instead of scrolling one direction, scroll left/light do a bigger battle where you have to destroy more tanks; have enemy ships also; etc.

 

If anybody has any other ideals, post something. Please keep it relevant to Laser Blast.

 

If I still feel it is weak, it may be finished as a free game. But we still want our efforts supported. Before anyone gets stupid about pay-per-downloads, the answer is and always will be NO!.

 

 

[SoundGammon]

How about tanks that need more than one blast, something like a final boss to the next level?

[Mclaneinc]

 

If I still feel it is weak, it may be finished as a free game. But we still want our efforts supported. Before anyone gets stupid about pay-per-downloads, the answer is and always will be NO!.

 

 

 

Was there any reason to revisit and old argument just to be silly again...

 

No one had even asked you and you went on the push...

 

I had hoped all this was over with the demise of Sal.........

[Goochman]

You could take a new Atari approach - Laser Blast 2000 that has some kind of 3D perspective - like maybe you are looking down on the ships from your cockpit?

[peteym5]

A side scrolling 3D effect had been created with stuff scrolling at different speeds depending on how far objects would be from the point of view. I am sure anything can be made more colorful and detailed on the 8-bit, but I did not want to just clone a simple 2600 game. Want to have some options to play something like the 2600 or select enhanced versions. Laser Blast on the 2600 only had a single game mode. I believe it was one of the first games made for the 2600. It was never ported to the 8-bit.

Edited October 7, 2015 by peteym5

[+therealbountybob]

Looks a good concept but repetative - listen to the reviewer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=kEd9aGX-OZ8

[kiwilove]

You can do anything as you like to, as to enhancements. Allow for animations to be present. If you want to go for pickups to enhance the gameplay? Whether it be for different weapons, shields and so on.

Have different kinds of enemies present and so on.

 

I always like the idea of having variability present - so that the behaviour is not always the same - to add some unpredictability to the game - or call it randomness.

 

You don't have to have an end product in mind - just stop, when you feel like it is the right time to or when certain limits are met.

 

Harvey

[Synthpopalooza]

Title screen.

 

laser blast-pcin.asm

laser blast-pcin.obx

[peteym5]

Hey that title screen ideal looks nice. Maybe shrink it alittle for texts at the bottom. Common practice I do is start with a simple text title screen to stand in while I put together the rest of the game and later create something with Graph-to-Font. With these games being geared toward 16K cartridges, I try not to use too much memory on the title. I know Laser Blast will easily fit into 16K with a nice title screen and a ton of optional features.

[Synthpopalooza]

Hey that title screen ideal looks nice. Maybe shrink it alittle for texts at the bottom. Common practice I do is start with a simple text title screen to stand in while I put together the rest of the game and later create something with Graph-to-Font. With these games being geared toward 16K cartridges, I try not to use too much memory on the title. I know Laser Blast will easily fit into 16K with a nice title screen and a ton of optional features.

 

The screen can actually be optimised further, since it is a font screen created with Graph 2 Font ... as it stands now it uses 2 sets of 8 font sets, but that can be reduced.

[peteym5]

I have decided to set it this game to be assembled to a ROM image to send to Video61 to be burned onto EPROMS. The target remains to be a 16K cartridge for $39.95 with free shipping. I might touch up and customize that title screen image to make it look better with Atari Graphics modes later. Need about 6 to 8 lines of text at the bottom for credits, copyright notices, and options. There is another game I have in the works is much more questionable about is profitability, which is Megaoids (Asteroids like game)

 

I am looking for input for enhancement and challenger mode ideals. Classic mode, will be just play similar to the 2600 game with enhanced graphics. Also looking for feedback for potential interested buyers.

 

Laser Blast is a flip of games like Space Invaders, Demon Attack, Galaga, instead of you being a shooter at the bottom defending a planet, you are attacking the planet from above. I wonder what other variations we can do on that.

 

I thought about blasting open prison transports and you have to come down to the ground and rescue prisoners, transport them to safety.

 

Maybe have limited energy/fuel and you need to go off and recharge/refuel.

[Marius]

Before anyone gets stupid about pay-per-downloads, the answer is and always will be NO!.

 

Well, and as long as you keep selling games full of bugs, on CART-only which can't have updates / bugfixes... Will I ever buy it: NO!

 

You don't want to discuss this, but you are the one that keeps repeating about that pay-per-downloads. Nobody else does that here. So who is stupid here?

[Mclaneinc]

 

Well, and as long as you keep selling games full of bugs, on CART-only which can't have updates / bugfixes... Will I ever buy it: NO!

 

You don't want to discuss this, but you are the one that keeps repeating about that pay-per-downloads. Nobody else does that here. So who is stupid here?

 

The Sal is strong in Peteym

[+Cafeman]

never mind

[peteym5]

First of all, these games go through months of beta testing before they are finally release onto a cartridge. I do a lot of test on emulation for different Atari hardware and memory layout. My latest game, Delta Space Arena was 'completed' almost 6 months before anyone seen it. The latest version of Altirra 2.6 seems to accurately emulate the timing from each chip.

 

The original 32K version of Venture, no one reported any glitches with it until it was on the market for almost a year. I never got a full report what the glitch did. It also seem to had gone away when I did the port to 16K and used slightly different routines.

 

I cannot disclose what the final decision on features will be included in the game. But I would have it default to playing like the 2600 version. A 16K cart can certainly hold enough programming and data for many options.

 

I am also no longer doing demos' because they seemed to not help on sales. There were demo's out for Delta Space Arena before the cartridge and several people like KJMANN12 suggested I remove them fearing someone will be disassembling, hack, and release their own ripped version. Even if I removed programming and bobby trapped the program.

 

Usually I do not post anything about a game before it is done, because people can rip ideals. I only posted because Laser Blast is a simple game. People had been asking about why certain 2600 titles never made it over to the 8-bit, including Venture, Laser Blast, Chopper Command, Enduro, etc.

[pirx]

The most important question to ask here is this anti theft worth doing at all? Do you really believe there are people here who want to play the game so much that they fork 35 dollars so they can *play* the game?

 

I sincerely doubt it. gr8 games were releasing all their prods on carts and free files and this is probably the only reasonable way to go because nowadays you cater to cartridge collectors, not gamers.

Edited October 11, 2015 by pirx

[Marius]

The most important question to ask here is this anti theft worth doing at all? Do you really believe there are people here who want to play the game so much that they fork 35 dollars so they can *play* the game?

 

I sincerely doubt it. gr8 games were releasing all their prods on carts and free files and this is probably the only reasonable way to go because nowadays you cater to cartridge collectors, not gamers.

 

And not to mention how many titles he sold. That's the most important part of this whole story.

 

Most coders here on AtariAge do release their stuff for free, and some of them got rewarded for that by donations.

Some people releasing games do come with a fabulous box with extra's, like a nice printed manual, a good looking box, a beautiful label on disk or cart, sometimes extra collectors items are included. They charge a price (sometimes also not so cheap) and they SELL!

 

A lot, sometimes they have to redo a second run. And yes... after that their game is released also as XEX, ATR or BIN file to burn in a cart.

 

Here you find a few examples:

 

Bomb Jake

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/153504-bomb-jake/

 

Dungeon Hunt

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/231654-dungeon-hunt-a-new-game-for-the-atari-8-bit/

 

Techno Ninja

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/236686-new-game-released-tecno-ninja-25-years-anniversary-edition/

 

Pac Man (not cheap, but very well done, good label, and sold out after a while (!))

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/237326-pac-man-arcade-for-5200-and-400800xlxe-available/

 

 

Sales go sometimes sky-high because those coders treat us customers well. I have bought Tempest Extreme on cart when it came out. It did cost me a small fortune to get it here, and what I received was a XEGS cart with a very poor label (on plain paper, printed with a color inkjet printer running out of ink, very ugly cut out, not fitting the cartshell) in a SEGA box where the cart did not fit in right, with a box-label that had the same terrible 'quality' as the one on the cart. I'm not surprised people don't buy this stuff; not for that price. It did not meet my expectations, so I gave the cart away.

 

People on atariage are willing to pay a good price for good quality products. People appreciate it when a coder shares his ideas and programs and when a coder puts efforts in the total product. People here reward that with buying the stuff, and not spreading it when there is a not a free version available.

 

 

several people like KJMANN12 suggested I remove them fearing someone will be disassembling, hack, and release their own ripped version.

 

Usually I do not post anything about a game before it is done, because people can rip ideals.

 

You can't be serious... Do you actually believe that? And do you read what you post? Have you any idea how disrespectful you think (again) of atariage members? Remember a thread where your team was calling AtariAge members ALL pirates?

 

1) The posted links above prove you are totally wrong with your ideas.

2) Here are a few thoughts for you:

 

* Give the audience what they want.

* The customer is always right

* Who does good meet good

* Every man's censure is first moduled in his own nature

 

I promised you not to talk about this again. Indeed I had to break that promise, since you decided to bring this subject back into your own thread (something you hated so before).

 

I probably am not in the position of changing your mind or opinion; but I most certainly hope I have given you a positive insight in the behavior of AtariAge members/customers. That black and negative attitude you keep repeating here, will not bring you any luck, and definitely not more sales, believe me.

 

Cheers!

Edited October 11, 2015 by ProWizard

[Mclaneinc]

And yet again Sal seems to be in control, "he said people would hack the demo" and you actually go with that?

 

Sal has proved time and time again to be a negative towards the very customer he wanted, he actually ripped them off....

 

FACT....And you follow his principles?

 

Petey, if you carry on the way you are going then no one will want to buy off you, you cannot keep calling the buyers pirates and get their custom...

 

And as for demo's, are you insane, a demo is the most important part of the item, it gives a feel of the game and decides if its worth the purchase, not giving a demo simply says "there's something to hide" these days...

 

You are pushing yourself further and further out of the market with this attitude...

 

Trust me, I was a top manager in a retail sales company with the bonuses to prove it, I worked in the heart of London against the competition and we were a flagship store with the sales to match.

 

I say this because I want to believe in your products but you have to believe in us and show it, no promotion, no customer care, no hints equals financial disaster...

 

I learnt this from scratch, I offer the advise to help you but if you are keen to follow the Sal way then good luck, my venture cart from V61 is nicely made, well packaged and a really nice game but forget the Sal mentality, he seems to either have a control of you or perhaps you are Sal, I don't really know but he is NOT a good role model.

 

Drop his idea's and be part of the community by not insulting us and making daft decisions based upon a man who screwed his own world up.

Edited October 11, 2015 by Mclaneinc

[flashjazzcat]

I am also no longer doing demos' because they seemed to not help on sales. There were demo's out for Delta Space Arena before the cartridge and several people like KJMANN12 suggested I remove them fearing someone will be disassembling, hack, and release their own ripped version. Even if I removed programming and bobby trapped the program.

 

Usually I do not post anything about a game before it is done, because people can rip ideals.

I'm not a gamer, but these demos must be astoundingly good if hacking them and attempting to pass them off as one's own work or stealing disassembled code (presumably containing top-secret coding techniques which no-one else could think up on their own) and re-using it in another product is an enticing proposition. Such underhand tactics would be difficult to conceal in a small community like this, roundly condemned if and when discovered, and in any case completely unnecessary since we already have an abundance of talented developers producing excellent games entirely free of charge.

 

The only reason I ended up staring at a disassembly of the Tempest Extreme demo the other day in Altirra's debugger is because the program crashes in a pile-up of re-entrant DLIs if RAM under BASIC is not entirely filled with zeros (which is the case if the OS screen editor is opened after BASIC is disabled).

 

I've only been around here for six years or so, but in that time I have witnessed absolutely no precedent for the kind of industrial espionage which would make a developer so paranoid about their work being hacked or copied. At the same time, I have seen many excellently packaged software titles supplied on cartridge and purchased by people who were enticed into paying money by having previously played a free demo or downloaded an alternative free version. The market for paid-for, packaged, collectible software seems not impacted at all by the presence of demos and XEX downloads. The community is - by and large - fair minded and keenly supportive of those looking to receive fair compensation for their efforts. As Prowizard has said, a donationware model also often works well for software with an unrestricted download policy - something which is very difficult to shift if you charge money for a license up front.

 

Saying that "this title is also available as a deluxe cart package" seems to me a little more enticing than "the only way you can have this is on ROM on a cartridge because people are trying to rip us off and copy our ideas". From me, the first statement would elicit "Oh... is that so? Sounds good", while the second statement makes me think "Shove it". If people are paying for a commodity which cannot be easily updated and patched, surely it's doubly important that they can "try before they buy". This approach also helps uncover bugs that the developer missed (and no, the developer never catches them all).

 

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so while in a sense it's a complement if someone actually does steal your ideas, it is at the same time a little pompous to suggest - in a pre-emptive fashion - that one's work is automatically a prime target for disassembly and piracy.

Edited October 11, 2015 by flashjazzcat

[peteym5]

It is obvious that some people can construe and twist the meaning of what I state to press their case. I should clarify and correct I am stating. It was KJMANN12 who had been objecting to doing demos since the days of Tempest Xtreme. He is not a programmer and did not understand how things can be booby trapped, obmitted, or altered to prevent anyone from hacking and duplicating a game and putting the cartridge features back into the game. Many of those cartridge games require much more memory space than what is possible than a stock 64K Atari 8-bit system. So that stops anyone without extended memory from running the game on real hardware.

 

There will be no demos prior to a cartridge release and not every game I make will have a demo. I managed ways to fit games onto cartridge format that is less expensive, unless it requires ROM space.

[Mclaneinc]

Your loss then, no demo, lower sales...

 

More attitude means lower sales..

 

You have an unfortunate business model...

[Marius]

I don't understand you peteym5. You probably don't understand me, that's fine.

 

I guess you want to sell your game right (or at least Video61 wants that).

 

Although you can disagree with my opinion, you can't disagree with the facts I posted links about: very good sales of Atari products, just like the game you write and Video61 offers for sale.

 

What I don't understand is: why don't you give it a chance. You admit in this thread that this is a not so big project, so why not -for a change- do it the other way.

 

I'm pretty convinced that you'll be surprised by how well your game will sell.

It's up to you.

 

If you sell your game as a download version. I'll be the first one to buy it.

[gozar]

It's obvious why he doesn't want pay-per-downloads, and it's all about his profit margin. $40 for a 16K disk would net about $30. There are few out there that will spend $30 for a download.

 

Let's look at Slor's Atarinet. $20 for a cartridge, and after he sold all 50, he put it up for a free download and people still want to give him money.

 

Unfortunately, I can't see myself ever buying anything produced by peteym5, and that's too bad because Tempest is one of my favorite games of all time.

[Fletch]

Though I do agree that his sales probably suffer buy not selling downloads, I fully support his right to sell his art in whichever fashion he desires. I would be way more likely to purchase a download and I'm sure most others are as well. I am sure he is aware of that and accepts that he is leaving money on the table.

 

But if an artist thinks that his painting should only be available on fresco and not sold on paper, then I'm not going to complain. I'm probably not going to buy the fresco, but I appreciate that the artist has a medium and that is the one he is sticking with.

[Mclaneinc]

It's obvious why he doesn't want pay-per-downloads, and it's all about his profit margin. $40 for a 16K disk would net about $30. There are few out there that will spend $30 for a download.

 

Let's look at Slor's Atarinet. $20 for a cartridge, and after he sold all 50, he put it up for a free download and people still want to give him money.

 

Unfortunately, I can't see myself ever buying anything produced by peteym5, and that's too bad because Tempest is one of my favorite games of all time.

 

 

Well said Ryan...