Secretum Labyrinth Dark Castle video 12/05/2018

[peteym5]

 

Secretum Labyrinth Dark Castles Video Wednesday, December 5, 2018. Adventure Role Playing Game for the Atari 8-bit Computer. Showing some different information screen displayed during when the title screen is displayed. In response to some posts on the last thead, I am showing more animations that happen during game play, scroll unrolling, hidden exits opening, weapon motions, and getting new weapons. Some screens have new textures used on some of the screens. The forest and town have the foliage arranged less into straight lines, making it seem like it was growing and then cleared I changed what I could without extensively re-writing large potions of the programming. I am more concerned about debugging the game and making sure everything works correctly before making these videos and sending it off to be beta tested.

 

The music has Eight Different Tracks that play in the town and different castles, some tracks will play if a different quest is selected. The save and reload progress feature requires a disk drive with a blank formatted disk. Since it only needs to save a 3K block of memory, you can store many different states of your progress through the game. The disk screen selects the block by selecting A to Z as stated on screen. But 0-9 also works and some symbols. You can get more with an enhanced density disk.

 

There are Five Different Quests with altered screens, your path you need to go one point to another will be different as passage will be blocked and new ones will open up.

 

Game Requires 64K RAM XL/XE OS with Ram Available under OS, Supporting 800XL, 1200XL 65XE, 130XE, XEGS, and 600XL with 64K. Any hardware upgrades (like 800 Incognito Board ) are at the risk of the end user. Joystick and Keyboard to play. If you use an XEGS, you will need your keyboard attached. Available to be announced.

 

Now has anyone had any problems running XL/XE software with their Incognito Board?

 

I am looking into doing more Adventure Role Playing Games. Maybe something much more Advance Dungeons and Dragons related. I am not sure how many will want to play a turn bases RPG game vs something action adventure based like this game, or Zelda, Adventure, or Golden Axe Warrior....

[flashjazzcat]

Incognito is the only method of running XL/XE software on an 800. Why would you expect someone to have problems with this title?

[peteym5]

Incognito is the only method of running XL/XE software on an 800. Why would you expect someone to have problems with this title?

There might be issues with programs that use bank switching. Extended RAM, RAM under OS, and cartridges over 16K. I had a problem another game running on hardware mods. Video 61 does not guarantee my games will with hardware mods and will not refund or pay for return shipping. Hardware mods are at the owners risk of the computer. It is not a major concern since the majority has 64K Atari computers. Secretum Labyrinth series requires 64K RAM with RAM under OS. If I decide to do a boot disk version, it will likely require a 130XE.

Edited December 6, 2018 by peteym5

[flashjazzcat]

There might be issues with programs that use bank switching. Extended RAM, RAM under OS, and cartridges over 16K.

 

Specifically what kind of bank-switching problem?

[_The Doctor__]

incognito or Facai rom.. in order to get an answer though, petey would have to trust someone to test his game on those targets... either in cart or developer form...

even if it weren't perfect I don't see the chance the other sticks would be plugged in and moving about when someone was playing the game. The problem so far has been getting the sticks 3/4 seen at all. Doubtful there is an issue.

 

How much ram do you need?

Cartridges over 16k is not an issue last I knew...

 

Maybe you should know the modifications that are done to the 800 for the incognito, or for the cartridge port in general by scores of 800 owners, or pbi mods, or...

 

then you could say which 800 would work on all of your games cartridge or other wise. Hope that gives you an idea on a more educated idea on what the case is and then you can put said notes/ qualifiers in your game/software manual.

Edited December 6, 2018 by _The Doctor__

[peteym5]

Majority of my other games that fit on 16K cartridges, only require the first 16K of RAM (0000 to 16383, $0000 to $3FFF) allowing games to run on 400/800 or 600XL without the RAM mod. That was to allow the games to be ported to the 5200 so I can make extra money on some games. I had an 800, but sent to recycling because the keyboard did not work and some of the circuits were corroded. Plus was just taking up space in storage.

 

I am not sure the emulators will properly simulate a 800 with incognito anyway because this is suppose to make programs 100% compatible with XL/XE software. Just wondering if anyone found a program that was not. If Sparta DOS and Turbo Basic XL works, chances are any program that uses RAM under OS will work also.

Edited December 6, 2018 by peteym5

[Lord Thag]

The graphic changes definitely add to the game. I doubt you'll get the 'it looks like a 2600 game' comments now.

Looking forward to trying it out.

[peteym5]

Yes, I improved the graphics. However my primary concern with the program for now is to check for problems and debug them and make sure everything is working correctly. Some programming code may need to be rewritten and end up a different size. If enough memory space and have time after everything is working properly, I may change some of graphics to help sell the game better.

[peteym5]

Secretum Labyrinth Dark Castles is the next game I made with my Adventure Role Playing Game engine. The programming had been upgraded to handle many more screens and more stuff in the game. I have several other stories and concepts that had been submitted over the last year, but I may need some help with work on the back stories. Send me a PM if interested. Looking for someone really into Literature. I am doing the programming, like a Movie or TV director/producer, I take words off a page and make it int something visual and exciting.

 

I have not established what RPG I will be doing next and will be waiting awhile because these games take much longer to put together compared to smaller games I make. Animal Keeper was made within 2 months vs 10 months to make Dark Castles. Just because a game takes 5 times longer to make does not mean you get 5 times the money.

 

I am favoring doing something not Medieval Europe based for the next RPG. Looking for Ancient Oriental or Sci-Fi based. Instead of Sabres, Foils, Axes, Bows, you will have Samurai Swords, Num-Chucks, Throwing Stars, Laser Guns, and Plasma Grenades.

Edited December 7, 2018 by peteym5

[peteym5]

Just spent the last week of my spare time going through different rooms, doing various things to make sure there are no glitches. I can catch much more stuff than any beta tester because I know what memory locations to look at with a monitor or where to put break points. I know how to cheat and hack memory locations to test and make things happen and repeat to see what is going on. However, it is still going to be beta tested by us before the final release and final advertising video.

 

 

There is more going on with Dark Castles vs The Legend or Kings Gold. For example with Weapons, you have the initial one you find or buy, but each one has an upgrade hidden somewhere in the game. Some weapons you have limits, like the bow and arrow, you have only an x number of arrows before you have to go buy more.

 

Enemies not only attack and knock down your hit points, some steal money, or bite and poison so you need to find antidote.

 

The major function that I know everyone is really liking is including 5 different quests with items re-located and walls on some screens switched around. I know it is something Nintendo did not do with their games and even most newer games do not do. Is once one beaten them, there is really no point in playing them again. Many end up in retro game stores. They did not even take a lesson from Atari 2600 Adventure that had 3 quests. Quest 2 larger, Quest 3 has stuff Randomly placed. So you can play this game 4 different times and have a different experience. Then you have a random quest that places stuff randomly in the game. I did a small upgrade to Kings Gold showing something different going on if you choose Quest 2 on the title screen, some rooms have walls and exits switched around.

Edited December 13, 2018 by peteym5

[peteym5]

Happy New Year. Here are some screen shots from the latest updates. Decided to do screen shots this time instead of another video. I will be making another teaser video in a few weeks.

 

Shows some of the new color effects I added to enhance textures on some of the screens.