+Andrew Davie Posted May 27, 2005 Author Share Posted May 27, 2005 Maybe I missed the video with this in it but what happens when the character gets crushd with a boulder or dies in any other way. I would like to see that if you could point me to the mpeg or maybe post a new one. 860693[/snapback] This is a very rough first effort... but here's a small MPG showing me dropping a boulder on a butterfly. (1.5MB). Not quite what you asked for, but it does involve death and destruction. Cheers A Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindfield Posted May 27, 2005 Share Posted May 27, 2005 Nice. Needs a bit of explode animation before the diamonds appear, but it's pretty well perfect otherwise! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted May 27, 2005 Share Posted May 27, 2005 I suppose it is an artifact of the video capture, but almost looks cool if the screen is shaking when something is hit by a rock. It would probably be annoying in the long term though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted May 27, 2005 Author Share Posted May 27, 2005 I suppose it is an artifact of the video capture, but almost looks cool if the screen is shaking when something is hit by a rock. It would probably be annoying in the long term though. 862764[/snapback] No, it's glitching. Won't be happening in the final version... but I thought I'd throw up the first effort and share my excitement. If someone could explain to me the 'explosion animation' that would be handy. Thanks A Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted May 27, 2005 Share Posted May 27, 2005 The same explosion that (will) happen when the player is hit by a rock, also happens when a butterfly is hit by a rock, i.e. the 3x3 squares are filled by an explosion before diamonds appear. Butterflies are available on level M/1 on original Boulder Dash, at least C64 version, if you want to compare. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindfield Posted May 27, 2005 Share Posted May 27, 2005 Indeed, there's a brief 3x3 explosion animation overlayed in the area around the butterfly before the diamonds appear, which is also used when a rock falls on Rockford. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pmpddytim Posted May 27, 2005 Share Posted May 27, 2005 Yes sir, I like it! -Tim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted May 28, 2005 Author Share Posted May 28, 2005 Thomas and I have been having some fun experimenting with visuals -- specifically the shapes and colours. So don't worry too much about the changes you see in this MPG. What I thought I'd show is a nice cascade of diamonds. Cheers A Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted May 29, 2005 Author Share Posted May 29, 2005 Here are some screen grabs of some of the levels. If you have the bandwidth, here is a 20MB MPG of some actual gameplay in level 3. It's uploading as I post, so if it doesn't work for you please try again in 1 hour and 20 minutes Yes, it's a bit glitchy and speed is all over the place... but these things will be fixed -- and, as you can see, the engine is pretty damn close to the original game. Looking forward to showing this at the show... about 20 more sleeps Cheers A Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindfield Posted May 29, 2005 Share Posted May 29, 2005 Dayum, that's purdy. It's like watching a slightly lower res version of the original game -- gameplay elements and all. I think even as it stands it ought to impress the knickers off the ladies. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moderntimes99 Posted May 30, 2005 Share Posted May 30, 2005 (edited) If you have the bandwidth, here is a 20MB MPG of some actual gameplay in level 3. It's uploading as I post, so if it doesn't work for you please try again in 1 hour and 20 minutes Yes, it's a bit glitchy and speed is all over the place... but these things will be fixed -- and, as you can see, the engine is pretty damn close to the original game. Looking forward to showing this at the show... about 20 more sleeps 863424[/snapback] Judging from the mpeg it seems as if the physics for diamonds and boulders are in all place! Congratulations! I also like that the score has moved above the playfield, this makes it even closer to the original. Maybe the boulders are looking a slight bit too bright in the mpeg, but they look really good in the screenshots (when there are not so many of them) so it might not be a big problem. If the original title screen can't be implemented one idea could be to use the raster lines from American Action's Boulder Dash III (the C64 version), as these should be doable on the VCS, and combine them with the logo from the first Boulder Dash (the Atari 800 version)... Regards, Moderntimes99 PS. And sure, this project has *dignity*, anyone knowing their computer game history watching these mpegs can see that... :-) Edited June 1, 2005 by moderntimes99 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moderntimes99 Posted June 1, 2005 Share Posted June 1, 2005 Judging from the mpeg it seems as if the physics for diamonds and boulders are in all place! Congratulations! 864071[/snapback] A physics test would be to go to Cave I1 (from BD1) open up the cave and make sure to not grab any diamond... does the pattern in the 2600 version look identical to the one below? (Just for curiousity I checked the Atari 800, C64, ZX Spectrum, GB and GBA version and they all give the same pattern!) Regards, Moderntimes99 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted June 1, 2005 Author Share Posted June 1, 2005 A physics test would be to go to Cave I1 (from BD1) open up the cave and make sure to not grab any diamond... does the pattern in the 2600 version look identical to the one below? 865327[/snapback] No, it's not the same. There are certain methods I have had to use to get any sort of speed that differ greatly from those methods the 'normal' games use. The diamonds and boulders still move the same way, but the order in which they decide to move is obviously different. For example, two boulders which are able to move into the same spot -- my system might choose the alternate one to move, compared to the 'correct' way. This may change as I refine my creature systems, but it's not something I am very concerned about -- getting it as functional as it is has been tricky, and it is still very playable. Thanks for chasing that up, though. Interesting to see the difference. I do know that I make the correct decision about falling leftwards first, for example. It's almost certainly which object falls first that is making the difference. Cheers A Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted June 1, 2005 Share Posted June 1, 2005 It's almost certainly which object falls first that is making the difference. I suppose the other systems are simply scanning the whole board in a well defined order. Probably the information can be found here, though I doubt we will be able to reproduce everything 100%. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted June 1, 2005 Author Share Posted June 1, 2005 Here is a minute-and-a-half of gameplay showing a new scroll system (17MB). This is essentially the same system as used in Thrust. Thomas and I are at odds as to which system to use -- but as the display system improves in overall speed (and you can see it is pretty zippy in this example) I do agree that the new scroll works better. The new scroll attempts to keep as much area 'ahead' of the player as possible. That is, it determines the direction you were moving and tries to give you as much visible area as is reasonable in that direction. My old system allowed you to press the button down and scroll the screen around without moving the player -- giving you a look-around capability. I'm not sure which way to go yet ... maybe a configuration screen where you can select either method Cheers A Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZylonBane Posted June 1, 2005 Share Posted June 1, 2005 Thomas and I have been having some fun experimenting with visuals -- specifically the shapes and colours. So don't worry too much about the changes you see in this MPG. What I thought I'd show is a nice cascade of diamonds. Shouldn't those two diamonds in the second row from the bottom fall inward? Also, regarding using the button to look around, does this overload the original game's ability for Rockford to dig/grab diamonds around himself without moving? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted June 1, 2005 Author Share Posted June 1, 2005 Thomas and I have been having some fun experimenting with visuals -- specifically the shapes and colours. So don't worry too much about the changes you see in this MPG. What I thought I'd show is a nice cascade of diamonds. Shouldn't those two diamonds in the second row from the bottom fall inward? Also, regarding using the button to look around, does this overload the original game's ability for Rockford to dig/grab diamonds around himself without moving? 865490[/snapback] There is an invisible "don't go here" character because that is where the player should start from... and this wasn't implemented at the time. So it never got blanked when the player moved away. The diamonds would otherwise have fallen inwards as suggested. As to the lookaround -- the mechanics of this function are still undecided. Cheers A Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moderntimes99 Posted June 1, 2005 Share Posted June 1, 2005 As to the lookaround -- the mechanics of this function are still undecided. Cheers A 865497[/snapback] In my personal opinion I would definitely prefer to see the original "snap a diamond" functionality on the fire button. It might even be neccessary to have this in there in order to solve some of the caves! In Boulder Dash EX on the Gameboy Advance, however, there is the possibility to pause the game and look around while the game is paused - why not have something like that in the 2600 version? (If lookaround is at all neccessary? I think the new scrolling looks awesome and seems to catch up with the movements very well!) Another idea, for the diamonds counter - why not have it start on the number of diamonds required and then have it counting downwards for every diamond collected. What really concerns the player should be the number of diamonds left before the exit is available (and then maybe showing +1, +2, +3 etc for every "bonus" diamond collected after that). Regards, Moderntimes99 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted June 1, 2005 Share Posted June 1, 2005 In my personal opinion I would definitely prefer to see the original "snap a diamond" functionality on the fire button. It might even be neccessary to have this in there in order to solve some of the caves! In Boulder Dash EX on the Gameboy Advance, however, there is the possibility to pause the game and look around while the game is paused - why not have something like that in the 2600 version? (If lookaround is at all neccessary? I think the new scrolling looks awesome and seems to catch up with the movements very well!) Another idea, for the diamonds counter - why not have it start on the number of diamonds required and then have it counting downwards for every diamond collected. What really concerns the player should be the number of diamonds left before the exit is available (and then maybe showing +1, +2, +3 etc for every "bonus" diamond collected after that). My thoughts (and suggestions) exactly! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nathan Strum Posted June 1, 2005 Share Posted June 1, 2005 Here is a minute-and-a-half of gameplay showing a new scroll system (17MB). Wow! That's jaw-dropping, Andrew. I'm just starting to "get" the possibilities beyond Boulderdash that this game engine could offer for the 2600. Adventure games, maze games, scrolling shoot-'em ups. It could be adapted for a whole range of genres. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted June 2, 2005 Author Share Posted June 2, 2005 I'm just starting to "get" the possibilities beyond Boulderdash that this game engine could offer for the 2600. Adventure games, maze games, scrolling shoot-'em ups. It could be adapted for a whole range of genres. 865864[/snapback] The system has been carefully designed to be independant of the game. That is, the display system provides a generic 'character-based' system for use in any game needing a scrollable playfield. There are limitations, of course, to what can be done -- but I certainlly see the potential for other games, and I have been careful not to 'hardwire' anything to this one. The system is becoming more optimal day by day. I will be using this particular level as a performance tester. Here there are a couple of dozen creatures doing their thing, along with screen scrolling. It really taxes the system. I do expect to significantly improve the upudate speed on this one, but this is probably one of the more complex (in terms of active creatures) levels that I think will be possible. Cheers A Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keilbaca Posted June 2, 2005 Share Posted June 2, 2005 I'm just starting to "get" the possibilities beyond Boulderdash that this game engine could offer for the 2600. Adventure games, maze games, scrolling shoot-'em ups. It could be adapted for a whole range of genres. 865864[/snapback] The system is becoming more optimal day by day. I will be using this particular level as a performance tester. Here there are a couple of dozen creatures doing their thing, along with screen scrolling. It really taxes the system. I do expect to significantly improve the upudate speed on this one, but this is probably one of the more complex (in terms of active creatures) levels that I think will be possible. Cheers A 866202[/snapback] Hmmm... I smell a new overclocking project coming up... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted June 2, 2005 Author Share Posted June 2, 2005 Hmmm... I smell a new overclocking project coming up... 866261[/snapback] My 6507 is smoking, as it is. Any hotter and it would melt. Here is the same level, but with a few tweaks and using the alternate scroll system. As you can see, the shearing effect is dramatically reduced (4MB). So, deciding the scrolling method to use is not a simple one. On a level like this, the original scroll has clear advantages. Cheers A Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keilbaca Posted June 2, 2005 Share Posted June 2, 2005 Hmmm... I smell a new overclocking project coming up... 866261[/snapback] My 6507 is smoking, as it is. Any hotter and it would melt. Here is the same level, but with a few tweaks and using the alternate scroll system. As you can see, the shearing effect is dramatically reduced (4MB). So, deciding the scrolling method to use is not a simple one. On a level like this, the original scroll has clear advantages. Cheers A 866381[/snapback] Wow, you're actually making it hot? Sounds like I need to get me a heatsink and fan then for it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pmpddytim Posted June 3, 2005 Share Posted June 3, 2005 That last video looks smoother than the previous ones. On some of the ones before It was a bit tough to track at times this one was not. -Tim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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