Revontuli

I'm working on a few videos - perhaps some hints and strategies for a few of my games. To get started, I have a video of Harpy's Curse showing a pretty good route for getting started: I haven't seen much gameplay online showing the basic "swoop" attack - folks seem to have had trouble figuring it out or using it in a lot of streams I've watched. You press the attack button when in the air, above an enemy. Birds of prey generally don't shoot or punch things, they usually fly above their prey, get them in their sights, and strike! I wanted to show that the normal attack can be both useful and powerful with a bit of timing. The harpy can be a menace even before grabbing any power ups! You can also change direction and cancel the swoop - leading to a few cases where it speeds up traversing the maze dramatically. The route shows a heart extension, the Gorgon Feather, and a boss - again, a pretty good start to exploring the giant maze. I also venture to say the game is very speedrunnable with various challenges (any%, 100%, no powerups, etc.) - I'm kind of curious how folks have faired if they've tried any playthroughs like that.

The 2600+ has had a couple of updates - I'm not able to test Harpy's Curse on the 2600+ personally but I believe that most 7800 games should work at this point (barring one or two like Rikki&Vikki and PETSCII Robots, both of which use *very* distinct ROM layouts). I do know that getting the emulation working is very much a priority. Games like EXO *do* work now (so Harpy's curse *should*), and there's an interest to get the homebrew stuff working as much as possible.

Awesome review, thank you! I will admit this version *does* actually use POKEY - this is my first try with it. Some earlier versions have a TIA music track, but I decided to give the POKEY a try for this one. The ROM is a *little* bigger, but still within the specs of some games that were released during the 7800's commercial era, so I don't think I'm cheating too much. Also, the map *does* only show half of the game - although it's a complete experience (a final boss, ending, etc.) You can unlock a secret second quest (much harder than the first) if you find the right area...so if you feel the game is too short, or too easy, there's a quite a bit more of the game to play if you look hard enough...😁 I still don't know why folks find default starting attack odd, birds of prey generally don't punch or shoot stuff - When they want to attack or eat something, they usually fly above their target and do this: Once again, awesome review - you give a good tour and description. I also appreciated you showing how to get the controls set up on the VCS so you don't reset with the press of a button. Thanks for playing!

Awesome! Looks like you made it past at least one Molobros (big dragon head boss)... I haven't really seen anyone break 10,000 points, even though that should be *very* possible in normal mode with a little practice and knowing how everything works. While levels 8 and above throw everything at you, strategic play should allow you to survive for quite a while - as with most score attack games, the overall challenge shifts from reflexes to endurance at that point. I'm planning on posting a video of tips and strategies for Dragon's Descent, since I've seen too many streamers overlook a few key features if they go in cold. Thanks for playing, I'm glad you're having fun with it!

There should be an announcement (along with the next wave of releases) in a week or two - watch this space

Sort of - every time you place gems the game evaluates the board and looks for matches of 3 - does a gem have 2 neighbors (any direction) of the same type? Each "match" of 3 gems starts at 3 points, but then a multiplier is incremented, so the second match is 6 points (x2), the third 9 points (x3), etc. This means that a 4-in-a-row is technically 2 matches (2 gems in the row in have 2 matching neighbors), so 9 (3 + 6) points, and a 5-in-a-row is 3 "matches" or 18 (3+6+9) points on its own. The multiplier does cap at x8, or 24 points per 3-match, although you can imagine that still adds up if a cascade gets some 4,5, or 6+ gems in a row. You want cascades. To elaborate: In scoring, you generally want to combo as much as you can early on - levels increment by the number of total gems removed, and not the score itself, so the more valuable each gem is, point-wise, the higher score you'll get before the game speeds up to where you can't manage (or if you're good/fast enough, start the endurance test that is level 9). Someone who gets to level 9 by just matching 3 after 3 will have a much lower score than someone who has been chaining.

Cross-posting from the programming forum, realizing I promised to reveal a cheat code here after PRGE This code will allow you to select the stage you start from - you won't be able to enter your high score if you do this, but it's good for practicing and checking out various parts of the game quickly. Code under the spoiler:

Glad folks are still playing the game! I've decided it's been long enough that I'll reveal a little secret - this starts the player at Level 9 in single player mode. Obviously a disadvantage for scoring, it's mainly used for practicing higher level play without having to work your way up normally, and largely there as a little easter egg:

OK - I promised that I'd reveal a secret or two after PRGE - This is the Stage Select. I had it enabled by default for the large-scale demo that had most of the levels, but you can activate it on the full game to select whatever stage you want. While you can play forward from whatever level you choose, remember that activating the stage select code will prevent you from entering your name on the high score - No trying to get a higher score by starting at a later level! Spoiler tag on for those who want to fight their way through to the final stages To activate Stage Select: It's handy to practice areas or levels you're having trouble with, or get a quick tour of the game.

Cross posting from the main forums - I'm planning on revealing a cheat code or two on this game after I get back from PRGE this year. They might help folks who have gotten stuck or just want to revisit the game. In a semi-related Informal poll, how many folks have beaten the game and seen the ending?

It's for sale in the AtariAge store: https://atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1283 ...along with the others in the "Dragon Trilogy": Dragon's Cache if you want a match-3 puzzler: https://atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1238 Dragon's Descent if you want an arcade roguelike dungeon crawler: https://atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1260

Digging up an old thread, I know, but I'm planning on revealing a cheat code or two on this game after I get back from PRGE this year. They might help folks who have gotten stuck or just want to revisit the game. In a semi-related Informal poll, how many folks have beaten the game and seen the ending?

Just noticed @ZeroPage Homebrew is scheduled to play Dragon's Havoc for the "After Dark" segment tonight, I'm curious if that's still going on... I'll probably reveal a few secrets/cheats for the game after the high score contest wraps up...

Not much in the way of recent videos (and you won't get the best sense of the control by watching someone else play ), but the beta is playable in-browser if you don't want to deal with more involved 7800 emulation: Harpy's Curse Beta - JS7800 The only major hurdle might be toggling "Frame Synch" if the game appears slow. The game is being prepped for ROM burning, we're doing the final tests on the target cart hardware - the physical copies are going to debut at PRGE in a few weeks, should all go well. I'll probably post some final developer's notes in the near future, talking about the game's coding, design decisions, etc. - a big thanks to everyone who gave this game a test during this game's development!!

I'll see how this develops - although I'm keeping my development environment locked (unless upgrades are necessary) until after Harpy's Curse debuts at PRGE. Never change you compiler version unless you *absolutely* have to, especially if you're weeks before release. It's a bit of a shame, since there have been some great additions to 7800Basic recently I'm taking a try at the RMT interface, and trying a few experiments, myself. That said, I'll almost certainly need some RMT help soon, one way or another, and if not on this project, likely on of the others I'm prototyping...