2018 Homebrew Tournament - Seaweed Assault - Round 5

[2018 Homebrew Tournament - Seaweed Assault - Round 5]

Jeez, i'm getting too old for fast paced games like this one.

 

First try:

 

2,268

 

 

 

[2018 Homebrew Tournament - Seaweed Assault - Round 5]

Great choice! Be sure to check the online manual before playing.

[Games Beaten In 2018!]

I beat Shantae: Risky's Revenge (PC) yesterday. It was fun to play through and now i'm playing Shantae and the Pirate's Curse .

[4K VCS Assembly Programming Competition]

Some neat fake labels can be found here:

 

https://www.rediscoverthe80s.com/2011/12/atari-2600-humor-part-2.html

 

I hope someone makes Nutball!

[Pixel art Program for Atari 2600 Development]

You could also try the sprite editor from junkosoft:

 

https://www.junkosoft.com/tools.aspx

[New Releases from AtariAge at 2018 PRGE!]

 

Serpentine is an original maze game, programmed by David Snider...

 

Serpentine is a good game but it's not all that original. I'm pretty sure it was inspired by Konami's "Jungler" from 1981:

 

[Halloween Themed Atari 2600 Homebrew?]

Wow! I didn't know I made that. Unfortunately, I don't have the BAS code, it is long gone on some dead computer laying in a junkyard somewhere.

 

Fortunately there are a few .bas files posted in your thread. The latest one is from August 13th 2007:

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/108451-happy-halloween-wip/page-3?do=findComment&comment=1350895

 

It's a good concept, with a few more levels and a bit of polish it could be made into a fun to play game. Just sayin'.

[Choplifter! (Atari 2600)]

 

One of the things that keeps me digging through old threads is the lore of "Atari programming" particularly the trials and tribulations. Has anyone made a project out of curating all the fascinating homebrew stories?

 

And it's not just the successfully released games, it's also the failures, the grandiose claims, the evolution of the algorithms, and the struggle to understand the platform. Documenting the notable failures might be embarrassing to some, but it's also an interesting part of the record.

 

Yep. It's interesting to look through all those projects, not only the finished games.

 

And here's a good example of a failed project (though i *might* get back to it one day...):

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/129467-problem-with-player1color-and-pfscroll-need-help/

 

[Halloween Themed Atari 2600 Homebrew?]

Does anybody know of any Halloween themed Atari 2600 homebrew games? I know there are TONS of hacks out there but the only original Halloween themed games I could find are:

• Happy Halloween (WIP)
• Candy Catcher
• Tyre Trax: Level 4 (WIP)
• Video Jack-O-Lantern (Demo)

I'm asking as I'll be doing a ZeroPage Homebrew show on October 31st and wanted to fill it with great Halloween homebrew.

 

If you don't know of any others besides those three, please feel free to recommend your favourite Halloween Atari 2600 hacks!

 

Unfortunately it seems there aren't any more Halloween homebrews than those i suggested to you a while ago. I was hoping there might be a few more i have overlooked.

 

You could also add Skeleton+ which is at least somewhat spooky and maybe a few hacks like:

 

Hell-o-ween

Halloween III

Halloween 4

Pumpkinhead

 

We really need more Halloween themed homebrews for the 2600.

[Why do so many homebrew games don't have roms?]

Sales go to zero when you release a ROM.

 

Really? I'm just wondering because the ROMs for many homebrews in the AA store are available and they seem to be selling fine. And i thought small runs of around 20 - 50 copies seem to sell pretty quick?

I'm just curious and i'm probably totally wrong.

[Sheep It Up!]

Looks like a neat little game but i'd probably rage quit after a few rounds.

[[Final] Monkey King]

 

Do you put that into the playfield enviroment or outside? It gives me errors. However I just tried pfvlines and that freed a lot up, got 43 now.

 

pfvline 8 0 10 on

pfvline 24 0 10 on

I'm almost sad, it feels like I should fill it.

 

 

You use the variables instead of the playfield - delete the playfield and paste the code from my post where your playfield was.

 

D'OH! I forgot about pfvline, that works even better for straight line playfields like yours.

[[Final] Monkey King]

All bugs fixed! I managed to make the framerate stable by changing the pfread to a playfieldpos check and using it at playfieldpos=1. This shifted the top block creation to playfieldpos 1 instead of 0 and for some reason that fixed everything. I think that that is a good reason to stop touching it and just tweak some starting numbers. (Unless more bugs are found of course!) I'm quite happy with the game in this state.

 

 

The gamespeed works correctly now, will play some more later to check everything.

 

You probably don't need it anymore but you could save 7 bytes by drawing the playfield directly with playfield variables:

 
var1 = %00000001 : var2 = %00000001 : var5 = %00000001 : var6 = %00000001 : var9 = %00000001 : var10 = %00000001 : var13 = %00000001
var14 = %00000001 : var17 = %00000001 : var18 = %00000001 : var21 = %00000001 : var22 = %00000001 : var25 = %00000001 : var26 = %00000001
var29 = %00000001 : var30 = %00000001 : var33 = %00000001 : var34 = %00000001 : var37 = %00000001 : var38 = %00000001 : var41 = %00000001 : var42 = %00000001

http://www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-batari-basic-commands.html#playfield

 

 

 

 

[The 2018 Atari Awards!]

Good! Keep them coming!

 

BTW - the list has been updated! https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TYGgJaphZRQ31LvNfCHovEWYB-c_g3Ba/view?usp=sharing

Good Job!

 

2 games need additional info:

 

Baby is also available at itch.io for $1.

 

Kelly Kangaroo is made with batari Basic and according to the itch.io page it's still a WIP.

[[Final] Monkey King]

I didn't see that happen on mine.....it reset on the next game.

 

The bug only happens once you reach high speed (around 200+ points).

[[Final] Monkey King]

 

Major AI overhaul, it now chases after stones and gives you a good challenge.

I also changed the graphics of the UI a bit.

2 bytes left, I want to add two more if statments, so need to free up space somehow. After that I think that its done.

 

I just played v0.23 a bit and the AI is really challenging now. An old bug returned - the game speed doesn't reset after game over. When you start a new game it starts at high speed.

[[Very odd scanlines problem!] Strange B&W effect in game]

The smartbranching will add back in a goto if it cant branch for free, but some dropped goto commands get missed even by smartbranching on and will error on compile, thats why I said it is best to write code using them, and then to remove and test compile later.

 

 

Good point. I always set smartbranching on but it's probably better to not use it and check if goto is needed by hand.

[[Very odd scanlines problem!] Strange B&W effect in game]

You can try using smartbranching and see if it helps with saving bytes for "if - then - goto" statements:

 

http://www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-batari-basic-commands.html#smartbranching

[The 2018 Atari Awards!]

I'm just going through the list and realised that i was wrong - many of the ROMs are not available for download.

 

EDIT:

 

Or are there any ROMs available at the Atari 2600 Homebrew FB group? Can't check as i don't use Facebook.

[The 2018 Atari Awards!]

Found 2 more homebrews fom 2018 at itch.io:

 

Kelly Kangaroo

Turtle Bay

 

 

[The 2018 Atari Awards!]

 

Your wish is granted! https://drive.google.com/open?id=1TYGgJaphZRQ31LvNfCHovEWYB-c_g3Ba

 

Thanks for the list!. The ROMs for most of these are available with just a few exceptions.

Maybe you should compile and post a ROM pack with all available final/latest versions in January to make voting easier.

[The 2018 Atari Awards!]

Nice Idea! Will be interesting to see a list as i missed most homebrews released in the first half of 2018.

[NTSC-PAL Conversions]

I'm too lazy to dig through the forums but i found a few more NTSC -> PAL conversions in my ROMs folder:

 

Bloody Human Freeway (PAL Conversion).bin

Cabbage Patch Kids - Adventures in the Park (PAL Conversion).bin

Hard Head (PAL Conversion).bin

Ixion (PAL Conversion).bin

Krull (PAL Conversion).bin

Q-bert's Qubes (PAL Conversion) (F8 Bankswitching).bin

Q-bert's Qubes (PAL60 Conversion) (F8 Bankswitching).bin

Quadrun (PAL Conversion).bin

Shootin' Arcade (PAL Conversion).bin

Unknown Activision Game #1 (PAL Conversion).bin

Venetian Blinds Demo (PAL Conversion).bin

 

[[Final] Monkey King]

New Version is up! Bugs are fixed The score glitch was caused but too many gosubs.

 

I played v0.20 in Stella and haven't encountered any bugs. The AI is much better now, you can actually beat the computer player which makes the single player mode fun too.

My best score so far is 670 but i think i can do better if i keep playing.

Overall the game seems good as it is IMO. You just have to test it thoroughly on real hardware before releasing it on cart.

[[final] Monkey King]

Not really enough space for this I think. Plus I am going for a more early atari look/feel. So a title screen would not fit well I think.

 

I think a blocky playfield titlescreen like the example below would fit in very well with the early Atari look, looks like it was made with the video graffiti mode of Surround.