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Propane13

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Posts posted by Propane13

  1. Posted

    spelunker for the nes is a awesome game. i can get to the end where you cant get any further, so maybe i will be decent at this new game. :grin:

     

    I playes this a LOT on the NES. Are you saying that you got stuck, or that you beat the game? I've beaten it before, and remember that the keys either move or become invisible the second time through.

     

    -John

  2. Posted

    Is there a technical limitation that prevented you from making the game 4 way scrolling?

     

    Also, this game rooocks!! Yeeaahh!!!! I love me some spelunking platform action =)

     

    So, the story is that I was working on 4-way scrolling in 2003. I coulndn't get it to work as I wanted, so I scrapped the project, thinking that I would come back to it later. When I did look at it again, I couldn't understand that code at all, and it was very broken. So, I cleaned it up. When designing the game, I had an epiphany... That it might not be necessary, and could lead to a very different style of gameplay. By not scrolling, the player would have an increased feeling of fear of the unknown... That, and I could hide gems in places where you have to fall "just right". That could present new memory challenge elements. It seemed new to me, so I went with it. Here is the result.

     

    Good question!

     

    -John

     

  3. Posted

    Ah, now people are starting to get to Exciting areas of the map!

     

    For the climbing up against the wall, yes, it's intentional.

    It may look a little funny, but our hero can balance precariously on his feet in some circumstances.

     

    Glad to see interest in this game.

    I really did enjoy all of those old DOS style games... Maybe that helped contribute to the final product.

     

    -John

  4. Posted

    Thanks everyone for the nice comments! I'm glad that people seem to like it so far.

    I am very happy to be a part of this to community, and it's nice to be able to "give back" a little.

     

    I'm actually curious as to how many gems people can collect, and what their death counts look like. :)

     

    -John

  5. Posted

    IMO the best bet for a "sequel" would be for someone to do a game inspired and playing similar to the predecessors but not infringing on any existing rights.

     

    Maybe sooner than you think, but for the 7800... :ponder:

     

    -John

     

    I hate to do a shameless plug, but some people here may not follow the other forums so closely.

    My game inspired by Pitfall is now up in the 7800 forums, if anyone wants to give it a try:

    http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/200199-get-lost/

     

    -John

  6. Posted

    A few of you may remember this thread:

    http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/153178-some-of-the-demos-i-was-developing-6-years-ago/

     

    My attempts to program the 7800 since 2001 have basically culminated in a game.

    2001 - started to try to program the 7800

    2003 - created a scrolling graphics engine during a very late night. I wanted to write Mega Man. I got stuck with some of the complications, and abandoned it.

    2009 - started the original atariage thread. Community support prompted me to add a few tweaks such as ladder support. It wasn't very exciting though. Started Arkanoid instead.

    2010 - moved across the country, and put my development system away.

    2011 - got set up again, and ported my development system to a new laptop. Arkanoid got shelved, since I had renewed interest in my first engine.

    From here, I spent 1-3 hours every day working on the engine until about April. After that, some sporadic work got the game engine and level design complete.

    With the help of a few people (that I'm very thankful for), I got past some crappy hardware issues, and now it can go public.

     

     

    ===========

     

    Ok-- on to the stuff that people care about.

     

    The game is called "Get Lost".

     

    You are a ninja in training. After completing the most rigorous training course for your instructor, he had one final request for you, before you can truly be called a "master". He asks that you go to another world-- a strange world with a Fire Castle, an underworld, and lots of strange surprises. Your task is to collect all of the gems in that world. How many gems are there? Well... that's part of the mystery. Your instructor has never been too talkative.

     

    You ready your ninja stars and weaponry, but just as you were about to leave, your instructor stops you.

    "I have one condition on this quest". You nod your head, ready for anything.

    "Every ninja must learn the most important part of training-- nonviolence. You must not harm anything."

    You are stunned, and put your weapons away. This truly will be the hardest quest you have ever undertaken.

     

    It's ok though-- you just keep telling yourself that Pitfall Harry never had a gun.....

     

    ===========

     

    Gameplay is simple-- the button lets you jump.

    Left/right move you left and right. Up and down move you up and down on ladders.

    Pressing the button on a ladder will have you let go of it.

    Pause will pause the game.

    Bats, spikes, and fire are deadly; avoid them at all cost.

    There are checkpoints throughout the game; they look like up-arrows. Touching a checkpoint will allow you to start there whenever you die.

    There are rumors of a "wise one" who may help you on your quest, if you get desperate. You'll have to find him, though.

    Feel free to explore-- the world is bigger than you think. And, there are lots of surprises and features.

     

    Here's some pictures:

     

    post-151-0-71773700-1342041275_thumb.png

    post-151-0-64952800-1342041280_thumb.png

    post-151-0-09478700-1342041285_thumb.png

    post-151-0-03837100-1342041290_thumb.png

     

    It will auto-detect PAL vs. NTSC.

     

    Oh, and if you're going to post something that's far along in the world, please use a "spolier tag", to prevent others from missing out on the fun surprises. ;)

     

    One final note. This game is HARD. But, with perseverance, you can pick up every single gem and win the game.

    For now, the game will alert you if you've finished it, but there are no end credits-- yet.

     

    Things left for me to do in the game:

    - on real hardware, some versions experienced a "black screen" or weird graphics glitches that would happen occasionally. It sucks, and I don't know how to fix it.

    However, this most recent build hasn't showed that problem... yet.

    - I want to design a better splash screen on power-up

    - I want to program a better ending / credits screen

    - I need to code up sone music (in progress). It's planned as TIA (don't freak out, read below).

     

    The game is not planned to take advantage of XM.

    I have good reason for that actually-- this is going to be my first release (hopefully), and I want to just be within the rigid original parameters of the system.

    I know, I know, it's "somewhat the same", but for me, I want to see what all I can squeeze in just 32K. So, no XM sound at this point. Please don't ask. ;)

    Since the music will be TIA, I will do it the best that I can. And, I plan to have it disable-able (so, sounds only) via difficulty switch.

     

    So, on to the game.

    One note I have for new players-- try not to get too frustrated with it. There are some really taxing parts.

     

    My best score for beating the game is 1 hour, 4 minutes, and 55 seconds. During that game, I died 109 times.

    So, that should give you some indication as to the difficulty and length of the game (and I've played it a LOT).

    It does get easier with time, and some of the puzzles are tough-- this is intentional. But, it can be done with perserverance.

    And, you do get better as you play.

     

    I've programmed this in a bit of a vacuum, but I like the general philosophy of sharing with the community at some point.

    Doing so has generally led to better games with more polish. Note that this is kind of new for me, so I'm a little nervous to do this.

    Hopefully, I'm making the right decision here. I think I am. :)

     

    Anyway, something for 7800 fans out there. I hope you enjoy playing it as much as I have enjoyed writing it.

     

    Here's the ROM:

    20120629_getlost.a78

    20120629_getlost.bin

     

    Best regards,

    -John

    • Like 24

  7. Posted

    (Yes, that was serious).

     

    Maybe this is one of those cases where a simple design decision like that could make things work beautifiully.

    Like, the playfield in Yars Revenge-- it was a creative way to make something look like something it's not.

    I'm guessing a skeleton could look good; maybe there's some other comb-like graphic that wouldn't look too bad.

  10. Posted

    You know what?

    What MausGames said has been buzzing around like an angry bee in my head, for about an hour now, mostly because he/she is right.

     

    I don't even know why the heck I try anymore.

     

    I never finish any of the games, and I can't believe I even kid myself into believing I will...It's been a personal problem i've had for years now, and I wonder why I try to do this stuff, because 99% of the time, that problem gets in the way, and I never finish the game I work on.

     

    Here, you guys can have the source to all but two projects I'm working on.

     

    All I can say is... don't give up.

     

    Some Atari wisdom that I heard long ago is that making a game is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration.

    It takes a lot of push to get through that 99%. I have many games that I've worked on that have gone into vaporware.

    Here's just one example:

    http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/125621-steam-tunnel-bob-a-new-2600-homebrew/

     

    Sometimes, things just don't work out in your kernel. And, sometimes, it feels like there's a lot of milestones and people that don't even care.

    I assure you-- that's not the case. Putting more polish on something is always worth it in the end.

     

    I've found myself multiple times staring at a 99% wall in front of me of all of the millions of things I have to do.

    In my experience, I've come up with 2 solutions to actually get one finished:

    1) break it into smaller problems; choose between one to three that are "fun", and implement those. Then, look at the list again, and pick the next top three.

    By doing it this way, you won't feel like you're totally screwed with a daunting task in front of you.

    2) Break your code every day after you fix it. This sounds ridiculous, but I always recommend it. I can't sleep when I have a broken framework, and I think about the problem in the back of my head all day at work. It's especially useful if you're breaking something that you have no idea how to fix-- take it part of the way there, and then think about it all day. You might be surprised what you come up with.

     

    Honestly, you have some great talent, even though you may doubt it.

    I am looking forward to seeing something great from you.

     

    And yes, it takes some work to get something out the door, but looking back the few times I've completed something, I've been very, VERY pleased with the journey.

    Don't get too discouraged. :) You'll get there.

     

    -John

  14. Posted

    Looks and plays great!

    One question, tho.

    A couple of times I noticed a temporary snow effect during gameplay.

    Is that normal?

     

    See page 4 of the manual about earning extra Lives. I believe that's probably what you're seeing.

     

    That's it exactly! Guess I should have read the manual first.

    Nevertheless, good to post it here so if others see the same thing, they don't get creeped out. :)

     

    -John

  17. Posted

    Hey, that MARIA manual is pretty neat that was posted:

    http://www.atarimuseum.com/ahs_archives/archives/pdf/videogames/7800/gcc1702b_maria_specs.pdf

     

    As I'm not a hardware guy, does the manual hint at any details of what is happening while DMA is starting up / shutting down?

    Is it copying stuff to the screen via its own internal logic, or is it dependent on the 6502 at all?

     

    I'm really curious from start to finish what's happening when DMA is called while important gamecalc-type instructions are mid-processing.

    Does it just shut down things with a HALT, and then come back to them, leaving everything as it was? If so, what is really happening on the hardware side?

     

    -John

  19. Posted

    Maybe my synapses just aren't firing today.

     

    I can't seem to find the info on how to implement the Pause buttonin 7800 code when I search the forums and the 7800 programmer's guide-- but it's gotta be somewhere, so I must just be overlooking it..

     

    Could someone point me in the right direction?

     

    Regards,

    -John

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