jrok

New Update: I've taken a whack at a 30hz title screen, but found I could only jam 14 letters comfortably into 4 sprites. Therefore, the title screen reads "Circus Galactus" instead of "Circus Galacticus." It might be a happy accident, actually... I almost feel like the title rolls off the tongue a little smoother minus the extra syllable. Any opinions? Cheers, Jarod Circus_Galacticus_m12_d22_y08.bin Circus_Galacticus_m12_d22_y08.zip

Yeah, you're way ahead of me. That was definitely on my mind... as time wears on, I want the whole world to be crumbling around you... face spitting bullets, playfield shrinking, etc. I always loved games where you had to deal with a whole bunch of disasters at once. Cheers, J

This is coming along great! Love the title screen. And the animated cutscene between levels 1 and 2... beautiful touch. One minor suggestion... what if there was a score element that was based purely on your time to complete each screen? On the first level screens especially, sometimes I felt myself just hanging back, waiting for the troll to roam somewhere where he didn't have a very good chance of killing me. I thought it might be nice if I had something to compel me to go faster and take more risks, such as a bonus for quicker screen tranversal times. Cheers, Jarod.

I've worked a bit on my "hurry-up" routine for the game. When a the game-timer reaches a certain point, two walls seal off the defensive zones, and the shield material becomes a wave of deadly electricity that fries you. The time between the beginning of the round and when the walls appear decreases as you progress through the game. Circus_Galacticus_m12_d21_y08.bin Circus_Galacticus_m12_d21_y08.zip Cheers, Jarod

I've worked a bit on my "hurry-up" routine for the game. When a the game-timer reaches a certain point, two walls seal off the defensive zones, and the shield material becomes a wave of deadly electricity that fries you. The time between the beginning of the round and when the walls appear decreases as you progress through the game. EDT: Fixed a sound effects bug Circus_Galacticus_m12_d21_y08.bin Circus_Galacticus_m12_d21_y08.zip Cheers, Jarod

Thank you. I remember reading somewhere that bB wasn't capable of producing good looking games, so I'm sort of challenging myself to see what I can do with it. So glad you like it! I know exactly what you mean. I LOVED weird games, where you weren't always exactly sure what you were seeing and your imagination would sort of kick in. Thanks, that's the best compliment I've gotten... I want to make this game super-weird. I really want to do something with these guys in the next build... mainly come up with a way to blast them! What good is a monster if you can't blow it to kingdom come??? Actually I think they look even better when their animation cycle is slowed to half speed, so I'll try to get that in there that too. Cheers! Jarod.

Hey that's sharp looking! I don't know if that level of shape complexity of the letters is possible without a ton of flicker, but the color sweep is a nice effect I could definitely do. Thanks! Jarod.

That's okay, I don't mind criticism, from programmers, players or anyone else! In fact, I'd take a player's criticism to heart more than I would a programmer's. The thing about those bars is, there sort of needs to be something where they are. Due to timing limitations of the kernel, I cannot draw laser beams or walls anywhere in the far right and far left 10% of the screen. It could be an unmoving graphic (I had something that looked a little bit like a stadium crowd going), but then the gladiators wouldn't logically be able to move there. The idea of safety zones occurred to me as the simplest, most logical way to handle this limitation without shrinking the total area that players could move around in. I know that sounds like an excuse, but its really just an explanation. What I might end up doing is to have the zones appear in some levels but not in others, since some people hate them. In those situations, I think I would replace them with a "crowd" graphic or a wall. Or I might rethink the whole elment entirely... I feel like it's still early enough in development to experiment with the core gameplay. The other thing is, I thought the zones might make an interesting game element for when I finish my "hurry-up" routine. In the version I'm going to post this afternoon for instance, after the level timer is up, the screaming face appears and a pair of walls "seal-up" the defensive zones, which then fill up with deadly plasma beams. So, if you're caught hanging out in the zone to long, your source of protection could suddenly spell your doom I sort of like that as a double-edged gameplay element, but I'll let you guys be the judge of that. Anyway thanks for the honest crit. Keep 'em coming! Cheers, Jarod.

Thanks man. Like I said before, I think batari could be a very powerful development tool for the 2600, and could help new programmers like us get a jumpstart onto this beloved old platform. Cheers, Jarod

You were absolutely right... I changed it back! Thanks, Jarod

Thanks! I want to try to put it on cart when the game is finished, although that could take awhile. Batari mentioned he might be releasing a ROM board with onboard superchip which would certainly make it cheaper/ easier to do, so I haven't given up hope yet. Cheers, Jarod

Hey Walter, Thanks! Hey I might want to enlist your help with testing this thing on real hardware someday. Cheers, Jarod

Thank you, Scott. So far, the game is written almost purely in batari Basic. The only inline assembly I am using is: asm LDA #<p1color STA player1color LDA #>p1color STA player1color+1 end Basically, I am using this to point individual rows in player1's color table to a set of variables, so I could palette-swap the gladiators' colors on the fly without having to define a new table. Okay, I give up I am going to change the name back to Circus Galacticus, and then have my first heart attack trying to write a title screen for it Thanks again for the encouraging words. Jarod.

FYI, I couldn't get this to load in Z26.

I went back and altered the look & animation of the defensive zones. I think I like this version much better... not nearly as headache-inducing Duel_m12_d19_y08.bin Duel_m12_d19_y08.zip Cheers, Jarod

In this version, I use player0 to create Yars-style defensive zones on each side of the screen. This helps things make more sense, I think, since my display kernel can't handle players firing there. I will come up with something else button presses do when you are positioned there. I'm still torn about the final name of this project, but I will call it "DUEL" for now. Cheers, Jarod. Duel_m12_d19_y08.bin Duel_m12_d19_y08.zip

My lastest version is attached. I've added in a "Yars" style defensive zone on each side of the screen. Since you can't fire a beam in these areas, I'm thinking of adding a new gameplay element for button presses here. I'm using my flickered player0 to produce the zones, and though I kind of like how it looks I think I will keep tinkering with it. Cheers, Jarod. Duel_m12_d19_y08.bin Duel_m12_d19_y08.zip

Partly because it was so daunting trying to figure out how to do a title screen Also, I'm not sure if most people got the reference. I might change it back, if it turns out people like the original title better. Cheers, Jarod

Thanks. I added a small flash to the enemy sprite when you deplete one of its shields (new BIN in the original post). I'm working hard on a new build with the Berzerk-style "hurry-up" routine and the survival stage, hopefully to be ready by this weekend. Cheers, Jarod.

Hi everyone, I decided to post progress on my first Atari 2600 Homebrew "Circus Galacticus". The setting is a futuristic gladiator tournament, where combatants duel each other to the death for the pleasure of the galactic empire. The game will comprise the player's fighting career, with the difficulty and rewards ramping up with each new match. A match ends when one gladiator loses all of his shields, and is fried by his opponents laser beam. The player begins a match with three shields, while each new opponent gains more shields up to a maximum of five. This is a playable demo. The difficulty ramps up as you progress through the game in several ways, and most of the A.I. is in place. The final game will also contain a two-player versus mode, although that is disabled in this build. Controls: Left Joystick - Move player sprite in 8 directions. (Press) Left Fire Button - Start Game / Begin Next Match / Charge up your laser gun (Release) Left Fire Button - Fire your laser gun. The longer you held down the button, the farther the shot will travel. *Note: Aiming is precise in this game: You must aim for the head or the chest of the enemy, or your shot will pass in front of him. Gameplay: All duels are to the death. At the beginning of a match, a protective energy field appears on each side of the arena. When a gladiator stands in this field, he cannot be harmed by enemy lasers. After a certain amount of time elapses, the emperor gets bored with your dawdling. When this happens, a pair of electrified walls seal off the energy fields, and the shield matter turns into a stream of deadly photons that fries anyone trapped on the wrong side. There are still a lot of unfinished components here, but I thought enough of the core gameplay was in place that I should try to get some feedback in this forum. The most unfinished portion is probably the alternate level style (seen in level 3 of this build), where you must survive waves of attacking monsters for a set period of time. I put this in as a placeholder, and if you press the fire button after a few seconds have passed, you will proceed to the next duel. Thanks in advance for any feedback, ideas or bug reports you might have. Cheers, Jarod Kitchen Archived Versions(Old): Circus_Galacticus_m12_d21_y08.bin Circus_Galacticus_m12_d21_y08.zip Circus_Galacticus_m12_d22_y08.bin Circus_Galacticus_m12_d22_y08.zip Circus_Galacticus_m12_d23_y08.bin Circus_Galacticus_m12_d23_y08.zip Circus_Galacticus_m1_d4_y09.bin Circus_Galacticus_m1_d4_y09.zip Latest Version(New): CircusGalacticus8.bin EDT: Changed title back to "Circus Galacticus." All future binaries will use this name.

Small Update: I added a title screen using the new name I am considering ("Duel"). The game will return to this screen whenever the player dies, and display his score. Press fire to begin a new game. I also corrected a small graphics glitch with the monster level, and added an extra hit point to the first enemy. Next thing I think I have to nail down is a "Got Hit" flashing animation for hitting multi hit-point targets. One idea I've been toying with are levels where the playfield is always gradually filling up with walls. This could be random, or follow some sort of set pattern. Cheers, Jarod. Circus_Galacticus_m12_d16_y08.bin

Special-purpose solutions are usually better than general-purpose ones for this sort of thing. If you want to select one of 16 angles, start by taking the absolute value of dx and dy. Then note whether dx>=dy (assuming they're scaled to comparable units). If dx>=dy, note whether dx/2>=dy; otherwise note whether dy/2>=dx. That will get you to one of sixteen angles, though the centers of each angular range will be offset by 1/32 of a revolution from the compass points. So you could add a check for dx/4<dy or dy/4<dx and select a perfect compass point in the appropriate cases. If your goal is to make bullets travel toward a target, your best bet may be to scale dx and dy so that at least one is >= 128, and then have a loop something like this: lda #16; Total adjusted distance to travel sta distance lp: clc lda dx adc dx_acc sta dx_acc bcc no_x_bump inc xpos; Or decrement it no_x_bump: lda #64 rol sta temp lda dy adc dy_acc sta dy_acc bcc no_y_bump inc xpos; Or decrement it no_y_bump: lda temp rol; Carry will be set tax lda distance sbc dist_adjx sta distance bcs lp The dist_adj table should indicate how much to adjust the 'distance' variable in the cases where the object isn't moved, where it's moved in the X direction only, in the Y direction only, or both. If dx or dy (or both) is >= 128, the loop will have to run no more than twice for each pixel of motion. Makes perfect sense. Thank you! Jarod.

Thanks! These are both very helpful. Jarod.

Thanks. I'm still not totally sure I want to go that way. Last night I was staring at those monster sprites, and they just looked like something I wanted to blast the holy hell out of when I was a kid. Maybe there's an in between, where you could either blast away or trap 'em for mega points. On a separate note, I was thinking of changing the name of this project to "Duel." It just seems to roll off the tongue nicer, not to mention it would be easier to make a title screen for it. What do you think? Cheers, Jarod.

Thanks. So by table-based, do you mean defining a bunch of coordinate zones, then selecting a vector based on which zone the target is in?