e1will
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Posts posted by e1will
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i dont know where all this hate for 2600 pacman comes from at the time i thought it was fine of course pacman on the 5200 looked awesome
i dont understand what was misleading they showed what the gameplay looks like
other than the ghosts looked like dudes under sheets who cares that was just artistic licence ever seen any other game art nothing ever looks like what is going on screen
Showed, yes. Your speakers must not have been on.
For the record I don't (and didn't) hate the game at all: I logged many, many hours playing the 2600 version. But putting the arcade sounds in the commercial instead of the 2600 sounds was a leetle shifty IMO.
--Will
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Carrying 2 objects would actually make the whistle useful but part of the strategy of the game was how to maneuver and win the game while only being able to carry one object at a time.
This change may have quite an unexpected impact. However, have you considered making one/2 object carrying a difficulty switch - that might be a nice complement to the cowardly dragon option of the original.
There will definitely be an option to play using the original Indenture setup (i.e. only one object carried, no extra items like the shield or balloon). Much like what Indenture tried to do with Adventure, there will be the "play the version you remember" game variations alongside the new & expanded variations.
I should clarify that at this point, I'm actually working on three separate games, which will all use the same kernel and will be bundled into one 32k binary:
1) Bedraggled - an entirely new game with new mazes and objects. The goal is to help a lost dragon find his home. He won't try to eat you, but he will run from you, so you'll need to strategically place items to lure him back to his castle. More details on this to follow.
2) Dragon Attack - another new game, heavily inspired by Adventure: there are ten castles, and ten crowns: each of them needs to be returned to the proper castle to win the game. There are ten fire-breathing dragons and moats in front of each castle to slow you down, but extra items like the shield, balloon and torch to help you.
Unlike Adventure, you won't be able to reuse the sword: once it's used to slay a dragon, it's stuck in there, and you have to go find another one if you want to slay another dragon. You will be able to carry two objects at once. There will be familiar objects like the bridge(s) and key(s), but the secret dot(s) and original easter egg will not be present or required to get into the expanded areas. Some of the mazes will be borrowed from Indenture, some taken from Bedraggled, and a couple from other sources. There will be about 100 rooms total.
3) a port of levels 4 & 5 of Indenture, with extra game variations that include some of the new mazes and objects from Bedraggled/Dragon Attack. All 332 rooms from levels 4 & 5 will be included. I've got separate kernels written and working for symmetrical and asymmetrical mazes, and am in the process of testing a 3rd kernel to support the couple of "weird" rooms in Indenture that require higher vertical resolution.
--Will
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That would bring in one of the problems with Indenture - it's so large that there is a lot of empty space which can be somewhat boring.
What about setting it up like the original game's levels where going from level 1 to level 2 adds more rooms but maybe set level one at 60 to 90 rooms then go up from there to the full 300+?
The whistle from Indenture always seemed a little useless to me since you could only carry one item. But then if the whistle stunned th bat by simply being on the same screen that seems a little too powerful. How about a bow/sling to shoot the bat and he gets reincarnated if you reset? Or maybe a cage so you actually have to touch the bat?
Oh, that PC version I listed above has a shield and a candle.
Good points. Here are some of the things I'm going to add to it to mix it up a little:
- the ability to carry two objects at once. This eliminates the whole juggling-the-bridge-and-dot-across-300-rooms thing.
- hot-air balloon that lets you coast above walls.
- more dragons to fill all that empty space.
These will all be "game variations" you can turn on or off if you want the "authentic" experience or the "new and improved" one.
I haven't decided what to do about the whistle yet. I agree, in its current incarnation it's not that useful.
--Will
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I've been making some progress on a 2600 port of this. Some work-in-progress binaries posted here.
--Will
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After I had recreated a few dozen screens from Indenture, I figured what the heck, why not include them all?
Here's a binary (NTSC for now) with all 300+ Indenture screens. You can't get to the rooms inside the castles yet, since the gates aren't in place, but all the outside rooms are accessible. Hold down the fire button to disable collision detection (there are some areas that require the bridge, but I don't have the bridge coded yet.)
Enjoy!
--Will
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Very exciting stuff.
This is a fabulous take on adventure for the PC:
http://www.naildrivin5.com/adventure/
good rooms and layout - if a little truncated in parts.
I think I remember playing that way back when... I'll have to take another look at that to see if there are any good ideas worth using.
--Will
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You're setting the "first" GRP0 line AFTER you turn the screen on, so whatever was in GRP0 from the last pass gets drawn at the top.
If you put the "LDA #0" and "STA GRP0" lines BEFORE the STA WSYNC/STA HMOVE/STA VBLANK group, that should clear it out.
Hope this helps.
--Will
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My favorite Apple II game was BOLO, One of my favorite video games from the early 80s was Bolo on the Apple II.
It was a cool little game where you drove a little spaceship (or tank, or something) around, shooting at things; your goal was to destroy the six alien bases (represented by large monochrome squares with a dot in the middle of them.) If you succeeded, you would get a congratulatory message "You have destroyed the alien proving grounds. The Dinochrome Brigade salutes you!"
Does anyone remember this game?
Is there a similar Atari 2600 game?
--Will
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Looking good! I presume you need the bridge to get over the moat.
Yep. There will probably be two bridges.
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OK, here's a bin (NTSC) where you can actually move around and browse the kingdom. There are only a couple of rooms in place, and the dragons just sit there, but I think this is a very promising beginning.
--Will
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Hello everyone!
A while back on an Indenture thread I had posted a possible 2600 asm kernel that could be used to create asymmetrical playfields used by Indenture.
I've been playing around with it for a while, and have actually got it to the point where it supports not only asymmetrical playfields, but also multiple-color playfields and 2-scanline-resolution support for missile0 and missile1. What this means is that I can create a new version of Adventure that adds fire-breathing dragons, castle moats that need to be crossed with a bridge, and tons of other neat things.
Here are some screenshots and an NTSC binary of what I have so far. The binary is just a static frame, there's no player or dragon movement coded yet. I just wanted to show that this is actually doable on the 2600, and not just a mockup.
What I eventually plan to do is incorporate:
- all 31 of the original rooms from Adventure
- 32 of my favorite rooms from Indenture, including the yellow maze, orange "ATARI" maze, and the green and silver castles.
- 34 original rooms
I'll also be including the shield, flashlight (possibly reimagined as a torch), blue balloon, and a handful of rooms from my Duck Attack! homebrew.
Note that this isn't a hack of Adventure (although I've got nothing against Adventure hacks, obviously); it's a complete rewrite from scratch (although I'll probably pull in some routines from Duck Attack! when appropriate - e.g. the fire-breathing logic.) Nonetheless, the basic gameplay should feel very familiar once it's done.
I'll post updates here as it progresses.
--Will
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Neat!
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Found a bug that was preventing the recharging station and warp of death background sounds from triggering. Fixed version attached: v0.26.
--Will
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Hello everyone,
The latest version is attached: v0.25.
The biggest change in this version is to the "Continue?" logic at the end of the game. Previously you could continue at the level you were on when you finished the last game. The problem with that was, with the warp of death you could effectively leapfrog up to an extremely high level by using all your lives on the warp, continuing the game at that level with three new lives, using them on the warp, etc.
That didn't seem quite right, so now the Continue logic deducts the number of times you used the warp from the level you start the next game on. If you ended the game on Level 10 but used the warp 3 times to get there, choosing "Continue" starts you at Level 7. That seems more fair.
Other changes include:
* A new sound for picking up bonus items
* Save & Load game states now chirp or buzz to indicate success or failure (in addition to moving you to the score room or egg shelf room respectively)
* As requested by Nostalgic, a duck hit by a super-zapper now has a visual indicator of this. (It will glow red instead of returning to its normal color.)
* Some extra challenges added to the extremely high levels.
Enjoy!
--Will
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Trying to get caught up with some comments...
I found that in rooms that have two exits on the top, that when you go through the leftmost one, there is a bee in the lower-left corner of the room, essentially appearing directly on top of you. Like when the snake appears right at the edge of the screen where you enter in earlier versions, this is a frustrating way to lose a life. Could the bee start closer to the middle, or could you be given a grace period upon entering a room?
I'm afraid there's not much I can do about that... There isn't enough space left to calculate a true "bee radius" to give you ample warning in all cases without generating a lot of annoying false alarms; the "bee is in the room below you" buzzing sound will help in many cases, but not all, as you point out.
If a duck is at the edge of the screen and you go off that edge and try to reenter the screen, you might get bounced back as if you hit a wall. Is this by design? Normally you can pass through a duck as it attacks.
Yep, that's by design. You can tear yourself out of the duck's clutches, but otherwise the duck is a solid object, except when it's zapped. Only when it's zapped (or there are enough objects on the screen to force flicker) can you pass through one.
I can see myself using the super zapper with so many ducks around! I think in all of the chaos of several ducks around, it might be useful to have a signal as to which duck was hit with the super zapper so that it won't revive. Maybe a different set of symbols, or a "ZZZ", or X's for eyes - just something so you know it's not waking up, unlike the other ducks.
Good suggestion... There isn't any space left for additional graphics, but I did find enough bytes to cause a super-zapped duck to glow red (the same color as the super-zapper), which should do the trick. That'll be in the next posted version.
On level 6 some of the rooms that were previously lit turned dark. Was this intentional? (This might be particularly tricky in the black diamond-shaped room, as it obscures the parts of the robot that are already black.)
Yep, that's intentional... the further you get, the more rooms go dark. The flashlight becomes more valuable as you progress, unless you've managed to memorize where all the walls are.
Thanks for listening, again!
You bet... I really do appreciate all your feedback. Keep it coming!
--Will
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Latest version attached: v0.24.
Mostly behind-the-scenes changes this time, partly to ensure 100% stable scanline counts. Added a "fast-forward" feature that lets you skip the "Level completed" and "Level start" screens by pressing the fire button when they appear.
As always, please let me know if you see any bugs, or have any other comments or suggestions.
--Will
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First off - I must say this is a fantastic game! It certainly has that ability to want you to play 'one more game' to see what surprises the next level will bring. Great job!
I have managed to reach Level 10 and this is certainly a challenging game! I have a few comments but will add spoiler tags to save the surprises for the other players:
The bonus items are really neat, but why are some of them extremely large, like the candy cane and the Defender lander/human?
There are two doors in the area behind the brown door (purple and yellow) that lead to areas where you are trapped. I assume I'll need the blue balloon to traverse these walls? Is there a warning that these doors are 'death doors'? Seems a bit unfair, especially when you lose your last life stuck in the pen in the Pacman maze...
I have been playing this through emulation but you've inspired me to break out my Cuttle Cart and Atarivox so I can start saving my progress.
I haven't experienced any bugs with this latest version, but I'll keep my eye out for anything peculiar.
Thanks for a great game and good luck getting it finished... can't wait to see this one on cart!
Thank you!
The bonus dimensions are all over the map, aren't they? Mainly, I thought big bonus items went well with the aesthetic of the game (i.e. enormous, cartoony sprites.) But with some of the "borrowed" bonus designs, an addition factor was the fact that I'm using a 3-line kernel, and the original versions were from a 1-line kernel game, so unless I stretched the image horizontally, the aspect ratio would look way out of whack. As it is, the "borrowed" bonuses are going to be somewhat stretched either vertically or horizontally no matter what, since none of the games they were borrowed from used a 3-line kernel. (Actually, I'm not sure if I've ever seen another 2600 game that uses one.)
There is a warning about deadly doors in the updated version of the manual, but I haven't posted that addition online yet (hopefully soon). There's not an in-game warning; you just have to learn which doors lead where, and/or carry a shield and/or blue balloon when you venture through unfamiliar doors. With a blue balloon, they're quite handy shortcuts. Without it, well...
--Will
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Unfortunately, I don't. It's only happened to me twice. The first time I didn't mention it since I thought it might be a fluke in Stella; the "BW Mode" message from Stella appears on top of the "PAUSED" message from the game. Since it happened a second time, I figured I would mention it.
If it happens again, I'll make note of the room, level, and other circumstances.
By the way, the forum system converted the colon and D at the end of "AUSED:
" into a smiley. There aren't random smileys appearing in Duck Attack... unless you hid Evil Otto in the Berzerk rooms. 
Found it! One of the playfield definitions was crossing a page boundary, which screwed up the cycle timings. I think the only such playfield was the berzerk room with the red robot. Does that ring a bell? Or do you recall seeing it someplace else?
And as to whether there are hidden Evil Ottos in the Berzerk rooms... well, you just might be surprised.
--Will
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Here's the latest version, v0.23.
Changes and fixes include:
* New bee buzz sound (closer to the one in the video Shannon posted)
* Mains hum sound for the recharging stations as suggested by thegoldenband (50 Hz or 60 Hz depending on the TV format)
* "Continue?" counter fixed
* When dropping objects, the objects are no longer dropped in the same place (as suggested by Nostalgic)
* All but one of the scanline issues have been fixed. Should always be 312 for PAL-50, and (almost) always 262 for NTSC and PAL-60.
--Will
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If you are carrying an egg and the shield at the same time and press the trigger to drop an item, both get dropped in the same location. Since they're both roughly the same size, it's difficult to then pick one up without picking the other up. When dropping two items, could they be placed near each other instead of right on top of each other?
Yeah, I've found that annoying as well. I'll see if I can squeeze in some code that offsets the objects when you drop them.
After losing my last life on level 6, I was presented with "Continue? 9". It's nice that there is a continue option! I can see it taking several attempts to get through each of the higher levels. I noticed that the 9 didn't count down either as a timer or when I was defeated on level 6 after continuing. Has decrementing the continue counter not been implemented yet?
Looks like you found another bug! It used to work, but I see it's not decrementing now.
--Will
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On some occasions when pausing the game, the text at the bottom of the screen is "AUSED:
", with the left half of the "A" missing. I'm not sure what causes it, though it seems to be when there is a lot of objects on the screen.I'm having trouble getting it to do that. Do you recall any other details, like which level, which room, what objects you were carrying, etc.?
--Will
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The most misleading commercial in the history of the world
in Atari 2600
Posted
Good question. I don't know, but the fact that they used the Buckner & Garcia tune (released in December 1981) and the fact that the screenshots look spot-on to the eventual release may narrow it down.
--Will