Brian O

Bump (This thread can't die -- Pac-Man-Red, where are you???)

I don't think it should spawn until both Yars are destroyed. The player who died would need to wait until other player dies, or completes level. Just my two cents. -B

Was at a flea market today, and picked up a Sega Genesis with 19 games (including NHL '94, one of my favorite games), and an N64 system (with no controllers) for ~$30. Found out the Sega controller that came with the system doesn't work, and the RF out is a bit temperamental. Looks like I'll have to purchase a Sega AV cable and see if that does the trick. tested the N64 and it looks to be working fine. Just need to buy a controller for it. Overall, not a bad day -B

How do you think things would have played out had Atari agreed to distribute the NES under the Atari name, and shelved the 7800? Do you think it would have been as successful as the NES? Would it have saved Atari from imploding? Curious to hear your thoughts. -B

That would be awesome.

"Zelda II" and "Simon's Quest" switched places. Hahaha. Nice catch. Didn't notice that at first. Doesn't anyone proof these catalogs? -B

Brian O likes this. Oops, sorry, thought I was on Facebook for a minute there.

Sounds like it'd be cool, if you can pull it off. -B

In which case I think that you'd be better off writing code and learning what goes into making games by developing on a PC using any high level language of your choice. If you want the retro development feel develop on an Atari 800XL, ZX Spectrum, TI99 e.g. whatever floats your boat. Developing in an emulator is pretty much hassle free unless you are into cycle accurate stuff. Once you get your game going using a machine with more resources than a 2600 you can scale/modify your idea to fit. If you don't think you'd be a good programmer you could always put out a proposal and hope that a programmer comes along to champion your cause. http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/82555-to-all-non-programmer-idea-peddlers/ PitfallHarry2600, GroovyBee is right. I learned the hard way that even if you have a great idea, and are also willing to flesh out the concept, your chances of finding someone to develop the game are slim to none. I, too, am not a programmer, so I'm in the same boat as you. I had what I believed, and still do, to be a good idea for a game. I created a label, manual, box art, and screenshots to accompany my concept. Although I received a lot of positive feedback, and a lot of great recommendations/insights, I could not find one person to code the game for me (I even offered to pay!). The reason being is that most, if not all, the developers on these boards are busy with their own projects. And even these projects sometimes never get finished. So, you can imagine getting someone to not only get excited, but also stay excited, about a project/idea that's not theirs. Not likely. However, from what I have seen, most developers will be more than happy to offer insights, and assist in any way that they can to help you get started. The guys on this board are great people, and are filled with TONS of information. While it never hurts to put your idea out there, don't be surprised if you don't have 20 developers knocking down your door to code it. Take it from someone who learned that the hard way -B

Cool. Glad you like it. I started working on a high-res version, just in case. I put the "O" behind the rest of the letters, so that the "R" and "U" are visible, to improve legibility. -B

LOL! Good to know.

Great concept and execution! Can't wait to see the finished product. -B

That looks pretty good. Just don't let NE146 see it. Thanks. Why, has he done something similar? -B

Hi Cliff, I had an idea for your game label, so I whipped up a quick comp. It's low res, and the ship image was something I found on Google images, but the angle, as well as the look/feel, worked for the concept. See what you think. -B

And here's some from the 1982 Sears Catalog / Wish Book. Here's a direct link --> here There's also a bunch more. Here's a link to the main catalogs page --> here -B

Here's some I found on Flickr from the 1979 Sears Christmas Catalog. Feel as old as I do right now? Direct link to catalog ---> here

Nice! Looking forward to the cart. -B

Awesome. Good luck. I hope this gets made into a cart. I'd definitely buy it. Again, nice job. -B

Bug fixed. Thanks, Brian. Much better! This game is pretty addicting. How far do you plan on taking it? -B

Hey, man, game looks great. Still have yet to try the 6-room mode, but the 8 seconds seems to be good for the 4-room mode. Found one bug -- The boss screen w/ the chalice does not appear after getting the 20th dot. Instead, you are thrown back to the title screen, and your game ends. -B

Anytime! I think you have a really good idea to build on. The only thing that is missing is some tension. Having monsters in certain rooms, or having a Pitfall-style timer counting down, would definitely help to create a sense of urgency. Since the rooms are randomized, there's no real way create a map to help you see which rooms you've been in, right? In terms of room customization, it would definitely help from an aesthetic perspective, but may not serve a true practical purpose unless players could use the rooms as landmarks, IMO. Can't wait to see the next iteration. -B

I have made this fix. This one has me pretty confused. I would need to see this put into a more graphical representation, I think, to understand better. Would you be able to put the platforms in in a more realistic fashion? I have attached the original screenshot in PNG format, as well as a screenshot with no platforms (FOD_NEW_No_Platfrms_1_11201.png), also in PNG format. I usually safe as GIF, but was in a hurry last night so I just saved as JPEG right out of Photoshop. Will make sure I save as PNG moving forward. Thanks!

Michael / John, I think I have it (somewhat) right in this comp. I kept the platforms three lines tall. I wanted to top off the platforms with a dark gray line so that they stand out more. The platforms, vertically, are 9 lines apart. I wanted to have some buffer space at the top of the screen. The powerups would then be 7 pixels high, leaving a blank line above and below each one. I would imagine that horizontally, the platforms would be spaced based on actual pixels. For instance, if a platform has only 12 pixels showing, it would mean 4 are invisible, so the next platform, horizontally speaking, would need to be a minimum of 4 pixels away. I'm not sure if this is right. Either way, I did not place the platforms too close to each other horizontally in my comp -- just in case. Let me know your thoughts. I hope I did this right. Thanks again, B

Very cool, addictive game.

OK, this bug has been fixed and I upped the time limit to 8 seconds. And the reason I'm not posting a .bas file is that I have put in an Easter egg I'm working on and I don't want to give away its location or how to get to it. But if you do happen to stumble upon it, by all means, post it here (just don't divulge how to get to it) and tell me what you think of it. The 8 second time limit is much better, in my opinion. Haven't found the Easter egg yet. But I'll keep looking -B