TwentySixHundred

March 31

Well done on your first game mate 😉👍

March 15

14 hours ago, sramirez2008 said:

Sweet! I’ve come across a lot of cocktail coin-ops, but don’t remember playing a Phoenix cocktail. Loving it.👍

Thanks, yeah it lived most it's life at a take-away (fish&chips) shop down the road from where i grew up. In 1997 they were changing business owners and the old owners were selling it off along with a pinball machine they had. As we used to sit and play while waiting for our food my father decided to buy it. $60 wasn't exactly cheap in 97 although in hindsight it was a bargain. As far as i know from what my father said is, they would sell old PCBs and replace with a new game every few years or so. I am guessing there was a business that did the swap for these shops that had cocktails. Not sure how many are still kicking around as i very rarely see them these days.

Told my father if he was ever going to get rid of it to let me know. So about 6 years ago he came around my house with it on a trailer 😃

March 14

My Phoenix tabletop that we have had since a teenager. Love the game

March 10

22 hours ago, fdr4prez said:

Great update!

Love the new little baby dino stuff!

Thanks, the baby dino really adds character

22 hours ago, fdr4prez said:

thanks!

No worries and was high time i focused on updating the HUD. Playing around with this has given me some more ideas to spruce it up.

22 hours ago, fdr4prez said:

I'll play some more, but I don't recall getting any extra lives.

Yes, i really should have waited as that was a rushed feature to add.

Basically you can gain a life every 2nd level if you have less than the original 3. The concept really makes no sense and i have no idea what the method to my madness was 🤣 This will be a fix for the next build.

March 7

28 minutes ago, Trebor said:

The baby dino addition is a great feature. I absolutely love how much this title has evolved. It's occasions such as these where I enjoy watching and reading about the development as much as I do playing the game. Kudos to both of you gents, @TwentySixHundred and @TIX!

Thanks for the kind words mate, it's great to hear you're enjoying the development process as much as we are 😉👍

March 6

New build, a little earlier than usual but i wanted to get baby dino's features out there.

Changelog:

Build_20240306

graphics - baby dino running sprites (KG)
graphics - baby dino laughing sprites (KG)
graphics - HUD changes and level displayed during gameplay (AQ)
engine - egg idle then pulsates when ready to hatch (KG)(AQ)
engine - baby dino chasing caveman routine (AQ)
engine - baby dino laughs when caveman retreats (AQ)
engine - for every two levels you can get an extra life (AQ)
bugfix - incorrect frame removed and knockback timing (KG)(AQ)
bugfix - lava splat skipped when bitten by baby dino (KG)(AQ)

LatestBuild: StoneAge_bankset_20240306.a78 StoneAge_bankset_20240306.bin

February 25

Hi everyone, so i wanted to get this build released before i go much further. Next release im hoping to focus a little more on the audio side of things and baby dino's routines.

Special thanks to Mike @RevEng for providing a custom 7800Basic build and all the information to tight-pack graphics. This along with the answers to my questions really helped free some graphics bank(s) space 👍

Also special thanks to Konstantinos @TIX for the new updated sprites as they're always fantastic 👍

Changelog:

Build_20240225

graphics - mama t-rex idle sprites revised (KG)
graphics - mama t-rex eating sprites revised (KG)
graphics - mama t-rex egg knockback sprites (KG)
graphics - pterodactyl sprites revised (KG)
graphics - pterodactyl knocked out sprites (KG)
graphics - baby dino hatch/running (KG)
graphics - eggs partially hidden within cave (AQ)
engine - pterodactyl knocked out routine (AQ)
engine - egg knockback and baby hatch routines (AQ)
engine - temporarily omitted the level colour cycle - till i tackle it correctly (AQ)
engine - baby dino routines (AQ)
code - graphics packing (MS)
code - sprite alignments for graphics packing and optimization (MS)(AQ)
code - some clean up of redundant code and routine flow (AQ)

LatestBuild: StoneAge_bankset_20240225.a78 StoneAge_bankset_20240225.bin

February 21

Cheers mate, forgot all about that. It's been a few years since dabbling around with bB

February 21

I can't see where you have included the 'score_graphics.asm' command in your posted source. As far as i remember with bB, you need to include .asm files in the last bank or the current bank used in your source file.

 asm
 include "score_graphics.asm"
end

February 10

Hi Mike, so i am getting this error when trying to add another large mother t-rex sprite.

segment: "GAME" 4000                    vs current org: 4111
   stack allowance: 22 nested subroutines.
   the canary is situated at: $1d2
   stack allowance: 22 nested subroutines.
   the canary is situated at: $1d2

banksetrom.asm (294): error: Origin Reverse-indexed.

I am guessing this is an overflow/space issue?

Edit: Think i answered my own question. After shuffling the sprite into another bank that has more space it compiles. Not leaving me with much left in all the banks so i am going to have to make a sacrifice somewhere as i have a few other smaller sprites to add 🤔

February 9

Thanks to everyone for their support 👍

Make sure to check out all the other nominated entries and vote for those you like.

Next update coming soon.

January 29

On 1/28/2024 at 4:17 AM, fdr4prez said:

Great, thanks.

Maybe on Pro mode is where the eggs would hatch, so on Amateur the egg just stays there (like now). Although seeing the egg hatch is part of the charm of the original game, so if you do add the hatching eggs, then maybe there would be a timing difference between the modes for how long the egg would be available before it hatches.

On the original hand-held, on Pro mode, there are two pterodactyl flying around, but I suspect that having two birds and the dino to deal with when you only have one axe would be a bit too challenging.

Spoiler

As for the baby Dino, it's in the works at the moment, so baby dino will make an appearance in the following update 👍

Two flying pterodactyls most likely wont make the cut. It's possible towards the end of development i can experiment with a secondary. However due to the size of many of the sprites there maybe rendering time issues. So for the moment i would rather add the necessities first then look into it. Maybe/maybe not

On 1/28/2024 at 4:32 AM, fdr4prez said:

Along the top, you have a life counter, you have the axe counter, a big gap, and then the score.

Is it possible to show the level in the middle of that big area between the axe counter and the score? So it is always displayed?

I can probably add the level number to the information bar (will be testing for next update). Personally i would rather the level displayed on the left then have life and axe icons in the center.

On 1/28/2024 at 4:32 AM, fdr4prez said:

Speaking of the life counter, I've not re-read all the posts, so please excuse me if it's been mentioned, but what is the scoring requirements for extra lives? when do you get an extra life? Is there max number of lives you can get?

I've gotten up to level 14 (at least I don't recall getting to 15) and I don't recall getting an extra life.

Is it level based or point based?

Maybe I've gotten an extra life, but never noticed.

Or maybe no extra lives in this game?

Correct there isn't anyway to gain extra lives. I would like to add the feature but limit the max to 3, so players have the chance to gain a reward but cannot rack lives.

On 1/28/2024 at 4:42 AM, fdr4prez said:

In between levels, while the eggs are disappearing, the volcano remains animated and the dino remains animated, but not the caveman, so I suspect that some caveman animation is being worked on or being discussed - maybe?

It's unfortunate that he just remains still/solid while the rest of the screen is alive with motion.

Since you have the title screen with the caveman cooking an egg over the fire, then at the end of each level maybe reuse that animation to show him cooking his eggs over the fire in front of his hut as they are counted down (disappearing).

Now when his last egg has been "cooked" and the last egg and fire disappears, we know it is time to go collecting more eggs.

This is a great idea that only the other day i was thinking about level intermissions. As it stands there isn't much to it, however i would really like to show the caveman having a break after a big night hunting. The return of him cooking an egg does sound appealing, along with reusing sprites. There is also 3 other animations of that scene, yet to be added and TIX has already done the artwork 😉👍

January 27

@fdr4prez Yes that is correct, there is no difference from armature and pro other than the fireball starting speed.

I have added the selection of the two more for the framework but haven't implemented many changes. I believe 1 stone axe rather than 3 on pro setting was a suggestion by Trebor and was also mentioned on ZPH IIRC.

This is an area i need to work on and having the feature on the titlescreen just reminds me to get it done sometime 😁

January 23

5 hours ago, fdr4prez said:

at the higher levels, is the sky supposed to be alternating between to colors?

Ah yes thanks for the reminder, i was trying many different colour cycles and couldn't find one i was happy with. So i sat it on the backburner and keep forgetting to look into it. Don't know if i want a progressive day/night cycle or really what i should do about it at this stage 🤔

January 22

On 1/21/2024 at 12:52 AM, Trebor said:

Outstanding! These updates are fantastic!

Thanks mate, yeah TIX has gone above and beyond with the pixel art. Even when i mentioned we could use more colours, he insisted pushing his abilities with a monochrome background. I think it looks amazing and really highlights his skill when restrictions are in place. When he was designing the volcano animation i forgot to tell him by doing so it freed up an additional colour 😆🫣 But nonetheless it still looks brilliant.

On 1/21/2024 at 3:48 AM, fdr4prez said:

I've played a few levels; great update!

Thankyou for the support 👍

On 1/21/2024 at 4:23 AM, fdr4prez said:

Is it possible to display the level # on the game over screen?

Most definitely can arrange that and thanks for pointing it out.

On 1/21/2024 at 4:25 AM, fdr4prez said:

It is unfortunate that you can't stand at your own hut protecting your eggs from the pterodactyl without the volcano dropping down on you.

This is a very challenging land to live in

Very challenging when living in a world where a volcano is spitting lava balls at you while on a quest to steal eggs from a mama T-Rex 🤣

Yes a great point though and was thinking it should be a safe area. I just need to make it so the lava balls become unpredictable if hiding. That way the player can't use it to their advantage 😉👍

January 20

Update!

Changelog:

Build_20240120

graphics - background tiles revamped (KG)
graphics - volcano sprite revamp (KG)
graphics - fireball sprites revised (KG)
graphics - lava splat on cavemans head (KG)
graphics - egg stack changes (KG)(AQ)
engine - lava splat routines (AQ)
engine - pterodactyl logic refinement (AQ)
engine - mama t-Rex continues movement during level intermision screen (AQ)
code - various changes (AQ)

Latest Build: StoneAge_bankset_20240120.a78 StoneAge_bankset_20240120.bin

January 1

Also sorry for the late replies but i have been hit with a rough virus/flu. Has left us in bed for couple of weeks now and i am only just starting to feel better.

January 1

On 12/21/2023 at 2:12 PM, Bakasama said:

I was wondering if a "breathing" animation can be put in. Since you're going to be standing still a lot, might as well make the caveman doing something while standing still

That's definitly something considered and we have looked into some animations.

On 12/22/2023 at 5:39 AM, fdr4prez said:

Back then, i should have explained deeper that I've never played any 7800 game

I am more of an Intellivision and 2600 guy, but I am interested in your game since I loved the original game so much as a kid.

I just installed a7800 and played the latest posted version. So this is my very first 7800 game that i've ever played

Welcome to the darkside

On 12/22/2023 at 5:39 AM, fdr4prez said:

Three things that i noticed:

#1 = As we know, the 7800 has two separate fire buttons on the controller, but at the title screen it says to press the fire button to start the game and only one fire is detected and the other fire button does not start the game. Also when you throw your axe, it is the other fire button that would throw it and the fire button that was used to start the game is ignored. Can the game utilize both fire buttons to start the game and utilize both fire buttons to throw? basically make the game controller universal. I don't have an original 7800 controller to use with my 2600-dapter, so I am using the keyboard right now, but if I did have an original 7800 controller, then I'd hold the controller in my left hand and i'd be using my left thumb for the fire button. Is that the current throwing button?

Yes it's intentional having a different button to start the game. Originally i had a button restrainer however over the years i notice many tend to mash/spam the action button causing it to restart the game even with debounce. I can add the ability to use both as action

On 12/22/2023 at 5:39 AM, fdr4prez said:

#2 = the volcano actually aims for you. When the volcano launches lava balls, it targets your current position. This means that you can't simply stand still for very long, since the volcano always targets your current location. Maybe in amateur mode (or at least in the first few levels) the volcano would be random lava balls and pro mode would remain targeted lava ball throws.

Yeah the fireballs do indeed track the player so you can never stand still. I was going to have randomness so it's always something i can put on the ideas list.

On 12/22/2023 at 5:39 AM, fdr4prez said:

#3 = as you hold the egg, then the dino will never lay another egg. Not sure if there is any good reason to do this. Why would she stop laying eggs since you are simply carrying around the last egg? If you are taking your time carrying around the first egg, then if the dino continues her egg laying timing pattern then there is a good chance that the next egg that is laid would be hatched before you get back to it.

It's coded to wait till the player has dropped off the egg, mainly for difficulty. Needs to be added to the ideas list, as when the baby dino is incorporated there will need to be a sense of urgency before it hatches.

December 19, 2023

Update

Build_20231219

graphics - pterodactyl sprites revised (KG)
graphics - caveman death sprites (KG)
engine - caveman death animation (AQ)
engine - mama T-Rex continues movement during intermision screens (AQ)
engine - volcano continues animation during intermision screens (AQ)
engine - pterodactyl will fly away with stolen egg (AQ)

Latest Build: StoneAge_bankset_20231219.a78 StoneAge_bankset_20231219.bin

December 14, 2023

Update! Today was pterodactyl day as TIX sent these fresh frames though couple of days ago.

Build_20231214

graphics - pterodactyl sprites revised (KG)
graphics - small changes to background (AQ)
engine - pterodactyl fly/intelligence routine revised (AQ)
engine - pterodactyl death routine revised (AQ)
bugfix - volcano rock tracking issue fixed (AQ)

Note: This is a bankset only build so you will need an 7800GD for real hardware or use A7800

Latest Build: StoneAge_bankset_20231214.a78 StoneAge_bankset_20231214.bin

December 10, 2023

11 hours ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

Um.... DF FW update 1.09 adds in corrected banksets? Has that not been tested yet? I've updated quite a few DF carts sent into me for the 1.09FW update. Unless this is a newer implementation of the banksets setup that RJ just needs to know about to see if he can implement it?

Update* yeah...this is a no go. The 7800 acts like it doesn't even see a game in the console when trying the banksets version of the game. So this must be another variant for banksets that the DF isn't programmed for? I know there are 2 banksets methods the DF is able to do currently. So yeah, has anyone brought this up with @rj1307 yet to see if it can be implemented into DF FW? Hopefully it can be done with a simple FW update and not require a full update of the DF itself having to use the JTAG header?

Thanks,

My best guess without being a bankset guru would be, as this is a 48k ROM bankset (96k) maybe the DF doesn't fully support that ROM size. But that is just a stab in the dark and i guess @rj1307 @RevEng @batari would have more of an idea.

7 hours ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

@TwentySixHundred

There is an odd graphical glitch that occurs across and entire pixel line vertically around the first 1/3 of the screen from the left. I only noticed it when the caveman was walking and when he passes by that spot it shows up as small broken dots that aren't visible unless a sprite object is along that line. The two shots below show an entire screen view so you know where it is happening, and the second shot shows it a bit more in detail. This is from my actual 7800 via 7800GD with latest FW as I just updated it shortly before loading this up.

That is an interesting glitch not present in emulation nor can i see it on James's ZPH stream from the other night. Makes me wonder if it's a 7800GD only glitch or on real hardware in general. Is there a difference with the standard ROM vs bankset ROM or is it present all the time?

December 9, 2023

7 minutes ago, Trebor said:

Bankset images are working perfectly under 7800GD with Firmware 23.12.0639 installed:

Don't mind the quickly captured and ugly CRT images, it looks beautiful live.

Thanks mate!

More than happy to see the bankset ROM working correctly on real hardware 😃

December 9, 2023

Update: This is a little earlier than i normally would release to the public. There was a game breaking bug which i hope is now resolved. I have tested since fixing and cannot break the game. So hopefully it's all good now

Build_20231209

graphics - egg stash sprites revised (KG)
graphics - caveman with egg sprites revised (KG)
hardware - moved to bankset scheme (AQ)
bugfix - player could knock out t-rex at the same time as triggering the t-rex eating routine (AQ)

As for the bankset ROM's these are in preparation for further expansion of the game. I have tested the ROM in A7800 and all is fine on my end however i don't own an 7800GD flash cart. So obviously have no idea if it runs as it should on real hardware. As far as i know Concerto and Drangonfly carts do not support the bankset scheme either.

Either way both standard and bankset contain the same content for now. If anyone does have a 7800GD flash cart and would like to test, i would love to know if it's running correctly. Thankyou 👍

Standard: StoneAge 20231209.a78 StoneAge 20231209.bin

Bankset: StoneAge_bankset 20231209.a78 StoneAge_bankset 20231209.bin

December 8, 2023

9 minutes ago, TIX said:

..sadly no time to squeeze-in the new improved pterodactyl 😥

We have squeezed in the new caveman carry egg sprites and egg stash revamp 😁

I sent James the updated build a few hours ago 😉

December 7, 2023

18 hours ago, Flashback said:
Very nice game! On my PAL Machine the T-Rex is something like blue;)

my suggestion: different backgrounds every second or 5th level
 