MemberAtarian
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Posts posted by MemberAtarian
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2019-03-06:
Ouch, how should I beginn? I found a lot of bugs, most of them were bad goto bank commands or the on <var> goto went on wrong value. I redesigned the cursor placement, rewrote most of the AI and now 1/5 of the code is in assembly (I optimized the output asm bB made and inserted it into the bB code). I tested it on real hardware, somehow I couldn't fix all the issues with the colors (It never goes over 262 scanlines, but Stella shows it as red and the color goes missing) and my recorder couldn't handle it (the TV was not suffering that much, only a little black blinking).
There is one mouse and one dpad (sega master system) recording, if you are creating your island, the dpad seems faster, but on the sea, it's easier to navigate the ships with the mouse. And yeah, I couldn't check the sensors as much as I wanted, so it's a bit over-sensitive, but an interesting experiment.2019-02-11:
New improvement. I know that most people play these games at home, alone, so I made the AI for the computer. It was really hard and has a lot of limitations, even with SARA Superchip, but it tries to do best by placing buildings and controlling ships (the most limited part is this, of course). What's left is searching for bugs, optimizing the code, testing the mouse and doing the ending screen.
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After half years, I decided to get this project back with my improved programming skills, I made this night the title screen. I'm pretty sure that the song is familiar to you.
I was a big WarCraft and StarCraft fan in my young ages and I really love the strategy game of Don Daglow for the Intellivision, so I decided to make a TBS for the Atari 2600, probably the very first strategy game for the system.At my first attempt, I had problems with the playerscore minikernel and even with the multisprite kernel, but I managed to learn how to use the kernel (even modding it) and of course, I modded the minikernel as well, so, here we go!
The game will support Atari ST mouse control if you have one!
2018-12-29
As you can see, I made a little gameplay against myself.
There is no AI yet and there is no ending screen, and there are some errors still, but the game is now in a playable state.Some new rules and elements are added, like:
-Some buildings and the ships need a minimum number of people if you want to build them.
-Fields of wheat disappear at the end of every number (it is harvested!) and converted to food, like the fish, if you are standing on it with a fishing boat. First you start with no people at all, but if you build house and have food, they will move there and work for you. If there are too many factories, the more people die, but you can give them better healthcare at the lab, etc. Ships are moving freely on the sea and battleships can attack other ships. If a battleship is attacking another battleship, there is a little chance that the attacking ship will be destroyed, due the better weaponry. The goal is building the giant cannon, develop weaponry and destroy every HQ of your enemy.
I tested gameplay only with joystick, because the mouse control will need a lot of optimizing anyway.-
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Correct, some systems didn't work correctly with it which is why I switched to CDF for Draconian.
cd-w figured out an arrangement to get 128 pixels across instead of 96, which would give you 16 tiles instead of 12. I'm not sure if that could be updated using just 6507 code, or if you'd require the DPC+ or CDF coprocessors' data fetchers to assist.
I don't think KK would like to use any co-processors, he's more interested in surpassing the limitations of the original hardware.
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Okay, guys, I'm just sitting here, in my workplace, and just sh*t my pants. Never imagined someone would try to make UT for the console! Keep up with the good work!
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Just found this topic and I can't wait to check it on my computer.
And it fits in 4K, amazing.-
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Not bad for a first game. What I was thinking is there any reason to not pressing the fire button all the time? I like the Indiana Jones kind-of feeling with the hat and the rock following, but I would put there more levels and make it a lot harder. Platforming games should be about your skills and reflexes, and most Atari fans are over 25, so, we just got worse in them. XD
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It is too bad there isn't enough room for adding randomization...my suggestion would have been to make the rooms random from the beginning of the game and not only after you complete it first.
Or you can use the Right Difficulty switch so the B=non-random rooms and A=random rooms
It is a fun game even without the randomization
You know, the problem is the size of the randomizing scrip itself. You have to be sure that every single room is connected, and with that, you would have to remove the air-duct part. That takes a lot of space and would be really hard to randomize.
Right Difficulty switch is used for musin on/of. I would put selection in the title instead, BB allows you that.
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Testing the game on real hardware (PAL and PAL60)
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Can you attach some screenshots?
I would ask for the same!
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I'm really impressed that you are doing something for the very first home console. It's a shame that you cannot get a console in EU easily.
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Unfortunately, there is not even enough space for a reset command in the main loops (the stage and the air-duct). It would take 160-160 bytes and I have only 80-48. :/
I'm working hard on vectorizing every element to make clear elements for the visuals.
And really thinking around how to make a strategy game for the VCS. -
How much sprite is left for all the other character then?
This means you used 4 sprites as layers?Yes, I know. But they never did a 12 color sprite
Thanks for creating an animated gif.
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Looks really cool, I like it!
Detailed animation with NES graphics. I really really like the animation and the background artwork. Really cool!
Codemaster NES games like Ziggy uses multiple layer sprites to show more color for their character. Capcom do this for their games too. Their late releases really show sprites with more than 3 colors like Chip and Dale 2.
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Amazing game but if I play this game on Stella the resetbutton doesn't work.
Hmmm, so you want to reset during the gameplay? I only programmed it for the menu.
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I guess I missed the part about the cannons being destroyed from behind. That is very helpful information. It would still be more fair if the Xenomorph was a little more resilient so that the laser (and soldier) weren't able to take it out in seconds. Even with the new version you posted I was still taken out by a soldier the second I entered the screen.
I was able to save the queen this time around, although I still had a 4 left in my score counter. I thought that was the counter for humans left, but should I be able to save the queen with humans left alive? I have also saved the queen after killing all humans.
Also, I know you are running up against space considerations, but right now the game is really short. Theoretically, knowing exactly where to go and what to do, the game can be beaten from start to finish in under 5 minutes. Would it be possible to slightly randomize the layout of the space station, or move around the generators so that there is more replayability? If the game could start over after each queen save with a randomized layout, that would certainly create more incentive to go again.
Final point, I sometimes have a difficult time getting the chest burster to pop out. I know you said tap the button, but is there more of a trick to it, because I tap rapidly, slowly, and sometimes it pops right away and sometimes I tap for what feels like minutes.
Interesting, something must be wrong if you could save the game with humans around, I will have to check it. Also the popping out.2 bytes of ROM space left in bank 10 bytes of ROM space left in bank 210 bytes of ROM space left in bank 33 bytes of ROM space left in bank 433 bytes of ROM space left in bank 519 bytes of ROM space left in bank 63 bytes of ROM space left in bank 788 bytes of ROM space left in bank 8This is where I am right now. Every room is built up like:
pfcolors (12 lines code of color)
check if there should be something, like a soldier or dead soldier
setting position of the enemies, and room variables to zero
check to room type and gosub to the code segment of soldier or sciencetist behavior if they are in to room
setting if there are directions you can go to, so if there are walls or doors
if the playfield was not drawn, gosub to the code segment that contains the pf variations the room has,
go for sprites (that's a very complicated segment, but I don't need to talk about it here)
A room takes up at least 200 bytes even if it's empty. So the biggest free space is 88 bytes in a bank, that's circa 2 or 3 lines of more advanced code. How could I randomize?
My other problem is that how could I randomize the layout of the map with checking if there are no dead ends and every room can be accessed? The air-duct is a pure fixed thing, there is a variable that is changed by pressing the directions and that shows the program which fixed image to draw on the screen and purely, that's all.The only thing I could do is removing colors of the rooms or making the two enemies act the same to gain free space.
The only way to go with randomizing would be upgrading for 64K, but that size is too much for the Harmony cart for example.
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This is a really cool concept and has a lot of promise, but it's coming up short in the "fun" department for me.
Is this better?
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Sometimes I feel that even Atari players don't have any patience. The cannons can't turn, so can be destroyed from behind with one hit. The maze and the layout is always the same, so you have to memorize the map, like in the old days, you will know where the enemies are. The enemies die by one hit and for me, the scientist is harder, the soldier rushes into you and if you attack while running it's a win for sure. The sciencetist at least tries to avoid you.
I have two problems I really can't handle. One is that I ran out of space. Really. The 32K ROM is full. I put the Queen at the end instead of Ripley because there was not enought space for a last fight. The same goes for the feeding, originally you would have to find cats and eat them, so you can evolve, but I had the reorganize the banks so any of them will go over 4K. The other is that if a character goes 1 pixel per drawscreen, it's the normal speed and 2 pixels are that hostile mess that you can see. Mayble I will slow down the soldier a little, but that is the only thing I can really do. Originally, I wanted to do 64 rooms and two air-ducts, but that also was too much for the ROM.
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Should I do an egg shaped manual?
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That '82 game was my inspiration, I just thought WTF as I saw it.
I'm kinda wishing this is what came out under the "Alien" label back in '82 (even though I do like that game also).
The air ducts are such a cool feature too.
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Done the things you requested.
Now you have 6 blocks before it gets faster. 6 blocks is more then enough.
I really don't like to change codes I had not worked with for a long time, I already finished Apollyon and constantly thinking about Distopia that will be a building centered TBS (turn based strategy) for the VCS.
Right, it's mainly the serifs that make it so hard to read at that resolution, especially with the flicker/blind effect. What I was saying is that a more simple font would be easier to read without detracting from the "style" of the game.
Here's a quick example.
The reason I mentioned this wasn't because the font bothered me, but since it was brought up by others, I figured there was an easy solution to make it more readable by everyone... and I was pointing out that there's really no reason "not" to do it. No need to guess at or assume what it says if you don't have to.
Those falling blocks are still a showstopper for me. If it takes even the programmer 23 attempts, it's likely too difficult for the average player. Are there unlimited lives? Every time I've tried, I've kept going on that screen until it restarts me at the beginning of the game, so I thought there were only a certain number of lives.
Challenge is good, which is why I've not complained about any of the other screens I've come across up to that point, but that one is beyond challenging.
Please don't take these posts as criticism. It's a great thing when games are developed in the open on the forum, where people can give their feedback and games usually end up better because of it. I think there's a lot of potential in the game and would probably buy a cartridge if a change or two are made, but that one screen will probably keep me from ever playing it again.
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More and more awesome every day. Is this basically completed aside from possible bug fixes if any?
You are just right. I'm working on the manuals right now.
It will be shaped like the egg (ovomorph) -
No One is two words too.
You can see that on the concept art that I changed it.
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I think the font style (with serifs) is just very difficult to read with the flicker. A more simple block font would remedy it without detracting from the overall style. It would still fit in well with the logo in my opinion.
Agree. Awesome game, but that screen is a show stopper for me. I gave it many many tries, but it's just too difficult, to the point that if I were to ever make it past, it would surely be by dumb luck. I don't plan to try again any time soon unless the drop speed is decreased.
Actually this is how the titlescreen looks. It's not an unreadable font, but as you shrink it to 96 and import it to the titlescreen maker, it gets ruined. That's why in Apollyon, there is no additional text on the titlescreen, just the logo, I think any gamer who played Atari could guess Fire or Reset is used for beginning the game.
With the falling blocks, belive it or not, that is only "speed 2", so the "ball" adds to his y coordinate by drawning. The first three blocks are dropped by 1. In Apollyon, I felt the same problem as the Facehugger and the Chestbuster moves by 1, the adult Xenomorph seems very slow if it just goes by 1 as well, but 2 is too fast, if you know the right tactic like me, you can kill everyone without dying.
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Trying to understand opening phrase.
IN SPACE NOONE CAN HERE THEY... SCREAM!
Should it say
IN SPACE NOONE CAN HERE THEM... SCREAM! ??
Just wanted to make sure I wasn't misunderstanding.
Game play looks insane!
Already changed it in the code, you are right.
Plan for the visuals:
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Dystopia (Utopia-like Turn Based Strategy for the 2600)
in Homebrew Discussion
Posted
The biggest problem is that without the not so great multisprite kernel, there will be a lot of flicker with much buildings. The other problem is that just there is not enough variables, even with splitting them, so I will need to write directly into the memory with assembly.
(The program is made with Batari Basic)