zdan

I'm declaring version R3 to be the final version. Enjoy! Feel free to report bugs or suggestions, still. If there are serious bugs, I'll release a fix; and I may still release an expanded version someday which will have room for new features.

Thanks! I'd definitely like to add animation, but unfortunately I don't have anywhere near the 192-ish free bytes that my kernel would require for even one more frame. I'd have to sacrifice one of the places that dots can appear, and I think that would make camping out in one place too easy -- so easy that it would be boring. It's at the top of my list for an expanded version, some day, but for now I want to stay in 4K.

I've edited the original post again, to contain a new version, R3. I'm pretty happy with it, and may declare it final. Can anyone beat 131 points? Changes from R2: Added six new levels, with some new mechanics, and one with a short new song. Tweaked the first couple levels to contain a lot more good dots. This makes them more interesting to replay, but more dangerous, too, if you're greedy like I am. Added a high score display. Tweaked some colors, especially for PAL. Let me know if anyone would like to see changes here! Random minor polish, including a fix for accidental respawns when holding the fire button, and a floating-downward sequence when your game has ended. I've never managed to get through all twelve levels in a single game, but you can see them all if you play two-player and keep respawning.

Thanks @ZeroPage Homebrew for playing Water Diver on your stream! It was great to watch, and really useful feedback. I was especially glad to see you playing 2-player, since I haven't been able to test it too much so far. Glad you liked it! Now I have a few more ideas to try to squeeze into the remaining bytes... Oh, and: no, I'm not Mr SQL. :-)

It's all assembly, using DASM. The resources at AtariAge, especially Andrew Davie's tutorials and Kirk Israel's 2600 Cookbook, made it a pleasure to figure out how to get started.

I've edited the original post to contain a new version, R2. In this version, the fire button will give you a speed boost while you're holding it (thanks to @bluswimmer for the idea). The boost is only lateral. It can be useful for darting over to catch something, or avoid something -- but it can be dangerous too. I also added a new first level, which is meant to be easier. Please let me know if the difficulty ramp feels better now! I'm not sure if this change is good or not, so I'd really appreciate feedback.

Thanks! And I like your idea for the fire button; I'll have to play with it to see how it feels.

Yes it is. Thanks for the kind words! And I appreciate the suggestions. The difficulty does ramp up, but yeah, maybe it starts out a little too fast. I'll listen for a while before deciding whether to change it -- the risk is that the beginning of the game might get boring, if you're playing a lot of games. There's not really enough room to add animations and stay in 4K, due to the way I implemented the kernel. I've been collecting ideas for if I make an expanded version, and that's definitely on there...

I'm declaring R3 to be the final version. (This is my first post, but I've been lurking for a few weeks while writing this game, and I've really enjoyed trying out other homebrews.) Water Diver is a reflex game, for one or two players (simultaneously): dots are bouncing everywhere in the water; collect the good ones, while avoiding the bad ones! Five Six Twelve exciting levels, four exciting songs. ? No title screen yet... The graphics are pretty simple, but I think it's fun, and challenging. I have yet to break 150 points, except when testing at slow emulation speeds. There can be a lot going on onscreen. My high score during development is 162; for R3 as released, my best so far is 131. Latest release: water_diver_R3.bin (NTSC) water_diverpal_R3.bin (PAL60) Older releases: water_diver_R2.bin (NTSC) water_diverpal_R2.bin (PAL60) water_diver.bin (NTSC) water_diverpal.bin (PAL60) I've tested in Stella 6.0.1, and on an NTSC 2600. In Stella, it's difficult with keyboard, but I find that it works quite well with a mouse. The two-player mode hasn't had a lot of play; please let me know what you think! Also feel free to suggest PAL color tweaks, or whatever else. I have a very small amount of room left. I expect to at least add a few more levels. Or maybe a title screen. Controls: Joysticks. Either player can start at any time, by pressing their fire button; after that, just steer the button will give a lateral speed boost. Between games, you can cycle through game modes, with Select: In the default mode, you advance from level to level in time with the music. In "flow mode" you stay on one level forever -- any level you have reached previously. (This is more fun than it sounds!) Hints: There's no way to only one level where you can restore your health. You can see how much damage you've accumulated by looking at your score. The faster you pick up the good dots, the sooner new ones can appear. (It can be dangerous to pay too much attention to this fact.) When the water turns green, watch out... The game is inspired by https://www.khanacademy.org/computer-programming/water-diver-sounds-added/5430351862169600