seemo

I'll repost the video with a title in the emulator window. By the way, I am on v 1.2.4.

Here's a video of my entry, Grain https://youtu.be/mryZbnlqi0w

Nice game - having the background color randomly picked detracts from the feel of progression through the levels, imho - sometimes it is hard to read the score due to the playfield color: score should be presented below the colored playfield, over a fixed background color (e.g. black) - when the game is over, the hi-score should be displayed, alternating with the last score - I attached an alternative bitmap for the car - when the game ends because of a collision with two cars, one car disappears (this does not happen when the car that caused game over is a single car) - the nice level up sequence could benefit from a (very) short music/audio effect (silence contrasts too much with the nice visual effect, imho) - what about implementing 'Near Misses' a-la burnout ? If you can 'measure' the horizontal distance, between the player car and the enemies, whenever an overtake happens, you could add an amount of points inversely proportional to such distance. The audio effect could reflect the amount of points awarded for each overtake (risky overtake --> more points --> high pitched / safe overtake --> less points --> low pitched) Keep up the great work!

Excellent game, I especially like the way you can control the Ninja jump, just by 'adjusting' with the fire button: mastering its use is part of the addictive quality of the game The overall presentation is nice and has a distinct feel to it. Good job on the sounds, too: I really like how you didn't make the jump sound effect too obtrusive. Just a few notes: - I would try to make the game display always 262 scanlines, even when transitioning between different game states - no lava: I am not sure that the azure lines, on top of the screen, fit well with the remaining background colors (see "to the left.png") - no lava: when the ninja floats between the surfaces to the right, its sprite is oriented towards the left (see "to the left.png") - I would try to make the 'grasp' sprite a little less stiff, with a little curl (see "grasp.png") - the bonus letters are displayed too early: this makes them briefly appear on the leftmost part of the screen (see "early bonus.png") - the last drawn line before the room number is incomplete (see "incomplete line.png") - the deadly vertical beam briefly returns to the left, before moving towards the ninja (see "line jump" below) - when the deadly vertical beam starts moving towards the ninja, it would be nice to hear a sound effect (to highlight the impending menace) - something happens to the vertical beam when the game is over: once it reaches an horizontal position (see "black beam.png") it starts becoming black (see "black_beam_2.png") - it would be very nice to have the hi-score displayed somewhere (maybe alternating with the last score during the title screen or during the game over screen) - let me add a couple of labels, just because Most importantly, many thanks for sharing the game! (line jump)

Just to add that Stella 4.1.1 window does not appear if called from Programmer's Notepad (v2.3.4.2350-charles), too. Unfortunately, windows event registry does not show any error/message.

I just tried typing the same exact call that is issued from Crimson Editor inside a command window (ver. 6.1.7601) and Stella 4.1.1 starts without any problem. As about the runtimes, I had already installed them, as the execution of the downloaded file in your link (vcredist_x86) prompted me to either repair or uninstall them. Anyway I went with 'repair', to see if something needed fixing, but even after the repair procedure (which ended without errors) I still could not call Stella from Crimson Editor.

Calling Stella 4.1.1 from Crimson Editor (via the User Tools keyboard shortcut) does not show the Emulator Window... a process (named Stella.exe) is shown in the Task Manager list, but no entry appears in the Applications tab (I am on Windows 7 32bit). Calling Stella 4.1.1 from an explorer window opens up the emulator without any problem. Version 3.9.3 works without any problem in Crimson Editor.

- I removed an audio variation to make the in-game 'music' more cohesive - the playfield background color has been darkened - the joystick control routine is now more accurate, resulting in a more precise cursor movement - the cursor and the line are not shown when the game is over - I reinstated cells movement when the line runs across the playfield. To avoid skipping patterns (as shown in a previous post), whenever cells are moved I force the pattern checking routine to restart on the same column. As a side effect, this causes the line to abruptly move back to the beginning of the column - to avoid this, the line is briefly hidden when the cells are moved. - the timer has been made a little slower, to compensate for the increased difficulty due to the cells movement - the first seconds of the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g56qwIF01aA made me suspect that the 'full' colored pattern, displayed on top of the screen, induced the player to try to reproduce a 'full' pattern using 'striped' cells. So, to avoid any confusion, the pattern to compose, and the next one below, are displayed with 'striped' colors if they are made of a single color, or with both colors if they are mixed-color patterns. palomino_20140510.bin

- now the playfield has a gray background color (this made me tweak the colors... for a change ) - I have added a 'message' area, between the playfield and the score, that says 'press fire'/'get ready'/'game over'/'oh yeah' (when a pattern is cleared) peace palomino_20131007.bin

@roryjr & Nognir : thanks When I started developing this game, I had no particular reference... I just started by making a game where square patterns got picked up randomly on the screen (see http://atariage.com/forums/blog/269/entry-10077-atlas-presents-palomino/), and evolved from that concept. Anyway, it's not like you can develop a simple pattern-based puzzle game in 2013, and expect it to be completely original ... take this great Jaguar Homebrew game for example (which I recently discovered) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1O0QMamDdME So yes, Palomino is a completely original game and... no, Palomino is not a completely original game - generating a random number of mixed-color patterns felt too uneven, so I reworked the code and made it possible to control the number of mixed-color patterns for each level ( 0, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ) - since mixed-color patterns are part of the game difficulty progression now, they are not awarded twice the points anymore - score values have been reduced - the first levels are a little faster, and the last levels are a little slower now - when bonus mode gets extended, the 'bonus mode' label gets briefly replaced by an 'extend !' label - playfield movement directions should be more evenly distributed peace palomino_20130927.bin

- fixed a bug that prevented the new cells from being generated in the topmost/bottommost playfield rows - during bonus mode, the square counter has been moved besides the square pattern symbol - during bonus mode, a 'bonus mode' label is displayed on the screen - during normal gameplay, an arrow is displayed besides the current pattern - the 'hat' sound fx length has been increased - still a few changes to NTSC colors peace palomino_20130904.bin

- removed patterns are shown on the playfield with red color, flickering with the 'second color' cells in the cursor (enable phosphor effect on Stella to remove flicker) - new cells are generated with higher frequency now, and to extend bonus mode 12 squares are needed - mixed color patterns do not appear until level 4 - if a new level is reached during normal gameplay, the timer is reset - if it is reached during bonus mode, the timer is not reset - score values have been slighly reduced - music variations have been reduced - ntsc cell colors have been reworked peace palomino_20130813.bin

- when the cursor is placed on the topmost/bottommost row, its upper/lower borders are shown now - slight change to the sound fx when the player rotates the cells in the cursor - added AtariVox speech for 'level up' - when a new level is reached, the level indicator flashes briefly - when the playfield moved to the left, it was quite frequent (especially on higher levels) to see patterns skipped by the vertical beam: this happened whenever a pattern got 'pushed' in the column where the beam had just finished scanning (see the picture) To solve this, I delayed playfield movement until the vertical beam has finished scanning the playfield: this results in a somehow easier game, but since playfield movements are still present, they add to the challenge without penalizing the player too much. peace palomino_20130507.bin

This version introduces 'mixed' color patterns: they appear less frequently than 'fully' colored patterns, and must be composed with 'mixed' color cells. In order to obtain a 'mixed' color cell, you have to put two cells of different colors in the same space. Mixed color patterns take more time to compose, but they are also worth twice the points. To support mixed color cells, the cursor graphics now are 'striped', too. I also attach an updated version of the manual. @everybody: thanks for your support peace palomino_20130426.bin palomino_20130426.pdf

The previous version did not display the hi-score when the game was over, this version fixes that bug. Sorry for the inconvenience. peace palomino_20130424.bin

The code has been completely reworked, here's what's new: - playfield height has been increased by one row - playfield upper/lower borders flash when a new cell is generated - playfield cells flash when a pattern is cleared - each pattern has its own small music variation - purduecrum's bug has been fixed - 'score'/'hi-score'/'next' labels have been changed to better fit with the digits font Here's a video of the game http://youtu.be/KDq11TWhbWQ peace @purduecrum & Wickeycolumbus: thanks palomino_20130422.bin

This version tries to solve the problem quoted above. It also introduces a few updates - AtariVox speech has been livened up - Game Over music is thegoldenband's airtheme ( http://atariage.com/...ng-music-in-bb/ ) - The color for new cells alternates between the two colors of the level (it was picked randomly in the previous version) - Since I had space, I added a 'score/hi-score' label above the score - The current pattern is displayed with its associated color - The next pattern is displayed below the current one: this makes it more fair to pick a new random pattern everytime one is cleared - Bonus Mode has been further shortened, and now you have to clear 10 patterns to extend it - Added an 'x' besides the squares counter during Bonus Mode - Bonus Mode is immediately extended as soon as 10 squares are cleared I also attach an updated version of the manual peace (edit: outdated video removed) palomino_20130417.bin palomino_20130417.pdf

Hi, I have implemented some of the features that rtype_2600 suggested in his reply to my last blog post about the game: - the Bonus Mode now is shorter and its length is fixed for all the levels - there is a level indicator at the top left of the screen - each level has its own colors - during Bonus Mode, the counter of cleared squares is displayed below the square symbol (clearing 12 or more squares grants you another Bonus Mode - 'extra' squares are worth two squares) - changing the pattern mid-stage would cause short continuous interruptions to the flow of the game, i.e. you would be waiting for the line to clear the current pattern before knowing what the next pattern will be - I made many changes to the game to support two colors for the cells: 1) the playfield height has been halved 2) there is only one kernel now, with 'striped' cells and no playfield background color 3) when the vertical line picks up a pattern, the pattern is not shown anymore with the blinking color 4) the upper and lower borders of the playfield are shown with the active pattern color, with which you have to make a pattern in order to have it cleared by the vertical line (this forces you to use both colors) 5) during bonus mode, the borders are yellow, and any of the two colors are used to clear square patterns I also attach an updated version of the manual. peace (edit: outdated video removed) palomino_20130412.pdf palomino_20130412.bin

Hi, I have been recently working on palomino, a puzzle game for the 2600. I attach the latest binary of the game, together with an instruction document in pdf format. Thanks to iesposta, Csonicgo, r_type2600, and Thomas Jentzsch, whose DOOD utility ( http://atariage.com/...ta-overlapping/ ) helped me make room for AtariVox support. peace (edit:outdated video removed) palomino_20130406.bin palomino_20130406.pdf