Dave Neuman

Yep, I haven't noticed any glitches or bugs yet. I'm getting better too I cranked up the original version on my mame cocktail for the first time tonight ... I like your version better. The difficulty increase as you progress through the levels seems just about perfect to me. I like that the scout calls for more fighters just like the original, but sometimes it takes me a few seconds to realize it's there and has called up half a dozen more fighters til I can shoot him. You probably already talked about and decided against a visual or auditory cue to warn the player?

This game is awesome. I've been playing it on my new Krokodile Cart.

Reactor by Gottlieb was sorta red and a sweet looking cab. Red Baron was red also.

Radar Scope This was Nintendo's first arcade game and it did not sell well. Of the 3000 games made, roughly 2000 were converted into Donkey Kong. This lead to two variations of Donkey Kong cabinets: the harder to find red cabinet and the traditional blue cabinet.

Got mine also ... early Christmas for me

In keeping with the theme I have attempted to animate the Planet Builders Resource Collection Vehicle (RCV). I used 6 frames of animation for the tank tread movement and 1 frame for the boom mounted collector. Also added some randomly placed minerals, although I have not added the appropriate sprites for them yet. Game is not playable and frame rates are not consistent. Any suggestions for better RCV animation sprites are welcome. New11_28.bin RCV Animation below is slightly improved. New12_03.bin

Hi, I just found this thread tonight with the new search engine. Thanks for the Great Review! My High School German is very rusty, but babel fish helped. Thanks again, Dave

Those are all good ideas ... and it gives me something to work towards now.

I haven't really worked much on this lately, but I had a couple of thoughts on game play. The premise is that you are a Terra former and land on this barren planet to create an atmosphere. You cruise around looking for raw materials to beam up to the automated atmospheric processors flying overhead. You must match the raw material with the correct processor or it will explode. The planet begins to form an atmosphere and some land based atmospheric domes as you process more correct raw materials. If you process the wrong materials the planet will be destroyed. New10_2.bin New11_13.bin

Using the Cosmic Ark trick here and turning on selected stars via a table.

I added a short delay in order to angle the bucket ... looks a little better. I attached it to the end of the first post. I was thinking about adding a small sprite of the earth. Of course none of this adds anything to game-play, but it's a fun divergence until I can think of some game play elements. I guess I'm kinda doing this backwards. ;Show Big Dipper LDA #2 ;used to enable missile LDX #6 ;Number of stars BigDipperLoop LDY StarTable,X ;get delay for loop (star placement) STA WSYNC ;always start loop at same time ;Delay loop (positions stars) DipperDelay DEY BNE DipperDelay DEX ;Reposition left lower star in dipper BNE NOMOVE NOP NOMOVE STA ENABL ;Turn missile on STY RESBL ;strobe missile position STA WSYNC ;Add some heigth to missiles STA WSYNC ;Add some heigth to missiles STY ENABL ;Turn missile off BPL BigDipperLoop ;Start loop over

I didn't like the original code for the Big Dipper so I used a standard delay loop. It saves space but it does not give the same effect. Here is the first bin which shows a fairly good depiction of the Big Dipper. BackStars8_8_07.bin Here is the alternate code ... saves space but doesn't look as good. ;Show Big Dipper LDA #2 ;used to enable missile LDX #7 ;Number of stars BigDipperLoop LDY StarTable,X ;get delay for loop (star placement) STA WSYNC ;always start loop at same time ;Delay loop positions stars DipperDelay DEY BNE DipperDelay STA ENABL ;Turn missile on STY RESBL ;strobe missile position DEX STA WSYNC STA WSYNC STY ENABL ;Turn missile off BNE BigDipperLoop ;Start loop over StarTable .byte 10,8,5,9,8,7,6,9 This bin shows a less desireable depiction of the Big Dipper as coded above. BackStars8_11_07.bin This bin looks a little better for only a couple of bytes BackStars8_12_07.bin Here is another approach for displaying stars using the Cosmic Ark trick, but only turning on selected stars. BackStarsBall9_24_07.bin

I wanted to add some stars to the background so I utilized the trick from Cosmic Ark. I then started messing around with the other missile and came up with the Big Dipper. I'm using a different base program for testing as I got tired of going through the landing sequence every time I wanted to check my progress. The positioning code for the stars is pretty kludgey right now, so I'm trying to come up with something more efficient. Background Stars BackStars.bin Different Background Stars BackStars8_7_07.bin Big Dipper Monochrome Background Stars BackStars8_8_07.bin Big Dipper No Background Stars BackStars8_10_07.bin Big Dipper Colored Background Stars BackStars8_10_07.bin

I think it's going to be fun.

It's a little faster than I want. I added a bin to the original entry that scrolls slower, but it's noticeably jerky.

I'm a rookie programmer, but I think it may be fun to document a new game as it develops. I was looking at a Popular Science magazine cover and saw a picture of a moon buggy prospecting for valuable minerals. Sounded like a game to me. Probably a little too much like Moon Patrol, but seems like it may be fun. I used Space Battle as a shell to insert some new code to simulate a buggy cruising around the moon. I utilized some code samples to allow the scrolling playfield to be "perfectly reversible" so as the game develops you will see certain structures and backgrounds in each frame as you cruise around the moon. Attached is the bin if you would like to see the work in progress. Frame rates bounce around and graphics are munged, but you'll get the idea after landing. New7_12.bin Maybe you will collect valuable minerals as you race against the oxygen clock. This one scrolls a little slower. New7_12_slow_scroll.bin

Thanks for the Great Review and all your help! Space Battle was greatly improved by you and everyone else here! I'll spend much more time polishing my next game. I still think people buy it for the beautiful Graphics you and Dave Dries created for the Cart label and Manual!

One XL for Dave Neuman please

This game is very cool and very hypnotic Great job.

Thanks again for all your input. Space Battle improved significantly after implementing your ideas! It probably never would have been published without your encouragement and help. I received my order Friday and the artwork you guys produced is phenomenal. -Dave

I tweaked the fuel levels a lttle differently on this one Boss Levels 26 seconds constant Armada starts at 26 seconds for first easy wave. 2nd Wave 43 seconds. decrease second per level approx until. 10th level 33 seconds. SpaceBattle_NTSC.bin Final Binaries SpaceBattleNTSC.bin SpaceBattlePAL.bin

Just for fun I tweaked the fuel levels Level 1 Armada 23 seconds Level 2 Armada 43 seconds Decrease each level until Level 14 Armada 31 seconds Boss Level Always = 23 seconds SpaceBattle_NTSC.bin

Been playing all day again ... tweaked a screen jump at higher levels. Must put up Christmas tree now or Santa won't come to my house. SpaceBattle_NTSC.bin SpaceBattle_PAL.bin

Argh ... this one is fixed! I was kinda tired last night and put up wrong binary SpaceBattle_NTSC.bin SpaceBattle_PAL.bin

Hi, Took a Vacation Day Today (well yesterday now) and have been playing all day. Found a screen roll on level 17 at 130,000 points. Attached are the fixed binaries. SpaceBattle_NTSC.bin SpaceBattle_PAL.bin