Dave Neuman

Hi, Your probably right about the pods. I'll give it a try tomorrow. I was 17 when we got our first 2600 as a family Christmas gift. Kinda Cool that it brings back some of those old memories for you too. Thanks for the compliment. Dave

Hi, Thanks! Would it help if I let the fuel pods soft land and then explode after a second or two. I got up to level 16 last night, but I've played it alot for testing. You can press F1 after the "Game Over" message appears and then press the fire button to continue from same level with the same score. The fuel starts running out pretty fast at level 15 and above. I reduce the available fuel by about 1 second per level. It starts around 65 seconds. I have a full sized galaxian arcade game which I play alot. So it was kinda fun coding a shooter as my first game. Dave

Hi again, Since the game is called Space Battle, I changed the sprites to look more like space ships. Also color keyed the base to indicate if a bomb or a fuel pod is dropping. I guess I'm beating a dead horse, but having fun with it anyway. Anyone like the ships? Thanks, Dave SpaceBattlesBeta3y.bin

Hi, Another update. Fuel consumption rate increases as you increase levels to ramp difficulty somewhat. Aligned graphics tables and changed the hit enemy shifting code to reduce graphics glitch when trailing flashing enemy moves off screen. SpaceBattlesBeta3y.bin

Hi, Another update. Pressing Select (F1) during gameplay pauses game and changes options Pressing fire button resumes gameplay. Pressing Reset (F2) clears Score fire button starts game. When GameOver appears you can clear score and restart game, after a four second delay, by pressing fire button. You can continue your game after Game Over by pressing Select (F1) to get to title screen and then pressing fire button. Any feedback is welcome SpaceBattlesBeta3wwwww.bin

Thanks for the feedback! The missiles in the second screen should go all the way to the top. I'm cycling the colors in the attached version so they show up a little better. SpaceBattlesBeta3x.bin

I made some changes/additions to my First attempt and would like to get some more feedback and or gameplay suggestions. Thanks, Dave ****GAME DESCRIPTION**** You are on patrol in the Gamma Sector of the Denebian Cluster. Your mission is to destroy the supply convoys of the Gorn Armada. The Enemy is not aware of your position until you begin your attack. The Enemy will drop plasma bombs which you must dodge. Activating your shields by pressing up on the joystick will deflect the plasma bombs, but your shields will overheat and cause a massive core breach after several hits. If you disengage you shields they will cool off very quickly and be ready to sustain another attack. The Enemy Supply Convoys always come in groups of three. When you destroy one of the group, the remaining ships in the group raise their shields (signified by a "S") and that group cannot be damaged again until another group draws your fire. You have a limited supply of fuel and if you exhaust it, you will lose core containment and your ship will explode. It is possible to replenish your fuel from fuel pods released by the Enemy Convoy as it breaks up. The enemy will try to disguise these fuel pods as bombs until the last moment when they turn color from bomb red to fuel pod green. Additionally, your ship includes advanced sensors which indicate when it detects a fuel pod. The display will indicate "Catch Fuel" when it is safe to collect fuel. The fuel remaining displays at the bottom of the screen and changes color from green to yellow to red as your fuel is depleted. A warning message "Fuel Level" and tone are activated if your fuel becomes critically low. When all the enemies in the convoy are defeated, two morphing Corelian Destroyers appear which you must eliminate before resuming your next patrol. The Destroyers must be hit several times before they will change size overheat and finally explode. The Destroyers do not have any fuel pods to drop, so eliminate them quickly. The left difficulty switch controls the size of your ship. A smaller ship makes avoiding Enemy plasma bombs somewhat easier and a larger ship makes avoiding the bombs harder. The right difficulty switch controls the bomb speed. The bombs fall at full speed on the more difficult setting. There are four variations available from the main menu: Option1 Standard Play Option2 Steerable Missiles Option3 No Shields Option4 Disappearing Enemies SpaceBattlesBeta3wwww.bin

Hi, I've incorporated the suggestions everyone gave me into my first game. They were all good ideas and worked well. Thanks for all the input! I now have a simple game that gave me hours of enjoyment (and frustration). Where do I go from here? Changes suggested and implemented: Title screen improved (animation and color rotation). Correct alien in group flashes and then dies when shot. Alien projectile drops from lowest row of surviving aliens. True identity of alien projectile is not revealed until bottom band. Alien projectile transforms into either a fuel pod or a bomb in bottom band. Dropping bomb makes a bomb dropping sound. Three alien speeds per level slow, stepping, fast. Four different enemy patterns as level increases. Fuel gauge with low fuel warning sound and FUEL LEVEL warning message. CATCH FUEL message synchronized with fuel pod drop. Bomb/Fuel pod impact sound and ground flash for bombs. Missile and Alien projectile collision pushes projectile upwards and increases score. Alien row is shielded and appears as an "S" after being hit until another alien row is hit. Thanks, Dave SpaceBattlesBeta3rrr.zip

Good start! I agree with the feedback so far - especially about bombs appearing out of nowhere, and having a specific enemy when you hit it, rather than just one out of the group. Although I think the color-change of the missiles could be used as a gameplay element. For example - have them all start out as white objects, but they wouldn't reveal their true selves until they got close to the bottom of the screen (where the bottom row of enemies is, for example). Perhaps that could be saved for a higher level of difficulty. Or maybe the more your shields get damaged, the closer the missiles get before you can "detect" what they truly are. 984941[/snapback] Hi again, I've done a bit more coding on my first attempt and additional feedback is always helpful. Changes: Title screen has animated drop down title with flashing colors. Alien drop down animation at beginning of level. Correct alien in group flashes and then dies when shot. Alien projectile drops from lowest row of surviving aliens. True identity of alien projectile is not revealed until bottom band. Color matched alien projectile transforms into either a double width green fuel pod or a single width red bomb. Dropping bomb makes a bomb dropping sound. Three alien speeds per level slow, stepping, fast. Four different enemy patterns as level increases. Fuel gauge with low fuel warning sound and FUEL LEVEL warning message. CATCH FUEL message synchronized with fuel pod drop. Bomb/Fuel pod impact sound and ground flash for bombs. Missile and Alien projectile collision pushes projectile upwards and increases score. Alien row is shielded and appears as an "S" after being hit until another alien row is hit. Thanks, Dave SpaceBattlesBeta3rr.bin

Thanks for the detailed comments, they are very helpful. My son said the same thing about the enemy fire appearing out of nowhere. I'll work on improving the code for bomb drops. Maybe some animation on the title screen? - Dave

Hi, Thanks for the comments and encouraging words. I'll work on the bomb dropping code and difficulty ramping - Dave

I'll work on that ... it would look much better. Yeah, they kinda irk me too. I'll work on that also. Thanks for the feedback! - Dave

Hi, My name is Dave and after reading the tutorials here and looking at code samples I have coded my first game. It's a simple rail shooter with 18 enemies. I have three game options Normal Play, Steerable Missiles and No Shields. Shields are available in options 1 and 2 by pushing up on the joystick. The shields can take a limited number of hits before heating up and exploding your ship. There is a limited fuel supply for each level, but it can be partially replenished by catching the white bombs from the enemies. Red enemy bombs cause your ship to explode, unless your shields are up. Each completed level increases you available ships by 1 to a maximum of 6. The enemy speed increases every level, but resets to default speed after every 6 levels. When you fire and hit an enemy convoy it explodes, the survivors spin and cannot be damaged again until you hit a different enemy. Any feedback is appreciated Thanks, Dave SpaceBattlesFinal2.zip