espire8

Here are a couple of updated sprite designs and color revisions.

Edit and emphasis added. By the way Harvy, don't forget the following: Harvey (and I know you are reading this), this is not a true statement. About half of the limited edition copies were pre-orders, and the rest were sold when I added the game to the store recently. Also, part of the description for your auction was lifted verbatim from the entry in our store: http://www.atariage.com/store/index.php?ma...products_id=334 I suggest you either credit the source or remove this text from your auction. ..Al The "no sale" serves you right, as you did'nt follow up.

I'll have something done over the weekend, -just thought I wait out a couple of days in case anyone else had a last minute design to submit.

It's a paddle game for up to 4 players, a hack of Eggomania to be exact. If you use the stella emulator, you can set up the paddle control but only while the game is running. It's a one time set up, so when you're there, press the [Tab] key on your keyboard to open an onscreen menu. Next, select >[Game Properties] and a second menu appears. Click on the [Controller] tab and a menu for both left and right controller appears with joystick already set as the default. Click on [joystick] to open the drop-down and select >[paddle] for both controller ports then click the [OK] button and close the menu with [Exit Menu] button. Finaly, you'll need to reload the rom to activate the new control setting just this one time and then you can control the cannon with your mouse for that particular game every time you boot!

Thanks. I figure since the fireballs in the early stages are very easy, I'd like to start it at 1 point each and simply double it's value with every next stage. The big points in the early stages are for shooting the dragon "carnival style" and to miss that 1000 pts bonus would make it harder to catch up to another player who already has. So in the begining of the game -it would be important to hit the dragon every time to get a high score. Eventualy the fireballs will earn you more, alot more points than the dragon once you get to the faster stages and rack up really big points if you can last that long. In other news - here's a different number for the in-game music Popcorn.mp3by kjmann. I think it would fit in great. Just thought I'd share to hear what other's think of it.

Well, one can still be hopeful. The final design has not been settled yet, I think. So maybe it's still open to some cosmetic design alterations? My vote goes to D-pad right, Button left.

I see you already fixed the tanks getting stuck at the bottom of my mazes in your latest bin post -but the tanks still do get stuck at the top of some of em'. Since I'm gonna have to make some design alteration there, I may as well try to make some more new designs to fill up what space you have left. I know the wait has been long for you. I hope I can think of something that will work right this time around.

Using your right hand for the fire button is more important when you have more than one button. With just one button, your left thumb is more than adequate, and gives you greater control over movement by using your right thumb on the D-pad. Good piont. I must agree with you on that. I problably would'nt have figured until I were actualy playing with my very single-button trigger finger.

Actually I ended up buying more keys, so even the copies without a box will still get a key. The only differences are the box and the limited edition sticker on the back for the initial 250 boxed copies. Oh, that's good news then. I thought otherwise because there was not a key shown in the store photos. At least there's now less reason to buy from ebay just for the key. And I seriously doubt anyone will pay $90 plus just to have the box. Maybe I should print up more empty ADV II boxes and sell them at $40 each... NOT!

The "bent" manual is normal. It's just a bit of curl on the corners, which is a result of the heavy toner on the glossy paper and the very high temperatures inside the printer to fuse the toner to the paper. ..Al I was just curious and followed the link. Seems that harvey's bargains has been reading this thread. He dropped his price to $89.95 and reiterated Al's explanation of the curled maual in his auction. Obviously he don't want anybody to know who he is, being the original purchaser of that particular numbered LE at $50 just to resell. Goes to show how these scalpers know who they are ripping off from who and that they will become an instant bad rep to the AA community if we found out who they were. For reselling 1 or 2 copies at double the price? No one's gonna get rich like that -and it's not worth losing one's self-respect over that either. It all boils down to selfishness. Besides, the unboxed is much cheaper to buy from the AA store. I mean, it's nice that Al wanted to do something special, especialy for those who pre-paid and were very paitent, it's more for them really; but scalping is inevitable and I'm glad Al put a limit on the sales or alot of us who waited for the release first would have had to put extra money where it don't belong, just to own at least one boxed version (not that I would, but i'm glad I picked up mine). Sure, alot of people missed the boat but why would anyone pay double the amount just to have a box and key? It's like paying a ransome to a theif and nobody should support them by paying the extra demand as if were a hostage. I hope nobody breaks down and picks it up. And if that's so, he should hopfully relist it for the same amount he paid to start with --if he needed the money, and let the bidders decide what it's worth. Trying just to cash in with an extreamly high BIN is just bait to snare a BIN sucker who don't know better. Sad.

Not secton Z? I'll have to check for Burai Fighter then as I never played that. I was just guessing because the game depicts a person floating in a maze of hangers. It's a long time ago so I don't remember much any more but that's what came to mind when I saw the Burai art. Thanks for correcting me though!

I don't remember hybris but Wow! ..and that's just title screen music? It sounds good enough for a space shooter in-game music as well! -at least to me. Great job!

Cool! I like the size comparison with the adventure cart! No cart slot means downloadable roms on the go, ..neat!

Wow. Very nice pieces! My favorite is the Section Z artwork; it reminds me of Marvel's THOR comicbook where he battles against the giant World Serpent FingFamFoom. I believe the cover and inside artwork was done by Walter Simonson if I remember right; I don't recall which issue it was as it were a while back but the whole book was done in splash pages! Okay, back to the NES art --I also like the one with the airplanes and carrier. Looks like Capcom's 1942. Love it! There are also two pics that are very tiny though and I can bearly make them out; one looks like Magic Sword? -Maybe you can enlarge them?

Sorry everyone. It looks like I must redo most of my playfields. After play testing the latest demo I realize the tank can't move through the narrow edges at the top and bottom parts of the screen in most of my designs; and the tank can get stuck when trying. I'll look at them again later and see what changes I need to make.

Oh. My mistake, I understand now. Iwas just under the impression that the last #8 had been the cutoff and what remained was 9 and 10 and that you had not a single copy left for yourself. Guess it has to be you Ron. Glad to hear evrybody involved got their copy after all. So, 6 people with #8 being the last one sent to the public leaves the lucky #7 unaccounted for. Hmm... must be that one of six in the crew have two low-numbered copies! Anyway, congrats to the entire team for the successful run!

Nice looking screen shot. I can't seem to download your bin demo though. all I get is text garbage. anyway to fix that? I always loved adventure myself and I remember your CYOA program way back, that helped me alot! would gladly contribute what I can for you here. Let me know if you need any sprite artwork when you get to it, that's my specialty.

I made an error when I put the Limited Edition version of the game in the store and added 10 copies too many (forgetting that I had reserved copies 1 - 10 for those who worked on the game). I had intended to have 10 extra copies of the Limited Edition (numbers 241-250), but because of my error had to use every single last number and now I do not have a SINGLE extra copy. You received the last numbered copy, #8. Enjoy! ..Al Are you for real? You mean those 10 copies that where suppose to go to the production team had to shiped to others besides? That is hurt. Here's an idea. Why not produce 10 special copies that are specificaly not for sale but made especialy for the "production crew" with an alternate label like with a diffetrent color on the title for example to make it distinct from the LE? Perhaps a different label color scheme? or even a totally different look. Heh, let anyone try to sell those copies as they will be very personal ones indeed!

Man! If someone want to sell their copy of AdvII on ebay they should start the bid at $50 to begin with. Let the person buying decide what it's worth! Yeah, immediate payment required in case someone else list another copy for much less. I think I'll puke if someone BIN's it at double the cost it right away. If he pulls this one off, we'll definately see more pop up soon at even higher mark ups. Oh well, buissness is buissness I suppose.

There is no need to worry about the discussion with Samurai. I've already spoken to him in private email. There is no problem. the misunderstanding was worked out between the two of us. it's all good. =) I'm sure glad to hear that. Guess I misunderstood him (samurai) myself as well. I really don't know much about RMT music but I kind'a got upset when I could'nt download anything from the site after recently finding it before all this happened. Anyway, I'm glad things are checking in well now and my apology to samurai for my angry words from earlier in this thread. Thanks kjmann.

Thanks for the thought Impaler. I too am in hope of seeing the changes you mentioned. Changing the scoring is a great idea, I always thought the set 100 point award for hitting the dragon is kind'a low as compared to the max of 50 points for each fireball catch in level 10 (that level is hard to reach but I like it like that, keeps me coming back ). Here's the original score chart in eggomania and changes i'd like to see below. ___________________________________________________ Level....# of fireballs....dragon speed....points per catch -1-...............- 20 -..............- slow -................- 1 point- -2-...............- 40 -..............- slow -................- 2 points- -3-...............- 60 -..............- slow -................- 4 points- -4-...............- 40 -..............- med -.................- 8 points- -5-...............- 80 -..............- med -................- 16 points- -6-...............- 60 -..............- fast -.................- 32 points- -7-...............- 80 -..............- fast -.................- 64 points- -8-...............- 80 -..............- faster -..............- 128 points- -9-...............- 80- ..............- fastest -............- 256 points- -10-.............- 80 -..............- mania -..............- 512 points- 1000 points for shooting the dragon. ______________________________________________ The only sound effects I find are the egg slpattering sound when they're catched and the whooshing when fired and hitting it's target. Unless I'm mistaken, I think tweaking the sound and altering the scoring should'nt cost any memory if it's just a matter of changing the values in the exsisting code? I'd like to hear a loud explosion sound the moment the dragon is hit! I doubt I can make these changes myself, looking at the assembly I don't even know where start. And the bit hacker tool can only do so much unfortunately. I'll just have to wait and see if someone who can will pick up on this one. In the meantime, what are your thoughts? Spice, Nukey or anyone who's ever played and enjoyed eggomaina say of the new score table idea?

The 7800 would probably have a better time trying to play a game while doing music than would the 2600, but coding for simultaneous music/gameplay would be a severe nuisance on either system. A SuperChip cart might barely be able to manage musical Combat on a 2600; the 7800 could probably handle simple games with reasonable graphics. In any case, it would be necessary to rewrite the games from scratch. I see. Okay. How about music only in the title screen of exsisting 2600 games like E.T. I ask this because I have been working on a hack of that game and I'd like to replace the E.T. theme music with the extact same music you have in this thread. or at least anything similar? Is that a possibility? I know what you're thinking. Is an ET hack even worhty of such? Let me assure you this hack I've worked on, though not yet finished, don't even look like it ever was an ET game after all the graphic changes I did to it. Sprites, playfeilds, backgrounds, and colors are all different. This is a high quality hack like no other of the same game, almost a complete transformation on the visuals. It's just that ET music gotta go and that's what's preventing me from publicly posting it. It's sort of under wraps until I'm ready to unvail it.

Fair enough. Fun while it lasted! It's a bummer I did'nt get to hear all your most recent music samples when I had the chance last nite, but I was quite impressed with the earlier stuff I heard like the 'elephant walk' which is my favorite. Perhaps your list of unfinished songs will be completed by the time if you decide to put your music back up again.

Man, I'm sorry to hear that Kjmann . I just visited your site yesterday and I liked it and was going to bookmark it because of the awesome links you had posted there. Then again, I don't blame you. I would'nt take threats like that ligthtly either if it were my own work I were sharing. Thanks alot samurai for spoiling this thread with your stupid comment. What a ding head.

This is very interesting supercat. Not alot of games have good music. Maybe some of the older 2600 games that people still enjoy can be hacked and expanded to add some nice music to them.