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Cave-In (PAL50/60 versions available)


Atarius Maximus

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What concerns me more now is the fact that I'm adding lots more code to the main loop, and I'm really close to the limit on cycles. If I run the latest version I just posted with 'set debug cycles', the screen is almost constantly flashing. Not good. :(

 

I remember batari saying that changing if-thens to use data statements could save time, but I've never used them in that manner. Could you give me a quick example of how I might do that? I've got lots of if-then statements in the main loop, as I'm always checking to see if you're in a specific room to make gameplay adjustments.

I can look through your code to see if I can find any possible places to tighten things up, but I probably won't be able to look at it in detail this weekend-- it will most likely be next week at the earliest.

 

Michael

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What concerns me more now is the fact that I'm adding lots more code to the main loop, and I'm really close to the limit on cycles. If I run the latest version I just posted with 'set debug cycles', the screen is almost constantly flashing. Not good. :(

 

I remember batari saying that changing if-thens to use data statements could save time, but I've never used them in that manner. Could you give me a quick example of how I might do that? I've got lots of if-then statements in the main loop, as I'm always checking to see if you're in a specific room to make gameplay adjustments.

I can look through your code to see if I can find any possible places to tighten things up, but I probably won't be able to look at it in detail this weekend-- it will most likely be next week at the earliest.

 

Michael

 

Thank you very much for offering, any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated. I'm going to continue to try and clean things up as well. I've already converted some sections of the code to asm, and I'm going to do a little more trial and error testing with some of batari's cycle-saving suggestions.

 

Steve

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Hi Steve

Your game gets better with every new version.Really nice :lust: .At weekend,i will test it for a longer time.

i will let you know,if i have some suggestions or if i finf some bugs.

What options do i need to play it on my 7800 Cuttle cart 2???? Because i would like to play on real hardware.

greetings Walter

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Hi Steve

Your game gets better with every new version.Really nice :lust: .At weekend,i will test it for a longer time.

i will let you know,if i have some suggestions or if i finf some bugs.

What options do i need to play it on my 7800 Cuttle cart 2???? Because i would like to play on real hardware.

greetings Walter

 

Use F4SC / 78BIOS on the Cuttle Cart 2.

 

Steve

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I've been working on the boss monster idea, though, and I have something working now. In the last room of the fourth castle, where you are supposed to take the three crown pieces you've collected, there is now a 'boss' fight. The boss is just a double sized copy of the player sprite, I will probably change it (want to help out again, espire8? ;) ). I had to make a whole new game loop in a different bank to pull this off, so there should be plenty of ROM space and machine cycles to add a few more things to this screen. I was able to animate the boss because of the separate loop... Any other suggestions?

There's not much I can create for the boss sprite as it's not very tall for I imagined a huge cobra. But right now, here is a giant spider, the boss fight is a very good idea.

I hacked the cheat so you can see the boss right away.

post-7623-1187064199_thumb.png

adv115boss.bin

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I've been working on the boss monster idea, though, and I have something working now. In the last room of the fourth castle, where you are supposed to take the three crown pieces you've collected, there is now a 'boss' fight. The boss is just a double sized copy of the player sprite, I will probably change it (want to help out again, espire8? ;) ). I had to make a whole new game loop in a different bank to pull this off, so there should be plenty of ROM space and machine cycles to add a few more things to this screen. I was able to animate the boss because of the separate loop... Any other suggestions?

There's not much I can create for the boss sprite as it's not very tall for I imagined a huge cobra. But right now, here is a giant spider, the boss fight is a very good idea.

I hacked the cheat so you can see the boss right away.

post-7623-1187064199_thumb.png

adv115boss.bin

 

Very Nice! I know you're hacking the binary, so you're limited to the height that I created the original sprite. I could make the sprite much taller (and twice as wide too), that would be easy to do. If you've got a huge cobra in mind, that could definitely be done! :) I don't have time to make that change tonight, but I'll work on it tomorrow morning.

 

Thanks espire8! Your help is greatly appreciated.

 

Steve

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Hi Steve

Plays really very well on real hardware :) .But i found a little bug.Sometimes,when i kill a monster and it drops some item(here medical pac),the item is dropped at a position,where i cannot reach it.

greetings Walter

 

Hi Walter,

 

This revision fixes that bug. The health pack will now be dropped at the same location that the enemy was killed. If it appears on top of the playfield, it will automatically move until it is out in the open.

 

I've also changed the starting location of the enemy when you enter a new room, it used to be based on the most recent location of the enemy from the room you just left, now the stating location will always be near the middle of the room.

 

Steve

adv119source.txt

adv119.bin

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I've been working on the boss monster idea, though, and I have something working now. In the last room of the fourth castle, where you are supposed to take the three crown pieces you've collected, there is now a 'boss' fight. The boss is just a double sized copy of the player sprite, I will probably change it (want to help out again, espire8? ;) ). I had to make a whole new game loop in a different bank to pull this off, so there should be plenty of ROM space and machine cycles to add a few more things to this screen. I was able to animate the boss because of the separate loop... Any other suggestions?

There's not much I can create for the boss sprite as it's not very tall for I imagined a huge cobra. But right now, here is a giant spider, the boss fight is a very good idea.

I hacked the cheat so you can see the boss right away.

post-7623-1187064199_thumb.png

adv115boss.bin

Hi

Nice boss :)

I think a giant spider is better than a cobra.There are enough snakes in the game.Or how about a dragon as boss fight????

greetings Walter

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Hi Steve

Really great,your actual version.Maybe i have some(silly????? :? )ideas for the game.

How about some mines in the game?If you touch them,you are dead?????

Or how about some dynamite sticks,which you can use at several places????

If you have a good sprite maker for me(and i need the size of the sprites),i could try to make some for you.

Cave in might become the best game 2007 for the 2600.

greetings Walter

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How about some mines in the game?If you touch them,you are dead?????

Sure! See the attached binary. :cool: I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep them in the final version though, as it just adds more to the timing problems I'm having. Start killing some enemies, and eventually you'll see some 'instant death' mines appear on the screen. :evil:

 

Or how about some dynamite sticks,which you can use at several places????

Adding dynamite sticks and having something that you can actually blow up with them would be a major change. Not sure that would be possible to add, but I'll keep it in mind.

 

If you have a good sprite maker for me(and i need the size of the sprites),i could try to make some for you.

Thanks for the offer, but I think I'm just about done with creating new sprites for this game.

 

EDIT: This is just a quick test binary to show the mines. It's not implemented perfectly - If you happen to be standing where a mine appears when you kill an enemy, you'll be instantly killed for no apparent reason. If I add this feature, it would take a little more tweaking.

 

Steve

adv120.bin

Edited by Atarius Maximus
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How about some mines in the game?If you touch them,you are dead?????

Sure! See the attached binary. :cool: I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep them in the final version though, as it just adds more to the timing problems I'm having. Start killing some enemies, and eventually you'll see some 'instant death' mines appear on the screen. :evil:

I had invisible mines in the "Reventure" game I started (and never finished) a few years ago-- one mine per dungeon level. I think it's a good idea, when adding any sort of challenge or obstacle into a game, to always have some way for the player to deal with it. For example, if you have a certain kind of trap, then you should have some way to disarm that particular kind of trap, or to otherwise circumvent it. Or if you meet up with a new and even tougher enemy than the ones you've been dealing with, then you need a special weapon or fighting technique or spell or whatnot to help you deal with it. And it might be something as simple as merely needing to acquire more points in some kind of ability, or being able to level-up so that your attacks do greater damage, etc. But the special ability/item/spell/whatnot doesn't need to come right away, it might even be better if you have to face a few instances of the trap/enemy/etc. on your own before you gain the ability to nullify/circumvent it, etc. Anyway, in "Reventure" I had a little eye, called the "mine's eye" (a bad pun on "mind's eye"), that would let you see the otherwise-invisible mines. So if you're going to have invisible/hidden mines in the game, then I think you need (1) some kind of spell or item or ability that lets you see the mines so you can avoid them, or (2) some kind of spell or item or ability that lets you defuse mines, or (3) something that lets you lessen the damage done by the mines-- like a shield spell, or special armor, or just increasing your hit points as you level up so you can take more hits before you get killed, etc.-- or (4) a way to heal yourself after having a mine blow up. Otherwise, it could become just too frustrating for a player to be running around but *boom* they keep getting killed out of the blue and there's nothing at all they can do about it.

 

Michael

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Very Nice! I know you're hacking the binary, so you're limited to the height that I created the original sprite. I could make the sprite much taller (and twice as wide too), that would be easy to do. If you've got a huge cobra in mind, that could definitely be done!
I just finished the boss in this binary cheat for a quick preveiw. It's 27 pixels high but at the moment I have only 22 lines to work with so the image is shaved off from the bottom by 5 lines but you can see most of it. I'll finish a complete version if you like what you see and you can add the extra lines it needs. adv118mboss_2_.bin

 

 

Hi

Nice boss :)

I think a giant spider is better than a cobra.There are enough snakes in the game.Or how about a dragon as boss fight????

greetings Walter

I figured because Indy hates snakes that a giant cobra boss be fitting, but I feel you're right about overdoing the snakes so I did your dragon suggestion. I did a similar boss in another hack called SuperZaxxon DX and used it as a starting point. Of course, for Cave In there's only a single color but I added more detail and the animation makes up for it.

post-7623-1187143468.gif

post-7623-1187143875_thumb.png

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Very Nice! I know you're hacking the binary, so you're limited to the height that I created the original sprite. I could make the sprite much taller (and twice as wide too), that would be easy to do. If you've got a huge cobra in mind, that could definitely be done!
I just finished the boss in this binary cheat for a quick preveiw. It's 27 pixels high but at the moment I have only 22 lines to work with so the image is shaved off from the bottom by 5 lines but you can see most of it. I'll finish a complete version if you like what you see and you can add the extra lines it needs. adv118mboss_2_.bin

 

 

Hi

Nice boss :)

I think a giant spider is better than a cobra.There are enough snakes in the game.Or how about a dragon as boss fight????

greetings Walter

I figured because Indy hates snakes that a giant cobra boss be fitting, but I feel you're right about overdoing the snakes so I did your dragon suggestion. I did a similar boss in another hack called SuperZaxxon DX and used it as a starting point. Of course, for Cave In there's only a single color but I added more detail and the animation makes up for it.

post-7623-1187143468.gif

post-7623-1187143875_thumb.png

 

I just sent you a PM with a modified 27 line sprite in the binary. I like the dragon, but if you feel like exercising your artistic talents a little more and showing what you could do with a Cobra too, that would be cool. The overuse of the snake sprite in the game is something I could easily change. I agree that a snake at the end of the game would be fitting for Indiana Jones. :)

 

Steve

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How about some mines in the game?If you touch them,you are dead?????

Sure! See the attached binary. :cool: I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep them in the final version though, as it just adds more to the timing problems I'm having. Start killing some enemies, and eventually you'll see some 'instant death' mines appear on the screen. :evil:

I had invisible mines in the "Reventure" game I started (and never finished) a few years ago-- one mine per dungeon level. I think it's a good idea, when adding any sort of challenge or obstacle into a game, to always have some way for the player to deal with it. For example, if you have a certain kind of trap, then you should have some way to disarm that particular kind of trap, or to otherwise circumvent it. Or if you meet up with a new and even tougher enemy than the ones you've been dealing with, then you need a special weapon or fighting technique or spell or whatnot to help you deal with it. And it might be something as simple as merely needing to acquire more points in some kind of ability, or being able to level-up so that your attacks do greater damage, etc. But the special ability/item/spell/whatnot doesn't need to come right away, it might even be better if you have to face a few instances of the trap/enemy/etc. on your own before you gain the ability to nullify/circumvent it, etc. Anyway, in "Reventure" I had a little eye, called the "mine's eye" (a bad pun on "mind's eye"), that would let you see the otherwise-invisible mines. So if you're going to have invisible/hidden mines in the game, then I think you need (1) some kind of spell or item or ability that lets you see the mines so you can avoid them, or (2) some kind of spell or item or ability that lets you defuse mines, or (3) something that lets you lessen the damage done by the mines-- like a shield spell, or special armor, or just increasing your hit points as you level up so you can take more hits before you get killed, etc.-- or (4) a way to heal yourself after having a mine blow up. Otherwise, it could become just too frustrating for a player to be running around but *boom* they keep getting killed out of the blue and there's nothing at all they can do about it.

 

Michael

 

I agree with everything you said, actually adding the mines to the game would require much more than I added to that test binary I posted - I added that change in about 5 minutes and didn't put much thought into it. I'm pretty sure I won't be able to include that feature (and all of the other gameplay additions that would go along with that feature) because of ROM space and timing issues. I'm still working on that. ;) I'll probably be posting fewer updates in the next few weeks as I'm spending more time just trying to fix the code rather than add features. Do you think this game has enough game objectives and challenge as is, or does it need much more?

 

One bit of good news to share - Albert does seem interested in selling this on a cart when it's complete. :D

 

Steve

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I just sent you a PM with a modified 27 line sprite in the binary. I like the dragon, but if you feel like exercising your artistic talents a little more and showing what you could do with a Cobra too, that would be cool. The overuse of the snake sprite in the game is something I could easily change. I agree that a snake at the end of the game would be fitting for Indiana Jones. :)

 

Steve

Cool! I'll have a cobra design posted when I get back from work tonight. Shuold be an easy swap. ;)
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Hi Steve

you wrote:Do you think this game has enough game objectives and challenge as is, or does it need much more?

 

I can say "Yes" :lust: .The game is really good as it is.It has a big maze,enough features and it makes fun to play it.

If Albert will take it in the AAstore,i will buy a copy for sure.The only thing,i would change,is more colour for the sprites.But because i cannot program,i do not know,if this is possible.I also have some suggestions,but i am not sure,if everything can be realized :? .

Maybe it would be nice,if you can find a store or a trader in the game.This means,if you find(maybe a coin),you can buy another item(maybe a better weapon or a key)or you could trade this coin with a monster against another item?????This is only a suggestion.I do not know,if there is space enough to realize this.

Or how about a little action sequence???Maybe an extra maze,which you must solve in a time(timer)and prevent radioactive walls????Or something like the small games in SWORDQUEST????

I have so many ideas,but i am not sure,if there is enough space.

But at the moment i can say.

YOUR GAME IS GREAT as it is.Better than Swordquest and even better than Adventure.And maybe better

than my prefered Adventure game "RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARC"

I hope you keep on the good work and "CAVE IN"will be released soon.( :( Because Palladin;another promising game was cancelled).And if you need someone,who should play the BETATESTER,let me know.

greetings Walter

Edited by gambler172
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Maybe I just got lucky, but this was much easier to figure out than I was anticipating. This revision now has up/down and diagonal shots. It adds a whole new dynamic to the game, it may make it a bit too easy to kill the enemies now.

 

If you're standing still, you can only fire in the direction you're facing. In order to fire diagonally or up & down, you'll have to be moving. I don't see any way around that.

What you'd have to do for the standing-still shots is have flags (bits of w, perhaps?) to save the last direction the man was moving in, and then check those flags instead of directly checking the joystick when processing the fire button. But the tricky part is setting those bit flags correctly, because you want to set them if the stick is being pushed in *any* of the eight possible directions, but you do *not* want to change the flags if the stick is no longer being pushed at all. If you can work out the logic for doing that, then checking those flags while processing the fire button should be a snap.

 

Michael

 

In this version, when you press the fire button standing still, the bullet will travel in the most recent direction you moved the joystick. The code for detecting this was put into vblank, and I also moved the cave gate entrance code down to vblank - both have helped with the timing issues. I should be able to figure out a few more things to move into that area as well. Everything's going pretty well with my testing - it's just taking a lot of time.

 

Steve

adv124.bin

adv124source.txt

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Hi Steve

The mines are great. :) .I would keep them in the game.It is a nice addition.

 

And Hi espire8

The Dragon is cool..... :lust:

 

But another question.Is it possible,that the sprites have more than one colour???

greetings Walter

Thanks.

More color isnt possible for the boss sprite unfortunatly because of the way the kernal is being used here, at least that's what i think Steve mentioned to me.

 

 

Hi Steve

 

YOUR GAME IS GREAT as it is.Better than Swordquest and even better than Adventure.And maybe better

than my prefered Adventure game "RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARC"

I hope you keep on the good work and "CAVE IN"will be released soon.( :( Because Palladin;another promising game was cancelled).And if you need someone,who should play the BETATESTER,let me know.

greetings Walter

Yes, it's too bad about paladin. I had alot of my best sprite designs in that game too, so that was a major bummer for me. I'd finish it myself with s0c7's permission if I knew how to program but I've no time to learn.

 

 

Hi Steve

You wrote: I agree that a snake at the end of the game would be fitting for Indiana Jones.

 

This would be ok too,if there would be less snakes in the game.Maybe you could add some little dragons too.

greetings Walter

Replacing a snake with a little dragon is possible, but that's up to Steve - so the game can progress as he envisions it.

 

 

And now, the boss cobra in the binary cheat mode:advCIcobra.bin

 

...a gif sample and the individual frames:

post-7623-1187320957.gif

post-7623-1187320998.png

 

As for the color, anything other than grey? :D

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Hi Steve

The mines are great. :) .I would keep them in the game.It is a nice addition.

 

And Hi espire8

The Dragon is cool..... :lust:

 

But another question.Is it possible,that the sprites have more than one colour???

greetings Walter

Thanks.

More color isnt possible for the boss sprite unfortunatly because of the way the kernal is being used here, at least that's what i think Steve mentioned to me.

 

 

Hi Steve

 

YOUR GAME IS GREAT as it is.Better than Swordquest and even better than Adventure.And maybe better

than my prefered Adventure game "RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARC"

I hope you keep on the good work and "CAVE IN"will be released soon.( :( Because Palladin;another promising game was cancelled).And if you need someone,who should play the BETATESTER,let me know.

greetings Walter

Yes, it's too bad about paladin. I had alot of my best sprite designs in that game too, so that was a major bummer for me. I'd finish it myself with s0c7's permission if I knew how to program but I've no time to learn.

 

 

Hi Steve

You wrote: I agree that a snake at the end of the game would be fitting for Indiana Jones.

 

This would be ok too,if there would be less snakes in the game.Maybe you could add some little dragons too.

greetings Walter

Replacing a snake with a little dragon is possible, but that's up to Steve - so the game can progress as he envisions it.

 

 

And now, the boss cobra in the binary cheat mode:advCIcobra.bin

 

...a gif sample and the individual frames:

post-7623-1187320957.gif

post-7623-1187320998.png

 

As for the color, anything other than grey? :D

 

Looks great espire8! I'll probably go with the Cobra for the final version, I really like that. And yes, I can change the color to something other than gray. :) I'll need some time to transfer your sprite animation to my source code, I haven't done that yet.

 

I've just about finished up on my cycle-saving code cleanup. Nothing major really changed in this version, however now the game never exceeds the maximum cycle count. :cool: I moved quite a bit of stuff to vblank, which seems to have solved all of my timing problems. Now I should have a little breathing room to add in a few more features that I've been thinking about. The one change was the death sequence - Now when you die you'll stay on the same screen (no more cave in animation) and collapse and die in the spot where you ran out of health. The Game Title and "Game Over" will then display on the screen. The playfield animation was causing problems for me after all of the code was added to vblank.

 

Is there anyone that's pretty good with music that might want to help out? I've tried it before - I spent many hours working on the title song to the 'Jumper' game I created, and the result was, well, not that great. It would be possible to add a title screen song or even a simple song that plays in the background during the game, but I just don't think I can do that myself. I'm including the source and binary to the song I'd like to use in the game...it was created with sid2tia. All of the code for the on-screen graphics would have to be removed from it, and I would really need to squeeze it into much less space, it's of course a 4k binary as is. I've tried modifying it and using myself to no avail. Any experienced ASM coders want to assist with that? :) It would make a great title screen or in-game song.

 

This version has not been tested on real hardware, but it should be the most compatible version I've posted to date. Running in debug mode, I haven't seen any screen flashing at all. The only potential problem would be if I'm using too many cycles in vblank (which I'd have to test on real hardware) but I don't think that's going to be an issue.

 

I'm going to be out of town for the weekend and I've got a really busy week at work next week, so I may not be able to get back to this for 7-10 days.

 

Steve

adv128source.txt

adv128.bin

song.txt

song.bin

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I think the cobra is the better choice myself. I was'nt sure how it would turn out at first because I had no starting point as I had with the dragon, especialy with the animation but it pulled off well. Drawing and animating are two different skills and I'm glad I was here for this. :)

 

Btw, just an idea. Maybe you can have two boss fights in different areas on the map (one easy and the other hard) using the same cobra sprite each in a diffrerent color, making the hard one move faster as you have done with some of the normal cave critters and perhaps in a different type room. I don't know if you have space left for that but it would cool to fight a huge boss twice!

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