Colecovision WIP: Frog Feast

[Mark2008]

/* Edit (December 16):

scroll to my last post with an attachment, to get the most recent ROM

most recent ROM is playable...but not the release candidate

that will be ready about December 23rd*/

 

Porting the rastorsoft game Frog Feast to Colecovision. The author has generously granted permission for someone to do a port, even for commerical purposes, and even to enhance and expand the game from its original vision.

 

This is a slight delay to Pacific Fleet, but not by much....still going to work on PF by the christmas break, and I'll try to finish it up in January (which is subject to also being bumped).

 

Frog Feast is open source, so I am able to do the port, hopefully without too much fuss.

The gameloop, sprites, polling of hardware...its all quite familiar already.

 

He doesn't comment code as much as I'd like, but he's sure made it 'portable'...as is obvious both from his coding style, extensive use of DEFINES and from the fact that he personally ported it to about 10 systems, so one would expect he wrote it that way.

 

After the port is done, I may add things to the game...make it deeper.

 

Screen shot iof it running in a Colecovision emulator attached, its partially ported already. I hope to finish the port on the weekend.

Edited December 17, 2007 by Mark2008

[+5-11under]

Sounds interesting!

 

Good luck,

5-11under

[Bill Loguidice]

Even though Frog Feast is not a technical achievement in and of itself (meaning particularly pushing any system it's on), I LOVE the idea of it being ported to every system possible, which IS an achievement (and something I've always personally dreamed of accomplishing - at least in BASIC). Good to see the ColecoVision in the mix, as the game should be on more "true" classic platforms. Good luck!

[Pixelboy]

So if this port gets completed as planned, I assume it will be released in cartridge format? That would be cool.

[ScottHuggins]

So, Mark2008, this is a "port" and not a "translation"? Just curious which Z80 machine it is you are "porting' it from?

 

So if this port gets completed as planned, I assume it will be released in cartridge format? That would be cool.

[Mark2008]

So, Mark2008, this is a "port" and not a "translation"? Just curious which Z80 machine it is you are "porting' it from?

 

So if this port gets completed as planned, I assume it will be released in cartridge format? That would be cool.

 

I'll be honest, I may not understand the difference between the word "port" and "translation".

 

But I'm imagining that you are thinking about Assembler... his code is written in very portable C. Meaning, the vast majority of the code is not processor dependent so it wasn't a concern about finding a Z80 version. I downloaded the Sega C2 and Neo Geo Arcade versions.

 

I actually put all the Neo Geo code into my environment...that is not to say this was a real informed decision...it was more like, this looks good, lets start....

 

I'm not completely done yet, but its all going as planned...I really do mostly use his code, I have to make adjustments to the defines, because the screen resolution is different. Colecovision doesn't have the same tile system, so I can see all of his graphics and sound...I just have to load them up, and then convert them back, using the tools I got from Daniel Bienvenues download.

 

And what else...he will occasionally call some sprite function that we don't quite have the same, but its obvious enough he's setting some coordinates, so I write a quick function to do the same thing.

 

It's progressing as planned so far. I could potentially run into an issue or two....if I do run into any issue, I'll just hand code the solution...and we'll call it a partial port, I guess....but the guy really has a great coding style, and I feel very lucky to have found this as a mini project...its really exactly what I wanted, to get a finished game under my belt, while I wait for Pacific Fleet to come together...PF will take a bit longer, because of all the tweaking and experimenting, and the endless animations...I find them tedious, but also a requirement to be a competitive game.

[Mark2008]

Even though Frog Feast is not a technical achievement in and of itself (meaning particularly pushing any system it's on), I LOVE the idea of it being ported to every system possible, which IS an achievement (and something I've always personally dreamed of accomplishing - at least in BASIC). Good to see the ColecoVision in the mix, as the game should be on more "true" classic platforms. Good luck!

 

My thought on a Cartridge, is almost certainly. I am not into all the details of that yet, but my first thought is to offer it to AtariAge. According to the terms of his license, this seems perfectly OK. I don't know if AtariAge will first ask me to make the game deeper or not.

While it will be ported to the same standard of the other Frog Feast ports...I think Colecovision collectors expect more levels than the game currently has.

 

I'm thinking about adding to it...of course, if thats the case, then it will be delayed until after Pacific Fleet is finished.

 

If AtariAge passes, then I would offer it back to rastorsoft, without expanding it further, since it would fit right in line with the rest of his catalog.

 

So I assume, one way or the other, this will appear in Cartridge format.

[Cybergoth]

Can you possibly repost the screenshot as GIF?

[Mark2008]

Can you possibly repost the screenshot as GIF?

 

Sure I'm not on that computer now, but will do later.

[Mark2008]

Even though Frog Feast is not a technical achievement in and of itself (meaning particularly pushing any system it's on), I LOVE the idea of it being ported to every system possible, which IS an achievement (and something I've always personally dreamed of accomplishing - at least in BASIC). Good to see the ColecoVision in the mix, as the game should be on more "true" classic platforms. Good luck!

 

I think that guy at Rastorsoft, whose name I forget, is amazing too...he not only ported it to so many platforms, but he basically put up a guide for anyone else to follow...so to speak, by open sourcing most every platform...even giving details on how to compile it.

 

The only tech achievement I will achieve, is writing a sprite flickering driver. I noticed opcode games did the same thing on their pac man collection.....they probably did it better, but I will have to do my own. The great thing about this game, is the flies are supposed to be flapping and buzzing around, so the flicker there will absolutely seem like part of the animation. So I can do two flies, each fly having two colors...and I'm only using up 1 sprite on any given horizontal scan line at any given moment, for both two color flies...that part is cool....the flickering is totally unnoticeable.

 

But, the frogs are also both two colors and have a tongue component.... again, a bit of luck, they will never have to flicker on the ground, because the tongue never comes out on the ground and the flies aren't on the ground. But there will be some challenge to reducing flicker, when both frogs are at the same height, airborne, with flies, and tongues out.

 

I know what you are thinking DUH! That's what they call a classic two airborne frog tongue out challenge...comp sci 101

 

anyhow...I better get back to work...will talk later.

[Mark2008]

I was in my local k-mart today, and they had for $9.99 the joystick game Intellivision lives, and it had a game on it called Frog Bog.....that surely must be the inspiration for Frog Feast.

 

It was really interesting to read about it, the same guy who wrote the Exec for Intellivision wrote the Atari VCS version of this game, called Frogs and Flies.

 

I'll post later what he had to say...interesting because he was totally disparaging of the 2600...and its almost funny to read today.

 

It looks like too, that the Intv and Atari 2600 games had a bit more gameplay than this Frog Feast....but of course looked like total garbage, visually speaking....Frog Bog was a good game for Intellivision though...

 

Anyway....loggged in for the guy who wanted a screenie...this rom will allow you to take a screen shot...it's just a partial port....one frog moves a little bit....currently he still can walk on water....just some of the routines were implemented.

 

I'll post a much better rom of the game this weekend, if everything goes as planned.

result.zip

[Cybergoth]

Thanks!

[ScottHuggins]

Mark,

 

Well done so far! You probably know this, but the velocity seems to be static for how high the frog jumps each time (well, except for when you do the little hops). I like it... Frog Bog was a neat game on the INTV...one of the few I still like to play head-to-head with someone. Also, the CV is seriously lacking in head-to-head type games...so this would be a great one to pull out at a party! Keep it up!

[Mark2008]

Mark,

 

Well done so far! You probably know this, but the velocity seems to be static for how high the frog jumps each time (well, except for when you do the little hops). I like it... Frog Bog was a neat game on the INTV...one of the few I still like to play head-to-head with someone. Also, the CV is seriously lacking in head-to-head type games...so this would be a great one to pull out at a party! Keep it up!

 

I agree, the arc on it is kind of crazy...and on this latest version its even worse.

 

He doesn't calculate the arc, its in an array, and I don't know how he got the numbers, it doesn't mimic gravity thats for sure!

 

anyway, I am attaching another copy of the game.....its a playable demo...but certainly still has some things to do:

 

1. fix the high frog jump

2. put the score on the scoreboard (currrently its on the bottom of the screen).

3. optimize certain things that bog the animations down (original author has very clean looking code, but many of the loops are not necessary and just slowing things down).

4. put the sound back in.

5. splash animation

6. music on title screen

7. when going back to the title screen the 2nd time, keep scores on the score boards.

 

 

but anyway, in case I get busy and don't release another rom for a bit, wanted to release this...

 

It's already somewhat playable in both 1 player and 2 player.

 

 

To make it really good: to do:

 

add levels,

add better AI

have the lilipads float left to right in later levels.

maybe silly levels, like ring of fire in the middle....etc.

 

p.s. the tongue animation code is in there...but I did only put 1 frame of the animation (fully extended) in this version.

So...one gets all the slow down of the animation, without actually seeing it...lol...but anyway, another thing that needs to be done.

 

oh yes: more todo: fly 1 and fly 2 are not flapping wings right now, and are not 2 color yet.

: sprite flickering engine is not there yet...its rare that its needed, but...it will be done too, for those times when it is.

result.zip

Edited December 16, 2007 by Mark2008

[Mark2008]

from:

http://www.intellivisionlives.com/bluesky/...ri1.shtml#frogs

 

FUN FACT: David Rolfe was the programmer who had created the Intellivision operating system (the Exec) and three of its first games: Major League Baseball, Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack, and Checkers. Upon completing this game for the Atari 2600 (then known as the Atari VCS for Video Computer System), Dave wrote up these "instructions":

 

Basically, VCS Frogs and Flies is a stupid game directed at stupid kids who come from stupid families which are headed by slothful parents who were too ignorant and cheap to buy the Intellivision Master Component, so they bought the indescribably bad Atari VCS unit instead. Most Atari games are so moronic that, as the Atari commercials delight in pointing out, they can be mastered in a number of minutes by the family pooch.

-----------------------------------

 

David was obviously poking some fun, but what a laugh....twitch games still rule the roost on the VCS...

[hardhat]

Mark,

 

Well done so far! You probably know this, but the velocity seems to be static for how high the frog jumps each time (well, except for when you do the little hops). I like it... Frog Bog was a neat game on the INTV...one of the few I still like to play head-to-head with someone. Also, the CV is seriously lacking in head-to-head type games...so this would be a great one to pull out at a party! Keep it up!

 

I agree, the arc on it is kind of crazy...and on this latest version its even worse.

 

He doesn't calculate the arc, its in an array, and I don't know how he got the numbers, it doesn't mimic gravity thats for sure!

 

anyway, I am attaching another copy of the game.....its a playable demo...but certainly still has some things to do:

 

1. fix the high frog jump

2. put the score on the scoreboard (currrently its on the bottom of the screen).

3. optimize certain things that bog the animations down (original author has very clean looking code, but many of the loops are not necessary and just slowing things down).

4. put the sound back in.

5. splash animation

6. music on title screen

7. when going back to the title screen the 2nd time, keep scores on the score boards.

 

 

but anyway, in case I get busy and don't release another rom for a bit, wanted to release this...

 

It's already somewhat playable in both 1 player and 2 player.

 

 

To make it really good: to do:

 

add levels,

add better AI

have the lilipads float left to right in later levels.

maybe silly levels, like ring of fire in the middle....etc.

 

p.s. the tongue animation code is in there...but I did only put 1 frame of the animation (fully extended) in this version.

So...one gets all the slow down of the animation, without actually seeing it...lol...but anyway, another thing that needs to be done.

 

oh yes: more todo: fly 1 and fly 2 are not flapping wings right now, and are not 2 color yet.

: sprite flickering engine is not there yet...its rare that its needed, but...it will be done too, for those times when it is.

 

Definately progressing well. I look forward to the next build of Pacific Fleet too. Have you considered combined character and sprite animation for 2 colour flies or something? Helps deal with flicker at least.

[Mark2008]

Definately progressing well. I look forward to the next build of Pacific Fleet too. Have you considered combined character and sprite animation for 2 colour flies or something? Helps deal with flicker at least.

 

Thanks for the comments, I will definately do 2 color flies and that will be on this weekends update. I hope that this weekends update is the final demo too, being complete.

 

I haven't had a chance to talk with Albert yet, but I did talk with Charles Doty, the original author of Frog Feast. Very helpful guy and very supportive of this coming out on cartridge. He didn't mind at all if AtariAge does the cart, but if AtariAge passes, he can help get it published anyway....so I have high hopes this will be a cartridge game.

 

I plan at this time, to release the full regular version of Frog Feast as the demo....and the cartridge then will have 5 extra levels, that have never before been seen on any platform.

 

They are as follows:

 

1. One lillipad screen...you will jump into the water.

2. Floating lillipads --more likely to get soaked because you have to time the landing on moving lillipads.

3. Ring of Fire -- obstacle in the middle of the screen, jump through it.

4. Super Frogo-Land...a tip of the hat to MarioLand with some powerups and coins (still frog feast, but for fun, remove the flies, do some fun mario style graphics in their place)

5. Mortal Frogbat -- collide with the other frog, and the lower frog takes a bath

 

Same 5 levels repeat with a stronger AI opponent for total 10 levels in 1 player mode.

 

The final demo should be this weekend, the final cartridge will probably be limited by whatever time it takes to get the cartridge ready...not sure on the details.

 

thanks for the interest. I will go back to working on Pacific Fleet after this weekends Frog Feast demo.

Edited December 19, 2007 by Mark2008

[Mark2008]

Since I'm kind of using this as a blog...I will mention that I fixed the performance issues in Frog Feast.

 

Basically the original code I was porting from, was passing variables around. Charles later sent me the SNES version, which does not pass as many variables around...its already been optimized for that platform.

 

Close, but no cigar...I still needed to optimize further.

 

So....in the colecovision version, I basically have removed almost all passing of variables in any routine. I do use the an array struct....not the pointer syntax, but...to the compiler it is still a pointer.

 

So, by not passing variables and just using the structs directly...and by removing basically all loops except the game loop...that fixed the issues. In retrospect, the 'tonguing' routine the frog does was the real culprit...but it doesn't hurt to speed everything, as I will use spare cycles later to add to the game.

[Chaos89-dot-com]

Damn! I need to find me a Colecovision now.........

[Mark2008]

@Chaos89, thanks, I hope I can do the game justice.

 

@everyone

 

Do turn off the sound, especially if you are in Vcoleco, before playing this game.

 

The sound is the one major area, that is quite buggy.

 

If you are in BlueMSX, the sound seems to be tolerable, but not great....I do keep the sound on in BlueMSX...btw, the game looks better on that emulator too.

 

Except for the sound, this is the finish of the 'porting phase'.

 

The rest of the game will be when I add my custom additions to the game.

 

Well...I will fix the sound, and maybe there is a bug or two left in the AI that will come out, so the final demo release will be next week.

 

After that, no more demo's will be released...its just on to cartridge land, once the other levels are done.

 

And....let me be clear....I love criticism of the game, I want to be pushed, and to have the game at 'the next level'...not to coin a phrase :-)

 

so...wherever it really sucks, let me know....

frog.zip

[duncantoml]

Just got a chance to try this.

 

The start up sound is, well like finger nails on a chalk board.

 

Does the score top out at 99, roll, or go to triple digits?

 

So far I got 84 flies, but that made me wonder.

 

Looks very promising! In fact, please up me on the list for a cart of the game.

 

 

Tom

[Cybergoth]

...especially if you are in Vcoleco...

...If you are in BlueMSX, the sound seems to be tolerable...

 

You should try MESS or Meka if you haven't already

[Mark2008]

Just got a chance to try this.

 

The start up sound is, well like finger nails on a chalk board.

 

Does the score top out at 99, roll, or go to triple digits?

 

So far I got 84 flies, but that made me wonder.

 

Looks very promising! In fact, please up me on the list for a cart of the game.

 

 

Tom

 

LOL! Yes.... I knew the sound was bad, and for that reason, I quickly deleted the Frog jumping sound just before I uploaded the demo....not realizing that I had just created some, otherworldly ear piercing startup noise....

 

definatley a top priority to fix.

 

Score does top out at 99. In the original games AI, I got 99. But I have changed the AI to make the opponent frog less random in its movements. Now the AI was actually able to beat my kids a few times, though they rapidly came to beat it.

 

I would say getting 99 is still possible now, but would be a really good score... I intend to take this game a bit further with multiple levels...try to make it deeper.

Edited December 23, 2007 by Mark2008

[Murph74]

Just got a chance to try this.

 

The start up sound is, well like finger nails on a chalk board.

 

Does the score top out at 99, roll, or go to triple digits?

 

So far I got 84 flies, but that made me wonder.

 

Looks very promising! In fact, please up me on the list for a cart of the game.

 

 

Tom

 

LOL! Yes.... I knew the sound was bad, and for that reason, I quickly deleted the Frog jumping sound just before I uploaded the demo....not realizing that I had just created some, otherworldly ear piercing startup noise....

 

definatley a top priority to fix.

 

Score does top out at 99. In the original games AI, I got 99. But I have changed the AI to make the opponent frog less random in its movements. Now the AI was actually able to beat my kids a few times, though they rapidly came to beat it.

 

I would say getting 99 is still possible now, but would be a really good score... I intend to take this game a bit further with multiple levels...try to make it deeper.

 

Awesome work-- thanks for sharing it!

[Mark2008]

Everyone,

 

I'm forking Frog Feast down into 2 separate games.

 

Frog Feast (Open Source version).

 

This is complete, and the rom is attached to this message.

 

Frog Feast Deluxe (commercial version).

 

This will be available in March, April timeframe. It contains 4 additional levels of my own making, that are not part of the Rastorsoft Frog feast lineup, plus a few other additions.

 

As I'm releasing Frog Feast, Open Source...complete version (not demo) now....and as I will be releasing the Source as well (though Chris didn't require me too, i want to do it).....for those reasons, there will be no downloadable release of Frog Feast Deluxe... it will strictly be for cartridge.

 

Thanks everyone for the feedback...I have certainly enjoyed the experience a lot, and plan to continue.

frog.zip