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For the ColecoVision: Frantic


ScottHuggins

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Daniel (it's been a while!),

 

It's stalled. I added two new features (a power up and an in-game pause feature) and cleaned up some bugs back in May, but nothing since then. I will post a new binary this weekend.

 

As I was telling Joe and Pixelboy....something is missing from this, and I cannot figure out what.

 

Sometimes, when you back off (I backed off for 7 weeks) and then fire up a project again, you start to really appreciate it again for what it is. I didn't get that feeling with Frantic.

 

 

Hello again Scott,

 

I'm writing this message to put back at the top this thread and to ask you a question :

 

How this project is going? Any progress about selling this game soon?

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  • 3 months later...
  • 5 months later...

OK, I've tried this now too, and here's some feedback on my part:

- There are definitely some bugs in there. For instance, in some rooms, there are 2 laser cannons close to each other. If you shoot one of them, half of the other one also disappears, but the other half remains visible. Also, the collision detection seems to be somewhat sloppy since sometimes you get hit by a laser beam, but don't die.

- I also noticed a bug with scoring... I stood close to a power item, and some robot was continuously firing at the power item. The shots disappeared, and for each shot disappearing, I got awarded 125 points. I wonder what I get these points for.

- The scoring overall seems to be a bit illogical to me. I only get 100 points for a rescued prisoner, but 125 or 150 (can't remember exactly) for a killed robot? Normally, a human life should be worth more than a killed robot.

- It's sometimes possible to "shave off" part of the outer walls without dying (I think this is when you're on a power item), but if you go further outside, you die. This also looks a bit funny to me.

- The sounds sound too monotonous to me. Everything that gets killed by you goes down with exactly the same, overdone sound, be it a robot, a cannon or a cage where a prisoner was in. I think it would be better to use slightly simpler, but more different sounds.

- The laser beams also seem to be buggy. Sometimes part of a laser beam stays put in mid-air and doesn't ever disappear. Also, if you shoot a cannon that is just firing, the laser beem emanated by the cannon goes on for its normal length. Normally, it should shut off immediately. It's not neccessary for the whole beam to disappear (although this might be a solution too), but the already destroyed cannon shouldn't continue to emanate the light beam.

- If you start in a room, and if you've lost a life, it's somewhat hard to spot your player. I think in the original Berzerk, the player was flashing (on and off) in these cases. Here it flashes in different colors, but I don't always make it to find my starting position before the action commences.

- Since it takes 5 rooms to make a level, it would be nice to know how many rooms you still have to make to complete the level. Also some statistics would be nice, like the number of prisoners rescued, number of robots killed, number of keys collected, number of rooms completed... you get the picture.

- The ramp-up of difficulty seems to be a bit odd. The first five rooms are basically the same difficulty. I'd prefer starting with a very easy room, and having the rooms become continuously harder, even within a 5-room level. Since each room takes over a minute to complete, you are already playing over 5 minutes to complete the first level, and during those five minutes (actually, I didn't even make it to complete the 5 rooms), the difficulty basically stays the same. Maybe the game elements should be introduced one by one... so the first room would only have one key and one prisoner and no rebound walls, the next one would introduce robots, the next one after that one would introduce laser cannons, and the fourth one would introduce rebound walls... roughly like that. After that, the difficulty would increase by increasing the number of keys, prisoners, robots, cannons and rebound walls. I think it's a bit silly having all the elements already present in the first room, since that takes away the tension of wanting to know what the next level will bring.

- The music also sounds a bit funny. The title music is somewhat out of rhythm, the starting music doesn't sound harmonic at all, and the Game Over music seems to be too short for me... that 8-note tune calls for a (possibly even multi-voice) continuation. Somehow I have that continuation in my head... the notes for the first voice go somewhat like this...

 

H-1 . F#2 . D-2 . H-1 . A#1 . H-1 C#1 H-1 . . . (this is the original line)

F#2 . H-2 . A#2 . F#2 . E-2 . F#2 G-2 F#2 . . .

F#2 . G-2 F#2 F#2 . E-2 . E-2 . F#2 E-2 E-2 # D-2 .

D-2 . E-2 D-2 D-2 . C#2 . C#2 . D-2 C#2 H-1 . . .

 

Actually, the second half is identical to the second half of the title tune of "Mangia" on the Atari 2600, but maybe played in a different key. Don't know how I arrive at this, but it definitely fits to the first half. Oh, and maybe I hit wrong octaves... I simply called the lowest octave I could find "1"... your results may vary.

 

Otherwise, I think it's a pretty good game with good graphics.

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Wow, Kurt. Excellent feedback. I really appreciate it. Everything you said (especially the difficulty ramping too quickly) is right on. I think the collision detection being "off" that you mentioned, I have fixed....

 

>I think it would be better to use slightly simpler, but more different sounds.

Agreed. I am not an expert whatsoever when it comes to creating good sounds on the ColecoVision. I just try hard to experiment until it sounds close to interesting and in this case they are a bit too much.

 

The title music. Well, Joe sent me an mp3 file of him playing a nice little riff on his guitar. I tried to replicate it on the CV. Uhhh, well, I didn't do so well.

 

I've got some renewed interested in this. Pixelboy (Luc Miron) and I have been chatting recently about some enhancements to the gameplay that might push the thing from "not bad" to "really good".

 

Lucifershalo- stay tuned. I hope to have a pretty big update to this game soon.

 

 

 

 

 

OK, I've tried this now too, and here's some feedback on my part:

- There are definitely some bugs in there. For instance, in some rooms, there are 2 laser cannons close to each other. If you shoot one of them, half of the other one also disappears, but the other half remains visible. Also, the collision detection seems to be somewhat sloppy since sometimes you get hit by a laser beam, but don't die.

- I also noticed a bug with scoring... I stood close to a power item, and some robot was continuously firing at the power item. The shots disappeared, and for each shot disappearing, I got awarded 125 points. I wonder what I get these points for.

- The scoring overall seems to be a bit illogical to me. I only get 100 points for a rescued prisoner, but 125 or 150 (can't remember exactly) for a killed robot? Normally, a human life should be worth more than a killed robot.

- It's sometimes possible to "shave off" part of the outer walls without dying (I think this is when you're on a power item), but if you go further outside, you die. This also looks a bit funny to me.

- The sounds sound too monotonous to me. Everything that gets killed by you goes down with exactly the same, overdone sound, be it a robot, a cannon or a cage where a prisoner was in. I think it would be better to use slightly simpler, but more different sounds.

- The laser beams also seem to be buggy. Sometimes part of a laser beam stays put in mid-air and doesn't ever disappear. Also, if you shoot a cannon that is just firing, the laser beem emanated by the cannon goes on for its normal length. Normally, it should shut off immediately. It's not neccessary for the whole beam to disappear (although this might be a solution too), but the already destroyed cannon shouldn't continue to emanate the light beam.

- If you start in a room, and if you've lost a life, it's somewhat hard to spot your player. I think in the original Berzerk, the player was flashing (on and off) in these cases. Here it flashes in different colors, but I don't always make it to find my starting position before the action commences.

- Since it takes 5 rooms to make a level, it would be nice to know how many rooms you still have to make to complete the level. Also some statistics would be nice, like the number of prisoners rescued, number of robots killed, number of keys collected, number of rooms completed... you get the picture.

- The ramp-up of difficulty seems to be a bit odd. The first five rooms are basically the same difficulty. I'd prefer starting with a very easy room, and having the rooms become continuously harder, even within a 5-room level. Since each room takes over a minute to complete, you are already playing over 5 minutes to complete the first level, and during those five minutes (actually, I didn't even make it to complete the 5 rooms), the difficulty basically stays the same. Maybe the game elements should be introduced one by one... so the first room would only have one key and one prisoner and no rebound walls, the next one would introduce robots, the next one after that one would introduce laser cannons, and the fourth one would introduce rebound walls... roughly like that. After that, the difficulty would increase by increasing the number of keys, prisoners, robots, cannons and rebound walls. I think it's a bit silly having all the elements already present in the first room, since that takes away the tension of wanting to know what the next level will bring.

- The music also sounds a bit funny. The title music is somewhat out of rhythm, the starting music doesn't sound harmonic at all, and the Game Over music seems to be too short for me... that 8-note tune calls for a (possibly even multi-voice) continuation. Somehow I have that continuation in my head... the notes for the first voice go somewhat like this...

 

H-1 . F#2 . D-2 . H-1 . A#1 . H-1 C#1 H-1 . . . (this is the original line)

F#2 . H-2 . A#2 . F#2 . E-2 . F#2 G-2 F#2 . . .

F#2 . G-2 F#2 F#2 . E-2 . E-2 . F#2 E-2 E-2 # D-2 .

D-2 . E-2 D-2 D-2 . C#2 . C#2 . D-2 C#2 H-1 . . .

 

Actually, the second half is identical to the second half of the title tune of "Mangia" on the Atari 2600, but maybe played in a different key. Don't know how I arrive at this, but it definitely fits to the first half. Oh, and maybe I hit wrong octaves... I simply called the lowest octave I could find "1"... your results may vary.

 

Otherwise, I think it's a pretty good game with good graphics.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Frantic looks (and plays) great, and reminds me of classic arcade games from the 80's!

:cool:

I'm starting to get back into classic gaming, and just bought a ColecoVision.

 

Frantic would be a excellent release for the ColecoVision!

Thanks for keeping the classic consoles alive!

:)

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  • 2 years later...
  • 6 months later...
  • 1 month later...

Does anyone know if this game is complete enough to finish the game?

 

The programmer said earlier that there are 5 levels with 5 rooms each, for a total of 25 rooms...

 

I managed to get to Level 4, but this room is completely empty, so there are no keys to get out. I tried walking around to pick any 'invisible' keys, but nothing. I did find a respawning prisoner box down near the bottom left of the room. I used my warp to skip the first room, but the second is the same.

 

This is a really good game, much better than Berzerk or Frenzy, and a worthy part 3 to a trilogy.

 

Can someone try playing the game to level 4 and tell me what they see when they get there?

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  • 7 months later...

 

This is a really good game, much better than Berzerk or Frenzy, and a worthy part 3 to a trilogy.

 

Can someone try playing the game to level 4 and tell me what they see when they get there?

 

EPIC NECRO BUMP!

 

I just tried this out last night, and it's a really good start for a game. The intro "transceiver" screen would be nice if it had a skip to it. I haven't gotten to level 2, much less level 4. Shooting my first hostage produced quite the daisy chain of curse words. :)

Try it out if you are a Berzerk or Frenzy fan.

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  • 4 years later...
  • 1 year later...
  • 4 years later...

Yep, another pain-in-the-butt necro-bumper here ;-)

 

Is there a version out there that has level 4 and beyond playable? The ROM I have has a "kill screen" like BillHW has encountered where it's impossible to continue. If that's the last compiled ROM released is the source code available? I find the game incredibly addictive even with only 3 levels and would love to play a complete version or maybe try to mess with the code so it's possible to skip the missing levels or making them playable by copying the mazes from the first 3 except with the killbots from 4 and 5.

 

By the way, did you get the name "killbots" from the movie Chopping Mall? :D

Edited by Tornadoboy
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It would be great to at least get the latest compiled ROM with the extra features and bug fixes that @ScottHuggins mentioned in two posts on this page (he said he was going to post a newer ROM in 2009 in the first of those 2 posts). Perhaps @joeybastard has a later ROM than was posted in this thread?

 

My 6yo son loves Frenzy (calls it Lovey), and I would love to play an improved version of this with him. So glad to have found this thread and that there is a version at all that we can play, though. Much appeciated @ScottHuggins and @joeybastard!

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I discussed ROMs with Scott by email back in 2015.  Scott very kindly compiled all of the ROM files that he still had at that time and sent them to me.  With regard to Frantic the only version that he still had matches the one he posted here in the first post.  To quote Scott, "this is the last version of it that I have".

 

So unless Joe, or any beta tester, has a later version then it may well be lost to time.

 

Now that being said, over at AdamArchive.org there are two versions of the ROM to be found.  The one labelled [a1] is different to the one here so perhaps that is a later version?

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hey! The Frantic rom I have is whatever the last one Scott posted.  I designed the levels, music, and graphics but he is the smart one who actually programmed it. I'm way too dumb for that part. If I remember right, I designed 25 levels and more killbots (that could be wrong, it was a long time ago and my memory sucks) but I don't think he got around to implementing them before he stopped working on it.   I think it's a shame it was never finished but I have nothing but admiration for Scott and genuine gratitude that he let me work on his projects.  It's possible I still have files somewhere but it would be up to Scott if he wanted to let somebody else finish it.

 

I thought I made up Killbots but if it's from Chopping Mall, I love the name even more😄

 

Cheers,

Joe

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"Killbots" is what I guess they called them on the set and it was originally the film's title too, I wish they kept it as "Chopping Mall" is kind of lame. I always thought that movie had a great premise and I think it's ripe for a remake. 

 

That would be awesome if he released the source code but again he doesn't owe it to everyone and I can respect his decision if he doesn't. 

Edited by Tornadoboy
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