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Robot City - New 2600 Homebrew (v0.21)


Albert

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/development_page.html?InDevelopmentID=43Thomas Jentzsch, author of Thrust for the Atari 2600, has started work on a new 2600 game called Robot City. Robot City is an 8K unreleased prototype on the Odyssey 2, and Thomas has thus far managed to squeeze it into 2K on the 2600. The premise of the game is very simple: You're a helicopter in a maze filled with tanks trying to kill you. Of course, you must kill them first with your gun. But the tanks have a shield and can only be disabled when hit in the rear where they are unprotected. There are two mazes in this version, which you can switch between by using the Select switch. For some screenshots as well as a copy of the binary you can try yourself, please visit our Robot City In Development Page.
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Looks and sound great. I would buy it. And the best is, when I can buy it in germany.  :D

If you find somebody who will produce the carts here in Germany, then I'll have no problems with that. :)

 

I have test it short, but I can't kill the tanks. Maybe I must try it again, and try to break the protection from the tanks.  :)

You must hit the tanks in the back. :idea:

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Looks and sound great. I would buy it. And the best is, when I can buy it in germany.  :D

If you find somebody who will produce the carts here in Germany, then I'll have no problems with that. :)

 

I have test it short, but I can't kill the tanks. Maybe I must try it again, and try to break the protection from the tanks.  :)

You must hit the tanks in the back. :idea:

 

Ohh, now I understand. you programm only the ROM, and send it to Hozer? Then I will wait with buying, sorry. In the moment I have not so many money, and shipping from USA is a bit high. So maybe I will buy in the future some games from Hozer, when I have more money.

 

But Thrust + is produced here in germany, or I am wrong? :?

 

And I have found out it now too, that you must hit them at the back, but thanks. :)

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WOW! This looks to be cool. Will there be a 2 player simulataneous mode, so one player can distract while the other shoots? That would rock!

 

Thomas, you NEVER cease to do great work! thanks I look forward to buying this one.

 

Will it be a FULL release, box/manual, etc, or just the can't?

 

I can't wait!

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I think you should add some dots to the maze so you know where you're going and where you've been. Also, a secret passage (i.e. tunnel) from one side of the screen to the other would be great. Lastly, you might want to think about adding some "powerups" - maybe 4 large dots in the corners that when flown over allow you to have the advantage over the ghosts, er, I mean tanks (grin)!

 

Just kidding - I actually played it and it was quite difficult getting those tanks from behind. The AI is quite good as they are following your every move. I played until I got all 4 blinking and stalled.....then the game just kinda froze.

 

Thomas, are you going to have any other mazes? Have you seen the different mazes in Marble Craze that Paul has......takeoffs on characters from Atari Games....I thought that was pretty cool - maybe a nod to Paul and include things like that.

 

Actually, this game is quite simple and quite fun.....a nod back to the earlier games put out by Atari. I know what you mean about not being able to top Thrust....that's the best game for the Atari 2600 and you should be quite proud of it. Best game now or "back in the day"!

 

Speaking of which, when do the pre-orders get their Thurs+ game? I was so tempted to buy one at the CGE2K2 show, but the guys at the Atari Age booth assured me the 50 preorders coming from Germany would be really cool and worth the wait!

 

Ciao,

 

Brad

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Now I have to get me one of Dondzilla's O2 multicarts to play the original version of this game, because it sounds sweet.

Well, the idea of the game is really nice (that's why I choose it ;) ). But the Odyssey version totally lacks all the speed I would like to see in a good Atari 2600 game. Maybe it gets faster when you play on, but I was to bored to continue very far. It has only four mazes (I plan at least eight, probably many more) and the tanks aren't revived. That's the only original idea from me for now. :)

 

Give me your ideas , please!

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So you went for Robot City and not Jake huh? Robot City is nice, but Jake is a bit more unusual, I think. Maybe next time?  :)

Well, I already had started with Robot City when you mentioned Jake. I wanted to compete in the 1024 bytes competition, but that obviously turned out to be impossible. :) So I decided to continue with what I had already and I also had some nice ideas how to improve the game.

 

But Jake is a game that someone should to for sure.

 

How smart did you make the tanks - is it the same as in the Videopac version?

I don't know the exact O2 algorithm, but I think mine is at least as good. :) But if you know some details about the O2 AI, I would be very interested.

 

My AI is quite simple: The tanks always try to move in the direction with the maximum distance to the helicopter. If that isn't possible they choose the 2nd, then 3rd best. Finally I added a little bit of randomness (they don't always choose the best possiblity) to make them a bit more unpredictable.

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Just kidding - I actually played it and it was quite difficult getting those tanks from behind. The AI is quite good as they are following your every move. I played until I got all 4 blinking and stalled.....then the game just kinda froze.

Yes, that's how it is behaving now. Later it will move to the next level or maze.

 

Thomas, are you going to have any other mazes?

Sure, I will have a lot more mazes. I'm currently thinking about a level generator that will allow nearly unlimited mazes. But I'm not sure, if that will work.

 

Actually, this game is quite simple and quite fun.....a nod back to the earlier games put out by Atari. I know what you mean about not being able to top Thrust....that's the best game for the Atari 2600 and you should be quite proud of it. Best game now or "back in the day"!

Thanks! (getting red...)

 

Speaking of which, when do the pre-orders get their Thurs+ game? I was so tempted to buy one at the CGE2K2 show, but the guys at the Atari Age booth assured me the 50 preorders coming from Germany would be really cool and worth the wait!

I know, many people have asked me in the last days.

 

Today I got a mail from Jah Fish. He told me, that today he started with sending the first boxes and plans to send 5 to 10 every 2 or 3 days. So, I hope you'll have them quite soon (from now on).

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Today I got a mail from Jah Fish. He told me, that today he started with sending the first boxes and plans to send 5 to 10 every 2 or 3 days. So, I hope you'll have them quite soon (from now on).

 

Great to hear. Maybe I can drive to Jah Fish, and get my copy now. :D

 

Or I better wait. Maybe he has many to do? But then he must not pay for shipping.

 

Don't know what I do? :?

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i don't know if it's possible but could the copter have a little fine tuning on it's design?

Hmm, that's hard, because I have composed it out of the missile object. This one can only be a 1, 2, 4 or 8 pixel wide dot (no 'holes' between pixels).

 

So X, XX, XXXX, XXXXXXX are possible, XXX, X-X, XX-XXX etc. aren't.

 

If you have a better graphic that meats those limitations, then tell me please.

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I've just had about a hundred label ideas already!!!:)

Will there be a label competition? I'll need to start looking for props straight away... :)

Calm down, please. :)

 

It will probalby take some months until this is finished. And maybe even the title will (have to?) change.

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  • 5 weeks later...

/development_page.html?InDevelopmentID=43Atari 2600 author Thomas Jentzsch has released a new version of the latest 2600 game he's developing, Robot City. Development is continuing rapidly, and this latest version has several new features over the earlier version we posted. Improvements and changes include:

 

[*]Built-in maze generator

[*]Wall density can be changed with left difficulty switch

[*]Improved fuel display

[*]Hitting tanks from the back is a bit easier

[*]Larger tank missiles

[*]Some minor bugfixes

 

You can download Robot City here.

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