Panky the Panda - new WIP homebrew

[Ben_Larson]

No reply yet. I hope I didn't kill the motivation.

Well... to be honest.... I already didn't feel very motivated to make more changes at this point. But I can at least answer your points!

 

-Lots of screens seem pretty empty (how about more enemies in higher levels?)

 

This is mostly due to the level storage design. Each screen only holds a maximum of 2 objects (an object being an enemy, ladder, save point, item). Each screen's data is basically 16 bytes long:

 

Tile pointer data - 6 bits per tile (5 actually, but high bit is reflect bit) x 12 tiles = 9 bytes

Adjacent rooms (left, right, top, bottom) = 1 byte per room x 4 rooms = 4 bytes

Room object types = 4 bits per object x 2 objects = 1 byte

Room object X/Y positions = 4 bits per axis x 2 axes x 2 objects = 2 bytes

 

Each tile pointer points to one of 32 tiles that all the rooms are built from.

 

-Continue seems to restart the game, why not from the last checkpoint?

 

Well it doesn't really restart the game. You still keep everything in your inventory...

 

BTW: How do you score?

 

You don't, really. The only object is to explore and eventually open all the doors so you can get to the end of the game.

 

-The animal to the left could use some animation, maybe the terminals too (Nathan could sure do magic here)

-It would be nice if Panky could duck (maybe only in easy levels?)

-Could not make out any differences between the levels (except for less lives), something like harder physics (e.g. more gravity) or -faster, less predictable and more enemies etc. would sure help.

 

I think I'm going to plead lack of RAM and ROM space here.

 

According to my handy text file that has my notes (last updated in July, so possibly out of date) there's only 148 bytes free in Bank 1 and 69 bytes in Bank 2. Banks 3 and 4 handle the title/ending screen and music, respectively. I don't think the situation there is much better either...

[Devin]

BTW: How do you score?

 

We are Atari 2600 homebrew programmers.... we never "score".

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I think I'm going to plead lack of RAM and ROM space here.

 

According to my handy text file that has my notes (last updated in July, so possibly out of date) there's only 148 bytes free in Bank 1 and 69 bytes in Bank 2. Banks 3 and 4 handle the title/ending screen and music, respectively. I don't think the situation there is much better either...

 

If you post the source code, I can have a look at it. I am very good at peephole optimizing for ROM space. And maybe I can spot some RAM which could be shared/reused.

 

 

 

[Brian O]

Bumping this to see if any more progress has been made, or if this game is shelved. I really enjoyed playing it, and would love to see this finalized.

 

-B

[Ben_Larson]

Bumping this to see if any more progress has been made, or if this game is shelved. I really enjoyed playing it, and would love to see this finalized.

 

-B

v1.0 came out in Sept. 2010. I made an minor update the next month to fix an issue in JStella, which I'm using to emulate it on my site. Here's a link that version which is the latest (v1.01):

 

http://www.blarworld.net/Panky1.01.zip

 

I wasn't really planning on making any more tweaks (except maybe for bugfixes)...

 

Ben

[Brian O]

Bumping this to see if any more progress has been made, or if this game is shelved. I really enjoyed playing it, and would love to see this finalized.

 

-B

v1.0 came out in Sept. 2010. I made an minor update the next month to fix an issue in JStella, which I'm using to emulate it on my site. Here's a link that version which is the latest (v1.01):

 

http://www.blarworld.net/Panky1.01.zip

 

I wasn't really planning on making any more tweaks (except maybe for bugfixes)...

 

Ben

 

 

Thanks, Ben. Is this game essentially complete then (e.g., you can play through to an ending)? Or is it incomplete?

 

-B

[KevinMos3]

Thanks, Ben. Is this game essentially complete then (e.g., you can play through to an ending)? Or is it incomplete?

Yes, you can play through to an ending. It's a pretty nice ending too. One of the best I've seen in a 2600 game.

If you would like a map of the entire game, you can look at my post here. Warning, it does contain some spoilers.

 

The ONLY thing that I hope to see changed before it's called completely final and put on cart is those dead ends. If there were something, anything there it would feel more polished and complete to me.

 

One idea is to just put a static sprite in those rooms such as a flower, or maybe some other animal that the kidnappers have been holding captive, or you could take a darker turn and make it the bones of an animal that has been held captive for too long, or maybe the kidnappers themselves, (such as one of the poachers at each dead end). Putting something in those rooms would make it more interesting and rewarding to go there. I know there is currently not enough ROM space left to do anything too significant, but a static sprite would be sufficient in my opinion.

 

Well I could conceivably add one more item/enemy, but there's no memory left to 'keep track', for example, of whether the player has fetched a certain extra life item yet or not.

...there's only 148 bytes free in Bank 1 and 69 bytes in Bank 2. Banks 3 and 4 handle the title/ending screen and music, respectively. I don't think the situation there is much better either...

Maybe Thomas could help find enough space to do something even better.

 

If you post the source code, I can have a look at it. I am very good at peephole optimizing for ROM space. And maybe I can spot some RAM which could be shared/reused.

But again, I would completely happy to just see a static sprite(s).

[Brian O]

Some Panky the Panda box art I created. Thought I'd share.

 

FYI - Ben didn't ask me to do this. I just did it for fun.

 

Let me know your thoughts.

 

Thanks,

B

[+Gemintronic]

That. Box. Art. Is. AWESOME!!!

 

One thing: When I read aloud the text on the back of the box Cthulhu appeared and violated my roommate.. is this normal?

[Brian O]

That. Box. Art. Is. AWESOME!!!

 

One thing: When I read aloud the text on the back of the box Cthulhu appeared and violated my roommate.. is this normal?

 

Thanks!

 

Cthulhu was actually supposed to violate you. There must have been a typo.

 

-B

[+TrekMD]

Love that box art! Great job!

[Brian O]

Love that box art! Great job!

 

Thanks, TrekMD!

 

-B

[T2KFREEKER]

Now all we need is for a cart release of this. Would be nice to play it on an actual 2600 system.

[Ben_Larson]

Sorry it took so long to respond, Brian - I haven't logged in to Atariage in a while. That box art is indeed pretty awesome.

 

I haven't made any plans for a physical release, though, and I don't know if Al is planning any new releases anytime soon either. Maybe if enough people pestered him though...

[Ben_Larson]

Oh I forgot to mention one thing, though: the 'pig' in the game was actually supposed to be my attempt at an armadillo.

 

It does kind of look like a pig though now that I look at it...

[Albert]

I haven't made any plans for a physical release, though, and I don't know if Al is planning any new releases anytime soon either. Maybe if enough people pestered him though...

Heck yes this needs to be put in cartridge form!!!

 

..Al

[Brian O]

Sorry it took so long to respond, Brian - I haven't logged in to Atariage in a while. That box art is indeed pretty awesome.

 

I haven't made any plans for a physical release, though, and I don't know if Al is planning any new releases anytime soon either. Maybe if enough people pestered him though...

 

Thanks, Ben The game is a lot of fun!

 

Hoping this makes it on to a cart.

 

-B

[Brian O]

Oh I forgot to mention one thing, though: the 'pig' in the game was actually supposed to be my attempt at an armadillo.

 

It does kind of look like a pig though now that I look at it...

 

LOL. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what that was. Judging solely by the colors I assumed it was a pig.

I can always update. It's up to you.

 

-B

[Gateway]

Okay, I finally beat the game tonight (the normal difficulty), but I used a lot of continues to do so. My keyboard has taken a beating with all the jumping using the space bar in Stella.

 

I don't want to spoil the ending for others, so I managed to take a snapshot of the final screen before you find your brother. Note there are actually two enemy ducks on this screen, but they must be on different frames so only one is showing in the pic. Also note that the high-jump boots are selected in the pic, but I actually changed to another object to get successfully passed this screen otherwise you will hit your head easily if you keep the high-jump boots engaged.

I managed to get passed both ducks and was rewarded with the awesome ending message. I snapped a pic of that too, but won't post it here.

 

 

Overall, I found this game frustrating and I was yelling at the screen! But that is how I know that I am addicted because I kept playing another round, ad infintum.

 

I look forward to getting this game on cartridge some day and actually using a joystick this time. Hope to see this game available to buy in the near future.

 

P.S. Along with the one in Adventure , I have developed a hatred for the bat in this game!

[KevinMos3]

I don't want to spoil the ending for others...

 

Too late on that. I managed to do that for you when I posted a complete map some time ago in post #102 on page 5. WARNING: contains spoilers.

Edited October 10, 2012 by KevinMos3

[+Nathan Strum]

Note there are actually two enemy ducks on this screen, but they must be on different frames so only one is showing in the pic.

Turn on phosphor mode. That will enable flickered objects to show up on screenshots. (Hit TAB, then Game Properties, then Display. Or use the keyboard shortcut.)

[Gateway]

I know, LOL. I didn't realize I hadn't had phosphor mode enabled until after I had exited out of Stella and my game was already over. If I play this game again, I will have to be in the mood to play all the way through and will try to remember to have phosphor enabled.

 

@KevinMos3: LOL, yeah I looked at your map before I started playing, but decided not to use any save states. So I played from memory to the best I could though I ended up searching some places multiple times until I found secret entryways, etc. as I didn't remember exactly where they were marked on your map.

[LidLikesIntellivision]

I didn't see this before!

Awesome game!

[Nognir]

It seems that this project is dead?

[raindog]

It seems that this project is dead?

 

Dead? More like complete, I think. Surprised a cartridge was never made, since this has to be close to the best VCS platformer ever made (and, admittedly, too difficult for me to get through).