Atomic Meltdown <-- My First Atari 2600 game

[disjaukifa]

Hey Guys,

 

I have been working on and off since last September on a game that I have created called Atomic Meltdown. The object of the game to to avoid the hitting inclosing wall and the random matter that flies through the level till containment is reached.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the story behind the game:

 

"A nuclear reactor core stabilizer and containment field has failed unexpectedly. You, the technician, have to manually stabilize the atomic matter until containment field can be initialized. The containment walls will start enclosing around the atomic matter as the containment field is brought back online. However because the containment field is down, other random atomic matter is being project around the reactor core. The manual stabilizers have not been calibrated on schedule so they do not stabilize the atomic matter correctly which has resulted in the atomic matter to jitter around. If two pieces of atomic matter collide or if the atomic matter collides with the walls before the containment field has been initialized, then the whole nuclear reactor wild explode."

 

This game is about 90% complete as it is, all the major difficult items have been programmed and completed . . . I think

 

I have 3 modes, Single Player, Two Player Coop and Two Player VS. You have a game selection screen in which you use the Atari 2600's Game Selector switch to switch between games. I have also programmed but I have not tested (I really need to check this) two difficulties. If the difficulty is set to B on the Atari 2600, in all three modes, once the containment walls have finished, the game is over and you have beaten the game. However if you set the game difficulty to A, the game continues until you died. You score is based on how many seconds you can go without hitting the walls or the random atomic matter flying through the camber. PLEASE NOTE that I have not tested the hard setting and will be doing this within the next week.

 

I get my Harmony cartridge next week which will help with testing dramatically.

 

I have just tonight fixed a majority of the horrific program bugs that I was having with the game as well.

 

Oddly enough I just noticed tonight that my Winners Screen is now not working and that will be fixed tomorrow or Friday sometime. I also still have to add sound to the game as well.

 

I wanted to go ahead and post to to see what ya'll thought. Any feedback would be appreciated!

 

Thanks

Disjaukifa

Atomic Meltdown.bin

Edited April 22, 2010 by disjaukifa

[tetrode kink]

mmkay, I feel a rant boiling up but I'll try to keep it civil.

 

Cuppla things:

 

Screen shots! Nothing like a cuppla screen shots of your WIP to change a "meh" to a "ooh!" and get me to download and try it.

 

Halfway through your premise my eyes were watering over. I mean, all that's missing from that paragraph are the nuclear formulae. Your game is whaa??? You gotta calibrate this to stabilize that so the atoms don't jitter? If I lose the lid from the container, the atoms don't matter? Yeah, wake me when I get to shoot something.

 

Seriously, though, you gotta make me, who barely gradgiated high-school, feel like I'm playing a game, not studying for finals in nuclear physics.

 

Hope you don't take this as too harsh, I'm just having a little fun with ya. Congratulations on getting your first game going, I'll keep an eye on it.

 

-tet

[disjaukifa]

mmkay, I feel a rant boiling up but I'll try to keep it civil.

 

Cuppla things:

 

Screen shots! Nothing like a cuppla screen shots of your WIP to change a "meh" to a "ooh!" and get me to download and try it.

 

Halfway through your premise my eyes were watering over. I mean, all that's missing from that paragraph are the nuclear formulae. Your game is whaa??? You gotta calibrate this to stabilize that so the atoms don't jitter? If I lose the lid from the container, the atoms don't matter? Yeah, wake me when I get to shoot something.

 

Seriously, though, you gotta make me, who barely gradgiated high-school, feel like I'm playing a game, not studying for finals in nuclear physics.

 

Hope you don't take this as too harsh, I'm just having a little fun with ya. Congratulations on getting your first game going, I'll keep an eye on it.

 

-tet

 

Uploaded screen shots and changed the wording a little bit. This is a game of reaction not shooting, the goal is to see how long you can avoid hitting the wall or the flying atomic matter.

 

-Disjaukifa

Edited April 22, 2010 by disjaukifa

[lucifershalo]

I like "nuclear games"

and yours is promising but it is too slow

maybe an option with more atomic matters appearing like two at a time after a certain moment

but I like the idea

 

and some sound of course

[radiohead]

I found myself playing it for a few rounds before giving up somewhere over 130 points. Kudos on a unique premise!

 

I assume sound would be the next thing you'll tackle (I didn't hear any when I played it.) A constant pulsating that speeds up as the wall builds (which would also speed up as it gets closer to the end) would help the excitement. Static or buzzing noise should accompany the electrodes/atoms bouncing across the screen.

 

Maybe the electrodes/atoms (sorry if I'm misnaming it) could come after each other faster, as the horizontal one flies off the screen, the vertical one immediately appears - randomly from all 4 sides, all at varying speeds.

 

I like how the building wall is the same color as the electrode. It makes locating the electrode/atom difficult as the wall is nearing completion. Maybe if the wall and electodes/atoms blink and pulsate random colors (like in the title screen of "Saboteur",) it would add that "Oooh & Ahhh" that seems to be missing right now.

 

I only played the default 1 player/difficult mode. I don't know how the game ends or what happens after you complete a round (I couldn't get that far, but I be back to find out!) Maybe exploding flashes like at the end of "Missile Command" when you hit the wall and lose.

 

Congrats on hitting the ground running. I look forward to the rest!

Edited April 23, 2010 by radiohead

[Atari2600Lives]

I look forward to the complete game. Unique and cool premise for sure.

[disjaukifa]

Hey Guys

 

Couple of quick updates! I just got my new power supply for my laptop so I can start working on Atomic Meltdown again. Also I got my Harmony Cartridge in so I have started to test the game in depth on the Atari 2600 and thankfully it seems to play perfectly as far as I can tell.

 

I think I know what I'm going to do with sound, still trying to work on it. Also I working on the winners screen which apparently I never got around to doing . . . oops. I hope to have an update sometime next week.

 

Thanks

Disjaukifa

[disjaukifa]

Hey Guys,

 

Sorry for the long updates, my wife is pregnant and our daughter is due soon so that has greatly side tracked this project. I am going to be uploading my latest binary tonight of the game, and I was wondering if anyone would be willing to help with sound in the game?

 

Thanks

Disjaukifa

[Chuck D. Head]

Hi! Thought I would just say that this looks intriguing and I will play it tonight and give feedback. Morgan

[disjaukifa]

Hi! Thought I would just say that this looks intriguing and I will play it tonight and give feedback. Morgan

 

Thanks! I will be uploading my latest binary of the game tonight, I think the lastest one I compiled had a couple of changes . . . I can't quiet remember.

 

Thanks

Disjaukifa