+DZ-Jay Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL! I have finished my very first game. It runs on top of a custom game engine I designed for a port of a very popular 1980's arcade game (which is still unfinished). It is themed for Christmas, and changed to have its own original story and game-play. What originally started as a quick and dirty ditty, has become a full-fledge, original game. I've been working full time on it for the past few days, and I think it is very good for being conceived, created, and programmed in just two weeks. Although it is not all I wanted it to be, my vacation time is exhausted, and I'm quickly running out Christmas Season. I shall continue to polish it in the near future, as time permits, but in the meantime I wanted to share it with the community, for I am immensely proud of this game. I present to all of you, as a gift, "Christmas Carol vs. The Ghost of Christmas Presents" (Please see details below) I'd like to thank Joe Zbiciak for his wonderful help in getting this game ready. He produced the sound effects and was invaluable in testing and debugging. I want to also express my gratitude to Arnauld Chevallier, whom at the hight of my desperation (and exasperation) today, assisted in tracking the song I've been trying to include since yesterday. Please watch out for bugs. Any comments, suggestions, or general feedback is welcomed. Enjoy! -dZ. Christmas Carol vs. The Ghost Of Christmas Presents 'Twas the night before Christmas... While Santa and his elves were busy getting ready for their most important night of the year, an Evil Snowman broke into Santa's Workshop and stole some of the presents! With no time to lose, Santa has sent his most trusted and resourceful elf, Carol Greenleaf, to confront the Evil Snowman and bring back the stolen gifts. Meanwhile, the Evil Snowman has hidden the loot deep in the Frozen Ice Cube Caverns on top of the Himalayan Peaks. The caves are haunted by the Ghost Of Christmas Presents, who is very fond of wrapped packages and will not easily part from his newly acquired treasure. You must guide Carol through the dark and frozen cave and help her retrieve all the presents before the Evil Snowman returns, and without attracting too much attention from the Ghost Of Christmas Presents. The Characters: Carol Greenleaf, A.K.A. Christmas Carol Christmas Carol's skills and smarts are very highly regarded around the North Pole. You must guide Carol through the cave and help her pick up all the packages. The Ghost Of Christmas Presents The Ghost Of Christmas Presents likes to walk around his cave tending his packages. He is hard of hearing and won't notice Carol rummaging about. However, he is very keen on protecting his presents, and may be alerted if someone tries to take them. Don't let Carol get too close to the Ghost, or else he will take all her presents! The Evil Snowman The Evil Snowman is busy plotting his next caper, so Carol has not much to worry for the moment. However, she would be wise to not spend too much time looking around, for the Evil Snowman may return at any time. Heed the Snowman's howl, for it warns you of his impending attack! The Items: Ice Cube What can be said about an ice cube? It's made of water, and it is very cold. And hard. Christmas Present There are eight of these presents scattered around the cave, and Carol will not leave the cave before retrieving every single one of them. Picking up a package will alert the Ghost to Carol's presence. But don't fret, he is forgetful and will soon resume his stroll around the cave. Candy Being an elf, Carol loves candy, and will eat as much of it as she can find. The Ghost left some of his own Halloween loot lying around the floor of his cave. But be careful, Carol has a tendency to slow down while eating candy on the run! Magical Snowflake Deep within the Frozen Ice Cube Caverns, there are some very peculiar Snowflakes enchanted with the magic of yore. It is said that eating a Magical Snowflake stuns the feeble minded and dulls the senses of everyone around but the consumer. Carol will be wise to respect the ancient magic of these Snowflakes and only use them when absolutely necessary. Christmas Carol vs. The Ghost of Christmas Presents Copyright © 2010-2011 DZ-Jay xmas_carol.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+cmart604 Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 Due to some computer "issues" at the moment, I haven't had a chance to play this yet, but let me just say this DZ-Jay...WOW!!! This looks fantastic! Congrats! Looking forward to your future ventures, including the certain popular port you're working on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted January 2, 2011 Author Share Posted January 2, 2011 A few things I forgot to mention in the description, regarding the score: The candy items give you 1 point each, but slows down Carol for a frame. The Magical Snowflake give you 3 points, but slows Carol down for two frames. Picking up a gift grants you 5 points. The total score for a level is 75 points. You get a bonus life every 225 points (that's three levels completed with perfect score). Regarding items and game-play: Carol can turn faster than the Ghost or Snowman, but walks slower on a straight line, especially when eating candy. Use this to your advantage by zig-zagging and turning while being chased. Carol must pick up all 8 presents in the screen in order to finish the level. If the Ghost catches Carol, all the packages are reset and she must picked them all up again Eating candy is harmless and optional. It just gives you a single point. Eating a Magical Snowflake will "stun" the ghost temporarily so that Carol can get past or through him. It will also confuse the Snowman and make him chase the Ghost temporarily. The Ghost will walk about the cave looking for his presents, and once in a while stop to look around. He will do his own thing but generally just get in the way. However, when Carol picks up a present, he is alerted and tries to chase her for a very short while, adding to the challenge. If you take too long to complete the level, the Snowman will get even more angry and go faster. At that point, he is very hard (if not impossible) to avoid. The score, maze, and level configuration is the same throughout the game--I'm sorry about that, but I ran out of time. That said, the game does get progressively faster and more challenging on higher levels, with various factors changing arbitrarily on every level. I've been alerted to at least one bug that caused the game to crash and I'm looking into it. Please let me know if you find any others. Also let me know if there are any suggestions or comments on the game in general. Please enjoy! -dZ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rev Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 how do i download and play this? do i need any special programs? i have never downloaded any games like this before....i know, its hard to believe isnt it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catsfolly Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 how do i download and play this? do i need any special programs? i have never downloaded any games like this before....i know, its hard to believe isnt it. Here are the steps (as near as I can remember them): 1. download jzintv for your system from: jzintv 2. Unzip the files to your hard disk somewhere. This should create a directory called "jzintv". 3. Copy the exec.bin and rom.bin files from your "Intellivision Lives" CD to the jzintv/rom directory. 4. Download the "xmas_carol.rom" file and copy it to jzintv/rom directory. 5. Start up a terminal window (or a dos console window). 6. Use the cd (change directory) in the window to get to jzintv/bin. 7. Type "jzintv -z1 xmas_carol.rom" 8. Play the game using the arrow keys. Avoid the snowman - he's just plain mean! Give it a try and let me know if you have any problems. David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted January 3, 2011 Author Share Posted January 3, 2011 how do i download and play this? do i need any special programs? i have never downloaded any games like this before....i know, its hard to believe isnt it. Here are the steps (as near as I can remember them): 1. download jzintv for your system from: jzintv 2. Unzip the files to your hard disk somewhere. This should create a directory called "jzintv". 3. Copy the exec.bin and rom.bin files from your "Intellivision Lives" CD to the jzintv/rom directory. 4. Download the "xmas_carol.rom" file and copy it to jzintv/rom directory. 5. Start up a terminal window (or a dos console window). 6. Use the cd (change directory) in the window to get to jzintv/bin. 7. Type "jzintv -z1 xmas_carol.rom" 8. Play the game using the arrow keys. Avoid the snowman - he's just plain mean! Give it a try and let me know if you have any problems. David My apologies, I should have included instructions on how to run it; that was a very stupid oversight. Thank you, David, for providing them. -dZ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted January 3, 2011 Author Share Posted January 3, 2011 Hello all, I've been made aware of a rather nasty bug in the "Bonus Life" logic that causes the game to behave unexpectedly, or even crash. I am currently working on fixing this and some other minor issues, so please don't let that affect your enjoyment of the game. I will be posting an update later today. -dZ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IntellivisionDude Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 This game is fun. But it did crash on me around level 6. The ghost touched me and the game crashed. I was using Nostalgia if that makes a difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted January 3, 2011 Author Share Posted January 3, 2011 This game is fun. But it did crash on me around level 6. The ghost touched me and the game crashed. I was using Nostalgia if that makes a difference. Thanks for the report. Yes, I am aware that there is a bug in the ghost collision code. I'll work on it now. Please let me know if you find anything else. -dZ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IntellivisionDude Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 I remembered something from last time because it happened again. I was confused and it wasn't that i was on level 6, it was saying i had 6 lives. This time i was down to 1 life, then when the next level started it jumped up to 5 lives and all the collecting sound effects went haywire. Then when i touched the ghost the game froze. And something i remembered from the first time. My lives jumped to 6, but i made it through the level without being touched. But on the very next level there was a very weird looking graphic in place of where my life count should of been. Hope that helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted January 4, 2011 Author Share Posted January 4, 2011 Hello all! I have fixed all the bugs that were reported, and added a few enhancements. For the full details of the changes, please visit this thread. As always, please let me know if you have any further problems, comments, or suggestions! Thank you for playing, and I hope you all enjoy it! -dZ. xmas_carol.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IntellivisionDude Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 Hello all! I have fixed all the bugs that were reported, and added a few enhancements. For the full details of the changes, please visit this thread. As always, please let me know if you have any further problems, comments, or suggestions! Thank you for playing, and I hope you all enjoy it! -dZ. The game didn't crash on me this time. Works great now (so far anyway). But i didn't notice the "Added Level Number display". Unless i was overlooking it somewhere. The thing i noticed that was off is it says Game Ovey instead of Game Over. Would it be ok if i recorded some gameplay for a Youtube video? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted January 4, 2011 Author Share Posted January 4, 2011 Hello all! I have fixed all the bugs that were reported, and added a few enhancements. For the full details of the changes, please visit this thread. As always, please let me know if you have any further problems, comments, or suggestions! Thank you for playing, and I hope you all enjoy it! -dZ. The game didn't crash on me this time. Works great now (so far anyway). But i didn't notice the "Added Level Number display". Unless i was overlooking it somewhere. The thing i noticed that was off is it says Game Ovey instead of Game Over. Would it be ok if i recorded some gameplay for a Youtube video? The Level Number display is at the bottom of the maze. It looks like "L-1". About the "Game Ovey" message, I can't reproduce that right now, which makes me think that GRAM is being overwritten somewhere. I'll look into it, but please let me know if you can find any condition that may trigger it. Thanks! -dZ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted January 4, 2011 Author Share Posted January 4, 2011 Would it be ok if i recorded some gameplay for a Youtube video? Sure! -dZ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted January 4, 2011 Author Share Posted January 4, 2011 Hello everybody, I'm tracking down some of the issues people have been reporting regarding the graphics on this new version. I think I may have deployed an older buggy binary, which is why I can't reproduce the problems over here. I'm doing some tests to find out why people are seeing these issues, and will be releasing an updated version soon. I thank you very much for your interest, and ask you to please hang in there and keep watching this space for an update. Thanks, -dZ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted January 4, 2011 Author Share Posted January 4, 2011 The game didn't crash on me this time. Works great now (so far anyway). But i didn't notice the "Added Level Number display". Unless i was overlooking it somewhere. The thing i noticed that was off is it says Game Ovey instead of Game Over. Hey, would you mind testing this version, please? I think the problem was that the ROM I deployed last night was an old broken version. This is the one I intended to release. This would explain why you couldn't see the features I was talking about. Please let me know if this version works. Thanks, -dZ. xmas_carol.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted January 4, 2011 Author Share Posted January 4, 2011 Hi all! I have tested the ROM and this time I am sure I have the correct one. This version contains the crash fixes and the level number and other enhancements I mentioned before. You can always get the latest version of the ROM from this page. I apologize for the confusion and for the broken file. I hope people are still excited over the game as I am of working on it and that your enjoyment was not too affected by this. Thanks again to all for playing! -dZ. xmas_carol-v1.1.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamchevy Posted December 2, 2021 Share Posted December 2, 2021 Sorry to bump such an old thread. This is one of my favorite games to play during the Christmas season! I am trying to get this to work on my NT Mini Noir but I am having a difficult time as it has to be in a specific little endian format. Has anyone already converted this game for the Noir? It would be wonderful to play this in RGB on my CRT. Thanks again to DZ-Jay for making this most excellent game available to play for the community!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted December 2, 2021 Author Share Posted December 2, 2021 (edited) You do not need to convert it, I can make another build. What is the difference in format that you need? (What is a "Noir"?) Edited December 2, 2021 by DZ-Jay 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted December 2, 2021 Share Posted December 2, 2021 The Analogue NT Mini Noir is another console. Apparently the Intellivision core that comes with it deemed that existing ROM and BIN+CFG formats were not suitable so they have come up with their own INTV2 ROM format. It was asked here before if the IntyBASIC build chain could support it, but I suppose it really boils down to the as1600 assembler to do that. There is a tool to convert INT to INTV but I don't know how it works. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted December 2, 2021 Author Share Posted December 2, 2021 4 hours ago, carlsson said: The Analogue NT Mini Noir is another console. Apparently the Intellivision core that comes with it deemed that existing ROM and BIN+CFG formats were not suitable so they have come up with their own INTV2 ROM format. It was asked here before if the IntyBASIC build chain could support it, but I suppose it really boils down to the as1600 assembler to do that. There is a tool to convert INT to INTV but I don't know how it works. Ah. If there is a converter out there, I could add it to the IntyBASIC SDK as part of the build step. I could also release a new ROM in that format. -dZ. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted December 2, 2021 Share Posted December 2, 2021 Perhaps Adam can be your guinea pig to verify that the ROMs indeed work. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted December 2, 2021 Author Share Posted December 2, 2021 6 minutes ago, carlsson said: Perhaps Adam can be your guinea pig to verify that the ROMs indeed work. Sounds good to me. What about you, @adamchevy? I'll take a look at the INT to INTV tool you linked to and play with it. -dZ. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted December 2, 2021 Author Share Posted December 2, 2021 Hmm ... it doesn't look like the available tool can be used. It supports a limited set of memory maps, none of them sufficient for Christmas Carol, which uses the six ROM segments defined by the "standard" 42K memory map. I'll take a look at the actual format spec and see if I can build a converter. After all, the memory map is available either embedded into the binary (ROM), or in an adjacent configuration file (BIN+CFG), so there shouldn't be guessing or pre-selected formats. -dZ. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted December 2, 2021 Share Posted December 2, 2021 (edited) Indeed, the tool in its current state seems to only support the maps 0-9 used by the original 125 games, plus a custom mapping for the EXEC ROM. Perhaps the C file can be altered to read a CFG file instead of a fixed map number, to simplify making another converter and also contribute to the project. Edit: Look, there was a feature request almost one year ago to make it work, but no resolution yet. The temporary workaround seems to be to enumerate every possible memory map separately, which this fellow did to come up to #19 so far. There gotta be a more flexible solution. https://github.com/dot-bob/int2intv/issues/4 Edited December 2, 2021 by carlsson 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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