Atomic Meltdown

[disjaukifa]

Hey Guys,

 

For those who were here in late 2009 and a very short week in 2010, ya'll know I was working on a game called Atomic Meltdown which was/is going to be my first game for the Atari 2600 programmed with the Batari Basic.

 

I've been messing with the code pretty much a little bit every day since I became active on the boards again. I'm going to use a mixture of things I've read, learned, and what I know to make this game fun and make this game complete. PAC-MAN-RED is doing the graphics, currently working on an AWESOME title screen and sprites for me. Check my latest post for the most recent binaries.

 

I'm going to add one more or too more things to the gameplay to make this game complete.

 

1st. Once an atom flies into a room, it will stay there and bounce all over the screen. I think I can have two of these on the screen at once, not sure yet, I need to play around with it.

 

2nd. The game never ends, you never win, this is a game based on time and how long you can last . . . period.

 

3rd. I'm going to make it so another object appears on the screen, if you can hover over it for lets say 3 seconds, you get a short shield, energy absorber, something I don't have a name for yet that will let you colide with one of the incoming atoms and remove that atom from the screen, also you get a time bonus of like 5 seconds added to your time, however you have to enable this shield/etc and it only last for a few seconds, and once its been activated and used, you have to wait for the object to appear on the screen again and get the ability again.

 

4th. I'm thinking of making the room shrink and expand constantly.

 

Those are my ideas at the moment, I think I can implement all of that with ease. Any advice and feedback is more than welcome.

 

Here are the two threads I had started, one is old, from 2009 and the other is from 2010:

 

Atomic Meltdown <-- my new homebrew game

 

Atomic Meltdown V2 - Changing Gameplay and other stuff

 

Thanks

Disjaukifa

Edited September 12, 2011 by disjaukifa

[disjaukifa]

Hey Guys,

 

Well I got a title screen working. I've never used Visual Batari Basic before so its a bit of a learning curve to be honest with you. Anyway, here is what I was able to accomplish. Honestly I'm hoping to get some help in the graphics department, because honestly I'm weak at best.

 

Atomic Meltdown DPC+.bin

 

Anyways, I need to improve the graphics, add sound, and as of right now I have an idea on how the game is going to be geared, its going to be completely different from what it use to be. Hopefully I will have a more user friendly demo soon!

 

*EDIT* I'm still ironing out the layout I want Atomic Meltdown to take, once I have that figured out, I'll update everyone! Let me know what you think, or if you have any suggestion you want to see implemented! I hope to have the bases of the game mapped out on paper some time tomorrow and I'll post my design to get ya'lls feedback *EDIT*

 

Thanks

Disjaukifa

Edited August 24, 2011 by disjaukifa

[RevEng]

Great start! Here's a screenshot for the impatient.

 

[Brian O]

That title screen looks sweet.

 

-B

[disjaukifa]

That title screen looks sweet.

 

-B

 

Thanks! I have to admit I'm way happier with it than what I had originally done:

 

 

-Disjaukifa

[ScumSoft]

F6 12k rom? Are you lacking the DPC+ header info? It should compile to 32k always.

What I posted in the Destiny WIP thread might help kick things off for ya.

DPC+ Caveat list + Template

[disjaukifa]

F6 12k rom? Are you lacking the DPC+ header info? It should compile to 32k always.

What I posted in the Destiny WIP thread might help kick things off for ya.

DPC+ Caveat list + Template

 

Thanks for the code, I'm definitely going to using it, I guess I should have said that this game is going to be DPC+, I just did the title screen really quickly last night in Visual bB and posted what I had gotten finished.

 

-Disjaukifa

[disjaukifa]

Updated first post with the plot and premise I'm going for in my game. Let me know what you think, I would love to hear any ideas and or suggestions you might have that you would like to see in this game. Unlike my previous game in which I had multiple play modes, this game will only have one mode, single player. That will help on saving space!

 

Thanks

Disjaukifa

[disjaukifa]

1000th POST!!!

 

Now for an update. I don't have anything to show yet, I've now got the Game with a Title Screen working on a DPC+ kernel working together which I have to credit serveral members for their help Random Terrain, RevEng, Scumsoft and jwierer. I have the code somewhat organized, though I need to go back and make it better.

 

I'm in the process of consolidating my old game and I'm trying to get it into one 4K bank, which is proving to be interesting and difficult considering it was originally a 16K game with no sound and let be honest bad graphics.

 

On another front, I've gotten confirmation that PAC-MAN-RED will be doing all the graphics for Atomic Meltdown! This really has me excited for two reasons, one I don't have to try making graphics that will be horrible and two everything PAC-MAN-RED has been releasing has been amazing, this really excites me for the future of Atomic Meltdown!

 

I'm hoping to post an updated binary later today/this evening with the basic title screen and the old game running in one binary.

 

-Disjaukifa

[ScumSoft]

Sounds like a plan! I think it should fit in 4k if you mind your coding style.

[disjaukifa]

Hey Guys,

 

I've been messing with the code pretty much a little bit every day since I became active on the boards again. Essential the game I had described in my first post is beyond my current programming abilities with Batari Basic, please understand, its NOT beyond Batari Basics abilities, but my own. I've been kind of going crazy trying to get the above game idea to even somewhat work and I just can't do it.

 

So I going to use a mixture of things I've read, learned, and what I know to make this game fun and make this game complete. PAC-MAN-RED is doing the graphics, currently working on an AWESOME title screen. I've posted a new binary, all it is is an integration of my old code trimmed down and the title screen kernel. Thats it, even all the animations has been remove. Also to note this will not be a DPC+ game, the short and simple reason for that is I don't need the DPC+ kernel to do this game, and when i tried getting it to work on DPC+ . . . I saw some really odd stuff showing up on the screen.

 

I'm going to add one more or too more things to the gameplay to make this game complete.

 

1st. Once an atom flies into a room, it will stay there and bounce all over the screen. I think I can have two of these on the screen at once, not sure yet, I need to play around with it.

 

2nd. The game never ends, you never win, this is a game based on time and how long you can last . . . period.

 

3rd. I'm going to make it so another object appears on the screen, if you can hover over it for lets say 3 seconds, you get a short shield, energy absorber, something I don't have a name for yet that will let you colide with one of the incoming atoms and remove that atom from the screen, also you get a time bonus of like 5 seconds added to your time, however you have to enable this shield/etc and it only last for a few seconds, and once its been activated and used, you have to wait for the object to appear on the screen again and get the ability again.

 

4th. I'm thinking of making the room shrink and expand constantly.

 

Those are my ideas at the moment, I think I can implement all of that with ease. I know this isn't the game I envisioned, but I don't want to try doing something that is so far out of my abilities that I just give-up. Any advice and feedback is more than welcome.

 

Here's the latest binary.

 

Atomic_Meltdown_09082011.bin

 

Thanks

Disjaukifa

Edited September 9, 2011 by disjaukifa

[+Random Terrain]

I use the The Faster, Easier Way where Stella will automatically jump to debugger mode if the scanline count goes over 262. Seems to happen right after leaving the title screen (by pressing the fire button) and at the end of the game, after pressing the fire button.

 

Also remember to let the player have the option to use the Reset switch or the fire button to start and restart the game. Here's an example:

 

http://www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-batari-basic-commands.html#sprite_missile_bankswitching_example

[disjaukifa]

I use the The Faster, Easier Way where Stella will automatically jump to debugger mode if the scanline count goes over 262. Seems to happen right after leaving the title screen (by pressing the fire button) and at the end of the game, after pressing the fire button.

 

Also remember to let the player have the option to use the Reset switch or the fire button to start and restart the game. Here's an example:

 

http://www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-batari-basic-commands.html#sprite_missile_bankswitching_example

 

I'm looking into it, though I don't have a clue what the debugger is telling me . . . I'll see if I can get that taken care of tonight.

 

As for the start with the fire and reset, I'll add it in there, was deleting massive amounts of codes to slim down un-used code in the game.

[+Random Terrain]

I'm looking into it, though I don't have a clue what the debugger is telling me . . . I'll see if I can get that taken care of tonight.

If you're talking about Stella jumping to debugger mode when you go over 262, just knowing when it happens is all you need. You can look at your bB code and track down the problem based on when your game stopped. For example, pfclear seems to eat up a lot of cycles, so it helps to have a drawscreen right after.

[disjaukifa]

I'm looking into it, though I don't have a clue what the debugger is telling me . . . I'll see if I can get that taken care of tonight.

If you're talking about Stella jumping to debugger mode when you go over 262, just knowing when it happens is all you need. You can look at your bB code and track down the problem based on when your game stopped. For example, pfclear seems to eat up a lot of cycles, so it helps to have a drawscreen right after.

 

Interesting . . . hey Random I think you just fixed my problem for me honestly, I wasn't doing two things and think that was causing the issue . . . I wasn't calling pfclear at all.

[disjaukifa]

I've got the first one fixed, however the second I can't seem to track down, I think it has to do with the score at the bottom of the screen. Is there a way to make it disappear?

[+Random Terrain]

I've got the first one fixed, however the second I can't seem to track down, I think it has to do with the score at the bottom of the screen. Is there a way to make it disappear?

If you want, you can zip up a copy of your project folder and send it to me in a PM. I just need your .bas file, and whatever it needs to compile. Make sure your game over section is clearly marked and I should be able to track down the problem.

[disjaukifa]

Special thanks goes out to Random Terrain for spending a lot of time fixing my source and making me realize that I need to research how bB works to correctly and efficiently program this game!

 

Also special thanks to PAC-MAN-RED for the new sprites that you see in the game.

 

Here is the latest binary.

 

atomic_meltdown_2011y_09m_10d_0048t.bas.bin

Edited September 10, 2011 by disjaukifa

[+SpiceWare]

Has promise!

[disjaukifa]

Hey Guys,

 

Got some game ideas for Atomic Meltdown but I want ya'lls feedback before I spend a bunch of time implementing these features.

 

1. Score - The current scoring method is time base, essential, every moment you stay alive, your game play time gets incremented. I'm thinking of changing this. I have two ideas I can implement, and you guys get to decide.

 

1. You get double points for not moving the joystick so you time can increase.
   
2. Make the game score based. Points will be awards for successful dodges, and bonus points when you get bonus items on the screen.
   

 

2. I'm going to changing how the other atoms fly through the playfield, I think I can have a ball and a missile on the screen at the same time, should I keep the oscillation that I current have or does no one really care of it?

 

3. Life bar - The more I think about it, the more I don't like that this game has a one hit and game over policy. I'm thinking of incorporating the Life Kernel and making where you can take X amount of hits before you die, but every couple of points/seconds pending what ya'll decide to do, apart of your atomic matter re-appears on the screen and you can gain some of your life back and replace damaged chunks of your atomic matter.

 

4. Power-up - If you have no damage and you have accumulate a certain number of points/seconds any item will come onto the screen that you have to hover over for X amount of time and it will give you a special ability to absorb the other flying matter in the playfield, this will give you extra points and give you X amount of time before more matter comes onto the screen.

 

Thoughts? Suggestions?

[+SpiceWare]

In regards to 2, I like the oscillation. I do agree you need more than 1 flying thru the playfield. The Atari has 3 objects ( 2 missiles and the ball) that can be used for that ( I assume you're going to use the other player for the power ups), though I do understand that bB doesn't support all 3 under some of the kernel options. If you can only use 2 of them you might want to consider using 30 Hz flicker so you could get 4 flying around.

Edited September 12, 2011 by SpiceWare

[DT Kofoed]

Just played this for the first time, and here's my thoughts:

 

I like the jiggle, I mean, oscillation. The pseudo-randomness of it is nice, and could be incorporated into play strategy, if you change the scoring slightly.

 

I like the idea of a time-based score, but not as simple as it is now. What if you gain a point for every second you're not moving, thus bringing that oscillation into play? For as long as you are actively moving the player, you get no points.

 

I also like the idea of the ball bouncing around inside, and the walls expanding and contracting as you go.

 

As for the power-up and life-bar ideas, can they be combined? The power-up lets you absorb the ball for an extra hit, but only for a brief window of time. I'm not sure how many objects you can include on-screen, but a multi-ball environment would make this absorption-power-up very useful.

 

I'm curious to see how this turns out in the end...

[disjaukifa]

Just played this for the first time, and here's my thoughts:

 

I like the jiggle, I mean, oscillation. The pseudo-randomness of it is nice, and could be incorporated into play strategy, if you change the scoring slightly.

 

I like the idea of a time-based score, but not as simple as it is now. What if you gain a point for every second you're not moving, thus bringing that oscillation into play? For as long as you are actively moving the player, you get no points.

 

I also like the idea of the ball bouncing around inside, and the walls expanding and contracting as you go.

 

As for the power-up and life-bar ideas, can they be combined? The power-up lets you absorb the ball for an extra hit, but only for a brief window of time. I'm not sure how many objects you can include on-screen, but a multi-ball environment would make this absorption-power-up very useful.

 

I'm curious to see how this turns out in the end...

 

Hey DT,

 

I haven't posted any updates on Atomic Meltdown because of Candy Catcher (a homebrew I just finished programming) however I have been working on this in the background! I'm in the middle of a complete re-write at the moment and only have a basic setup done. I've been playing with various ideas, but essentially what you are suggesting is how the game will work.

• Score will be time based on the amount of time you ARE NOT using the joystick
  
• Right now I have a new sprite from PAC-MAN-RED that I will be using that has 4 pylons on it, each time you get hit you will lose a pylon
  
• After going X amount of seconds without moving you will get an opportunity to get a pylon back onto your atomic matter
  
• If you have all 4 of your pylons and you go X amount of time, you get the super something (I haven't figured out the name yet) and you can absorb other flying matter without penalty and you get bonus points added to your score.
  
• I plan on using the life bar to control how long your power up lasts.
  
• Also if you get the super something, your piece will not jitter during that time period
  

I've got yet another game I'm working on at the moment as well called UV Eraser that I really want to get done, but my wife is bugging me to get this game done as it was my first game and I've yet to get it finished. I'll try updating the binary sometime this week and posting it!

 

Thank you for your thoughts and feedback!

 

Thanks

Disjaukifa

[DT Kofoed]

I haven't posted any updates on Atomic Meltdown because of Candy Catcher (a homebrew I just finished programming) however I have been working on this in the background!

 

My son and I had a rousing bout of Candy Catcher just yesterday, so thanks for that one!