Announcing: Kablamo (Homebrew)

[Cupcakus]

My Grandfather at 84 had some serious heart problems and despite serious odds againsed him surviving he decided on open heart surgery this past Sunday. I agreed to spend the day there with him... and as he spent most of the day unconsious, I brought my Laptop along... This is the product of my day :-)

 

I spent about an hour more on it today... Fixed the colon in the timer it looked like an = before. The game runs like garbage on the Flash Cart so I have to find where the problem is... and as such the code is so hacked up I don't have any good "In Game" screen shots to give you... so this is one I took in Z26 on my last test. And looks very close to the in game screen.

 

Mattel released a card game last month called Boom-O, riding on their old work horse Uno... I played the game early in the morning with my mom at the hospital and decided it would make a pretty interesting and easy 2600 game.

 

So here it is.... Binary should be released in a couple days when I fix the TV bug...

 

It is a "card" game, however I am not using cards at all, more like "Symbols". Each player starts the game with 3 bombs. Players play cards in turn trying not to get the bomb timer over 60 seconds... if you do bring the timer over 60 seconds... you go Kablamo! and lose a bomb.

 

A few other things can make you go Kablamo! as well... but as long as you are the last player with a bomb remaining... you are the winner!!!!

 

More on this coming soon... just wanted to whet the appetite for those who might care about this silly little thing I started in my boredom.

 

If I do make carts of it... all proceeds that I get will go to the American Heart Association...

[Xot]

Give it AI for a one-player game and I'd be interested in picking one up. Sounds like a lot of fun!

 

I LOVE 2600 Homebrew! 2003 is already shaping up to a be a great year for the hobby!

[JCroniger]

This looks like a great game!! I look forward to playing it.

 

Good luck to you and your family, you'll be in our prayers. I hope everything turns out well.

[Goochman]

Cupcakus,

 

My prayers are with you and your family..............

 

I look forward to purchasing your cart should you decide to release it.

[Cupcakus]

For those concerned, he is recovering well, and is expected home in a couple weeks.

 

This game will be 1 player only, and will only work with AI controlled opponents... Similar to other 4 player card games of the system.. (Bridge/Euchre)

[Nostalgic]

I'm certainly happy to see another card game (or at least card-like) make its way to the 2600.

 

I'm also glad to hear your grandfather is doing better.

[MegaManFan]

I'm certainly happy to see another card game (or at least card-like) make its way to the 2600.  

 

I'm also glad to hear your grandfather is doing better.

 

Ditto on both counts.

[mvigor]

Am I the only person who is completely astonished that a working 2600 game (demo?) was completed in less than 24 hours? Amazing feat Cupcakus.

[Lumpbucket]

Thats cool! If you wanted to create a full-on development diary for this game, don't forget you can do it at videobrewery.com for free

 

(ok ok... i know.. shameless plug )

[Snider-man]

Am I the only person who is completely astonished that a working 2600 game (demo?) was completed in less than 24 hours?

 

<Sniderman looks up from the stupid game he's spent 2 years working on>

 

Wha'? What was that?

[Scot from S.C.]

I too am glad that everything worked out for you. If you do come up with a one player version, that would be cool.

[Cupcakus]

Am I the only person who is completely astonished that a working 2600 game (demo?) was completed in less than 24 hours?  Amazing feat Cupcakus.

 

Yeah "demo" is a good word :-) Because when I tried it on a real TV nothing worked :-) But it was playable on PCAE :-)

 

The kernel is still shot... I am spending more time on this game than I wish... but I should have it all set today.

[Rob Mitchell]

The kernel is still shot... I am spending more time on this game than I wish... but I should have it all set today.

 

I'm amazed that you can do this so quickly .. I look forward to trying this out! What kinda control will it use? Kinda reminds me of Blackjack .. Maybe a paddle?

 

Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

[Cupcakus]

Yeah I think a paddle would translate well for this game... but I wrote it for Joystick... I may change it however because it does feel more like a paddle game :-)

 

The game also has no sound... so I'm gonna have to throw in some explosions and such...

 

Plus the game wouldn't be any fun without a secret message screen to find... :-) The trick is now to find a way to hide it from the code jockeys :-)

[Thomas Jentzsch]

The trick is now to find a way to hide it from the code jockeys :-)

NO way!

 

But I guess everybody would sign a NDA (for a free copy ).

[Cupcakus]

The trick is now to find a way to hide it from the code jockeys :-)

NO way!

 

But I guess everybody would sign a NDA (for a free copy ).

 

Ha ha :-) My goal is to keep it from the non-Thomas group I think... Trying to hide it from you will only make you more determined to find it :-)

 

But the screen will be hidden from Hack-O-Matic and other graphics rippers, and dispersed in the code enough that most people will lose interest trying to find it :-)

 

I intend to give a subtantial prize of some sort for the first person to get to the screen, and I hope to eliminate cheaters :-) It may be futile though :-(

[Cupcakus]

Sorry no release today as planned :-( I want to make it play with paddles, instead of joysticks... it just feels more like a paddle game... I realised tonight that I have no idea how to read paddles :-) So I asked the Stella List and I hope to have it figured out soon...

 

Until then.. here is a vid I took of the update I made on the bottom corner bombs. They now look a little better and have a cool bomb flicker animation... I plan to add a gradient of some sort too to make them look even more "bomby" :-)

kablam.zip

[Cupcakus]

I wanted to post some updated screen shots of the game in it's current state... I have fixed the problem in the kernel and it works great now on real hardware and emulated. Dispite a couple bugs, it is ready for release.

 

I will be posting the current version to the stella list in a couple of days, and after I get some impressions from the pros on some minor improvements, I will make the game available publicly.

 

These shots were taken in-game, and are not doctored like the above image, I lost this match :-(, but you can't win them all right :-)

[Channel 2]

Wow that is cool. Good graphics and I bet it's lots of fun. And I wish I could work that fast.

I plan to add a gradient of some sort too to make them look even more "bomby" :-)

Making the fuse gray would be cool too, but no doubt you've thought of that. Any chance of having the fuse burn down as the timer approaches 60?

 

When you wrote "bomby" I read it as "Bombay" at first. Actually, that would be a good name for the game if you're not satisfied with Kablamo. It sounds a little like Taipei, which is also a game named for a city.

[Cupcakus]

Wow that is cool.  Good graphics and I bet it's lots of fun.  And I wish I could work that fast.  

 

Making the fuse gray would be cool too, but no doubt you've thought of that.  Any chance of having the fuse burn down as the timer approaches 60?  

 

When you wrote "bomby" I read it as "Bombay" at first.  Actually, that would be a good name for the game if you're not satisfied with Kablamo.  It sounds a little like Taipei, which is also a game named for a city.

 

Well... I don't know about good graphics :-) But I had to pull some well known 2600 tricks to get 9 bit graphics for the symbols, and display the three different hand totals at the top on the same scan line in different colors... but otherwise, it is well within the 2600's capabilities.

 

I thought of grey fuses, but I really wanted each set of bombs to be personal to that player... aside from maybe a gradient, I will keep them the way they are at this time.

 

I could change it to burn the fuse down as it gets to sixty, but I think the bombs are flashy enough, and that will detract attention from the game as it is supposed to be :-)

 

Bombay would have been cool :-) I originally chose to spell Kablamo incorrectly because I wanted to fit the entire word on the screen... Had the word been any bigger I would not have been able to do that. Calling it Boom-O would have been the easiest :-) But I'm all ready stepping on copyrights as it is :-)