Wickeycolumbus Posted May 8, 2012 Share Posted May 8, 2012 Hey guys, I posted this in the homebrew section a while ago, but I thought I'd post here too to get some more feedback (you can view the original thread here). Muncher is a 2600 game that I've been working on on and off over the past year or so. Basically, you play as a square that has to collect all the "food" on screen while avoiding being caught by aliens. Getting food adds to your score, though if you stay away from the food for too long, you loose some points. You can hold the joystick button to move faster for a limited amount of time, and eating food will refill your power to move faster. The current game modes are: Game 1 - one enemy bouncing off the walls Game 2 - one "smart" enemy Game 3 - two enemies bouncing off the walls Game 4 - one "smart" enemy, one bouncing off the walls Games 5-8 are the same as 1-4, though you only have one life rather than the 3 you have in the previous ones, with no bonus lives every 4 boards you clear. The game is nearing completion, and I am looking for suggestions on how to improve it before I call it finished. If you have any suggestions at all, I'd love to hear them! Here are some things that I am thinking about doing: * Fix kernel issues (mid line graphics glitches, top and bottom row heights of the 'board') * Different, possibly animated alien graphics * Have aliens start slower, then increase in speed over time * A main mode that combines the features of the other various modes And of course, here is the current ROM for you all to try out Muncher.bin 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flammingcowz Posted May 8, 2012 Share Posted May 8, 2012 First high score I think it would be good to add a way to get more lives at a certain score, if there is already a way, I didn't find it. And maybe some type of easter egg for people to find. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickeycolumbus Posted May 8, 2012 Author Share Posted May 8, 2012 I think it would be good to add a way to get more lives at a certain score, if there is already a way, I didn't find it. And maybe some type of easter egg for people to find. There actually is already, in games 1-4 you get an extra life every 4 boards you clear. Maybe I should make this happen sooner? I'll be thinking about an easter egg... this was originally going to be a 2K game, but since I've gone up to 4K, there is plenty of room to put one in Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flammingcowz Posted May 8, 2012 Share Posted May 8, 2012 It's already hard enough to get 10k, that should be the an extra life. Or maybe 15k so that it isn't too easy. Level 4 is just insane Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickeycolumbus Posted May 8, 2012 Author Share Posted May 8, 2012 It's already hard enough to get 10k, that should be the an extra life. Or maybe 15k so that it isn't too easy. Level 4 is just insane It's sort of hard to make the extra lives occur at point marks, since you can loose points. The 4th board is at around 5000 points, as long as you don't loose too many points along the way. Maybe I should make it every 3 boards? Or 2? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeusVult Posted May 8, 2012 Share Posted May 8, 2012 This sounds a lot like the game Number Munchers or Super Munchers. I played it on a Power Mac back in middle school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flammingcowz Posted May 8, 2012 Share Posted May 8, 2012 I finally made it to the 4th level and got the extra life. Also found out that the alien gets a lot bigger, nice touch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted May 8, 2012 Share Posted May 8, 2012 But I wanted this to be 2k! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickeycolumbus Posted May 8, 2012 Author Share Posted May 8, 2012 Yeah, 2K would have been cool, just don't want to limit the ROM size if it means a compromise in gameplay. The game is currently more than able to fit into 2K as it stands, though I'd like to add a few more things, hopefully resulting in a better game. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MagitekAngel Posted May 9, 2012 Share Posted May 9, 2012 Next high score! Is it cheating if I just ran it on my Netbook? I suppose it'd be easy to shoop the image up, so I guess you'll just have to take my word for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickeycolumbus Posted May 30, 2012 Author Share Posted May 30, 2012 I'll be working on this over the next few days. Feedback appreciated Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickeycolumbus Posted June 6, 2012 Author Share Posted June 6, 2012 Here's an updated ROM. There is now only one game mode that has several 'waves', each having different enemy/playfield configurations. After every 4 boards you clear, you get an additional life and move on to the next wave. The spoiler box below describes all the waves: Wave 1: Same as old Game 1 Wave 2: Wide enemy Wave 3: Smart enemy Wave 4: two normal enemies Wave 5: one normal enemy, board flashes. Wave 6: same as wave 5 but with two normal enemies Wave 7: board doesn't flash, two wide enemies Wave 8: board flashes, two wide enemies You can choose which wave you want to start on using the select switch before starting a game. This is mostly for play testing/debugging purposes and will most probably be removed from the final game. Any suggestions are very welcome MuncherAlt.bin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickeycolumbus Posted June 6, 2012 Author Share Posted June 6, 2012 Thought I'd do a quick bump, since I posted the update pretty late. I'll probably be working on this some more tonight, so feedback would be great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrekMD Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Fun game and not easy. In any case, whenever I lose my last life, the game takes several seconds before it responds to the fire button to restart. I don't know if this is intentional or if it is an issue with emulation. I'm using the latest version of Stella. I like being able to speed up for a limited time with the fire button as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickeycolumbus Posted June 6, 2012 Author Share Posted June 6, 2012 Fun game and not easy. In any case, whenever I lose my last life, the game takes several seconds before it responds to the fire button to restart. I don't know if this is intentional or if it is an issue with emulation. I'm using the latest version of Stella. I like being able to speed up for a limited time with the fire button as well. Thanks Yes, the delay is intentional. It was put in place so you don't accidentally start a new game before you see your final score. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrekMD Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 OK cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickeycolumbus Posted June 7, 2012 Author Share Posted June 7, 2012 Can anyone beat my score? Got to the 7th wave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickeycolumbus Posted June 20, 2012 Author Share Posted June 20, 2012 New ROM, atari2600land will be happy to know that it's back to 2K Let me know what you guys think! MuncherAlt.bin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted June 20, 2012 Share Posted June 20, 2012 Glad to see it down to 2k again. I do have a suggestion, though: After you die, the face picks a certain location to start out of again. But if you die again before the face gets to the other side of the screen, it's the same location and diagonal direction. Perhaps this could be changed to make it more random? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted June 20, 2012 Share Posted June 20, 2012 Also another thing I noticed, if you die on wave 2, it begins a new game on wave 2. shouldn't it begin a new game at the beginning, wave 1? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickeycolumbus Posted June 20, 2012 Author Share Posted June 20, 2012 Glad to see it down to 2k again. I do have a suggestion, though: After you die, the face picks a certain location to start out of again. But if you die again before the face gets to the other side of the screen, it's the same location and diagonal direction. Perhaps this could be changed to make it more random? As it stands, the enemy(s) should have the same starting location and direction every time the game starts. More random in location or direction? Both? It would definitely make the game harder, though it seems that many people think it's hard enough. Implementing a "random" number generator would also take up a good deal of ROM (which I don't currently have if I stick with 2K). Also another thing I noticed, if you die on wave 2, it begins a new game on wave 2. shouldn't it begin a new game at the beginning, wave 1? Yeah, that definitely isn't intentional, thanks for catching that. The attached ROM is fixed. MuncherAlt.bin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted June 20, 2012 Share Posted June 20, 2012 OK, yeah, it is pretty hard now. The face reminds me of Phanto from Super Mario Bros. 2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legend Posted June 20, 2012 Share Posted June 20, 2012 Why so important for it to be 2k? Just curious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted June 20, 2012 Share Posted June 20, 2012 Why so important for it to be 2k? Just curious. Because I like the fact that if given enough talent, even now, people can really make really good games if given just 2k to work with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickeycolumbus Posted June 20, 2012 Author Share Posted June 20, 2012 Why so important for it to be 2k? Just curious. Because I like the fact that if given enough talent, even now, people can really make really good games if given just 2k to work with. And at this point, I was only around 60 bytes over 2K, so I thought I may as well try to trim it down some rather than waste the rest of the space. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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