Cave Run

[+Random Terrain]

Hey RT - I made a quick change to change the speed of the player. Flip the left difficulty switch to A to make the player move faster. I'll add it as an choice on the options screen when I get some more time, I want to re-do that screen (and the titlescreen) anyway.

 

That's better. Thanks.

[+Atarius Maximus]

I made a few updates today, the first post in this thread was updated with the changes. There's a new titlescreen I made using the titlescreen kernel. I also updated the options screen to get rid of the flicker and added two more options to the menu - random start and player speed. Random start will start you in different areas of the map.

 

Steve

[RevEng]

Looks good!

 

I like the random option, though it seems to start you on the same screen each time.

[+Gemintronic]

Looks good!

 

I like the random option, though it seems to start you on the same screen each time.

 

Apparently it's Opposite Day! For instance, my cooworkers don't take me seriously when I am. Strangely, when I laugh they all stare in my direction with a very serious look. No one appreciates the humor in smoking electronics these days.

[+Atarius Maximus]

Looks good!

 

I like the random option, though it seems to start you on the same screen each time.

 

I did some research on different randomization options, and none of them seem to be as "random" as I would like. I closed and restarted the game dozens of times to see how it worked, and it seemed to work ok but not like I was expecting. Any advice on the best way to generate a random number between 0-30 would be appreciated.

 

Steve

[RevEng]

I see the problem I was running into, which is different from the one you describe... you're using "reboot" for restarting the game, which destroys the random seed.

 

If you're going to use reboot, you need to seed the random number generator. The usual way to do this is to include a frame counter in the titlescreen and use it as a seed for rand...

 

 dim rseed=rand
 gosub titledrawscreen
 counter=counter+1:if counter=0 then counter=1: rem we can't seed rand with 0
 if joy0fire || switchreset then AUDV0=0:AUDV1=0:rseed=counter:goto opt bank8

 

 

I did some research on different randomization options, and none of them seem to be as "random" as I would like. I closed and restarted the game dozens of times to see how it worked, and it seemed to work ok but not like I was expecting. Any advice on the best way to generate a random number between 0-30 would be appreciated.

 

My own method would just be to do something like...

 

getr31
 temp1=rand%31 : rem only use the bottom 5 bits, for a range of 0-31
 if temp1>30 then goto getr31 : rem if it's 31, get another number

[+Atarius Maximus]

I see the problem I was running into, which is different from the one you describe... you're using "reboot" for restarting the game, which destroys the random seed.

 

If you're going to use reboot, you need to seed the random number generator. The usual way to do this is to include a frame counter in the titlescreen and use it as a seed for rand...

 

dim rseed=rand
gosub titledrawscreen
counter=counter+1:if counter=0 then counter=1: rem we can't seed rand with 0
if joy0fire || switchreset then AUDV0=0:AUDV1=0:rseed=counter:goto opt bank8

 

That worked perfectly, thank you for explaining it. I didn't know that a reboot destroyed the random seed.

 

My own method would just be to do something like...

 

getr31
temp1=rand%31 : rem only use the bottom 5 bits, for a range of 0-31
if temp1>30 then goto getr31 : rem if it's 31, get another number

 

Thanks for that too, I used that code as well. The random start option now actually works. I'll update the first post shortly with the new bin & source (the source was also cleaned up and commented).

 

I made a few other changes too. I cleaned up & redesigned the options screen again, and fixed a bug I found that was causing the scanline count to jump up to 282 on one of the screens. I also changed the map screen, as it was using 272 scanlines. Instead of showing all the remaining treasures on the screen at once, I changed it so you only see the remaining treasures for the row of the map that you're on. That droped it back to 262.

 

The only other problem I can see is a slight bump in the scanline count from 262 to 263-264 when you're walking. I'm not sure exactly what's causing that, and I haven't tested this on real hardware yet to see if it's a big problem.

 

Steve

Edited August 2, 2012 by Atarius Maximus

[KevinMos3]

This is looking great! The 2600 needs more good multi-screen platformers. I'm glad you have the invincible option available though because that bat is merciless.

[+Atarius Maximus]

This is looking great! The 2600 needs more good multi-screen platformers. I'm glad you have the invincible option available though because that bat is merciless.

 

Thanks! I agree, the bat is very challenging to avoid. I haven't been able to beat the game yet. Maybe I should make the default bat speed a bit slower?

[+Atarius Maximus]

This is looking great! The 2600 needs more good multi-screen platformers. I'm glad you have the invincible option available though because that bat is merciless.

 

I just clicked on the link in your signature and checked out your hacks. I love how you changed my old Drag Race hack, it looks much better than my original! I did that one way back in 2003, I used the old DOS based hacking tools back then (edit/showgfx) and it took me forever to get it right. Hard to believe it's been that long - I joined AtariAge in late August 2002, it's almost my 10 year anniversary. Adventure Enhanced looks fantastic as well. Nice work!

[KevinMos3]

...the bat is very challenging to avoid. I haven't been able to beat the game yet. Maybe I should make the default bat speed a bit slower?

 

Maybe! I've only had limited time to play it since I've been gone this summer and just returned home recently, but I've not yet finished it even with god mode. I got close, but I've ended up getting stuck in a place that I can't jump out of... (the price I pay for being invincible).

[KevinMos3]

I just clicked on the link in your signature and checked out your hacks. I love how you changed my old Drag Race hack, it looks much better than my original! I did that one way back in 2003, I used the old DOS based hacking tools back then (edit/showgfx) and it took me forever to get it right. Hard to believe it's been that long - I joined AtariAge in late August 2002, it's almost my 10 year anniversary. Adventure Enhanced looks fantastic as well. Nice work!

 

Thank you very much! I'm honored!

 

I just finished the game... with invincibility of course. I like your end screen. I had to use player speed = high because there's one screen where I couldn't reach a dot. It's the screen where I would keep trying until I would end up getting stuck. I don't have a screenshot of it because I've been playing on my Harmony cart. Maybe it's possible to reach at low speed & I just suck... I don't know. hehe

 

Just curious: do you plan to keep the sprites and playfield a single color or do you want to go with multi-colors later?

Edited August 9, 2012 by KevinMos3

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

We'll be checking out Cave Run on tomorrow's (Fri Aug 21) ZeroPage Homebrew stream LIVE on Twitch at 12PM PT | 3PM ET | 7PM GMT! Hope everyone can watch!

 

Twitch Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/

 

Games:

• Deep Space (2020 Exclusive WIP Premiere) by Leandro Camara (@HSW3ET)
• Cave Run (2012) by Steve Engelhardt (@Atarius Maximus)
• Bert (2020 WIP) by Chris Read (@atari2600land)
• Barnstorming (1982 Activision Patch Attempt) by Steve Cartwright

 

(SET VIDEO TO 1080P60 FOR FULL QUALITY)

 

Edited August 24, 2020 by ZeroPage Homebrew

[+Atarius Maximus]

On 8/20/2020 at 1:54 PM, ZeroPage Homebrew said:

We'll be checking out Cave Run on tomorrow's (Fri Aug 21) ZeroPage Homebrew stream LIVE on Twitch at 12PM PT | 3PM ET | 7PM GMT! Hope everyone can watch!

 

Twitch Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/

 

Games:

• Deep Space (2020 Exclusive WIP Premiere) by Leandro Camara (@HSW3ET)
• Cave Run (2012) by Steve Engelhardt (@Atarius Maximus)
• Bert (2020 WIP) by Chris Read (@atari2600land)
• Barnstorming (1982 Activision Patch Attempt) by Steve Cartwright

 

(SET VIDEO TO 1080P60 FOR FULL QUALITY)

 

Thanks for featuring Cave Run.  I watched most of the broadcast tonight until I was pulled away.  I noticed you got stuck on the screen with the pit.  To get past that you need to jump and time it so you grab the treasure as you're jumping, if you fall into the pit there is no other option than death.  I suppose I shouldn't have designed that screen in such a way that it gives you hope! You have no choice but to fall in and lose a life.

 

You were correct when you mentioned that it uses the same game engine as Gingerbread Man.  Fred Quimby released that code and I re-used it for this game.  I never did get back around to fixing the scanline issue to make it compatible with real hardware.  I'm not sure I will at this point, but you never know.

 

Steve

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

3 minutes ago, Atarius Maximus said:

Thanks for featuring Cave Run.

Hi Steve! You're so welcome, it's a great platformer with extremely creative levels. ? I've put it on my list of games to revisit in the future and try to complete! Thanks for the tip for the pit level.

 

I was able to play the game on the show using Stella which ignores the linecount issues, so I'll do that again next time I play.

 

- James