MMSBC 2 [DONE]

[+Gemintronic]

Okay! New binary at top. Doesn't seem to go over cycle. This is a result of another long coding session as described here:

http://www.atariage....-coding-frenzy/

 

Features:

* 3 standard enemy types

* Random boss encounter!

* After boss is defeated a new difficulty level is introduced (speed, damage taken)

* Game over screen!

 

Still missing:

* Title screen

* Title screen music

* Sound effects

* Reset and maybe difficulty select.

 

This is a two player cooperative game. There is one score for each play. When a player is grounded the morale of the city is damaged. It is in both players interest to keep eachother alive!

 

MY HI SCORE AS OF BUILD #15: 2891

[+Gemintronic]

Okay, dawgs! We are wired for sound! ROM download at top.

 

Boss also has slightly different AI. Altered the GAME OVER screen as well.

 

Please try the game and hollar back with feedback!

 

For the bB programmers:

The sound effect engine uses 3 variables

soundreq - Variable that stores the flags to play music

soundtimer0 - Variable countdown for playing audio through audio channel 0. If reduced to zero audio is stopped on channel 0

soundtimer1 - Variable countdown for playing audio through audio channel 1. If reduced to zero audio is stopped on channel 1

 

I request a sound effect with these defines

play_shiphit (soundreq{0}) - Sound to make if ship is damaged

play_objhit (soundreq{1}) - Sound to make if enemies are destroyed

play_shipfire (soundreq{2}) - Sound to make if player ship has fired a shot

play_bossfire (soundreq{3}) - Charging and fire sound for boss

 

To activate a sound all you have to do is set that sounds define to 1 and set the relevant sound timer.

play_shiphit = 1 : soundtimer0 = 25

[Cybearg]

Alright, I gave it another try now. I'm not sure what was suggested about the CTRL + P thing, because that didn't really seem to do much at all except make some of the background colors a bit lighter. For me, all the colors were kind of flicking between white, red, and maybe yellow, and that applies to pretty much everything, from the players to enemies to buildings, etc. Though that may well be intended. The player sprites were flickering between a horizontal line and a vertical line, which I think must be intended based on the screenshots above--to imply the shape of a plane.

 

So I'm not sure if that's right or wrong, but it struck me as strange.

 

As for the game itself, it was fun! I think that you have great level progression, and the enemies seem better now. Maybe I just got lucky before, but it seemed like the last time I tried, the line of 4 monsters would die even if you shot between them, but now you definitely need a collision hit. I liked how the movements became faster and more erratic and I can definitely see how a second player would be necessary, which is a good thing.

 

I was a little confused by the boss, since when I hit him, he tends to teleport around, often bouncing forward and onto my sprite, though that may have been intentional. Occasionally, he'd get "stuck" for a while off-screen, so I could hear him moving and firing, but there wasn't anything I could do about it. With that said, I like how the bosses become faster and their movements more complicated. When I lost the game after about 5 minutes of play, I really, really liked the effect you used of the city exploding, then the explosion turning into the Gave Over message. No idea how you did that, but it was very impressive!

 

So, overall, it's fun and there's a lot of good here, but some things seem like they're not intended, though that may just be me. Great job, in any case!

[+Gemintronic]

@Cybearg: Thanks for the feedback, man.

 

Actually, it was ALT + P to turn on the phosphor effect in Stella. You may have a monitor where the response rate is such that it flickers more. You caught the trick I used to form the player ships: alternate missile shapes/color every other frame to look like a multi colored sprite - in this case a basic plane.

 

The game over screen scrolls the screen up (pfscroll up). I turned the unfortunate side effect of the screen rocking as it scrolls into a benefit: it looks like the aftermath of an explosion.

 

The Space Pickle boss may need some fine tuning. He does lurk. He should also peek out and attack after awhile.

 

In this last build I forgot to let the player press fire to exit the GAME OVER screen. Also, after the GAME OVER screen it retains the last games difficulty level! After 5 boss encounters this really makes the game too hectic

[+Gemintronic]

New game ROM at top.

 

* Random terrain (randomized cityscape)

* Improved boss AI

* Select difficulty choice noise

[+Gemintronic]

THE VERSION 1.0 (DONE) GAME ROM IS AT TOP!!!!

 

It took a 7 hour coding marathon to achieve 1.0 Folks! Title screen and music are integrated. Looks pretty snazzy to me.

 

Obtained permission to use the Louisville Arcade Expo logo from Matt Fleitz (one of the ArcadeRX organizers)

I think I can go ahead and speak for the fellow organizers of the Louisville Arcade Expo and say - Go right ahead, this sounds awesome!

 

Title screen artwork was converted and retouched from Ricky Henrys art assets. The ArcadeRX logo basically had to be done by hand.

 

It's pretty darn close to mid February (the deadline). I'll give it a day or so to see if something disastrous is found. Then, Ricky will order the carts from Albert for the Expo in March ^_^

[Cybearg]

Awesome! Looks pretty great to me! Did you make the music yourself?

 

Have you been testing it with the Harmony? How does it play on a real 2600?

[+Gemintronic]

Awesome! Looks pretty great to me! Did you make the music yourself?

 

Have you been testing it with the Harmony? How does it play on a real 2600?

 

I need to test it on the Harmony one more time. Title screen music is mine. It's been sort of my signature on many titles including Nitebear on Sleepystreet, CyberWilly and the original MMSBC.

[iesposta]

You can cheat with the boss. When it is all the way left, you can take your ship all the way right and fire will wrap around and hit the boss.

[+Gemintronic]

You can cheat with the boss. When it is all the way left, you can take your ship all the way right and fire will wrap around and hit the boss.

 

Fixed. I hope Thanks iesposta!!

[Cybearg]

Hm. Maybe it's just me, but in my first attempt at playing the latest version, the first boss came up and hugged the left side of the screen, so it was impossible to shoot him.

[+Gemintronic]

Hm. Maybe it's just me, but in my first attempt at playing the latest version, the first boss came up and hugged the left side of the screen, so it was impossible to shoot him.

 

He follows certain player ships. If you left one ship to the far left he'll grind him to smeethereens! Eventually I do have him reset to about the middle of the screen, though.

[+Gemintronic]

Just did some last minute "testing" with a friend and it's ROCK SOLID on a real Atari 2600. The final touch was an additional explosion graphic effect in the GAME OVER screen.

 

Emailed Ricky Henry with the last, final revision and told him it's as ready as it will ever be. Hopefully he'll get with Albert real quick to get the carts produced before March.

 

Managed to make myself sick staying up late every day of the week. Was worth it. I honestly never enjoyed a two player game until I made one!

[+Gemintronic]

Had some extra carts commissioned for family members and Loisville Arcade Expo (just in case). Hadn't heard back from Ricky on production from his end. Better safe than sorry!

 

 

Another fabulous job from CPUWIZ.

 

In other news. Some press is coming in:

Allgamers.fr: http://allgamers.fr/...sur-atari-2600/

MO5.COM: http://mag.mo5.com/a...atari-vcs-2600/

GBATemp.Net: http://gbatemp.net/t...omebrew.343052/

Retrozentrale.net: http://www.retrozentrale.net/?p=12658

PDROMs.de http://pdroms.de/atari2600/m-m-s-b-c-ii-a2600-game

 

Here's a machine translated excerpt from MO5.COM

Have time constraints sometimes good. Many homebrew projects that flourish on AtariAge in particular, not only is it tedious to mention all, but most remain at the stage of project unfinished ... But MMSBC 2, it is well and truly over and downloads to address this . I must say that this new title by Jason Santuci TheLoon alias rather subject to scattering , is a "control" the designer Ricky Henry to promote his comic, Monster Management Security Bureau of Cincinnati. Presented for the first time in Cincinnati Comic Expo in 2010, the graphic novel will reappear in Louisville Arcade Expo in March, which presupposes not only that the Atari 2600 is ready in time, but it refers to the largest city Kentucky. This is done because this shoot 'em up playable two together puts you in the shoes of the defenders of the city.

 

Is anyone set up to upload a YouTube video for this? What's the best way to go about doing that?

[Cybearg]

Wow... That's pretty amazing.

 

As for uploading, you'll need a recorder of some kind. I take it by your question that you don't have FRAPS or something similar? It'd be best if you could get someone who had a registered version to do it. I'd offer, since I have registered versions of FRAPS and Bandicam, but I'd probably suck so bad at trying to play, I'd make it look bad.

 

Kudos for all the news! That's pretty awesome.

[+Gemintronic]

Well, word is beginning to spread across the Internets some more. I posted on this project at TIGSource (a major indie game dev. forum). While I haven't gotten a ton of feedback yet other web sites picked up on the story. Unfortunately, I worded the attribution confusingly so that the game news sites started to take my name off the game.

 

I didn't have the imagination to come up with a wonderful comic like M.M.S.B.C. and conversely Ricky Henry shouldn't be blamed for any deficiencies in my game design, artwork or music.

 

I've taken steps to get the latest batch of news sites to clarify the games attribution but I think this is a good lesson! Be clear about your work and that of others. In any case, any exposure is good exposure for me, Ricky and Chad. Carry on!

[+Gemintronic]

Made myself a T-shirt for the Louisville Arcade Expo. Figured I'd show off a bit since I'll be on the panel for Ricky Henry's "Pages to Pixels" seminar!

 

PAGES TO PIXELS - From the earliest days of Spider-Man on the Atari 2600, to the crimson colored cartridge of Acclaims adaptation of Maximum Carnage during the 16-bit era, all the way to modern classics such as Batman: Arkham Asylum - artist/designer Ricky Henry takes you through the history of comic book-to-video game adaptations and the challenges of adapting his current series, Monster Management Security Bureau of Cincinnati to an Atari 2600 game.

 

 

MMSBC 2600 will be available to try and purchase for the Atari 2600 at Ricky's own BITPOP booth, along with other retro-inspired goods, including the MMSBC graphic novel series. But wait! Exclusive to the Louisville Arcade Expo 2013, will be an EXTREMELY limited number of Atari carts (we're talking maybe 5 or less!) produced exclusively for the show! That's right, this will be your only chance to own MMSBL - Monster Management Security Bureau of Louisville for the Atari 2600!

 

Joining Ricky is game developer Jason Santuci; the developer of M.M.S.B.C. and M.M.S.B.C. 2 for BIT"POP.

[+Gemintronic]

Got back late yesterday from the Louisville Aracede Expo. Got a chance to talk about M.M.S.B.C. with Ricky Henry. Good times. Actually, BOTH of us were royally sick. I'm still quite out of it today. No pics or anything yet.

 

The Pages to Pixels. Seminar went well. Ricky explained the comic book side of things whilst I answered the development questions. Towards the end we had a quiz towit I posited "What was the name of the compiler I used for M.M.S.B.C. II". A teenage kid answered "Batari BASIC!" correctly and Ricky handed him some comics. Unbeknownst to anyone I had stashed a M.M.S.B.C. II cart in my pocket and handed it to the kid. His eyes lit up like a xmas tree! I really hope this put his interest in making games into overdrive.

 

I also got to schmooze with fellow AtariAge member MattG/Snyper2099. He noticed I was going an kindly offered to hand-build some carts for me at the last minute. Thankfully, I was already covered. It's nice to know the community looks out of its own, though.

 

Didn't get to stay for the M.M.S.B.C. tournament. They made a freakin' sweet arcade joystick throphy with a screenshot of my game laminated on its surface. VERY, very good craftsmanship.

 

I had a chance to give away more copies of the game too. One went to a father who encourages family time in his basement with the trusty 2600. Another went to a vendor who was out of luck and had to sell some of the private collection. I gave him a signed copy for a hot slice of pizza. Perhaps I got a better deal since the pizzia shop was selling mediums for $30 bucks . The last cart went to the kind soul to lent his 2600 as a hands-on exhibit. I signed a cart thanking him and left it playing. Not the smartest move on my part since it could have gotten snatched. Thankfully, the organizers told me he indeed received the gift and was grateful.

 

If anyone else managed to go - or have any other comments about the game - shout out here!

[GroovyBee]

Actually, BOTH of us were royally sick. I'm still quite out of it today. No pics or anything yet.

 

No pictures of sick unless its Atari rainbow coloured .

[Cybearg]

[+Gemintronic]

Yeah. Six hours in a car with borderline bronchitis will do that to you. I brought along my netbook in case the urge to code hit me. Might have happened if I wasn't choking on my own phlegm.

[toymailman]

Just saw this thread. Any carts left?

[+Gemintronic]

Just saw this thread. Any carts left?

 

I would contact bitpop.

http://shopbitpop.com/

 

I gave them a Cincinnati edition that NO ONE at the ArcadeRX ever saw. They still have copies of the original M.M.S.B.C. too.

[toymailman]

I would contact bitpop.

http://shopbitpop.com/

 

I gave them a Cincinnati edition that NO ONE at the ArcadeRX ever saw. They still have copies of the original M.M.S.B.C. too.

Thank you! I just ordered a "Gold Edition" version.

[+Gemintronic]

Thank you! I just ordered a "Gold Edition" version.

 

Thank you Er, you know that the Gold Edition is the first MMSBC game and not this one, right? Both are two player simultaneous games. MMSBC is more competitive.