retroillucid Posted May 8, 2013 Author Share Posted May 8, 2013 Did I ever said that I really like this guy? Steve, keep up the great works! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Yurkie Posted May 8, 2013 Share Posted May 8, 2013 Hey everyone! Glad to see some interest in my game! The game itself is finished, I'm currently working on the final touches, like putting a little more sounds/music. I'm glad you people liked the intro! There will be no editor in this version. The reason being that I needed the space for the 150 original levels. The SG-1000 version had only 80 levels and they were 30x10 (300) tiles. My game have all the original 150 levels with 28x16 (448) tiles. Uncompressed, like the original game, it didn't fit at all in 32k ROMs. After I compressed the level data (simple RLE type compression), it didn't fit either, so something had to go. I figured people would enjoy 150 levels more than a level editor that can only keep one level at a time in RAM with no (easy) way to save them. So here I am, game's almost finished, I'm just filling up the 400 bytes I still have left with music and sounds, and maybe some other things. Like someone pointed out in the thread, the game is really fast, it runs at 60fps. I'm really proud of that! So far, I haven't seen any slow downs on the real Colecovision, even with 5 enemies on the screen with their original path finding AI intact. I just optimized the AI coding a lot. But it can be a little difficult to navigate sometimes so I'm planning on adding a difficulty setting. I'll probably just wait a frame or 2 for the slower setting, like they did with Jumpman Junior (the speed you choose in that game decides how many frames the game wait in between each screen drawing). Anyway, back to programming! Steve 150 levels is very impressive! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cimerians Posted May 8, 2013 Share Posted May 8, 2013 Awesome, I would definitely get this. If there is a speed setting I think everyone in the house can play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixelboy Posted May 8, 2013 Share Posted May 8, 2013 Awesome, I would definitely get this. If there is a speed setting I think everyone in the house can play. Yes, a speed setting would be a definite plus, because I generally suck at this game. The enemy characters always catch up to me eventually, even on the first level of the game, because I don't really have time to plan out escape routes when things get hectic. I know this is the kind of skill that a player develops with practice, but really, who has the time to play that much? I'd rather be able to slow down the game manually somehow, and just enjoy the game even if it reduces the challenge a little, especially given that there will be 150 levels to tackle. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NightSprinter Posted May 8, 2013 Share Posted May 8, 2013 Yes, yes, and yes Pixelboy. As stated this would be a great present for my grandmom. The fact she could make it slower as needed will help the difficulty. Also, what about the two cheats (despite they disqualify score rankings in the game)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoctorTom Posted May 11, 2013 Share Posted May 11, 2013 Is there any way an SGM version can/will be made that might allow for level creation and saving? That was always my favorite part of the game, back in the day. I made some sick levels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tabachanker2 Posted August 1, 2013 Share Posted August 1, 2013 Hey everyone, I just sent the final version of the game to JF today. I spent the last 5 days testing all the features and levels to be sure everything is in working order. If you're still interested, here's what I've added to the game since last time: Speed selector. You can choose between fast (default) or slow speed on the title screen or anytime during the game with the "#" key. I put "Fast" as the default speed because it's really the best way to play. It's more exciting and satisfying. Even if you think you're not good enough, once you go fast, I'm pretty sure you'll never return to slow again! Anyway, the choice is there throughout the game. Different colored floors. Each 10 levels completed will change the colors of the floors and status bar. This will keep things interesting. A demo after the title screen. "Continue" option at game over screen. You can always resume the game at the last level you reached after losing all your lives. Your score is reset though. With this and the "level select" cheat, you can play any of the 150 levels at anytime. Enemy walks slower now. Not by much! But I made it so the timing is exactly like the C64 version. In that one, the more enemies on screen at a time, the slower they walk. With 2 enemies, they walk half of your speed. With 5 enemies, they walk 2/5 of your speed. The rest is in between. Screen savers everywhere! Well, everywhere the game is waiting for a user input (pause menu, level select cheat, etc.). Screen saver itself is nothing fancy, just a blank screen. Just trying to save those old CRTs!!! There's 8 melodies that play (chosen at random) when you grab the last gold. If you're a fan of metal music, you may recognize some riffs in there! Also they can play on 3 different musical scales to keep things interesting. Stats on game over. The game over screen now display the final score, the last level played and the amount of levels passed. That last one is interesting when you complete the 150th level because the game continues with the levels chosen at random. Also interesting if you use a certain "random levels" cheat... You can cheat freely (bypass a level, add lives, level select, etc.). The only difference is that the score changes colors to indicate that it has been obtained through a none conventional method. So, as you can tell, I've been really busy those last months. I hope you'll enjoy the game! 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixelboy Posted August 1, 2013 Share Posted August 1, 2013 Can't wait to add this to my collection! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youki Posted August 1, 2013 Share Posted August 1, 2013 It smells the Killer app!!!.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted August 1, 2013 Share Posted August 1, 2013 Wonderful news. This is absolutely the best possible way to do a conversion - improve it in any way possible. This will be a definite purchase for me. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newcoleco Posted August 1, 2013 Share Posted August 1, 2013 Wonderful news. This is absolutely the best possible way to do a conversion - improve it in any way possible. This will be a definite purchase for me. Totaly agree! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retroillucid Posted August 1, 2013 Author Share Posted August 1, 2013 A WHOLE BUNCH OF PURE FUN!! .... Coming....VERY....Soon! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JEFF31 Posted August 3, 2013 Share Posted August 3, 2013 I played this game and Spelunker on my C-64 a ton way back when... Can't wait to try this on my Coleco! Thanks Steve / JF. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bennybingo Posted August 3, 2013 Share Posted August 3, 2013 A WHOLE BUNCH OF PURE FUN!! .... Coming....VERY....Soon! Thank you for the very special surprise included with my Anniversary edition ColecoVision console! ...pics to follow...(and yes folks, this post does belong in this thread ) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bennybingo Posted August 3, 2013 Share Posted August 3, 2013 I am now going to go and fire up my new CV...can't wait to try this!!! Thank you again Retroillucid!!! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retroillucid Posted August 3, 2013 Author Share Posted August 3, 2013 I am now going to go and fire up my new CV...can't wait to try this!!! Thank you again Retroillucid!!! Have fun, Ben! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIAD Posted August 3, 2013 Share Posted August 3, 2013 I am now going to go and fire up my new CV...can't wait to try this!!! Thank you again Retroillucid!!! J-F must have been drunk when he wrote the name on the label... it's upside down! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaztee Posted August 23, 2013 Share Posted August 23, 2013 (edited) Any sign of a release date yet?? Edited August 23, 2013 by Gaztee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retroillucid Posted August 23, 2013 Author Share Posted August 23, 2013 Any sign of a release date yet?? Very soon! This is for the next batch of new games Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoctorTom Posted September 3, 2013 Share Posted September 3, 2013 Could you tell me if "dig left" is mapped to the left button and "dig right" the right button? That would of course make all the sense in the world, but I would like to know -- having to face in the direction you want to dig (as in Atari 8 bit) ruins the gameplay, especially at higher levels/speeds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tabachanker2 Posted September 3, 2013 Share Posted September 3, 2013 Could you tell me if "dig left" is mapped to the left button and "dig right" the right button? That would of course make all the sense in the world, but I would like to know -- having to face in the direction you want to dig (as in Atari 8 bit) ruins the gameplay, especially at higher levels/speeds. Yep! Press left to dig left, press right to dig right. It's probably the one thing that kept me from fully enjoying the C64 version. Coutless times I died because I couldn't position myself properly for a dig. It was especially aggravating when you had to dig a couple adjacent holes: dig first hole, go back then push forward just a bit, dig another hole and repeat. Many times I would overshoot the "push forward a bit" and end up digging the same hole I just dug before. Not anymore in my Colecovision version! You can easily run in a direction while digging holes in the other. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixelboy Posted September 3, 2013 Share Posted September 3, 2013 Press left to dig left, press right to dig right. Careful how you phrase that, Steve. Some people may read "Press JOYSTICK left to dig left, press JOYSTICK right to dig right." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tabachanker2 Posted September 3, 2013 Share Posted September 3, 2013 Careful how you phrase that, Steve. Some people may read "Press JOYSTICK left to dig left, press JOYSTICK right to dig right." Duly noted! I'm not writing comments in my code anymore! Must be more specific!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoctorTom Posted September 3, 2013 Share Posted September 3, 2013 That's great news about the control! Please put me down for a cart! One more question...I was reading about the background music. Is there an option to turn it off? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixelboy Posted September 3, 2013 Share Posted September 3, 2013 That's great news about the control! Please put me down for a cart! One more question...I was reading about the background music. Is there an option to turn it off? Yeah, he wants to play in the middle of the night, and doesn't want to wake up the wife and kids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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