chesterbr Posted March 31, 2014 Author Share Posted March 31, 2014 Btw why 2048 and not Threes for this version? 2048 is definitely PD, not so sure about Threes. 2048 is MIT-licensed (and so is 2048 2600, for the record), meaning you can do almost anything with it, as long as you credit the source. Threes is pretty much the opposite of that. In fact, the authors are *very* disappointed with the attention that 2048 got, in particular considering their game was a year-round work and 2048 was, in Cirulli's words, "done in a weekend". See: http://asherv.com/threes/threemails/#letter My personal opinions: a) As someone that also earns a living from for-profit game products: they are missing the strategic opportunity of making their own official web version of Threes - working on non-mobile only and opening the purchase page when on mobile. Would have cannibalized their product *before* 2048, but right now they are simply money at the table. I've purchased Threes to compare, but I'd suspect there is a huge amount of people playing 2048 on their mobiles that would pop the $2 to try the "alternative") b) As someone who doesn't want to go (much) off-topic: I overall find 2048 better (a defined goal, difficulty more balanced, the nerd factor of "powers of 2", the meme factor). And we've seen mechanics transfers that innovate *way* less than that and are not really seen as "rip-offs". The textbook case: Candy Crush, but I also like to mention Nimble Quest, that goes as far as using the game that they got the mechanics from as the first screen on their tutorial (see screenshot) And now, back to Atari... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted March 31, 2014 Share Posted March 31, 2014 I have read some on their website and I think they have a point with what they call "broken game".2048 is not completely broken, but you can achieve pretty high scores without a real challenge. Only in the very end the game gets much more challenging. The difficulty curve is exponential.Threes provides a challenge from the beginning. The difficulty increases much more linear. What I am missing is a score display while playing and a high score.So IMO overall the game design of Threes is a bit better. 2048 has few more features. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted March 31, 2014 Share Posted March 31, 2014 Any suggestions on where/how/when to display the high score in a way that does not confuse the players? (and doesn't involve a completely different score kernel or tiles? ) Plenty of options there. Either you add another row, dedicated for the high score. Or you switch between score and high score when the game is over. Also you could change the score color when the current high score value has been passed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chesterbr Posted April 3, 2014 Author Share Posted April 3, 2014 Another day, another small improvement: now the game has a game over "explosion" and some minor improvements (P1 fire button starts two-player game; either fire button restarts the game after a "game over"; fixed title screen frame count). Get latest at https://github.com/chesterbr/2048-2600 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chesterbr Posted April 3, 2014 Author Share Posted April 3, 2014 Plenty of options there. Either you add another row, dedicated for the high score. Or you switch between score and high score when the game is over. Also you could change the score color when the current high score value has been passed. I did an experiment with two lines, but found it pretty confusing to have two scores on the screen. Switching when the game is over may work fine, and changing the color to indicate a record was broken is also nice. Don't think I'll put either in two player mode (because your focus there is comparing to the other player, in particular at the end), but that's fine, because multiplayer scores tend to be lower anyway. Thanks for the suggestions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayhem Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 I have read some on their website and I think they have a point with what they call "broken game". 2048 is not completely broken, but you can achieve pretty high scores without a real challenge. Only in the very end the game gets much more challenging. The difficulty curve is exponential. ^this. I had actually figured this mostly out from just playing 2048 myself before I even read the blog post by the Threes guys. Threes is a lot better imo, because you actually have to think from the off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 Exactly. That's why I plan to do a Threes version for the 2600 instead. Just for fun. You can follow development in my blog. For now only a mockup, but very soon something playable too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chesterbr Posted April 6, 2014 Author Share Posted April 6, 2014 Well, guess I got what I'd call a "final" version (unless I find bugs or get some relevant pull request). Added a high-score for the single-player game (which will last until you turn off the console or switch to two-player). It uses the player 2 display field and shows at the end of the game (to avoid confusion with the two-player). Also added some (lame) sounds, and included my (minimal) build script on the source code (which can be accessed at https://github.com/chesterbr/2048-2600). Now I'm thinking about getting a custom cart (just for fun, as I have a Harmony). Seen that Atari Age has such a service (http://atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=949), wonder if there are other options, just for comparison. Any suggestions? 2048.bin 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bcombee Posted April 6, 2014 Share Posted April 6, 2014 Just had a chance to try this out again, some amazing improvements here! I really like the end-of-game detection crash sound, and the high score is a great addition. Hopefully, I'll get some time to finally hack on a few things with the code this week. I'd like to play a little with sound effects to see if there could be some differentation based on the biggest block to combine. I'm also still thinking about the larger scale animations I'd mentioned in one of the bug reports. I have to admit that I cheated and used Stella to poke a couple of 1024 blocks on the board so I could see what happened if you won. Nice! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arenafoot Posted April 8, 2014 Share Posted April 8, 2014 (edited) Well, guess I got what I'd call a "final" version (unless I find bugs or get some relevant pull request). Added a high-score for the single-player game (which will last until you turn off the console or switch to two-player). It uses the player 2 display field and shows at the end of the game (to avoid confusion with the two-player). Also added some (lame) sounds, and included my (minimal) build script on the source code (which can be accessed at https://github.com/chesterbr/2048-2600). Now I'm thinking about getting a custom cart (just for fun, as I have a Harmony). Seen that Atari Age has such a service (http://atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=949), wonder if there are other options, just for comparison. Any suggestions? Great job! I like the high score feature and the sounds! As far as the custom, I think this site does the same thing as AA's custom carts........ http://hozervideo.net/ Don't know much about it though. Edited April 8, 2014 by Arenafoot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chesterbr Posted April 8, 2014 Author Share Posted April 8, 2014 Great job! I like the high score feature and the sounds! As far as the custom, I think this site does the same thing as AA's custom carts........ http://hozervideo.net/ Don't know much about it though. Thanks! That site seems also interesting. It also has a nice guide for rolling your own thing (I wouldn't mind trying, if nothing else for the fun), guess finding a compatibel EPROM and recorder may be the harder parts, let's see what I can come with. Again, thank you! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chesterbr Posted April 8, 2014 Author Share Posted April 8, 2014 Just had a chance to try this out again, some amazing improvements here! I really like the end-of-game detection crash sound, and the high score is a great addition. Hopefully, I'll get some time to finally hack on a few things with the code this week. I'd like to play a little with sound effects to see if there could be some differentation based on the biggest block to combine. I'm also still thinking about the larger scale animations I'd mentioned in one of the bug reports. I have to admit that I cheated and used Stella to poke a couple of 1024 blocks on the board so I could see what happened if you won. Nice! Cool, if you can add either it will surely be fun! And don't feel guilty: I cheated all the time to test all those things - including the screenshot on the site, which has an obviously impossible (odd) score just to make it clear how fake it is :-) But I may make a video with real gameplay once I get a breath again! Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoyx Posted April 8, 2014 Share Posted April 8, 2014 As far as Hozer... do some research in the AA forums before doing business with him. I did some business with him, and it worked out fine. Some have raised ethical questions about him, however. I'll let you discover, and make up your own mind. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awhite2600 Posted April 8, 2014 Share Posted April 8, 2014 In addition to the AtariAge store you could contact Michael at http://www.gooddealgames.com. He made the Extra Terrestrials carts for our special edition release. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Gemintronic Posted April 8, 2014 Share Posted April 8, 2014 As far as Hozer... do some research in the AA forums before doing business with him. I did some business with him, and it worked out fine. Some have raised ethical questions about him, however. I'll let you discover, and make up your own mind. He's always been very responsive to my infrequent requests for prices and info. One person I work with wasn't satisfied with the quality of labels, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
godzillajoe Posted April 8, 2014 Share Posted April 8, 2014 I mis-read the title and thought maybe it was a homebrew Robotron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arenafoot Posted April 8, 2014 Share Posted April 8, 2014 I have to admit that I cheated and used Stella to poke a couple of 1024 blocks on the board so I could see what happened if you won. Nice! How? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bcombee Posted April 8, 2014 Share Posted April 8, 2014 I used the debugger to stop at the end of the frame, then directly poked in "0A" value into RAM for the cells where I wanted 1024 tiles, then turned off the debugger and continued play. I was able to get the memory layout from the source code. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arenafoot Posted April 8, 2014 Share Posted April 8, 2014 I used the debugger to stop at the end of the frame, then directly poked in "0A" value into RAM for the cells where I wanted 1024 tiles, then turned off the debugger and continued play. I was able to get the memory layout from the source code. I have found the debugger on Stella and trying to figure out where to put the "0A" value at? (I'm not that knowledgeable on the "program" side of games) I'd like to see what happens at the end too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chesterbr Posted April 8, 2014 Author Share Posted April 8, 2014 I have found the debugger on Stella and trying to figure out where to put the "0A" value at? (I'm not that knowledgeable on the "program" side of games) I'd like to see what happens at the end too. Arenafoot, the first data cell is at $85, so putting the $0A value at, say, $85 an $86 should do the trick (you'll have two 1024 tiles that you can left-shift to form 2048 after leaving the debugger the same way you entered it, i.e., typing "~"). See this screenshot for the right positions in Stella debugger: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chesterbr Posted April 8, 2014 Author Share Posted April 8, 2014 Also, if you want to know what each RAM position does, check the highlighted lines here: https://github.com/chesterbr/2048-2600/blob/f1156e0c574cd4055726cce0b423901c92bd3f14/2048.asm#L282-L356 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chesterbr Posted April 8, 2014 Author Share Posted April 8, 2014 And thanks to this thread I found an odd bug, which would repeat the 2048 "party" effect after a reset in certain situations. Fixed and here is the new file (also on the repository) Btw, thanks people for the cart maker suggestions... guess I'll wait a few days till I make one, so these final nasty bugs show up :-) 2048.bin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chesterbr Posted April 8, 2014 Author Share Posted April 8, 2014 I mis-read the title and thought maybe it was a homebrew Robotron I had not associated how the Robotron 2084 number is almost an "anagram" of 2048... I spent a unhealthy share of my youth playing the Apple II version Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arenafoot Posted April 9, 2014 Share Posted April 9, 2014 Arenafoot, the first data cell is at $85, so putting the $0A value at, say, $85 an $86 should do the trick (you'll have two 1024 tiles that you can left-shift to form 2048 after leaving the debugger the same way you entered it, i.e., typing "~"). See this screenshot for the right positions in Stella debugger: 2048_cheat.png cool....just like missle command..... thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LS_Dracon Posted April 10, 2014 Share Posted April 10, 2014 Fun game! I think the numbers can be 3 or 4 scanlines taller, they're too small and there's plenty of screen space for drawing them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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