which keypad games exist, and which worth being created?

[nitrofurano]

i were seeing that keypad games for ColecoVision (Intellivision and Atari2600 as well, and perhaps apf-imagination-machine as well?) are not that common, and i’m somehow curious to know which games exists for these platforms (or even from more platforms which i don’t know about), and which kind of games worth being created or ported to ColecoVision

 

where from can we find a list of them? (except Atari 2600, it is easy to find here at AtariAge website)

Edited June 24, 2014 by nitrofurano

[Pixelboy]

Um, no offense, but I'm not sure I understand your question...

[nitrofurano]

Um, no offense, but I'm not sure I understand your question...

no problem, and thanks for asking rephrasing the question!

 

i mean ColecoVision games like these, using the keypad from the controller:

http://atariage.com/controller_page.html?SystemID=2600&ControllerID=4

http://atariage.com/controller_page.html?SystemID=2600&ControllerID=6

http://atariage.com/controller_page.html?SystemID=2600&ControllerID=5

http://atariage.com/controller_page.html?SystemID=2600&ControllerID=10

 

and asking this, in the context that other consoles might have similar games, like for Intellivision, APF-Imagination-System, etc.

 

the question is, which games like these exists for ColecoVision (since ColecoVision comes with a keypad in the controllers), which from other consoles worth being ported, and which ideas for games using keypad never where developed yet

 

i think there are games like http://www.mindjolt.com/numeric-maze.html that would be fun having available on ColecoVision somehow

 

i don’t know if the question is more clear now (it is actually a group of 3 questions, sorry about this! ) - please let me know if it needs better rephrasing!

Edited June 25, 2014 by nitrofurano

[Pixelboy]

the question is, which games like these exists for ColecoVision (since ColecoVision comes with a keypad in the controllers),

Many of the commercial ColecoVision games use the keypad to select the skill level at the beginning of the game. Many of the later titles also have a pause feature mapped to the {*} key of the keypad. Of course, all the CV games that came with controller overlays made use of the keypad extensively during play. And then there's also those that didn't come with overlays but should have, like Gateway to Apshai, Quest for Quintana Roo and Miner 2049er. Generally speaking, most ColecoVision games use the keypad in some fashion. Those that avoid the use of the keypad are actually rather rare.

 

 

which from other consoles worth being ported,

- Utopia from Intellivision comes to mind.

- A space sim game like Star Raiders, Star Master or Phaser Patrol (all three of these are Atari 2600 games) could make good use of the keypad.

- A port of the MSX version of "Space Shuttle - A Journey into Space" would surely use the keypad.

- The MSX port of Ghostbusters will use the keypad, but Team Pixelboy already has dibs on that game (to be released next year, if all goes well).

 

 

and which ideas for games using keypad never where developed yet

Well, despite the fact that we already have an RPG that uses the keypad with Gateway to Apshai, I would like to see a version of Rogue on the ColecoVision. A game like that would make extensive use of the keypad.

[nitrofurano]

Gateway to Apshai is great!

about Utopia, was it release for Intellivision and Aquarius only?

(and btw, how far is the development going? - http://www.teampixelboy.com/utopia.php )

Edited June 25, 2014 by nitrofurano

[Pixelboy]

about Utopia, was it release for Intellivision and Aquarius only?

I believe so, yes.

 

Here's a mockup I made some years ago of what Utopia could look like on the ColecoVision.

[nitrofurano]

yes, the mockup looks great! (and i imagine that you have the patterns/sprites sheets ready as well! i imagine it because i draw patterns/sprites sheets simultaneous as when i draw mockups )

[Pixelboy]

Yeah, I did some ground work on this, and I archived everything just in case it could come in handy one day.

 

The way my screen layout works, each "square" is 12 x 12 pixels which, as you can imagine, creates certain problems when trying to adapt it to a 8x8 tile system. But it works out more or less alright in this case.

[nitrofurano]

perhaps would be a good idea having a version of them in 16x16 pixels size - for example, in the proportion of the Aquarius version to the 320x192, they are 16x16, and the sprites are all text characters there - perhaps this might be a clue - and for the coding, i imagine that perhaps a disassembling from the Aquarius version might help as well

[Pixelboy]

The CV only offers 32 tiles horizontally (not 40) so both islands cannot fit on the screen in the CV version if I use 16x16 tiles. The number of "game tiles" needs to be the same as the Inty/Aquarius version, or else the general gameplay will be altered.

 

EDIT: As I said, I did some work on this. Working with 12x12 squares is possible if you don't mind the 8x8 icon tiles not being perfectly aligned. See the attached images below.

 

EDIT #2: Please don't take the images below as final. It's still a WIP. For one thing, I could reposition the green dots so that 8x8 tiles could be lined up better in the water. This means extra graphics, but it would be mostly only for boats, because pirates and fish are always done with sprites only.

[nitrofurano]

The CV only offers 32 tiles horizontally (not 40) so both islands cannot fit on the screen in the CV version if I use 16x16 tiles. The number of "game tiles" needs to be the same as the Inty/Aquarius version, or else the general gameplay will be altered.

 

yes, i was considering it, i bit like those games were released to Megadrive (using 40) and SNES (using 32) simultaneously - the background would be arranged to the 32 (30 visible, when compared to the 40), and the sprites in the same 16x16

 

EDIT: As I said, I did some work on this. Working with 12x12 squares is possible if you don't mind the 8x8 icon tiles not being perfectly aligned. See the attached images below.

 

seeing them, looks confusing at first, and i think it seems to need a lot of tile combinations for allowing this? (and the result from the code side would surprise me as well, i think)

 

EDIT #2: Please don't take the images below as final. It's still a WIP. For one thing, I could reposition the green dots so that 8x8 tiles could be lined up better in the water. This means extra graphics, but it would be mostly only for boats, because pirates and fish are always done with sprites only.

 

of course! - and yes, these situations of some elements being sprites only i considered as well

[Pixelboy]

I fixed a few things that bothered me, and here's the result below, where all ground tiles are occupied by crops and the little green squares represent the exact location where PT boats and fishing boats can be drawn as tiles.