adventure Secretum Labyrinth Kings Gold

[a8isa1]

Try this one on real hardware. I rearranged some of the memory locations being used by the loader.

Oops! I found that prior versions worked on real hardware (NTSC 800XL w/ SDrive) if launched from MyDOS 4.53/4. I'm sorry that I forgot to post a message indicating this.

 

Unfortunately, I haven't put in much play time. Hopefully, with this version I will.

 

-SteveS

[peteym5]

Try this to see if it reduces the flickering on PAL Screens. I am trying to go through the fonts and reduce the number of pixels that alternate between frames. PAL is slightly lower than NTSC. However the people who play around with Super IRG mode should be aware of such issues. The luma levels cannot vary greatly and must with alternating every other pixel. With the Altirra emulator, you must have Frame Blending on.

 

I have the maximum skill level set to 9 instead of 10 since there is not a tenth max hit point setting, some reported the max hit points going to some odd low number in level 10.

 

 

 

 

[+MrFish]

With the Altirra emulator, you must have Frame Blending on.

 

It might depend on the speed of your machine, but all I need to do is go into full screen mode. This works for any game using flicker techniques, such Space Harrier, etc. I think this gives a more accurate representation of what you can expect to see on real hardware, which can be helpful if you want to see what it will look like on PAL and NTSC.

[+Adam+]

From my point of view the main problem with the gameplay is like this: I can't see any real progress of the character I play. I was on the 10th level, I had all the weapons, all the keys, I collected 6 coins out of 8 - and I wasn't stronger during battles than I was on the beginning (maybe slightly, but unnoticeably). What are the advantages of having higher level?

With time the map gets bigger and bigger, in the new rooms I find more dangerous enemies, but it still takes ages to kill a dragon, even with the magic wand. It's irritating, I expect more from a character with maximal level.

Also in the later phase it takes a long time to get from point A to point B and the game becomes a tedious chain of fights with the same old monsters (or attempts to avoid them) on the same old paths. I tried to clear some area from enemies, but it's futile, 'cause they revive quite fast. Maybe there should be more "starting points"?

[+Adam+]

But I don't want to sound negative - the game is really interesting.

Edited December 1, 2014 by +Adam+

[peteym5]

This is an update to Secretum Labyrinth. Some reported some sound issues when the game is restarted. This should correct that.

 

There were a few rooms where the you were getting stuck, this had been corrected in the rooms I found so far.

 

The Advantages of being at a higher level is that the character is suppose to have more hitpoints, shoot faster, and I just made it so your character can cause slightly more damage with the Sword and Wand.

 

The cartridge that will have a larger map has "Restart Idols". Since the beta demo is on a smaller map, these were not included.

 

 

 

 

[peteym5]

I am about to send Video 61 the EPROM files to burn test cartridges for "Secretum Labyrinth : The Legend." I would like to find someone who can test the game on a PAL video system also, provided that they agree not to release the game publicly. We may even require you to sign a non-disclosure agreement before receiving the image. Video61 could even send you a test cartridge.

However 'The Legend' and 'Kings Gold' are using identical routines for multiplexing, animation, and DLIs. If there is a problem, it would be caught with the beta/demo.

Edited December 4, 2014 by peteym5

[peteym5]

@ +ADAM+, @ Therealbountybob, @ Charlie Chaplin, @ Mr. Fish. Thankyou very much for providing me with assistance with this game. I am happy I am getting more positive feedback on here than what I was getting on the Venture thread. It is hard to say what will be happening in the future with this game series.

 

Some people on the Venture thread really got under my skin. I was trying to track down a reported glitch and help people on there. It seems does not matter how politely I ask what the problem was somebody had to jump in to press their case about it being only on cartridge or that we should be doing digital downloads. I discovered the 2nd version of the cartridge did not have the problem. I am going to avoid that thread for now because trying to help anyone there is futile.

 

The plan of Secretum Labyrinth series. Kings Gold, keep it free as a gift for all those that help out debugging the programming. "Secretum Labyrinth:The Legend" may possibly be manufactured by someone else and someone may be bought in for some original music or edit the existing songs to make them more fitting to the game. It will certainly be available in cartridge form, but a disk form for the 130XE is also being considered.

Edited December 9, 2014 by peteym5

[peteym5]

I am working with Video 61 to do the cartridge games that are sequels to "Secretum Labyrinth:Kings Gold". "Secretum Labyrinth:The Legend" has more monsters, and challenges within the dungeon. Again I appreciate all the positive responses about our good and hard work we put into "Tempest Elite" and "Venture". I spent a lot of time into the programming and making sure everything works right. KJMANN put a lot of time into the music and made sure the game worked right before releasing the cartridge. Video 61 put effort into putting the cartridges together and sending them to you.

 

Now "Secretum Labyrinth:Kings Gold" has been updated and some things adjusted to check if the game is working better PAL hardware. Everyone should be aware that this game is using Super IRG and sometimes its hard to know how things work on different hardware. Anyone try "Secretum Labyrinth:Kings Gold" on a VBXE modified Atari yet?

Edited December 10, 2014 by peteym5

[+CharlieChaplin]

Well,

 

since I do not like non-standard (shortened) ATR images, here is SLKG on a standard 90k image. I used the "Auto-Booter" program by Keith Ledbetter as a bootloader. Think "Picodos" bootloader by HiasSoft would also have worked but have not tested it yet. Evil as I am, I have added a Basic-off switch (and a Reset=coldstart, plus a black-screen routine), so there is no need to hold down the Option key when booting with an XL/XE Atari.

 

Small & Fast Bug report: In the 1210 version, when you enter the room with the silver key, you can pick it up. Leave the room and whenever you re-enter, the silver key is there again and most of the time you then have to pick it up again. Last not least, errm Pete, can you switch off the cursor when the title screen shows up and maybe center the two text lines ?!?

 

[peteym5]

Here is the fix to the key problem. Thankyou CharlieChaplen for finding the problem so I can quickly fix it. I wish we had more people like you in the Atari 8-bit scene that support the hard work we put into these games. I will try those boot loaders when I have some time later.

[Goochman]

I finally got a go at the latest and heres my feedback.

 

Not sure if others see this but I have monsters getting their head stuck in the top wall and being frozen. These are like the zombie, skeleton, and red looking dude - I can provide a screenshot if need be

 

I was able to explore more of the world and for the most part no real bugs cropped up but I do have a suggestion balance wise.

In my opinion there appears to be either too much going on or alot of randomness to the monsters and such. Besides the Bat it seems like the AI/movement is similar to the rest of the bad guys I see.

 

There is also *alot* of bad guys - too many and a random mix which introduces alot of flicker and IMHO frustration. It would be nice if there was some rhyme or reason to the mix of monsters in a room. Right now it seems like the Monster Mash dance in almost every room. There are a few which focus on just snakes per se but there are rooms with up to 10 bad guys of all different types which just dont seem to fit together bouncing all around. I would think a Dragon would be more of a loner and maybe something good for the player killing one. Maybe the AI is different for monster movement where some work the corners, others the middle, some zig-zag, etc.. Just a suggestion.

 

Also in this version I noticed that I cant 'fight' when a Monster touches or attacks me. I think this makes sense with the bow but I think if I have the hammer or sword I should be able to fight back no matter what the monster is doing.

 

I like the colorful sprites and massive domain to play through. Im more an 'adventure' guy so I always think more about quest then action in these cases

[peteym5]

Goochman and Bounty Bob, thankyou for your suggestions as I am working on improving the games in the Secretum Labyrinth Series and is an ongoing process. There has also been some suggestion that I extend out the mystery of it, add more features found in other role playing games. Anybody have any ideals or suggestions? You can send myself a PM.

[peteym5]

I thankyou for all your interest and support on my efforts to make quality games on the Atari 8-bit platform.

Edited December 11, 2014 by peteym5

[Reds1f14]

Anybody know what is happening here? I have an older version of the beta. For some reason all the versions got deleted. I and many others would like to see this game completed. I know they are talking about a cartridge with a very big map with 256 rooms.

[+CharlieChaplin]

Well,

 

on Dec 11th peteym did not only thank everyone for their interest and support, but he also announced that he will delete all his uploaded demo-versions of SLKG. Think a few hours or days later he did. You can download my bootloader version from Dec 10th above (post #35) or if you are interested I can send you the last released demo-version from Dec 11th (originally from post #36, but now removed). I did not keep all versions of SLKG, instead I did always overwrite an older version with a newer one, thus I only have the last demo-version from Dec 11 in my collection...

 

I guess Peter will not upload any further demos, because he plans to sell this game on a cartridge, so you will not see the completed game for download here.

[peteym5]

I have moved beta testing to in house to a select few beta testers. I am making changes and adding new stuff. Since this is an adventure game, I would like to keep solutions and material a secret and be a surprise when it is released. The demo was using a different map and many things left out. If you are interested in what is in the final game, you will have to wait and see...

 

Again, things did stay positive within this thread and did not get out of hand. I wish to thank everyone who reported problems, made suggestions, and for your support.

Edited December 22, 2014 by peteym5

[Marius]

Good luck with your projects. Let's hope this time your in house beta testers are real-hardware-users and that they will track all the bugs before you put it on read-only data carrier.

 

The reason this thread did stay positive was because people actually had something to test.

 

As said: good luck with your projects.

[Reds1f14]

In case anybody wants to try this, I have the last one posted here. But consider it unofficial since they are making changes and is not in the final version.

[Reds1f14]

I received a PM to take the file down. Apparently the developers wants to keep the beta testing internal. Beta testers are not to release any information publicly.

 

Keeping things about the secret are not the only reason, but something is going on with other members on here. I am new so I do not follow all the posts.

 

If they are putting it on a big cartridge, it would have a lot more than what we have been seeing in that demo.

[peteym5]

We can manage with debugging to a limited number of beta testers. All I can say I am starting to work with some new people on these projects. The version of Secretum Labyrinth Kings Gold that was here has quickly became obsolete. Stuff is being added and changed. We manage to fix the errors reported to us already.

 

Since these are adventure games like Adventure II or Legend of Zelda, we have to keep it from the public because we don't want people to know how to solve it before it is on the market. So I had to remove the demo/beta from the forums. Think of it like Nintendo making a new version of Zelda for the Wii and letting the public beta test it, and later try selling the game.

 

Do not never think we do cartridges as to fear over piracy. Any media can be hacked or duplicated. People like to collect cartridges or enjoy the convenience of having the game loaded instantly as soon as the power is turned on. This is also original work for me and not a clone of something done on another system.

Edited January 16, 2015 by peteofborg

[Marius]

Years ago I did run a BBS on my Atari 8bit computer. It was a software package called BBS Express Professional version 5.0b ... I bought it at K-Products in the USA, and it was mainly written by Stephen J. Carden.

 

It had many many many features, and it was a very very serious package.

 

Except at one place... there was ONE joke in the entire program...

 

When you were logged on as sysop, and you picked from your own menu the option "Send feedback to sysop" you got a WARNING from the Atari.

 

And the Warning was: "Talking to yourself again eh?"

 

For some reason... I really don't know where it comes from... I got that feeling when I read this thread.

[flashjazzcat]

At least he's not making any secret of it, I suppose:

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/224884-megaoids-blasteroids-type-game-comming-to-cartridge/?do=findComment&comment=3153593

[peteym5]

STRENGTH IS IRRELEVANT. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE. YOUR ARCHAIC CULTURE IS AUTHORITY DRIVEN. YOU MUST COMPLY. WE WILL ADD YOUR TECHNOLOGICAL DISTINCTIONOUS TO OUR OWN.

 

This is my original account on here that was made in 2007. I hope I can get my peterjm5 account unblocked soon because I have to use my really old email address that I closed in 2007, I don't even know when someone quotes me one here. All I can say is that some hacking had gone and it is being looked into.

 

I know a lot of people were complaining that nothing like Zelda had been done on the 8-bit and is why I am doing the Secretum Labyrinth series now. I am not trying to replicate Zelda, but doing something as big as the first Legend of Zelda. If you had seen the demo, you know it had a lot of unique stuff in it. But I am not going to release an updated version until after the cartridge game had been released. Right now I am trying to figure out how to have new and interesting stuff as you go deeper into the dungeon.

 

I do not think people should be complaining we are releasing the 2nd game, (possibly a 3rd) within this series on cartridge simply because it won't fit inside 62K of ram. I thank everyone on here for keeping it positive and for your suggestions.

[peteym5]

Years ago I did run a BBS on my Atari 8bit computer. It was a software package called BBS Express Professional version 5.0b ... I bought it at K-Products in the USA, and it was mainly written by Stephen J. Carden.

 

It had many many many features, and it was a very very serious package.

 

Except at one place... there was ONE joke in the entire program...

 

When you were logged on as sysop, and you picked from your own menu the option "Send feedback to sysop" you got a WARNING from the Atari.

 

And the Warning was: "Talking to yourself again eh?"

 

For some reason... I really don't know where it comes from... I got that feeling when I read this thread.

 

I hope you are not coming here to bash us around. I don't want threads for my own games to get out of hand.

 

I am not sure if the program you are referring to is Adventure game related or is a communication software. There had been online RPGs for many years now. Called MMORPG. Most of them need pay a monthly fee for. I am considering doing a PC game with 3D graphics, but is way too much work for myself to program. Not exactly sure if doing an online RPG for the Atari is possible, would need sort of set up that connects a modem to a website. My problem here is I have a broadband cable modem connected to an Ethernet router. Someone would need to set up an interface for Ethernet router to an Atari computer so it can call up a website. The game server will probably be a PC if there are multiple users.

 

COPY PROTECTION IS IRRELEVANT. YOUR MONEY WILL BE ASSIMILATED. Online games are not usually sold like single player games because you have to pay for an online service to play the game. Many let you download the software for free because it cannot be played unless you subscribe to a service. There are currently no plans to do something like this with Secretum Labyrinth. It would be interesting to have an adventure game with 1000's of rooms.