Interest Check - Desert Bus for Intellivision

[+nanochess]

 

I don't know specifically how freeweed's going to do it in IntyBASIC.

 

I know how I would do it: The Intellivision retrace interrupt is 60Hz (NTSC) or 50Hz (PAL/SECAM). IntyBASIC does keep a simple frame counter named FRAME that counts the number of ticks. It's a fairly simple matter to compare the current value of FRAME to the last one you saw and add that to your notion of 'elapsed time.'

 

Or, you could use the ON FRAME GOSUB that nanochess added to update a clock.

 

8 hours is 1728000 ticks (at 60Hz), so you'd need to split the elapsed time over a few variables. I personally would break it up into hours, minutes, seconds as byte variables. Something like this:

UpdateTime 

As long as that gets called periodically (at least once every 60 frames), it will keep time just fine.

 

And you can use the NTSC flag to check whether every second there are 60 or 50 frames.

[Intymike]

It needs the original point of view sight.

[Binth]

At first blush as someone who likes to buy all the new games as they come out this one is really hard to get excited about. It seems to set the bar low for the future and one of the reasons I like the current crop of homebrews is the they are very good games and in many cases rivaled and exceeded what the BSR's did back in the day.

 

That being said if it had a decent second mode (or multicart) then I would probably be more excited. The charity angle is an interesting one, as I am a sucker when I hear it is "for the children".

[bikeguychicago]

[Rev]

Im loving the Arctic level! Where did you get the crazy idea for that? ehehehe

[intvnut]

FWIW, I feel like Desert Bus might make a neat extra inside/alongside something else, but I have a hard time seeing it as a standalone CIB, even with the charity aspect. Kinda like the Pong Paddle War game inside Commander Keen.

[Crazy Climber]

Make only 25 limited edition CIB's. Sell only one per month via ebay open auction. Sit back and enjoy huge earnings, while watching people fight over the worst game ever made. Would be fun, you might get some hatemail over it, but really a needed step and the final nail in the coffin to make desert bus the most frusterating and hated game ever!!

[Atari_Bill]

Anything made for the intellivision will sell no matter the subject matter. I've said it for years. There will be those that buy multiple copies as well just to have "everything".

[mr_intv]

At first I thought I would not buy this, then I said to myself "who am I kiddin' , of coarse I'd buy it".

[wolfy62]

Sure, I would like to see more on this cartridge if this game is poorly designed or barely playable. I know nothing about the game or game play at this point....

 

But if I know that it is for a charitable cause that helps a lot. As would it help being serial numbered from 1-100. If it is in a nice box as well I am in at $100. or more per game. I think that is a great price point for this.

 

Sorry anyone if I posted too high for this this. If we had serial numbered games for all new releases from now on I believe we would all be better off!

[+Tarzilla]

Sure, I would like to see more on this cartridge if this game is poorly designed or barely playable. I know nothing about the game or game play at this point....

 

But if I know that it is for a charitable cause that helps a lot. As would it help being serial numbered from 1-100. If it is in a nice box as well I am in at $100. or more per game. I think that is a great price point for this.

 

Sorry anyone if I posted too high for this this. If we had serial numbered games for all new releases from now on I believe we would all be better off!

To "get" the game's idea, one needs to read up on its history, including the recent Atari VCS version and especially the Desert Bus for Hope charity.

 

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penn_%26_Teller%27s_Smoke_and_Mirrors

 

 

 

Care to elaborate on the serial number thing? How would we be all be better off?

[+JasonlikesINTV]

Regardless where the money goes for this, I'd pay around $45-50 max for a CIB release of this if true to original, but preferably it would have a much enhanced Super Pro mode with additional features (actually fun to play), which I'd pay up to $60 for CIB....if gameplay was promising enough.

[+grips03]

can a random bug be added so the game (might) lock up right before the ending?

[+nanochess]

can a random bug be added so the game (might) lock up right before the ending?

 

That would be so evil!

[+grips03]

 

That would be so evil!

I wonder if a 128 digit passcode can be used to save progress?

[+Lathe26]

I wonder if a 128 digit passcode can be used to save progress?

 

How about a 128 -byte- passcode that has been base64 encoded?

[intvnut]

How about a 128 -byte- passcode that has been base64 encoded?

 

That would barely fit on the screen... But at 171 characters, it would fit.

 

But isn't endurance the point of the game? A passcode wouldn't be in the spirit of the... erm... adventure.

 

Even more annoying for those who want to find everything: Suppose you put an Easter egg in the game that you could only unlock by driving to the right 'time' in the game and hitting a key. Use the author's birth month as the 'hours' and birth day as the 'minutes.' To make it super annoying, require the player to hit whatever key for the 'egg' in a short window of time during the 'magic minute.' For my DOB, you'd have to be almost 8 and a half hours in...

 

That may actually be a more obnoxious Easter egg than the Vectron Easter egg!

Edited April 6, 2015 by intvnut

[+Lathe26]

How about a game where you have to type in the digits for the square-root of pi (pi itself is too easy to download)? Stored in BCD format and using some ECS-style bankswapping, 512KB of ROM could hold over 1 million digits. This would activate an Easter Egg that says "yay."

 

Even better would be to use FBCD, which could hold ~1.26 million digits.

[wolfy62]

That sounds cool!!!

[wolfy62]

To "get" the game's idea, one needs to read up on its history, including the recent Atari VCS version and especially the Desert Bus for Hope charity.

 

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penn_%26_Teller%27s_Smoke_and_Mirrors

 

 

 

Care to elaborate on the serial number thing? How would we be all be better off?

Thank you for the info, I just read the History now I understand the game! I think I can do that for 8 hours, at least once.

 

As for numbered releases I just feel it is better for everyone to know how many were produced, that's it! And that goes not just for this game but any Homebrew game, and again that is only this one persons opinion.

[intvnut]

How about a game where you have to type in the digits for the square-root of pi (pi itself is too easy to download)? Stored in BCD format and using some ECS-style bankswapping, 512KB of ROM could hold over 1 million digits. This would activate an Easter Egg that says "yay."

 

Even better would be to use FBCD, which could hold ~1.26 million digits.

 

That would rival Vectron's "Congratulations. You are very good." screen, which, AFAIK is unachievable because the game gets unplayably hard long before level 99. (I do have a ROM that starts you at level 99; I can't remember if Mike Hayes managed to beat it.) Already its Easter egg takes the cake for difficulty.

Edited April 8, 2015 by intvnut

[freewheel]

 

That would rival Vectron's "Congratulations. You are very good." screen, which, AFAIK is unachievable because the game gets unplayably hard long before level 99. (I do have a ROM that starts you at level 99; I can't remember if Mike Hayes managed to beat it.) Already its Easter egg takes the cake for difficulty.

 

Huh. Desert Bus (the original) maxes the score at 99 points. And you get one point for every 8 hours of driving. So if you're willing to play for 33 straight days, you can "finish" the game. As far as I know, it's never been done. I bet it's an amazing Easter Egg though!

 

The number was a neat coincidence.

Edited April 10, 2015 by freeweed

[slab0meat]

I don't know how much work is involved in putting it on a cart, but how about offering it bare-bones, cart-only with a basic label? I'm happy to support that as well.

[wolfy62]

 

Huh. Desert Bus (the original) maxes the score at 99 points. And you get one point for every 8 hours of driving. So if you're willing to play for 33 straight days, you can "finish" the game. As far as I know, it's never been done. I bet it's an amazing Easter Egg though!

 

The number was a neat coincidence.

A bunch of us should tag team drive the bus at an Expo somewhere to finish the game!

[+JasonlikesINTV]

A bunch of us should tag team drive the bus at an Expo somewhere to finish the game!

That might actually be fun. I'd put in an hour of driving.