Dark Chambers to Gauntlet Conversion

[Jinroh]

 

Ok! All 4 characters are now fully implemented and selectable in any combination. And the wizard now has his own special ability--he starts with a full load of potions.

gauntlet728.bin

I couldn't figure out a way to add extra animation tables, so I had to drop one enemy and share the player wizard and enemy wizard sprites. Small price to pay though for four working players, I think.

 

Other changes:

 

* Level counter now implemented with 2 number digits. Should be able to count to 99 now.

* All games now start on Level 1

* Bug fixed on 2-player games: all character combinations now work correctly

* Changed the potion use sound

* Potions no longer take out generators or bones (too easy!)

 

Any interest in having this on a cart? I'm thinking a silver label 30th Anniversary edition with the C64/Atari computer artwork:

GauntletC64cover.jpg

 

 

Sweet! Gonna have to try with the new changes.

 

I'd be down for a cart release, always good to have more good Co-Op games for the VCS.

[CDS Games]

 

always good to have more good Co-Op games for the VCS.

 

YES!!!! Absolutely.

[+KaeruYojimbo]

Just played the newest version. Very cool. I'd definitely be interested in a cart if you do one.

[BrianC]

Very nice work. It's nice seeing Gauntlet on the 2600. I found a couple glitches. Sometimes when pressing down at the bottom of the screen an odd warp happens where the character switches to Warrior and you enter a level that can't be exited normally. I also noticed that you can't shoot at the bottom of the screen. A couple times enemies died without being shot or touched.

[CDS Games]

Yeah, those should get solved if I figure out a way to replace the top and bottom borders. Long story short, I opted for 16 unique screen patterns instead of 8 unique patterns with two variations: with and without top borders. I'm working on that problem now.

[David Alexander]

Looks great, would also buy complete version on a cart if ever available.

[CDS Games]

Now finished up to Level 50, and I've gone back through all the earlier levels and corrected all the ghost generators to bones.

 

gauntlet810.bin

Other changes:

* Demons have been replaced with grunts
* Restructured the level/room entry location tables to work for 80 levels, saving some space in the process.
* Used the space to add 8 new level color schemes (now 16 total).
* Fixed enemy type in generators--first 7 levels more like the arcade, and there's greater variety in later levels.
* Starting character no longer affects generators
* Evened out generator production

 

[+iesposta]

How, oh tell me how I missed this?!

I must have this forum place not visible...

 

Looks great!

[David Alexander]

Now finished up to Level 50, and I've gone back through all the earlier levels and corrected all the ghost generators to bones.

 

gauntlet810.bin

 

Other changes:

 

* Demons have been replaced with grunts

* Restructured the level/room entry location tables to work for 80 levels, saving some space in the process.

* Used the space to add 8 new level color schemes (now 16 total).

* Fixed enemy type in generators--first 7 levels more like the arcade, and there's greater variety in later levels.

* Starting character no longer affects generators

* Evened out generator production

 

 

 

Thanks so much.

[CDS Games]

New version:

 

gauntlet823.bin

 

All 80 levels are now complete. Top and bottom borders have been restored, so some of the problems that BrianC mentioned should be gone.

 

And the wizard sprite got a much-needed redesign, so he looks more like the other characters and less like an evil teddy bear.

 

Old: New:

 

[David Alexander]

Thank so much for your hard and dedicated work.

[p.opus]

This looks awesome. I know that I will play Atari today...

[Jinroh]

Oh nice new Wizard looks tight! :3

[dr. kwack]

Wow! I've been following along here and what progress. Very cool. Thanks a bunch for your time. If it gets to cart, count me in!

[CDS Games]

Cleaned up a bunch of little glitches & mistakes in this version. Aside from a few more tweaks, it is pretty much complete.

 

gauntlet901.bin

 

* Fixed bug in health bar/upgrade display
* Fixed missing sound for upgrade potion pickup
* Standardized which non-generated enemies appear on screen at level start. Levels 1-7 as in the arcade, and Death now appears consistently above level 8.
* Added interlaced color to title pic
* Removed Game Over screen
* Fixed shield upgrade bug (player was almost invulnerable!)
* Corrected enemy hit points (to 1-3, from 2-4)
* Weakened shot power upgrade--used to kill enemies outright, now does 2 HP damage.

Hopefully the last few changes balance things out more. Thor and Thyra should be more of a challenge, and it won't be as tough for Merlin in the early levels. Questor now starts with 8 potions. I also varied the startup level of health (was 12 in hex): Warrior (16), Valkyrie (14), Wizard (10), Elf (12). That helps differentiate the characters some more, given all the other unique stats we had to give up.

 

What should happen after you pass level 80? Is the game generally too easy? How's the character balance?

[CDS Games]

And a little eye candy.

 

[David Alexander]

And a little eye candy.

 

CartLabel2Spine.jpg

CartLabel2Top.jpg

Great Cart Label

[+iesposta]

And a little eye candy.

 

 

Thumbs up, however the Atari VCS 2600 is around its 40th anniversary (2005-2007 would be the 30th) based on development in 1975 and release at the end of 1977.

[CDS Games]

Thumbs up, however the Atari VCS 2600 is around its 40th anniversary (2005-2007 would be the 30th) based on development in 1975 and release at the end of 1977.

 

Oops....I guess that line was ambiguous. I meant the 30th anniversary of Gauntlet. Released October (?) 1985.

[CDS Games]

FYI, sloth-machine requested a sped-up Dark Chambers hack in the Programming forum, and I've uploaded one here.

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/241901-possible-to-make-a-dark-chambers-speed-hack/?p=3318510

[Rodrigo]

Wow, I liked it a lot! Congratulations! The sprites are really nice. Is there a way to make the enemies more agressive? Seems to me that sometimes they wander around, like they can't see you (like in Dark Chambers). The difficulty switches do something in this game? Thanks.

[CDS Games]

Thanks! I did have the enemies more aggressive at one point, but they tend to overlap and pile up on each other. You have a point though--it's been bugging me too and it might be worth reinvestigating.

 

I don't believe the difficulty switches do anything.

[Jinroh]

Got to play the latest version! Phenomenal!

 

I played until level 12, and no kidding you're just about done.

[Rodrigo]

What should happen after you pass level 80? ...

 

In Tengen's Gauntlet (NES) at the end, there is a dragon and after that a victory screen (if I remember...), but I don't know if it's possible to do (I'm not a programmer...). Gauntlet II, for the same system, they become random after a while (which is not so cool, I think).

 

I think the most important is the pace of the game, that you have go fast through levels killing everything, non stop. The decreasing HP helps that feeling.

[CDS Games]

There's no room left for another enemy (I already had to drop a few), let alone one that behaves as differently as the NES dragon does. I do have one item space left (teleporter? new potion? amulet?) but not much room to really do anything fun with it. Right now I'm leaning toward just doing what the arcade does...reusing room patterns infinitely. I can't flip them around or anything like Ed Logg did, but the colors can be changed for at least some variety. And then I guess the level counter would go up to 99 then reset back to 00.

 

Good point about the decreasing HP helping speed up the pace. Hmm. The health counter only goes up to a max of 31 in this game, so while I could tick that down gradually, it would have to be pretty slowly.