Scramble - 2600

[+Nathan Strum]

On that note.. any chance this could be easily modifiable to an improved Super Cobra as well? Just wondering.

 

Oh, there's always a possibility.

[+johnnywc]

Hi John and pleased to meet you!

Hi - pleased to meet you too!

 

For me the difficulty ramping is great, although a little bit below the coin-op, but I think if you ever wanted to make it harder then it would have been not a good thing...

Yep, 'cause the "hardcore gamer" could defeat it anyhow, while a "common" player would feel a bit frustrated...

Agreed... the game feels just about right to me so I'm going to leave the difficulty ramping as is.

 

In any case, I found no issues at all, only a certain "propensity" to "easy collisions" with the ground. In points like the "horseshoe" (as we lads used to call it at the "downstairs cafe") it's difficult to take the right timing to go free without colliding with the ground (and here I think it could be a scrolling matter... isn't it ?)

Yes - the maze is a bit challenging with the choppy scrolling, but alas that's a limitation of the ol' 2600 I can't get around. I get very nervous as I approach the 'horse shoe' section of the maze as it's the spot I get killed the most. Of course I could open it up a bit but I want to keep some challenge in the game, but if people come back and say it's too difficult I'll change it. A couple hints (which you probably know)... first off the exhaust of your ship isn't used in collision detection, so you can cut the corners a bit earlier than it may appear. Also, pressing diagnol up and to the left on the first bend and down and to the left on the second increases your chance of not hitting the walls.

 

Cheers and congratulations again, John !

Thanks and cheers to you too!

 

[ Do you like my artwork for the cartridge box ? ... I only forgot to include the Sega Genesis/MegaDrive controller option description, but it's me, and I really have a kind of "dislike" for that machine ... ]

I do like the box - art ... great job! I like the sega controller, but I don't use it when I play Scramble because the maze is too difficult to navigate with it.. for me nothing beats the original Atari joystick for precision!

 

Take care,

John

[+johnnywc]

OMG.. You are the guy that did the CHAMP games? I set those up to run in dosbox earlier this year and I think they were amazing replica's! Nice to see you doing this amazing work on the 2600!

Yup - that's me! I'm glad you're enjoying the ol' CHAMP games. Hard to believe that in February CHAMP Kong will be 20 years old!

Edited December 8, 2015 by johnnywc

[+johnnywc]

Wow - what a fantastic port. I couldnt imagine what people would've thought if this came out back in the day.

 

Ever consider working on 8bit ports - the XL/XE line could use a nice Scramble release

Thanks! Actually, my very *first* game programming was waaaay back in 1981 on an Atari 800 (later an XL). I didn't know assembly back then (I was only 13 lol) so I spent some long nights making BASIC games by altering the ASCII set for graphics. I still have those on disk somewhere; it would be interesting to see if I could get them loaded up! As for Scramble on the 8bits; I did spend about a week about 10 years ago looking into 5200 game development (my secret shame lol) but real life got in the way and I kept my focus and attention on the 2600. Maybe someday I'll dig back in and see what I can come up with.

 

 

On that note.. any chance this could be easily modifiable to an improved Super Cobra as well? Just wondering.

 

Oh, there's always a possibility.

I loved Super Cobra on the 800xl back in the day so a proper conversion on the 2600 would be pretty cool. As for 'easily modifiable', it would probably take a bit more of an effort, but I did design Scramble with Cosmic Avenger and Super Cobra in mind so the big obstacles would be:

 

(a) new graphics (I think Nathan was working on the helicopter graphic which would be the most challenging), title screen, stage progress, etc.

(b) sounds; not sure how close these are to Scramble. Honestly I've *only* played SC on an Atari and never in the arcade so I would have to do some research.

© levels. This is the most painstaking and time consuming task IMO. For Scramble, I basically spent an entire weekend doing this. My process was to run the game in MAME with the invincibility cheat, take screenshots every screen length of travel, stitch them together per level, then approximate the terrain using an excel spreadsheet that would also show me a graphical representation of the level. I also have dropdowns for what object should scroll onto the screen. I then put together a macro to generate the level data for the actual game. It's quite an effort!

(d) modify the game play. SC has different objects IIRC that have different movements, behaviors, etc.

 

I would estimate this at about a month (Scramble has taken about 4 months, but a lot of that time was spent learning DPC+) so we'll see where it lands in the list of games I want to work on.

 

Thanks!

John

[+Nathan Strum]

I loved Super Cobra on the 800xl back in the day so a proper conversion on the 2600 would be pretty cool. As for 'easily modifiable', it would probably take a bit more of an effort, but I did design Scramble with Cosmic Avenger and Super Cobra in mind so the big obstacles would be:

 

(a) new graphics (I think Nathan was working on the helicopter graphic which would be the most challenging), title screen, stage progress, etc.

(b) sounds; not sure how close these are to Scramble. Honestly I've *only* played SC on an Atari and never in the arcade so I would have to do some research.

© levels. This is the most painstaking and time consuming task IMO. For Scramble, I basically spent an entire weekend doing this. My process was to run the game in MAME with the invincibility cheat, take screenshots every screen length of travel, stitch them together per level, then approximate the terrain using an excel spreadsheet that would also show me a graphical representation of the level. I also have dropdowns for what object should scroll onto the screen. I then put together a macro to generate the level data for the actual game. It's quite an effort!

(d) modify the game play. SC has different objects IIRC that have different movements, behaviors, etc.

 

(a) I've done some work on the graphics already.

 

(b) There's different music and some different/additional sound effects in Super Cobra. Notably, the helicopter and the swooping enemy rockets.

 

© I'm working converting the levels. But I won't be able to get back to it until January.

 

(d) Can't help you there.

[+johnnywc]

(a) I've done some work on the graphics already.

Excelllent

 

(b) There's different music and some different/additional sound effects in Super Cobra. Notably, the helicopter and the swooping enemy rockets.

I just watched a long play video on youtube...man that game looks hard! Looks like the meteors, saucers and maze all make a special appearance. It was neat to see the rockets launching in the maze level - it looks very familiar!

 

© I'm working converting the levels. But I won't be able to get back to it until January.

Awesome! Did I ever send you the spreadsheet? I can modify the one for Scramble to have the 10 levels (plus base) for SC.

 

(d) Can't help you there.

Lol I'm sure you would if you could! Just from watching the video, looks like we have:

 

1) Fuel - same as Scramble

2) Rockets, some slow, some really fast. Already implemented in my version of Scramble.

3) NEW: Mystery targets are now turrets that can fire at you. My kernel can support enemy bullets using M1 (ball is used for the helicopter's bullets and bombs)

4) NEW: Tanks move in later levels... I will be able to support this fairly easily.

5) Meteors - same as Scramble, except for the special 'shadow' meteor that seems to follow you. Should be simple to implement.

6) Saucers - similar to Scramble, different pattern and they fire at you (I already implemented this in Scramble in the later levels )

7) Rockets launch in the maze section and collide with the walls - already implemented in Scramble in the later levels

NEW: Exploding swooping enemy rockets; should be straight forward to implement

9) NEW: Those weird bug-looking X enemies - should be straight forward to implement

10) NEW: Dropping mines from the tunnel ceiling - straight forward to implement

11) NEW: 'Booty' that needs to be retrieved instead of destroyed

12) NEW: Mile-marker display Ie. '1000 MILES CLEARED'

13) NEW: Stage progress for 11 levels instead of 6

14) Much-needed continue feature!

 

Looks like a lot to do but I think with the current Scramble engine it would be possible to do almost a 1:1 port. The caverns are a bit tight, so with the choppy scrolling I would probably open them up a bit so it's not 'impossible'.

 

John

[+Nathan Strum]

I just watched a long play video on youtube...man that game looks hard!

I've always felt Super Cobra was Konami's way of punishing really good Scramble players. (See also: Asteroids/Asteroids Deluxe, Defender/Stargate, Pac-Man/Ms. Pac-Man/Jr. Pac-Man.) I was only able to get through it at the arcade with a pocket full of tokens and a whole bunch of continues. The Stern version allows up to 255 continues, the Konami version limits it to 3 or 4 (I'll have to check it in MAME). I think there's a reasonable compromise in there someplace. I think there's also a definite need for a "novice" setting, too.

 

Awesome! Did I ever send you the spreadsheet? I can modify the one for Scramble to have the 10 levels (plus base) for SC.

Nope - don't have the spreadsheet, but you sent me a screenshot of it.

 

I'll use Photoshop scripts to convert everything over. Essentially, I'll end up with a series of playfield resolution bitmaps (40h x 32w) that should be easily convertible into code. It also makes everything really easy to mockup for graphics, object placement, and to tweak tunnels and such (I did this a lot for Stay Frosty 2).

[macdlsa]

Yes - the maze is a bit challenging with the choppy scrolling, but alas that's a limitation of the ol' 2600 I can't get around. I get very nervous as I approach the 'horse shoe' section of the maze as it's the spot I get killed the most. Of course I could open it up a bit but I want to keep some challenge in the game, but if people come back and say it's too difficult I'll change it. A couple hints (which you probably know)... first off the exhaust of your ship isn't used in collision detection, so you can cut the corners a bit earlier than it may appear. Also, pressing diagonal up and to the left on the first bend and down and to the left on the second increases your chance of not hitting the walls.

 

Hmm... maybe you could do the, as we use to say, "trouble shared is a trouble halved" : open up the only right turn (diag. R+down), which is the most difficult one, and leave the left turn as it is.

 

Yeah, just like in the coin-op, ship's exhaust does not affect collisions... I was used to hit the mothership with one only bomb flying low and at close range, and so I do also in this VCS porting... to do this you'd have to stay very close to the Konami's (AtariAge's ) tower and the other lower building...

[atarifan88]

I can't seem to get this to play on Stella. I have version 2.4. Any ideas how to fix this?

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I have version 2.4.

This!

[+SpiceWare]

I can't seem to get this to play on Stella. I have version 2.4. Any ideas how to fix this?

 

 

This!

 

 

 

yep, you need an updated version of Stella. Stella 2.4 was released in 2007. Scramble's using the DPC+ bankswitching/co-processor, which was release in 2010. It's also using ARM code which Stella didn't emulate until 2011, though that was only preliminary support which underwent a number of revisions over the next few version of Stella.

[aceha1]

My God. Is there anything you CAN'T do? I loved your Conquest of Mars because it reminded me of this very game; and now you take on Scramble itself?! You are a titan, sir. I love all of your games and I will be eagerly awaiting the cartridge release.

 

What a game, man. What a game.

[+johnnywc]

My God. Is there anything you CAN'T do? I loved your Conquest of Mars because it reminded me of this very game; and now you take on Scramble itself?! You are a titan, sir. I love all of your games and I will be eagerly awaiting the cartridge release.

 

What a game, man. What a game.

Thanks for the kind words! I'm glad you're enjoying the game... it's basically complete and I'm hoping for a release sometime in March.

 

Have fun!

[+Random Terrain]

. . . I'm hoping for a release sometime in March.

That's nice, but when is the game coming out?

[+johnnywc]

Happy New Year everyone!

Here's the latest release for Scramble, approaching release candidate soon assuming no issues. Last chance to test and get in those suggestions!

 

• implemented separate high scores for NOVICE, ARCADE and EXPERT when using a SAVEKEY
  • The skill level is now displayed on the high score screen to show what high scores they are for
  • Move left/right on high score screen or press SELECT to cycle through NOVICE, ARCADE and EXPERT (note this isn't supported if no SAVEKEY is present)
  • To reset hi scores for a particular skill level, move joystick down and press the RESET switch (not button) from the Hi Score screen (Joystick Right/Button down on startup does NOT reset high scores any more)
  • Scores aren't saved unless a high score is achieved. This gives the user an opportunity to 'undo' a reset simply by turning off the game prior to achieving a new high score.
  • The current skill level is also saved to the SAVEKEY. Note that since the format of the data has changed, existing scores are invalid and should be reset automatically on load.
• reduced the speed of the bombs; they were much too fast launching before and moved down too fast. They now move vertically the same speed as your ship per the arcade.
• bomb graphics are bigger per the arcade
• Can now display up to level 99 next to the flag (used to be only 9). Also darkened the red in the reserve flag graphic.
• Added additional challenges for the EXPERT level for the second (saucers) stage. The saucers will now fire at you (missile is rendered with M1 so no additional flicker). This also will show up for other skill levels eventually (level 8 for arcade, 16 for novice)
• Darkened the blue color for the terrain a bit; added another cycle of colors which matches the CHAMP colors of blue, red and white.
• If a high score is achieved, it will flash in the high score screen after the game is over
• Updated the copyright to 2016 (officially 10 years after Lady Bug )

Enjoy!

John

 

scramble_20160102.bin

 

Edited January 2, 2016 by johnnywc

[+save2600]

...just gave the latest version a try and there's *something* funky going on at the UFO cavern stage again. UFO would not be visible, but you can crash into one. At first I thought I had missed a missile coming up, but no... it's almost as if a UFO or two are "spawning" at a strange time, out of nowhere and/or out of sync with the rest, but they're invisible until you crash into one. Was playing in Arcade mode. Will give another mode a try...

 

-edit-

 

Happens in the other modes as well.

[+johnnywc]

...just gave the latest version a try and there's *something* funky going on at the UFO cavern stage again. UFO would not be visible, but you can crash into one. At first I thought I had missed a missile coming up, but no... it's almost as if a UFO or two are "spawning" at a strange time, out of nowhere and/or out of sync with the rest, but they're invisible until you crash into one. Was playing in Arcade mode. Will give another mode a try...

 

-edit-

 

Happens in the other modes as well.

Thanks for the quick feedback!

 

Hmmm this is very strange.. it doesn't seem to happen in Stella/emulation but does happen on the real thing. Are you running this on a Harmony cart or thru Stella?

 

EDIT: I think I found the bug... it was caused by the addition of the saucer bullets and NUSIZ comparison when removing a saucer.

 

Here is the new ROM:

 

scramble_20160102.bin

Edited January 2, 2016 by johnnywc

[+save2600]

Thanks for the quick feedback!

 

Hmmm this is very strange.. it doesn't seem to happen in Stella/emulation but does happen on the real thing. Are you running this on a Harmony cart or thru Stella?

 

EDIT: I think I found the bug... it was caused by the addition of the saucer bullets and NUSIZ comparison when removing a saucer.

 

Here is the new ROM:

 

scramble_20160102.bin

 

 

Cool, I'll give the new one a try and thanks for tackling so quick!

 

Always on real hardware, using Harmony.

[macdlsa]

Hi again, John !

Great improvements here !

 

I played again some games and I ran out of fuel several times... unlike playin' on the previous release I had it happened almost never (excluding the times I missed the base...). Dunno if it's my impression but... hehe, you wanted to increase a little bit more the overall difficulty, isn't it ?

 

Hey ! ... in the coin-op UFOs don't shoot !

Ok, this comment comes from an "arcade purist" (speaking of Scramble and some other coin-ops...), so maybe in the "arcade" skill level I would have preferred UFOs shooting ability turned off, leaving it for the "Expert" skill only...

 

Colors matching is OK ! Even the "level grid" (1st,2nd,...base) matches the coin-op's yellow !!!

Level counter is ok, too... in the coin-op that counter is made of flags, which number increases from 1 to 15 or 16 (don't remember well), then it resets to 1.

 

Just one more thing, which I already told : that damned "horseshe" always makes me swear blaspheme words... and with my daughter around here (we're both at home now until the 7th: me from job and she from school...) it's not so good ! Better for me to avoid playing for now...

 

 

Greattttt job, as always, John !

 

[+johnnywc]

Hi again, John !

 

Great improvements here !

Hi - and thanks!

 

I played again some games and I ran out of fuel several times... unlike playin' on the previous release I had it happened almost never (excluding the times I missed the base...). Dunno if it's my impression but... hehe, you wanted to increase a little bit more the overall difficulty, isn't it ?

Thanks for the feedback! I don't think I altered the fuel consumption rate from the last version; when were you running out of fuel? I would like to have it so that even in the later levels you can complete one run on the base without running out of fuel if you hit all of the fuel tanks. What I mean is, if you're running out of fuel even though you're hitting all the fuel tanks, then this is unfair to the player and I would like to change it.

 

Hey ! ... in the coin-op UFOs don't shoot !

Ok, this comment comes from an "arcade purist" (speaking of Scramble and some other coin-ops...), so maybe in the "arcade" skill level I would have preferred UFOs shooting ability turned off, leaving it for the "Expert" skill only...

Agreed... I had some free cycles and thought it would be a good addition to make the game more challenging. I think adding it to Expert level only would be best. Also, as it turns out, in my research on Super Cobra it looks like the UFO's fire in that game, so I should keep that as something unique for Super Cobra ARCADE skill level and not in the Scramble ARCADE skill level.

 

There are some other 'non-arcade' enhancements that I put in as well, such as the rockets launching on the saucer and fireball stage, as well as in the maze. Perhaps I should consider having those additions be for 'EXPERT' level only?

 

Colors matching is OK ! Even the "level grid" (1st,2nd,...base) matches the coin-op's yellow !!!

Excellent!

 

Level counter is ok, too... in the coin-op that counter is made of flags, which number increases from 1 to 15 or 16 (don't remember well), then it resets to 1.

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately to avoid flicker on the status line, instead of repeating the flag graphic I chose to use the '= ##' format (using the PF graphics, ball, etc.). I didn't realize the arcade stopped after 16; the 2600 level counter will go up to 99.

 

Just one more thing, which I already told : that damned "horseshe" always makes me swear blaspheme words... and with my daughter around here (we're both at home now until the 7th: me from job and she from school...) it's not so good ! Better for me to avoid playing for now...

LOL I completely understand... After many rounds I agree that this is too difficult, mostly because of the choppy 4 pixel scrolling. I will change the right turn to be wider but leave the first turn as is.

 

Greattttt job, as always, John !

Also, I wanted to ask what do you think of the larger square bombs vs. the old thin ones? I like the new ones much better but wanted to see what others thought of the change.

 

Thanks and thank YOU for the feedback - it's greatly appreciated!

 

John

 

PS Great high score! I can only get about 125K... maybe I'll do better once I update the maze horseshoe turn.

[Keatah]

Well, yes, the Arcade setting should reflect the Arcade's characteristics. Otherwise why call it Arcade is the first place?

[+johnnywc]

Well, yes, the Arcade setting should reflect the Arcade's characteristics. Otherwise why call it Arcade is the first place?

LOL good point! Although I'll probably still add additional objects in the ARCADE skill to spice things up a bit; the actual arcade version gets repetitive WAY too fast.

 

Thanks for the feedback!

 

John

[macdlsa]

Hi John !

 

 

I ran out of fuel just before and/or after shooting the final base. After the 9th level it also occurred in the fireball section... yeah, that's mainly because in the previous section it's important to avoid UFOs' missiles and to do that I find extremely necessary to stay above the UFOs and shoot them with both missiles and bombs. But "stay above them" means "stay far from the ground", and in this position is impossible to shoot fuel tanks with precision.

 

Yep, in the Super Cobra coin-op machine UFOs shoot... but there are many other things and many of them moves around the screen, just like those missiles we use to call "suppository" which take off from the ground like the other missiles... Moving bases (like tanks) , stalactites, etc... If I remember well (I was not so good at Super Cobra like I was on Scramble) fireballs could be hit and destroyed with fire &/or bombs.

I see, John : in the "labyrynth" there are some other things which the coin-op hasn't.

So... well, yes: I think (right, Keatah ) all the "extra-features" could be included in the Expert skill only, but this is only a personal thought...

 

Oh, the round counter is fine: I know, but, as I use to say, I'm NOT a programmer... so I SUPPOSE that to use multiple flags without too much flicker I think you would had to draw remaining lives and flags with alternate horizontal lines...

 

YEAH ! Seems that the "horseshoe" has to be "expanded" to avoid CX-40 "rolling up"...

 

The square bomb ? Mah... I prefer the old "thin" version because it's closer to the... hemm, yep, again... closer to the original coin-op bombs

 

Thnx... yep, it's not a bad score, considering that meanwhile I was helping my daughter with her geography homeworks...

 

 

Regards,

Marco

 

[xybot67]

Personally I preferred the thin bombs. It appeared more refined. Either way, this is a masterpiece! Thanks for your hard work.

[+johnnywc]

Hi Marco!

 

I ran out of fuel just before and/or after shooting the final base. After the 9th level it also occurred in the fireball section... yeah, that's mainly because in the previous section it's important to avoid UFOs' missiles and to do that I find extremely necessary to stay above the UFOs and shoot them with both missiles and bombs. But "stay above them" means "stay far from the ground", and in this position is impossible to shoot fuel tanks with precision.

Ok that makes sense... thanks for the feedback! Sounds like moving the firing UFOs to EXPERT will make the ARCADE skill more forgiving.

 

Yep, in the Super Cobra coin-op machine UFOs shoot... but there are many other things and many of them moves around the screen, just like those missiles we use to call "suppository" which take off from the ground like the other missiles... Moving bases (like tanks) , stalactites, etc... If I remember well (I was not so good at Super Cobra like I was on Scramble) fireballs could be hit and destroyed with fire &/or bombs.

Thanks - yes Nathan and I have done some pretty good research on Super Cobra and development is under way!

 

 

 

I see, John : in the "labyrynth" there are some other things which the coin-op hasn't.

So... well, yes: I think (right, Keatah ) all the "extra-features" could be included in the Expert skill only, but this is only a personal thought...

I'll think about this one... 'as close to the arcade' is fine, but having a fun non-repetitive game is more important. Adding in a few surprises here and there even in ARCADE mode especially on the harder levels wouldn't be so bad, but the real hard stuff like the UFO's shooting or the rockets launching in the UFO / Fireball stage I can save for EXPERT mode only.

 

YEAH ! Seems that the "horseshoe" has to be "expanded" to avoid CX-40 "rolling up"...

I'll do this in the next release.

 

The square bomb ? Mah... I prefer the old "thin" version because it's closer to the... hemm, yep, again... closer to the original coin-op bombs

Yeah that seems to be the consensus. I personally like the square ones as they're easier to see and they don't rotate strangely (the perspective of the thin one is off). I'll think about this one but if people prefer the thin one I'll change it back.

 

Thnx... yep, it's not a bad score, considering that meanwhile I was helping my daughter with her geography homeworks...

Wow - that makes it even more impressive!

 

Thanks again for all the feedback!

 

John

Edited January 5, 2016 by johnnywc