Hugohunt (new homebrew game)

[angelsoft]

Hi! Just announcing a new 2600 homebrew game: Hugohunt

 

 

It's a port of Hugohunt XL written by Stefan Dorndorf (see "Hugojagd XL" here). I've been porting it to C16/Plus4 (see at plus4world) and to C64 (csdb.dk) lately.

You'll find a short game review here and a description of the objects hugo will encounter.

 

As for stella, I couldn't manage to use a non-mirrored playfield, so I had to create new levels.

 

Attached you'll find the binary of al PAL game version having 2 new levels. Or try it online here. Some more levels (up to 7 for a 4KB ROM) will follow.

 

Any comments will be appreciated.

 

Would AtariAge host such homebrews for download?

 

hugohunt4stellaDemo.bin

[StanJr]

This looks similar to Dudes With Attitude on the NES, which is a great game.

 

Is that about right?

Any chance for a NTSC version or cart release?

[InsertCoin25]

Just got done playing this. This is pretty polished and smooth. StanJr, it does remind me of Dudes With Attitude. Hopefully, this does see a NTSC cart release. Great work and hope to see more updates.

Edited October 8, 2016 by InsertCoin25

[+TrekMD]

Cool. It looks very nice and I agree with the others, an NTSC release would be great.

[angelsoft]

Hi! Thanks for your replies. I've never played 'Dudes with Attitudes' before. I reckon hugohunt is different. I'll ask Stefan if he was inspired by this when creating hugohunt.

A NTSC version will probably take some time... Hope you can aid in testing :-)

[InsertCoin25]

Hi! Thanks for your replies. I've never played 'Dudes with Attitudes' before. I reckon hugohunt is different. I'll ask Stefan if he was inspired by this when creating hugohunt.

A NTSC version will probably take some time... Hope you can aid in testing :-)

I would be glad to test the NTSC version.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

303 and 301 scan lines. You have to correct that to even values. Else it will run without color on PAL consoles.

 

But it looks like a fun game.

 

As for stella, I couldn't manage to use a non-mirrored playfield, so I had to create new levels.

What's the problem?

[StanJr]

I would also be super happy to test the NTSC version!

[angelsoft]

303 and 301 scan lines. You have to correct that to even values. Else it will run without color on PAL consoles.

 

But it looks like a fun game.

 

What's the problem?

Didn't find a way to get enough time to re-position 2 players, change their colors and fill a non-mirrored playfield. A non-mirrored pf must be refreshed every line so I got problems to re-position the missiles/ball for the energy pills some lines later. I reckon there would have to be more blank lines for a non-mirrored pf. I decided thas this would disturb the optics too much.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Understand. Using a symmetrical playfield frees a lot of additional CPU time which is required here.

 

One more question:

Why are the sprites flickering that much? It seems that in one frame you only display the Hugo sprite while you manage to display all other sprites in the other frame at once.

 

Also I would suggest going 8K (or even more). I think just 7 puzzles are too few, because else the game would probably played through too fast. Or can you replay the puzzles e.g. at higher difficulty after you have beaten them?

[Kiwi]

Understand. Using a symmetrical playfield frees a lot of additional CPU time which is required here.

 

One more question:

Why are the sprites flickering that much? It seems that in one frame you only display the Hugo sprite while you manage to display all other sprites in the other frame at once.

Once you loop the 2 level, there's a ghost, which he is on the same frame that Hugo is on, that chase after Hugo. You can see early him hiding in a corner one stage 1 by pressing the . debug key or disabling the playfield.

Edited October 10, 2016 by Kiwi

[angelsoft]

Kiwi is right, there's a ghost showing up in the higher levels (and when selecting advanced difficulty) and it's displayed in the Hugo frame. In higher levels the ghost shows up more often and with increasing speed (otherwise the game would be too easy... :-).

 

As for this varibility, I haven't thought about a 8k Version. Stefans original Version has 9 levels and that one is difficult enough. Haven't yet experimented with bank switching, either...

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Ah, thanks for the info.

 

Bankswitching is not that complicated.

[angelsoft]

Ah, thanks for the info.

 

Bankswitching is not that complicated.

I read that there are several different techniques (Atari had one, Activision used it's own one,..). Do you have a favourite one?

[Thomas Jentzsch]

It depends on the requirements.

 

For your purpose you could check Atari's standard bankswitching. Its the best documented and easy to use. The disadvantage is, that you probably have to double your kernel, because you can only switch the whole 4K at once.

 

Or you can try Tigervision's 3F. It offers two smaller 2K segments, where the 2nd segment is fixed. So in case your game is 8K, you have three 2K segments which can be used alternatively and a fourth 2K segment which is always active.

[gauauu]

The disadvantage is, that you probably have to double your kernel, because you can only switch the whole 4K at once.

 

Maybe I'm missing something (Thomas is significantly more experienced and knowledgeable with this than I am), but I don't understand why you'd need to double up your kernel. I put the kernel (along with graphics data that it needs) in one bank. Game logic and data in another.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Then you don't have to double anything. But in this case, everything is already in 4k. So when you want to utilize the 2nd 4k for more level data, you most likely have to double the kernel to be able to access the new level data.

[Arenafoot]

new version here: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/263409-hugohunt-new-8k-and-ntsc-version/