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Aardvark for Atari VCS/2600


nanochess

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Cool! Do note that Timmy! is more of a proof of concept at this point.

 

For fun set the Left Difficult to A and some sprites will show up at the top-center that will be updated on the fly to show what's detected around Timmy. The left 3 sprites show the platforms/ladders while the right sprite shows the ropes/slides.

 

Finally got my S2000 sold, so just a few more RL things to take care of this coming week after which I'll be back to work on SpiceC. That means Frantic will be seeing some love soon as I'll be converting it from DPC+ to SpiceC.

 

attachicon.giftimmy.png

So is Spice C a new banking driver for Melody boards like CDF, or just a new way to develop games using high level code (ie Batari Basic)?
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Watching the ZeroPageHomebrew stream - must say I'm really impressed with what y'all have done to Aardvark since I last played it :thumbsup:

Thanks. All stock 2600 (no ARMs harmed in the making ;)) with 128 bytes of extra RAM. And ~16K ROM used so far.

 

The graphics are mostly done but as you can see in the video, we still have to do quite some tweaking on the gameplay. Currently it is still unfair and too hard way too often. And we have to iron out some bugs too.

 

Plus adding some bells and whistles. :)

 

BTW: That mountain glitch when the aardvark moves out is neither in Stella nor on my hardware. I hope I can still find out and fix it.

Edited by Thomas Jentzsch
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I lost the feed last night, but wached most of Aardvark and WOW, this game like looks great. Quite an improvement over the PRGE version, which I thought looked pretty good. I can’t wait to see the final product.

 

Any chance of providing the current ROM?

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...

 

BTW: That mountain glitch when the aardvark moves out is neither in Stella nor on my hardware. I hope I can still find out and fix it.

 

 

Maybe related, maybe not:

On some systems I own, I saw my DPC+ bB DK game would cause that playfield area to blink pixels. Most consoles don't do this.

 

Having ZeroPage cimmerian stream my game and give feedback, his console was blinking ghost playfield pixels.

And streaming doesn't handle 58 frames per second good at all. The capture footage reposted is perfect by the way, that's nearly the way the game play live. Playing my game or Star Castle for real is a little better than the best capture because CRT adds persistence, even LCD display with real systems have things that capturing misses.

 

Always the second left playfield 8 bits, or the one after PF0, from about the center of the display going up, but not up to the top.

When I saw that Space Cactus Canyon also has this, I really switched from thinking it's from really early and really late TIA chips, (which it kind of still is), but to thinking it is kernel code causing some systems to have these "ghost pixels".

In Cactus Canyon, it is just one dark playfield pixel that's turned on, looking like something to get or avoid, but it wasn't programmed. And it is in the same playfield place as my game.

 

RevEng actually changed the update time in the bB kernel and fixed it and released a new version of bB.

 

Hope that helps! Try different systems and see if some work fine and others "mountain glitch".

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  • 1 month later...

I plan on producing a box.

 

..Al

Boxed AA homebrew = early adoption fee.

 

At least give us an option. Don't get me wrong, I like boxes, but imo is it worth paying $20 more? I have to ask this to myself when buying new releases. Occasionally I wait for the boxed edition to sell out, a long time in some cases. Aardvark is worth it to me at $25-$30 loose. At $45-$50 boxed, I'll have to wait a while...

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  • 2 months later...

Over the last months the team was working hard on the game. Since we are almost done, we thought this might be the right time for another release. But also, because we are that close, this demo is limited quite a bit:

  • Only one game variation (medium difficulty, the release version will have heaps of option combinations)
  • No SaveKey support (the release version will save multiple high scores)
  • The anthills (and difficulty) loop after 5 hills.(no anthill/difficulty looping in the release version)

Nevertheless we are sure that the demo version still allows everyone to evaluate the game. And we are hoping for a lot of feedback, e.g. if you like it, what could be improved, what is missing etc.

Aardvark (Demo).bin

post-45-0-15832800-1542394000.png

post-45-0-48971300-1542394019.png

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Great work guys! I just played a couple games (I'm not exactly sure *how* to play lol but I'm figuring it out) and so for it plays great! I cleared 2 hills and then some spider thing showed up and killed me. :)

 

I did get a call during my game and instinctively flipped the color/bw switch to pause; any chance that can be added?

 

I'll play some more and give more feedback... thanks!!!

 

PS The tune and aardvark animated intro after each life is really cool! Any chance you could maybe have it so he moves twice as fast in the intro if you hold down the button?

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Basic Rules:

  • eat all eggs to proceed to next hill
  • ants and caterpillar can be eaten by the tip of the tongue, but are deadly for the tongue
  • the worm can only be eaten from behind
  • queens kill all enemies

And thanks for the feedback. I suppose that you want to get rid of the intro delay, right? How about a difficulty switch which completely skips the intro sequence?

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Hi TJ,

 

Basic Rules:

  • eat all eggs to proceed to next hill
  • ants and caterpillar can be eaten by the tip of the tongue, but are deadly for the tongue
  • the worm can only be eaten from behind
  • queens kill all enemies

Cool, thanks yes I figured it out and made it up to the 7th hill (well, the 2nd hill the 2nd time around since the demo cycles back to hill 1 after hill 5). One odd thing that may be an issue; my high score before the game was 16,000 and then I got 28K on my next game but it did not show that as the high score (it still said 16K).

 

Also, there seems to be a dark red ant in the later levels that moves pretty quick; is he the same as other ants except a bit faster?

 

What does the spider do when it comes out? It looks like he shows up if you take too long to finish a level and the sun starts going down?

 

And thanks for the feedback. I suppose that you want to get rid of the intro delay, right? How about a difficulty switch which completely skips the intro sequence?

Hmmm, I wouldn't want to have it completely skipped so I don't think that would be a good idea. After playing the game I got used to it, plus the ants move during the intro so the gameplay would change slightly if it just skipped to the aardvark in the center. I use that time to plan my strategy for the level. :)

 

The 5 level limit is a great sales motivation - I can't wait to buy the full version now! :D

 

Thanks,

John

Edited by johnnywc
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Cool, thanks yes I figured it out and made it up to the 7th hill (well, the 2nd hill the 2nd time around since the demo cycles back to hill 1 after hill 5). One odd thing that may be an issue; my high score before the game was 16,000 and then I got 28K on my next game but it did not show that as the high score (it still said 16K).

Sounds like a bug report. Thanks!

 

Also, there seems to be a dark red ant in the later levels that moves pretty quick; is he the same as other ants except a bit faster?

The normal ants just run from left to right or vice versa. The red ant randomly changes the direction, which makes it less predictable.

 

What does the spider do when it comes out? It looks like he shows up if you take too long to finish a level and the sun starts going down?

Yes, the spider comes out at night. It is deadly for the tip, will follow the tongue towards the tip and cannot be killed, except by eating a queen. So you better hurry to finish the hill soon.

 

Hmmm, I wouldn't want to have it completely skipped so I don't think that would be a good idea. After playing the game I got used to it, plus the ants move during the intro so the gameplay would change slightly if it just skipped to the aardvark in the center. I use that time to plan my strategy for the level. icon_smile.gif

Makes sense. Let's see how the other people react here.

 

The 5 level limit is a great sales motivation - I can't wait to buy the full version now! icon_mrgreen.gif

That's the idea. icon_smile.gif

 

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I don't know how you guys did it, but the game play is very smooth. It’s easy to make the tongue go where you want it to.

 

I like the animated aardvark intro and would leave it as-is. Also like the built-in pause that the Bonus provides between levels.

 

Like John, I made it to the 2nd hill, the 2nd time around, but I didn't lose my high score in the subsequent game.

 

I played the ROM on my 7800 via Harmony Encore.

 

I'll try to play some more this weekend. :)

 

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