Berzerkoids (alpha)

[jum]

 

 

Here are some ideas…

• Allow both A & B buttons to act as fire button (unless you plan to use the B button for something else later on?)
• Something on title/splash screen to tell you to press a button or move to start the game
• Scrolling the play field as you move from room to room would be nice
• Is it possible to play the sampled sounds async? (Or are you doing it sync on purpose?)
• This wasn’t in the original, but the comment about not knowing the walls would kill you… Is it possible to color cycle animate the walls? (Does Lynx support indirection like that? like 4/800 did?)

 

Thanks for the suggestions, they are all do-able.

The voice samples will stay as they are (freezes while playing them back), as in the original. Also it makes it more dramatic

 

I will see what I can do within the next week or two...

 

PS: It's "Berzerkoids"

[+bhall408]

Two more feature requests/suggestions

 

• Keep a high score (and perhaps show on title screen?)
• For the red robot level, consider a higher contrast color for the "cylon eye". ie, perhaps if robot is red, use white or yellow eye?

[jum]

Berzerkoids "alpha 3" attached. (Only tested in Handy)

 

Changes as per bhall's suggestions:

- Use inner or outer fire button to fire.

- Prompt to press any key to start on the title screen

- "Get ready" message before every level

- Level scrolls off the screen when you finish it.

- Slightly pulsating walls (it's quite subtle to avoid being too distracting).

 

Also a fix to the bullet colour (now always white).

 

Edit: attached file removed - see updated berzerkoids_alpha3a post below.

Edited May 1, 2019 by jum

[Igor]

I like this version, the title screen is nice too. Updated screenshots over at Atari Gamer too (https://atarigamer.com/lynx/game/BefokBerzerkoids/265383336)

Thanks for updating this!

[jum]

I like this version, the title screen is nice too. Updated screenshots over at Atari Gamer too (https://atarigamer.com/lynx/game/BefokBerzerkoids/265383336)

Thanks for updating this!

The online Lynx emulator on your site seems to work quite well.

 

Just one small thing - your description of Berzerkoids says "about 80%" complete. It's actually now around 99% complete.

[Igor]

Thanks! I don't like how it freezes on launch, I think that's to do with transferring the emulator binary, been meaning to add compression to that.

I've updated the description now.

[+bhall408]

Huge improvements in Alpha 3!

 

Here is some more feedback...

 

• Every once in a while, I can get a bullet to shoot horizontally, but be drawn in vertical orientation
• Shimmering walls is kind of cool. Karri, is that what would have helped you? Would be interesting to try a slower pulse/cycling vs shimmer to see if that is better or not.
• “Press to Start” does not seem horizontally centered (maybe it previously said “Press A to Start” (that would be centered)
• If possible to show “Get Ready” while old screen is scrolling that would be a 2-for-1 of getting you ready, but using the time that the scrolling takes place for it
• Would be nice to have some track of how many rooms you have cleared (a numeric count, or symbolic like pac-man, or mix - show a number, but color number same as the robot color level?)
• Love the “smoked” animation for when you get killed. Love it!
• Laser shot sound is good
• Could use a beefier explosion sound for when you get a robot
• Wish - 2 player coop mode via comlynx would be sweet (but I imagine ALOT of work for something not everyone could use)
• Missile collision detection sometimes fails. I have shot a robot (horizontal shot) right at their eye level and it passed thru them (2 in a row at same v position). Was able to get it to happen multiple times.
• Show bonus for clearing the room of all robots (not sure if it is scoring that, but it isn’t telling you for sure)
• Title screen music (robotron has a great title screen/music as an good example, and also has a great high score screen)
• Should bouncing otto destroy robots he passes over?
• Could it be packaged as a .LNX file? (OpenEMU on Mac won’t recognize it by default as a .COM)

[Nop90]

 

• Wish - 2 player coop mode via comlynx would be sweet (but I imagine ALOT of work for something not everyone could use)

 

 

I have a lynx game that only needs the comlynx suport for the 2Players mode to be finished, but found only code examples of comlynx use that need a lot of work to be usable (with all the problems of testing/debugging it on real Hw).

 

Do you have some code to share than can help me and other developers to implement comlynx support?

[+bhall408]

 

I have a lynx game that only needs the comlynx suport for the 2Players mode to be finished, but found only code examples of comlynx use that need a lot of work to be usable (with all the problems of testing/debugging it on real Hw).

 

 

One thing I'm planning to do is to bring up same-device ComLynx support (use IAC to talk between multiple emulation cores on the same device)

 

I think that would help encourage more ComLynx apps (to have a way to test w/o original devices and cables)

 

 

 

Do you have some code to share than can help me and other developers to implement comlynx support?

 

See above... I can help (eventually) on the development tools side.

 

I started browsing the AtariGamer.com database to see if there were any ComLynx home-brews... I'm up to D so far... And up to that point, have only found one -- Championship Rally (2018). Reach out to @Songbird to see if he has tips...

 

@Necrocia -- can you add comlynx support as a searchable attribute?

[Turbo Laser Lynx]

@bhall408 The only homebrew games with comlynx support that I can seem to remember from the top of my head are indeed "Championship Rally" and the recently released "Space Battle" http://atariage.com/forums/topic/260379-ls-upcoming-releases-2017/?p=4254374

 

I guess you might have seen this thread already?

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/283514-multiplayer-comlynx-from-championship-rally/

 

I wish you good luck in your comlynx endeavours, it would be exciting to have better/easier dev tools for it.

[Turbo Laser Lynx]

@jum I love the newest version of the game! I played it on the emulator tonight, I'll try it on a real Lynx asap.

[Nop90]

I'm working on the comlynx code from Chanpionship Rally, but it can't be compiled as is in cc65 (mostly because there isn't an #asm directive that handles a block of code, asm code needs to be inserted line by line with the __asm__() function with some fix to how some variables are used, but there are other things to fix too).

 

I'm following two ways: convert everything in a .s file (but my asm is rusty and never coded in asm for a 6502) and rewriting everything in c (that is simpler for me but it can have unexpected problems with the -o compiler parmeter).

 

It's a lot of work, but there aren't ther choices. I'm afarid by the fact that karri alredy tryed to port the redeye code to cc65 some years ago and it never worked as expected.

 

I'll try to implement a very simple and basic comlynx support, this should help to have some results.

Edited April 30, 2019 by Nop90

[Turbo Laser Lynx]

@Nop90 Nice! That sounds exciting! Wishing you good luck and keeping my fingers crossed for you!

[Igor]

 

I started browsing the AtariGamer.com database to see if there were any ComLynx home-brews... I'm up to D so far... And up to that point, have only found one -- Championship Rally (2018). Reach out to @Songbird to see if he has tips...

 

@Necrocia -- can you add comlynx support as a searchable attribute?

 

 

Sure, I'll have a look at doing this tonight

[Igor]

I started browsing the AtariGamer.com database to see if there were any ComLynx home-brews... I'm up to D so far... And up to that point, have only found one -- Championship Rally (2018). Reach out to @Songbird to see if he has tips...

 

@Necrocia -- can you add comlynx support as a searchable attribute?

 

 

You can search for comlynx enabled games now - https://atarigamer.com/lynx/games?z=1&s=comlynx&o=1

If you're getting no data, click the force reload link at the bottom of the table that normally shows data, it needs to load in a new data set that includes comlynx information.

[jum]

Berzerkoids alpha 3a attached (just a fix to the flickering at the top of the screen on real hardware).

 

berzerkoids_alpha3a.zip

[+bhall408]

 

 

You can search for comlynx enabled games now - https://atarigamer.com/lynx/games?z=1&s=comlynx&o=1

If you're getting no data, click the force reload link at the bottom of the table that normally shows data, it needs to load in a new data set that includes comlynx information.

 

 

I did have to hit "force reload", but then it worked great.

 

So this very quickly showed there are 57 games in total and 14 of them home-brews that support ComLynx.

 

Since you seem to have the best database, could you add flags for stereo/panning utilization and rotation/orientation?

 

Those are 2 that I track in my own list I keep in Google sheets.

 

I can send you my lists if you want, but I think you would have to have a state of "unknown" for any not flagged, as I only noted the ones I have/know about, which is a subset of your database.

[+bhall408]

Oh, and please @Necrocia, start a new post if you want to continue... it isn't nice to thread hijack (I feel bad that I encouraged that)

[+bhall408]

• Missile collision detection sometimes fails. I have shot a robot (horizontal shot) right at their eye level and it passed thru them (2 in a row at same v position). Was able to get it to happen multiple times.

 

 

Related... I have now seen a robot shot pass thru my "neck".... That one makes more sense... It is a tough edge case around collision detection since the neck is a void in that sprite...

Edited May 1, 2019 by bhall408

[Igor]

Oh, and please @Necrocia, start a new post if you want to continue... it isn't nice to thread hijack (I feel bad that I encouraged that)

 

 

Started a new thread - http://atariage.com/forums/topic/290801-complete-game-database-of-atari-lynx-titles/

The stereo and rotation attributes are there already but I don't show them since I've not populated them, so most are in the 'unknown' state. Lets use the new thread for further discussion.

[CrazyChris]

Bug report on real hardware:

 

- The ghosting of the walls is pretty bad.

 

- Sometimes when there is a robot above me I try

to shoot up, but nothing happens. Even if I move

up a little, it still does not work.

 

Thanks for giving me a reason to break out my

Lynx again!

[jum]

Bug report on real hardware:

 

- The ghosting of the walls is pretty bad.

 

- Sometimes when there is a robot above me I try

to shoot up, but nothing happens. Even if I move

up a little, it still does not work.

 

 

Thanks Chris. Not sure what causes the "ghosting" of the vertical walls, I just assumed it was my Lynx' old and crappy screen

I think the "jamming" of the gun may be caused by the bullets going off-screen without hitting anything, and since the player has 2 bullets that are recycled, he can't fire until they time out. I will check and fix this.

(You can maybe try to avoid this problem by not firing out a doorway?).

 

Edit: Seems ghosting may be caused by bad capacitor(s) in the Lynx.

Edited May 6, 2019 by jum

[CrazyChris]

 

Thanks Chris. Not sure what causes the "ghosting" of the vertical walls, I just assumed it was my Lynx' old and crappy screen

I think the "jamming" of the gun may be caused by the bullets going off-screen without hitting anything, and since the player has 2 bullets that are recycled, he can't fire until they time out. I will check and fix this.

(You can maybe try to avoid this problem by not firing out a doorway?).

 

Edit: Seems ghosting may be caused by bad capacitor(s) in the Lynx.

 

jum,

 

I don't think not being able to fire has to do with bullets going off screen,

but let me double check this.

 

Chris

Edited May 7, 2019 by CrazyChris

[CrazyChris]

Edit: Seems ghosting may be caused by bad capacitor(s) in the Lynx.

Does anyone else have problems with ghosting walls on real hardware???

[CrazyChris]

 

I think the "jamming" of the gun may be caused by the bullets going off-screen without hitting anything, and since the player has 2 bullets that are recycled, he can't fire until they time out. I will check and fix this.

(You can maybe try to avoid this problem by not firing out a doorway?).

 

You got it right. If you fire out a door twice, you can't shoot for awhile. I'm pretty sure

that was the issue.

 

Also, I prefer a smiling Evil Otto.