Robert M #1 Posted June 4, 2003 Hi All, Here is the demo of Gravity Ball I will be showing at the Midwest Classic this Saturday. I hope to see you there. Its a 4K image so you shouldn't have to do anything special to see it in an emulator. Cheers! gravity_ball_mwc.bin.gz Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ATARI TROLL #2 Posted June 4, 2003 looks like a good concept! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
snorlaxnut #3 Posted June 4, 2003 I can't open up ".gz" files. Can you make a regular ".bin" file? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
oesii #4 Posted June 4, 2003 I don't think you can post a .bin attachment, but here's a .zip in case that's easier for you to open. gravity_ball_mwc.zip Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Robert M #5 Posted June 4, 2003 Thanks for posting the .zip version oesii. I tried to post the straight binary, but the web server barfed because it was Mac-binary and not just binary. I don't know if there is a really a difference but... So I gzipped it. In the future, I will remember to zip it instead since more people can open a zip file than a gzip file. BTW, I should have something with player controls in a few weeks. Right now its just a visual demo. Cheers! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
oesii #6 Posted June 4, 2003 no problem, the server also freaks out when I try to post .bins from my Mac. Luckily I have ZipIt for OSX. Maybe a PC can do a cleaner .bin post? The game demo looks great, I like sporty action games. The scan lines on the intro screen are unique and a cool effect Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
snorlaxnut #7 Posted June 4, 2003 I don't think you can post a .bin attachment, but here's a .zip in case that's easier for you to open. I can open .zip files, thanks for posting it. The game looks good. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Thomas Jentzsch #8 Posted June 4, 2003 Maybe a PC can do a cleaner .bin post? No, AFAIK there is a filter on the forum software that does only allow posting selected file formats (graphics, archives, ...). Maybe Al could extend the filter and allow posting .bin-files? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Robert M #9 Posted June 4, 2003 Maybe a PC can do a cleaner .bin post? No, AFAIK there is a filter on the forum software that does only allow posting selected file formats (graphics, archives, ...). Maybe Al could extend the filter and allow posting .bin-files? Yes, it ran up against the filter. The odd thing is the list of formats includes Application/binary. It blocks the file from my Mac saying its a Application/Mac-binary. So all would need to add permission for the filter to pass Mac-binary files. As far as I can tell the resulting binary file is bit-for-bit identical to binary file from a PC. Has anyone with a Windows PC been unable to unzip and run either the .gz or .zip version of the file? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Paul Slocum #10 Posted June 4, 2003 .gz and .zip both worked fine for me (WinXP Pro / Winzip) Awesome title screen, BTW. -Paul Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Robert M #11 Posted June 4, 2003 .gz and .zip both worked fine for me (WinXP Pro / Winzip) Awesome title screen, BTW. -Paul Hi Paul, Thanks for trying both images on Windows. I suspected they would be identical. There are quite a few Mac users on this forum. It would be nice if Albert could add support for the Mac-binary format to be uploaded. I am getting a lot of good feedback about the title screen. It has lots of action I hope the the resulting game lives up to the hype projected by the Title screen Cheers! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gulag picture radio #12 Posted June 4, 2003 I'd run it in an emulator, but I'll be able to see it in person in two days, so I'll just imagine it for now. I think that this year's MWC is going to be great! Does anyone know whether they will have the great big museum again this year like last year? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dan Iacovelli #13 Posted June 4, 2003 I'd run it in an emulator, but I'll be able to see it in person in two days, so I'll just imagine it for now. I think that this year's MWC is going to be great! Does anyone know whether they will have the great big museum again this year like last year? Check out the MWC website and thier forums. (you meanwe get to talk to each other before VGS(I'm going be to MWC this year as well) rob, I checked out on pcaewin: looks great hope to see it at VGS as well. Dan Iacovelli Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+Nathan Strum #14 Posted June 4, 2003 There are quite a few Mac users on this forum. It would be nice if Albert could add support for the Mac-binary format to be uploaded. One problem I've run into, is that Safari doesn't handle downloading anything from the forums properly. It just downloads a .php file, but doesn't get the "real" file. I have to launch (ick) IE in order to grab any file from here in OS X. However, I once I got the demo, I got it to run in Stella with no problem. I am getting a lot of good feedback about the title screen. The title screen is indeed excellent! The demo itself perplexes me a little, gameplay-wise. Will this be kind of like Foosball, with gravity? The AtariAge entry describes it, but I'm having a little trouble wrapping my brain around the concept. Could you post a screenshot mockup describing the different elements? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
doron #15 Posted June 4, 2003 Yes! Why don't you post some screenshots of your projects at your site? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Robert M #16 Posted June 4, 2003 Yes, I really need to update my company website. The last few weeks have been 100% focused on getting ready for the MWC. I will update the website next week for sure, and include screen shots as well as the ability to order Loadstar Compleat. The ROM I posted has the graphics for the player's ships in it. I couldn't get the code to draw them stable in time, so I disabled it instead. The walls move as you can see in the demo. Imagine you are flying a triangle ship around in there. You can shoot at your opponent. Or ram the gravity ball to pick it up. Pressing fire when you hold the ball will launch it out the back of your ship instead of firing a shot. The gravity ball exerts a gravitational field that pulls on the ships and the shots. The ball is not attached to the floor, so it gets pulled towards the ships (Equal and opposite reaction). Shooting the ball into your opponents goal scores points. Players can pull back on the joystick and activate a gravity field generator in their own ship to try and suck in the gravity ball or knock it off course from their goal. There will be options to control how collisions are handled. Ships will bounce off walls by an adjustable amount. Shots will be able to richochet off walls or not. So on. Cheers! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+Nathan Strum #17 Posted June 5, 2003 That sounds cool! That cleared things up. I really like games that introduce the effects of gravity into the mix (Space Wars, Lunar Lander, Gravitar). So is the control scheme a left/right/thrust/fire affair? Seems like it would be. Looking forward to future updates. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Robert M #18 Posted June 5, 2003 The controls as planned right now will be: Fire = Shoot Up = Thrust forward Left = Rotate counterclockwise Right = Rotate clockwise Down = Activate Gravity generator If you are carrying the ball, then Fire will shoot the ball instead of a shot. The current plan is to have the ball shoot out the rear of the ship so that the carrier will have to move towards the goal and then turn around to get the shot off. That will give the opponent some more time to react. I am also juggling the idea that if a shot hits the Gravity ball, then the ball inverts its field for a couple seconds pushing everything away rather than pulling it in. Cheers! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Vic George 2K3 #19 Posted June 5, 2003 Sounds like Video Whizball for the Fairchild/Zircon Channel F crossed with Space War. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+Atarius Maximus #20 Posted June 5, 2003 The demo looks great! good work. Safari doesn't handle downloading anything from the forums properly I use chimera/camino on OSX and it works fantastic, and it's loads faster than IE. Give it a try! AM Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
goatdan #21 Posted June 5, 2003 Wow! That is excellent! Hope I actually get a free second or two to try it out this weekend! Putting together a show like this can sure be hectic! And yes, the museum will be back and bigger than ever. The museum will be taking up a space that is as big as the whole hall was last year Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
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