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Doodle Jump 2600 - alpha version


Dionoid

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Hi, I'm currently working on Doodle Jump for the Atari 2600 (see screenshot below). FYI: I initially planned to build this game for the Commodore 64, but after reading "Racing the Beam" a couple of months ago, I decided to buy myself an old Atari VCS and learn to program this strange, limited but wonderful machine :-)

 

I've got the basics of the game working: i.e. bouncing Doodler, vertically scrolling platforms, score at the top and occasional springs that give your jumps a boost.

However I'd like some feedback on playability. I've included both the PAL and NTSC rom files for you to play with.

 

The NTSC version looks fine in Stella, but when I play it on my TV (using a Harmony cartridge) the colors look weird. I guess that makes sense as my machine is an Atari 2600 PAL version.

Is there anyone that can test this rom on a real NTSC machine and TV?

 

I'll be improving the game in the coming weeks (adding a high-score feature is high on my list), but first I need to do some refactoring to keep the code clean and structured.

 

Thanks!!

 

--Dion

 

post-63708-0-82055500-1527720505_thumb.png

doodle_jump_2600_PAL.bin

doodle_jump_2600_NTSC.bin

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I love this game so far! Great work! The only thing I would consider is having better random number generating so huge gaps like this don't happen.

post-9475-0-75741500-1527723594.png

If this ever gets released, I'd get one. What happens when you get over 999 points? Does it go to 1,000 or above?

Edited by atari2600land
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I love this game so far! Great work! The only thing I would consider is having better random number generating so huge gaps like this don't happen.

attachicon.gifdoodle_jump_2600_NTSC.png

If this ever gets released, I'd get one. What happens when you get over 999 points? Does it go to 1,000 or above?

 

Thanks for your feedback! I do have an algorithm in place to limit the size of the 'gaps', but I'm still optimizing that.

But looking at your screenshot: are you aware that the left and the right of the screen are connected (just as in the Doodle Jump game for your smartphone)? So it's easy to reach the platforms on the left of the screen when you jump off the right edge of the screen :-)

 

And the score can go up to 99,999 ! (not sure what happens after that though :-)

 

--Dion

Edited by Dionoid
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Looks fine so far on NTSC (see below). The score background is light blue even though it looks white in the photo, and the jumper colors and res are also good despite the photo quality.

 

Plays REALLY well . With the ability to wrap around screen, so far I have not ever been "stuck"--- there is at least one platform that is reachable regardless of your position. Whatever you have done for your platform placement I would not mess with it! The jump gravity seems just right, and so does the collision detection with platforms.

 

A few early suggestions ( You might already be planning this):

 

1. It would be better if when you die, the game does not automatically restart. Perhaps the background color changes , but this would allow for the score to be preserved for photo / screenshot, or just to record it mentally. The button can be used to restart.

 

2. I think it would be cool if the background color could change at certain point milestones, this might give a sense of progression / variety ( " I made it to green level ", for example).

 

3. Need to figure out how to handle it if someone gets max score

 

4. I assume you are going to add in enemies at some score thresholds

 

Nice Work!

 

post-63151-0-01791500-1527773577_thumb.jpg

Edited by easmith
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Hi Dionoid, really fun game you've started on, I can't wait to see what you add to it as it develops!

 

We'll be playing your game tomorrow on ZeroPage Homebrew Twitch livestream if you'd like to tune in, links for more info are in my signature.

 

Hi, I'm currently working on Doodle Jump for the Atari 2600 (see screenshot below). FYI: I initially planned to build this game for the Commodore 64, but after reading "Racing the Beam" a couple of months ago, I decided to buy myself an old Atari VCS and learn to program this strange, limited but wonderful machine :-)

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Wow this plays beautifully! The scrolling is smooth, the jump mechanic feels spot on, the springs give just the right bounce! Great work so far!

 

My only suggestion is that the platforms are the same width as the character, making them a pretty precise hit, 2 extra pixels in width might balance out the precision a bit, but thats just personal preference, it still plays awesome as is.

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What I was able to get this morning on Stella, let's see if I can best this today on the ZeroPage Twitch stream using real hardware! See everyone at 2PM!

 

Damn, you have to be quick with the screen capture to catch your high score, hahahah!

post-37205-0-06222100-1527874169_thumb.png

Edited by cimmerian
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Big doodle jump fan, and loving this. Just having trouble moving with the same precision as on my phone screen..

 

I think paddle controls... Not for analog variable speeds, but rather just for left-right, to be very precise as to when you stop moving or change direction... Would help.

 

Alternatively, maybe analog controlled speed in moving left and right would work...

 

Or alternatively again, if you keep the movement digital, as it's a 2 switch game, maybe there could be an option to use the two paddle buttons, one in each hand, like one of the pinball games...

Edited by doug0909
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This is a fun little game. It already has me saying "one more try" at this early stage of development.

Or alternatively again, if you keep the movement digital, as it's a 2 switch game, maybe there could be an option to use the two paddle buttons, one in each hand, like one of the pinball games...

That would be cool, and probably not hard to do. The paddle buttons use the same bits as left and right on the joystick, they may just need to be interpreted in the opposite sense depending on which paddle is intended to be held in which hand (that is, bit 7 means "right" on a joystick, but it would mean "left" if the first paddle is in the left hand).

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Big doodle jump fan, and loving this. Just having trouble moving with the same precision as on my phone screen..

 

I think paddle controls... Not for analog variable speeds, but rather just for left-right, to be very precise as to when you stop moving or change direction... Would help.

 

Alternatively, maybe analog controlled speed in moving left and right would work...

 

Or alternatively again, if you keep the movement digital, as it's a 2 switch game, maybe there could be an option to use the two paddle buttons, one in each hand, like one of the pinball games...

 

Hi doug0909, nice to hear you like the game!

 

I might experiment with paddle controllers, but I'll probably stick with joystick for now. The acceleration/deceleration is important in this game, and I'm not sure if paddles will do a better job than regular joystick (my hands always get tired after playing the paddles for a while)

About the suggestion to use the paddles just for left/right (as in breakout) for this game probably doesn't do the gameplay good. But I'll give it a try anyway.

 

That said: I'm still working on smoothing the horizontal acceleration/deceleration.

 

 

Looks fine so far on NTSC (see below). The score background is light blue even though it looks white in the photo, and the jumper colors and res are also good despite the photo quality.

 

Plays REALLY well . With the ability to wrap around screen, so far I have not ever been "stuck"--- there is at least one platform that is reachable regardless of your position. Whatever you have done for your platform placement I would not mess with it! The jump gravity seems just right, and so does the collision detection with platforms.

 

A few early suggestions ( You might already be planning this):

 

1. It would be better if when you die, the game does not automatically restart. Perhaps the background color changes , but this would allow for the score to be preserved for photo / screenshot, or just to record it mentally. The button can be used to restart.

 

2. I think it would be cool if the background color could change at certain point milestones, this might give a sense of progression / variety ( " I made it to green level ", for example).

 

3. Need to figure out how to handle it if someone gets max score

 

4. I assume you are going to add in enemies at some score thresholds

 

Nice Work!

 

attachicon.gifIMG_0547.jpg

 

Thanks for the excellent feedback, easmith! I didn't think of changing the background to indicate progress, that is an easy fix :-)

Points 1, 2 and 4 will be added to the game for sure.

 

Cheers,

Dion

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This is definitely the best summary of the game, I seem to have an obsession with just trying it 'one more time' to get a better score. Everything is so satisfying about the game, the sounds, the movement and especially the turbo boost you get when you hit those springs!

 

Simple but very addictive.

 

It has the "one more try" factor icon_smile.gif

 

Here's my new top score for the game! I'm sure I'll continue to try and beat this one too. Next stop, 4000+!!!

post-37205-0-34365700-1528161488_thumb.png

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I've been trying off and on to break the 4000 barrier but I just haven't been able to so I thought I'd submit my next closest score, 3716!

 

Also, if anyone missed our ZeroPage livestream of Doodle Jump, here it is!

https://youtu.be/ZYjwV3NSJXE?t=55m47s

 

Some of the suggestions I think I made during the Twitch livestream of the game and ones I've thought of since are:

 

1) Wider platforms at the start and less wide as time goes on

2) Denser platforms at the start and more spaced out as time goes on

3) Unstable platforms that you can't land on (a different color)

4) Platforms that change from green to yellow to red and then disappear as you jump on them

5) Flying enemies that go back and forth blocking your way

6) Enemies that sit on platforms so that you can't land on them

7) Ability to shoot enemies with fire button

8 ) Pickup: Temporary higher bounces

9) Pickup: Temporary balloon that floats you up (you can pick when to pop it with the fire button)

10) Changing background colour to signify your progression

11) Things blowing you left and right so it makes it harder or easier to go in that direction

12) Slippery platforms making it hard to stay on them

13) THIS version built into the game as an option so you can play the original build of the game (which is really fun in itself

14) Platforms that move back and forth, left and right

post-37205-0-43888300-1528522547_thumb.png

Edited by cimmerian
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I finally got around to running this on real hardware (and getting higher scores :) ), and noticed that every so often while playing the player character will suddenly "teleport" some variable number of pixels to the left or right. If I recall correctly, the teleport happens near the top of a jump. I'd noticed this same bug in Stella as well, but thought it was some miscommunication from my USB controller; but it still happens on hardware, both with a Genesis pad and a more traditional joystick.

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I finally got around to running this on real hardware (and getting higher scores :) ), and noticed that every so often while playing the player character will suddenly "teleport" some variable number of pixels to the left or right. If I recall correctly, the teleport happens near the top of a jump. I'd noticed this same bug in Stella as well, but thought it was some miscommunication from my USB controller; but it still happens on hardware, both with a Genesis pad and a more traditional joystick.

 

Thanks for reporting the issue! I noticed the same glitch during the first review on the ZeroPage livestream two weeks ago. I found the bug and fixed it (together with some other minor issues) and I'll release a new version during the ZeroPage Homebrew livestream next week Wednesday, when Doodle Jump is revisited.

 

Things you can expect in the coming update:

  • After you die, the score stays visible until you press the fire button
  • Bug fixed where occasionally it looked like you got pushed off a platform (this is the "teleport" that you noticed)
  • Bug fixed where it seemed you could jump on a platform below the visible screen
  • Bug fixed where collision-detection on the edge of a platform was sometimes a bit off
  • Added support for the reset button
  • Bonus points for jumping on a springs
  • The game is now a 2K ROM instead of a 4K ROM
  • Speed-up for the PAL version (so now it plays as fast as the NTSC version)
  • Support for different types of platforms...

I'll post the updated version here in the original post.

Thanks!

Dion

Edited by Dionoid
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This looks awesome, great work.

I plan to be building an UNO cart here as soon as I get the rest of my parts in and this will definitely be the first thing I want to play on it.

Cant imagine how it will play with a joystick, paddle controller is the only way my mind logically would think it would play. Probably because I have only ever really played the arcade version. It uses a large analog joystick that you sweep left and right to play.

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This looks awesome, great work.

I plan to be building an UNO cart here as soon as I get the rest of my parts in and this will definitely be the first thing I want to play on it.

Cant imagine how it will play with a joystick, paddle controller is the only way my mind logically would think it would play. Probably because I have only ever really played the arcade version. It uses a large analog joystick that you sweep left and right to play.

 

Thanks for the feedback! I knew there is an arcade version of Doodle Jump, but I never played it, so I didn't know about the large sliding joystick.

Supporting a paddle controller seems to makes sense, yes. However you'll loose the ability to go side to side (as the screen wraps around in non-arcade versions).

I think using the Driving controller (the one that comes with Indy 500) would be the even better for this game, but I'm not sure how many people actually got a such a controller.

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Yeah the arcade does not wrap around the screen, didnt realize it did in other versions. Funny how because my basic knowledge of the game is from the arcade version having wrap also seems odd. I think I have the 3ds version but never got into it. Used horrible tilting controls if I remember correctly.

I also have a couple of driving controllers so once I get my parts in real hardware testing would be very possible for me as well. I need to fire this up in an emulator in the time being though.

 

 

Thanks for the feedback! I knew there is an arcade version of Doodle Jump, but I never played it, so I didn't know about the large sliding joystick.

Supporting a paddle controller seems to makes sense, yes. However you'll loose the ability to go side to side (as the screen wraps around in non-arcade versions).

I think using the Driving controller (the one that comes with Indy 500) would be the even better for this game, but I'm not sure how many people actually got a such a controller.

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