Scramble (5200)

[+playsoft]

I got entirely through and back to the meteors again - nice Easter Egg once you loop through. Though I was using easier settings like Easy, small ship, autofire fast and 5 lives but I did have a few left once I finished the game.

 

Credit to Harvey for that. There are others, some similar to the one you've seen and other things as well. To see them all you'll need to do 4 complete runs starting with the normal ship, 8 with the small ship.

 

There are also some cheats but it seems a bit early to give away the codes now.

[tjlazer]

Great job! Can we now get Glenn the 5200 man to hack it for Atari 8-bit computers???

[Jinroh]

Great job! Can we now get Glenn the 5200 man to hack it for Atari 8-bit computers???

Haha I thought the same thing when I saw this thread.

 

Amazing work as usual PlaySoft!

Edited August 4, 2018 by Jinroh

[tjlazer]

I wasn't planning an A8 release as I thought the game was a better fit for the 5200. The biggest issue would be getting the level of difficulty correct for PAL as the slower frame rate does make it a lot easier.

Why would it be a better fit? Plenty it not all A8 users play games! Keeping it NTSC is fine too!

[+playsoft]

The 5200 has 2 button joysticks as standard and I did not think it was a sophisticated enough game for the A8 nowadays.

[+sramirez2008]

Wow, this is excellent! I suck at it, but love it. Thanks playsoft.

[tjlazer]

Well the Atari 8 bit is very similar to the Atari 800. Just has one button joystick. But not sure what the second one would do for this type of game. All the scramble games I’ve played, even on the Commodore 64 are one button. Great game though. Maybe one of our talented coders can hack it for the 800.

[mmervine]

Anyone made a video of this yet?

[+Nathan Strum]

Nice! Really digging the Space:1999-inspired player ship.

[NML32]

Anyone made a video of this yet?

I made a video playing on the MiSTer FPGA. I didn't get very far I need way more practice.

 

[mmervine]

Awesome...thanks!

[David Alexander]

Big thanks from the Atari 5200 Podcast team

[jefffulton]

I made a video playing on the MiSTer FPGA. I didn't get very far I need way more practice.

 

Love it, this looks awesome!

[jefffulton]

 

Credit to Harvey for that. There are others, some similar to the one you've seen and other things as well. To see them all you'll need to do 4 complete runs starting with the normal ship, 8 with the small ship.

 

There are also some cheats but it seems a bit early to give away the codes now.

Man, you did awesome work here! Looks and sounds incredible!

[Level42]

 

Yes there are 4 speeds of movement spread over 4 frames. At the slowest speed you move 1 frame in 4, at the fastest 4 frames in 4. Most of the time you are moving fast but it does make a subtle change to control.

 

But the arcade version has a regular 8 way (digital) joystick...so you're "straying from the path here"

 

man what a stellar job.....amazing really...... Why do you think this would be not "good enough" for the A8 ? Have you missed the ports of Bosconian and Time Pilot ? Both are excellent conversions of early arcade machines...and it so happens that I LOVE those games.....thanks !!!!

[+Nathan Strum]

Love how the explosions change once you get past the first base! Very cool idea.

 

Two suggestions:

• In the arcade version of Scramble, the player's collision detection with the terrain was much more forgiving. Here, there's no margin for error. It might be nice to loosen that up just a little bit.
• In the arcade version, you're credited with reaching a new stage as soon as you cross into it. Here though, the old stage has to completely scroll offscreen. So if you die right at the beginning of stage 4, you have to replay all of stage 3. That seems a bit harsh.

Plays great though. Very, very nicely done! Almost makes me wish I owned a 5200.

Edited August 8, 2018 by Nathan Strum

[mmervine]

Nathan-I thought it was just me. I also noticed that if you die at the beginning of a stage, that it sends you back to the previous stage. I am sure this is something that Paul can look at. I just finished playing this again this evening and this game still blows me away!

[Omega-TI]

I'm a little disappointed in a large number of users here. This game is so damn good and it's been downloaded over 400 times, but the guy for all his hard work has gotten less than 20 likes? Come on people, click on the LIKE button, after all his hard work, it's the very least you can do!

[Albert]

Might get more attention if it was in the 5200 forum.

 

..Al

[eebuckeye]

I have not had a chance to play but this game looks freakin incredible! I was just thinking about how much talent is here on AtariAge!?!

[Omega-TI]

Might get more attention if it was in the 5200 forum.

 

..Al

 

Yeah, I thought about that and directed people here from there a couple of days ago.

[AtariBrian]

This looks great . I think it needs a cart release from the AA store and quick

[+Cafeman]

I'm a little disappointed in a large number of users here. This game is so damn good and it's been downloaded over 400 times, but the guy for all his hard work has gotten less than 20 likes? Come on people, click on the LIKE button, after all his hard work, it's the very least you can do!

I see your point and agree but I think that is typical, people often don't bother to express their appreciation publicly, and forget getting a sizable amount of reviews on anything 5200.

 

Myself, although I consider myself a lifelong fan of the 5200, and appreciative of homebrew efforts, I have not had the time to load up my VG Wiz cart and try out Scramble yet. Ive seen the video and it looks great, I am a bit envious of how this game seems to have been quickly whipped up and completed out of nowhere! I will definitely be playing this and commenting on it soon. The animation and scrolling looks awesome as does the gameplay.

[+playsoft]

Love how the explosions change once you get past the first base! Very cool idea.

 

There are other "rewards" in the same vein when you progress further.

 

 

 

Two suggestions:

• In the arcade version of Scramble, the player's collision detection with the terrain was much more forgiving. Here, there's no margin for error. It might be nice to loosen that up just a little bit.
• In the arcade version, you're credited with reaching a new stage as soon as you cross into it. Here though, the old stage has to completely scroll offscreen. So if you die right at the beginning of stage 4, you have to replay all of stage 3. That seems a bit harsh.

Plays great though. Very, very nicely done! Almost makes me wish I owned a 5200.

 

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

I prefer the more accurate collision detection. I think the ship is a little smaller than the arcade and there is the small ship option.

 

I will change the stage check though. I originally coded it like the arcade but it felt wrong to be able to skip the last part of a stage by crashing just as the next stage appears. But this has been suggested a couple of times now so I will change it.

[+playsoft]

I'm a little disappointed in a large number of users here. This game is so damn good and it's been downloaded over 400 times, but the guy for all his hard work has gotten less than 20 likes? Come on people, click on the LIKE button, after all his hard work, it's the very least you can do!

 

Thank you - but it's fine. My enjoyment from this hobby is from developing the game which takes many months, not how many likes I get in a few days. It's had lots of downloads which can't be bad.

Edited August 8, 2018 by playsoft