Dungeon Hunt II - Preview

[jacobus]

Announcing Dungeon Hunt II

 

Featuring

• Wide open spaces
• improved graphics
• new monsters
• new maps
• Multi level mazes
• completely re-written engine

 

Available (hopefully)

• Fall/Winter 2018

 

https://youtu.be/o66g0Z1pw3Q

 

[Goochman]

Looks fantastic!

[+CharlieChaplin]

Great!

 

Will there be a playable demo version ?

 

And regarding the final version, will it be available on disk, cart. or both ?

[jacobus]

Looks fantastic!

Thank you! Still lots of work to do on maps and monsters...

 

Great!

 

Will there be a playable demo version ?

 

And regarding the final version, will it be available on disk, cart. or both ?

I'm planning to release this as freeware - more people can enjoy it this time.

[Rybags]

Cool - what we always were lacking in is a game that occupies the middle ground between Gateway to Apshai and Alternate Reality.

 

AR all well and good but it's just an epic that goes on for months without end. Gateway fun in it's own way but too repetitive and frustrating in that you'd start to build up an inventory and clear some maps only to die and lose everything.

 

A dungeon crawler where you build a character and do exploring would be great - but of course stuff like the encounter mechanics can make or break the game.

[Alfred]

Looks very cool. As someone who doesn't really do graphics, what modes do you use ? The walls look great with fine detail, but the monsters are different. Are they some kind of charset overlay or P/M ?

[ndary]

very cool

[jacobus]

Rybags, on 03 Oct 2018 - 09:00 AM, said:

Cool - what we always were lacking in is a game that occupies the middle ground between Gateway to Apshai and Alternate Reality.

 

AR all well and good but it's just an epic that goes on for months without end. Gateway fun in it's own way but too repetitive and frustrating in that you'd start to build up an inventory and clear some maps only to die and lose everything.

 

A dungeon crawler where you build a character and do exploring would be great - but of course stuff like the encounter mechanics can make or break the game.

 

 

Alfred, on 03 Oct 2018 - 09:19 AM, said:

Looks very cool. As someone who doesn't really do graphics, what modes do you use ? The walls look great with fine detail, but the monsters are different. Are they some kind of charset overlay or P/M ?

 

The dungeon is rendered using Antic mode 4 and an entire character set. Some things bother me like the T (and upside-down T) shapes at the top and bottom of the side walls. With more characters I could change them to nice smooth angles. I am currently considering defining top and bottom character sets and switching with a DLI partway down. The monsters are rendered using all four Player Missile graphics to give 16 bits of horizontal resolution and three colours (by overlapping P0&P2 and P1&P3). Vertical and horizontal widths are doubled as the player approaches. Vertical changes are done in the animation itself, I currently have 8 frames (5 unique) in the cycle.

 

I use a somewhat obscure Atari development language called Quick. Quick compiles directly into machine code, allows full access to the hardware (PMGs, VBI and DLI routines are easy) and yet has a very simple Basic like syntax that even moderately skilled programmers like me can handle.

 

Where Quick falls down is that it only allows 20K for program code. I get around that limitation by offloading as much data to disk as possible and loading it into other areas of memory during runtime. The downside is that this in turn makes most of my games disk based rather than XEXs.

 

The first version of DH left me with 7 bytes of program RAM remaining. I would have loved to include multiple weapons, more meaningful character development and other standard RPG elements in that version but there was absolutely no room. Instead I started work on Imp – a game with more classic RPG features (see link below). Imp is currently stalled because I’m sick of working on the maps (they are very large and complex and take a long time to complete) I’ll try to finish that someday.

 

Back to DH2, with a lot of optimizing and offloading I have almost 2K left. So maybe I’ll try to upgrade the gameplay somewhat – I’ll have to see how long the new maps and graphics take.

 

Imp Link:

[+cjherr]

Outstanding! Loved the first, can't wait for the second.

[+orpheuswaking]

Thank you! Still lots of work to do on maps and monsters...

 

I'm planning to release this as freeware - more people can enjoy it this time.

 

Freeware only? or will there be a physical release also?

[Lord Thag]

Played the heck out of the first one, this will be a blast, I'm sure.

[Alfred]

 

 

 

The dungeon is rendered using Antic mode 4 and an entire character set. Some things bother me like the T (and upside-down T) shapes at the top and bottom of the side walls. With more characters I could change them to nice smooth angles. I am currently considering defining top and bottom character sets and switching with a DLI partway down. The monsters are rendered using all four Player Missile graphics to give 16 bits of horizontal resolution and three colours (by overlapping P0&P2 and P1&P3). Vertical and horizontal widths are doubled as the player approaches. Vertical changes are done in the animation itself, I currently have 8 frames (5 unique) in the cycle.

 

I use a somewhat obscure Atari development language called Quick. Quick compiles directly into machine code, allows full access to the hardware (PMGs, VBI and DLI routines are easy) and yet has a very simple Basic like syntax that even moderately skilled programmers like me can handle.

 

Where Quick falls down is that it only allows 20K for program code. I get around that limitation by offloading as much data to disk as possible and loading it into other areas of memory during runtime. The downside is that this in turn makes most of my games disk based rather than XEXs.

 

 

Looking at the Quick memory map, you ought to have around 28K for code and data. I'm curious: Did you run out of symbol space or the program with its data has filled up the available memory ? Quick seems like something that could perhaps benefit from an XE version of the compiler.

[+Philsan]

Hi Jim.

 

I'll put DH II in DH box then...

 

Out of curiosity, did you test the new compiled FastBasic?

It's easier than Quick but perhaps it's slower.

[peteym5]

Looks fantastic. Several months back, I was searching around for routines and programming that can be used for a 3D Role Playing Game on the Atari 8-bit. The other option is to take an existing game like this and add some additional RPG elements. Now is that a Hit Point meter I am seeing, or amount of time you have for light or get food? Are the dungeons randomly generated or preset in data? May do something with hidden doors or need to find items to go beyond a certain point in the game.

[jacobus]

 

Freeware only? or will there be a physical release also?

 

 

Hi Jim.

 

I'll put DH II in DH box then...

 

Out of curiosity, did you test the new compiled FastBasic?

It's easier than Quick but perhaps it's slower.

 

Although doing a boxed version of the original Dungeon Hunt was a lot of fun, it was also a colossal pain the a$$. I had intended to skip all that bother for this version but there seems to be more interest that I had expected. I will think about it - but no promises! :-)

[jacobus]

 

Looking at the Quick memory map, you ought to have around 28K for code and data. I'm curious: Did you run out of symbol space or the program with its data has filled up the available memory ? Quick seems like something that could perhaps benefit from an XE version of the compiler.

 

20K at $5000 for program/embedded data, 4K at $A000 for (I assume) the compiler's symbol table and another 4K at $B000 for program variables. Sadly the 20K is fixed and cannot be extended. Data can go pretty much anywhere else, I typically overwrite the compiler code and use $600 to $40FF and A000 to $AFFF which gives me almost another 20K in a 48K machine. I could avoid a disk based program by using a segmented XEX to load data separate from the actual program code - but for DH I need the disk for game saves anyway.

 

I agree, using the XE's memory to compile in would be an incredible boost to the language's utility but the source code is not available. The compiler's author(s) were briefly online here around a year ago but were not interested in searching for the original disks (sounds like they are stored in an attic somewhere).

[jacobus]

Looks fantastic. Several months back, I was searching around for routines and programming that can be used for a 3D Role Playing Game on the Atari 8-bit. The other option is to take an existing game like this and add some additional RPG elements. Now is that a Hit Point meter I am seeing, or amount of time you have for light or get food? Are the dungeons randomly generated or preset in data? May do something with hidden doors or need to find items to go beyond a certain point in the game.

 

RPG elements are all fairly basic - simply a metered quantity of each attribute - maximum quantities are limited in early levels to keep things balanced.

 

Armour - Prevents or lessens damage from an attacking monster

Weapon - Single weapon, becomes more effective with level (cannot be damaged)

Health - self explanatory

XP - Experience points - again they go up with level and help fighting effectiveness

Mana - required for (single) magic spell

Arrows - required for the single ranged weapon

Torch (oil) - controls the amount of light around the player, also monsters are more deadly in the dark

 

These attributes are incremented (randomly) after each successful battle or at select areas within the dungeon (wall / floor panels)

 

There is a number that flashes in the bottom right corner during fights - this indicates the health of the attacking monster.

 

Dungeons are all pre-set - the original Dungeon Hunt package came with a level editor but I have yet to see anyone create custom ones...

 

No hidden doors or destructible walls, but I am playing with Up and Down ladders to allow the player to return to a previous level - this should allows some very nice 3-D mazes. Currently a key is needed to open doors - since the key is one use only it could be used to create some interlocking maze puzzles.

[eegad]

Looking good so far. Definitely looking forward to downloading and playing over the winter.

 

 

[Marius]

This is so amazing. I love the first DH, it is a very nice game. So can't wait to play DH II!