+Karl G Posted September 27, 2019 Author Share Posted September 27, 2019 I've added a small house for the player in Acadia, which is the city next to where the hero starts. Entering will ask the player if they wish to save. Does this seem like a good approach? 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King_Salamon Posted September 28, 2019 Share Posted September 28, 2019 I like it... will this be the only save point in the game? I don't know how large the map is but always making the trek to save at this spot seems odd. Again, I'm not familiar with how the world looks and the layout but I'm super excited about it! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Karl G Posted October 2, 2019 Author Share Posted October 2, 2019 On 9/27/2019 at 10:15 PM, King_Salamon said: I like it... will this be the only save point in the game? I don't know how large the map is but always making the trek to save at this spot seems odd. Again, I'm not familiar with how the world looks and the layout but I'm super excited about it! That's a fair point. Adding in save locations that are far away from the starting city would be a good idea. I also added in auto-save for levelling, dying, and upgrading equipment, and it seems to be working well so far. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King_Salamon Posted October 2, 2019 Share Posted October 2, 2019 1 hour ago, Karl G said: That's a fair point. Adding in save locations that are far away from the starting city would be a good idea. I also added in auto-save for levelling, dying, and upgrading equipment, and it seems to be working well so far. Upon playing the original Dragon Quest recently, there was one location to save the game so perhaps it is good enough? Although there is a quick save option as well but the game even suggests that you use the 'hard save' option at the castle. What makes this easy is that you can cast a zoom spell that takes you back to the castle and the cost is only one magic point. Regardless, this is shaping up to be a fun romp on the ol' 2600! Looking forward to hearing people's reviews later this month! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NinjaFlicker Posted October 3, 2019 Share Posted October 3, 2019 (edited) The First Dragon Quest isn't exactly the most polished game around. And to Dragon Quest's credit, later games immediately improved on the formula. In terms of just saving the game, sequels included a place to save in every village, and a quick save at any time in case you needed to quit suddenly. It'd be overwritten the next time you started the game. I'd argue that your home should also offer a free health restore. And maybe a place to store extra items? Make it actually feel like a home, so you have a real reason to return to it. Edited October 3, 2019 by NinjaFlicker 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Karl G Posted October 3, 2019 Author Share Posted October 3, 2019 I actually do have it restore your hit points and spell points at the cost of one food, since I'm assuming that the hero is resting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Karl G Posted October 12, 2019 Author Share Posted October 12, 2019 I've officially made the switch from 64K to 128K after doing the math on how much space dungeon maps and supporting code will require. I always knew this might be a possibility, but I wanted to first see what I could fit into 64K. Maps and dialog strings eat up space very quickly. Anyway, I have started on adding dungeons to the game, starting with using converted Ultima 3 dungeon maps for testing purposes before creating my own. Here's a screenshot of a level being created in the Tiled editor: 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Karl G Posted October 20, 2019 Author Share Posted October 20, 2019 I'm looking forward to hearing how the demo has been received at PRGE. ? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goochman Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 As for saving you need to have the ability to save in multiple places. Maybe take the Ultima approach that whenever you enter an object (Town/Castle/Dungeon/etc...) the game is saved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Karl G Posted October 23, 2019 Author Share Posted October 23, 2019 I ended up taking a similar approach, but I wanted to somewhat limit the number of writes to the SaveKey. In addition to the save location, it also autosaves when you create a character, go up a level, die, buy equipment, learn a spell, and other important points in the game. I could easily have it do so upon entering a city, etc. like in Ultima, but I'm not sure if doing that many writes every game session would be a bad idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King_Salamon Posted October 23, 2019 Share Posted October 23, 2019 On 10/20/2019 at 9:29 AM, Karl G said: I'm looking forward to hearing how the demo has been received at PRGE. ? Me too!! C'mon folks!! Someone must have given this game a play or ten? lol Let's get some feedback! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
masschamber Posted October 23, 2019 Share Posted October 23, 2019 On 10/12/2019 at 8:05 AM, Karl G said: I've officially made the switch from 64K to 128K after doing the math on how much space dungeon maps and supporting code will require. I always knew this might be a possibility, but I wanted to first see what I could fit into 64K. Maps and dialog strings eat up space very quickly. Anyway, I have started on adding dungeons to the game, starting with using converted Ultima 3 dungeon maps for testing purposes before creating my own. Here's a screenshot of a level being created in the Tiled editor: a 1 meg atari game, mmm, I know that is a stupid thing to enjoy, but I do none the less. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Karl G Posted October 23, 2019 Author Share Posted October 23, 2019 8 hours ago, masschamber said: a 1 meg atari game, mmm, I know that is a stupid thing to enjoy, but I do none the less. No no no...I promise it won't get that big. I'm 100% confident that 128K will be more than enough space to fit the remaining content I wish to add Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
masschamber Posted October 23, 2019 Share Posted October 23, 2019 6 hours ago, Karl G said: No no no...I promise it won't get that big. I'm 100% confident that 128K will be more than enough space to fit the remaining content I wish to add Meant 1 megabit 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King_Salamon Posted October 26, 2019 Share Posted October 26, 2019 On 10/23/2019 at 2:39 PM, masschamber said: Meant 1 megabit But putting a 'one mega cart' marking on the package sounds super cool! lol Megabyte... Megabit... doesn't matter. It's still MEGA! lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
masschamber Posted October 26, 2019 Share Posted October 26, 2019 26 minutes ago, King_Salamon said: But putting a 'one mega cart' marking on the package sounds super cool! lol Megabyte... Megabit... doesn't matter. It's still MEGA! lol Atari like you've never seen it before, with 1 mega-power! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King_Salamon Posted October 26, 2019 Share Posted October 26, 2019 1 hour ago, masschamber said: Atari like you've never seen it before, with 1 mega-power! That sounds good to me! lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Karl G Posted November 17, 2019 Author Share Posted November 17, 2019 While I like the current Penult kernel using tiles with an accent color, the flicker can be distracting on some displays. Since I have more space to work with now, I've added a different switchable kernel option that makes use of a smoother flickerblinds approach, at the cost of the accent color. I am keeping both options, and you can choose between them with the Color/B&W switch. I miss the color in the flickerblinds kernel, but the display looks a lot more solid. Here are some comparative screenshots: Starting screen, original display: Starting screen, flickerblinds display: Queen Avaline's castle, original display: Queen Avaline's castle, flickerblinds display: 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King_Salamon Posted November 18, 2019 Share Posted November 18, 2019 I particularly like the accent colour myself but the screen does pop more when you remove the accent colour. It'll be interesting to see which setting people prefer. I'm thinking I'll go with the accent myself. Then again, as you said, some displays may have issues so it will depend on our tvs as well. This is looking better and better for the 2600! Keep up the amazing work! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted November 18, 2019 Share Posted November 18, 2019 23 hours ago, Karl G said: While I like the current Penult kernel using tiles with an accent color, the flicker can be distracting on some displays. Since I have more space to work with now, I've added a different switchable kernel option that makes use of a smoother flickerblinds approach, at the cost of the accent color. I am keeping both options, and you can choose between them with the Color/B&W switch. I miss the color in the flickerblinds kernel, but the display looks a lot more solid. Here are some comparative screenshots: Both methods of display have their strengths and weaknesses so it's great that you'll be able to include both as an option for people playing and they can customize it to the one they like best. ? Awesome work Karl! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Karl G Posted December 8, 2019 Author Share Posted December 8, 2019 I've added the first public demo of the game that includes my custom maps and actual gameplay. The world map has been shrunk, and only includes the starting town, the castle, and surrounding areas in order to avoid spoilers. ? You can level up to level 6, upgrade equipment, learn a new spell if you figure out how, and save/load games if you have an AtariVox or SaveKey. Details are at the top of the first post in this topic. Please try it, and give feedback! ? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted December 8, 2019 Share Posted December 8, 2019 Awesome, look forward to trying this latest version out! Thanks for the update! ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mountain King Posted December 9, 2019 Share Posted December 9, 2019 This is awesome. Nice work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
easmith Posted December 9, 2019 Share Posted December 9, 2019 (edited) Played a bit . Very impressive is understatement . Couple of suggestions : Just played on Stella but the color option looks much nicer . The menu screens , choosing name , allocating hit points , etc are a little frustrating . Seems like I want to move up and down to switch between items, and left and right to change the values, and button when done ( "nextscreen " or entering name letter ) . I guess it just seems inconsistent. Also, sometimes I accidentally pull up the " talk, cast , use" menu and want to just exit out of it . Maybe pulling down could just back out of this menu .... Also I would consider changing the name , something like " Penult Quest " or "Penult: Terryn's Quest " , just to make it sound a bit cooler . I know with Space Game it's kind of ironic and maybe that is part of it , but just a thought for what it's worth . Nits of course Edited December 9, 2019 by easmith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+D Train Posted December 10, 2019 Share Posted December 10, 2019 5 hours ago, easmith said: Also I would consider changing the name , someone had suggested "Penultima," which I always liked... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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