+Karl G Posted August 8, 2019 Share Posted August 8, 2019 I played the latest version with my Uno cart on my Jr., and the look and feel of it is great! I'll definitely be getting a cart if and when one is available. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nathan Strum Posted August 8, 2019 Share Posted August 8, 2019 50 minutes ago, Andrew Davie said: 9) end of level pizzaz I read that as "end of level pizzas" for a moment... now I'm slightly disappointed and hungry. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nathan Strum Posted August 8, 2019 Share Posted August 8, 2019 (edited) 55 minutes ago, Andrew Davie said: Here's a (hopefully) clean binary with the levels in the correct order. I thought I'd release this before embarking on the changes mentioned above. I'm really digging the level progression. It's almost tutorial-like, which is nice for those of us unfamiliar with Sokoban. Edited August 8, 2019 by Nathan Strum Because auto-correct is stupid and annoying 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted August 9, 2019 Author Share Posted August 9, 2019 10 hours ago, Nathan Strum said: I'm really digging the level progression. It's almost tutorial-like, which is nice for those of us unfamiliar with Sokoban. I agree, it's well graded. But I can't take credit for that. Again, the levels are from a package designed by Lee J Haywood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted August 9, 2019 Author Share Posted August 9, 2019 I had earlier tried to convert the system to 9 character rows in order to give more visibility around the player. That failed, but I realised that since I have more scanlines I might as well try using them. So I've increased the character size from 4x21 to 4x24. This effectively puts an extra 'RGB' triplet line in each character, and stretches the screen by 8 (rows) x 3 (more scanlines per row) = 24 scanlines. It looks much more fullscreen now, and as a beneficial side-effect, things are less squashed looking. Before and after pictures... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hizzy Posted August 9, 2019 Share Posted August 9, 2019 Looks great!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted August 9, 2019 Author Share Posted August 9, 2019 (edited) Here is an update. Dual-system binary, colours should be the same for both NTSC and PAL people. I have 4 different level colour-schemes. I can add more, but for now they cycle between the 4 as you go up the levels. There are now (hex) 99 levels installed. That's 153 decimal, for the hexadecimally challenged. Use select to skip levels, reset to restart a level. This is the new "bigger" characterset - 24 lines deep instead of the previous 21 deep. Consequently, 24 more scanlines of the screen are used (8 rows x 3 scanlines per row), pretty much filling up the screen. Look-around with the fire button held down. The assembler source-code listing file is over 15,000 lines long! Lots of that may be auto-generated, but still... big. sokoboo_SOURCE_20190809.zip sokoboo_20190809b.bin Edited August 9, 2019 by Andrew Davie Bugfix binary - move counter was not resetting. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NostAlgae37 Posted August 10, 2019 Share Posted August 10, 2019 Is it just me or is Sokoboo a strange sounding name for the game? Wouldn't something like Shove Off! be more apropos (I am aware that there was an American version for a vintage system with a similar title)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted August 10, 2019 Author Share Posted August 10, 2019 1 hour ago, NostAlgae37 said: Is it just me or is Sokoboo a strange sounding name for the game? Wouldn't something like Shove Off! be more apropos (I am aware that there was an American version for a vintage system with a similar title)? The original was called "Sokoban". All my close friends and family call me "Boo". It's a play on names. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NostAlgae37 Posted August 10, 2019 Share Posted August 10, 2019 16 minutes ago, Andrew Davie said: The original was called "Sokoban". All my close friends and family call me "Boo". It's a play on names. Yeah, I knew the title of the original, but wasn't aware of your nickname so didn't realize how it tied in. Kind of an in-joke that nobody else would get though, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted August 10, 2019 Author Share Posted August 10, 2019 23 minutes ago, NostAlgae37 said: Yeah, I knew the title of the original, but wasn't aware of your nickname so didn't realize how it tied in. Kind of an in-joke that nobody else would get though, right? Yep. Sokoban the name is copyrighted/trademarked. It is common for clones to use a different name. I don't know about the original game mechanics being copyright. I'm looking into that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NostAlgae37 Posted August 10, 2019 Share Posted August 10, 2019 All I was suggesting is that more people could appreciate a generic pun like Shove Off! than something more arcane like a play on your nickname that maybe only a select few know about, but I understand that it's personal so no worries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted August 10, 2019 Author Share Posted August 10, 2019 'Tis but thy name that is my enemy; Thou art thyself, though not a Montague. What's Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot, Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part Belonging to a man. O, be some other name! What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet; So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd, Retain that dear perfection which he owes Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name, And for that name which is no part of thee Take all myself.' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted August 10, 2019 Author Share Posted August 10, 2019 The asynchronous, multitasking nature of the tile engine means that things happen "when they can" rather than "when they're called". This shows up in the initial screen draw, when you see a kind of "draw" happening as the initial tiles are drawn on the screen. At the moment this is particularly noticeable (well, once you're aware of it) because I have very slack tolerances on the timings. That is, where a draw might require 80 cycles to happen, I have it set to 280 just to make sure that there are no issues with things not having sufficient time to draw. The consequence of this is that the whole system tends to slow down a tad, waiting for sufficient "time gaps" in which to draw things. Everything gets zippy when these timings are tight, but the chance of running overtime increases. Overtime means screen flicker/roll. Anyway, with the slack tolerances everthing works OK but the drawing is more noticeable. I tried a little experiment - don't turn on the visible screen until ALL of the initial screen has completed drawing. So it's all there in one "flash" so to speak, but it takes longer for the screen to be visible while that's happening. Anyway, it does work nicely and I did a little comparison video to show the difference... I think I'll keep it. It's on a toggle/switch in the code, so easy to insert/remove as required. sokoboo.mp4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted August 10, 2019 Share Posted August 10, 2019 How about making the image appear even slower and in a more controlled way? E.g. from left to right, or from center to outside or randomly or... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted August 10, 2019 Author Share Posted August 10, 2019 (edited) 3 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said: How about making the image appear even slower and in a more controlled way? E.g. from left to right, or from center to outside or randomly or... Would require more work LOL Edit: see my earlier work on the "circle clear" which is still on the backburner - the idea is/was to bring in the screen as a circular visible area. Edited August 10, 2019 by Andrew Davie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NostAlgae37 Posted August 10, 2019 Share Posted August 10, 2019 6 hours ago, Andrew Davie said: What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet; The Marketing major inside me is convulsing, but I'll let him die a peaceful death as he didn't bring me a dime in my lifetime anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted August 10, 2019 Author Share Posted August 10, 2019 29 minutes ago, NostAlgae37 said: The Marketing major inside me is convulsing, but I'll let him die a peaceful death as he didn't bring me a dime in my lifetime anyway. Atari2600 is a marketing world unto its own. If this game becomes a bestseller it might, just might, sell 100 copies. This is kind of a hobby where traditional marketing nous doesn't really apply. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NostAlgae37 Posted August 10, 2019 Share Posted August 10, 2019 6 minutes ago, Andrew Davie said: Atari2600 is a marketing world unto its own. If this game becomes a bestseller it might, just might, sell 100 copies. This is kind of a hobby where traditional marketing nous doesn't really apply. Yeah I realized that, hence the winking smiley emoji. Sometimes it's just hard to let old habits die when one's mind was trained to think a certain way, but I'm learning to let things go, it's just a work in progress. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+FujiSkunk Posted August 11, 2019 Share Posted August 11, 2019 I loaded this onto my Harmony (not Encore) cartridge and... yeah, it didn't work on mine either. So instead I dug out my trusty Krokodile cart, flashed it with Sokoboo, and my Atari was perfectly happy playing the game. I kind of expected not to be able to make screen caps. My capture card, an old All-in-Wonder Radeon, doesn't handle things very well if the number of scanlines ventures too far beyond standard. Consequently, certain games like Thrust and Boulder Dash don't play nice with it. Sokoboo gave it some conniptions, but despite a persistent full-screen flicker which I blame squarely on the capture card, I actually was able to make some recordings and get some screen caps: I like it! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted August 11, 2019 Author Share Posted August 11, 2019 (edited) Well, "take back" is proving really really really tricky. You wouldn't think so, but for some reason the complex flow and asynchronous nature has had me stumped for quite a few days. I'm almost on top of it now - I have the moves saved in a buffer, and all the various restore parameters needed (you have to factor in pushing boxes, restoring the characters behind the box where it WAS, where it IS, and the character the man was on/is on, etc. Anyway, it's not quite fully functional yet - I have to have more than one take-back (it's one because the move counter isn't quite handled correctly). I also need to keep a proper track of how many targets left, as this will change in take-back, too. But here's a short video showing a couple of deliberate mistakes here and there with take-back being used. The background flashes (very briefly) red when I press the joystick button for take-back. The button is used for BOTH look-around (hold and scroll), and for take-back (press/release). Works well. When I get this all functional, I plan to allow 100 moves take-back. Any more than that, you might as well press reset! takeback.mp4 Edited August 12, 2019 by Andrew Davie edited the wrong message :P 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sramirez2008 Posted August 11, 2019 Share Posted August 11, 2019 Very cool. Nice to see the progress on "take back". Thanks for continuing to work on this feature. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted August 12, 2019 Author Share Posted August 12, 2019 (edited) Finally. Takeback. I spent many hours on this; it did my head in. But it's now working. I think I might have an out-by-one error when the very first takeback move disappears. Other than that it looks OK to me. There are 32 takeback moves available... it keeps a track of the most recent 32. When you run out of takebacks and try to do one, the screen will flash red to let you know. Operation is to just press/release the fire button. Look-around is still there - press fire and use joystick direction. Video shows takeback in action, though you have to look closely to see exactly when it's being used because mostly it looks like any other move (except when boxes have been pushed). The counters are all working OK - the number of moves decrements, and the targets-to-get adjusts appropriately. Edit: forgot to mention - this version also has the super-quick screen startup/draw that avoids the previous 'flicker' that was evident if you looked closely. In other words, screen draw happens with screen off. I sped up things, so the delay is really negligible. takeback.mp4 sokoboo_SOURCE_CODE_20190812.zip sokoboo_20190812.bin Edited August 12, 2019 by Andrew Davie 4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hizzy Posted August 12, 2019 Share Posted August 12, 2019 Takeback!! I need this. I love Sokoboo in all of it's versions. My only gripe is how bad I am at it 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted August 12, 2019 Author Share Posted August 12, 2019 22 minutes ago, hizzy said: Takeback!! I need this. I love Sokoboo in all of it's versions. My only gripe is how bad I am at it I suggest you practise level 1 until you figure out how to do that one 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.