First Fantasy (Magnavox Odyssey) RPG Concept for release 2020

[Mikebloke]

Hi everyone, I'm probably semi-known for making a lot of work for myself and not getting far by this point, but I'm about to engage on another project idea. My intention has always been to try and develop at least one homebrew game on each console, but starting from the beginning. I'm still trying to wrack my head around the Channel F system, but in reality it wasn't the first "console". That of course is owned by the Magnavox Odyssey*

 

So here it is, the first Role Playing Game for the Magnavox Odyssey:

 

First Fantasy: Tales of Odyssey

 

The name is purely for fun, "Final Fantasy" being an obvious reference, but the "choose your own adventure books" in the form of Fighting Fantasy too - which is where the game is likely to get most of its influence from. The Tales of tagline is just for my own amusement, and the fact that I've been playing a lot of it recently. Some of the gameplay ideas is also influenced from the Videopac / Odyssey 2 use of physical boards for things like Quest of the Rings, etc - of which I own all of those CIB.

 

I've uploaded a Open office draw file (sorry, I know its not a great program) with some ideas for overlays and how interaction between physical parts and odyssey gameplay could work. My idea is that cards could be shuffled to provide a unique location set on a single overworld map, making each gameplay different. To further take advantage of this, the final Boss character is also randomly selected by cards, with stereotypical arch enemy tropes such as dragons and demon lords. Each Boss would have a set key item required before the final battle can commence - and each Boss's key item will be based in a particular location. Travel between each location on the overworld map would require a turn taking exercise between the player and boss - which also leads to the player possibly encountering enemies on their journey to each location. Once at locations, overlays switch to a dungeon map, akin to playing cat and mouse but with events and chests to open along the way. A Labyrinth dungeon for example might have a Minotaur mini boss along the way, or a Pyramid dungeon having a Mummified Zombie, etc.

 

Once the key item for that Boss has been found, the final battle can commence, however the final boss would be immune until that item has been picked up, leading to a potential rerouting around the map to avoid it until the time is right.

 

Part of the considerations for this game would be if there was any interest in a physical release, and if I was able to produce it. My intention is to make all resources to play the game free to download, meaning anyone will be able to print out or produce their own accompanying pieces to play. I've been paying attention to previous threads and the difficulties such an idea encounters. I don't know how practical 3 overlays would be, and whether different ones for location types would be too burdensome at this stage. I would also want to include some extras in any physical release (I'm considering a soundtrack to use during the game playable on cassette tape - in the style of computer generated sounds from the 1970's for nostalgic effect). The other immediate issue would be the size of the box (should it match original ones) and what cost it would be to post/ship beyond the UK where I am based - where shipping and tax might make it undesireable. These will be considerations for the future. I'm also aware of the unfortunate history for AA users in the past with a particular game for the Odyssey, and would not accept money prior to it being physically ready to be labelled and shipped. However, I would be happy to take expressions of interest (I appreciate this is quite early days) if I go down that line in the future. 

 

Regardless of this, I'm currently working out a rulebook and finalising ideas for how combat and progression would work. Two issues I'm making working on is: a) How possible is it to simulate combat for one player, or if it is likely to expect a second player to "help" and b) whether odyssey is only used for mini boss/final boss combat - as switching overlays and cards for dungeon and combat would be burdensome for playing physically. As I said above, I will be making the resources to play this game available to download freely.

 

My current goal is to get this available for download here on the 1st of January 2020

 

* PS: I've picked up a US machine and have had it delivered to the UK. Since originally posting this, I have got it to work with a USB device. Part of the reason I got it was a) collectors value b) help me work on making a game for the system c) curiosity about making a custom card one day or at least mapping out what each pin does (made a start on this from what I have knowledge of). I do have one issue currently, and that is the ball slowing down when it reaches the right hand side of the screen. I'm going to give the boards inside a push and make sure it isn't that, but if anyone has any ideas what might be happening here please give me a PM!

 

FIRST FANTASY OVERLAY 1 OVERWORLD.odg

Edited November 3, 2019 by Mikebloke
console working, 1 minor issue

[zhorton]

Mikebloke, welcome to the Odyssey homebrew scene!  I highly suggest you post this in the OdysseyNow Facebook group, a dedicated space for these kinds of discussions.  This looks like it could become a great project!  I'll offer more advice there about boards and overlays, but the short version is: overlays are the most difficult/expensive things to produce, so I'd suggest keeping it to just the combat overlay and doing the maps as boards or sheets.  As for a physical copy and reaching more customers without huge shipping costs, we could potentially work something out with you in terms of producing and bundling this with an OdysseyNow game pack.  That could make it much cheaper and easier for you, and you could set a fee for the game that would go to you for each copy sold.  We would bear the costs of producing it, and set the price accordingly.  But the quality would have to be up to our standards, etc.  Anyway, just a thought, as our main mission is to encourage creative and boundary-pushing use of the Odyssey as a gaming platform.

[Mikebloke]

10 hours ago, zhorton said:

Mikebloke, welcome to the Odyssey homebrew scene!  I highly suggest you post this in the OdysseyNow Facebook group, a dedicated space for these kinds of discussions.  This looks like it could become a great project!  I'll offer more advice there about boards and overlays, but the short version is: overlays are the most difficult/expensive things to produce, so I'd suggest keeping it to just the combat overlay and doing the maps as boards or sheets.  As for a physical copy and reaching more customers without huge shipping costs, we could potentially work something out with you in terms of producing and bundling this with an OdysseyNow game pack.  That could make it much cheaper and easier for you, and you could set a fee for the game that would go to you for each copy sold.  We would bear the costs of producing it, and set the price accordingly.  But the quality would have to be up to our standards, etc.  Anyway, just a thought, as our main mission is to encourage creative and boundary-pushing use of the Odyssey as a gaming platform.

Thanks for the response Zhorton! I got my Odyssey mostly working now (just a slight issue with the ball slowing down on the right hand side of the screen? ? ), and I've written a rule book and now need to test it out with some maps.

 

I'm guessing the overlay production is the most troublesome part of making any of this physical, but I've found that using OBS or similar program can be used to make the overlay digital without the use of anything physical.

 

Unfortunately, I'm not on facebook, so I don't get to take advantage of any retro groups on there  

 

The offer for bundling with OdysseyNow however is very interesting   and possibly really helpful for it being sold abroad, where tax and shipping might be too prohibitive for anyone outside Europe. I'll probably give you a PM if that's ok when I've got something more concrete, but my plan is still to release the basic parts for free download by the end of the year.

 

I'm hoping to maybe have something to offer other people to try out by the end of the month, then I'll try and adjust it in december for a formal release.

[+stupus]

Im definitely down to see another odyssey homebrew! I would happily get a phisical copy if you decide to do them!

Thanks!!

[zhorton]

On 11/10/2019 at 4:15 AM, Mikebloke said:

Thanks for the response Zhorton! I got my Odyssey mostly working now (just a slight issue with the ball slowing down on the right hand side of the screen? ? ), and I've written a rule book and now need to test it out with some maps.

 

I'm guessing the overlay production is the most troublesome part of making any of this physical, but I've found that using OBS or similar program can be used to make the overlay digital without the use of anything physical.

 

Unfortunately, I'm not on facebook, so I don't get to take advantage of any retro groups on there  

 

The offer for bundling with OdysseyNow however is very interesting   and possibly really helpful for it being sold abroad, where tax and shipping might be too prohibitive for anyone outside Europe. I'll probably give you a PM if that's ok when I've got something more concrete, but my plan is still to release the basic parts for free download by the end of the year.

 

I'm hoping to maybe have something to offer other people to try out by the end of the month, then I'll try and adjust it in december for a formal release.

Absolutely!  Good luck with the development, and please do reach out if I can help with anything, especially the possibility of a physical release when you're finished.  Either way, I look forward to trying out the game once you post it!

As for our upcoming game pack, though the Facebook group members get top priority, I will post info in these forums as well, so if you are interested you'll probably be able to get a copy!

[slydc]

Well i'll be an monkey's uncle!

 

I thought it would have been a couple of weeks before you would have released another homebrew that i've

just find out that you're already doing your second one and on top of it, it will be an RPG! Now i'm curious to

see this game finalized.

 

One suggestion for combats: You should use two dices for hitting points and health level. Like say a goblin in 20

point hits so by rolling the dice (say 7 (4+3)), he gets 7 points less until he reaches 0 hits but a second player

or yourself, can throw the dice so that the goblin hits you back (can also specify 1 or 2 dice).

 

Anyway, this is only a suggestion. Continue the great work!

 

--- Sly DC ---

 

[Mikebloke]

Well its the first... and no files as of yet. There is a number of reasons:

 

1st: I took up a udemy course on 6502 assembly, my logic is it can help me to skip batari BASIC and start making 2600 games in assembly, and eventually root down to doing better at my Fairchild Channel F stuff.

2nd: I work school terms, which by logic means virtually every time I have a week or two off I will be ill and impacting on my projects, I'm getting better now I'm due back in on monday...

3rd: I've been running dummy trials of my game and I'm finding something particularly consistent: I'm struggling to get enough Umpth from the use of the Odyssey.

 

I put this down to a few things:

 

1st: I only have the base cards that come with the console (1-6) to test these on, all the really fun ones appear to be the extra ones that has a bit more versatility and stronger single player potential. Ideas I did have was to use Shooting Gallery as a minigame, and Handball cart as a boss combat level.

2nd: When I am using the cards 1-6 for gameplay, it feels most of the time that it could just be using a gameboard than anything on a screen (ie, its no more interactive)

3rd: When I'm trying to take advantage of more than one card, its switching is too frequent, that outside of digital control (such as what I do, using OBS normally used for streaming to quickly replace overlays, or using OdySim to quickly load up new cards with an overlay on top) it is probably too cumbersome for enjoyable play

4th: Anything outside of movement on a map (which I think is fine for the dungeon areas) is reliant on a second player to act as an adversary, which is also potentially fine, but I kind of hoped to make it single player.

 

I could release what I have so far, but I think I'm going to give it a few more weeks of ironing out some ideas before uploading. I think ultimately I will have to branch into 1 of 3 ideas if not a combination:

 

Go ahead and include extra card requirements I don't own that I can test to make more versatile gameplay involving the odyssey

Limit Odyssey use to positions on a map (card 2) and another card for "boss" combat (regular combat was already intended to be dice or other physical base)

Make it reliant on 2 players, where one is hero and the other is adversary (ok, I'm not terribly bothered by this idea! perhaps I can make single player the "alternative rules" as an extra).

[Dastari Creel]

Jealous of this. I had the basic idea for an RPG on the Odyssey and even thought of calling it "First Fantasy" for the same pun-based reasons. I just don't have the time to do any game development and haven't for the last several years. Either way, I will watch this space eagerly. 

[Mikebloke]

Haha thanks Dastari! Yes I thought it was a great name too! There is hope for this project yet. I'm looking into getting some multicards produced, which will be extremely helpful as it means I can add a lot of features to make it much more playable. I've looked at this a few times over the months and I just can't make it interesting enough with the base game cards. I don't want to develop anything that I couldn't play myself physically (and what others couldnt too) so I'm going down the multicard route first. 

[BuckeyeFan_4eva]

I would definitely be more interested in a physical release because I have no idea what I would do if I needed to create my own through files ??

[Blazing Lazers]

I'll be keeping an eye on this thread, and look forward to enjoying it on real hardware.

[Mikebloke]

There is hope for it yet! Just the waiting game on the multicards now (they've taken my money so they must have started them!) but I've already started designing some 'mini games' for that zelda feel which can benefit from the variations that will be available. I'll experiment with the switches to see if we can find any new types too to take advantage of.