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Robot City reloaded


Thomas Jentzsch

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On 12/7/2019 at 3:23 PM, Dionoid said:

Suggestion: if the helicopter is not moving and then you press & hold the fire button, moving into a direction would only change the direction of the shots and not actually move the heli. If you release the fire button, then the heli would stop shooting and start moving again.

 

Anyway, this game is fun!

 

On 12/8/2019 at 2:25 AM, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Your solution might work for you and others, but e.g. James, who keeps the fire button constantly pressed, would probably not be happy with it. It sometimes is almost impossible to make it right for everyone.

 

You are absolutely correct, it would completely change my approach to playing the game if your helicopter stopped moving as soon as you pressed fire. I don't see many situations where you would need to sit and fire in several directions without moving. You're usually chasing the tanks and not waiting for them to come to you. In fact, if you're sitting and waiting for them they will soon be firing on you with a defensive shield you can't shoot through. If you're chasing the tank already, you're shooting in the correct direction while chasing them, no need to stop and fire in several directions.

 

You *COULD* have it both ways and it might work if it's really necessary. Here are the four scenarios with the button and movement.

 

Pressing the Button While Stopped:

- If the fire button held down while stopped, pressing the joystick in a direction will result in firing in that direction and doesn't move the helicopter.

- When you let go of the button you are able to move again.

 

Pressing the Button While Moving:
- If the fire button is pressed while moving, you keep moving and fire in the direction that you're moving.

- If you stop moving while the button still held down, the helicopter continues to fire in the direction you last pointed.

- If you start moving again, while still holding down the button, you're able to start moving again while continuing to fire in the direction you're moving

 

Moving without the Button:

- No shooting, you move as normal

 

No Direction, No Button:

- No movement, no shooting

 

Hope the above makes sense. The above should satisfy both the need to shoot in all directions without moving the helicopter and also allow people like me to continuously fire, or fire whenever you like, while moving. The only adjustment I would need to make to my gameplay is that I need to remember to start moving before I start firing.

 

- James

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Hi, I found something that looks like a bug: when you shoot a tank in the upper right corner of the maze, your helicopter will instantly die every time you re-spawn.

Of course I should have known better than to shoot a tank at that position ?

 

 

image.png

Edited by Dionoid
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CONGRATULATIONS to Robot City for being nominated in the 2019 Atari Homebrew Awards!

 

Be sure to vote for your favourite homebrew games of 2019 with the links below and watch the awards LIVE on February 1, 2020!

 

Awards Show: February 1, 2020 @ 12:00PM PT | 3PM ET | 8PM GMT LIVE on the ZeroPage Homebrew Twitch Channel!

 

Atari Homebrew Awards Categories (VOTE IN ALL!!):

2032136533_2019AtariHomebrewAwardsLaurel-Nominated-BestWIPHomebrewAtari2600.jpg.5b9df0e471043859e513733f5322a6b4.jpg

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  • 3 months later...
On 12/11/2019 at 7:34 AM, ZeroPage Homebrew said:

Pressing the Button While Stopped:

- If the fire button held down while stopped, pressing the joystick in a direction will result in firing in that direction and doesn't move the helicopter.

- When you let go of the button you are able to move again.

 

Pressing the Button While Moving:
- If the fire button is pressed while moving, you keep moving and fire in the direction that you're moving.

- If you stop moving while the button still held down, the helicopter continues to fire in the direction you last pointed.

- If you start moving again, while still holding down the button, you're able to start moving again while continuing to fire in the direction you're moving

 

Moving without the Button:

- No shooting, you move as normal

 

No Direction, No Button:

- No movement, no shooting

Finally coming back to this.

 

He two red texts seem to be contradictory. IMO that is the same case: the helicopter is stopped, the fire button is pressed and you then you move the joystick into a direction. But the results are requested different. Obviously this cannot work. Or am I missing something here?

 

Edited by Thomas Jentzsch
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I have added RC6 with the requested control modification to the first post (NTSC only). I am not 100% sure if that's what you were requesting, so please let me know.

 

BTW: I am still struggling with the ROM space (that's why there is not PAL-60), so I am not 100% sure if I can get this into the final version.

Edited by Thomas Jentzsch
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Here's a first look at the beautiful artwork David Exton has created for Robot City.  David has been creating dazzling artwork for homebrew games for nearly 20 years now!  I think one of the first homebrew games he created art for was Thomas' Thrust+, as well as his games Swoops!, and Three-s.  And of course many other games from other homebrew authors. 

 

2600_RobotCity_Cart_Angled.jpg

 

 ..Al

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Nice to see a Atari VCS release for Robot City which was originally created by Graham Thomasson for the Philips Videopac, as most here probably know. ?

Funny story: I met Graham when I was about twelve years old. He worked at Philips in Eindhoven, the Netherlands at the Philips Special Products group. This group was mainly set up to develop games for the Videopac.
Luckily for me, an uncle of mine was working in the office right next to the game developers. Once I found that out, I designed a game on paper and asked my uncle to give it to them. Apparantly they were pleasantly surprised by my initiative and they send me a letter inviting me to come and visit. (How I wish I still had that letter)
The happy day arrived and I spend an afternoon at the developer's office and they showed me the games they were working on. I still remember they were working on three of the four Parker games: Popeye, Super Cobra and Q*Bert. Frogger was being developed somewhere else.
After this visit they asked me if I wanted to be a beta-tester for their new games. You can guess my answer.
They send me eproms and those carts you have to insert them into. I was a tester for all three Parker games, a game called 'The Black Hole' which later became 'Neutron Star' and Robot City.
They gave me sheets with questions that I had to fill in and send back. I had to return everything and never got any kind of reward or thank you. (Except some great memories :-D )

Skip to 2010...

I run the website videopac.nl. Through the site's contact-form I received a message with the subject 'Free videopac stuff'. It was from Graham telling me he was getting rid of all his development stuff and was looking for a good home for it. Of course I offered my home :-D. It took an email or two until we realized we had already met in 1982-ish. I flew to London with an empty suitcase and returned with a lot of Videopac prototype games (might be the exact eproms I tested as a kid). Of course it also included the Robot City proto's.

In 2017 me and a friend released Robot City for the Videopac. I did the box-art and layout.

I still consider Robot City one of the better/best games for the Videopac and I'm happy I was able to help make it's circle complete.

 

booklet.jpg

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7 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

I have added RC6... to the first post...

This has really come along nicely.  I love the label art too.  It will definitely be a must buy for me when released.

 

I have one question though.  What is the reason for the flickering runners/skids/landing struts (whatever you like to call them) when the helicopter is stationary facing you?  I totally understand the rotors flickering, or being animated, but I'd think the runners would be solid like they are in the side view.

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35 minutes ago, Janzl said:

Nice to see a Atari VCS release for Robot City which was originally created by Graham Thomasson for the Philips Videopac, as most here probably know. ?

No, that was new to me. I only found a label on a Portuguese website, so I thought the game may have come from there.

 

Thanks for sharing this information. Do you know who programmed this game? And any idea about that Portuguese label?

 

 

 

 

Edited by Thomas Jentzsch
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3 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

I have added RC6 with the requested control modification to the first post (NTSC only). I am not 100% sure if that's what you were requesting, so please let me know.

 

BTW: I am still struggling with the ROM space (that's why there is not PAL-60), so I am not 100% sure if I can get this into the final version.

 

Great improvement on being able to stop and fire in multiple directions without forcing you to move! I think there is only one thing missing now, probably from the confusion about the third line here:

 

Quote

 

Pressing the Button While Moving:
- If the fire button is pressed while moving, you keep moving and fire in the direction that you're moving.

- If you stop moving while the button still held down, the helicopter continues to fire in the direction you last pointed.

- If you start moving again, while still holding down the button, you're able to start moving again while continuing to fire in the direction you're moving


 

 

With your latest build of RC6, when you're moving and holding the button and you stop, you get stuck in that spot and aren't able to start moving again unless you let go of the button. It kind of kicks you into 'Pressing the Button While Stopped' mode, which can already be achieved by stopping and then holding the fire button.

 

I think it's more useful to be able to move again after stopping without having to let go of the fire button. It's a little too cumbersome to have to let go of the button, start moving and then press the button again to start firing. It kind of forces you into a mode of not being able to ever stop in the maze unless you want to temporarily stop firing again to move, that short period of time could cost you a life. Thoughts?

 

- James

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4 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

I have added RC6 with the requested control modification to the first post (NTSC only). I am not 100% sure if that's what you were requesting, so please let me know.

 

BTW: I am still struggling with the ROM space (that's why there is not PAL-60), so I am not 100% sure if I can get this into the final version.

Let me know if you want any help with byte savings.

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9 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

That's because the heli is drawn using a missile. And that doesn't allow for gaps between pixel. I haven't found any better solution yet.

Oh, wow.  I wouldn't have guessed that.  In that case, it's pretty amazing what you were able to do with a missile.  :)

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8 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

No, that was new to me. I only found a label on a Portuguese website, so I thought the game may have come from there.

 

Thanks for sharing this information. Do you know who programmed this game? And any idea about that Portuguese label?

 

 

 

 

The game was programmed by Graham Thomasson who also programmed Super Cobra and Neutron Star for the videopac, I don’t know anything about the portuguese label.

I have attached a .bin of the Videopac Robot City which you can try out on an emulater (O2EM).
There are still a few copies of our release available in case anyone is interested: http://www.classic-consoles-center.at/videopac/robot-city-order-information

pr_robot-city.bin

Edited by Janzl
Additional info and attachment added.
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Here are a couple of detail bits from my new manual cover/label art. The general idea here is that the city IS the robot; mining resources, self replicating and endlessly expanding. It builds and uses the tanks almost like white blood cells.
 

F9DDB10F-1F04-400F-8E49-E21C4186D8DC.jpeg

3EB19EC8-359C-45EE-A86F-54A385E2BD8A.jpeg

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