2020 Homebrew HSC round 3

[toiletunes]

Dragon's Descent

Settings: Infinite Maze

Round ends April 26

Files attached. Tested on retropie and concerto.

 

First time played on the high score club, the high score will get +1 Bonus Point!

 

Totals as of round 2:

20 Dr Moocowz

19 Toiletunes

15 oyamafamily

11 roadrunner

8 S.BAZ

8 troff

7 gambler172

7 jblenkle

6 BydoEmpire

4 JohnnyBritish

 

Scores this round:

6,486 Dr Moocowz 10 + 1 Bonus Point!

4,236 Toiletunes 9

737 roadrunner 8

212 jblenkle 7

 

More game info here:

 

DragonsDescent_HSC_2020.a78 DragonsDescent_HSC_2020.bin

Edited May 18, 2020 by toiletunes

[troff]

For Windows emulation, I wasn't able to get this to work in the standard ProSystem or EMU7800.  However, it does seem to work in the RALibRetro prosystem core if you run it in Test/Compatibility mode.

[Revontuli]

Greetings!  I'm the designer of Dragon's Descent.  I'll be lurking and keeping an eye on the competition, hopefully with helpful advice and looking for any issues or bugs that might be found...

 

1 hour ago, troff said:

For Windows emulation, I wasn't able to get this to work in the standard ProSystem or EMU7800.  However, it does seem to work in the RALibRetro prosystem core if you run it in Test/Compatibility mode.

 

I've primarily tested the game using MAME a7800, which I know can be a pain to set up, but seems to (generally) be the most accurate emulator.  The high score board seems to be the thing that crashes in other emulators on my PC machine, otherwise I've been able to play the game itself on ProSystem and BupSystem.  As long as the leaderboard doesn't show up, I'm able to keep playing - If you can get to the game itself on these other emulators, you might try to get into the rhythm of resetting the console (Control + R on ProSystem) on the "Game Over" screen (which shows your score), before the leaderboard shows up.  It's a little kludgy, I know, but emulation is a tricky thing   

 

Your mileage may vary, of course, I'm basing this advice on my own experience - while the game is largely finished, I still would like to get a wider sample size of players and hopefully try to fix whatever might come up, with the eventual goal of a physical cartridge version. 

 

Thanks for playing - I hope everyone can get to play (and enjoy) the game!

[troff]

30 minutes ago, Revontuli said:

Greetings!  I'm the designer of Dragon's Descent. 

...

Thanks for playing - I hope everyone can get to play (and enjoy) the game!

 This games looks and sounds beautiful.  I can’t wait to spend some more time with it.  Thank you for creating it!!!

[jblenkle]

Dragon's Descent - 212

[roadrunner]

737 

i got to level 5 , fun game

 

[DrMooCowz]

I've been very busy with some in-house remodeling and cleaning. I'm very hopeful I'll get some time in with this game tonight. I did like the 2600 version! :)

[DrMooCowz]

Alright, finally got to play!

 

6486 (level 7? 8? can't remember!)

 

I seem to do better if I only collect the diamonds for points and not worry about making my character stronger. The top 2 scores were just that and my 3rd score I took the time to get 5 hit points and 2nd level weapon. I got further, but didn't do as well points-wise. :)

 

[Revontuli]

2 hours ago, Dr Moocowz said:

I seem to do better if I only collect the diamonds for points and not worry about making my character stronger. The top 2 scores were just that and my 3rd score I took the time to get 5 hit points and 2nd level weapon. I got further, but didn't do as well points-wise.

If you're not playing in Hard Mode, the temptation to get more health or shot power is less, admit.  In Hard Mode, the lethal walls are always there, and even getting another hit point, or another point of shot power (to get rid of monsters more easily) can help reduce that stress immensely.  While both power-ups are still very helpful in the default (non-lethal walls) mode, enemies and bosses are a lot easier to handle even when you're going exclusively for points.  That said, if someone wanted to do a real marathon run, collecting more health and/or shots to survive the darkened rooms in later levels might still be a preferable strategy - the darkness is probably a bigger danger than the bosses post level-7.  If a single power-up can get you to survive two more levels, it's probably worth it in terms of points trade-off - it's an investment, really.

 

My best runs, scoring-wise, involve finding the hidden boss, powering up as much as I can leading up to the level 7 boss, and then grabbing gems as much as I can afterwards, picking up a heart or lamp to refill if I'm in dire straights.  

 

The mazes are persistent (i.e. you can map them), so playing a few "exploratory" games that power up your health and firepower to survive longer, in order to get a feel for how the mazes are laid out, might help before trying to rush through them in a score-heavy run.

 

Thanks for playing!

[toiletunes]

4236