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Blocks (Completed!) - Formerly BBlocks


Just Jeff

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4 hours ago, Just Jeff said:

 

Apparently I've been playing this game all wrong.  Trying to lose, I've been achieving my highest scores!

Haha, I noticed the same thing myself!

For debugging, I like to set the level to 99 to make it last forever, no reshuffles 

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We've been working on some behind the scenes stuff and started to work on game variations a little bit.  If you play the attached version, you now use Stella's game reset button to start.  You can also use game select to play a timed version.  Game 1 is the standard version, and games 2 and 3 are identical quick timed games at the moment. Only 35 seconds required for those busy players who are constantly on the go. Note: there is no possible way you will be able to beat my stellar score of 320.

 

66576046_2020-07-04(1).thumb.png.0e4ea79f340aa705df78bf9a45f52c5e.png

main.asm.bin

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I've never played Bejeweled, but I like to play the M&M Flip the Mix game

https://archive.org/details/FlipTheMix

 

Are you keeping track of the number of possible moves internally in the background?

 

The M&M Flip the Mix game gives an indication of the number of possible moves/matches.

 

And when there are zero possible moves (game over for your version), then the M&M game gives you three shuffles per game.

 

So the game isn't over until the number of possible matches is zero and there are no shuffles remaining.

 

If displaying the number of possible moves isn't feasible, then how about an indication of some kind when the number of possible moves is 1 or less than 5.  Possible indications could be a change in color of the score, or a change in color of the background, or play a certain sound effect, or the background music changes to something more ominous/scary

 

image.png.f94073adc3a9d6b9ac7ccb6984013a9a.png

Edited by fdr4prez
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  • 2 weeks later...

I like those ideas a lot.  We are limiting this version to 2K just for fun and only have 130 bytes left with more 2 player code to do so maybe we can consider it, maybe not.  Or maybe the 4K version if we do one.

 

You can see the number of matches found is tracked in $de.  Counting manually, I find 13 just like it says.  (FYSA The cursor square is red)

 

x.thumb.jpg.1ca2803d234e36bdd638a2b71dd2eea6.jpg

 

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Yeah, with a 2K game you need to concentrate on the core game, including 2-player support.

 

I am always surprised by how much game can get packed into a 2k game :shocked:

 

But your next game, BBlocks 2, will be action packed with additional suggestions, power ups, exploding combos and moreso :banana:

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  • 1 month later...

Good Afternoon,

 

We have a complete game at this point- which is not to say we are done, exactly.  We have 136 bytes left and intend to add things we and others think the game could use. 

 

Jeremiah added fdr4prez's suggestion of indicating number of moves left.  The progress bar (now at the top) will be green when you have 3 or more moves left, yellow if you have less than that, and red if you've lost.  He also added the falling sound when the empty blocks are being refilled and did a lot of optimizing.  I finished up the game versions and did kernel work as well.

 

Here are the game versions:

 

1-  Standard single player game

2-  Timed version.  Currently set at 35 seconds.

3.  Battle the status bar.  Status bar decreases with time, but when you make a match, it increases.  If it runs out, you lose.  If you fill it, you advance to the next level.

4.  Standard two player game.  Finish a screen, then its the other player's turn.

5,6,7 are two player versions of 1,2, and 3 where both players are playing simultaneously and cooperatively (not competing with each other)

 

We'll probably be adding a head to head version similar to game 3, but instead of battling time, players will battle each other.

 

Feel free to make suggestions and enjoy!  Latest .bin attached below.

 

image.thumb.png.39057c8cee387e1f03f83b5cc447bc5d.pngGame 5.

main.asm.bin

Edited by Just Jeff
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We'll be checking out the updated BBlocks on tomorrow's (Tue Sep 01) ZeroPage Homebrew stream LIVE on Twitch at 6PM PT | 9PM ET | 1AM GMT! Hope everyone can watch!

 

Games:

 

(SET VIDEO TO 1080P60 FOR FULL QUALITY)

 

 

Edited by ZeroPage Homebrew
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On 8/29/2020 at 2:47 PM, Just Jeff said:

Head to head (game #8) is done.  Player 0 adds to the progress bar, player 1 subtracts.  Whomever makes it go all the way to their end, wins. 

 

.bin attached

main.asm.bin 2 kB · 21 downloads

that is an interesting concept

 

And you are a true programmer at heart because the normal people playing would consider themselves as Player 1 and Player 2

:rofl1:

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Alright the show went well. You can watch it below.  Also, the latest .bin is attached which also incorporates one of the suggestions- different colored cursors for each player.  Player 1 is white and player 2 is black.  And finally, another updated task grid, freshly loaded with new suggestions below.

 

 

image.thumb.png.ea17e41713691a0ad2fb1d7d477de684.png

 

main.asm.bin

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40 minutes ago, Just Jeff said:

Alright the show went well. You can watch it below. 

I just watched the show.

 

Great game additions.

 

For the two player games, would it be possible to have it so when Player 1 makes a match then the squares fall down from the top and when Player 2 makes a match then the squares are pushed up from the bottom?

 

It'd be an interesting twist and that would help the players know who got the match.

 

I also like the suggestion of have each player have different sounds for their matches.

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  • 1 month later...

Well its been a month so why not post an update?  We've been working on adding new features and optimizing. As a result the program size has more bytes left (150), while new features have been added:

 

On level 8, an additional gem color is introduced at level 5 for some increased difficulty.

Also on game 8, as the level increases, each match has greater value on the progress bar, which reduces the matches you need to be ahead to win.

Much larger rewards for large matches.  Basically 10-fold increases for longer matches and to a lesser degree, multiple matches.  There's even a million point match.

Game 8 (Head to Head) reshuffles if you run out of moves now, instead of game over.

There is a game-over sound.

Games 3 and 7 have faster decreases in the timer bar as the level increases.

 

.bin attached

main.asm.bin

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Nice score!  The color-changing score is a placeholder for a full-screen color-changing screensaver later on.  At the moment, we are finishing the 2K version completely.  We love 2K games, too, and it's amazing how much we have been able to fit into the game without really doing any modern tricks, other than the 7-digit score.  Theoretically, it could have been coded in 1977.

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On 10/5/2020 at 12:00 PM, vitoco said:

The same I said about Don't Go! but the development cycle is much more fast as we use tools like emulators and debuggers not available those years.

 

Right...  Free tools, cheap computers, and people around the planet standing by to advise if necessary.

 

On top of that, I still can't figure out why they so often had only one person working on the code.  Pay $10 million for the rights to ET, but only one guy writing code?  I don't get it.

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17 minutes ago, Just Jeff said:

Right...  Free tools, cheap computers, and people around the planet standing by to advise if necessary.

 

On top of that, I still can't figure out why they so often had only one person working on the code.  Pay $10 million for the rights to ET, but only one guy writing code?  I don't get it.

Not sure you could split up a 2600 game to more than 1 developer. Even the bigger teams for homebrew games maybe have a developer (maybe a guy who helps with optimization), and an art guy. 

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Polishing continues.. New .bin attached. Now with:

  • Hints.  Turned on by default (difficulty switch set to novice mode.)  Change either difficulty switch to expert to disable them.  The hint routine detects movement, and has a random delay so if you need a hint, you'll need to stop moving the joystick for a few moments.
  • PAL Colors.  Hold the Reset switch at power-on to enter PAL mode.
  • Games 3, 7, and 8 now re-shuffle when you run out of moves instead of ending in a confusing "Yeah you are way ahead of the other player in points, but you lose" situation.
  • Advancing to the next level on 3, 7, and 8 is now time based instead of score based.
  • Screen Saver.  Score colors included now in Attract Mode.
  • There is now a delay at game over so you can give a quick look that you did in fact, run out of moves.
  • Game 8 no longer has a score for the same reason as bullet point #3 above.  Its simply a color-matching block battle to the death.
On 10/8/2020 at 6:57 PM, atari2600land said:

I have a suggestion: Make the green blocks more "greener" (like Kelly green, perhaps). I mistake them for gray sometimes when I play.

 

Yeah I also had difficulty telling the two apart so I adjusted the green one notch only.  If you go too green its starts looking dull on CRTs.  This issue arose because the gray was tweaked when the second player was added because the white cursor didn't show up very well on gray and yellow, so both were darkened for contrast.

 

We ran out of ROM after the first couple of items in that list so optimizing has become a requirement to add just about anything since.  2 bytes ROM, and zero bytes RAM are free at the moment.  Three improvements mentioned in the last show are still outstanding.  Other that that, they all were implemented.  I believe we agreed with every one of the suggestions/comments.

 

The three outstanding comments/ideas are:

  • Games 2 and 6 don't show the timer
  • Special sounds for different types of matches
  • Progressive sounds for multiple matches

And of course, Jeremiah and I have a list of about 20 more.  These may or may not get in.  Its getting harder and harder to optimize and some of the recent implementations above should probably be improved- for example, difficulty switches for player 0 and 1 should operate more independently and the game over time delay should probably be longer.  Also, it happens also when you first load the game so you see a black screen.  Thought it was pretty cool at first but eh..  maybe not.

main.asm.bin

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