skywaffle Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 (edited) Hello, I started making this semi-original type of game yesterday and was having fun with where it is at, so I figured I would upload it for people to play. It is an endless vertical scrolling action / platform game that allows two players to play cooperatively. It's unnamed currently, and I've only really been trying to figure out where I want to go with it. The controls are pretty basic: On the title screen, pressing any button/disc on the first controller will start a one player game, and any button/disc on the second controller will start a two player game. The top buttons will make your character jump, and when pressed a second time in mid air, a double jump can be performed. The lower buttons will make your character shoot. Left and right move the character accordingly, and down will make your character crouch. Points are accumulated for surviving, as well as destroying enemies. Source is included for those that care to see it. jump04.rom jump04.bas jump05.rom jump05.bas jump07.rom jump07.bas jump10.rom Edited August 1, 2020 by skywaffle 6 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 Cool, similar (but different enough) to Upmonsters from the 2018 compo. Perhaps by shooting at structures you could make them drop down a little, making it easier to jump to the next platform. If it is truly cooperative, one player would want to help the other to survive as well. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skywaffle Posted July 28, 2020 Author Share Posted July 28, 2020 I had not seen that one, but it is a bit similar. I had wondered about how I could further enhance cooperative type play, and have been experimenting with a few different ideas. One is having gems that can be collected for points, but when shot can be turned into platforms. I was thinking that maybe it could also add some competitive gameplay for scoring, but also be used to progress farther if platforms cannot be easily reached, or destroyed by a particular enemy. Power ups are something else I have been considering, ranging from points to 1ups, temporary invulnerability, or protection from falling for 10 seconds or so. Another method could be combined scoring to encourage working together, but maybe as an option. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 I don't know how the Intellivision demographic looks like, i.e. how many people regularly have someone else to play a game with. In those games that are meant for two people, it is often asked for a computer AI option that can take the other player's part. If it feels strange to have a computer player helping the human player and vice versa, you could have competitive gameplay (1UP vs CPU or 1UP vs 2UP) and leave the cooperative gameplay strictly for two human players. That would make it two different games in one, and really no need for a single player option. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skywaffle Posted July 28, 2020 Author Share Posted July 28, 2020 My intention wasn't to solely have a two player game. It is plenty playable with one player, but one that would be enhanced with two players, similar to Contra, or other two player run and gun type games. The game gets progressively more difficult with each stage, and enemy types will change, although unlike Contra, the goal so far on this is just to see how far you can make it and how high a score you can get. I personally haven't done much with anything that could be two players before, and it's really just been a test bed for some ideas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skywaffle Posted July 28, 2020 Author Share Posted July 28, 2020 I went and uploaded a newer build with some fixes and additions, some improved level layouts, autofire, and now jump no longer needs to be held for a higher jump. Extra lives are awarded at 750 points, and then every 1500 after. Source and rom are attached in the first post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Steve Jones Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 maybe something is wrong with my setup but it makes a constant audio hum so much that i have to turn to volume down, it's quite annoying. i can still hear the other sound effects like the jump and being hit but there is also a constant mid to lo frequency hum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skywaffle Posted July 29, 2020 Author Share Posted July 29, 2020 I will make an option to turn that off, or replace it with something else. I had put that in just to have some kind of background sound. it is just playing a sine wave as a sound. When playing on my Intellivision II, it sounds pretty quiet in comparison to JZintv. The thought initially was maybe something that changes pitch or speed as the game gets more difficult (similar to Solar Storm on the Atari 2600). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Steve Jones Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 Yeah i’m using jzintv right now so I guess it’s louder Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skywaffle Posted July 29, 2020 Author Share Posted July 29, 2020 I uploaded a video for those that might want to see gameplay: 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolfy62 Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 This looks really cool. I fortunately have a friend I play intellivision games with,so any 2 player games are always welcomed by us for sure!?? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skywaffle Posted July 30, 2020 Author Share Posted July 30, 2020 A newer ROM has been uploaded This version adds the following: Stage 9 has a boss type battle (work in progress) Some enemy speeds are now based on level Rebalanced difficulty to allow longer play time, and slower difficulty ramp-up. Extra lives now every 1000 points Power ups added for faster shots, laser shot, and 1ups (currently randomly chosen and placed) New platform graphics are introduced every three levels. Pause bug in previous build would cause game to appear to freeze with two players playing and now fixed. Bug fix that would allow player to jump out of bottom of screen when no platform is there. Pause sound and extra life sounds added Auto fire and fixed / free shooting (moving or standing still while shooting) are now selectable before beginning game. Pong ball enemy now shows warning before spawning to prevent cheap deaths Medusa head enemies had a bug that would make them randomly stop moving or disappear which is now fixed. Saw blade enemies after level 5 will change direction 90 degrees when passing player. Pressing down + jump will allow the player to drop down to a lower platform All enemies now have different point values 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bhall408 Posted July 30, 2020 Share Posted July 30, 2020 Feedback... This hangs at the title screen when using MiniExec.bin (for firmware)... (More a bug for Argon, than you, but notable nonetheless!) And gets me thinking -- is this the first game you have done that uses the exec title screen? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bhall408 Posted July 30, 2020 Share Posted July 30, 2020 FWIW, also tried it with OpenEmu (Mac), which uses original firmware, and OpenEmu reports it as "Not Supported" - doesn't even get as far as the title screen. Will look further into it for the cause. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skywaffle Posted July 30, 2020 Author Share Posted July 30, 2020 This game doesn't use any of exec functions. I have only played it on Jzintv for emulation, as it's what I use when doing quick tests. It doesn't need any particular flags to run. The title screen for the game is nothing more than a very primitive loop waiting for a side button to be pressed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bhall408 Posted July 30, 2020 Share Posted July 30, 2020 Just now, skywaffle said: This game doesn't use any of exec functions. I have only played it on Jzintv for emulation, as it's what I use when doing quick tests. It doesn't need any particular flags to run. The title screen for the game is nothing more than a very primitive loop waiting for a side button to be pressed. I just downloaded the source and took a quick look. I don't see any obvious reason, but I can say that your megaman demo has the same problem with our emulator+miniExec. I don't have jzIntv setup on my mac, but I think we'll try jzIntv + miniExec to confirm it is a bug in our emulator vs a problem that is mini-exec related. If you have a Chromebook or Android device and want to try it out, PM me. I think most likely it is a bug we need to fix on our side. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skywaffle Posted July 30, 2020 Author Share Posted July 30, 2020 (edited) Maybe try using a BIN / CFG version? Here is a slightly newer build with some additions in that format. I noticed that I could not run the ROM file in Nostalgia, but the BIN / CFG works. jump08.bin jump08.cfg Edited July 30, 2020 by skywaffle The first uploaded bin file had some debug things enabled. I've reuploaded this with a normal version. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skywaffle Posted July 30, 2020 Author Share Posted July 30, 2020 I am guessing it doesn't like something about the ROM addressing. I am not sure what I am doing wrong though. This game uses $5000-$6000 and $C040-$FFFF currently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skywaffle Posted July 31, 2020 Author Share Posted July 31, 2020 Attached to the first post is a new version. This one adds the following: Selectable Background droning sound off / on, or background music (default) ECS Support (Thank you GroovyBee for the simple detection logic). Double Jump animation bug fix causing broken animation Additional sound effects. Backtab collision bug fixes. New power up: One time fall protection New power up: Boots to increase speed (stacked for faster movement) New power up: Temporary invulnerability Other bug fixes with sound effect logic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bhall408 Posted July 31, 2020 Share Posted July 31, 2020 27 minutes ago, skywaffle said: ECS Support (Thank you GroovyBee for the simple detection logic). What ECS features are you making use of? Extra sound channels? (If that, I thought IntyBASIC already handled detection for that?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bhall408 Posted July 31, 2020 Share Posted July 31, 2020 On 7/30/2020 at 1:19 PM, skywaffle said: Maybe try using a BIN / CFG version? We don't support BIN+CFG, but I took the BIN+CFG Jump 9 and ran it through jzIntv's bin2rom, and the resulting ROM worked just fine! That also let me answer my own ECS question above... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skywaffle Posted July 31, 2020 Author Share Posted July 31, 2020 There was some sample code that showed writing two values to a specific memory address and reading them back to determine if the ECS was connected or not. I had not tried the ECS support on an emulator since I have yet to find the ROM for it, but own the hardware. With it running, the music stays clearer sounding since the effects are run on the ECS itself. Outside of the additional controller ports and sound, I didn't think ECS did much else. If I had more controllers, it'd be fun to do some kind of 4 player mode, or a different game all together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bhall408 Posted July 31, 2020 Share Posted July 31, 2020 Just now, skywaffle said: There was some sample code that showed writing two values to a specific memory address and reading them back to determine if the ECS was connected or not. I had not tried the ECS support on an emulator since I have yet to find the ROM for it, but own the hardware. With it running, the music stays clearer sounding since the effects are run on the ECS itself. Outside of the additional controller ports and sound, I didn't think ECS did much else. If I had more controllers, it'd be fun to do some kind of 4 player mode, or a different game all together. Yep, that is all the reasonable stuff to support (see the "ECS Lite" discussion elsewhere on AtariAge). We're currently supporting the extra RAM and PSG, and once we have multi-player support in general, we'll also support the additional ECS controllers. Beyond that, I don't think makes sense (for example, keyboard, tape, etc). FYI - we do a simulated stereo, and your game sounds pretty cool in stereo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skywaffle Posted August 1, 2020 Author Share Posted August 1, 2020 I didn't realize that version 09 had broken two player support, so I have since removed it and replaced it with version 10. This version has some other minor bug fixes, and background music fades out and changes every few stages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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