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Intellidiscs: Weekly development log


Ryan Witmer

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So here's a nice peek at the complete integrated game flow:

 

 

As mentioned in this video, I'm planning to release a "first playable" demo next weekend.

 

Integrating the recognizer battles was easier than I thought it would be.  Transitioning into the battles just worked, transitioning out had a few minor glitches but I took care of them.

 

I have some particular bug fixes and adjustments I want to get in before next weekend.  The finish line is just barely in sight now, can't wait to get this done.

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8 minutes ago, Ryan Witmer said:

So here's a nice peek at the complete integrated game flow:

 

 

As mentioned in this video, I'm planning to release a "first playable" demo next weekend.

 

Integrating the recognizer battles was easier than I thought it would be.  Transitioning into the battles just worked, transitioning out had a few minor glitches but I took care of them.

 

I have some particular bug fixes and adjustments I want to get in before next weekend.  The finish line is just barely in sight now, can't wait to get this done.

Looks really cool.  Can't wait to hear some music and sound effects. 

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Hello again! Just watching the game, looks great! Just to ask, is there to be any kind of player death visual and sound? Looks like just disappearing now Intellivision gives the affect of a fading away with sound effects Thanks for making this! Looks really great! Will be there when you’re ready to make carts! 

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There will definitely be some kind of player death animation and sound.  Right now there is a bug somewhere in the enemy death code that I'm still trying to track down, and I don't want to add a death animation yet because it might hide that bug.  This one is on my list of things to finally fix next weekend.

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Well, I wasn't able to get as much done this weekend as I wanted to, but I'm going to put this build out anyway.

 

This is "Playable preview 1" and it even says that 256 bytes from the end of the file!

This version is a completely playable game, but with no sound, simple controls, and lots of bugs.

 

A few notes:

  • Keypad-based disc throwing only
  • Only 8 directional movement, 16 will come later
  • A lot of things still need adjustment, various timings and speeds are wrong
  • If it seems like the enemy's aim is terrible, it is!  If it seems like the recognizer probe can't find you very well, it can't!  If it seems like the 1,000,000 point guards are drunk, they are!  All three of these things use the same aiming routine and that logic is pretty much broken right now.
  • There is a known bug where the enemy discs will not erase properly and you'll see little squares in weird places.  I've been trying to track this down for months with no success.  I did see some stuff this weekend that might finally lead me to the cause for this.
  • The recognizer probe doesn't yet go into "high-speed" mode when you stand above the recognizer.
  • There is another known bug where you will sometimes get credited for finishing a wave before reinforcements, but then a new enemy will show up during the final enemy's death animation.  I'm working on a fix for this.
  • The recognizer door repairs are way too slow.
  • The game just locks when you die.  If you die to enemy discs, the reset button should work.  If you touch the recognizer like a fool or die to the guards, the game is just locked.  Do a hard reset.
  • I'm probably forgetting some stuff.

 

I'm also posting a build with the Intellivision style solid recognizer.  This build has an ID string that says "Playable preview 1, old recognizer"

 

So here are the builds.  I may start posting new builds every week, not really sure.  intellidiscs_or.bin is the "old recognizer" build.

 

 

intellidiscs.bin intellidiscs_or.bin

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This was a weekend with two major bug fixes:

 

First, I think I finally got that disc erasure bug sorted out.  I know I've thought that before, but this time is different, I promise!  I also fixed some of the broken logic around new enemies appearing.  By incredible coincidence, the first bug happened to be related to the second, which was interesting I guess.

 

I also got the pause button working, so hurray for that.

 

The next big thing is to finally fix the aiming code.  I plan to spend some time thinking about this over the course of the week and hopefully I can knock it out next weekend along with a bunch of smaller stuff.  Still moving forward, just a bit slowly right now.

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Yesterday I finally rewrote the aiming code in front of a live audience on twitch.  It's a LOT better now, might still need some adjustments but my overall approach is working really well.  This is exciting because it was the last real technical hurdle in this project.  From here on out, it's bug fixes and details.

 

I also implemented 16 directional movement.  It seems to be working pretty well, but you can never really tell with those 5200 joysticks.  I had to do this work on my real 5200 since testing it on an emulator is basically impossible, and I spent a lot of time just playing the game, amazed that it's pretty much a real game at this point.

 

I just got done making a release checklist.  I do this whenever I feel the end of a project getting close.  I have just about everything that needs to be done listed and now it's time to just start banging those things out.  I'm not making this list public because there are some things on there I haven't announced yet and I love surprises.

 

I might knock out a few of the smaller things on the list later today.  It's also possible I'll start doing a few things during the week.  I really want to get this thing done and move on to the next project.  One thing that's refreshing is that I have plenty of ROM space left.  At this point in Magical Fairy Force's development I was running out and desperately trying to reclaim space wherever I could.  32KB should be enough for anybody, but sometimes it isn't.

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Here's something kind of cool I did tonight.  I started putting together the title screen.

 

large.intellidiscs_title.png.a1b9fa9435cd76dac4e3a1bd485a3f8d.png

I'm not sure about the font I used.  It's actually the "official" Tron font from Disney.  I had to modify that D a little bit since it looked terrible before, just the the C but flipped around.  I plan to add some color with creative screen interrupts.

 

What's cool about this is that the title is using the super-high-resolution monochrome mode.  I've never used this mode before, so it was kind of fun to mess around with it.

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A couple hours after I posted that image I discovered that I couldn't really use the high-res graphics mode.  The coloring options in that mode are extremely weird and limited.  If you aren't happy with black and white, it's a pretty awful mode.

 

I redid it in a lower resolution mode, and it looks OK, or at least bad for all the same reasons.  I started playing with some interrupt-based shading but didn't get too far.  I might mess with it a little more tonight if I feel up to it.

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I did a little bit of work on this today during some creative downtime on my PC game project (meaning I need to think of something and I haven't done it yet).

 

I went ahead and a added a animated color cycle to the title logo.

 

large.disc_title.png.31c20c954159ed538f340dc43450a540.png

 

This is the lower resolution version of the title image.  The color pattern is animated and it looks pretty cool in motion, or at least I think it does.  I still don't like the logo itself and I'll probably make some edits to it.

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So here's some of the stuff I did yesterday for a live audience on twitch:

 

large.tron_title.png.63a750d71e891daa636f9afbefbcef81.png

All the little guys on the screen are animated, just running in place.  This was really fun to do, and now I'm working on making the menu for choosing your control mode.  Once I have that menu, I can start working on twin-stick and fire button modes.  Good stuff.

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2 hours ago, Indiana Quack said:

I like the green title.  The character screen looks great! 

The colors on the title are continuously cycling, every shot looks different depending on where I caught the animation.  Like this one!

 

large.tron_config.png.2203406dba1f298bd59c3707c2d61456.png

 

I kept the old sprite data around for the Intellivision-style recognizer.  I'm calling it the "Identifier" just to be safe about any Disney trademark crap.

 

Since I have plenty of space left, I decided to put both recognizers in the game and let the player choose which one they prefer.  Intellivision purists can have the one they're used to and the rest of us can have the cool new one.

 

Don't say I never did anything for you people!

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Any chance for an 8-bit computer version so XL/XE/XEGS owners can play it too??? They could use the fire-button mode like on Berzerk or Frenzy.

 

BTW, fantastic work so far Ryan, making us Atarians here in the Great Northwest look good, I absolutely love the "Intellidiscs" title font with the color-shifting/scrolling and can't wait to see what the end result is gonna be like!!!

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18 hours ago, Ryan Witmer said:

The colors on the title are continuously cycling, every shot looks different depending on where I caught the animation.  Like this one!

 

large.tron_config.png.2203406dba1f298bd59c3707c2d61456.png

 

I kept the old sprite data around for the Intellivision-style recognizer.  I'm calling it the "Identifier" just to be safe about any Disney trademark crap.

 

Since I have plenty of space left, I decided to put both recognizers in the game and let the player choose which one they prefer.  Intellivision purists can have the one they're used to and the rest of us can have the cool new one.

 

Don't say I never did anything for you people!

Quite amazing to be able to select which identifier you can choose I have played the Intellivision version so many times Every time I play the Intellivision it is the game I play most Can get over the million mark every time 
 

I am very thankful for all of the efforts you have put forth into this project! 

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On 2/21/2021 at 4:19 PM, Ryan Witmer said:

Yesterday I finally rewrote the aiming code in front of a live audience on twitch.  It's a LOT better now, might still need some adjustments but my overall approach is working really well.  This is exciting because it was the last real technical hurdle in this project.  From here on out, it's bug fixes and details.

 

I also implemented 16 directional movement.  It seems to be working pretty well, but you can never really tell with those 5200 joysticks.  I had to do this work on my real 5200 since testing it on an emulator is basically impossible, and I spent a lot of time just playing the game, amazed that it's pretty much a real game at this point.

...

Looks good!  I have a question; between programming eight, sixteen direction, or 360 degree movement, is one easier than the other.  Why bother with 16 directions, just go full precision of the controller.

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15 hours ago, BIGHMW said:

Any chance for an 8-bit computer version so XL/XE/XEGS owners can play it too??? They could use the fire-button mode like on Berzerk or Frenzy.

I always release my source code when the game is finished, and there's a guy who has ported all my 5200 games over to the computers.  He'll probably do this one too.

 

The fire button mode is also going to be supported on the 5200, so code for that will already exist.  Should make the conversion easier.

4 hours ago, mr_me said:

Looks good!  I have a question; between programming eight, sixteen direction, or 360 degree movement, is one easier than the other.  Why bother with 16 directions, just go full precision of the controller.

The Intellivision game had 16 directional movement and the game is really built for that.  Full 360 degree movement on the 5200 sticks is actually really hard and awkward to do because the sticks are just way too inconsistent.  Each controller has a calibration that can get out of whack, put the console itself has a calibration, and different controllers have different ranges and it's just a huge mess.

 

The only real solution is to break it into chunks, usually 4 or 8 depending on the nature of the game, and provide enough buffer space in each direction to compensate for how inaccurate the controllers are.  Real 360 degree movement also requires a lot of math that the 5200 is just not very good at.  I have a couple of reasons to keep the joystick code as fast and light as I can, one reason is the twin-stick mode where I need to read two sticks at once.  The other is still a secret, but I should be showing it soon, maybe even this coming weekend.

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I've hit a bit of a creative block on my PC game so I decided to get some stuff done on this today.  I think this picture sums it up pretty well:

 

large.twin_stick.jpg.7b66255e724d9deb50076e726c592d6b.jpg

 

All three control methods are now at least partially implemented.

 

Trigger mode is basically done, needs a couple of tweaks but no big deal.  In this mode, the bottom fire button throws your disc in the last direction you moved.  Press it again will recall a disc in flight.  The top button toggles block/crouch, functioning exactly like the 5 key in keypad mode.

 

Twin-stick mode is not quite done, but pretty close.  Stick 2 throws your disc, pressing roughly in the opposite direction of your flying disc will recall it, like you're pulling it back.  I plan to make all of the keys on the second stick toggle block/crouch mode, including the start/pause/reset row.  I haven't don't this part yet, since I need to work on the code to allow reading from multiple keypads.  Keypad input is a major pain on this system.  I know I've said that before, but it needs repeating.

 

Twin-stick isn't all that effective, and I was pretty sure it wasn't going to be.  Unlike Robotron or Space Dungeon, you don't have continuous fire in this game so it's kind of hard to find your direction on the stick.

 

One interesting thing about the trigger and twin-stick modes is that they allow the player to throw a disc in 16 directions, just like the enemies do.

 

The different control modes aren't actually selectable yet, I've been hard-coding them in for testing.  I have a hare-brained scheme surrounding this that ties into the game's surprise feature.  I'm pretty confident I can show the beginning of that feature this weekend.

 

 

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I did another live programming stream on twitch this morning and revealed the secret feature I've been hinting at for a long time.

 

large.4p_menu.png.8f324fa4f1d2f34e512d0295a8d04c16.png

BATTLE MODE

 

I've been planning this from day #1, and I finally started working on it this morning.  I've had it in mind the whole time, so the single player game was written in a way that would allow me to easily do this.  This morning's work was mostly the preliminary stuff.  The real work will have to happen sitting in front of my real 5200 because I need a full four-player setup to test this stuff.

 

large.4p_battle.png.c08b204592b813cd9768769032ca8940.png

 

I'm still working out exactly what the rules will be, but the basic idea is simple:  Run around and kill the other players.  2, 3, and 4 player battles will be supported.  Two player battles are mostly there so people with the inferior two-port 5200s have something to play, I don't expect it will actually be very fun.

 

Twin-stick mode will not be supported here, but the other two modes will be and each player can choose their own preference.  I mentioned on some other thread that I had something planned for the 4-ports in 2021 and this is what I was talking about.

 

Later today I'll camp out in front of my TV with my laptop and AtariMax and do some more work on this.

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