Microvision Homebrew - Barrage 2021

[+jgkspsx]

Wow, that game looks very fun!

[Clearvus]

On 1/17/2022 at 3:06 PM, 5-11under said:

Those are very interesting, but useless from a practical point of view, unless you have original-style chips to put in them.

Oh, I didn't realize that the chip package is different. That's too bad. 

On 1/17/2022 at 4:10 PM, jgkspsx said:

Holy crow! Unfortunately the original chips used by the Microvision are not available in practical quantities, but those are super cool!!

Yeah, it was a really surprising find and I was pretty excited to just show people who would appreciate it as much as I did ?

[+5-11under]

49 minutes ago, jgkspsx said:

Wow, that game looks very fun!

So far it's actually pretty boring, because very little changes over time, such as the width of the road, the speed, no potholes, etc., and the road change from row to row is randomly selected 1/3 either shift left, stay same, or shift right. It can also hang at the sides for long periods. It's really only fun when there's a few in a row in one direction, then a change to the other direction. That's the advantage of quickly being able to try something out, though.

 

Right now as a quick demo it's "done". I'm going to try out a few other game demos, really just to test out the template to expand it as required so a decent variety of types of games can easily be written. Up next is practice-Pong, where I need to add more collision detection methods, and also expand the paddle in an invisible sort of way... the goal being to allow a hit to the paddle if it's close (for instance just above the surface, and at the corners). In the least, I want the ball to bounce off the top surface of the paddle, not wait until the ball is inside the paddle.

 

Collision ramble follows... A non-friendly bullet hit to the player should usually only register if it's more than a flesh wound, and on the other side, your non-friendly bullet to an enemy should usually register even if it's a flesh wound. For example, in the CAR demo, I should really adjust the collision bits threshold to 2 instead of 1, so the game only ends if the whole car is hit, not just the front or back.

[+5-11under]

Well, it's too cold in the garage to do any molding work, but I was able to add a copper wire to a soldering iron, put it on the CNC, and make a quick set of foam game holders for inside the box. There's several programming improvements to make, but for this first attempt, at least I know it can work:

 

 

For the programming kit, I'm skipping "Pong" for now, because it's trivial to print a background and bounce a ball around. The next step I think, after some programming clean-up, is going to be having at least one sprite (player, for instance), that can be a different shape besides a rectangle.

[+5-11under]

I made another quick demo, "SKI". Lots of things would need to be added to make it a proper game (including a lot of updates to the physics), which I very well may end up doing at some point, but anyway, the new thing for this demo is that the player sprite doesn't need to be a rectangular shape any more. It can also be easily animated:

 

[+jgkspsx]

Every time I play a Microvision game and it isn’t Barrage 202x my heart shrinks a little bit more.

[+5-11under]

12 hours ago, jgkspsx said:

Every time I play a Microvision game and it isn’t Barrage 202x my heart shrinks a little bit more.

Well, it's getting warmer outside... more suitable for silicone and epoxy resin molding work. I'm hoping to try out the PCB cover and spring system copying very soon.

I've already changed the name from Barrage 2021 to Barrage 2022, and I'm hoping I don't have to change that again.

 

[+atari2600land]

I still want a copy of Barrage 2022 (or whatever year)! Good news.

[+5-11under]

I made my first silicone mold yesterday, and first resin cast today.

This was done with a one-piece mold. There's still some thinking and learning to happen, to figure out the best methods for this and the other pieces, but I'm happy enough with the start.

 

Original (beige) and copy (white):

[+atari2600land]

Looks great! Can't wait to play this on my Microvision.

[VF2048]

Fantastic efforts! Keep on rockin' the Microvision. ?

[+5-11under]

I was hoping the white cover would harden more overnight, but it never did. For thicker pieces, the results very hard, but for this thinner piece, it's pretty soft and bendable. I'm apprehensive to spend a couple hundred dollars on molds for the larger pieces.

 

So, I started investigating very low volume injection molding, but molds are still required. I don't like running aluminum on my CNC machine (and getting a CNC shop to do it would be pretty expensive), but I've seen resin molds that would work, which leads either to fairly expensive outsourced molds, or buying a 3D resin printer. That's where I'm leaning now... investigation ongoing. I could make a decision later on whether to make molds (which could be filled by pouring or injection), or just make individual parts. Also, because I make PCBs for a variety of consoles, having the ability to make shells would be advantageous.

[+5-11under]

I bit the bullet on a 3D resin printer. I'll post an update when I've got something printed. I guess I've got some CAD work ahead of me... .

[johannesmutlu]

That project Looks indeed cool,next make a tetris clone for it because that’s what the microvision does need to have,a tetris game,so please make it real.

[+jgkspsx]

7 hours ago, johannesmutlu said:

That project Looks indeed cool,next make a tetris clone for it because that’s what the microvision does need to have,a tetris game,so please make it real.

Somebody in Russia made a Tetris clone. It’s unlikely to get a general release.

 

I feel that Tetris would be a poor fit for the Microvision in general. The best games are mostly the ones that use the spinner.

[roots.genoa]

2 hours ago, jgkspsx said:

I feel that Tetris would be a poor fit for the Microvision in general. The best games are mostly the ones that use the spinner.

You could use the spinner to spin the tetrominos; it would make it easier to know in which direction it will turn imho. But this means you need the keypad to move the pieces, so it might be awkward. I'm familiar with the system but never actually played it tbh.

[+jgkspsx]

2 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

You could use the spinner to spin the tetrominos; it would make it easier to know in which direction it will turn imho.

I thought of that, but as turns are quantized and not analog, maybe it would be too weird? I’ll try anything once, though.

[+5-11under]

6 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

You could use the spinner to spin the tetrominos; it would make it easier to know in which direction it will turn imho. But this means you need the keypad to move the pieces, so it might be awkward. I'm familiar with the system but never actually played it tbh.

I would try left/right movements with the paddle, and rotation with the keypad.

[+jgkspsx]

1 minute ago, 5-11under said:

I would try left/right movements with the paddle, and rotation with the keypad.

That actually makes a lot more sense… hmm.

[roots.genoa]

Yeah but I assumed it was already that way. I was just trying to come up with something more "out of the box". ?

[+5-11under]

15 minutes ago, roots.genoa said:

Yeah but I assumed it was already that way. I was just trying to come up with something more "out of the box". ?

I could be wrong, but I think it uses the keypad exclusively.

[+jgkspsx]

3 minutes ago, 5-11under said:

I could be wrong, but I think it uses the keypad exclusively.

I believe the video on YouTube shows buttons only, yep.

[lazzeri]

Just found this thread. Congratulations for even trying, @5-11under. This is amazing.

 

Of course I’d love to be on the buyers list. Following the thread as of now!

[+5-11under]

Well, it's still on my list...

 

I've got the 3D printer, for the shells, in my garage, and I built a little cover over it to keep it all clean. I think about it often, but I was thinking about it this morning, and I'm really hoping to carve some time in a few days to at least kick the tires on the printer by trying some test prints, and hopefully also designing and making a prototype of the sliding cover, to start with.

[+atari2600land]

Any updates on this?