Sokoban 2021 - New Atari 8-bit game!

[rra]

Introducing a new free homebrew puzzle game for the Atari 8-bit called Sokoban 2021! 

 

This is a full version of Sokoban that includes playable 54 levels.   Features include multicolor animated player/missile graphics, fine scrolling, VBIs, DLIs, music, sound effects, and lots of fun!

 

This game is actually 25 years in the making by the team of Anschuetz/Weisgerber/Anschuetz.  A little background...  The three of us got our Atari 400s in 1982/1983 and immediately started writing BASIC games - three of which were published in Antic and 2 others were purchased by Compute but never published.  A couple years ago, we wrote a manuscript that documented the process of writing the games in the 1980s.  We also uploaded all the BASIC games we wrote to Atarimania. 

1980's Anschuetz/Weisgerber/Anschuetz BASIC Games Release! - Atari 8-Bit Computers - AtariAge Forums

 

The original version of Sokoban was written in BASIC in 1988 and was released on a full disk which included the main game and a level editor.  Each level was loaded as a separate file on the disk and it also supported saving high scores.  All of this was pretty impressive for an Atari BASIC game in 1988.  This game was released through USENET forums and eventually made its way to archive.org and atarimania.com.

http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-soko-ban_4784.html

 

The new version of Sokoban was written in 6502 Assembly and is now released as a single 48K XEX executable with all of the levels stored within the executable.  Sokoban 2021 was developed a PC and cross-compiled to the Atari 8bit using the Eclipse IDE with the excellent WUDSN plugin with the MADS 6502 compiler.  It also uses RMT for music and sound effects and the AtariPlayerEditor to animate overlayed multicolor player/missile graphics.

 

Why go back and update a 25-year-old game?  Well, one of us (Eric Anschuetz) is nearing retirement (hard to believe, considering we were in high school when we first started with our Atari 400 in 1982!).  Eric wanted to get back into programming for the Atari 8-bit in Assembly to see what our games "could have been" had they been written in Assembly instead of BASIC.   A couple weeks ago, Eric got his programming development environment setup.  The first game he decided to update was Sokoban.  The results turned out quite good in only a couple weeks of programming!

 

The Anschuetz/Weisgerber/Anschuetz team will release additional updated Assembly Language versions of our 1980's games over the next weeks and months!

 

Robert Anschuetz

 

Sokoban 2021.xex

[TGB1718]

My thumb hurts  👍 !!!

[darwinmac]

Thanks for releasing this. 
 

Bob C

[Wrathchild]

2 hours ago, rra said:

The Anschuetz/Weisgerber/Anschuetz team will release additional updated Assembly Language versions of our 1980's games over the next weeks and months!

 

Based on the quality of the Sokoban update you might want to consider entering something to SillyVenture this year?

[+CharlieChaplin]

2 hours ago, rra said:

The Anschuetz/Weisgerber/Anschuetz team will release additional updated Assembly Language versions of our 1980's games over the next weeks and months!

 

Robert Anschuetz

 

Sokoban 2021.xex 36.92 kB · 37 downloads

 

Wow, this is so cool! Played your (Basic) Sokoban version several times and liked it (or the other way around, I liked it and therefore played it several times). Another favourite of mine is "Kooky's Quest" - hope to see an assembly/ML version of it...

 

[rra]

Here is a quick update to Sokoban 2021 that allows you to push in one direction without re-centering the joystick or your hurting your thumb!

Sokoban 2021.xex

[gnusto]

Thanks for the update, and also thanks for your games back in the day, they remain popular today BASIC or not!

 

What development environment is Eric using, WUDSN or some other IDE, MADS?

 

 

[Wrathchild]

4 minutes ago, gnusto said:

What development environment is Eric using, WUDSN or some other IDE, MADS?

Answered in the fifth paragraph of the opening post?

[gnusto]

Ah so it was, I should not reply while distracted apparently! Was just curious because I've been using WUSDN myself.

Edited April 6, 2021 by gnusto

[+Larry]

Nice!  Wasn't there another ML game similar to this called "Think and Work" maybe from Germany?

[+CharlieChaplin]

6 hours ago, Larry said:

Nice!  Wasn't there another ML game similar to this called "Think and Work" maybe from Germany?

 

Yes, "Think and Work" was a type-in listing from german Happy Computer magazine. The original version had 25 levels, but someone made another 150 levels (three disks with 50 levels each) with its editor, downloadbale e.g. here: http://a8.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=4540

 

And there was also Atari XL Sokoban (PD) from KE-Soft, Sogon (commercial) from KE-SOFT (and several level-disks for it), Atari Socoban from Compysoft (B.Mueller) and several others. 

 

[eea]

Small update with custom font, one additional screen (now 55 total), and baseline redone to match upcoming 5200 release...

Sokoban 2021.XEX

[ivop]

15 minutes ago, eea said:

Small update with custom font, one additional screen (now 55 total), and baseline redone to match upcoming 5200 release...

Sokoban 2021.XEX 30.51 kB · 1 download

Perhaps you can ask a moderator for editing rights of the first post, so your updates won't be buried inside the thread. Nice game!

[eea]

Good suggestion!  My twin brother is the original poster, so he can move the executable to the top post.

[ivop]

LOL I didn't notice the difference at first. @rra and @eea . Got it

[eea]

He just tried to edit the original post and doesn't have the EDIT option available.  I suppose he needs to ask a moderator for permission to edit - or is there something we are both missing?

[DjayBee]

You need to ask a moderator and the right given will only allow editing the very first post of the thread.