BLOKZ - Abbuc 2021 software compo game

[popmilo]

Time to publish some details about my entry in this year "Abbuc Software contest 2021."

 

Logic/arcade game inspired by an old arcade game called "Block Hole" ("Quarth" in Japan). Game was later ported to some consoles like Nes, Gameboy and unofficial releases exist for MSX and Colorcomputer.

 

Since the first time I've played this in local arcade back in 90s I was puzzled by "find the largest rectangle algorithm". So when I got back into coding on Atari in early 2000s I thought A8 deserves a version of its own
Years passed as I've coded initial block drawing routine, procedural generated levels, and tested couple approaches to make this recognition routine working. Let's just say they all failed

 

So this year when time came to choose something to code for Abbuc compo, I knew there wasn't going to be lot of time during summer, so said to myself - it's now or never

I'm proud to present this labour of love and many sleepless nights as I tried to make this work... Algorithm started working only maybe a week before deadline, so rest of time was spent making it look pretty, adding proper game maps and adding sound fx and adjusting it all to make it have that arcade feel, make player want more, and make dying fair, so you always get back for more. I've also tried adding music couple hours before deadline, but that didn't work as I planned so expect proper title tune to be added after compo is over and I can release updated version.

 

 

Hope you like it.
ps .I'll release source code after compo is done of course

pps. If you find any bugs while playing the game, please let me know so it can be fixed in updated versions.

 

Big thanks to the entire Atari community !

Cheers!
Vladimir

[popmilo]

Well, Abbuc results are out, Blokz got 4th place so here it is 

 

 

Download:

blokz_2021_popmilo_final_version.zip

 

Please test, report bugs etc. Thank you all for voting and making Atari scene better !
Cheers!
Vladimir

 

[TheNameOfTheGame]

Congratulations!  Glad to see the game out now.

[Gury]

Great work, popmilo.

 

[Sikor]

Nice game. Thanks for sharing.

[cRc_atari]

Nice game, but i found a bug

[BIGHMW]

On 9/3/2021 at 8:30 AM, popmilo said:

Time to publish some details about my entry in this year "Abbuc Software contest 2021."

 

Logic/arcade game inspired by an old arcade game called "Block Hole" ("Quarth" in Japan). Game was later ported to some consoles like Nes, Gameboy and unofficial releases exist for MSX and Colorcomputer.

 

Since the first time I've played this in local arcade back in 90s I was puzzled by "find the largest rectangle algorithm". So when I got back into coding on Atari in early 2000s I thought A8 deserves a version of its own
Years passed as I've coded initial block drawing routine, procedural generated levels, and tested couple approaches to make this recognition routine working. Let's just say they all failed

 

So this year when time came to choose something to code for Abbuc compo, I knew there wasn't going to be lot of time during summer, so said to myself - it's now or never

I'm proud to present this labour of love and many sleepless nights as I tried to make this work... Algorithm started working only maybe a week before deadline, so rest of time was spent making it look pretty, adding proper game maps and adding sound fx and adjusting it all to make it have that arcade feel, make player want more, and make dying fair, so you always get back for more. I've also tried adding music couple hours before deadline, but that didn't work as I planned so expect proper title tune to be added after compo is over and I can release updated version.

 

 

Hope you like it.
ps .I'll release source code after compo is done of course

pps. If you find any bugs while playing the game, please let me know so it can be fixed in updated versions.

 

Big thanks to the entire Atari community !

Cheers!
Vladimir

Nice! Is it possible to get a 5200 version of this as well?

[popmilo]

12 hours ago, cRc_atari said:

Nice game, but i found a bug

That's stuff I'm looking for
Now just how to repeat it ? I recognize that part of level, I can move start of game close to it and then just try dozen of times to make that shape...
Thanks !

 

[popmilo]

2 hours ago, BIGHMW said:

Nice! Is it possible to get a 5200 version of this as well?

There's no reason it wouldn't be possible. I'll ask @Wrathchild about 5200 specifics. Game isn't using lot of ram I think, and making a cart version should be easy as all code is one block if I remember correctly.

 

Remind me in a month or two if you don't see any news about it

 

 

[800XLNZ]

Thx for a great Atari 8 bit game 

[tjlazer]

Very nice game thanks for releasing it!

[tmp]

On 11/13/2021 at 11:42 PM, popmilo said:

 

blokz_2021_popmilo_final_version.zip 31.92 kB · 137 downloads

 

Please test, report bugs etc. Thank you all for voting and making Atari scene better !

there seems to be an extra byte at the end of xex file

 

Analyzing "blokz.xex"...
  -: 65535       [$FFFF]               BINHEAD
  1:  8192-37503 [$2000-$927F] (29312) <- CODE/DATA
ERROR - Corrupt file: Incomplete address

[adam242]

I'm enjoying this one a lot.. should have placed higher than 4th!

[popmilo]

15 hours ago, tmp said:

there seems to be an extra byte at the end of xex file

 

Analyzing "blokz.xex"...
  -: 65535       [$FFFF]               BINHEAD
  1:  8192-37503 [$2000-$927F] (29312) <- CODE/DATA
ERROR - Corrupt file: Incomplete address

Please test this, looks like I left one ".byte 0" at the end of file, that didn't bother Altirra much

 

ps. I'm using Kickassembler which started as c64 compiler, so had to do some experimenting before I was able to produce proper xex binary.

pps. Which tool did you use for that analysis ?

 

 

blockhole_new.xex

[popmilo]

7 hours ago, adam242 said:

I'm enjoying this one a lot.. should have placed higher than 4th!

Can't argue with that

 

[800XLNZ]

Thx for the update and I enjoyed the original game.

[TheNameOfTheGame]

10 hours ago, adam242 said:

I'm enjoying this one a lot.. should have placed higher than 4th!

 

Yeah, I agree, it's really got a "fun" factor and that "one more go" vibe.

[Yautja]

The bug is still there. Totally agree that the game is quite addictive.

 

Also, noticed that the ship "turns" when moving to the right; but not when turning left. Maybe it could be fixed.

 

Edited November 17, 2021 by Yautja

[tmp]

8 hours ago, popmilo said:

Please test this, looks like I left one ".byte 0" at the end of file, that didn't bother Altirra much

 

ps. I'm using Kickassembler which started as c64 compiler, so had to do some experimenting before I was able to produce proper xex binary.

pps. Which tool did you use for that analysis ?

 

 

blockhole_new.xex 28.63 kB · 7 downloads

looks ok, thanks

 

 

[_The Doctor__]

7 hours ago, Yautja said:

The bug is still there. Totally agree that the game is quite addictive.

 

Also, noticed that the ship "turns" when moving to the right; but not when turning left. Maybe it could be fixed.

 

 

I see it turn/tilt to the left and turn/tilt to the right... are you having an issue seeing shading change due to monitor issues? the video shows the tilt/turn as does the game in real life... look a little closer or adjust your gear and you will see it's fine.

[Yautja]

3 hours ago, _The Doctor__ said:

I see it turn/tilt to the left and turn/tilt to the right... are you having an issue seeing shading change due to monitor issues? the video shows the tilt/turn as does the game in real life... look a little closer or adjust your gear and you will see it's fine.

Yes, you are right.

 

BTW, I thought you considered the thin green and purple lines above the ship as a "bug". My bad... 

[popmilo]

17 hours ago, Yautja said:

The bug is still there. Totally agree that the game is quite addictive.

 

Also, noticed that the ship "turns" when moving to the right; but not when turning left. Maybe it could be fixed.

 

 

Aha, that just because I've drawn three ship sprite frames in 5min

I can make it more visible.

[popmilo]

20 hours ago, TheNameOfTheGame said:

 

Yeah, I agree, it's really got a "fun" factor and that "one more go" vibe.

That's what I was aiming at. Wanted to do two player mode, but was too late when I realized I spent all 4 players and missiles on one player

For sure it can be done with more char mode usage. Need first to find that bug in filled rectangle detection... Can't pinpoint it... happens when you shoot many bullets at some shapes, and it could be tied with routine for erasing filled regions and scrolling so it's a big mess...

[TIX]

Hey Vlad @popmilo,

 

Great port of a great game !!

I remember playing this with the "Renaissance" ship,

I don't know if you deliberately stayed away from the arcade design,

but just in case, here is my take on the Quarth ship, cherubs and all (they can be animated of course).

 

 

feel free to use it or not !

 

 

Edited November 18, 2021 by TIX

[popmilo]

2 hours ago, TIX said:

Hey Vlad @popmilo,

 

Great port of a great game !!

I remember playing this with the "Renaissance" ship,

I don't know if you deliberately stayed away from the arcade design,

but just in case, here is my take on the Quarth ship, cherubs and all (they can be animated of course).

 

 

feel free to use it or not !

 

 

I like it and sure can use it

 

Can you just make both left right moving frames too ?

 

First I tried converting arcade and gameboy quarth gfx, but it couldn't look good in a8 pixels... Then drew that ship sprite in gimp in 5min