Tunnels of Terror

[+atari2600land]

Here is another game I found myself working on quite a bit lately. I just started on this. It's called Tunnels of Terror and I am basing it off of Turmoil. It will end up being an 8k game. I found that I could free up around 400 bytes if I moved the title screen stuff to a different bank. This leaves me with around 1,000 bytes I can use for the bank in which the main game is in. Right now it is in "technically a game" stage, a term I use when I have in game play and also a game over screen (if need be).

tunnels10.bin

[bah]

I like it .  The play is easy to learn and fun.  At this point I think you have a good game.  Are you going to add more enemies?  I could envision an airplane that also shoots and maybe another ship that lays mines in your path that limit your travel.  The mines could time out and disappear but would add an obstacle to your quick movements.

 

Good job so far.

[bah]

double post, sorry

Edited September 25, 2021 by bah
double post

[+atari2600land]

I want to add some more enemy types.

[bah]

This also works well on an Odyssey 2 console.  You could add power ups or an extra life that appears at the end of a tunnel.  The danger is that an enemy comes at you when you enter the tunnel.

 

 

[+atari2600land]

A little update:

 

[moycon]

Nice. I always liked Turmoil. Good simple fun.

[+atari2600land]

After a month away from this, I came back to working on it. I added a new enemy type. I also structured the enemies: Enemy 1 is introduced in wave 1, enemy 2 is introduced in wave 2, and so on until you get past 4. A little bug I don't know how it happened, but Enemy type 2 will not show up on wave 3 on a real console. Otherwise, the game works fine. Perhaps I should make some more enemy types?

Feedback, anyone?

tunnels17.bin

[Mikebloke]

Sorry got my plasterer in this week probably won't be able to test before Friday night. 

[+atari2600land]

It is a blustery day outside today (A "bomb cyclone" sort of day!) So I thought to myself, "Self, what can I do to make the game more exciting?" Then I thought "Gee, the fourth and final sprite isn't being used. What if I made it follow your vertical movement and goes down the exact same tunnel you're in the middle of?" So I added the green killer drone robot Killitron. Shooting at it does nothing, so your best bet is to avoid it. I think this makes the game a little bit harder than it once was. I can't get to Wave 4. What are your thoughts? Did I make the game too difficult?

 

tunnels18.bin

[Chris+++]

I'd love to try this out tonight or tomorrow. I'll let you know if the game's too difficult with the indestructible Killitron, although it will only be one guy's opinion, of course. I'll definitely give it enough time and play to know what I'm talking about, at least!

 

[Chris+++]

You did a fantastic job, and I dig the quickly responsive controls and the very Turmoil-faithful graphics. The Killitron doesn't make the game too difficult, although I can't help but to ask: Is it necessary to make it appear every single time the player blasts a bad guy? (That's a literal question -- I don't know anything about programming the O2 in specific.)

 

One thing that might be useful to assess is, what makes Turmoil fun in the first place? Why does it feel good to play? The answer that strikes me is: the amount and rapidity of player shots. There isn't quite any other game experience like holding down the fire button and zipping up and down the central tunnel, destroying whole "walls" of approaching enemies.

 

I say that because the slow firing rate in Tunnels of Terror makes it a very different game. Careful strategy is called for a lot more than visceral reactions. It does cut down on the destructive satisfaction. For all I know, however, that's deliberate on your part, and again, I don't know about O2 coding, much less how many simultaneous sprites you're able to have on screen; so please don't take that as criticism. I think it's highly impressive that you've created an Assembly game to begin with!

 

I hope that helps somewhat! Thanks for sharing your progress so far!

[+atari2600land]

Hi, the game is finished, and we hope to get it released this year sometime. I have made quite a lot of changes since the last version I posted here. Not only is it an assembly game, it's also 8k, like Jack and the Beanstalk is. Thanks for the feedback, and I'll post here when it gets released.

[Chris+++]

Awesome! Excited to hear that it's finished!