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Final Assault - new game by GMG


globe

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@globeI had 10mins between a virtual work meeting so booted it up on Altirra. Very nice. Thanks for the time and effort you have clearly put in and it does appear to have a lot crammed into the 64k, (thanks to some compression too).:grin::lust:

 

The intro graphics sequence really sets the mood - as does the music.

 

I really like the high res weapons panel and compass and also instantly accessable map via the space bar.

 

Switching weapons nice and simple like any other FPS with keyboard. Great to see it all moving so well at a nice frame rate. I only had time to wonder around the first level a little taking pot shots.:P

 

This is not a criticism at all given the A8 limitations/ingame graphics mode/res you have had to work with, but it takes a while to work things out visually and acclimatize to the resolution/colour scheme naturally.

 

The Raycasting is very impressive and great use of lighting. (The lighting effect when you fire off a round from the BFG is a really nice touch).:lust:

 

Will be amazing to see how any future revisions of perhaps this particular game, (but also any future games in this genre utilising the same engine), will do when having 128k or larger available. :grin:   

 

I wonder how future games using the lighting effects in this engine might utilise lighting to great effect for darker levels, (flashlights or torchlight in the case of a dungeon level)?:D

 

Again this may or may not be possible given the use of the graphics modes, PMGs, DLis etc, but a wish list for me would be having a higher res colour graphic for the in game playfield currently selected weapon, and if at all possible having the graduated horizonal 'sky' and/or floor in a different colour to the walls to help visually distinguish them. I am 99% sure the latter isn't possible given the A8's graphics mode employed - but doesn't hurt to ask.

 

Also going forward having some digitised weapons sound effects available to higher memory A8s, (appropriate soundbanks auto detected at boot up), would enhance the experience IMHO - again only if feasible.

 

Same for Stereo enhanced A8s being auto-detected at boot up, as stereo would also enhance gameplay given it's an FPS - if again that is possible. Imagine the proximity stereo audio Sfx increasing in intensity as you approach an enemy, (like the Aliens film and the Atari Jag's AvP game) - raising the stress levels?!:)

 

I'll dedicate some more play time to it hopefully tonight - rather busy with my 800 incognito install which went well hardware install wise - just sorting out the new firmware. :D

 

Anyways - fantastic work @globe:lust:

Edited by Beeblebrox
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6 hours ago, CyranoJ said:

And queue pages and pages of bickering.

That's ok. Game's already done and if someone wants to bump the thread for weeks, who am I to stop them:)

5 hours ago, Irgendwer said:

Some bytes free/interest to adapt the keyboard input to a SNES controller?

Very few bytes free, but I checked the controller and there's plenty of buttons (including shoulder buttons for strafing I very much prefer) so it is theoretically possible.

In thread you linked, you wrote:

When switching to the enhanced mode (with SELECT + START + R (shoulder button) ), all buttons are mapped to a single controller port, in a quite clever but also easy to use way

So how does the button encoding works?

Are there any limitations for multiple button presses?  (is it possible to move forward, while also turning, strafing and shooting all at once?)

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14 minutes ago, globe said:

That's ok. Game's already done and if someone wants to bump the thread for weeks, who am I to stop them:)

Very few bytes free, but I checked the controller and there's plenty of buttons (including shoulder buttons for strafing I very much prefer) so it is theoretically possible.

In thread you linked, you wrote:

When switching to the enhanced mode (with SELECT + START + R (shoulder button) ), all buttons are mapped to a single controller port, in a quite clever but also easy to use way

So how does the button encoding works?

Are there any limitations for multiple button presses?  (is it possible to move forward, while also turning, strafing and shooting all at once?)

I'll send you code via PM.

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3 hours ago, Beeblebrox said:

 

This is not a criticism at all given the A8 limitations/ingame graphics mode/res you have had to work with, but it takes a while to work things out visually and acclimatize to the resolution/colour scheme naturally.

No need to tiptoe around the issue, the pixels are huge and often it takes time to look around so one can realize how immediate surroundings actually look. Automap helps a lot in this regard though I wish I could use bigger resolution for more details there.

 

3 hours ago, Beeblebrox said:

Again this may or may not be possible given the use of the graphics modes, PMGs, DLis etc, but a wish list for me would be having a higher res colour graphic for the in game playfield currently selected weapon, and if at all possible having the graduated horizonal 'sky' and/or floor in a different colour to the walls to help visually distinguish them. I am 99% sure the latter isn't possible given the A8's graphics mode employed - but doesn't hurt to ask.

Well, current engine uses hscroll trick to make the pixels so more detailed weapons are impossible. Maybe half height pixels for later versions with larger RAM use would do the trick.

As for the floor / ceiling coloring, with current graphic mode I have no idea how that could work so maybe I'll try using bigger contrast compared to walls so they don't blend together.

3 hours ago, Beeblebrox said:

Also going forward having some digitised weapons sound effects available to higher memory A8s, (appropriate soundbanks auto detected at boot up), would enhance the experience IMHO - again only if feasible.

Definitely. Having something like Pulse rifle sounds form Aliens would be absolutely awesome (well, besides the inevitable lawsuit;)

 

3 hours ago, Beeblebrox said:

Same for Stereo enhanced A8s being auto-detected at boot up, as stereo would also enhance gameplay given it's an FPS - if again that is possible. Imagine the proximity stereo audio Sfx increasing in intensity as you approach an enemy, (like the Aliens film and the Atari Jag's AvP game) - raising the stress levels?!

Goldy already suggested it, and it would be definitely useful but there was no space.

(I am using the self imposed memory limit as an excuse a lot, aren't I?)

 

 

 

 

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Great stuff. The light moving reminds me what me did on the C64 and SNES in the texture tunnel and on the Lynx in the shaded Voxel scene. The A8 version was too fast… it was like photon laser shots but can not find the video.

 

 

 

so basicly a second table lookup for decreasing/increasing and clamping the pixel value?

Edited by Heaven/TQA
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23 minutes ago, Heaven/TQA said:

Great stuff. The light moving reminds me what me did on the C64 and SNES in the texture tunnel and on the Lynx in the shaded Voxel scene. The A8 version was too fast… it was like photon laser shots but can not find the video.

 

 

 

so basicly a second table lookup for decreasing/increasing and clamping the pixel value?

Can it be, you missed the point?

You see a fully playable 3d projection game, and you mix it with a still image that does some character trickery?

Did you watch my videos? This this is real, not just raster or character trickery. 

The movement is comparable to Wolf 3D for sure. 

 

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40 minutes ago, emkay said:

Can it be, you missed the point?

You see a fully playable 3d projection game, and you mix it with a still image that does some character trickery?

Did you watch my videos? This this is real, not just raster or character trickery. 

The movement is comparable to Wolf 3D for sure. 

 

Believe me I know what a raycaster is… and how it is coded. Esp. on A8… and the tunnel is no character trickery. Just for the records… ?

 

and I bet the coder of the game knows exactly what I am talking about. And maybe you miss the point here ?

and I played the game just the little bit and the lighting seems a "simple shaded square" moving just in z so no "real 2d persp transformed rectangle" moved.
 

Edited by Heaven/TQA
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All my stuff is still packed in boxes until I move into my new appartement in 2 weeks, can't wait to play this on a 100" screen/wall projector beamed once I get my setup unpacked.
Amazing stuff keeps appearing for the A8 , congrats to the author and all involved.

Edited by Lastic
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29 minutes ago, Lastic said:

can't wait to play this on a 100" screen/wall projector beamed

believe me, I played on 55 inch LCD from longer distance, tried all kind of filters, softness etc. but better results were on the 10 inch JVC CRT broadcast monitor.

 

One interesting feature on modern LCD televisions we tried was motion smoothing, that most of modern tv sets offer. Try it ... it's hw cheating but looks nice, as the big pixels actually move smoothly "inbetween" atari's resolution pixel positions.

 

 

Edited by goldy/gmg aka lopez453
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Just gave this a go - excellent effort, never thought Id see something like this on the 8bit running at a great rate.  Only thing that would be good if possible would be to change/darken the background color for the floor/ceiling.  I get a bit confused when close to the walls on what Im looking at.  

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13 minutes ago, Mr Robot said:

Anyone gonna criticise this for having a non-quittable intro sequence?... Nope didn't think so!

 

It's on my tnfs server in the 2021 folder for any fujinet owners who fancy trying it out. 

 

Well, there's definitely something to be said for releasing a finished product without warning.  No chance for "too many cooks in the kitchen" while it's being developed.

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10 hours ago, Heaven/TQA said:

 

so basicly a second table lookup for decreasing/increasing and clamping the pixel value?

Not sure what 'clamping' means in this context but yeah, there's 4KB lookup table for the lighting effects.

8 hours ago, Lastic said:

can't wait to play this on a 100" screen/wall projector beamed

Tried it out, looked 'interesting', you could play chess on the pixels if you wanted:) but in the end it looked better on small 10'' LCD.

 

 

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9 hours ago, snicklin said:

I was going to say something similar, that of using a small monitor.

 

I tried it on my 32" 4K monitor from arms length distance away and it was confusing, but on my 14" CRT it will be better.

It's only confusing if you're not using all movemt. 

This precious engine is that fast that it draws walls in the distance fast and correct. 

You can play it like a modern 3D game.

Remember back in 1983 on a CRT, two Joysticks... How impressive would this have been ?

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37 minutes ago, globe said:

Not sure what 'clamping' means in this context but yeah, there's 4KB lookup table for the lighting effects.

Tried it out, looked 'interesting', you could play chess on the pixels if you wanted:) but in the end it looked better on small 10'' LCD.

 

 

Thx. So „classic“ approach. Clamping in that context means avoiding overflow in nibbles when eg using ADC for the effect…

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7 minutes ago, emkay said:

It's only confusing if you're not using all movemt. 

This precious engine is that fast that it draws walls in the distance fast and correct. 

You can play it like a modern 3D game.

Remember back in 1983 on a CRT, two Joysticks... How impressive would this have been ?

It's probably my brain, even some of the modern games confuse me as to what I am looking at. 

 

It's a very good game, well developed and there is a good attention to detail. Nevertheless,  sometimes I can't work out if I am looking at a close by wall, I just lose my bearings. It might take me half a second to work it out, which in an action game can be deadly.

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