Champ Games - Elevator Agent (aka Elevator Action) for the Atari 2600

[+johnnywc]

Hello all,

 

Five years ago, Champ Games started development on a port of the 1983 arcade game Elevator Action.  The project was inspired by the new BUS stuffing technology that was being developed by the CDF team ( @cd-w, @SpiceWare and @batari).  Unfortunately, due to BUS incompatibilities with some systems, all BUS projects were put on hold. 

 

Here is screenshot from the 2017 WIP of Elevator Action using BUS stuffing:

 

This past January, we decided to revisit the code and see what type of port we could produce using the available stable technology (CDFJ) and rebooted the project (similar to what @cd-w is doing with his amazing port of Bombeman aka Boom! 💣   ).  Although we were able to port most of the changes using CDFJ, we worked with the CDFJ team to add features to CDFJ+ (now available in Stella 6.7) to squeeze a few more free cycles out of the ol' 2600 and include all of the graphical enhancements of the BUS version:  

 

New name, new title screen!

 

Sneaking into the enemy headquarters:

 

Collect the secret documents while avoiding the enemy spies:

 

 

Ride the escalators to reach certain floors and areas blocked by walls:

 

Some floors are dark, and some can be made dark for a few moments by shooting out the lights (hit the enemies for extra points! ) :

 

Duck and jump to avoid enemy fire, or dropkick your enemies:

 

Make your way down to the basement, hop in the getaway car and head to your next assignment:

 

Planned features:

• 1 or 2 players (alternating), plus a versus mode where one player controls the enemy spies!
• Multiple building layouts and colors (arcade has 4 different color sets).  99 total buildings to infiltrate.
• 2 button Sega Genesis support to allow fire/jump with different buttons.
• AtariVox/SaveKey support for high scores, plus QuadTari support for 2 joysticks/AtariVox-SaveKey setups
• Special challenge mode with additional enemies and powerups.

 

Release plans:

• The game is about 60% complete.
• We are coordinating with @ZeroPage Homebrew for a first-look reveal of the game in action sometime in the next month or so (once we have the game playable  )
• A demo (both NTSC and PAL60) will be made available soon after the ZPH show.
• A playable demo will be at the AtariAge booth at this year's Portland Retro Gaming Expo in October.
• The full version will be published through AtariAge and available sometime in the first half of 2023 (if all goes well) with a ROM release on the Champ Games website after that.

 

Credits:

 

Thanks to @Nathan Strum for his usual Stella-r graphics , especially the title screen and all of the player and enemy animations (certainly much more than what was needed for Qyx  ).  Also thanks to @Pat Brady for his work on the music (and the sound driver) which is sounding great so far!  

 

Special thanks to the CDF team for enhancing the CDFJ+ driver with the specific needs for this game and the Stella team for including them in the latest release; hopefully those new features will be of use to other developers too!

 

For more information, please visit the Elevator Agent page on our website! 

 

Thanks,

John

 

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I am really looking forward to this one. 👍

[DaveD]

Amazing work, as usual. Elevator Action is my jam. Looking forward to this one.

 

52 minutes ago, johnnywc said:

Some floors are dark, and some can be made dark for a few moments by shooting out the lights (hit the enemies for extra points! ) :

 

I know about shooting the lights out on floors but are some building dark from the get-go? I guess I never played long enough to find out.

 

Love the planned challenge mode with powerups and extra goodies. These little extras really go a long way extending replay value on these old titles. 

[+save2600]

 

Featuring Harry Styles as Elevator Agent Provocateur! But oops, looks like the updraft hiked his skirt up a bit...  🤣

[+johnnywc]

32 minutes ago, DaveD said:

Amazing work, as usual. Elevator Action is my jam. Looking forward to this one.

Thanks Dave!

32 minutes ago, DaveD said:

 

I know about shooting the lights out on floors but are some building dark from the get-go? I guess I never played long enough to find out.

Yes, floors 15 - 11 are always dark (no lights on them).    Interestingly, you also get 50 extra points for shooting an enemy in the dark (either on these floors or after shooting out a light bulb).  You get the most points for shooting a light and dropping ON an enemy spy.  

32 minutes ago, DaveD said:

Love the planned challenge mode with powerups and extra goodies. These little extras really go a long way extending replay value on these old titles. 

Agreed!  We did the same for Qyx, and plan on the same for Gorf Arcade as well!   

[+sramirez2008]

Ohh I’ve been waiting for this port.  Thanks for resurrecting it.👏

[+TrekMD]

Just awesome!

[+D Train]

wow!

[DVDfever]

Looks absolutely awesome. Can't wait for it!

[Dionoid]

So much looking forward to this game! The amount of detail is amazing.

[Bomberman94]

Looks really fantastic - maybe you can provide a little teaser gameplay video? 😊🤗

Edited June 16 by Bomberman94

[4ever2600]

When are you guys going to do Tempest?!?!?!  Champ Games does an incredible job on all software!

[+GoldLeader]

Amazing as Always!!!

 

FWIW,  I used to own an Elevator Action arcade game...This will be so Neat-O!

[ColecoGamer]

Wow! Another day one purchase from Champ Games. 👍🏻