Misadventure- nearly final version. Comments?

[yorgle]

Well, here it is- my first venture into programming. Thanks to Nukey and everyone here for your help. It's yet another adventure hack, but this time with a twist. Forget the chalice. Your task is to find the princess and get her back to the emerald city where she belongs (not the yellow castle). Watch out for the baby dragon- he's quite mean. Levels 1,2 and 3 are the same rooms but dragons are slower in level 1. Levels 2 and 3 are the same except for random objects in level 3.

 

Comments, criticism and complaints welcome.

 

Note: there are no secret rooms (although some are well hidden) or easter eggs. Side barriers are just that, so don't waste time looking for a dot or a way through them. My goal was to focus on gameplay.

missadventure.bin

[supercat]

Comments, criticism and complaints welcome.

 

Nice job at creating a variety of interesting rooms using the original seven-row kernel. I rather like the multi-height kernel Nukey came up with, but you do an amazingly good job with the standard one.

 

In all fairness, though, the game seems perhaps too big. In the original or in Adventure II, one could usually count on finding something in every castle except perhaps the gold one (and one needed to ket into the gold one whether or not there was anything there). Here, it's frustrating going to the trouble of unlocking a castle and then finding nothing there.

 

Perhaps Adventure needs to be modified slightly so as to allow use of the SuperChip for an increased number of objects. Also, if the game could have door objects coded so that they could be unlocked by mere touch (I would guess that specifying the player as the "key" would probably work) you could have a system of warp-gates. For example, outside the white castle you could have a warp gate to a room near the gold castle and vice versa. Both warp gates would share the same "state", but have different display tables. Consequently, the one near the gold castle would initially be invisible, while the other would be unlocked by touch. The two gates would teleport to each other. Thus, once a player had been to the white castle he would be free to teleport between it and the gold castle, but not until then.

[yorgle]

Comments, criticism and complaints welcome.

 

Nice job at creating a variety of interesting rooms using the original seven-row kernel. I rather like the multi-height kernel Nukey came up with, but you do an amazingly good job with the standard one.

 

In all fairness, though, the game seems perhaps too big. In the original or in Adventure II, one could usually count on finding something in every castle except perhaps the gold one (and one needed to ket into the gold one whether or not there was anything there). Here, it's frustrating going to the trouble of unlocking a castle and then finding nothing there.

 

Perhaps Adventure needs to be modified slightly so as to allow use of the SuperChip for an increased number of objects. Also, if the game could have door objects coded so that they could be unlocked by mere touch (I would guess that specifying the player as the "key" would probably work) you could have a system of warp-gates. For example, outside the white castle you could have a warp gate to a room near the gold castle and vice versa. Both warp gates would share the same "state", but have different display tables. Consequently, the one near the gold castle would initially be invisible, while the other would be unlocked by touch. The two gates would teleport to each other. Thus, once a player had been to the white castle he would be free to teleport between it and the gold castle, but not until then.

 

Thanks for the ideas. I agree the 7 row display is limited but I wanted to keep the overall look of the original game. For some reason the randomizing routine doesn't do a good job spreading things out- I'll keep tinkering with that. Plus, I realized after I had coded all of the rooms that how they are numbered affects gameplay in that you don't want to have the randomizing routine placing necessary objects in inaccessible locations. I'm still learning assembly so this hack was limited to simple modifications. It was also an exercise in programming eproms and building carts. Now that I've had success with this cartridge, I'm going to start on a Wizard of Oz game for my daughters. Similar to adventure but will have to find bucket of water to throw on witch to get broom and return broom to Oz while avoiding monkeys and guards. Maybe that's been done, but I'm more interested in these things as means to learn programming. Thanks again for the input.

[accousticguitar]

How many rooms are in this game?

[accousticguitar]

My biggest problem so far is that I find it very difficult to kill dragons when I have the sword. It is frustrating to stab the dragon and still get eaten. Was this intentional? It seems I have about a 50-50 chance of being eaten even when I have the sword.

[espire8]

Comments, criticism and complaints welcome.

 

Nice job at creating a variety of interesting rooms using the original seven-row kernel. I rather like the multi-height kernel Nukey came up with, but you do an amazingly good job with the standard one.

 

Nice game. I enjoyed the freshness of your hack, esspecially the new rooms, much better than most other hacks of the same game. You do need to fix up how you connect the rooms that cross the map boundaries because the bat often will trap itself in a loop pattern and appear to be abesent until you hunt it down. this happened to me several times. I also get lost often in the forest screens because the trees almost look the same. My biggest gripe is alot of areas I find inaccessable and often get trapped between screens and must reset the game. Not sure if it's suppose to be like that but does hurt the fun factor a little with fustration. It's a great effort for an almost finished project. I'll probably have some suggestions later after I finaly finish getting the princess home. BTW -- do the dragons have hitpoints It seems to take several hits to slay 'em.

[accousticguitar]

I just noticed in another thread that Yorgle says the following: "My current hack has 6 dragons (one is a baby dragon) hit points for the dragons, about 110 rooms, 4 keys, 6 gates." That explains why I find it difficult to kill dragons.

[Nukey Shay]

Note: your screen gfx data is crossing a page (the ripple in the start of the brown maze results from this).

[yorgle]

Note: your screen gfx data is crossing a page (the ripple in the start of the brown maze results from this).

 

So that's what that is... thanks. BTW, am I correct that the "RndMax = $xx" should be set to the highest room number to dispurse objects throughout the game? Or am I way off.

 

;RD0 used to calculate map direction value when including differences

RD0 = RoomDiffs - $80

 

WinRoom = $58 ;(Topmost Green Castle's room number)

ByteNum = Game2Objects - (Game1Objects+1) ;number of bytes in each "fill" table

RndNum = Loc_4 - (Loc_1 + 3) ; offset value for the room bounds table

RndMax = $55 ;Mask for the upper bounds of the random seed WAS 1F

Gates = $05 ;# of castle gates - 1

Edited August 14, 2006 by yorgle

[accousticguitar]

Cool, the cross wards off dragons!

[accousticguitar]

I just won the game (on level 1)! I find it amusing that the princess is attracted to the magnet

[accousticguitar]

I won the game on level 2!

[Nukey Shay]

BTW, am I correct that the "RndMax = $xx" should be set to the highest room number to dispurse objects throughout the game? Or am I way off.

Yup. Though the game currently uses this value in an AND instruction...so you might need to alter the coding a bit if you got an unusual number of rooms that falls between multiples of 2...or the random routine might take too long due to hitting invalid numbers.

[supercat]

You do need to fix up how you connect the rooms that cross the map boundaries because the bat often will trap itself in a loop pattern and appear to be abesent until you hunt it down.

 

It's also annoying to have going right and then left leave you in a different from where you were before. IMHO, it's not necessary for maps to be planar, but going east and then west should leave one where one was before (I think it's neat that E.T. did the cube map thing, but from a gameplay perspective a planar one would have been less confusing.

[SeaGtGruff]

It's also annoying to have going right and then left leave you in a different from where you were before. IMHO, it's not necessary for maps to be planar, but going east and then west should leave one where one was before

Actually, that's not uncommon in text adventures. It's annoying, yes, but it also makes for a greater challenge, as long as it always behaves the same way, so that you can draw the map accordingly.

 

MR

[supercat]

Actually, that's not uncommon in text adventures. It's annoying, yes, but it also makes for a greater challenge, as long as it always behaves the same way, so that you can draw the map accordingly.

 

I know there are some text adventures that do that, and there are times when it makes some sense, e.g. (hypothetical game)

You are at end southern end of a hallway, which ends with an abrubt drop. To the south, about 12 feet down, is a pool of clear water. No hazards are visible in the water, which appears deep enough to jump into safely. From the pool, you can see an apparent exit to the east.

>S

Splash.

You are in a pool of clear water. To the east is a small platform with a connecting hallway. To the north you notice a small opening in the pool wall, which extends about a foot above the surface.

>N

You are in a small tunnel, mostly underwater. There's enough air between you and the ceiling to breathe, but movement is difficult.

Here, it is abumdantly clear that the person who goes south should not particularly expect to go north and return to the same place. There is a logical physical reason for it, and the player is informed of the behavior in advance. That is a good use of a map discontinuity (another such map discontuity exists in adventure when entering or leaving a castle; there, as here, the discontinuity makes sense).

 

I know there are some text adventures that throw in other types of map discontinuity; for the most part, I hate them.

Edited August 20, 2006 by supercat

[accousticguitar]

I'm still a bit confused about the forest. It seems like the only way out is to go down, then left; I'm not sure about that though.

[yorgle]

I'm still a bit confused about the forest. It seems like the only way out is to go down, then left; I'm not sure about that though.

 

I purposely made the forest rooms connect illogically to make it possible to get "lost in the woods"

 

Nukey: thanks for the input. I never thought about the multiples of two thing but that explains why the game would lock up while experimenting with some values. I'll play around with it some more.

 

Everyone else: Thanks for the comments. I'll definely fix some fo the room connections. I really hate how flickery things can get when all of the dragons are after you, but there's not much that can be done about it.

 

I forgot about the princess sticking to the magnet. Ha Ha. If I were really good, I'd figure out how to make it so the dragons could eat the princess as well as you so the goal would be to get her back to the green castle alive.

[accousticguitar]

I don't really see any problem with the room connections. I've played this game quite a bit now, and I know how to get from place to place fairly well. I can get out of the forest by the castle in 3 screens to either of 2 destinations. The green maze connects to the forest or the yellow maze.

 

Right now my biggest concern is that the game is too easy. The princess is almost always in one of two places.

Edited August 22, 2006 by accousticguitar

[yorgle]

I don't really see any problem with the room connections. I've played this game quite a bit now, and I know how to get from place to place fairly well. I can get out of the forest by the castle in 3 screens to either of 2 destinations. The green maze connects to the forest or the yellow maze.

 

Right now my biggest concern is that the game is too easy. The princess is almost always in one of two places.

 

I know. I'm working on the randomization routine and hopefully the final version will hide the princess in more locations.

[accousticguitar]

I don't really see any problem with the room connections. I've played this game quite a bit now, and I know how to get from place to place fairly well. I can get out of the forest by the castle in 3 screens to either of 2 destinations. The green maze connects to the forest or the yellow maze.

 

Right now my biggest concern is that the game is too easy. The princess is almost always in one of two places.

 

I know. I'm working on the randomization routine and hopefully the final version will hide the princess in more locations.

 

Good deal!

[supercat]

I know. I'm working on the randomization routine and hopefully the final version will hide the princess in more locations.

 

One of the things I like about Adventure II is that even though things aren't always in the same places, there's something inside every castle. It can be frustrating going through the trouble of getting a key to a castle, then searching the castle, and finding out there's nothing there.

[vdub_bobby]

Actually, that's not uncommon in text adventures. It's annoying, yes, but it also makes for a greater challenge, as long as it always behaves the same way, so that you can draw the map accordingly.

 

I know there are some text adventures that do that, and there are times when it makes some sense, e.g. (hypothetical game)

 

[snip]

 

I know there are some text adventures that throw in other types of map discontinuity; for the most part, I hate them.

I haven't played this hack, but this kind of discontinuity can be cool if used in moderation, IMO. The two "lost" rooms of the Zelda overworld map are a good example. A nice puzzle to solve.

 

Though I can certainly see how something like that would confuse the bat!

[Nukey Shay]

Nukey: thanks for the input. I never thought about the multiples of two thing but that explains why the game would lock up while experimenting with some values. I'll play around with it some more.

Actually, it's powers of 2 (e.g. #$02, #$04, #$08, #$10, #$20, $40, and #$80). The AND value limits the number chosen by trimming off the upper bits of the value (so if your game used no more than 32 rooms, you'd use AND #$1F...decimal values 0 to 31). Room numbers above $7F are used to determine if the map differs between game variations, so you'd still be limited to a maximum of 128 rooms without removing that routine (AND #$7F).

 

 

I forgot about the princess sticking to the magnet. Ha Ha. If I were really good, I'd figure out how to make it so the dragons could eat the princess as well as you so the goal would be to get her back to the green castle alive.

The magnet has a matrix of what it attracts...so you can just remove the byte pair that indicates the princess. Similarly, each dragon has it's own matrix of what objects are "liked" or "feared" more than others...so the princess could be placed high on the list...with a comparison done in the dragon routine if it is guarding the princess (and if so, kill the game).

[accousticguitar]

I forgot about the princess sticking to the magnet. Ha Ha. If I were really good, I'd figure out how to make it so the dragons could eat the princess as well as you so the goal would be to get her back to the green castle alive.

The magnet has a matrix of what it attracts...so you can just remove the byte pair that indicates the princess. Similarly, each dragon has it's own matrix of what objects are "liked" or "feared" more than others...so the princess could be placed high on the list...with a comparison done in the dragon routine if it is guarding the princess (and if so, kill the game).

 

I kind of like her magnetic personality