STARTED USING Git, and have uploaded the source code to Github.com: https://github.com/vdub-bobby/tankmaze
I'll continue to post updates here, though they might lag what's on Github. For example! The version on github is slightly newer; the enemy tanks have (crappy) AI now!
I'm in the middle of rewriting the routines that move the enemy tanks; right now the routines are too slow and too brittle.
More to come...hopefully.
NOW WITH ENEMIES that move!
TankMaze20120222.bin
Not too exciting, really - they just change direction randomly when they hit an intersection. But it's something!
Also, your tank will now turn whichever way you press the joystick, even if a wall prevents you from moving.
Press RESET to start things off and to switch through the different mazes.
NOW YOU CAN blow up the walls! Plus I fixed the maze generator so that it (should?) cycle through the 255 possible different mazes.
I forgot to mention this last time (until a late edit), but press RESET to cycle through the mazes.
TankMaze20120211.bin
BEEN PRETTY BUSY WITH RL over the last week, but found a few hours here and there to work out the code to generate mazes programmatically:
TankMaze20120205.bin
To my surprise, I was able to get something working that actually doesn't look too bad. The algorithm is roughly based on the so-called "sidewinder" algorithm, though with some tweaks. To geek out about this for a minute, it is a pet peeve of mine that every maze-generation algorithm i've ever seen always works on the assumption
NOW WITH shooting! Also a proper (though lame) maze, sort-of finalized kernel (and sort-of finalized tank graphics), and a glowing base to defend.
TankMaze20120130.bin
In answer to what I think was Thomas' question, right now the maze is hard-coded. If I can come up with a good algorithm for generating mazes, I'd really like to do that. If I can't come up with an algorithm that generates high quality mazes, I'll probably just create several by hand. It helps that the game will have walls
SO IT'S BEEN A WHILE since I've been very active on AA; but in the last few weeks I have again started some fairly intensive 2600 development. I'm sorry to say, Nathan, that it isn't RPS - which is still on my slow-moving to-do list - but rather a project that I toyed with years ago: a semi-faithful port of Tank Battalion.
I'll try to find time to put up the in-progress ROM of what I've got so far along with some screenshots, plus other details. And I am having some difficulty with the gra
NOW THAT KOTAKU.COM has ruined redesigned their website, I'm looking for a different video game news/reviews/opinion site. Something reasonably intelligent, platform agnostic, and comprehensive. Where do you all go for video game news?
WHILE I'M HOME SICK FROM WORK I might as well take the chance and try to make some progress on RPS:
Not a lot of changes, but since the previous version was so rough, I thought I'd put this out there.
Cleaned up all scanline counts - now at 270 on all screens and transitions appear to be rock solid. Also got new credits in:
rps.bin
rps_source.zip
PROGRESS CONTINUES...
Dug up old PMs from Nathan and saw that he had made a title screen graphic for it already, so I added that in:
This required expanding the ROM to 8K, so that's the other thing I did - which was a giant pain, as it always is. In the process I screwed up all the scanline counts, but I think all the graphics are stable.
rps.bin
rps_source.zip
NATHAN has probably given up all hope, but never fear! I am actually working on it, though veeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyy slowly...
Most of what little I've done so far is simple stuff to help me understand the code better.
I did, however, get one of Nathan's new hand graphic sets in, and I cleaned up the scanline counts and some of the transitions where the screen would jitter or jump. And I changed the copyright date.
Lot's still to do:
; To do:
;
; fix scanlin
YOUR POWERS ARE WEAK!
Just thought I'd share some amusing pictures of Darth Vader as a kid:
Adjusting the fit...
Using the Dark Side of the Force to terrorize the house! Oh no!
Unmasked!
This helmet plays various Darth Vader phrases and sound effects. Usually it's used by the older two, but recently Jo has had a fascination with it. Good times, good times.
WELLLLL...
Another Montgomery makes a safe landing.
James William Montgomery, September 15 2009
For those keeping score at home, that makes five in total:
Danny (with new brother):
Mikey:
Mercy (with new brother):
And Josiah:
SO I ADDED YET ANOTHER console to my (unwieldy) collection: a 7800!
And the totally sweet game Pole Position II.
I've been resisting acquiring this for a few years now, but my resistance finally melted when, out of the blue, someone offered to sell me their CC2. After hemming and hawing for a week or so I decided, in the end, that I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get one. And so, of course, I needed a 7800.
And so here I am today, burdened with another 1980s machine to play w
THANKS TO TOMMY I was at the Sounders FC vs. Real Salt Lake MLS match last Saturday. It was a sellout! Something like 30K people at Qwest field, I was kinda surprised. Very loud crowd, a lot of fun. Though the stupid horns were beyond annoying...
Sounders won 2-0; the 2nd goal was just pretty.
Here are the highlights (1st goal at 0:55, nice save by Sounders keeper Kasey Keller at 1:55, 2nd goal at 3:00):
A lot of fun. See, we 'mericans aren't completely hopeless...
SO IT'S been a while since I've posted anything...or coded anything.
But I was inspired by...well, by something I can't talk about. Um. Anyway, I revived an idea that I kicked around almost two years ago and banged something out:
2kAVoxEditor20081209.bin
I haven't tested it with an AtariVox myself - but Nathan did and it seems to work fine.
What does it do? It's a way to quickly play with your AtariVox using your 2600. Add/edit/adjust sounds and control codes and then play 'em!
SO...I have a Wii.
First time I've had a "modern" console since the N64 in 2001. Kind of weird, really - my brother-in-law gave it to me (!) plus ~5 games. Wasn't really sure what to do at first; I'd already decided that I wasn't buying any more hardware for the foreseeable future - I had/have too many systems and not enough games and not enough time for the ones I have.
But anyway, eventually hooked the thing up and I've been having fun with Wii Sports, Super Mario Galaxy. Also real
THE C64 VS A8 thread got me thinking...
It would have been really nice if ANTIC could have read color data line-by-line as well as graphics data. Even just for the PMs would have been very neat.
Of course, that would use a ton of RAM and probably have made the ANTIC chip more expensive, but...it would have been really cool!
As it is, too many A8 games resort to stacking PMs to get multicolored sprites which makes them look like glorified 2600 games.
SPEAKING OF HOMEBREWS...
For some reason the 7800 has caught my fancy lately. Here's the result:
S1K20080408.zip
Could someone with a CC2 or similar please run this on an actual 7800 and verify that it looks like the picture? The documentation on the 320 modes is unclear.
And, if Schmutzpuppe is reading this - can you explain the graphics in Frogger? I was looking closely at them in an emulator and, as far as I understand the 320 modes, you shouldn't be able to do what it looks
HERE'S what I've been working on, slowly, over the last few weeks. Well, besides the tile demos I've posted in the homebrew forum, which are mostly just a sideline - for now, anyway.
Demo120080209.bin
Demo220080214.bin
Both are very rough and likely will roll on a real TV.
NES VERSUS 5200, how does the hardware compare? This question is interesting to me, so I did some research this morning, refreshing my memory and digging a little deeper. I was going to post this in the (latest) thread on the subject in the 5200 forum but it had degenerated into name-calling
So, anyway, here's what I've got. Please let me know about any inaccuracies or errors!
I'm going to use the term "5200" to stand in for the the 5200 as well as the 400/800 line of computers, so I
THOUGHT I'D REVISIT this topic again this year.
-I have two big 2600 projects that have been kicking around in my head for a while; I'd like to make some significant headway on one or the other this year. One is an RPG for the supercharger, the other is a 32K+ Street Fighter II-ish fighting game.
-I'd like to possibly do something for the A800. Though I might be satisfied just porting Squish 'Em to the 5200; I'm about halfway there already.
-Create a PAL60 version of Elevators Ami
SUCCESS!
Christmas morning!
Ahh...I know that glazed look of concentration...
The day after Christmas - at it again:
He even let his brother play a little:
Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!
(PS The 5200 port of Squish 'Em is almost done... )
WELL, THAT was a whirlwind! Finished up Squish 'Em with just days to spare.
I posted the list of differences vs. the A8 version in the Squish 'Em thread, but I thought I'd recap here and try to collect my thoughts about my next project(s).
First, Squish 'Em - this turned out waaaay better than I thought. It was easier than I hoped (and a lot of fun ) to disassemble the A8 source, which allowed me to get the timings to match exactly and the sounds to match very very closely. I still h
YET ANOTHER update.
Changes:
Biggest changes are
-adding the climbing animation. The animations are mostly done now, though I need to tweak things a little - the climbing animation is a little goofy when you start with your left hand up.
-major cleanup on the kernel. This is very close to being complete. Enemies no longer jump around when the screen is scrolling and there are many fewer graphic glitches at the top and bottom of the scroll area.
EDIT: Just glanced at the screensho
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