Great Exploitations

Hehe, cool!

 

I bet most real musicians will scream bloody murder when hearing this, but I think it sounds pretty '2600 authentic' and very video-gamish

 

Did you try the patternized output, writing your own driver? Was it easy?

I just derived one from Crazy Balloon which does read data indirect Y indexed, in case the pattern bits don't fit into a page for both channels. (The CB driver is assuming all data is in a single page. And it could also run both channels a indepently from each other)

 

I noticed that in patternized output I forgot to add the "

Looks good; the tune is nice as well, though a little out-of-tune for my taste. Pretty good for the 2600, though.

 

I also like the "tune" that plays while it is creating the maze; neat!

 

I was expecting something to happen when I beat the maze though - a little disappointing to get to the end and...nothing.

I bet most real musicians will scream bloody murder when hearing this, but I think it sounds pretty '2600 authentic' and very video-gamish

That's what I was thinking. The old games didn't have the funky beats that newer stuff (a la Paul Slocum) has. And I don't have the patience (or the skill) to make anything like that, especially since this game won't be sold... Or more accurately, I will allow anyone to sell this game royalty-free if they wish

Did you try the patternized output, writing your own driver? Was it easy?

I just derived one from Crazy Balloon which does read data indirect Y indexed, in case the pattern bits don't fit into a page for both channels. (The CB driver is assuming all data is in a single page. And it could also run both channels a indepently from each other)

 

I noticed that in patternized output I forgot to add the "<" symbols in the pattern tables, but that's easy to fix with search and replace.

No, I just used the normal output, but I might try it later, as I did notice a lot of repeated data. The song takes up ~750 bytes, which is a good chunk of the upper 2k needed for the selection screen (and the code and data to self-modify the lower 4k of game code, to which more will be added in the form of game options.)

Looks good; the tune is nice as well, though a little out-of-tune for my taste. Pretty good for the 2600, though.

It's probably not in perfect tune, but my hearing ain't great, so it sounds acceptable to me... what?

I was expecting something to happen when I beat the maze though - a little disappointing to get to the end and...nothing.

That's what happens when you've got 8 bytes free... I need to do more optimizing to get that in. Chances are, the clock will stop, the screen will flash and maybe you'll get some simple sound.

Just had a thought...is the bot deterministic? Will it solve the same maze at the same speed every time?

 

Because, if so, it might be cool to stop the clock, flash the maze, freeze the player, and then, after about 5 seconds or so, show the (still-running) clock again until the bot reaches the end, then change the clock to show by how much you beat the bot. Assuming you beat the bot, that is.

 

If you don't beat the bot, it could show how much you lost by.

Just had a thought...is the bot deterministic? Will it solve the same maze at the same speed every time?

 

Because, if so, it might be cool to stop the clock, flash the maze, freeze the player, and then, after about 5 seconds or so, show the (still-running) clock again until the bot reaches the end, then change the clock to show by how much you beat the bot. Assuming you beat the bot, that is.

 

If you don't beat the bot, it could show how much you lost by.

Yup, the bot is deterministic. I can see the appeal of showing both times. I'll see how much ROM space I can dig up...

Nice Music. Hey, is there any possibility of making PF0 striped so that there isn't a blank vertical strip on the left and right. I find it disorienting.

 

Good work!

Rob

Nice Music. Hey, is there any possibility of making PF0 striped so that there isn't a blank vertical strip on the left and right. I find it disorienting.

Me too, aso on the top and bottom of the maze. The frame should look different than the playfield area.

Nice Music. Hey, is there any possibility of making PF0 striped so that there isn't a blank vertical strip on the left and right. I find it disorienting.

Me too, aso on the top and bottom of the maze. The frame should look different than the playfield area.

Changing COLUBK at the bottom of the maze is easy, but for the top, there's no margin in Stella. Is there one in z26?

 

Robert, is this what you meant by a striped PF0? See attachment:

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?a...q=attach&id=997

 

P.S. I also shrunk the vertical size by two scanlines per block, making it look more square and giving more rows on the visible screen.

Robert, is this what you meant by a striped PF0? See attachment:

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?a...q=attach&id=997

 

P.S. I also shrunk the vertical size by two scanlines per block, making it look more square and giving more rows on the visible screen.

 

Yes, that's what I meant exactly

Changing COLUBK at the bottom of the maze is easy, but for the top, there's no margin in Stella. Is there one in z26?

The f version looks much better. Only the top line problem remains. There are a few brown lines at the top, which are quite irritating. One single grey line at the bottom of those lines would probably solve the problem.