Master Mind deluxe (Yet another mini-game)

[Happy_Dude]

It's still buggy as hell, but I thought I'd put it out here to get some feedback.

It's pretty much playable, exept Row 1 and 12 seem to corrupt the Key values

Theres no title screen and probably won't be one at all but for now the place holder is

where all the random code generation is happening so just press fire.

 

The white keys are very hard to generate. You''re only meant to get 1 key for each colour but

at the moment you will get 1 key for each peg. So if you have 1 red peg and the code has 2 you'll get 2 white pegs.

I think I'v just figured this out while posting so there might be an update very soon

 

 

S Y N O P S I S :

Master Mind deluxe has 5 positions in the code and 8 possible

colours for each position giving 32768 permutations

This is going to be a 2004 MiniGames compo. entry in the 1k catagory.

 

How to play:

 

You have to guess the hidden code

If you get a peg of the correct colour in the correct position you will get 1 black key peg.

If you get a peg of the correct colour in the wrong position you get 1 white peg

You only get 1 white peg per colour (no dupes)

If you break the code you get a 8 pixel line (nothing happens yet)

If you actually want to play more than once press reset

mastermind_pal_1.12.bin.gz

master.bin.gz

mastermind_ntsc_1.12.bin.gz

mastermind_1.09.bin.gz

mastermind_1.10.bin.gz

[uosipa llamxew]

I've always wanted to learn how to play that boardgame. Now I have no excuses not to jump in and give it my best shot! I'm going to load it on a Supercharger later today.

 

[Happy_Dude]

I've always wanted to learn how to play that boardgame.  Now I have no excuses not to jump in and give it my best shot!  I'm going to load it on a Supercharger later today.      

 

 

Let me know if it works on the real thing.

No reason it shouldn't but you never know

 

The white keys have stopped me in my tracks

I'v made no progress exept for optimizing rom and ram use.

[uosipa llamxew]

Happy-Dude wrote:

Let me know if it works on the real thing.

 

It works great on real hardware!

 

A couple of suggestions - possibly already on your implement list:

 

Sometimes it was hard to tell which peg I was selecting, and would accidentally move to another peg and wreck my selection. Perhaps you could add a cursor of sorts. Even a small dot or x would suffice.

 

I thought that adding sound effects could aid along with the black and white pegs to alert the player of how far along he/she is in cracking the code. i.e. If you get a peg of the correct colour in the incorrect position a bell sounds once. If you get a peg of the correct colour in the correct position a bell sounds twice. If no pegs are placed correctly, a dull farting buzzer sounds.

 

The game might benefit with a little music, if even only a little ditty at the start of a new game.

 

I'm really impressed with what you have already. I'm excited to watch this one as it develops. :-)

[Happy_Dude]

I had a cursor originaly but Thomas's flashing peg idea sounded cool and cost a lot less rom.

I'd like to add a cursor Mabye I'll use the players without repositioning them, just

colouring the cursor white and the others brown (I already have a column counter)

As for wrecking your selection, I'v been workung on preserving the ciolour values when you change pegs.

 

I don't think sound of any sort wiull be possible at this current stage (almost at 1k again)

I'd like to add a title screen first. That doesn't mean I won't add sound after I'v finished

the game in 1k. In fact I'll be making this a 2 or 4k game for release

 

I have a definite solution for the white keys but the code just isn't happening for me.

I might have to ask on [stella] again ..... I'll give it a week this time. it's probably somthing really simple

[Happy_Dude]

Sometimes it was hard to tell which peg I was selecting, and would accidentally move to another peg and wreck my selection.  Perhaps you could add a cursor of sorts.  Even a small dot or x would suffice.

Added a cursor (check first post)

It broke 1k but the flashing code is still in there ans the key code still doesn't work (and is taking more room than it should)

[uosipa llamxew]

The cursor makes the game so much easier to play! :-) I finally figured out that it is better to press and hold the stick up or down to change the colour rather than pushing up for every colour change - that is why my selections were getting wrecked. What a spiffy little game!

 

BTW... not sure if you knew, but the game is a headline in Atariage's front page news. :-)

[Rob Mitchell]

Dang! I was thinking that this would be my first homebrew! Oh well .. You've got a good start!! Does it use the joystick, paddle or keyboard?

 

A few thoughts .. to add to the confusion:

 

Regular Master Mind is 4 columns and 6 colors.

 

Deluxe/Advanced Master Mind is 5 columns and 9 colors (hard as hell)

 

I have several of the first and one of the latter.

 

For those of you who have never played Master Mind .. check out 2600 Codebreaker which is the same game with numbers instead of colors. It allows for either 3 or 4 columns and either 6 or 9 numbers. And remember that it uses the Keyboard Controller!

 

Hey Al! Invitica came out with Master Mind in 1972.

 

Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

[Albert]

Hey Al!  Invitica came out with Master Mind in 1972.

 

Hmmmmmm, I wonder where I got the 1975 from? Do you have a source for this? I'm not saying you're wrong, but would be nice to have something to back it up so the next person doesn't come along and say it was 1971 or 1973.

 

..Al

[SPIKE]

nifty keen!

 

i forgot about that game.

 

i used to play the board game all the time long ago.

[Rob Mitchell]

Hey Al!  Invicta came out with Master Mind in 1972.

 

Hmmmmmm, I wonder where I got the 1975 from? Do you have a source for this? I'm not saying you're wrong, but would be nice to have something to back it up so the next person doesn't come along and say it was 1971 or 1973.

 

..Al

 

The game was invented in 1970-71 and Invicta copywrited it in 1972.

 

http://www.tnelson.demon.co.uk/mastermind/history.html

 

This site has pics of many of the box art and has a pic of 2600 Codebreaker too!

 

Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

[Albert]

The game was invented in 1970-71 and Invicta copywrited it in 1972.  

 

http://www.tnelson.demon.co.uk/mastermind/history.html

 

This site has pics of many of the box art and has a pic of 2600 Codebreaker too!

 

Awesome, thanks for the additional information, I will update the news and the development page.

 

..Al

[moycon]

I used to play this game YEARS ago with my mom. Like when I was 6 years old... on up. I loved Mastermind but probably havent played in well over 20 years. I was very excited to read this was in development!

[Happy_Dude]

It's good to see some interest out there

 

In the Current version the white keys are generated correctly most of the time.

I wasn't happy to see the flashing cursor go (it's for the best) so I had to add another cheap

effect. When you finish a game the board clears from the top right 1 peg at a time.

 

If you guess the code the sheild drops revealing the code

Pressing fire starts a new game

 

All that And I'm back under 1k Woo Hoo!!!

 

nifty keen!

 

i forgot about that game.

 

i used to play the board game all the time long ago.

So far it's been created entirely to the sounds of astrogenic hallucinauting

Any idea if the other nybble (10 & 11) will be showing up in the AA store anytime soon

 

Dang! I was thinking that this would be my first homebrew! Oh well .. You've got a good start!! Does it use the joystick, paddle or keyboard?

Ya snooze ya lose

It uses the Joystick

 

A few thoughts .. to add to the confusion:

 

Regular Master Mind is 4 columns and 6 colors.

 

Deluxe Master Mind is 5 columns and 9 colors (hard as hell)

 

I have several of the first and one of the latter.

I'm thinking of adding game 2 as a game variation on the difficulty switchs (dMM only uses 8

colours in game 1 and adds Blank spaces in game 2 for 9 states and 59049 possible codes)

 

For those of you who have never played Master Mind .. check out 2600 Codebreaker which is the same game with numbers instead of colors. It allows for either 3 or 4 columns and either 6 or 9 numbers.

I'll have to check it out then Sounds cool.

[pmartin252]

What a great idea!, I used to love this game as a child too. Can't seem to understand the black and white peg markings, but as you explained this part is still a bit buggy.

 

looking forward to the next version (and later the design a label contest!)

[Happy_Dude]

A question to all those who have played the real game:

How do you have the key pegs setup ?

When I play we have the keys set up in a representitive order. So the keys corresponde to

the positions of the pegs. But in this way we never seem to take more than 5 rows to

figure it out.

[Rob Mitchell]

A question to all those who have played the real game: How do you have the key pegs setup?  When I play we have the keys set up in a representitive order. So the keys corresponde to the positions of the pegs. But in this way we never seem to take more than 5 rows to figure it out.

 

This defeats the whole purpose of the logic of the gameplay: Black peg for one color in the right position and White peg for one correct color in the wrong position.

 

In the regular game of Master Mind (4 columns, 6 colors) the key peg holes are to the side of the code guess .. and they are grouped in a matrix of 2x2 so there is no way to relate them to the positions of the code guess. Most of the time the guesser can get the correct code within 5 to 7 codes.

 

BTW: Advanced Master Mind (5 columns, 9 colors) allows for up to 12 code guesses which is what you have programmed for.

 

Just try 2600 Codebreaker (keyboard game) with 4 columns and 9 numbers. Much harder! When played with 2 people it keeps score!

 

Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

[Happy_Dude]

Thanks for the help Rob.

 

I'v added an Attract mode

With plenty of rom to spare.

 

I'm getting close to a playable release ...... O.k I lie, I'm still stuck on the white keys

but I'm pretty much focused on this part of the game, can't actually play it otherwise.

[Happy_Dude]

I just posted the first playable verion.

Theres still some trivial stuff that needs doing but the game is 100% playable now

(I think I have enough rom/ram to add some simple score keeping )

[Happy_Dude]

(I think I have enough rom/ram to add some simple score keeping )

Just added 4 point scoring. I have 1 byte of ram left to keep score (who am I kidding I'm

re-using as much as possible, theres nothing left )

And of course I made some crazy optimizations and I'm back down to 800 bytes

I might be able to afford a title screen after all

[Happy_Dude]

Posting a new version.

- Title screen displays your score and the CPU's score up to 99 points each.

- PAL and NTSC versions

- 1024 bytes of rom used

 

I'm thinking of displaying the game number and lines guessed instead of a win / lose score

Time to learn BCD

[lost child]

This homebrew is BRILLIANT! ((Applause))

 

One thought on game variations... In addition to the 5X12 grid variation mentioned above, maybe one row (or guess) could be taken away after a code is broken - instead of the game ending. This way the game gradually becomes more difficult as each code is deciphered. This might add to the replay value... and even make some sort of competition possible (ie... High Score Club). Maybe this game variation could be toggled with the SELECT switch(?)

 

This one is high on my want list if/when it comes out on a cartridge. Keep up the great work!

[Happy_Dude]

This homebrew is BRILLIANT! ((Applause))

Thank you

One thought on game variations... In addition to the 5X12 grid variation mentioned above' date=' maybe one row (or guess) could be taken away after a code is broken - instead of the game ending. This way the game gradually becomes more difficult as each code is deciphered. This might add to the replay value... and even make some sort of competition possible (ie... High Score Club). Maybe this game variation could be toggled with the SELECT switch(?)

 

This one is high on my want list if/when it comes out on a cartridge. Keep up the great work! [/quote']

I'm not sure about losing rows. perhaps having a max limit on the score and adding your

remaining rows to your score and your used rows to the CPU's score? This would give you

a definite win / lose situation and it uses the whole 99 points a lot quicker but it might be to hard.