mickmuze

Thanks for all the kind words everyone Sure makes the struggle of getting this out on time feel worth it. I agree the title screen needs more. I tried to write a little a little song for it but I wasn't happy with it. It actually made me feel kind of angry when listening to it lol, that is not the effect I was going for. So I decided there were more important things I needed to spend my time on to get this out before Halloween and set it aside. There isn't much space left now, but I'll take a look into it later. Is there specific animation touches you were looking for? Or did you mean just in the title screen in general? I would love to release this on cart. However there aren't any plans yet. I'd like to spend a bit more time with the code and maybe if Albert is willing and people are interested in getting it on cart then we'll see. Would be a lot of fun doing the label and box artwork for this game. Thanks! Let me know how it goes. I did notice one small bug last night that I need to go in and fix. At some point in the game I noticed that my score ended with a 1. That should never happen since all the points given are 50, 100, 150, and 200. I have a feeling that this was caused by the score being cut off when it rolls up. I think it might be when you get a heart and run into the door of your house before the score is finished adding up. I'll have to look more into that when I have time to make sure.

Thanks for trying it vitoco. I've tested it as well on real hardware and find it odd that the reset switch was not working for you. I'm pretty sure I've used it quite often and didn't notice any issues with it. I'll look into it tomorrow and see if I notice anything wrong there. Hmmmm... maybe. I'll think about it more the next time I jump into the code. I did quite like the back and forth and the quick breaks between waves didn't bother me, almost looked forward to it after chaotic rounds. I know I'm not everybody though so maybe you have a point. You'll be happy to know that I did speed him up quite a bit however from when I originally wrote him into the game lol I'm not 100% sure what I am going to do with the game modes yet. I put them there assuming I would want to have 3 game modes like I did with Deepstone Catacomb. I have a couple ideas of what I would like to do, haven't had time to see if its going to be possible. Rather not speculate that until the time comes ?. I wrote the title screen a few weeks ago when I thought I was going to be able to completely finish this for this Halloween. Almost made it... Just lacking some game modes and a few minor touches.

? Tober's Nightmare - Version 0.4 Alpha ? 1. THE DARK SPIRITS RISE ON HALLOWEEN NIGHT Tober's backyard has filled up with many Ghosts and Ghouls of the night and he is not having any of it! Your goal is to run to the pumpkin patch at the bottom of the screen and smash the evil spirits in the face with them. The pumpkin patch is watched over by the Phantom Gardener. He doesn't like to come out when Tober is around. Once you run out of pumpkins, run back into your house and the Phantom will tend to the garden and grow more pumpkins for you. Each level in the game consists of two waves of the same enemy before a new enemy is introduced. At the beginning the enemies will move side to side. The further back the enemy is when you hit them with a pumpkin, the more points you will get. If the enemy is in front of the fence when you hit them you will only get 50 points. If they are in the middle of the backyard then you will get 150 points. If the enemy is way back and closer to the house then you will get 200 points. Sometimes it is more strategic to wait for an enemy to move to the back before hitting them with a pumpkin so you can gain a higher score. You have three hearts that represent your health. You will lose one anytime you touch an enemy or get hit by an enemy's spell. On rare occasions, hearts will appear and float across the screen. If you grab one you will gain one heart to your health. You will need to throw all your pumpkins and then run out and grab the heart before it reaches the other side of the screen. The heart is worth 75 points if you grab it in time. 2. USING THE CONTROLLERS Walk - Push the joystick in the desired direction Run - Hold down the fire button while pushing the joystick in the desired direction Pickup Pumpkin - Move player next to the pumpkin and press the fire button Throw Pumpkins - Press the Fire button while holding the pumpkin. If you push the joystick diagonally you can also throw the pumpkins on an angle. The pumpkins will also ricochet off of the sides of the screen when you do this. Note: If you press and release the fire button to pick up a pumpkin then quickly hold down the fire button before Tober is finished picking the pumpkin up, you will be able to run while holding onto the pumpkins. 3. CONSOLE CONTROLS GAME SELECT SWITCH - Use the Game Select switch to choose between Game 1, Game 2, and Game 3. Currently in this Alpha release, Game 1 is the only available option. GAME RESET SWITCH - Use the Game Reset switch to reset the game and go back to the Title Screen. This will clear everything in memory, including your current score! DIFFICULTY SWITCHES - Set the Left Difficulty switch before starting the game in order for the change to take effect. b = Beginner (Regular/Slower speed) a = Advanced (Faster enemies and attacks) ???? Happy Halloween! ???? Hope you enjoy this little game version 0.4 Early Alpha - NTSC 2021y 11m 07d 2215t Tober's Nightmare v0_4.zip Note: This game will not work on an UnoCart. This is a 32k DPC+ game, which UnoCarts do not currently support. You'll have to use emulation, Harmony, or a Harmony Encore cartridge.

Inboxed you Thanks, hope you enjoy it when you do ??

Alrighty, thanks for the help. I did a quick search for a trouble shooting place on the forums and in the manual. This club was all I found.

I don’t know much about shielded RF cables. Nothing at all really, but do find it a bit odd that I would need one and others do not if this isn’t a common problem. My machine isn’t modded at all.

Just tried speakers. No change, still very fuzzy.

I hooked the Atari up through the antenna on my hdtv and same issues as the CRT. Clear without AtariVox+, fuzzy with AtariVox+. Second controller port works fine when a controller is plugged into it. Any ideas? (Also, no speaker is hooked into the Atarivox+ if that matters. Was just going to use it as a savekey for Penult)

I just recently got my Atarivox+. I haven't had any trouble with my four switch 2600 before, but this could obviously be something maybe faulting out with this 40 year old system and have nothing to do with the Atarivox+, not really sure. It's connected to a NTSC CRT television. When I plug the Atarivox into the second controller port the screen turns fuzzy, but as soon as I take it out the screen is clear again. Power issue? Atarivox issue? I haven't noticed this with a second controller plugged into the system. Before Atarivox+: After I plug it in: Thanks for any help with this

Thank you for the kind review Adam! When you compared playing Atari to reading a book, that hit home. I’ve often made the same comparison when talking with friends. It’s definitely more of an imaginative experience with just enough to get you going. As a kid, I didn’t know E.T. was “bad” either. I had a blast just exploring that tiny world which I thought was huge at the time lol. Glad you enjoyed it and don’t forget, hold fire to run cheers

There isn’t any enemies on floor 26. Also, remember that you can run by holding in the fire button. This will help you avoid the tracking missile at the dragon. Lure it away to a corner of the room and then make a run for it to get some hits into the dragon. If you got as far as the Dark Lord already I’d say you are doing pretty good. It may seem like he is too much after the fight with the dragon but I purposely gave him a lot less hitpoints than the dragon has because of this. You only have to stick with the fight for a few hits. If you got that far, I know you can take out the Dark Lord. You’ll win this game.

I’m sorry you are having trouble with it, that should not be happening at all. Maybe there is something wrong with the rom? I’ll bring it up to Al and see if he’s heard of this before. If it’s something I did and someone else can reproduce, I will fix it. to be fair, most original atari 2600 games didn’t have endings. They went on until it got so difficult that you eventually died from the difficulty. I tried to make game 1 very easy at the beginning levels, much like original atari games and have them ramp up in difficulty over time. It’s very difficult to nail the difficulty to a point that it will satisfy everyone. That one endboss you encountered that doesn’t belong is the final endboss of the game.

Just to rule out some possibilities, have you tried other games on your system and they work fine other than those two? Also is it as soon as you turn it on that no picture is displayed? Also is there audio? Are you using a crt or lcd hookup? With Deepstone there is about 2 seconds of black screen when you first turn it on before it displays MickMuze in the center and you’ll hear a chime sound. I would like to get to the bottom of it if it’s definitely not your system. If anyone else is encountering this problem as well, please let me know

I’m not sure what would be causing this. It’s worked on every system I’ve tried and tested on. How often does it happen?

One of mine is quite fond of Adventure

Very exciting! And cute cat thanks for the update! This was a good one :)

I know this is getting ahead of ourselves here (feel free to ignore) but I’m curious if the new molded shells would remain as close as possible to the original shells (a sucker for nostalgia) or a new design and shape like other companies (Activision) did in the past.

Thank you Al, that’s awesome!! looking forward to seeing the photos too!

Very cool, the flashing of the enemy when hit, the dungeon map, “it’s dangerous to go alone” text, great work!

I just noticed on your list, the game Mysterious Song for Turbografx.... Is that the same Mysterious Song made by DarkDread? I use to follow his work when he was making rpgs in Basic, many many years ago. Secret of Cooey, Mysterious Song (was originally a basic dos game) and others that aren’t coming to me right now. I learned a lot from his tutorials and then his website died... If this was him, I’d love to know if he’s still around or is still making things since I lost track of him. Had no idea he ported Mysterious Song to turbografx either if that’s the case.