Dragnerok X

Just looking back, it was all the way back on post #32, second page, but this isn't a court room, is it? On topic, I still stand firm about my decision. If at one point (before your comments) I liked a level, for one reason or another, why not keep it? It couldn't be that bad, but yes... believe it or not I was somewhat "filtering" submissions, but I chose what I liked and I liked most everything and I have a 30+ level bank (4k) to fill so I could have been considered somewhat lenient. So really I guess let's just stop talking and fill this niche you reference. I still have over a half of a bank open for use and I have been dying (...and patiently waiting ) to see what people can come up with. If you have yet to submit something, here's your chance. Let's fill this bank! ...and as always, I can provide more examples if necessary Good; I can't wait.

Yes, I've liked most of them; I guess it would be a fair trade off to keep what we have now, yet try to go with this new concept of mine. As for the originality confliction you mentioned earlier I don't think that the two levels are that bad. If anything, (like I said before) I like the design of the 200 points level. If anything were to go it would be "pac-a-poo", but it doesn't seem too terribly bad as a level, so let's move on. Bomberpunk, if you're still reading this "the war is over", so to speak. Espire8 and I both are completely fine with you developing future levels. In fact, I'd be thrilled to see what you can come up with in these new boundries. Feel free to join us whenever you are ready. As for you Espire8, I would also like to see what you can do. I loved the new explosion design you have given me, along with many of your Midevil-Mayhem related works. I would have used the tank sprite you have come up with earlier but it just didn't seem to "flow" quite right. Perhaps an animated design would work. I'm always open for suggestions. Everyone else, keep the levels coming! I would like to see what can be done with this idea of mine and still I have plenty more room for expansion.

I'm sorry if I hurt you too much, I didn't mean too. Perhaps I was a bit too blatent. I've edited the above post to reflect my new goals in a much more progressive manner.

Yes, I definetly see what you're saying. I think we should stop producing symmetrical levels; keeping the previously produced levels, however, as not to stir up too much with the level designers. My new "view" of levels comes to that of something similar to my initial "cave" level. Let's call these "environmental" levels from now on. Here's just a generalized idea of what I'm saying by "environmental". *Asymmetrical levels with natural landscape-like design *(Optionally) depth can used to protray cliffs, fields, valleys, etc. *Think "Nature" and possible ground/rock based themes around that. *Concepts brought about earlier are free to be used, in sensible quantities, of course. Examples: ................................ ................................ XX.XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX....XXXX.. XX.XXXXX.........XXX........XXX. X....XXX..XXXXX..XX..........XX. XXX..XXX......X..............XX. X....XXXXXXX..XXXXX..........XX. X................XXX........XXX. XXXXXXXXXX.......XXXX......XXXX. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.... ..XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX..... .X.........................X.... X..........XXXXXXXX.....XXXX.... X.........XXXXXXXXXX.....XX..... X........XX........X.....X...... X........X.....................X X.........XXXX..............XXX. X.............X......XXXXXXX.... X.......XXXXXXX.....X........... XXXXXXXXXXXXXX.................. .XXXXXXXXX...................... (Possibly) More to come...

...and here it is, Levels 1 - 20, speaks for itself. Combat_DX.bas Combat_DX.bas.bin

@Bakasama: The tank-pong idea sounds good. I could add it sometime later once I get past Maps, AI and Sound. @SeaGtGruff: Check your Pm box. @EveryoneElse: The sprite graphics are working again! I should *hopefully* have a new build ready tonight.

Patience. I've been hectically busy this weekend trying to finish a few (non-atari related) side projects of mine. That, and I still have a few sprite-related difficulties left to work out with SeaGtGruff. So, all I can say is, hang in there!

What about the cd4050 mod? I just finished that one, and my picture is crystal clear. ...and besides, you're completely missing one of the most obvious points. It's a lot more entertaining to do it yourself. You even learn quite a bit in the process (I did).

Everything is just about perfect, except for one easy-to-fix thing. It seems you have forgotten to add color/bw:ntsc/pal color switching while in your mini-game. Besides that, the game is absolutely perfect and (this is coming from a fellow obsessive-compulsive programmer) just about done.

Sorry, but when I designed this game, all objects except the ball were used. Could I possibly stretch the ball to serve as a "warp pad"? Possibly, yes. I probably could even do a half-death sequence only showing the "re-appearing" section of the player while still randomizing. Patience. Give a few days to look into it. I've a few suggestions made by Mike (SeaGtGruff) which need adding, along with your levels, so hold on there.

I like it! Will add.

Respawns would have about a 50% chance of putting a player on the same side of the border as the opponent, though. Not sure the best way to deal with that. I wonder if it would make sense to have a list of respawn positions for each board, and select randomly from the list. That would also allow for "hollow" decorations without the risk of players materializing inside. Yes, but that would also take up a ton of romspace, something I will not allow. On the other hand, (1) what's wrong with letting the destroyed tank respawn on the same side (call it the "Oh shit!" effect), and (2) how about adding one or two places where the tanks can go through or *around* the border (the idea being that you can get to the other side, but it's kind of a pain to go all the way over to where you can get across/around)? Michael Yes, I agree with you. How about one inconveniantly located "transfer" tunnel on the side of the map?

Respawns would have about a 50% chance of putting a player on the same side of the border as the opponent, though. Not sure the best way to deal with that. I wonder if it would make sense to have a list of respawn positions for each board, and select randomly from the list. That would also allow for "hollow" decorations without the risk of players materializing inside. Yes, but that would also take up a ton of romspace, something I will not allow.

Here it is. Color "Themes" were added (via reset switch); Traditional, Desert and Arctic respectively. I also fixed the explosion sprite. Other changes are fairly un-noticable. I'm open (aside from levels as usual) to any (reasonable) battlefield-related changes and/or color schemes. Well... might as well not waste any time. Combat_DX.bas Combat_DX.bas.bin @bomberpunk: The selection of levels you have provided me is literally groundbreaking. I especially like the "200 points" level you've just posted. Give me a day or two to catch up and I'll add a few.

First of all, look over the included manual in the helpfully named "manual" folder. That should help. Example-wise, a good archive of bB games/code can be found here.

Very good maze entries. I like the selection! I'm thinking of doing a couple myself later as this is turning out well. I like the different color idea you came up with Dragnerok (glad I was able to help it )! However, something is wrong with the explosion-- It looked jerky and I just realized it's because the first explosion pic got distorted when I enlagred it and the distortion showed up in the sprite modification of your last binary. My fault. I fixed it here so you can try again in your next bin post. Beforehand I also did some slightly different explosions and reappearing tanks since you have separate sprites for them and thought the varity would be nice but I don't have the pics of them here because I'm not sure if you want to use them? Nobody likes the new tanks I did. .. anyway, here's the varity bin.CDX_new_explosion_reappear_.bas.bin ...and the corrected explosion pic. Yes, thank you for the compliments / updated sprite picture. I was wondering whilst adding the explosions why they were nine pixels by nine pixels (as opposed to eight) and I tried to duplicate them as best I could... but ... well .... yeah. So, again, thank you, I'll finish the color selection quickly, update the explosions and have it all ready before you can say otherwise (pacific time, that is ).

I too have looked into this and am wondering the same thing. Possibly the idea of a cartridge slot-based cart Dumper would be a bit more feasable. By combining that with a command-line based driver and a simple batch file, you wouldn't be able to tell the the difference. Just my two cents.

I don't know how much you might have changed the code since you posted it here, but I managed to squeeze the player graphics down by using REFPx and pointing both players at the same data. You should not add any player0: or player1: statements to the modified code, or it will break it, since the modification relies on the player heights and player hi pointers having certain fixed values. You might want to save this modified version to your computer as Combat_DX_a or something, so it doesn't wipe out any of the newer things you might have done. Michael Good idea. I pretty much have left the sprites in-tact and have only changed the playfield and background/playfield colors, so this should be fairly adaptable. I'll try to squeeze this in later tonight.

Nice work! I'll see if I can add a few more of those once I get the playfield color-switching working.

Oh! I see what you're saying. Sorry about this, but I forgot to mention something. Due to the score's boundry lines, the tanks can only drive as far as the playfield extends on the bottom; blocking out the "11th row" as you call it (technically it's the 12th). So when you design your next level, make note of that. Again, sorry.

Sorry I haven't replied in a while, I was just a bit busy. Here's a new binary with a few of my favorite maps thus far, the new (slightly modified) explosion sprite and a slightly tweaked score. More to come. Combat_DX.bas.bin ...and while I'm at it, I might as well post some updated source code (in case my Hard Drive dies between now and the next ten levels ) Combat_DX.bas

Well... though *individually* those would be quite a burden on my level-space, you've given me a great idea. Instead of applying those color-schemes to individual levels, why not set up a global world-like color scheme. In short, my idea is to have 5-6 color palettes for the background and playfield such as "traditional", "desert" or "tundra", selectable by the select switch, and show the current "theme number" in the score, applying all of this to whatever level is selected. This would also be quite a bit more flexable then your idea in that any level could hold any desired color. Though I don't particularilly care for the look of the tanks, care to post the frames of that explosion so I can make a few changes?

Technically, yes, but it depends on your interpretation. If you mean unique colors shared by every level, then yes. If you mean colors unique to each level, no, because it would take up a ton of romspace; nearly halving the amount of possible levels, in fact. Forget it. Just show me what you mean and I'll come up with a better answer.

Pitfall is a good game to test color; Air Sea battle / Target Fun in B/W mode is a good game to test general picture clarity / luma consistency Overall, I'd say they did a pretty good job for you.

3!?! I thought I just helped you complete your first A/V mod last week! :-o Productive... Yea 3! Thanks for all your info on the hardware section of the forums! One of them required a little more than just an A/V mod, (had to dig out a truly busted 2600 for parts) but the other two worked fine after I did the mod. Could you send (PM) me a few screen-shots? I'd love to see how it's turned out.