GoSub 2

[+atari2600land]

And here it is in the game.

gosubtwo65.bas

gosubtwo65.bas.bin

[gambler172]

Hi Chris

Nice work,but it seems,that i have found a bug.At the beginning of each level,try to shoot(and move directly) and you will see,that the shot stays on the screen.And you cannot shoot again.

greetings Walter

[+atari2600land]

At the beginning of each level,try to shoot(and move directly) and you will see,that the shot stays on the screen.And you cannot shoot again.

This has been fixed with this new version. And I added 2 new mazes and changed a couple older ones a little bit.

gosubtwo67.bas.bin

gosubtwo67.bas

[MausGames]

I think you should make it so that if the player presses a direction twice, the sub moves twice as fast. Possibly add a meter that goes down while double-speed is being used, and then you could add power-ups that replenish the meter.

 

Also maybe make it so that holding fire and pressing in a direction does something cool, like turn on a temporary shield that is gained as a powerup. As is, it's kind of like moving a cursor around an old ASCII display.

 

The sound effect for the torpedos is annoying after a couple rounds, and imo should cut off after a few frames. On the other hand, it does discourage use of rapid-fire..if it dosn't encourage hitting mute first.

 

Some kind of bonus round minigame in between every 5 or so mazes would add a lot to this too. Well, I mean if the game kept score. It should be completely possible for you to use your custom display in the score area, and still also use that area to keep score. If it's not though, I'd encourage ditching your current display and letting people have a score! No reason at all to remove such an essential motivator for playing this sort of game. Each level should be worth a certain amount, subtract one for every pixel the sub moves, plus then enemies and powerups and bonus rounds have more of a point. You can easily display a "LEVEL X" screen at the start of each level, which would also be nice, and there is an option now that allows for a graphics OR playfield "lives left" display.

 

If it were my game I'd go ahead and flicker the octopus and add some more enemy type; one that can't move through walls, one that only attacks when you are near it, etc. Would add a LOT of variation to the game, especially considering that not being able to go through walls would make a baddy move differently on each maze rather than the same way throughout every maze.

 

I also think this game is a great chance to make us of the shakescreen command, if maybe every tenth maze sometimes jitters it would definately add some difficulty and randomness.

 

Have you thought about adding some boss fights? Using double/quad-size sprites is fun.

 

Also, you can still use your other missile, it just creates vertical line from top to bottom of the screen. It would take some creative thinking to find any applications for it though. Maybe some "Tidal Wave" levels, where the missile moves back and forth across the screen, acting as a tide, so that when the player is moving in the same direction as the tidal wave, they move at double speed, when moving against the tide halve the speed. Just an idea. And if you don't use that missile at all, you have three extra variables to use in the form of missile0x missile0y and missile0height. The commands to turn on disabled missiles is ENAM0 = 2 and ENAM1 = 2, I'm pretty sure.

 

Oh by the way, great game and concept, it obviously caught my interest.

 

PS - Don't forget that using the superchip free's up something like 47 more variables!

Edited November 28, 2007 by MausGames

[+atari2600land]

I cut off the sfx for the torpedoes and brought back scoring with this version. These were quick changes to make. I'll add some quick speed thingy soon. Thanks for the comments and feedback so far. Does anyone have a suggestion as to how a possible bonus round would work?

 

EDIT: The scoring will work properly if you change this

if byte3=$A0 then byte3=$10

to this:

 

if byte3=$A0 then byte3=$00 : byte2=byte2+$01

 

This fix will be in the next version I release.

 

gosubtwo68.bas.bin

gosubtwo68.bas

Edited November 28, 2007 by atari2600land

[gambler172]

Hi Chris

More enemies would be a good idea.Maybe you can change the enemies after some screens?How about adding a "Shark" or maybe a "Whale".Or how about some kind of "Seaghost"?Or how about different exits in a maze?

So that you could solve the game in several ways?But i am no programmer,so i do not know,if this is possible?

At weekend,i will make some more mazes for you.

greetings Walter

[+atari2600land]

Here's two enemies, but this probably won't work because

#1 - the enemies aren't really enemies. You can touch them for a long period of time and nothing happens.

#2 - I drew a crappy shark sprite.

I need some help with #1 unless people would like it if you touch them, you'd lose a life automatically (i.e. no grace period.) And, I'd like some help with a decent-looking shark sprite as well.

gosubtwo70.bas.bin

gosubtwo70.bas

Edited November 29, 2007 by atari2600land

[MausGames]

Plugged my laptop into the tv, looks great. The flicker isn't annoying to me, but more noticeable on the shark because of the high contrast. You definately need an enemy that can't move through walls imo.

 

For a bonus round, maybe make a spiral maze with a mermaid or something in the middle, and you have to race the ball to the middle. Maybe if you come up behind the ball you can grab it and throw it back behind you, and the ball can do the same to you.

Edited November 30, 2007 by MausGames

[gambler172]

Hi Chris

The Sharky looks really great .This 2 enemies in the game,would be nice.

greetings Walter

[+atari2600land]

Well, right now I can't figure out how to make the sub move slowly through the shark like it does with the octopus (or vice versa for that matter.) I've been messing around with the program, and I could make it instant death for touching either the octopus or the shark, and moving slowly through the other. So, what do you think? Should I go with the instant death for touching both or one?

[+atari2600land]

Well, after three hours of trial and error, I finally figured out how to make the sub move through the octopus and shark slowly. The shark sprite is a temporary one until I find a better one. As for one enemy being confined to the walls like the sub, how would the intro work? The intro being once the level starts (or it's shot), it enters from the side.

gosubtwo71a.bas

gosubtwo71a.bas.bin

[gambler172]

Hi Chris

Great work,but the Sharky in version 0.70 looks better.

greetings Walter

[+atari2600land]

Minor update: 2 mazes added, changed shark sprite back to version 70's. I tried making the octopus obey the walls (using "if collision(player0,playfield)"), but I couldn't make it work good enough, so unless someone has another way to do it, both sprites will have to ignore the walls.

gosubtwo73.bas.bin

gosubtwo73.bas

[MausGames]

If an enemy is confined by walls, you would probably want to designate a specific empty spot in every maze where it will start.

 

SeaGtGruff is definately the person to ask about collision detection with the playfield, his code for that purpose is the best and most efficient.

[+atari2600land]

Added two more mazes. Also, if you touch an enemy for too long (about 1/3 of a second), you lose a life.

gosubtwo74.bas.bin

gosubtwo74.bas

[+atari2600land]

Cha cha changes:

-When you lose a life, the enemy on screen changes color to yellow.

-Added 3 more mazes

-Opened the Easter egg back up

-Loosely defined what's in each bank:

Bank 1 - Title screen info

Bank 2 - main game

Bank 3 - main game

Bank 4 - mazes

Bank 5 - Easter egg

Bank 6 - mazes

Bank 7 - maze info

Bank 8 - mazes (empty so far.)

gosubtwo75.bas.bin

gosubtwo75.bas

[+atari2600land]

Added 4 new mazes, one of which has two exits (51), another one has two paths partway and meet at an intersection near the end (50). So now there's 52 mazes so far, I've made it half-way to my personal goal of 100.

gosubtwo76.bas.bin

gosubtwo76.bas

[gambler172]

Hi Chris

A maze with two exits is great.But it would be better,if the two exits would lead to different places(mazes).So it should be possible to solve the game in different ways.

greetings Walter

[+atari2600land]

Latest changes:

+ Changed the title screen a whole lot. The shark and octopus are swimming in it.

+ Centered the "GoSub 2" sprite better.

+ Added 4 mazes.

 

I'll think about implementing what Gambler suggested (I'm not promising anything. It'd have to be a lot more mazes to make, though. I kind of want a steady stream of mazes without having to change the stream (which would take more time to program.)

gosubtwo78.bas.bin

gosubtwo78.bas

[+atari2600land]

A few changes:

 

+Added 3 new mazes.

+Changed the title screen so the pfblocks spell out "GOSUB 2".

+Changed the way to get to the Easter egg. Now you hold down the select switch until you see an arrow. Then use the arrow to 'click' on the shark using fire. By the way, if you click on the octopus, something else will happen. Right now, the ending shows up, but I'll change it to another Easter egg.

+Also, if you get over 9,990 points, 4 submarines will show up where the score is.

gosubtwo80.bas.bin

gosubtwo80.bas

[gambler172]

Hi Chris

Nice.Would be great,if you could add different exits with different goals.

greetings Walter

[+thegoldenband]

Hi Chris

Nice.Would be great,if you could add different exits with different goals.

greetings Walter

 

What about having an "in-between" screen every five stages or so, free of enemies, in which you choose between two different paths, one of which leads you forward in the game, the other of which makes you backtrack somewhat? I'm thinking of something similar to the NES games Section Z or Xexyz, both of which do something a bit like this, as does Gauntlet, though I think there are other games that would be even more clear-cut examples.

 

It'd be a great way to add some depth to the game as a whole -- not to mention the fact that it (the in-between screen) could be a chance to use my "delay" version of the underwater music!

Edited December 10, 2007 by thegoldenband

[+atari2600land]

Or the backwards-warping warp zones from SMB: Lost Levels?

I don't really want to trick or confuse the player, someone might think "Hey, I already did this level before. The game must have a glitch in it or something..." I dunno. As for your delay music, this'd be a perfect opportunity for a second Easter egg (something I'd like since I need a second one for the title screen.)

Sorry I haven't been working on this or George for the past few days. A project more important has taken the place of it.

[+atari2600land]

Since I can't type in code in 2600IDE any more, I had to reduce the number of mazes to 55. But after every nine mazes is a bonus round in which you try and shoot the octopus and shark as many times as possible for a set amount of time (represented by the time bar at the top.) This doesn't really do much except boost your score, and I'm wondering if I should make it so every 100 points you get an extra life.

gosubtwo81limit.bas.bin

gosubtwo81limit.bas

[+atari2600land]

Here's a better version, with some changes:

+ Time bar at top begins once you press a button.

+ Octopus's and Shark's minimum y movement increased for bonus levels.

+ Every 100 points gets you an extra life.

+ And a couple other things.

Since apparently 2600IDE has a limit of having a 64k .bas file, all I can do now is make minor changes. In case you're wondering, GoSub 2 is about 20K right now. Wish I could take advantage of the whole 32 I have, though.

gosubtwo82.bas

gosubtwo82.bas.bin