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SpongeBob SquarePants: Jellyfishing


atari2600land

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Atariland,

 

I played until i got up to 222 points, but never died..

 

maybe the `Patrick`character i sent you, you can incorporate into the game, also sporadically wandering around the screen, but these will give Spoongebob more score points everytime he catches a `patrick`.... and catch 10 in a row, without catching a

squid, you get a free life..

 

hmmmm.. just a thought

 

Paulie

:D Enjoy

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OK, this is a timed game now, so the object is to catch as many jellyfish as you can in one minute. To start each game, press the reset switch.

 

I really like this game a lot, particularly the movement of the jellyfish. Also, not having Bob get stung seems in line with the light-hearted nature of the show (which, I admitedly don't know much about). One thought I had was what if, instead of getting stung and dying, Bob just gets stunned and loses time when he doesn't touch the jellyfish from below? Also, maybe you can work in some kind of a point bonus for catching more than one in the same jump?

 

Great job so far!

 

Jarod.

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Don't like how collision detection is. I very rarely get killed. Even when trying to.

That's one of the things I need help on.

 

For collisions, maybe you could track each character's playfield position, which you can do every game loop (or in the vblank) no matter which sprite is flickered. When the jellyfish's playfield x and y match Bob's playfield x and y, treat that as a collision.

 

Cheers,

Jarod.

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I've decided not to do collisions and just keep it as a timed game. Here's a version where you press fire to start each game, and at the end, there's a whistle (like a referee's whistle). I have about 500 bytes left, which I don't think is enough to make a decent title screen and keep the game at 4k (what i want to do is keep it at 4k.)

sbspjellyfish.bas.bin

sbspjellyfish.bas

Edited by atari2600land
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Also, maybe you can work in some kind of a point bonus for catching more than one in the same jump?

 

I really love this idea. It wouldn't be too difficult either. Just have a counter that increments whenever Spongebob catches a jellyfish in the air. Then when he touches down, reset the counter. You can then add points to the score based on the value of this counter whenever another jellyfish is caught. So like catching 3 jellyfish in one jump would add +1, +2, and then +3 to your score. After landing, the counter is set to 1.

Edited by EarthQuake
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Excellent work! The addition makes a huge impact on the gameplay. It's a lot more fun striving for better "combos". I think I landed 5 or 6 jellies in one jump. Only got a top score of 110 so far though. Can anyone think of any more ideas for "style points"? Since this is a timed game and there is another good chunk of ROM space left, it could benefit from such things, to provide a few alternate ways of racking up the score. Some way of extending the time would also be nice, maybe by getting certain combos (like 5 in one swoop) or grabbing some random item that appears and disappears.

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The game is progressing nicely. :)

 

3 variables left, eh? Have you tried reusing variables? Better yet, have you tried sharing variables? You can store two 4-bit variables in one byte each with a range of 0 to 15. If you have boolean variables, you can store 8 of those in one byte. Logical binary operators are a blessing if you know how to use them. :D

 

If you don't mind me peddling some more ideas, here are some things you could consider:

 

Instead of stopping the game after the time ends, have a certain number of jellyfish you must catch. Then once you have met the quota, continue on until time runs out. If you fail to catch the number of jellyfish for the round, game over. Otherwise, advance to another stage (maybe switch up the playfield colors for each round). Bump up the jellyfish quota by like 10 or so, and repeat. Eventually it will get so frantic the player would eventually fail to get enough jellyfish per round (probably around stage 5 or 6).

 

You'd need 3-4 bits of RAM for the current stage and the jellyfish count could be based on that, like:

 

Required Jellyfish = (Stage Number x 10) + 40

 

You could limit the number of stages to 8, which would use 3 bits of RAM (values 0 through 7). And you could store the remaining jellyfish required to be "safe" for the remainder of the stage using 7 bits of RAM (values 0 through 127). So that's only an extra byte of RAM usage. In the above formula, stage 8 would yield a jellyfish quota of 120 (which will fit in your 7-bit variable). You'd need to have a condition that checks if the game ends on level 8, probably at which that point you can just stop the game.

 

I'm not saying you should do all this if you don't want to, but consider it a challenge. :P

You could then slap a simple title screen on this thing and call it a complete game.

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This is pretty fun. :cool:

 

With that I'd like to offer some ideas.

 

As far as a bonus to catch, how about the rare blue jelly that SpongeBob is always after. Obviously, it would have to be very hard to catch. :)

 

How about a 2 player version with Patrick Star as a player #2. Not sure if it should be turn based, or both as the same time. Maybe both options as different game settings.

 

Maybe a bonus level where you have to blow bubbles.

 

You might have to make this 8K. ;)

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Reversed the right difficulty switch effects, brought back a full timer, and did some minor code perfectioning. 166 bytes left.

 

2 player games:

SpongeBob goes first. When finished, Patrick will appear and the score will be yellow, displaying SpongeBob's final score. When player 2 presses fire, the game begins for player 2 and the score will reset to 0 and turn pink. Patrick's final score will be pink and SpongeBob will appear when player 2's game is over.

post-9475-1228775602.png

sbspjellyfishpat2.bas.bin

sbspjellyfishpat2.bas

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Two-player turn-based mode if right difficulty set to B, 1-player is right difficulty set to A. I have 235 bytes and two variables left.

 

This is great! The game plays really well and has enough variation to stay interesting. I think the game is very good as is, but some people on here had some cool ideas.

 

As far as a bonus to catch, how about the rare blue jelly that SpongeBob is always after. Obviously, it would have to be very hard to catch.

 

I think this is a pretty neat idea, since you don't have to draw an additional sprite for it. Maybe it could act as a sort of bonus multiplier when you catch it, or hand you a big chunk of time back. Then, you'd have moments in the game where the clock is ticking down, and you have to decide whether to go for the easy catches, or gamble on the rare fish for a big payoff.

 

Instead of stopping the game after the time ends, have a certain number of jellyfish you must catch. Then once you have met the quota, continue on until time runs out. If you fail to catch the number of jellyfish for the round, game over. Otherwise, advance to another stage (maybe switch up the playfield colors for each round). Bump up the jellyfish quota by like 10 or so, and repeat. Eventually it will get so frantic the player would eventually fail to get enough jellyfish per round (probably around stage 5 or 6).

 

I like this idea too, since it would give you the chance to rack up big scores if you're quick and saavy, and still increase the challenge for more advanced players. One other idea I'll throw on top is, what if when the player presses the button at the moment he collides with a jellyfish, he can perform a double-jump, almost like he's hopping off the thing as he catches it. It might provide another level of "checkers-like" depth for savvy players, who could time and plan their jumps to get mult-fish bonuses.

 

On the other hand, I think its damn fine work just as it is. Great job.

 

Jarod.

Edited by jrok
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I think there should be levels.. each level has a different jellyfish for you to catch.. here's a list of the different Jellyfish from the show:

 

* Pink Jellyfish - most common jellyfish.

* Blue Jellyfish - a rarer jellyfish.

* Blue Crested Blaster - a very rare type of jellyfish

* Speckled Squirter - a seven tentacle purple jellyfish that squirts jelly from it's main body, rather than it's tentacles.

* Two-Fisted Jumper - an orange jellyfish with three tentacles and two fists used from jumping on the ground.

* Golden Throated Stinger - a singing gold jellyfish with four small tentacles and one larger arrowhead tentacle.

* Green Jellyfish - In the "Revenge of the Flying Dutchman" game, this jellyfish likes to move up and down.

* Blue Jellyfish - In the "Revenge of the Flying Dutchman" game, this jellyfish likes to spin.

* Purple Jellyfish - In the "Revenge of the Flying Dutchman" game, this jellyfish likes to move back and forth.

 

If you score enough points you can join the Jellyspotters.

 

Every so often (sort of like the space ship in Space Invaders) a Queen Jellyfish comes across the screen faster and is worth more points.

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