Circus Galacticus - Atari 2600 (WIP)

jrok · December 17, 2008

Hi everyone,

I decided to post progress on my first Atari 2600 Homebrew "Circus Galacticus". The setting is a futuristic gladiator tournament, where combatants duel each other to the death for the pleasure of the galactic empire. The game will comprise the player's fighting career, with the difficulty and rewards ramping up with each new match. A match ends when one gladiator loses all of his shields, and is fried by his opponents laser beam. The player begins a match with three shields, while each new opponent gains more shields up to a maximum of five.

This is a playable demo. The difficulty ramps up as you progress through the game in several ways, and most of the A.I. is in place. The final game will also contain a two-player versus mode, although that is disabled in this build.

Controls:

Left Joystick - Move player sprite in 8 directions.

(Press) Left Fire Button - Start Game / Begin Next Match / Charge up your laser gun

(Release) Left Fire Button - Fire your laser gun. The longer you held down the button, the farther the shot will travel.

*Note: Aiming is precise in this game: You must aim for the head or the chest of the enemy, or your shot will pass in front of him.

Gameplay:

All duels are to the death.
At the beginning of a match, a protective energy field appears on each side of the arena. When a gladiator stands in this field, he cannot be harmed by enemy lasers.
After a certain amount of time elapses, the emperor gets bored with your dawdling. When this happens, a pair of electrified walls seal off the energy fields, and the shield matter turns into a stream of deadly photons that fries anyone trapped on the wrong side.

There are still a lot of unfinished components here, but I thought enough of the core gameplay was in place that I should try to get some feedback in this forum. The most unfinished portion is probably the alternate level style (seen in level 3 of this build), where you must survive waves of attacking monsters for a set period of time. I put this in as a placeholder, and if you press the fire button after a few seconds have passed, you will proceed to the next duel.

Thanks in advance for any feedback, ideas or bug reports you might have.

Cheers,

Jarod Kitchen

Archived Versions(Old):

Circus_Galacticus_m12_d21_y08.bin

Circus_Galacticus_m12_d21_y08.zip

Circus_Galacticus_m12_d22_y08.bin

Circus_Galacticus_m12_d22_y08.zip

Circus_Galacticus_m12_d23_y08.bin

Circus_Galacticus_m12_d23_y08.zip

Circus_Galacticus_m1_d4_y09.bin

Circus_Galacticus_m1_d4_y09.zip

Latest Version(New):

CircusGalacticus8.bin

EDT: Changed title back to "Circus Galacticus." All future binaries will use this name.

Edited April 20, 2010 by jrok

ginnidog · December 17, 2008

looking better all the time

jrok · December 18, 2008

looking better all the time

Thanks. I added a small flash to the enemy sprite when you deplete one of its shields (new BIN in the original post). I'm working hard on a new build with the Berzerk-style "hurry-up" routine and the survival stage, hopefully to be ready by this weekend.

Cheers,

Jarod.

gambler172 · December 18, 2008

Hi Jarod

This is really great......

greetings Walter

tjb · December 19, 2008

Man, the graphics and animation are top notch! Very cool effects. Will you be offering this on cart?

tjb

iwan-iwanowitsch-goratschin · December 19, 2008

Circus Galacticus sounds much better than DUEL IMO! Why do you change it?

TrekMD · December 19, 2008

This is looking pretty good...

jrok · December 19, 2008

Circus Galacticus sounds much better than DUEL IMO! Why do you change it?

Partly because it was so daunting trying to figure out how to do a title screen Also, I'm not sure if most people got the reference. I might change it back, if it turns out people like the original title better.

Cheers,

Jarod

jrok · December 19, 2008

My lastest version is attached. I've added in a "Yars" style defensive zone on each side of the screen. Since you can't fire a beam in these areas, I'm thinking of adding a new gameplay element for button presses here. I'm using my flickered player0 to produce the zones, and though I kind of like how it looks I think I will keep tinkering with it.

Cheers,

Jarod.

Duel_m12_d19_y08.bin

Duel_m12_d19_y08.zip

Edited December 19, 2008 by jrok

sandmountainslim · December 19, 2008

Circus Galacticus sounds much better than DUEL IMO! Why do you change it?

Partly because it was so daunting trying to figure out how to do a title screen Also, I'm not sure if most people got the reference. I might change it back, if it turns out people like the original title better.

Cheers,

Jarod

Jarod,

I am gonna chime in with The German and vote in favour of the original title as well.

Great work on the game, I am enjoying every update.

Wp

jrok · December 19, 2008

I went back and altered the look & animation of the defensive zones. I think I like this version much better... not nearly as headache-inducing

Duel_m12_d19_y08.bin

Duel_m12_d19_y08.zip

Cheers,

Jarod

Impaler_26 · December 19, 2008

This game comes along great, nice work dude! :thumbsup:

But i also prefer the original name "Circus Galacticus".

iwan-iwanowitsch-goratschin · December 20, 2008

This game comes along great, nice work dude!

But i also prefer the original name "Circus Galacticus".

:thumbsup:

ScottHuggins · December 20, 2008

Jarod,

Very nice! This is the kind of 2600 game I thoroughly enjoy. Surely there is some in-line assembly in there. If not, wow....Batari Basic is a heck of a lot more capable than I thought.

And I hate to agree with everyone else, but I am going to agree with everyone else: "Circus Galacticus" was a better name.

This game comes along great, nice work dude!

But i also prefer the original name "Circus Galacticus".

tjb · December 20, 2008

That's a good question: Is the game written in Batari Basic? Given the multi-colored players, multi-tasked players, cool effects, etc. I assumed this was 100% pure assembler. Then again I'm not familar with Batari Basic.

tjb

yuppicide · December 20, 2008

I second that the circus name is much better, but I do think Duel fits the theme better.

Circus Galacticus sounds much better than DUEL IMO! Why do you change it?

yuppicide · December 20, 2008

I believe everything he is doing is bAtari Basic. I've been following this game almost since day one. It's fabulous and very fun.

Impaler_26 · December 20, 2008

Yep, the game is written in batari Basic.

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=134731

iwan-iwanowitsch-goratschin · December 20, 2008

I second that the circus name is much better, but I do think Duel fits the theme better.

No way! Circus Maximus in Rome was build 500 B.C for chariot races and gladiator fights....... :cool:

jrok · December 20, 2008

Jarod,

Very nice! This is the kind of 2600 game I thoroughly enjoy. Surely there is some in-line assembly in there. If not, wow....Batari Basic is a heck of a lot more capable than I thought.

Thank you, Scott. So far, the game is written almost purely in batari Basic. The only inline assembly I am using is:

   asm
  LDA #<p1color
  STA player1color

  LDA #>p1color
  STA player1color+1
end

Basically, I am using this to point individual rows in player1's color table to a set of variables, so I could palette-swap the gladiators' colors on the fly without having to define a new table.

And I hate to agree with everyone else, but I am going to agree with everyone else: "Circus Galacticus" was a better name.

Okay, I give up I am going to change the name back to Circus Galacticus, and then have my first heart attack trying to write a title screen for it

Thanks again for the encouraging words.

Jarod.

ginnidog · December 20, 2008

Jarod,

I am going to work on a title screen, after the weekend is over..

Looks great

thanks

Paulie

jrok · December 20, 2008

Hi Jarod
This is really great......

greetings Walter

Hey Walter,

Thanks! Hey I might want to enlist your help with testing this thing on real hardware someday.

Cheers,

Jarod

jrok · December 20, 2008

Man, the graphics and animation are top notch! Very cool effects. Will you be offering this on cart?

tjb

Thanks! I want to try to put it on cart when the game is finished, although that could take awhile. Batari mentioned he might be releasing a ROM board with onboard superchip which would certainly make it cheaper/ easier to do, so I haven't given up hope yet.

Cheers,

Jarod

jrok · December 20, 2008

I second that the circus name is much better, but I do think Duel fits the theme better.

Circus Galacticus sounds much better than DUEL IMO! Why do you change it?

You were absolutely right... I changed it back!

Thanks,

Jarod

jrok · December 20, 2008

I believe everything he is doing is bAtari Basic. I've been following this game almost since day one. It's fabulous and very fun.

Thanks man. Like I said before, I think batari could be a very powerful development tool for the 2600, and could help new programmers like us get a jumpstart onto this beloved old platform.

Cheers,

Jarod

Circus Galacticus - Atari 2600 (WIP)

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