GroovyBee Posted November 2, 2009 Author Share Posted November 2, 2009 Any 64-color screens so far? The most number of colours in the screenshots above is 30. Sixty four is the limit the engine can do. I'm hoping to make the game as colourful as possible but not all scenes will have the maximum number of colours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GroovyBee Posted November 2, 2009 Author Share Posted November 2, 2009 If you're taking preorders, please put me down for a boxed cart! :-) There is no preorder list at the moment. As soon as the game is complete and ready to go onto cart I'll open a preorder list then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DracIsBack Posted November 3, 2009 Share Posted November 3, 2009 Any 64-color screens so far? The most number of colours in the screenshots above is 30. Sixty four is the limit the engine can do. I'm hoping to make the game as colourful as possible but not all scenes will have the maximum number of colours. Fair enough! Maybe some enterprising person will try a digitized photo using your engine? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GroovyBee Posted November 3, 2009 Author Share Posted November 3, 2009 Fair enough! Maybe some enterprising person will try a digitized photo using your engine? Its only a 48K game and the rooms need to have some variety. The engine is very tailored to its job in the game. You couldn't take it out and use it for displaying pictures in more colours. Having said that, I might work on that particular problem one day. Gotta run out of game ideas first tho . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DracIsBack Posted November 3, 2009 Share Posted November 3, 2009 Fair enough! Maybe some enterprising person will try a digitized photo using your engine? Its only a 48K game and the rooms need to have some variety. The engine is very tailored to its job in the game. You couldn't take it out and use it for displaying pictures in more colours. Having said that, I might work on that particular problem one day. Gotta run out of game ideas first tho . Sounds great! Cannot wait to see a build! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STGuy1040 Posted November 5, 2009 Share Posted November 5, 2009 This looks incredible! I can't wait to see it in action! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yuppicide Posted November 5, 2009 Share Posted November 5, 2009 Looks great. Do you have bees in every game you do? If so, I think that's funny. In the Beavis and Butt-head Comic books there was a running gag where they'd draw in slices of swiss cheese hidden in lots of pictures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dino Posted November 5, 2009 Share Posted November 5, 2009 Make sure you have evil pumpkin heads as ememies. they look so cool! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GroovyBee Posted November 5, 2009 Author Share Posted November 5, 2009 Looks great. Do you have bees in every game you do? You missed this part I know there are wasps as monsters but I just needed some "get me going" graphics. The first binary available will have all new monster graphics. I'm part way through adding SaveKey support at the moment. The inventory system is partly coded too. If it all goes to plan there should be a release next week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GroovyBee Posted November 5, 2009 Author Share Posted November 5, 2009 Make sure you have evil pumpkin heads as ememies. they look so cool! I'll see what I can do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DracIsBack Posted November 5, 2009 Share Posted November 5, 2009 Make sure you have evil pumpkin heads as ememies. they look so cool! I'll see what I can do. An unnoficial MIDNIGHT MUTANTS sequel. Maybe you can make Grandpa Munster an easter egg! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GroovyBee Posted November 5, 2009 Author Share Posted November 5, 2009 An unnoficial MIDNIGHT MUTANTS sequel. Maybe you can make Grandpa Munster an easter egg! There might be space left in the graphics for an easter egg but code space to activate the effect is going to be tight . Actually I'm thinking of running a contest where the prize could be a greyscale picture of the winner on the wall in one of the rooms. Or maybe a special cart just for them. I'll have to see what space is left towards the end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DracIsBack Posted November 5, 2009 Share Posted November 5, 2009 An unnoficial MIDNIGHT MUTANTS sequel. Maybe you can make Grandpa Munster an easter egg! There might be space left in the graphics for an easter egg but code space to activate the effect is going to be tight . Actually I'm thinking of running a contest where the prize could be a greyscale picture of the winner on the wall in one of the rooms. Or maybe a special cart just for them. I'll have to see what space is left towards the end. I sooo can't wait to see this! That easter egg sounds cool too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GroovyBee Posted November 6, 2009 Author Share Posted November 6, 2009 I sooo can't wait to see this! That easter egg sounds cool too! There is still quite a bit of game functionality to be added and I'm already concerned about the ROM space left . I've been looking through the code at good candidates to be rewritten in 6502 assembler (instead of "C") if space gets very tight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DracIsBack Posted November 14, 2009 Share Posted November 14, 2009 There is still quite a bit of game functionality to be added and I'm already concerned about the ROM space left . I've been looking through the code at good candidates to be rewritten in 6502 assembler (instead of "C") if space gets very tight. Awesome! Cannot wait for a demo! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GroovyBee Posted November 14, 2009 Author Share Posted November 14, 2009 II'm still waiting for more game graphics before I can make a release. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Propane13 Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 (edited) So, GroovyBee-- To increase colors from 25 to 64-- I'm guessing you do it with DLI's at certain parts of the screen? For example, you have a DLI just before the energy bar portion of the screen, and there you update the 8 palettes? And, then at some other point, there's another DLI that does the same thing? This in my mind is a conceivable way to give you up to 75 colors. But, for 75, I'd guess it's not practical, since it kind of makes assumptions about objects. As an example, most people would want the background color to stay the same for the whole screen, and if that was done, it makes it 73 colors then (24 + 24 + 24 + 1 for BG). Likewise, if an object can travel between 2 different sections that have a DLI, it's pallete needs to remain the same. So, is this kind of how you did it? BTW, it looks really good. -John Edited November 19, 2009 by Propane13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GroovyBee Posted November 19, 2009 Author Share Posted November 19, 2009 So, is this kind of how you did it? The game uses 7 DLIs and swaps between 160B mode (4BPP) and 160A mode (2BPP) graphics. Palettes 0 to 3 are used in 160B mode for the player and enemy sprites giving a fixed 12 colours. Palette 4 is used for the walls in 160A mode. Palettes 5,6 and 7 are changed on DLIs for the wall objects in 160A mode. The status display uses 160B mode and palettes 4,5,6 and 7. The DLIs perform the following :- - 5 DLIs change the 9 colours used in the wall objects every 32 pixels vertically. - 1 DLI changes the 12 colours used in the status bar - 1 DLI changes the common palette used between the wall and status display back to wall colours and also does some in-game house keeping (keeps time etc.). So, total colours on screen :- 1 - Background. 12 - Player/enemies. 12 - Status display. 5*9 - Wall objects. =1+12+12+(5*9) =70 Yep! I know! 70 is more than 64 . However, the collectable objects don't use 2 of the colour palette change slots available yet. Which means 6 potential colour changes are not used. By placing a limit on the wall object heights they don't take on the colours of the previous zones. You'll also notice a one pixel gap between the playing area and the status display. Thats to allow the first three colours of the status display to be changed without showing any colour glitches. The top three lines of the status display only contain three colours which allows time for the other status display palette changes to take place too . Without my graphics conversion tool it would have been much more work to get it all going. Theres also some self modifying code to change the colours so each DLI takes the least amount of time possible. The Display List (DL) for each room is generated dynamically by parsing a simple room description structure. BTW, it looks really good. Thanks for the compliment. As a further update I've completed the following since the initial post :- - High score chart display and editing. - SaveKey support for the high score data. - Support for big bosses (I'm working on the AI). - Title screen music. - Partial support for the inventory system. I still need to make it into a real game. At the moment its a very small world showing what the engine can do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thursday83 Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 Nice work. Any update on this? Please count me in for a cart if you do go ahead and make them. Thanks much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GroovyBee Posted December 8, 2009 Author Share Posted December 8, 2009 Nice work. Any update on this? Please count me in for a cart if you do go ahead and make them. Thanks much. I have worked on different boss AI versions and they are all too easy to beat . Getting a good balance in the boss AI gameplay is challenging . Everything is still going ahead with the game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinMos3 Posted December 8, 2009 Share Posted December 8, 2009 I'm glad to hear that. It looks exciting. I'm really looking forward to trying it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PacManPlus Posted December 8, 2009 Share Posted December 8, 2009 This looks awesome! Dying to try this. ... Were/Are you a Video Game developer? You are waaaaaaay too good at this to be new to this scene. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GroovyBee Posted December 9, 2009 Author Share Posted December 9, 2009 This looks awesome! Dying to try this. The boss AI is the sticking pint at the moment. I'm trying to come up with something that offers a good challenge and doesn't whup the player in a matter of seconds. ... Were/Are you a Video Game developer? You are waaaaaaay too good at this to be new to this scene. Nope! I've written games on and off since the 8 bitters heyday but I've never released any of them commercially. I'm probably my own worst critic. If my own hand drawn artwork doesn't look right I tend to lose interest in the project over time . Outside the Atari retro world I've worked as a software engineer in consumer electronics for many years (no white goods like washing machines tho). My projects have mainly involved writing code that controls hardware. I'm well versed in register I/O, interrupts, timers, interfacing to peripherals, working around silicon bugs, timing constraints, real time coding etc. Plus... I also like a good challenge. I don't think the 7800 was pushed back in the day, so its interesting to see how far I can make it go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DracIsBack Posted January 30, 2010 Share Posted January 30, 2010 The boss AI is the sticking pint at the moment. I'm trying to come up with something that offers a good challenge and doesn't whup the player in a matter of seconds. You'll nail it! I don't think the 7800 was pushed back in the day, so its interesting to see how far I can make it go. Your results have already been eye popping! Out of curiosity, if you were to pick a genre suited to MARIA, what genre would you choose? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GroovyBee Posted January 30, 2010 Author Share Posted January 30, 2010 The boss AI is the sticking pint at the moment. I'm trying to come up with something that offers a good challenge and doesn't whup the player in a matter of seconds. You'll nail it! I hope so. Space is running out in the ROM and there's still other stuff to code up too. I don't think the 7800 was pushed back in the day, so its interesting to see how far I can make it go. Your results have already been eye popping! Thanks for the compliment. Out of curiosity, if you were to pick a genre suited to MARIA, what genre would you choose? Hmmm... Good question! Everything I've tried so far hasn't been a problem for MARIA to handle in one form or another. I might have to scale things back but its still presentable . MARIA is very flexible when you get down to it. The big problem I have is fitting all the graphics in the ROM . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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