Honeycomb Rapture (RGPC)

[Opry99er]

Okay, exciting update!!! Scoring engine finished, gameplay and bonus rounds merged together, (debugging for 2 hours did the trick) speed engines are fully functional, all COINC functions work perfectly, and I have a playable game!!! Work is far from finished, however.... "To do" list below.

 

1) finish coding and implementing assembly music

2) add DDT routine for plane drops

3) add "end of bonus round" animation and music

4) Create "end of game" sequence

5) Write pre-game instructions

6) Sit back and enjoy the sweet smell of success.

 

Will be complete tonight or tomorrow. . Eat your heart out Atarisoft!!

Edited February 8, 2010 by Opry99er

[Opry99er]

Well--- had to take a sidetrack to write a music converter for my music... That's what has sidetracked me, but I am very glad to have the tool now. Graphics for "tokens" on boss stage are complete, boss stage music is complete and implemented, and I have but a couple little things left to do.... Will be randomizing the speed of bees on main level to add a degree of difficulty--- also create DDT drop engine... All else is pretty much done. . More updates to come later today!!!

[+retroclouds]

Looking forward playing the finished version with sounds merged in

[Opry99er]

If you're not careful, you might find a little bit of speech synth in there too. . Filip, are you planning to test these games out on a real TI? . Emulation seems to suck for speech.

[The Codex]

Cool beans, new screenshots soon please.

[InfernalKeith]

I haven't cut-and-pasted any of the code from this game yet, simply because I want to enjoy it as a finished product (well, 'contest ready' at least) when I check it for the first time. Really looking forward to it - the screenshots look awesome!

[Opry99er]

Thanks Keith.. When it is done it will come in a zipped file, as there are 4 or 5 object files that get LOADed up throughout the game... It should all unzip nicely into DSK1 of Classic99---it will run from DSK1 only without several modifications to the XB code. Glad this contest happened... Where would we all be without it? I know where I'd be.... Still figuring the best way to draw flowers in a screen.

[+retroclouds]

If you're not careful, you might find a little bit of speech synth in there too. . Filip, are you planning to test these games out on a real TI? . Emulation seems to suck for speech.

 

Yes sir, I certainly will

 

And not just me, I want to set up a poll where people can vote the games they like best.

Remember: it's all about getting some publicity for the TI homebrew scene.

 

Ofcourse I do consider getting myself a master vote

[Opry99er]

Hehe.... Yea man--- I am hoping we can have a few new programmers on the scene soon. We have several good programmers already, and a few great ones--- would be nice to get a few new fellas and/or ladies on the scene as well.... Hopefully your Pitfall cart will bring some recognition as well.

[Opry99er]

New updates... Graphic designs for "tokens" on UFO stage complete.... (think Mario coins), implemented new speed routines for ALL enemy SPRITEs on ALL levels... With a bit of help, I was able to figure a DDT-delete routine--- it is similar to my original routine, but 100 times faster... Tonight---draw and implement "tree branch"---from which the Honeycomb hangs... Scoring engines updated and complete.... Game will be complete tomorrow night at the latest. . I have an all-dayer scheduled tomorrow with the OK of the wife. So, come hell

or high water, it'll be done. . I just want to take this opportunity to give thanks to Filip for starting the competition, to Mark Wills for all the help and inspiration, to Tursi for teaching me how to use Assembly to add "background music", to Mark Hull for having given me a deeper understanding of overlapping game loops (Lemonade Stand)--- and to Karsten and Keith or helping me stay motivated. . This has been alot of fun.

Edited February 14, 2010 by Opry99er

[InfernalKeith]

New updates... Graphic designs for "tokens" on UFO stage complete.... (think Mario coins), implemented new speed routines for ALL enemy SPRITEs on ALL levels... With a bit of help, I was able to figure a DDT-delete routine--- it is similar to my original routine, but 100 times faster... Tonight---draw and implement "tree branch"---from which the Honeycomb hangs... Scoring engines updated and complete.... Game will be complete tomorrow night at the latest. . I have an all-dayer scheduled tomorrow with the OK of the wife. So, come hell

or high water, it'll be done. . I just want to take this opportunity to give thanks to Filip for starting the competition, to Mark Wills for all the help and inspiration, to Tursi for teaching me how to use Assembly to add "background music", to Mark Hull for having given me a deeper understanding of overlapping game loops (Lemonade Stand)--- and to Karsten and Keith or helping me stay motivated. . This has been alot of fun.

 

Good on ya! I'm in the middle of an all-dayer over here as well. Just implemented the "cat-a-pult", cat rapture (no relation), and finally chased down a couple bugs in the "cat bookie". Hoping to have the rest of the tools coded in the next couple hours, which leaves me the rest of the night to finish up my level designs. Level four... "Bridge over troubled whiskers."

[Opry99er]

Update!!

 

Tokens on UFO screen complete... Now to implement an engine for picking them up. I am beginning to rethink my strategy--- perhaps I will make it a bit more difficult by having the player pick them up in a specific order, like in ST. NICK--- only coins instead of the letters S-A-N-T-A.

 

screenshot in a few

[The Codex]

Perhaps they could spell out HONEY?

[Opry99er]

Had considered HONEY... However my "Y" is tied up and I am too tired of staring at CYAN to go through and mess with it. . Now I'm just trying to assemble some source code for my music.... Once that's done, the game is complete. I will post a video on here of complete gameplay after the game is done and I have a day to look at ANYTHING other than Honeycomb.... I can hardly wait to get to "Legend of Beryl Reichardt"

[Opry99er]

Done!!! Please check out the main game contest thread for the zipfile containing the game, the LOAD file, and both objectfiles for the music. . Thanks again to Willsy, Tursi, and the gang for keeping me on my toes. This game may find it's way into assembly at some point, but for now I am enjoying it being finished. Was NOT able to implement DDT level.... No time. Shame too, as that was a big part of the plan for the game... So that's a shame... But it will be included into the final release. Please, DL the game, play it and let me know what you think. . Bug reports are welcomed! Honeybees are disappearing everywhere.... Can you save them from being "raptured?" Play "Honeycomb Rapture" and find out!!!

[Opry99er]

Well.... There's a bug. A bad one. And I don't know how to fix it--- after several minutes of play, the VDP goes ape sh** and the screen freaks out. I thought that I had fixed the problem in my debugging, but apparently I didn't. The sound seems to be the problem, and it must be a faulty sourcecode for assembly. I have spoken to Tursi about it, and apparently I will have to re-do the music. This is not a good thing--- I will have to re-write the source code or have someone else do it for me, as I am not as experienced in this field--- Its a shame, but if I can fix it, I'll post the bug-fix to the thread. If you have any ideas in how to fix it, please let me know... I'll post the source code to this thread... What I need is a working template to use for my Music BYTEs... I think Ben Yates can help me out, I'll get with him. He has done alot of work in this field, and I will defer to his expertise. Thanks

[Tursi]

I didn't realize the Classic99 filesystem bug was still hitting people, can we please advise people to harrass me for a fix rather than advising them to go back to older versions?

 

The bug I suspect in the music routines won't require you to rewrite your music - that won't change. I suspect we aren't reserving VDP RAM properly. I don't know XB well and I just looked around for likely vectors. We'll need to ask the experts how to set aside some VDP RAM that XB won't touch from a running program.

[Opry99er]

Hey--- first day touching my computer since the contest ended. . Today I get to play "Herding Cats," I get to Update Opry99er with some new

videos, pictures, downloadable version of Honeycomb with instructionset, update the Opry99er game development forum for Herding Cats AND Honeycomb, and possibly do a YouTube video of both games as well. . We shall see. So glad to be a member of Atariage.... Gives me a reason to look forward to waking up... Plenty of fun posts.

[InfernalKeith]

Soooo... should I grab the older version of Classic99 to make it work, or wait for a fix? And to be clear, it won't work at all in the newest version? How about if I just run it on my 99/4A?

[Opry99er]

Run the thing on your /4a man!!!  . I gave my grandmother my RCA jacked A/V cable so I have not tested the full version on the real gear yet.  . If you experience the bug, just break out (FCTN4) and type in "RUN "DSK1.LOAD"" again, and it will start back up.  However, some folks reported not experiencing the bug at all.  It's a freaking mind-blow trying to figure this out.  But I've got top men working in this problem now....  "TOP....MEN....."

 

Please let me know how it plays on the real deal... You will need to use a joystick.  

 

tursi can run this just fine in the newest version-- so can Mark. Mine doesn't work for one reason or another.

[InfernalKeith]

Run the thing on your /4a man!!!  . I gave my grandmother my RCA jacked A/V cable so I have not tested the full version on the real gear yet.  . If you experience the bug, just break out (FCTN4) and type in "RUN "DSK1.LOAD"" again, and it will start back up.  However, some folks reported not experiencing the bug at all.  It's a freaking mind-blow trying to figure this out.  But I've got top men working in this problem now....  "TOP....MEN....."

 

Please let me know how it plays on the real deal... You will need to use a joystick.  

 

tursi can run this just fine in the newest version-- so can Mark. Mine doesn't work for one reason or another.

 

 

I'll delete what I have and re-download later, and see if I can get it to run in Classic99 or on my 99/4A. I was having trouble getting things onto the CF drive before, but I haven't really had the time to mess with TiDir much yet, to figure it out (or, heaven forbid, read the directions).

[Opry99er]

TI99Dir is the easiest and most useful tool in my arsenal, man... Unless you call Classic99 a tool. . You can do any and all file manipulation there, view dsk contents, see what an XB program contains and copy/paste into notepad for editing... I'm telling you, if you get that program running fast and furious, it can cut hours and hours off your work. I'll make up a video of my development environment and how I use programs to interact with each other and post it to YouTube. . Let you know when it's done, brother.

Edited February 17, 2010 by Opry99er

[InfernalKeith]

TI99Dir is the easiest and most useful tool in my arsenal, man... Unless you call Classic99 a tool. . You can do any and all file manipulation there, view dsk contents, see what an XB program contains and copy/paste into notepad for editing... I'm telling you, if you get that program running fast and furious, it can cut hours and hours off your work. I'll make up a video of my development environment and how I use programs to interact with each other and post it to YouTube. . Let you know when it's done, brother.

 

 

I got it, and my CF drive, pretty recently. I was already hip-deep in coding Herding Cats on my stock hardware, so I just learned enough to get my code onto the drive, then copied and pasted into Classic99 (which I also just started using). I was so busy doing all that, I haven't yet explored any of this stuff much. I really enjoyed finishing Cats without the constant jet engine of the PE Box fan, though.

 

Now that the dust is settling, I will probably bow to practicality and reality and start working in Classic99, so I plan to spend a little time learning the ropes of all this new stuff this weekend.

 

Low tech note: to get my code off the floppy disk and onto the CF in the first place, I saved it to tape.

[Opry99er]

Hehehe.... Tape.... Awesome. Serial transfer is pretty easy.

[Opry99er]

K guys and gals... This zipfile contains a version workable on the newest version of Classic99. The objectfile I was trying to LOAD was in a format that has recently been made unreadable in Classic99. According to Tursi, the newer versions are not as lenient on file reading (meaning they don't "guess" as to what format the file is SUPPOSED to be in). Again, user error on my part, I should have checked the compatibility of my game with current versions of the emulator before I suggested you DL an older version. =) The crash bug is still in here, but Im working on that as we speak. You can play til level 5 or so before it crashes on ya. But it's more of a TIME issue than a level issue. The problem is incorrect memory allocation, and it's not a big deal, just gotta get it right. =) Anyway, play this thing, and it is NOW transferrable to a real TI. Make sure that in your file transfer you turn the TIFILES option ON with MFM. If you do CF7 transfers, I can't help ya. No experience.

BeeGamenew.zip