omicron

[seemo]

Hi everybody, I have been working on an extended version of omicron 2k.

 

I'm very thankful to thegoldenband, who contributed with two songs of his: sept13theme_13 is played on the title screen, and melody2_final song is played when a stage is cleared.

 

Another outstanding contribution came from Thomas Jentzsch, whose routines enrich ship movement with inertia and acceleration.

 

Thank You !

 

As about the gameplay, I managed to add a roaming square on the screen, it's a 'target' that you have to collect in order to clear the stage (and survive).

(I hope this doesn't feel like 'punching holes into a sheet of paper' anymore, Eric )

 

You start a game with three lives.

 

The lower part of the screen displays a 'status section' with

- one horizontal bar showing the time left to collect the target (it blinks when the time is running out)

- another horizontal bar, showing the amount of targets left to clear the stage

- your lives (blue squares)

- the eggs you stocked during absorb stages (yellow squares)

 

The stages are split into 'resist' and 'absorb' stages.

During 'resist' stages you fire at the enemy, during 'absorb' stages you have to catch an egg (max 3 can be stocked) and activate it (pressing fire) to 'absorb' the enemy.

During 'absorb' stages (and advanced 'resist' stages) the enemy moves towards you.

 

You can choose to play the game in 'normal' or 'hard' mode, during 'hard' mode the ship is slowed down when it hits the border (don't remain on the border or you will lose a life).

Two hi-scores are kept separately, one for each difficulty.

 

I also included an (almost) 2k version (from dot).

 

Hi-scores (for both the main game and the almost 2k version) are saved/retrieved on an atarivox/savekey device.

 

The game also supports the AtariVox unit, with stage 'announcements' and other speech.

 

The options allow you to select a fire method (hold fire and move the joystick to set the direction or press fire to change direction - with or without diagonals).

You can also select one of two different controls variation (with different acceleration and inertia).

 

The game currently features 16 stages, and there is not an ending sequence.

 

Some additional notes:

Use the BW/Color switch to select between PAL60 and NTSC colors

Use the right (P1) difficulty to select the egg->root pattern (blinking to solid or vice versa)

Hold the select switch while turning the console on to reset the hi-scores on the atarivox/savekey unit

Hold the select switch while selecting the almost 2k version to reset its hi-score on the atarivox/savekey unit

You can use a joystick in port 2 to set the direction of fire

 

Thanks for reading and have fun !

Simone

omicron_16k_20100519.bin

[cd-w]

Very nice work - this looks ready for a cart release!

 

Chris

[+TrekMD]

Very nice indeed! Do let us know if you plan a cart release.

[Wickeycolumbus]

Very fun! Glad you are back

[+Nathan Strum]

Wow - lots of great additions to the game! Having to catch the target changes the whole dynamic of it.

 

I can't seem to make the 4-way, press-to-turn option apply to the 2k version though. Does that only affect the 16k game?

 

Any chance of including the mini-compo 2k variation?

Edited May 22, 2010 by Nathan Strum

[Mirage]

Very fun game!

[Devin]

Very fun - and very intense! For some reason, I just die suddenly. I think a virus spawns under the ship on some occasion.

[r_type2600]

Very exciting and captivating!

Lots of great improvements on all levels

The control options are very impressive for a 2600 game, and I love the addition of inertia. Really adds some "personality" to the player blob

Presentation is also topnotch, on par with Lead.

 

A few small suggestions, which should hopefully not be too difficult to implement:

- any chance for a bonus life at a certain score threshold (say 2000 or 3000 points)? The game is pretty difficult!

Besides, it's always a nice positive kick to get a reward in the middle of the game...

- how about moving the status info (blue and green lines, lives, abs-orbs) to the top of the screen? I think it is easier and more intuitive to glimpse up than down in the middle of heated action. Score can stay at the bottom. That would also make the screen layout more balanced.

- the stage titles add character to the game, but it would be nice to see them stand out a bit better. Two very simple suggestions: distinguish them from the rest of the intermission text by coloring them in the underlying theme color (e.g. green for "poison", red for "fire", etc.).

add an empty line between the title ("poison", etc.) and "stage".

- I feel the frantic action of the game is a bit broken by the open-ended intermissions. The player should not get too much time to recover from the stress

At least the "Stage Clear" screen should automatically end after a reasonable time (though I love the music on that screen!)

Hmm, just an extra idea (nowhere essential, but would be a nice touch) - what about the text parts being gradually "absorbed" (= disappear) before automatically moving on to the next screen?

 

Nothing else I can think of, the game's already highly polished and pure fun

(Almost like shuffling cards under a confetti rain! )

Of course, more stages would always be welcome and an actual ending very desirable!

 

Thanks for giving us this entertaining creation!

Eric

Edited May 24, 2010 by r_type2600

[seemo]

Hi everybody,

here's an updated version of the game, I tried to follow Eric suggestions

 

What's new:

- stage screen:

the enemy name is displayed with its color for that stage

also 'absorb'/'resist' have different colors now

more spacing between stage name / number / type

the music has been replaced

the game automatically moves to the next screen after a fixed amount of time

- stage clear screen : when the song has completed, the game moves to the next screen

- bonus life when the score reaches 3000 points

- the status bars and the life/eggs counters now appear on top of the screen

- the timer bar has been moved below the level completion bar, also lives counter has been 'brightened' a little

- added atarivox speech for hi-score

- I have added another enemy type (virus) at the beginning of the game: I hope this acts as an easier way to get into the game

- when an hi-score of 1000 points for hard mode is reached, you can turn 'Trance Mode' on/off with the P0 difficulty switch

(please note that I'm not responsible for any damage to your health )

 

As about the 2k version, please let me know if you prefer

- having the 'press fire to change ship direction' controls applied to the current version

or

- if you would like to have it completely replaced with the minigame compo version

 

Thanks, and have fun !

Simone

 

P.S.: as about 'sudden deaths', please pay attention to enemy 'roots', they signal where the enemy will spawn !

omicron_16k_20100609.bin

Edited June 9, 2010 by seemo

[johnny_boy]

Crazy stuff.

 

Funny how it's instantly recognisable as a Seemo game, especially at the title screen. Your personality is very present in your works, through some minor traits - font choice, sound, general flavor.

[jbrodack]

Great game. I like that its separated into different levels however the absorb ones are a bit tricky as it can be hard to know when its ok to absorb or when you will die.

 

Also, I'm fine with the 2k version having the controls this one has as it works well.

 

You make some of the best homebrew I've seen with lead being my favorite.

[seemo]

Updated version !

 

2k

- ship movement has been slightly slowed down

- use p0 difficulty switch to choose between 'fire to rotate' and 'hold fire+direction on joystick' controls

- changed option label to 2.5k

- diagonal fire speed has been slowed down (thanks Thomas)

 

Main

- each level has a distinct background color (the flashing effect of trance mode has been removed)

- targets for the first enemy stages (virus) have been reduced to 12

- when the absorb effect is about to expire, the border+enemy color 'flashes' (like before), and the ship sprite animation includes the 'normal ship' bitmap to indicate that the ship is returning to 'normal' state

- hard difficulty : no more game over when you remain on the border

- new stage type: after the 4 stages for each enemy type, there's a 'collect' stage, a simple 'bonus' stage, where you have to collect targets while the enemy slows you down (if you miss a target the game continues) (thanks Eric)

 

Have fun

Simone

omicron_16k_20100627.bin

[yuppicide]

Awesome game! I love the music in between levels. Fits perfect.

 

Graphically the game is very nice.. love the menu, colors, credits, etc.

 

Possible bugs:

 

- I can shoot all 4 directions + diagonal.. but up and left diagonal does not work for me.

 

- In the 2k version you could go in the wall, get slowed down, and if you stayed there too long you die.. if you come out you live.. in this one you can go in the wall and fly around without getting killed.. is that meant to be?

[jbrodack]

In the absorb stages you can collect eggs to power up. It seems they turn into an enemy fairly quickly though. Would there be a way to make the eggs more distinguishable and know when they are about to turn into an enemy? Maybe some kind of way to show a countdown.

 

Anyway, great game and I like what you've added to it.

[Legend]

Really fun game, but I can't get hold of the absorb stage. Are the eggs the same as the blue targets? Otherwise I don't see anything else other than the blue targets and the purple enemies. I haven't made it past the 3rd level yet either, so I don't know if the eggs don't pop up until level 4 maybe.

[seemo]

Ok, this is the complete version of the game: I have to say thank you to Nathan Strum, who provided a lot of ideas and playtesting

 

To provide a clearer overview of the game, I attached a pdf document with the instructions... please read them, and feel free to provide feedback.

 

Also, don't hesitate to report bugs or other mishaps...

 

Thanks !

 

peace

omicron_16k_20111130.bin

omicron_instructions_20111130.pdf

[jeffgamer]

Wondering: Any chance you plan to release this on cart?

[Brian O]

Wow, this game's fun! If this is released as a cart, I'm down for one.

 

-B

[Albert]

Omicron is now available in cartridge form, with a beautiful label and manual designed by Nathan Strum!

 

http://atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1037

 

Piñata and Flappy are also new releases to hit the store today, along with "loose" (cartridge and manual) versions of several boxed games released last year.

 

..Al

[Tangentg]

One thing that's kinda weird about the 2.5k mode is that the firing mode doesn't seem to be adjustable. Yet it features a different firing mode from the actual 2k version I played...

 

It'd have been cool if the firing mode option affected the 2.5k mode too...

 

Otherwise it's really fun, like I said on the original 2k thread, even though the new firing mode makes it resemble Robotron less. I'm especially a fan of the resist and absorb stages (I see a mode that resembles a horizontal shooter from AtariAge's video and I'm less of a fan on that one as it seems somewhat generic, but I haven't gotten that far yet so it's just a first impression).

 

Edit: just found out (sorry, I had very limited internet time these days so I just downloaded without reading beyond the first post) about the player difficulty switch in changing the firing mode. A bit weird but both modes are here, which takes care of my concern.

Edited September 14, 2016 by Tangentg

[Tangentg]

I've been wanting to write a short article on this game for a while. Finally done it.

 

http://shogikappa.tumblr.com/post/151105960407/omicron-atari-2600-homebrew

[Love Cowboy]

Trying to play this game. Can't seem to figure out the absorb stages. The manual suggests pressing fire does something, but it does not appear to for me.

Sent from my SM-G781U using Tapatalk

[Prizrak]

Not sure what fire does, never read the manual unfortunately but I do know moving around and collecting the blue blocks while avoiding the others is necessary to clear the absorb level.

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

[+Nathan Strum]

6 hours ago, Love Cowboy said:

Trying to play this game. Can't seem to figure out the absorb stages. The manual suggests pressing fire does something, but it does not appear to for me.

You have to first collect Virus Cores (before they start flashing), then you can press the Fire button to activate Absorbing State. While Absorbing State is active (your ship morphs to a circular shape and the music changes) you can clear off the other Virus Elements (the striped blocks) by running into them. The yellow bars at the top right of the screen show how many Virus Cores you've absorbed, and how many more times you can activate Absorbing State.

 

You can get a look at it here (at 0:55):

 

[Prizrak]

Guess I need the manual [emoji3526] awesome game but never fully got the gist of it

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk