Super Circus AtariAge (new WIP)

[Allpaul]

I second the guy who mentioned the 3 ring circus background. I'm not sure how hard that would be. Or maybe a crowd or something? Just a thought. I'm sure whatever you cook up will be great!

[atomickneedrop]

this is a very interesting choice (for the 7800). very interested.

[lost child]

Very cool, PacManPlus! I'm thinking it's past time I get myself an Atari 7800... if only for the great homebrew that you guys keep coming up with!

 

Circus is one of my favorites... I even built my own Flash version: http://www.gamebuilder.info/world/arcade/circus Of course, it's not nearly as cool as making a game for a console, but it's all I'm capable of.

 

Keep up the great work!

[PacManPlus]

New Update!

 

Al will like the Intro screen

 

 

Added:

-Introduction screen

-Options Screen

-NEW CLOWN GRAPHICS THANKS TO ESPIRE8

-All controller options

-2 player alternating and 2 player simultaneous mode

 

Todo:

-Points added when clearing row of balloons

-Points added when catching the 'T', 'M', or 'B' powerup for each balloon left on that line

-Bonus Round(s)

-Sound

-Clown collisions with each other (bounce off)

-Additional Bumpers

 

Hope you like

 

[PAC-MAN PRIME]

Nice work, Bob! Very cool intro and menu screen, and the clowns look great. Man, it's HARD! lol

[TrekMD]

That looks fantastic! NOW those are clowns! Very nicely done!

[Greg2600]

Joystick works again! Graphics big improvement! Just needs some music.

[BigO]

Looking good. More than a bit challenging to play with a keyboard. Still hanging around waiting to hear when this will be available for purchase.

 

One of the things I really appreciate about the old Atari games is that I generally don't have to sit through a slug of advertisements or worthless (to me) splash screens. Maybe it's just me that detests those things, but is there a way to immediately skip the intro screen? While I appreciate how cool it is, I've seen it once so I know what it says. I think it's sufficient to splash the company info on the menu screen.

I don't play my Colecovision because it annoys me to sit through the meaningless splash screen and I haven't had time to replace the BIOS. Again, maybe it's just me that's so impatient.

 

Keepupthegoodwork.

Edited September 1, 2010 by BigO

[the.golden.ax]

Simply fantastic. Glad to see you still making games!

 

 

AX

[DracIsBack]

Nice work! Still getting the gang of the game.

 

I love seeing that AtariAge logo at the beginning!

[HammR25]

Too bad it can't autodetect if you have paddles hooked up. It's kind of annoying to need to use the joystick to get through the menus until you switch it to paddle support. I like what you've done with the clown animations.

[VectorGamer]

Too bad it can't autodetect if you have paddles hooked up. It's kind of annoying to need to use the joystick to get through the menus until you switch it to paddle support. I like what you've done with the clown animations.

 

Can the joystick be set to left controller and paddles on the right?

[+Allan]

Too bad it can't autodetect if you have paddles hooked up. It's kind of annoying to need to use the joystick to get through the menus until you switch it to paddle support. I like what you've done with the clown animations.

 

Can the joystick be set to left controller and paddles on the right?

That's a good idea. Since you can't use the paddle or driving controller with the Cuttle Cart.

 

Allan

[HatNJ]

Will have to try out the WIP bins but as a big big fan of the original Ill buy this on Cart when available.

Pacmans Games are always favorites to play High quality True asset to the 7800 community

[Lord Thag]

As always, excellent work. Will definitely buy this on cart!

[PacManPlus]

Thanks for the compliments guys!

 

Nice work, Bob! Very cool intro and menu screen, and the clowns look great. Man, it's HARD! lol

Yes it is hard, even on the easy setting. I am working on that, though...

 

That looks fantastic! NOW those are clowns! Very nicely done!

Thanks, but I can't take credit for that - they are Espire8's graphics

 

Joystick works again! Graphics big improvement! Just needs some music.

I will be adding sound last, as it's for the Pokey, and I need to get to figuring out how to program for that.

 

One of the things I really appreciate about the old Atari games is that I generally don't have to sit through a slug of advertisements or worthless (to me) splash screens. Maybe it's just me that detests those things, but is there a way to immediately skip the intro screen? While I appreciate how cool it is, I've seen it once so I know what it says. I think it's sufficient to splash the company info on the menu screen.

I will make it so any keypress (or controller button) skips the splash screen.

 

Too bad it can't autodetect if you have paddles hooked up. It's kind of annoying to need to use the joystick to get through the menus until you switch it to paddle support.

That will be fixed as well (already had to deal with that when testing on the real thing). I have two ways I will resolve that:

a) The HSC will keep the last controller setting used and read that setting in upon startup. And for those who don't have the HSC, see next point...

b) The 'Select' button will scroll through the options. The controller button will still set them.

 

Can the joystick be set to left controller and paddles on the right?

I actually thought of that already, *but*, If the Driving controllers are being used with two players, then you need both ports.

 

Having said that, the following is completed:

-Points added when clearing row of balloons

-Points added when catching the 'T', 'M', or 'B' powerup for each balloon left on that line

-Clown collisions with each other (bounce off)

-Additional Bumpers

 

The only thing, is that the points added when clearing a row are wrong. I'm using a count down which adds 10 points to the score per frame until we are at zero - and it seems to be adding too much. When I figure that out I will post a binary.

 

So that leaves:

-Bonus Round(s)

-Sound

-Bonus item (worth 1000 points) that rarely flies across the top of the screen - I'm going to use the AA logo for that

-Allow button press to skip splash screen

-Allow 'Select' button to scroll through the options on the options screen

-Tweak difficulty, in the respect of how fast the clown moves on the screen, and where the clown hits the trampoline.

 

Thanks again,

Bob

[AtariLeaf]

I'm loving it. Very excited to see the finished product and buy a cart when available. Incredible work sir!

[Underball]

Looking good. More than a bit challenging to play with a keyboard. Still hanging around waiting to hear when this will be available for purchase.

 

One of the things I really appreciate about the old Atari games is that I generally don't have to sit through a slug of advertisements or worthless (to me) splash screens. Maybe it's just me that detests those things, but is there a way to immediately skip the intro screen? While I appreciate how cool it is, I've seen it once so I know what it says. I think it's sufficient to splash the company info on the menu screen.

I don't play my Colecovision because it annoys me to sit through the meaningless splash screen and I haven't had time to replace the BIOS. Again, maybe it's just me that's so impatient.

I think it's just you. I like games that have proper attract mode/title screens. The default 2600 "Colors Change to awful combinations" attract modes are terrible. Plus I like to see the 7800 have nice proper Title Screens and the AtariAge Logo screen.

Edited September 2, 2010 by Underball

[VectorGamer]

Will Entry Of The Gladiators be used as the background music?

[Lendorien]

Thanks for the compliments guys!

So that leaves:

-Bonus Round(s)

-Sound

-Bonus item (worth 1000 points) that rarely flies across the top of the screen - I'm going to use the AA logo for that

-Allow button press to skip splash screen

-Allow 'Select' button to scroll through the options on the options screen

-Tweak difficulty, in the respect of how fast the clown moves on the screen, and where the clown hits the trampoline.

 

Thanks again,

Bob

 

Hmm. I have to say that this is looking really neat. This one definitely will go onto my short list of homebrew to buy when it comes out.

 

As I mentioned before, I think it would be cool to have animated cut scenes, perhaps when completing a level with so many points, or after completing a certain amount of screens. Wouldn't even have to be anything long or involved, just something fun to give a bonus reward to the player for doing well. Sort of like how Tetris does on the Gameboy with the rockets, or how Pac Man does after completing so many levels.

 

Perhaps the clown sprites chasing each other across the screen, or flipping off the seesaw into a bucket of water, or one floating away on the end of a balloon, etc.

 

I also like the idea of a background for the game screen rather than the blank black right now. I think someone mentioned that earlier. You could have a couple backgrounds for different levels.

Edited September 2, 2010 by Lendorien

[TrekMD]

I agree with Lendorien's recommendation for different backgrounds. Maybe different kinds of circus tents? That would be cool.

[VectorGamer]

I agree with Lendorien's recommendation for different backgrounds. Maybe different kinds of circus tents? That would be cool.

 

Cool if it does not become a distraction. Sometimes less is more. I think the black background is cool because it would be an element "preserved" (for lack of a better word) or paying homage to the original b/w arcade game. Even a subtle element that mimics the original arcade game would be the icing on the cake. It may even be as simple as the intro music found in the Circus arcade game. Just my two cents.

 

I like the graphic representing the number of men remaining - it reminds me of Berzerk.

[PacManPlus]

Thanks, Guys...

 

Unfortunately, no can do about the background (other than choosing another color other than black). The score, balloons, and bumpers all use character mode so the background would be limited to starting below the balloons, and I don't think that would look too well once the balloons started disappearing.

 

Not a bad idea about the 'intermissions'... I will look into that once I am finished with the game itself.

 

Thanks,

Bob

[Trebor]

Bob,

 

Fantastic work as always. Just my 2 cents, on this game and don't know how much can be done about this, but here goes...

 

I think a significant issue with the level of difficulty this game exhibits even on the Easy setting is due to the relatively small area between the clowns/seasaw and the balloons. If you look at the 2600 version, you'll notice there is a significant amount of more space than in this current port.

 

To 'fix' this either one of two things I believe should be done: A) Change the size of all the graphics - Make the clowns and especially the balloon graphics smaller or... B) Slow the game down.

 

I think 'B' is the more realistic and practical approach, but I may be wrong and/or either possibilty is not an option. Further, the majority and you may disagree.

 

Not to be a real PIA - but I believe too speed should be relative to controller being used. The paddle/driving controls make the game much more playable at higher speeds than a joystick. Perhaps, 'speed' can be a setting or maybe better an internal adjust based on setting.

 

For example, say there was a speed scale of 1-10, the following could be the conditions based on the difficulty and controller choices:

 

Easy - Joystick - Speed = 2

Med - Joystick - Speed = 4

Hard - Joystick - Speed = 6

 

Easy - Paddle/Drive - Speed = 3

Med - Paddle/Drive - Speed = 6

Hard - Paddle/Drive - Speed = 9

 

Then perhaps there can be an easter egg or way to unlock 'Speed = 10' and/or maybe a 'child' setting of Speed = 1.

 

Like I said, just my 2 cents...Keep up the fantastic work, regardless. It is appreciated.

 

-Trebor

Edited September 2, 2010 by Trebor

[PacManPlus]

Hey Trebor:

 

As always, thanks for your input. I don't know how feasible it will be to have two different sets of motion for the different controllers, but the other stuff were things I was already going to tackle.

 

Working on the clown motion was what I meant by:

-Tweak difficulty, in the respect of how fast the clown moves on the screen, and where the clown hits the trampoline.

 

The original Circus Atari read the Y-values in from a table (i.e. it didn't calculate the clown's Y coordinate on the fly). Therefore, it had 5 unique bounces - that's all. One where the clown didn't hit any balloons, and four with varying degrees of speed. To get the game going, I copied those tables into this game. All Y coordinates started at line 161 ($A1) and worked upward from there. The Y-table where the clown didn't hit any balloons ended at line 36 ($24) which was too high for this version. I shortened it to 66 ($42). The others were left alone, but I knew they were all too fast.

 

Now, to modify this, I am using the function Y = SIN((3.14159265 / 2) * X) to get values between 0 and 1. This was as close as I could get to Atari's curve. I only plan on using more points to 'slow the clown down', so to speak. The only problem is, I have a feeling this curve will be to 'relaxed' and make the clown look like he's 'floating'.

If you or anyone has a better function to use that can get closer to Atari's original, I'm all ears.

 

Thanks again

Bob