New 2600 game : "BRIK"

[RePixel8]

Hi,

My first game, so I thought I'd share it in my first post

I wanted to create an Arkanoid-style game for the 2600 that that improves on Breakout. Key requirements were:

- Have many individually designed levels (unlike breakout which just has a solid wall).

- Bricks should be displayed as individual blocks with horizontal division, not just solid rows.

- Have bonus objects falling down the screen that can be collected.

- Have an enemy that moves about the screen.

- Fit into 4K for physical cartridge release.

It's been a bit of a challenge squeezing it all into 4K and within the available cycles. However, after a lot of optimisation and many re-writes, it's done and *just* fits, although the sound had to be compromised. It's been a bit of a learning experience I've have thoroughly enjoyed working within the limitations of the hardware and the programming environment.

4K rom is attached. Hope you enjoy it. Let me know what you think.

brik.bin

[+save2600]

Looks nice! Have yet to try it with the Harmony cart on real hardware, but does it feature analog rotary paddle support? If not... it should!

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Very nice indeed.

 

But for a moment I was hoping someone would really start selling a sealed brick.

Edited September 11, 2013 by Thomas Jentzsch

[RePixel8]

Currently it only works with Joysticks, partly because I ran out of space and partly because I don't actually own a paddle controller

[enthusi]

Nice!

Maybe go for a darker color for the left/right border or it will really give me a headache even on my crt?

Plays smooth even with joystick I think.

[RePixel8]

Yeah, I was a little worried about the flicker on the border. Didn't seem that noticable when I was testing it.

[TrekMD]

Very nice!

[Chuck D. Head]

Nice work!! Just gave it a quick once over, but I will try it some more tonight.

[fiddlepaddle]

1440, second level (emulated).

 

Good game!

 

Be nice if you could slow down the movement of the paddle by holding the button.

[UberArcade]

Looks great. Paddle controls would make it awesome though.

[PFL]

4870... so far!

 

This is now officially my favourite bat'n'ball game on the 2600. Very well done indeed. Thanks for sharing.

 

Do you have plans for a 'deluxe' version or are you finished with the genre just now? It's a surprisingly under represented field on the 2600.

 

If you did decide to make another version it would be great to have paddle control and perhaps some music. There was a version called Poing on the Amiga and it used randomising algorithms to generate tunes. I always loved that. Something to show the level number you've reached would be nice too and perhaps having the game 'pause' between rounds requiring a button press to start (I'm an old fogie and sometimes I need to go pee quick! ) Of course, a couple of extra pickups and enemies wouldn't hurt either but that's just greed on my part!

 

Regardless, I do mean it when I say this is my favourite version on the 2600. Good job, bloke.

[RePixel8]

Thanks for all the feedback.

 

Just checked out Poing on the Amiga. I like the way the game is rotated 90 degrees.

 

I'm currently working on another game at the moment, but given the feedback I think I'll definitely have to make a "deluxe" version for an 8 or 16K ROM that has support for paddles and includes the features PFL mentioned, many of which I had originally planned, but turned out not to be possible within the 4K limit.

[+Gemintronic]

My effort to duplicate this in bB just doesn't do it justice. I sacrificed a row and have no extra sprites left

 

[RePixel8]

My effort to duplicate this in bB just doesn't do it justice. I sacrificed a row and have no extra sprites left

 

bbbrik.png

 

 

I had to implement a few tricks to get it working within the limitations of the 2600. Mainly the vertical lines that separate the bricks. These are actually made of one sprite and one missile with the appropriate TIA registers set to duplicate them 3 times. This only provides 6 vertical lines, so in order to get the full 12, I had to draw the 6 lines and reposition them every other frame. This makes the lines effectively 50% transparent, and gives the kind of 3d effect to the bricks. The remaining missile and sprite is used for the left/right borders the enemy and bonuses etc, the bricks are obviously made from the playfield and the ball is used for, erm, the ball

 

It turned out to be not as complicated as I had originally expected, but the big challenge was fitting it all into 4K.

[maiki]

Or make a 4k paddles only version...

[PFL]

Thanks for taking on board our suggestions. It's nice to have the ear of the talent!

 

I'm glad you enjoyed Poing. It's a fantastic take on the Pong game. My personal favourite version is Poing 6. I'm not really sure why but I prefer it to Poing 7. Anyway, all the versions have really cool procedural music.

 

One thing I have noticed about your game though is the flickering. When I play it through Stella it flickers a little, when I switch on the phosphor effect the flickering all but disappears. On my real 2600 the flickering is much more profound even on my CRT. I'm not complaining but I am curious as to why the game reacts differently under these circumstances...

[_MHR_]

Awesome Work !!

I want one as soon as its ready !!

[+Gemintronic]

Thanks to the info from RePixel8 I was able to get the virtual sprites in my mock up:

batari BASIC makes you give up missile0 for paddle support so I cannot reproduce his all white borders. If I leave it as joystick only then I could use missile0 as a border.

 

What RePixel8 is doing here is no joke. It's much harder than it looks.

 

UPDATE: Oops. I'm missing a column of separate blocks in the left-hand side of "b"rik. sigh.

[PFL]

@ theloon; Do you intende to take this further and make your own Arkanoid clone or are you just doing this for S & G's?

[+Gemintronic]

I've already been a little creepy taking up space in RePixel8s topic. It was mostly to understand what he was doing from a developers perspective. To be honest I've had "developers block" and was trying to get back in the groove.

 

That being said, if you think there's a demand I can post the source for others to play with (in a separate topic)

[Godzilla]

this does look great! nice work!

[Mr SQL]

RePixel8,

awesome game! This is in the Pong folder on my Harmony (favourite genre), hope you expand it!

[Nognir]

As your game would fit into a cartridge release do you also have plans for making one?

[RePixel8]

Well, I've been working on a label design and had a few prototype cartridges made up. If there's enough demand, I'd certainly consider a cartridge release.

 

Anyone interested?

 

[TrekMD]

I like the look of that! I'm interested!