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Road Hunter


Asmusr

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Yes, take a look at the included Magellan files. Note that: 1. the road must have the same width all over, 2. the first 48 patterns (the road) are shared between all maps, 3. the colors of all characters transitions must be valid according to the analysis tool, 4. the resulting "Assembler Character Transition Data" file cannot use more than 24 color sets.

 

hehehe Might be cool to see Road Hunter expansion packs :) More levels, more fun!

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Here is my new game Road Hunter. As the name indicates it is a racing game borrowing ideas from both Road Fighter and Spy Hunter, but it's not supposed to be a remake of any of those games. The screen is scrolling smoothly at 2 or 4 pixels per frame at 60 FPS in ordinary graphics mode. The alternative would have been to scroll 8 pixels per frame in bitmap mode (as on the MSX), but I decided to sacrifice more colors for smoothness. This is running 100% on the old hardware and is not even aware of the F18A.

 

attachicon.gifscreenshot.png attachicon.gifscreenshot2.png attachicon.gifscreenshot3.png

 

The game is about earning points by bumping or shooting the other cars off the road, while avoiding crashing and running out of fuel. The demo allows you to play a full level/track more or less as I imagine the finished game. There are still some tiles left for improving the graphics, and the current music score (borrowed from Spy Hunter) will need to be expanded or it will drive you mad after a while. I'm also planning more levels, of course, and perhaps other items on the road to pick up or avoid.

 

If you need to run this under emulation I suggest to use MESS because it is not running as smoothly on Classic99 - at least not on my computer.

 

To run the game you game either use E/A#3: DSK1.RH, or E/A#5: DSK1.ROADHUNT or use the Extended Basic loader. In any case you need the 32K RAM expansion installed.

 

I have not created a YouTube video because it would not be able to capture the speed and smoothness of the scrolling.

 

Enjoy!

 

Updates:

  • January 24: New version with 'lives', oil pools, and shadows.
  • January 31: 2nd track added, extended music, fuel bonus, XB loader.
  • January 31: Drums, boot tracking, renamed map files.
  • February 1: Stuck in oil bug fixed?
  • February 9: 3rd track added, extra life every 3000 points, enemy cars collide with each other, more intelligent movement of enemy cars (level dependent), oil spills moved to level 3.
  • February 11: Demo mode added, bug fixes.

 

 

On a real TI.. I get this on level 3:

 

IMG_20140212_213026.jpg

 

IMG_20140212_213042.jpg

After I lost it went back to the clear screen for level 1/demo

 

Greg

Edited by arcadeshopper
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Well, I tried the latest version, and there's still debris on the road coming down, as well as cars standing sideways. I think that sometimes crashed cars "fall through the bottom", that is, the debris scrolls down and reappears on the upper edge of the road. While this isn't a problem if normal cars do this (since the player can't tell a newly created car from one that just fell through), it's a problem with debris because that's not supposed to appear there.

 

Also I noticed that sometimes your shots don't hit the other cars, but go right through them. I think this is likely to occur if there's already much going on on the screen, such as a car has just crashed and the debris is still on screen, or there are many cars on screen and some overlap. I know they should actually collide and be set apart from each other, but sometimes cars still do overlap without doing this. I think this happens when a car comes down and already overlaps with another car while doing so.

 

In the last version before this one, by the way, I noticed that you can also shoot oil slicks... don't know if this is still possible.

But thanks for giving us better brakes and more ammo for our guns! ;-)

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Well, I tried the latest version, and there's still debris on the road coming down, as well as cars standing sideways. I think that sometimes crashed cars "fall through the bottom", that is, the debris scrolls down and reappears on the upper edge of the road. While this isn't a problem if normal cars do this (since the player can't tell a newly created car from one that just fell through), it's a problem with debris because that's not supposed to appear there.

 

Also I noticed that sometimes your shots don't hit the other cars, but go right through them. I think this is likely to occur if there's already much going on on the screen, such as a car has just crashed and the debris is still on screen, or there are many cars on screen and some overlap. I know they should actually collide and be set apart from each other, but sometimes cars still do overlap without doing this. I think this happens when a car comes down and already overlaps with another car while doing so.

 

In the last version before this one, by the way, I noticed that you can also shoot oil slicks... don't know if this is still possible.

But thanks for giving us better brakes and more ammo for our guns! ;-)

 

what shots? all i can do is bump cars. how do you shoot? the fire button does nothing in play.

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Well, I tried the latest version, and there's still debris on the road coming down, as well as cars standing sideways. I think that sometimes crashed cars "fall through the bottom", that is, the debris scrolls down and reappears on the upper edge of the road. While this isn't a problem if normal cars do this (since the player can't tell a newly created car from one that just fell through), it's a problem with debris because that's not supposed to appear there.

 

Also I noticed that sometimes your shots don't hit the other cars, but go right through them. I think this is likely to occur if there's already much going on on the screen, such as a car has just crashed and the debris is still on screen, or there are many cars on screen and some overlap. I know they should actually collide and be set apart from each other, but sometimes cars still do overlap without doing this. I think this happens when a car comes down and already overlaps with another car while doing so.

 

In the last version before this one, by the way, I noticed that you can also shoot oil slicks... don't know if this is still possible.

But thanks for giving us better brakes and more ammo for our guns! ;-)

 

I can't figure out why the sideways cars are appearing, but I have made a few changes in the latest version and I don't think I have seen one (sideways car) since. I have also prevented the shots from hitting the oil. The shot collision is based on the hardware flag, and I think it works pretty well, but there are always problems with fast moving sprites. Regarding collisions between the other cars I don't process more than one collision each frame to save CPU cycles, so it's possible that some are missed.

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Well, I tested the last correction version, and I've still seen one sideways car and some debris coming down from the top. Your shots still go over the cars sometimes as well. I think the hardware flag makes problems when there are multiple collisions on screen, i.e. when you're just driving over the debris of the car you previously shot. Of course the hardware only detects there's been SOME collision, but it's hard to figure out which one, or if there are even multiple collisions at once (some of which are irrelevant).

 

I've also played the arcade versions of Road Fighter and Spy Hunter in the last days, and I have to admit that I like Road Hunter more than both of them. Road Hunter is very colorful (as is Road Fighter) and smooth. Road Fighter is very fast and seems too hard at times. Spy Hunter doesn't even run at 60 fps, and even though there are less enemies on screen at a time, it feels more unfair since some enemies just kick you from the road and you have no chance to escape them. With Road Hunter, you can almost always say that YOU have made a mistake as a player, and you can do better. It's also challenging by the element of frequent extra lives which give you some relief IF you just make that next 3,000 points. And it's one of those games where you can take more risks by playing more aggressively, which in turn means a higher chance of crashing your own car, but it can also mean more points and hence more extra lives.

 

I also like Road Hunter more than the other available TI-99 racing games I know, Driving Demon (monotonous!), Car Wars (a bit unfair at times), Munch Mobile (slow!) and Pole Position (choppy!).

 

Some tips I have for playing:

- On straightaways, enemy cars can be rammed into the side if they are to the left of the middle of the left lane, or to the right of the middle of the right lane. But you should only do that if you can anticipate not crashing into another car after having eliminated one.

- In curves (when the road moves left or right), enemy cars should only be rammed into the outer wall, not into the inner one. Trying to ram one into the inner one may easily cause you to bounce back into the outer wall and crash yourself.

- You should slow down if you see congestion (many cars) in front of you and can't anticipate which of the cars will crash into each other and where they will bounce to. In this case, just try to dodge all cars. Also just try to dodge the cars if there's a fuel can or gun ahead and ramming a car into the wall would cause you to bounce away, unable to catch it. If you have to go through a congested area, try to keep to the middle of the road, especially in curves, and confront the other cars so that they are pushed towards the outside of the track, and you bounce back to the inside.

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@Rasmus, I have a 128K layout that I made for Jon a few years ago. I can provide you the files if you want them. I also have a 512K version that uses two switches to turn one of the 128K carts into four, all inside a single case--if you don't install the switches, it is just a vanilla 128K cart. These variants were the trigger that set me on the path to making the fully self-contained 512K cart with Jon and Tursi.

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@Rasmus, I have a 128K layout that I made for Jon a few years ago. I can provide you the files if you want them. I also have a 512K version that uses two switches to turn one of the 128K carts into four, all inside a single case--if you don't install the switches, it is just a vanilla 128K cart. These variants were the trigger that set me on the path to making the fully self-contained 512K cart with Jon and Tursi.

 

Sure I would like to see those layouts. :)

 

I'm working on the 128K cartridge file with my three games. This is quite challenging because the game program files, cart header/loader, and cart file all depend on each other. For instance, if I change the length of Titanium one word, that changes the cart header/loader, which changes the cart file, which changes Titanium (because it has to load data from other locations in ROM), which again changes the cart file.

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@Rasmus, I have a 128K layout that I made for Jon a few years ago. I can provide you the files if you want them. I also have a 512K version that uses two switches to turn one of the 128K carts into four, all inside a single case--if you don't install the switches, it is just a vanilla 128K cart. These variants were the trigger that set me on the path to making the fully self-contained 512K cart with Jon and Tursi.

 

me too me too!

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I believe I finally fixed the 'trash coming down the road' bug. The trash was generated instead of oil on levels 1 and 2. I have also made some small adjustments to how you hit the other cars: You more often hit them from the rear (bad) of front (good), but you don't bounce so much when you hit from the side. Download from post #1.

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I believe I finally fixed the 'trash coming down the road' bug. The trash was generated instead of oil on levels 1 and 2. I have also made some small adjustments to how you hit the other cars: You more often hit them from the rear (bad) of front (good), but you don't bounce so much when you hit from the side. Download from post #1.

 

I will use this version then on the Gameshelf. Planning to do the update on Sunday.

BTW, would you be willing to put together a brief paragraph describing the game and the how to play?

Edited by Vorticon
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I will use this version then on the Gameshelf. Planning to do the update on Sunday.

BTW, would you be willing to put together a brief paragraph describing the game and the how to play?

 

I'm still planning to add a few finishing touches: a new font, a pause key, perhaps some small changes to the sprite patterns, but it should all be ready by tomorrow...

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I can finally say that I have now tried this on the real thing, got my nanoPEB working, having not used a real TI for 27 years I had forgot that UP on the joystick doesn't work with the Alpha lock key in

the wrong position (I am using a homemade atari adaptor if that makes any difference).

The game looks and plays fantastic, there is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that had games of this calibre existed in the TI's heyday, it would have been around quite a while longer.

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...having not used a real TI for 27 years I had forgot that UP on the joystick doesn't work with the Alpha lock key in

the wrong position...

 

 

I had to laugh when I read that! We've all been there! Heck, I'm still fighting it! I was going to do the diode fix when I had my system open for the F18A install, but forgot about it. <sigh>

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