mdoerty Posted July 31, 2014 Share Posted July 31, 2014 Looks interesting! Can't wait to hear more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synthpopalooza Posted July 15, 2016 Author Share Posted July 15, 2016 Necrobump ... I have been mulling over restarting this project. I haven't had a chance to work on this over the last two years, but with the improvements made to 7800basic, I am going to give this a try again. One improvement that is promising, is the increase of screen area now supported by 7800basic, which means I can make the sprites a bit taller than I had originally. So, we shall see. I really want to do this. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KidGameR186496 Posted July 15, 2016 Share Posted July 15, 2016 Your project looks really promising,good luck buddy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synthpopalooza Posted July 3, 2017 Author Share Posted July 3, 2017 OK, I worked on this some more for the first time in 3 years: Made a little progress: The screen is 208 pixels high now ... the blocks now color 2 at a time, and once all of them are colored it goes to a new level. Your player can now hover at the top of the screen and color any blocks he flies over if they are right below him. The next step will be to implement blocks at the very top of the screen which will stop your hovering and cause a fall. You can see some of the traps in the floor, but as of now they don't kill you. The player is still the stock animation ... going to work on some different animations. Next to work on: adding an enemy missile which will home in on the player. picking up coins physics for falling on coins ... in the original, if you hold the button as you land on a coin, it doesn't get picked up, instead you begin flying. This allows for the usage of coins as temporary platforms. Ability to walk over coins and pick them up if they are embedded in the platform. Traps kill player. Adrenaline pills to confer invincibility. Timing will be limited. Physics for falling or walking over these will be the same as for coins. ramcharmap3.bas ramcharmap3.bas.bin 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinks Posted July 3, 2017 Share Posted July 3, 2017 Will have to try!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synthpopalooza Posted July 3, 2017 Author Share Posted July 3, 2017 Oh forgot to mention: Teleports ... landing on them will teleport your man to a random location on the screen ... could even be on top of a trap. the missile and other enemies will behave thus way too. "?" Doors ... If you go inside one, one of the following will happen: Player death Double player death Bonus coin Adrenaline pill Nothing at all Warp to a random level Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synthpopalooza Posted July 5, 2017 Author Share Posted July 5, 2017 Some more teasers: Pac-Man-Red has done an excellent job on these. The rocket man is now 16 pixels high. Now to figure out how to get these into 7800Basic ... 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synthpopalooza Posted July 6, 2017 Author Share Posted July 6, 2017 A little bit further progress: Blocks are now changed 2 at a time ... Blocks are now changed by flying into them from below The player animation has been changed to the rocketman although the colors are still wrong. A second enemy sprite is on the screen now. It's still using the rocketman sprite but it will be the missile. It sort of homes in on the player but the logic is not quite right yet. ramcharmap3b.bas.bin I want to eventually try adding more than one missile ... something I could not do in my original 8-bit game. Also trigger a player death whenever the missile touches the player. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synthpopalooza Posted July 13, 2017 Author Share Posted July 13, 2017 Latest update: All the rocketman animations (including flying) are in now. The second sprite now tracks the first one better. Next step: Trigger player death from traps and missile, and include missile animations ramcharmap3d.bas.bin 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synthpopalooza Posted July 18, 2017 Author Share Posted July 18, 2017 New update: Missile animations are in! I slowed down the missile a bit too ... higher levels may increase the missile's speed. There are two levels in the game now. I am looking into making the playing field wider and including a score box at the top. ramcharmap3d.bas.bin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synthpopalooza Posted July 20, 2017 Author Share Posted July 20, 2017 Latest update: We now have a scoring display, although it doesn't as yet work. A row of text has been reserved at the bottom for the name of the level. ramcharmap3g(2).bas.bin 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinks Posted July 21, 2017 Share Posted July 21, 2017 That looks great!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevEng Posted July 21, 2017 Share Posted July 21, 2017 You might want to try that on real hardware. The way it looks in MAME suggests that you're running out of DMA render time. The text at the top and bottom is mostly cut off, and the missle dissapears when its vertically level with the player. To pare down the DMA usage, avoid having the plotmap cover your top and bottom rows, where you're also using plotvalue and plotchars. For the missle you might have to reduce the character columns a bit. 320b mode graphics are pretty demanding on Maria. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synthpopalooza Posted July 21, 2017 Author Share Posted July 21, 2017 Would switching the text mode on the top columns over to 320A or 160A solve the issue? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevEng Posted July 21, 2017 Share Posted July 21, 2017 In my experience, you don't get very many extra characters plotted on top of a full row of characters. You'll save some DMA time by using 320A (it's chars are twice as wide as 320B, in bytes) or a bit more by using 160A (4x as wide as 320B). But do you really need the game tiles to overlap the text areas? Making them non-overlapping should solve the problem instantly, without a reduction in visuals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synthpopalooza Posted July 21, 2017 Author Share Posted July 21, 2017 The whole game itself is in 160B including the text at the top. I will try a smaller plotmap. One thing I still want to do is have an explosion happen over your lives counter every time you lose a life. Hopefully this doesn't cause issues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevEng Posted July 21, 2017 Share Posted July 21, 2017 Ok, I stand corrected on your game's mode, but the overall point remains; 160B is twice as expensive for DMA as 160A, and more or less the same as 320A. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebor Posted July 21, 2017 Share Posted July 21, 2017 If someone does not have access to real hardware and a development tool as excellent as the MCPDev Cart (allowing the hardware capture below), or similar, MAME is the next best thing: If utilizing the ProSystem emulator, developers may ultimately be spinning their wheels in frustration. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synthpopalooza Posted July 22, 2017 Author Share Posted July 22, 2017 OK, update: I have fixed the plotmap so it no longer collides with the text on top or on bottom. I am looking into getting MAME so I can see these sorts of things properly. Someone check this and see if it behaves properly please. Are these developers carts still available? It would come in very handy for me ... especially as I also want to use my Atari 7800 as a musical instrument in my recording studio as well! ramcharmap3g(4).bas.bin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted July 22, 2017 Share Posted July 22, 2017 Are these developers carts still available? It would come in very handy for me ... especially as I also want to use my Atari 7800 as a musical instrument in my recording studio as well! I will make sure you have one in the near future, no charge. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synthpopalooza Posted July 22, 2017 Author Share Posted July 22, 2017 Well for that, mate, you get a free cart of this when it's finished! Whenever that might be ... This is a real labour of love for me. I spent my youth coding this game on the Atari XL platform in the late 80s ... but always wanted the means to do this game justice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synthpopalooza Posted July 22, 2017 Author Share Posted July 22, 2017 Oh also .. If you need a spare pokey ... I have a non functioning Atari 800XL I can ship to you so that you can scavenge the POKEY from it. Let me know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synthpopalooza Posted July 23, 2017 Author Share Posted July 23, 2017 (edited) My accomplishments today: Each level now has its own unique color scheme. I will be changing the graphics of the blocks every 5 levels. I originally wanted to do it on each level, but as there will be 40 levels, I don't know if I have the ram needed for that. The falling and flying physics are now tweaked, especially on the third level, where the rows of blocks are exactly a player height apart. A crucial part of playing this game will be learning the move where you hold your stick left or right while thrusting, and coloring both rows of blocks simultaneously. Remember, hitting a block from below colors it too, but makes your man fall. The first 5 levels are now in, as well. ramcharmap3g(4).bas.bin Edited July 23, 2017 by Synthpopalooza Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gambler172 Posted July 23, 2017 Share Posted July 23, 2017 How about an a78 rom? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebor Posted July 23, 2017 Share Posted July 23, 2017 How about an a78 rom? Here's the respective *.a78 from today's 12:51AM update: ramcharmap3g(4).bas.a78 Looking quite good: Keep up the great work, Synthpopalooza! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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