Draconian (2600)

[YANDMAN]

This is just fantastic i cannot wait to play this, is there going to be a PAL version......please............please, Ive lost track of the many good games coming out on both 2600 and 7800 all you guys do an amazing job, I hope one day to be able to add to this.

[+SpiceWare]

This is just fantastic i cannot wait to play this, is there going to be a PAL version......please............please, Ive lost track of the many good games coming out on both 2600 and 7800 all you guys do an amazing job, I hope one day to be able to add to this.

Thanks! There's only going to be 1 version, but it already supports NTSC, PAL and SECAM:

 

Menu Options:

• Level = select from 1 of 6 test levels.
• TV Type = Select NTSC, PAL or SECAM for proper colors based on your model 2600.

That menu option only changes the colors while leaving the game at 60 FPS. The TVs in Europe appear to support that frame rate without any problem.

[YANDMAN]

Dude you are the man, This is got me sooooooooo excited, I very nearly built a Bosconian cabinet last year but made something else in the end. yeah all my tv's even my CRT's all support 60fps its something i specifically look for in older tv's.

 

Whats your lead time to finishing the project do you think?

[+SpiceWare]

• Whats your lead time to finishing the project do you think?

 

 

That's hard to say:

• Medieval Mayhem - 9 months
• Stay Frosty - 2 months
• Space Rocks - 8 months
• Stay Frosty 2 - minor test done in 2008,though it was all scrapped when I restarted the project using DPC+ in September 2010. It was finished at the end of 2013, though there were a lot of detours along the way. This project resulted in a number of fixes to DPC+ as well as the addition of DPC+ and ARM emulation to Stella.
• Frantic - started in 2011, still not done
• Timmy! - started January 2013, still not done

Edited September 29, 2014 by SpiceWare

[AtariLeaf]

I'm gonna fire up the latest build on the ouya tonight and give 'er a go. Love your work Darrell, LOVE IT!

Edited September 29, 2014 by AtariLeaf

[WildBillTX]

I'm finally getting the hang of playing this game after getting killed off too easily. BTW is it intentional that your ship flies faster in a X diagonal pattern than + (right left up down)?

[+SpiceWare]

While it may not look it, these are very early routines - probably comparable to this build of Space Rocks.

 

I'll be creating the movement tables when I work on the enemy ship routines, what's in place is just enough to deal with the placeholder shapes that were used to test the sprite routines and the radar display.

[KevinMos3]

• Medieval Mayhem - 9 months
• Stay Frosty - 2 months
• Space Rocks - 8 months
• Stay Frosty 2 - minor test done in 2008,though it was all scrapped when I restarted the project using DPC+ in September 2010. It was finished at the end of 2013, though there were a lot of detours along the way. This project resulted in a number of fixes to DPC+ as well as the addition of DPC+ and ARM emulation to Stella.
• Frantic - started in 2011, still not done
• Timmy! - started January 2013, still not done

 

 

I'm not familiar with "Timmy!" I must have missed any posts about that one. What type of game was/is it?

 

I can hardly wait to get Stay Frosty 2. It's #1 on my Christmas wish list when it comes out... and I've made sure the key present-buying-people in my life know it.

 

I picked up Space Rocks at PRGE last year.

 

Frantic has been looking incredible for a long time now. Definitely a must-have when it's done.

 

And, I'm REALLY looking forward to this game. I never even heard of Bosconian until this, but I must say, I greatly prefer your take on the name "Draconian." That sounds so much more appealing. It's amazing what you've done with it so far.

 

-Kevin

[+SpiceWare]

I'm not familiar with "Timmy!" I must have missed any posts about that one. What type of game was/is it?

I think there's only one blog entry about it. The TV Type routines in Draconian came from it.

 

 

I can hardly wait to get Stay Frosty 2. It's #1 on my Christmas wish list when it comes out... and I've made sure the key present-buying-people in my life know it.

I can't wait either! It took much longer to develop than I expected, though all the delays resulted in a significantly better game than I expected it to be. Had lots of help on this one - you might have noticed everybody in the Credits section of the manual that was included with the demo.

 

I picked up Space Rocks at PRGE last year.

Thanks! I had a great time at PRGE and plan to return again. It's not in the cards for this year though. Who knows, maybe Draconian will be released there next year

 

Frantic has been looking incredible for a long time now. Definitely a must-have when it's done.

This ones taking longer than I expected too. I have a feeling I'm going to reboot it again and start with the digitized audio routines as that's been giving me the most grief.

 

And, I'm REALLY looking forward to this game. I never even heard of Bosconian until this, but I must say, I greatly prefer your take on the name "Draconian." That sounds so much more appealing. It's amazing what you've done with it so far.

Nathan came up a dozen names or so and we decided Draconian was best. A few of the others were Atarian, Space Fortress Attack, Stellar Assault and Space Infiltrator.

[+SpiceWare]

I've been busy with other stuff, but Nathan's been doing some Stellar Cartography so here's a new build.

 

New menu options:

• Quadrant: Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta
• Sector: 1-x, depends on selected Quadrant. This used to be Level
• Level: Kids, Easy, Normal, Hard

Quadrants:

• Alpha - Midway arcade levels (Nathan's mapped out 12 sectors so far)
• Beta - will be Namco [new] arcade levels
• Gamma - will be unique levels for Draconian.
• Delta - will be AtariAge contest levels

Note: Beta, Gamma and Delta contain placeholder levels for now.

 

Level currently controls the number of space objects (asteroids and mines) that appear in each of the 32 horizontal zones.

 

ROM¹
draconian_20141014.bin

¹ Requires Stella ver 3.7.1 or later. See first post for instructions on how to reduce flicker.

[+SpiceWare]

I'm gonna fire up the latest build on the ouya tonight and give 'er a go. Love your work Darrell, LOVE IT!

 

Thanks for the new video! It's much, much better than the other guy's flickerific one!

 

 

Might want to make the link in the comment go the topic though, that way you won't have to change it every time I release a new build. I always update the current version link, located at the top of the topic post, whenever I post a new build.

[AtariLeaf]

 

Thanks for the new video! It's much, much better than the other guy's flickerific one!

 

 

Might want to make the link in the comment go the topic though, that way you won't have to change it every time I release a new build. I always update the current version link, located at the top of the topic post, whenever I post a new build.

 

Glad you like it and your right, I'll make the change so it points to the proper topic

[YANDMAN]

give me a cartridge nowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

[+SpiceWare]

Alpha Quadrant is done, Beta Quadrant is done thru level 19.

 

ROM¹

draconian_20141018.bin

 

¹ Requires Stella ver 3.7.1 or later. See first post for instructions on how to reduce flicker.

[+SpiceWare]

We think Beta Quadrant is done.

 

Did some more work on the enemy formations. They just fly in a circle at the moment. The radar display will now alternate between radar display and formation display.

 

Line Formation (with radar display and formation display)

 

Arrow Formation

 

Square Formation

 

Diamond Formation

 

Note: set Right Difficulty to A to freeze the ship movement, formations will still change.

 

ROM¹

draconian_20141019.bin

 

¹ Requires Stella ver 3.7.1 or later. See first post for instructions on how to reduce flicker.

[yell0w_lantern]

Unbelievable work... as always.

Is there a link for donations?

 

The Spice[ware] must flow!

[Omegamatrix]

Unbelievable work... as always.

Is there a link for donations?

 

The Spice[ware] must flow!

LOL

 

 

Post of 1,000 likes. I love Dune...

[AtariBrian]

Any chance the sounds will be changed a bit so they arent identical to Space Rocks ? Looking forward to getting this on cart like all your others !

[iesposta]

Any chance the sounds will be changed a bit so they arent identical to Space Rocks ? Looking forward to getting this on cart like all your others !

100% chance of change. It's the way he programs. Everything is a placeholder until it's changed.

[+SpiceWare]

Any chance the sounds will be changed a bit so they arent identical to Space Rocks ? Looking forward to getting this on cart like all your others !

Yep - sounds tend to get done towards the end. I like to drop placeholder sounds in at the beginning as quiet games aren't as much fun.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I like to drop placeholder sounds in at the beginning as quiet games aren't as much fun.

Usually I don't do even that. Suppose, I am a more visual person.

[DaveD]

This is looking amazing, as usual. The combination of your programming skills and Nathan's graphics is unbeatable. Bosconian is one of those games that was always fun and I always thought it had a good amount of replay value because there was always more content to look forward to. Maybe because I was never that good at it but it did seem to offer the promise of endless challenge, levels and surprises. Looking forward to this one!

[+SpiceWare]

This is looking amazing, as usual. The combination of your programming skills and Nathan's graphics is unbeatable. Bosconian is one of those games that was always fun and I always thought it had a good amount of replay value because there was always more content to look forward to. Maybe because I was never that good at it but it did seem to offer the promise of endless challenge, levels and surprises. Looking forward to this one!

 

 

Thanks!

 

I was getting annoyed when I'd glance down to view the radar only to see the formation display, so did some hacking in Stella which lead to this:

 

 

More info & ROM in last night's blog entry.

[Keatah]

I occasionally read up on this project. Two suggestions I have.

 

1- maybe somehow put both radar displays adjacent to each other. Having them separated by the digit looks cluttered. outline each with a box.

 

2- regarding controllability, it is difficult to "cruise" diagonally. By that I mean you must release the joystick just so, or release the left arrow key and up arrow key (emulation) at exactly the same moment, otherwise the game makes your ship travel horizontally or vertically. I.e. It pays attention to the last direction command.

[+SpiceWare]

Thanks for the input

 

1- maybe somehow put both radar displays adjacent to each other. Having them separated by the digit looks cluttered. outline each with a box.

I don't think there's enough time for the player updates and color change if they're moved closer together.

 

The frame around the radar is "suggested" by the 4 ticks in the corners. Those ticks are drawn with the players, which must be shifted before/after the radar display so they line up correctly. The radar spans the full 8 pixels, so I'd have to use the missiles to draw a box. Each missile would be a different color, so I don't think that'd look very good.

 

One thing to consider is the formation display is on all the time right now because I'm still building the framework for the game. Once I get everything in place, that display will only show up when a formation attacks - to get a feel for how often that is check some gameplay videos like this one, where it first shows up at 2:50

 

 

 

2- regarding controllability, it is difficult to "cruise" diagonally. By that I mean you must release the joystick just so, or release the left arrow key and up arrow key (emulation) at exactly the same moment, otherwise the game makes your ship travel horizontally or vertically. I.e. It pays attention to the last direction command.

I've noticed that a few times, but never often enough that it crossed my mind as a problem. I'll have to think on how to deal with it, maybe caching the prior frame's joystick reading and merging it with the current frame will do the trick

Edited October 21, 2014 by SpiceWare