+Atarius Maximus Posted July 9, 2015 Author Share Posted July 9, 2015 Love it! Sign me up for a cart! It would be cool if at least one of the enemies followed your character, trying to kill you. Maybe the guy with the shield? It would add some challenge as you would need to kill him fast as he chased you around or (if you ran out of arrows) run away in a mad dash to pick up more arrows. (I'm imagining Pac man when a ghost chases you every so often.) But regardless, this is turning out to be a great addition to the 7800 library. Love the voice work! Great job! First, thanks to everyone for the kind words. To classicvidgamer - thanks for the feedback. While no game is ever perfect, we spent a long time working on balancing all of the gameplay elements to make it challenging and fun without being overly difficult, from the timing of when powerups appear, how long they stay on screen, the speed of the player, enemies, and arrows, and countless other things as well. The skeleton warrior with the shield that you are referring to actually is coded to be more likely to take a path toward the player when an intersection in the dungeon is reached. It's subtle of course, but he is a little bit more aggressive. Changing him to relentlessly pursue you would upset the gameplay balance at this point and make it exceedingly difficult, in my opinion. Thanks again for the suggestion, though, it's always appreciated! Steve 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thursday83 Posted July 10, 2015 Share Posted July 10, 2015 Much appreciated. Very cool and you are even cooler for putting your time and effort into this. Will buy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Trebor Posted July 10, 2015 Share Posted July 10, 2015 First, thanks to everyone for the kind words. To classicvidgamer - thanks for the feedback. While no game is ever perfect, we spent a long time working on balancing all of the gameplay elements to make it challenging and fun without being overly difficult, from the timing of when powerups appear, how long they stay on screen, the speed of the player, enemies, and arrows, and countless other things as well. The skeleton warrior with the shield that you are referring to actually is coded to be more likely to take a path toward the player when an intersection in the dungeon is reached. It's subtle of course, but he is a little bit more aggressive. Changing him to relentlessly pursue you would upset the gameplay balance at this point and make it exceedingly difficult, in my opinion. Thanks again for the suggestion, though, it's always appreciated! Steve In addition to Steve's comments above, please note a couple of things about the video: 1. I've lost track of how many times I've played the game. To state I've played a full game more than 100 times would be very realistic. Partial games, I could not even fathom the number of times played. The recording may not portray the challenge for the average player or a newcomer. 2. Unfortunately due to the the recording device (method) and CRT bloom, the title screen with difficulty option selected was indistinguishable at the beginning. A person can choose among: Novice, Standard, Advance, Expert. The game recorded was under Standard mode. To state the least, Advance and Expert offer up even more of a challenge. Under Expert, its large block shots from the enemy out the gate, the bunker already damaged (There is no safe place from the 'non-Wizard' enemy), and a start point of Level 3 with only 3 lives, may make even the most seasoned players cry "Uncle". 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Atarius Maximus Posted July 10, 2015 Author Share Posted July 10, 2015 Thanks for sharing those extra details, Trebor. You're right, Expert mode is brutal. I made a few minor revisions to the instruction manual and updated my previous posts with the new download. I'll also go ahead and attach it here. DungeonStalkerManual_1.232b.pdf 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
classicvidgamer Posted July 10, 2015 Share Posted July 10, 2015 First, thanks to everyone for the kind words. To classicvidgamer - thanks for the feedback. While no game is ever perfect, we spent a long time working on balancing all of the gameplay elements to make it challenging and fun without being overly difficult, from the timing of when powerups appear, how long they stay on screen, the speed of the player, enemies, and arrows, and countless other things as well. The skeleton warrior with the shield that you are referring to actually is coded to be more likely to take a path toward the player when an intersection in the dungeon is reached. It's subtle of course, but he is a little bit more aggressive. Changing him to relentlessly pursue you would upset the gameplay balance at this point and make it exceedingly difficult, in my opinion. Thanks again for the suggestion, though, it's always appreciated! Steve Steve - I can see you guys spent a lot of time refining everything from the sound, the graphics, gameplay, etc. It really shows. I am highly anticipating the release of this game! I grew up in the hey day of arcades and this game totally reminds me of those early days. I'm fairly new to the Atari 7800 scene (being more of a Jag fan). I bought my first 7800 a couple of months ago. This game makes me glad I finally jumped in. (As well as Bentley Bear: Crystal Quest.) Thank you for taking the time to make such a quality release. (And much thanks for responding to my suggestions!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YANDMAN Posted July 16, 2015 Share Posted July 16, 2015 what the fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu not been in the 7800 zone for a while and this is my first time hearing of and seeing this, fantastic work this looks amazing, love the voices, its just like an early 80's arcade machine, really very cool Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Atarius Maximus Posted July 16, 2015 Author Share Posted July 16, 2015 Steve - I can see you guys spent a lot of time refining everything from the sound, the graphics, gameplay, etc. It really shows. I am highly anticipating the release of this game! I grew up in the hey day of arcades and this game totally reminds me of those early days. I'm fairly new to the Atari 7800 scene (being more of a Jag fan). I bought my first 7800 a couple of months ago. This game makes me glad I finally jumped in. (As well as Bentley Bear: Crystal Quest.) Thank you for taking the time to make such a quality release. (And much thanks for responding to my suggestions!) what the fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu not been in the 7800 zone for a while and this is my first time hearing of and seeing this, fantastic work this looks amazing, love the voices, its just like an early 80's arcade machine, really very cool Thanks guys! Comments like that are what makes it fun to work on games like this and share them, and makes it very motivating to work on another game in the future. It wasn't just me, RevEng and Trebor made huge contributions as well. Thanks to everyone that's shared such positive input about this game. Al will have Dungeon Stalker up and running at his booth at the Classic Game Fest in Austin, and the plan is to have a general AA release of the game on cartridge with a new manual designed by David Exton (and likely a box) at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo in October 2015. That's of course assuming everything is ready by then, but it's looking like it will be. There's likely going to be at least one more newer release of the game prior to the show in Austin, but the changes will be very minor. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sramirez2008 Posted July 17, 2015 Share Posted July 17, 2015 Thanks guys! Comments like that are what makes it fun to work on games like this and share them, and makes it very motivating to work on another game in the future. It wasn't just me, RevEng and Trebor made huge contributions as well. Thanks to everyone that's shared such positive input about this game. Al will have Dungeon Stalker up and running at his booth at the Classic Game Fest in Austin, and the plan is to have a general AA release of the game on cartridge with a new manual designed by David Exton (and likely a box) at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo in October 2015. That's of course assuming everything is ready by then, but it's looking like it will be. There's likely going to be at least one more newer release of the game prior to the show in Austin, but the changes will be very minor. Excellent Can't wait to see it at the Classic Game Fest in Austin...can't wait for it to be available for purchase too. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thursday83 Posted July 17, 2015 Share Posted July 17, 2015 Awesome! Incredible work. Looking forward to playing it in Austin. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Atarius Maximus Posted July 20, 2015 Author Share Posted July 20, 2015 Al shared a pic with me of a Dungeon Stalker cart that he'll be taking with him to demo the game at the Classic Game Fest this weekend. He gave me the thumbs up to share it here. It looks great. Edit: I'll share a new version this week with some minor changes and bug fixes. 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariBrian Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 Al shared a pic with me of a Dungeon Stalker cart that he'll be taking with him to demo the game at the Classic Game Fest this weekend. He gave me the thumbs up to share it here. It looks great. Edit: I'll share a new version this week with some minor changes and bug fixes. Yeah that label is sick ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Atarius Maximus Posted July 22, 2015 Author Share Posted July 22, 2015 We've had a few more weeks of play testing and some additional changes were made. This is the version that Al will be using at the Classic Game Fest in Austin this weekend. Thanks again to everyone who has provided feedback and helped out. I hope everyone has a great time at the show. The core game is complete, any further changes before it's released this fall will be very minor. Below is a summary of the changes in this version. 1. Reversed Color option. The previously posted version swapped the colors so the background was black and the dungeon maze was colored. Based on feedback, an option to have a colored background and a black dungeon maze was put back in - simply hold the pause button down when you turn the game on to revert back to the original color scheme. To do this in mess, hold down the letter 'O' on the keyboard. Edit: You only need to hold it down long enough to get to the screen that displays the AtariAge logo, once you see that you can let it go.2. Movement bug fix. Horizontal movement was limited in the far left vertical corridor for the player. That bug has been fixed.3. Dungeon maze changes. An additional opening was made in the top right area of the dungeon, as well as a small opening on the far left side of the dungeon that can be used to fire an arrow through, but not walk through. This was to address the difficulty of navigating those areas and getting trapped by multiple enemies too easily.4. AtariAge Logo added. The AA logo was added during the opening sequence of the game. 5. Level Colors updated. The order of the colors used in the level progression were changed. Edit: I added a few screenshots that show the reversed color option, the new dungeon maze changes, and the new AA logo. DungeonStalker_v1.243.a78 DungeonStalker_v1.243.bin DungeonStalkerManual_1.243.pdf 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+GoldenWheels Posted July 22, 2015 Share Posted July 22, 2015 Yeah as the meme goes--shut up and take my money! All over a cart when available. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmervine Posted July 22, 2015 Share Posted July 22, 2015 Cart please! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Centurion Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 This is looking great! I really like the new black BG, but also the option to revert back! Very interested in this. I'm gonna wait to play it on my 7800 though. Thanks for making what looks like an awesome game for the 7800. Woohoo! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhoenixMoonPatrol Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 Please add me to the list to buy. Cart,manual,box,whatever will be available. Awesome screens! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sapicco Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 Wow. Just watched the gameplay video. This looks and sounds f$@?ing awesome! Are carts going to be sold? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 Wow. Just watched the gameplay video. This looks and sounds f$@?ing awesome! Are carts going to be sold? Yes, it will be demoed this weekend. http://atariage.com/forums/topic/240716-atariage-booth-at-classic-game-fest/?p=3283953 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Atarius Maximus Posted July 28, 2015 Author Share Posted July 28, 2015 I wanted to express my gratitude to Al and everyone else who helped out, attended, and played all the great games Al had set up. The booth looked fantastic and I wish I could have been there. I grabbed a few photos from the set of pics that Al shared of Dungeon Stalker in action at the show. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+save2600 Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 ...man, must have been one hell of a show. So much so, this guy pee'd himself! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevEng Posted July 29, 2015 Share Posted July 29, 2015 ...man, must have been one hell of a show. So much so, this guy pee'd himself! Maybe it wasn't his own pee... what happens in CGF, stays in CGF! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Atarius Maximus Posted August 5, 2015 Author Share Posted August 5, 2015 This is it! The final release of Dungeon Stalker is ready. Unless any further bugs in the game are found in the next few months version 245 will be the version released on cartridge in October. The only changes in this version were improvements to the enemy sprites and the AtariAge logo sprite. I didn't make any gameplay modifications. The instruction manual was also updated to include the new sprite images and credits to Trebor and Defender_2600 for their contributions to the game during it's development. Thanks to everyone for your posts and suggestions, and most importantly for playing the game. Cheers! Steve Edit: The full source code for Dungeon Stalker will be released in this thread shortly after the cartridge release. Edit 2: I updated the instruction manual to correct a spelling error (v1.245b). DungeonStalker_v1.245.a78 DungeonStalker_v1.245.bin DungeonStalkerManual_1.245b.pdf 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BydoEmpire Posted August 5, 2015 Share Posted August 5, 2015 I've been away from the 7800 for a while, but this is just awesome. Definitely buying. Following all the tweaks to the game shown throughout this thread has been fun, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Alexander Posted August 6, 2015 Share Posted August 6, 2015 If you put it on a cart I will buy it Now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Atarius Maximus Posted August 11, 2015 Author Share Posted August 11, 2015 My apologies to Trebor, I spelled his name incorrectly in my latest version of the instruction manual in the credits section. This version corrects that. DungeonStalkerManual_1.245b.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.