New A8 Game Released - Curse of the lost Miner

[baktra]

Curse of the Lost Miner is a simple platformer with features of a logic game for Atari 800XL and compatible computers.

Your goal is to guide the cursed miner through dangerous caves and collect all diamonds in each cave.

 

The game is a sequel to "Caverns of the lost miner" released in 2007.

 

Improvements

• 13 New caves (more difficult)
• More responsive controls
• Updated sounds and music
• 4 "Looks and Feels" of the caves
• Training cave

Both source code (C and ASM) and game data are freely available.
The game is NTSC-aware, the game speed is the same on both PAL/NTSC systems.

 

 

Download from home page: http://www.baktra.wz.cz/software/culomin.html

 

[Mclaneinc]

Thank you Baktra, a new platformer is always appreciated, thank you for you time and hard work....Now for some playing

[Mclaneinc]

Only thing I don't like is the player movement, the blocky movement makes it hard to control..

[baktra]

Could you elaborate?

Do you have problem with controls when the miner is falling, or do you miss longer delay before the miner starts to keep moving in one direction?

[Mclaneinc]

No, its the fact it moves in a block a player width at a time and not smoothly...Not a criticism, just makes it feel lumpy when the player moves..

[+CharlieChaplin]

Well,

 

I like "Superminer" by KE very much: http://a8.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=5057

(originally appeared as a type-in listing in a german magazine)

 

...and I also like "Superminer 2" by KE very much: http://a8.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=3005

(not sure, if this was a type-in listing, it appeared later on the ZONG magazine disk)

 

In 2007 "Caverns of the lost Miner" appeared: http://a8.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=5516

which I also like very much (and similarities to Superminer were fully intentional!)

 

Now its 2015 and we have "Curse of the lost Miner" - thank you for another sequel with new levels...

(Of course Superminer, Superminer 2 and Caverns of the lost Miner are also available at atarionline.pl and Homesoft for download.)

[Mclaneinc]

As I said originally, a new platformer is always welcome so thank you to the author.

[billkendrick]

Written in C! Can't wait to pore over the code. Thanks!

[baktra]

No, its the fact it moves in a block a player width at a time and not smoothly...Not a criticism, just makes it feel lumpy when the player moves..

 

I don't mind criticism. I don't prended that CuLoMin is a perfect game. I just wanted to make sure that it is the blocky nature of the game, not a particular movement that causes difficulties. Who knows, perhaps after another seven years, there will be the ''Revenge of the Lost Miner" game with smooth movement .

[tjb]

Thanks for releasing this! I like it. I played it last night on the MiST. I especially like that you were nice enough to release the sources. Like Bill I look forward to checking out the source...

 

tjb

[SpaceHunter]

Thanks for releasing this! I like it. I played it last night on the MiST. I especially like that you were nice enough to release the sources. Like Bill I look forward to checking out the source...

 

tjb

Yes, kudos for sharing the source code! I started reading material on ACTION! to write my own games, but I really like this approach of using cc65 on modern technology.

 

The game is awesome brings me back to the 80s with it's look and feel, game play music was treat as well.

 

Thanks Baktra!

[baktra]

Under several layers of dust, I've found a MS-DOS predecessor of my "XXX of the Lost Miner games". I wrote it in Turbo Pascal when I was a secondary school student. http://www.baktra.wz.cz/software/packages/lminer.zip

It is still playable in DOSBOX, one just need to press the NumLock key twice after the DOSBOX is launched, otherwise the miner won't move.

[Aking]

 

I don't mind criticism. I don't prended that CuLoMin is a perfect game. I just wanted to make sure that it is the blocky nature of the game, not a particular movement that causes difficulties. Who knows, perhaps after another seven years, there will be the ''Revenge of the Lost Miner" game with smooth movement .

 

 

i think the movement as it is helps to add precision to the game

[baktra]

I have started working on port to Atari 5200. It will have different main menu (CC65 conio functions are for 20x24 text screen), but the rest of the game should be the same.

 

Edited April 29, 2015 by baktra

[Aking]

I have started working on port to Atari 5200. It will have different main menu (CC65 conio functions are for 20x24 text screen), but the rest of the game should be the same.

 

 

on the 5200

if you do a 32k version i could add a splash screen for a 64 k bin

[+therealbountybob]

thanks baktra for creating a new game

 

I like CUTLM, nice sound, graphics are very nice and although the controls are tricky* as you need to react mid-jump to get some diamonds you can make progress. Took me a while but I've completed the first cave! Probably best on slow mode. Nice that you can start on each Cave as beating each one will be a good challenge in intself

 

*The trick is to understand that you can use the high jump and move across from any position on the ladders - so sometimes you jump up the ladder and move across on the same move. Perhaps the training level should feature this

 

There are 2 xexs in the zip file: culomin and culomin_monilithic are these different versions of the game?

What's that C on the title screen? copyright?!!

 

Anyone wanting to post scores/progress for any new games of this year:.http://atariage.com/forums/topic/235793-play-every-game-from-2015/

[Island2Live]

I appreciate every little new game which comes out for the beloved Atari computer. So thank you very much to the developer of this game.

 

But, well ... in all honest respect to the creator ... I had problems with the movement too. In my case it was not the movement. It was more how the character is supposed to jump. I am not totally sure about the design decision why to push up AND press fire to jump. It was also very frustrating to see just to make just ONE little error and the whole level regenerates. Well, of course, it's a design decision and it's the same story in the good old »Miner 2049er« (which I like a lot).

 

Overall I had problems again and again and again just to get the diamonds in the first row. So after some minutes I gave up on this game.

[baktra]

thanks baktra for creating a new game

 

I like CUTLM, nice sound, graphics are very nice and although the controls are tricky* as you need to react mid-jump to get some diamonds you can make progress. Took me a while but I've completed the first cave! Probably best on slow mode. Nice that you can start on each Cave as beating each one will be a good challenge in intself

 

*The trick is to understand that you can use the high jump and move across from any position on the ladders - so sometimes you jump up the ladder and move across on the same move. Perhaps the training level should feature this

 

There are 2 xexs in the zip file: culomin and culomin_monilithic are these different versions of the game?

What's that C on the title screen? copyright?!!

 

Anyone wanting to post scores/progress for any new games of this year:.http://atariage.com/forums/topic/235793-play-every-game-from-2015/

 

 

I appreciate every little new game which comes out for the beloved Atari computer. So thank you very much to the developer of this game.

 

But, well ... in all honest respect to the creator ... I had problems with the movement too. In my case it was not the movement. It was more how the character is supposed to jump. I am not totally sure about the design decision why to push up AND press fire to jump. It was also very frustrating to see just to make just ONE little error and the whole level regenerates. Well, of course, it's a design decision and it's the same story in the good old »Miner 2049er« (which I like a lot).

 

Overall I had problems again and again and again just to get the diamonds in the first row. So after some minutes I gave up on this game.

 

 

Greetings gentlemen, and thank you for trying my game.

 

I was always wondering if the game controls were difficult or not. The game is inspired by the good old Super Miner, which I liked very much in general, but I disliked the way the miner jumped (only one type of jump, and in my opinion difficult to control) .

 

When I was designing the Lost Miner games, I was following the two rules:

1. No Super Miner-style jumping (because of the above)

2. No joystick diagonals

 

Application of the rules resulted in presence of long and high jumps in the Lost Miner and the control scheme FIRE+JS direction.

With my QuickShot II (the only joystick I have - a very good one), everything worked perfectly.

 

It would appear that with other joysticks, it may not be the case. I realized that at the Atariada 2015 event, where I had opportunity to play with other joysticks, only to realize that the controls are stiff and the game becomes diffucult or even frustrating. And yes, the caves were designed to be really tough.

 

As the game is easy to modify (C code), I'll try to develop a slightly different control scheme. Currently, I have the following one on my mind:

if (fire_pressed) {
  do {
    if (fire_released) {
      high_jump();
      break;
    }
    if (js_left) {
      long_jump_left();
      break;
    }
    if (js_right) {
      long_jump_right();
      break;
    }
    if (js_down) break;
   }
}

Answers to TheBountyBob's questions:

- C stands for "Version C". It really is not a copyright. The game is in public domain. Perhaps I should switch to some common versioning scheme (1.3).

- Both binary files contain the same game/version. The one suffixed with _monolithic is a monolithic binary, while the other is a segmented binary file.

[baktra]

I have a prototype of the Atari 5200 version.

• No sound
• No way to commit suicide or return to the main menu (except death). I am learning how to use the keypad.
• Two caves to play (can be selected in the main menu)
• Controls tested using an emulator and a gamepad with analog sticks.

culomin5200.cart.tar.gz

[baktra]

And how to beat the first cave:

https://youtu.be/OYJjkjfXyLc

[Island2Live]

Hello baktra,

 

thank you very much to put some light on the control-problem. I probably found a solution WITHOUT changing the way you intended the game to be played. I have vague feeling you are comparing for destinct values when you write this code:

...
if (js_left) {
  long_jump_left();
  break;
}
...

Which probably means:

...
if (joystick == left) {
  long_jump_left();
  break;
}
...

Practically this would mean if the player pushes the joystick diagonal - which is very often the case during hectic gameplay - the program logic does not see a side movement. This would reflect my gaming experience.

 

You can change this behavior by ANDing the input from the joystick with a vuel that masks the specifci direction bit. Like this:

...
if (!(joystick & leftbit))
  long_jump_left();
  break;
}
...

The NEGATE must be done because on the Atari all bits are set while no direction is pressed.

 

Hope this explains a little.

Edited May 3, 2015 by Island2Live

[baktra]

The toleration of the diagonals is an interesting proposal. I will definitely try it.

[baktra]

Edited May 4, 2015 by baktra

[+therealbountybob]

The video of Cave 1 (above) is a good idea for anyone totally stuck. However, I did find it rewarding in the end to complete this myself. Another thing I like about the game is you can take different routes: I did the bottom right section before the bottom left section. As there are only 13 screens (and one difficulty level) it's good that the game is tricky so you have some challenge. No time limit and starting on any level is perfect for this too. Replay value will be to do all the Caves from the start(!), but for today I'll master Cave 2

[baktra]

The video of Cave 1 (above) is a good idea for anyone totally stuck. However, I did find it rewarding in the end to complete this myself. Another thing I like about the game is you can take different routes: I did the bottom right section before the bottom left section. As there are only 13 screens (and one difficulty level) it's good that the game is tricky so you have some challenge. No time limit and starting on any level is perfect for this too. Replay value will be to do all the Caves from the start(!), but for today I'll master Cave 2

 

Interesting... The cave was designed to take the bottom right section as the last one.

Didn't you have hard time collecting the highlighted diamond? That one was supposed to be the last one to be picked up.