Entry 2015: Alligator Swamp

[carlsson]

Thanks for the input, I will consider it together with all the other planned improvements. Actually I thought the monkey was meant to rotate all the time in the PET version - using the |- graphics - but in the C64 version with custom graphics, whoever ported it settled for the monkey to flap his arms. We'll see about that.

[GroovyBee]

(I noticed from earlier threads that people prefer if each uploaded binary is given a version number, but as this is nowhere near finished yet, I'll leave it as an exercise who any collector of unfinished ROMs to number them)

If you don't want to version number all the files you could put a simple title page on the front of the game and put a version number on that instead.

[GroovyBee]

I think its worth making the player avatar use 2 sprites (or more) to make him more colourful.

 

[catsfolly]

If you don't want to version number all the files you could put a simple title page on the front of the game and put a version number on that instead.

This is a good idea in general.

 

If you post several versions of your game that look about the same, someone will invariably get or run some old version of the game and confuse you with bug reports and comments about things that you changed a long time ago. A version number or date on the title screen helps reduce these kinds of problems...

[First Spear]

I have taken Intellivision game inspiration more than a few times by looking at games from the era on other platforms. There is a lot of Inty potential and altogether not *that* many games...

 

 

[snip]

 

By the way, the Commodore PET games library contains a number of unusual games that I can't recall ever seeing before, despite 30+ years of gaming experience. Not all of them are super fun to play, but many are interesting enough to be further developed if people are going for mild originality.

[Rev]

Any more progress? New screens? Thanks!

[carlsson]

I tried to implement a vertically scrolling tree last weekend, but it doesn't yet behave the way I want. So unsuccessful progress yes, but nothing worth sharing.

[+nanochess]

I tried to implement a vertically scrolling tree last weekend, but it doesn't yet behave the way I want. So unsuccessful progress yes, but nothing worth sharing.

 

I would suggest to give a look to the new sample landscape.bas and the previous scroll.bas

 

These samples will help you to implement scrolling. The only important point: the insertion of data into screen should come just after the WAIT.

[carlsson]

Yeah. Already earlier this year I made myself a slalom game that scrolls downwards nicely, so I should be close to a solution. For the moment being, I'll chalk it down as a PEBCAK error.

[carlsson]

So what do you do if you're on vacation, caught a cold and don't fancy spending another day in Barcelona with a runny nose? You stay at the hotel, bring out your laptop and decide to tackle your Intellivision programming challenge. It is a relatively minor improvement compared to previously, but at least now the tree scrolls upwards a little and then back down again, even though physics leave a lot to be desired (and I know that). Future improvements will include taller tree, a way to dynamically keep track of which cocunuts have been picked, possibly also scrolling the water down a bit before the alligator attacks, as well as many of the suggestions you posted so far.

 

By the way, my biggest issue with the IntyBASIC compiler is how negative 8-bit numbers work. I've given up on using +1 / -1 in formulas and hand code them instead. Perhaps switching to 16-bit numbers would make -1 behave more as I expect it to?

 

Yet no score counter, but at least a somewhat temporary title page. Have fun!

 

(and yes, that title page gives me slight vibes of Cheburshka and Krokodil Gena, even though they're friends and Gena would never eat his friend)

 

alligator0.03.bin

Edited October 9, 2015 by carlsson

[+nanochess]

In IntyBASIC v1.2.4 you now have the SIGNED statement for 8-bits variables

[carlsson]

Thanks, I'll try that later on.

[Kiwi]

You probably want to experiment with subpixel positioning with the y value. Here's a solution that nanochess suggested in another thread.

while bombsp(i)>=200:bomby(i)=bomby(i)-1:bombsp(i)=bombsp(i)+10:wend
while bombsp(i)>=10:bomby(i)=bomby(i)+1:bombsp(i)=bombsp(i)-10:wend

I was experimenting with gravity routine pulling down the bombs. I have the bomber throwing the grenades up briefly before being pulled down by gravity. Without while bombsp(i)>=200, it was dropping bombs at lightning speed as I thought number over 128 was suppose to reverse the direction.

 

My other solution to get around solving the subpixel position was to move the player every 2 to 4 frames. It does make the player move more choppier with smoother acceleration.

[+DZ-Jay]

*bump*

 

And a reminder that if you want your finished game to be considered, you must submit it to the official mailing list, as per the rules.

[+nanochess]

Thanks, I'll try that later on.

 

Don't forget to submit your game

[carlsson]

I just submitted the latest version to the competition email. It adds a score counter, lives, diving turtles, alternating levels and some silly sounds, but none of the polishing elements. We'll see if I keep working on this after the compo has ended. It means comments still are welcome, but I won't do anything about them right now.

 

alligator0.04.bin

[carlsson]

No progress about the game (I'm lazy and have too many other things on my mind), but I've investigated its origin a bit.

 

The PET/C64 game has some REM statements that refer to a Sharp MZ-80 game by N. Webster, and that it was converted to PET and later on C64 by Jos Leppens from Courbois Software. I have been trying to find the Sharp version for some time, and suddenly I found a repository which got what I believe is the same game for the MZ-80K. After some fiddling with emulation, I managed to load (but not execute) the program. Among the first few REM statements in the Sharp program though, I got additional info:

 

Alligator Swamp: P.C.W. 12/80

Listed by A.P. Todd 7/81

Amended by D.S. Todd 7/81

 

I take it that P.C.W. means Personal Computer World, December 1980 which is an issue not available at Archive.org but here is the cover:

http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/3153/Personal-Computer-World-December-1980/

[GroovyBee]

The magazine in question is being sold in a binder with the other 11 magazines from that year in this ebay auction:

 

eBay Auction -- Item Number: 122128890881

 

Perhaps asking the seller for a quick photo/scan of the game's original listing might be in order.

[carlsson]

Nice! I had a brief look at eBay but apparently used too many search terms.

 

Here is a partial list of contents 1980-1987. They had type ins at page 137-143, but not specified in the index:

https://archive.org/stream/PCWTablesOfContentsSubset/PCW-Tables-of-Contents-subset#page/n5/mode/2up

[carlsson]

In the mean time, I found a YouTube recording of the Sharp game:

 

The PET port reduces the number of trees from 3 to 2, but adds tree trunks:

[GroovyBee]

Haha! The animated alligators look pretty good given the limitations of the machines.

[+DZ-Jay]

In the mean time, I found a YouTube recording of the Sharp game:

 

The PET port reduces the number of trees from 3 to 2, but adds tree trunks:

 

That is hilarious, especially the crocodile!

 

Your "Alligator Swamp" game gets pretty close while improving the graphics a bit. When compared to those classics, I can see that you made the decision to go with the turtles and a bit of land at the base of the palm trees rather than continuous swamp cover. I think that's a good thing.

 

You also have the opportunity to use better graphics, animations, and smoother movement. The one thing I notice when I re-play your version now is that the movement is very similar to the old versions; which feels strange on the Intellivision. I think that for your game to feel more natural and modern (the Intellivision was state-of-the-art magic back in those days compared to the Pet and MX computers), it should improve on these two features:

• Physics of bouncing trajectory: Make the acceleration and deceleration due to gravity more smooth and natural, peaking at the top rather than halting.
• Smoother horizontal control of the monkey: Moving sideways should affect the horizontal velocity vector of the trajectory, but not "slide" the sprite across the screen. This, I guess, is related to the first one.

Oh, and you should work on a "chomping" animation for that alligator. That's the best part of the old ones!

 

Let us know when you have more progress.

 

-dZ.

Edited September 14, 2016 by DZ-Jay

[carlsson]

Absolutely, I have a list of TODO that I will get to.

 

By the way, that is Sharp MZ series. The Japanese had a long run of different MZ machines, mostly for business but also home use. Apparently back in November 1979, PCW reviewed the available personal computers on the UK market and found that for £600, the Sharp MZ-80K was your best buy (ahead of PET and TRS-80).

http://www.sharpmz.org/mz-80k/mz80khist.htm

[+DZ-Jay]

Absolutely, I have a list of TODO that I will get to.

 

By the way, that is Sharp MZ series. The Japanese had a long run of different MZ machines, mostly for business but also home use. Apparently back in November 1979, PCW reviewed the available personal computers on the UK market and found that for £600, the Sharp MZ-80K was your best buy (ahead of PET and TRS-80).

http://www.sharpmz.org/mz-80k/mz80khist.htm

 

 

Oops! Sorry, I meant to say Sharp MZ as well. I sort of recall that one from back in the day, even though I didn't know anybody using it. Is that the micro you had then?

 

I went from a Telestar "multi-pong" game machine to the Intellivision, to the ECS, to the C=64...

 

From there I got distracted and went like this: DJing, girls, song remixing and megamixing, DJing, chicks, The Internet, cheap PC, The WWW, various modern game consoles, Macintosh, The Intellivision... and all the way to the present.

 

-dZ.

[carlsson]

No, I started with the VIC-20 but remember the Sharp models from computer magazines at the time (1983-84). Also in more recent times browsing scanned Japanese computer magazines from those days, I realize how important brand Sharp was on its home market, with NEC and a bit of Fujitsu. The fact that Nintendo went into agreement with Sharp for production capacity and in return Sharp was the only manufacturer who were licensed to use Famicom technology in some of their own products (and got to release Mario games for their own computers, post the US "crash") also says something about their impact.

 

It strikes me now that in the original game, keys 1-4 move the monkey to the left at different speeds and 6-9 move it to the right. While the Intellivision doesn't have an analogue stick, I suppose this blends in well with smoother movement, if one would be able to accelerate the monkey sideways the longer you hold the direction. Eventually I will try some different implementations and see what feels best.