Chaotic Grill (BurgerTime remake) in progress

[TrekMD]

BurgerRun!

[accousticguitar]

BurgerStomper!

[+MattelAquarius]

I absolutely promise that this is my last name list. Please forgive me for these.

 

BunsAway!

BunsOfSqueal

BurgerClimb

BourgeoisieTime

FastFood Frenzy

CrazyCondiments

FastestFood

MotleyFood

BurglerTime

BiggerBuns

ShortOrder! (Cook)

A Tall Order

KitchenTime

BurgerStack

BigStack Attack!

WhopperTime

PattyCakes

BunStunner

PartyFood

Stack'em-n-Whack'em

PepperPower

PepperTime

Stun-n-Run

 

GrillerTime

GrillerThriller

[Nerf Herder73]

--

Edited November 27, 2018 by Nerf Herder73

[Thomas Jentzsch]

AtariAge Rule #1: Never ask for a better game name.

 

BTW: Burger Chaos

Edited November 26, 2018 by Thomas Jentzsch

[4ever2600]

Why not just Burgertimes?

[Keatah]

I love this project. And I do like either name, ChaoticGrill or Hamburger Havoc are both good names. And I tend to lean toward Hamburger Havoc, as that's the meat of the game.

 

However.. I already made a folder for the test ROMs for this game, and it's named ChaoticGrill. So if the name gets changed (and it should not) I would need to rename the folder. And really really don't wanna hafta do that.

[Arenafoot]

 

However.. I already made a folder for the test ROMs for this game, and it's named ChaoticGrill. So if the name gets changed (and it should not) I would need to rename the folder. And really really don't wanna hafta do that.

Same here!!

[accousticguitar]

Hamburger Havoc may be a bit overzealous, but it's the best name I've seen so far. And it's a video game, overzealous is what they do!

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Hamburger Havoc may be a bit overzealous, but it's the best name I've seen so far. And it's a video game, overzealous is what they do!

That name may have some implications in Germany.

 

[+D Train]

That name may have some implications in Germany.

 

Whoa! Buzzkill!

[CrazyChris]

BurgerCide: Death by Burger

 

In a world where undead condiments prey upon those who would use them for garnish, one brave chef must harness his years of culinary training, and summon the courage to SANDWICH them out of existence. YOU are Peter Pepper. Turn your enemies into hamburger meat, before they eat you for LUNCH!

Where have I heard this cheesy, vegetable humor before...

[Inky]

I have the perfect name...

 

The chain went out of business around 1980, being bought out by Hardee's. I dont think they are using any of the IP's

[atarifan88]

I have the perfect name...

 

bc.jpg

 

The chain went out of business around 1980, being bought out by Hardee's. I dont think they are using any of the IP's

 

Finally, a name that makes sense!

[+splendidnut]

Wow, that's a lot of suggestions. I'll have to think about it.

[+splendidnut]

So here's a minor/major update depending on how you look at it. But I finally got around to messing with the enemy movement code (added more duct tape), and things seem to be working a lot better. It's still not perfect, sometimes they do really funky things, but for the most part, the enemies don't stop moving. It is definitely starting to feel more like a game now.

 

As always, there are probably still some bugs in other areas too.

 

Enjoy.

 

chaoticGrill-2018-11-29.bin

 

 

Still need to work on (no particular order):

• Flicker management (partially working, have all the pieces, just need to finish plugging them together)
• Pepper/Lives counters
• Items (dependent on flicker management)
• Scoring of enemies dropping

Once these things are done, the game will basically be feature complete, but not necessarily finished.

 

ALSO, if any one would like to help out on Sounds, Music, Title Screen, Extra Levels, please let me know.

[Coolcrab]

I love Hamburger Havoc!

 

Might be able to help with levels of you want. PM me with details.

[carlsson]

I was about to suggest something along the lines of Passionate Patties but perhaps that would make it sound like a certain adult game.

[+fdr4prez]

I was about to suggest something along the lines of Passionate Patties but perhaps that would make it sound like a certain adult game.

 

When I saw "Passionate Patties" in your post, it popped into my head that there needs to be a SpongeBob themed graphic hack.

 

The Chef will become SpongeBob and he is running around on Krabby Patties while the baddies are the various characters from the show chasing him around.

 

The items in the game can be a spatula, a jellyfish catching net, and Gary, etc

[accousticguitar]

 

When I saw "Passionate Patties" in your post, it popped into my head that there needs to be a SpongeBob themed graphic hack.

 

The Chef will become SpongeBob and he is running around on Krabby Patties while the baddies are the various characters from the show chasing him around.

 

The items in the game can be a spatula, a jellyfish catching net, and Gary, etc

Not a bad idea, and maybe the younger generation would like it too.

[StephenJ]

When I saw "Passionate Patties" in your post, it popped into my head that there needs to be a SpongeBob themed graphic hack.

 

The Chef will become SpongeBob and he is running around on Krabby Patties while the baddies are the various characters from the show chasing him around.

 

The items in the game can be a spatula, a jellyfish catching net, and Gary, etc

I think this is a great idea!!...really lends itself well to the characters.

[Kurt_Woloch]

Thank you for the update. I noticed that the enemies still do stop in certain cases. This seems to happen when they reach an intersection or a dead end where no way leads them closer to the player. For instance, they move down a ladder and reach a platform leading to the left, and the ladder doesn't go further down, however, the player is on the lower right of that enemy. The enemy can't take a direction towards the player, so it stops, but it continues on its way as soon as the player moves into a position where the enemy can take a way leading it closer to the player (in this example for this the player has to be either higher than the enemy or to the left of it).

 

The same thing happens on dead ends, for instance, the enemy moves left along a platform, and at the end of the platform there's a dead end, but the player is to the left of the enemy, so it stops, but continues as soon as the player moves to the right of the enemy.

The correct decision would be in the first case always to move to the left, no matter where the player is, because that's the only direction where the enemy doesn't turn around. In the case of a dead end, the enemy should turn around no matter what the player does.

 

Also I've sometimes seen Mr. Pickle continue its way down a ladder although there is no ladder in that place, the only way to go would be to the left on a platform. And it sometimes turns around in the middle of a platform although there's no intersection if continuing on its way would lead further away from the player. This mostly happens on screen 5 with its long platforms, and unfortunately it leads to Mr. Pickle never reaching the ladder that would lead through the platform the player is actually on.

 

I've mostly seen all of these glitches on the 5th and 6th screen.

Edited November 30, 2018 by Kurt_Woloch

[+splendidnut]

Thank you for the update. I noticed that the enemies still do stop in certain cases. This seems to happen when they reach an intersection or a dead end where no way leads them closer to the player. For instance, they move down a ladder and reach a platform leading to the left, and the ladder doesn't go further down, however, the player is on the lower right of that enemy. The enemy can't take a direction towards the player, so it stops, but it continues on its way as soon as the player moves into a position where the enemy can take a way leading it closer to the player (in this example for this the player has to be either higher than the enemy or to the left of it).

 

]....

I've mostly seen all of these glitches on the 5th and 6th screen.

Finally, some sanity has returned to this thread. You're seeing exactly what I'm seeing issue-wise with the movement code. The code still makes decisions at grid points and not real intersections. Basically I patched the decision code to favor turning at grid points (instead of intersections), which keeps the enemies moving, but still has issues with dead ends and reversing directions. It makes for an interesting playing experience since you're never quite sure what the enemies will do.

 

Part of the problem with the enemy movement code is due to the underlying level data structures. Right now I have separate ladder and platform bitmaps which are geared more toward making the player easy to implement (since the player only moves one direction at a time) rather than the enemies (who need to pick a direction based on available options).

 

What it really comes down to is that I need to switch from separate platform and ladder bitmaps (~52 bytes per level) to an intersection array. This would allow both the player and the enemies to know available directions at each intersection and would potentially be more efficient.

 

This is something I've been putting off, since it will involve quite a lot of rework due to the fact that this affects the player, the enemies, and the burgers (since they need to know where the platforms are when falling). Another thing I would like to do along with this would be to rework the level graphics loader to utilize this new data structure to dynamically build the playfield graphics instead of using a big, pre-made playfield graphics array (~170 bytes) for each level. That would open up some interesting opportunities.

 

The other issue I'm aware of is the burgers on level 4 will still occasionally get stuck, and yet you can magically finish the level. Which happens, more or less because the code counts burgers as they pile up regardless of whether they're on a plate or not. How's that for nifty code?

[Kurt_Woloch]

Hmmm... changing everything around? Well, if you think it's more efficient, you can...

 

I've thought about how I would roughly code the enemy movement decision code... I would do the following at each grid point (which doesn't have to be an intersection)...

 

I'd probably use 4 bytes for the possible directions and score the directions by the different priorities, which are:

1. Don't go where you can't go (priority value 8 )

2. Don't turn around (priority value 4)

3. Follow the player (priority value 2)

4. Take a turn if possible (priority value 1)

 

To do this, I would probably start with a table weighting each available direction for each incoming direction. Continuing the same direction would get a score of 4, the two 90° turns would get 5 each and turning around would get 0 points. This takes care of priorities 2 and 4.

Then for each direction you can actually go, I would add a score of 8.

Then I would compare the player position to the enemy position. If the player is above the enemy, up would get 2 added, if below, down would get 2 added, if to the left, left would get 2 added and if to the right, right would get 2 added.

In the end I would choose the direction with the highest score and let the enemy go there.

Edited December 1, 2018 by Kurt_Woloch

[+splendidnut]

Probably should give one last update for this year (2018)....with a buggy yet feature complete (maybe?) version.

 

Notes from week of December 17th (12-21-2018):
- converted to using new level layout structure..
code paths are still similar to previous implementation
Level Data was 52 bytes... now is 60
(nibbles specifing allowed directions at intersections)

- worked on level drawer which utilizes new level layout data
- will help reduce storage required for levels

- played around with burger colors
- partly as an attempt to fix remaining burger dropping issues
- partly because of tomatoes appearing like purple onions on some systems


Notes from last week of December 2018:
- finished new level loader code
Now uses the same data structure that is used to control movement (player/enemy)
- tweaked Pepper spray
- added scoring for enemies riding to the bottom
- added lives and pepper counters
- added items using current flicker method (when item is shown, all sprites flicker at 20hz, so it's pretty harsh)
- added makeshift title screen (displayed using the main game kernel)
- scoreboard flashes between score and lives/pepper
- fixed music engine to allow selection of music playing (for start of level, player death, and level victory music)

Things missing:
- Flicker management (lots of code written... but not finished yet, so cannot be turned on... it's an all or nothing kind of thing)
- Floating scores for enemies dropped onto burger pile (little more involved since multiple enemies need to be hidden)

Still need to:
- load level layout data into DPC memory and access it that way
which would allow level data to be stored in only one bank
(as opposed to 3 copies, burger/movement/level banks)
- work on enemy logic (handle dead ends, avoid turn arounds, etc...)

There are probably a few other things I added or broke in this build.

 

Enjoy!

 

chaoticGrill-2018-12-31.bin

 

 

edit: Had to fix the year in the notes... apparently I was a little too ready for the new year to start.