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Blowsub


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This was mine and Harvey's contribution to this year's A8 New Year Disk.

 

BLOWSUB INSTRUCTIONS

Controls

Start = begin game
Pause = pause/resume game
Reset = reset

Before you begin a game you can select the control method with:

1 = digital control via joystick in port #1
2 = analog control via joystick in port #1 (also suitable for paddles)
3 = trak-ball control in port #2 (only available if a trak-ball is connected)

Note that the keypad will follow the controller port.

Gameplay

You control the ship at the top of the screen.
Use the joystick to move left and right.
Press the trigger to drop a depth charge.
Up to 4 depth charges may be launched at any one time.

You start the game with 90 seconds on the clock in which to destroy as many deep sea submarines as possible.
These are the submarines without their rigging up, in the darker sea towards the bottom of the screen.
You are awarded 100, 200, 500 or 750 points for each one you destroy, depending on their depth.
You receive no points for destroying the other submarines.
Every 10,000 points you will get a time extension of 45 seconds.

The submarines will launch missiles at you.
When hit by a missile your ship is destroyed, but a replacement ship will quickly become available.
Occasionally when your ship is destroyed a survivor will escape on a rowing boat.
He should row out of the way as quickly as possible by repeatedly pressing the trigger or waggling the joystick left and right.

There are mines in the sea which you should aim to hit. Doing so will destroy all submarines currently on-screen.

There are also giant electric eels in the sea. You should avoid hitting these as they will cause a shock!

 

bs5200.bin

source.zip

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Dad really enjoyed this game, So far he's up to 27,150!!!

 

I think its a lot better than Kaboom.

Thanks for making it, 5200 needs more like SeaQuest!

 

Glad your dad liked it!

 

It is based on the old Depthcharge arcade game and I never thought about it in relation to Kaboom but this is the second time someone has mentioned it. It does have similarities, but with you doing the bombing.

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I like to mention that - while the video does show what the game is like - you really have to play the game to appreciate how it is very playable and you'll find it has that 'give it another go' quality to it.

What makes it fun, is that it is time based game where you obtain time extensions to keep on playing and you can lose as many boats as you want to.

 

Harvey

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Anyone try this on the latest version of the Kat 5200 emulator?

I'm getting garbled graphics every time I try to play it.

Other games I've tried on the emulator play fine. Maybe it just just a glitch in the emulator?

Kept doing it though continuously.

Edited by PhoenixMoonPatrol
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I neglected to mention in the first post that it is a 16K one-chip image. If you run it as a 16K two-chip image then you get the garbled graphics.

 

In Altirra or Atari800Win PLus you just choose the cart type (16K one-chip) when you select the .bin file.

 

I downloaded Kat5200 but I couldn't see any obvious way to set the cart type for a .bin file. However, it loads .car files (where the cart type is embedded in the header), so I created one and that works fine.

bs5200.zip

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Thank You. The new file works perfect with the emulator now. Really good enjoyable game. Thanks for sharing this.

 

The original file does work within the emulator too(just found that out.)

Within the Kat5200 emulator menus choose

 

File > Launcher > Set machine type to 5200 >

Click mappings > choose 16k one chip within the pull down menu > click ok to confirm.

Edited by PhoenixMoonPatrol
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This game looks pretty fun. It reminds me of some levels on the Atari 2600 game Air Sea Battle, but with better graphics and things are shooting back at you!

 

It looked on the video like shooting the eel is a bad thing to do. Is that correct?

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This game looks pretty fun. It reminds me of some levels on the Atari 2600 game Air Sea Battle, but with better graphics and things are shooting back at you!

 

It looked on the video like shooting the eel is a bad thing to do. Is that correct?

 

Correct, don't shoot the eels as you are electrocuted for a short time and cannot fire.

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Made a quick game play video of this. Excuse the vid quality as it was captured through my camcorder. The 5200 is a 4 port unit through s-video to the my flat panel. The refresh interference that is in the video isn't present while playing the game. Appears my camcorder is able to pick that up on the LED display.

I've scored well over 70k on most playthroughs but I chose the analog control method on this run. Played with using a stock 5200 controller.

 

http://tinyurl.com/j6ods8j

 

It is really quite fun to play!

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Doesn't let me edit my previous post, but I have a fully working trak-ball plugged into port 2 of my 4-port 5200. I can then choose #3 and it switches to Trak-ball controller. But from there I'm unable to actually start the game. Pressing Start and Pause do nothing. Pressing reset does reset the game. But I can never actually get it to start once selected to trak-ball mode. Additionally it is then stuck on this mode and doesn't allow me to switch it back so power cycling the 5200 is the only way out?

 

Has this been tested on 4 port units?

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Did the 8-bit original support Paddles and Trak-Balls or did you add all of that to this version, Playsoft?

 

The original A8 version on the New Year Disk only supported the A8 joystick. After the NYD was released it was suggested it would make a good paddle game. Paddle control was added with a few other tweaks here:

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/247435-blowsub-scores/page-2?do=findComment&comment=3415939

 

Only the 5200 version supports the trak-ball.

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Doesn't let me edit my previous post, but I have a fully working trak-ball plugged into port 2 of my 4-port 5200. I can then choose #3 and it switches to Trak-ball controller. But from there I'm unable to actually start the game. Pressing Start and Pause do nothing. Pressing reset does reset the game. But I can never actually get it to start once selected to trak-ball mode. Additionally it is then stuck on this mode and doesn't allow me to switch it back so power cycling the 5200 is the only way out?

 

Has this been tested on 4 port units?

 

Yes, it was developed on a 4-port using an Atarimax Ultimate SD - the same setup as your video.

 

What should happen (and this all works for me) is that once you have pressed 3 on the joystick keypad and "TRAKBALL CONTROL" is displayed, control is passed to the trak-ball keypad.

 

Start, Pause and Reset on the trak-ball keypad should then all function appropriately. 1 and 2 on the trak-ball keypads should also work, passing control back to the joystick keypad.

 

Reset will reset but maintains the high score and the selected controller, so it sounds like that is working correctly, but none of the other trak-ball buttons?

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My Trak-ball seems to work fine for Centipede and Missle Command for pause wave select...etc. Anyone know of any games that use the second player port on two player games and allow the player to pause, reset, and start from port two? Cause at this time, unless someone else can recreate this, I would have to think that maybe there is a problem with the controller chip for port two on my 5200?

 

Out of curiosity, why wasn't it setup so that Port 1 could host a trak-ball and still have it selectable? Why the requirement for port 2?

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Much better! Changed out U12 and it works normally now. I do believe the trak-ball is the best method to play this game. Just scored 108750 on my initial test play! Nice!

 

This game now makes me realize why people mod the trak-ball with actual arcade fire buttons on them...hmmm...

 

 

Edited by -^Cro§Bow^-
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Out of curiosity, why wasn't it setup so that Port 1 could host a trak-ball and still have it selectable? Why the requirement for port 2?

 

I like the joystick in port #1 for the AtariMax menu selection and the trak-ball in port #2 for simplicity - it can be detected at initialisation and there's no need to swap anything around. I used the same setup in the ports of Bug Hunt and Slime.

 

Much better! Changed out U12 and it works normally now. I do believe the trak-ball is the best method to play this game. Just scored 108750 on my initial test play! Nice!

 

Great - I had one go in mine last year which resulted in the middle column of buttons not working. Trak-ball is my favourite control too.

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