New home-brew Atari 5200 game ideas, part 2

[+Cafeman]

I'm still shopping around for a good game to be my first 'real' game on the 5200. I tried to start of just making demo's, to learn the tricks of the trade, but I quickly grew bored with that approach. If I had a great game idea, it would make me want to work at it all the more.

 

A sequel to Adventure seemed to garnish interest. I'd be interested in doing this, actually, using the same screen-flip kind of gameplay. I saw that someone else is busy working on a 5200 Airworld Swordquest game (yes, for the 5200!!). That would give us two RPG/Adventure games!

 

I'm not going to do any arcade ports though. People suggested Disks of Tron, and Tron the arcade game, and some others. If ever, those will be later projects for me.

 

Anyway, please give me some more suggestions for possible 5200 games.

[+Cafeman]

http://cafeman.www9.50megs.com/atari/5200d...Adventure2.html

 

how's that whet you whistle?

[Tempest]

I still think we should try Tron first. Or maybe a Tron like game if you don't want to desicrate a classic with our poor programming skills

 

Tempest

[Hakogame 箱亀]

Hey, if you (or anyone for that matter) need any character graphics or sprite animations, I'd be happy to help. -By the way I'm a working professional currently employed doing sprites and such for the AGB, and I have a degree in classical animation, plus if any one remembers IGN Pocket's "Making The Game" project, this Raccoon Lad is the very one who did that as well.

[Tempest]

One game idea I was kicking around was Pyromania. Remember the description for that old 7800 froggo game where you had to set fire to things. Somehow that always sounded interesting to me (ok, maybe I'm a pyro myself). I don't know what the point of the game would be, but I bet the 5200 could produce some kickass flame graphics.

 

Tempest

[+Cafeman]

one idea of mine was called Firefighter. I probably will finish this eventually. It involves a helicoptor in an electrical storm over forests. You catch water to fill up the tank of the helicopter, then drop it on forest below which catches fire by random-like lightning bolts. This grew from my prior helicopter demo. I'll have flame FX on it too, as well as lightning and rain FX.

 

Getting back to Adventure 2, it will definitely be more than 2600 Adventure with a different map and visuals. I'd have to play through Adventure again, taking notes as to exactly what I liked & didn't like about it.

 

I know for a fact I'd have the character finding keys to get into castles, and have dragons and other creatures to battle/avoid. The mazes would be hedge mazes and rock mazes. I'd no doubt throw in several secrets, such as the 2600 Duck Dragon, just for kicks.

 

But I'd add to the premise without making it too complicated, that's for sure. It'd have to be fun. I'd stick to the medieval fantasy setting. I haven't mapped it all out yet though because I'm not sure it's what I'll do. I'd take suggestions too.

 

Keep the comments coming!

[+Cafeman]

Adventure was a 4k game on the 2600. Adventure 2 would be a 32K game on the 5200. (shudder). Just think of the possibilities!

[DEBRO]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Cafeman:

one idea of mine was called Firefighter. I probably will finish this eventually. It involves a helicoptor in an electrical storm over forests. You catch water to fill up the tank of the helicopter, then drop it on forest below which catches fire by random-like lightning bolts. This grew from my prior helicopter demo. I'll have flame FX on it too, as well as lightning and rain FX.

---

 

How about some screen shots

[+Cafeman]

The screen shots currently look like blocky crap!

 

I did it in Antic mode A, and I think I'd like to switch it over to E for the higher resolution. The cloud is currently 2-color gray and looks like a missile command explosion, not a cloud. The lightening bolt is yellow and is a player. The Trees are background graphics. I have not implemented any Display LIst Interrupts yet, so it's only 4 colors as of now, in other words, crappy looking.

 

But eventually I will show you it, okay?

[Gunstar]

I'm not sure, but I believe you; "Cafeman," may have posted a similiar question on the 'Classic Gaming Forum'? I had suggested a 'Marble Madness' clone on that site, and even though you have stated that you don't want to do arcade translations, I think you should really consider this one. It is a classic Atari game of the highest order, which has never been released on any Atari console, and to my knowledge, had not been released on any Atari computer either (although it may have come out on the ST). I believe this would be an exceptional game for the 5200 because of the 5200 trackball, and even the standard analog controllers would be a marked improvement over versions that have been done on computers and consoles with digital controllers. I'm sure a clone of this type would be an instant success among 5200 fans, with it's instant "playability" factor, while a game like Adventure would appeal to many, including myself, but may not appeal to as great an audience. Since the 5200, and Atari systems in general, do not have a huge, mainstream audience, it may be better to first attempt a game that I feel would attract more of the already limited 5200 audience. IMHO

Can you say "Ahh"? Everyone say "Ahh."

[Hakogame 箱亀]

Here's a game idea "Captain Jerk" (working title)

You play as a psychotic ass-hole who chases after someone in their car. Maybe instead of chasing a person, you could chase a chicken or something, but the point of the game is to splatter your opponent with your car. you'd have to chase them around trees and into buildings while avoiding things they knock over to slow you down as well as potholes and such, but to even up the score you'd be able to pick up a powerup and get a burst of speed. It could even have silly pacman-esque intermissions.

By the way, I forgot to mention in my previous post that I work for free.

[Hakogame 箱亀]

Actually it WOULD be better with a chicken, then there could be a whole farmy theme to the game. But you wouldn't actually be able to hit the chicken unless you get the power-up, and there could be hay bails and mud holes and ramps, and maybe you could chase the chicken onto the freeway and have to dodge oncoming traffic. well, that's my idea for a game, free to anyone who wants it.

[Gunstar]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Raccoon Lad:

Here's a game idea "Captain Jerk" (working title)

You play as a psychotic ass-hole who chases after someone in their car. Maybe instead of chasing a person, you could chase a chicken or something, but the point of the game is to splatter your opponent with your car. you'd have to chase them around trees and into buildings while avoiding things they knock over to slow you down as well as potholes and such, but to even up the score you'd be able to pick up a powerup and get a burst of speed. It could even have silly pacman-esque intermissions.

By the way, I forgot to mention in my previous post that I work for free.

---

 

I like, I like...

[Wntermute]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Raccoon Lad:

Here's a game idea "Captain Jerk" (working title)

You play as a psychotic ass-hole who chases after someone in their car. Maybe instead of chasing a person, you could chase a chicken or something, but the point of the game is to splatter your opponent with your car. you'd have to chase them around trees and into buildings while avoiding things they knock over to slow you down as well as potholes and such, but to even up the score you'd be able to pick up a powerup and get a burst of speed. It could even have silly pacman-esque intermissions.

By the way, I forgot to mention in my previous post that I work for free.

---

 

Have you by any chance watched the movie Death Race 2000 lately?

[+Cafeman]

Tron the arcade game? That seems harder than Adventure 2 to me. The only control I could imagine would be to either disallow the rotary aim mechanism, and just make Tron shoot in the direction he's facing. Control would be compromised, that's for sure.

 

THe cycle and tank scenes would probably be much easier.

 

ECM over at GameGO said he wouldn't mind seeing a Disks of Tron. I don't want to make that one though. What kind of game exactly did you have in mind?

[+-^CrossBow^-]

while I think the Adventure 2 idea is a kick ass idea..I have some questions?

 

What would be the basic premise behind it? Would it be just like the original only different mazes...more dragons...more of everything...etc? Or..would it be something along the same lines..but different completely?

 

 

I could see it being easy to do a sequal that was just like the original only with more complex mazes and basically more of everthing. But I think it would be neat to add new items that could do more things. Like you could add that you not only need keys to get into each castle..but perhaps certain obstacles would need to be conquered first just to get the castle. Then you could make it more difficult by adding rooms in each castle that required seperate keys themselves...or objects of power that required the needed gates or doors to open.

 

Then just when you think you have it all figured out...you program it to randomize this each time you reset...hehehe...YEAH!!!!

[Hakogame 箱亀]

I haven't seen death race 2000, although I have been playing alot of spyhunter on my colecovision lately.

[+Cafeman]

Gunstar, sorry for not responding to your comments; I must have missed them until now!

 

Yes, I asked this question over at AGH too a while back.

 

A sequel to Adventure was the most popular response I got from several retro forums. Marble Madness? I've rarely even seen it, let alone play it much! It's hardly a popular game to me! I bet I could find it on one of them newfangled comp-I-lations...

 

Besides, Marble Madness, with its perspective, looks a bit difficult for me at this point. Maybe in the future. Adventure 2 seems much easier!

 

In fact, I don't have the foggiest idea of how to program/implement a 3/4 perspective game like MM, or even Crystal Castles. I'm going to have to stick to a strickly updown/leftright 2D perspective for a while with my homebrews.

 

But thanks again for all the comments, and feel free to add more and to talk in detail about what you would like to see. Once I get that 'hot' idea, I'll know it and start working solely on that game, whatever it is. Tempest is lucky, he has an definite idea already; I have several half-ideas, none of which at the moment seem to be that exciting to me.

 

In fact, Adventure 2 seems the most exciting idea to me right now.

 

A certain reader of this board sent me a title for my Adventure 2 box mock-up ... I'll incorporate it into a new mock-up and post it here soon. Vic, what's your alias here?

 

(edited to correct the 101 spelling/grammar errors. Must be the English student in me.)

 

[ 07-24-2001: Message edited by: Cafeman ]

[Vic George]

I don't use an alias. Vic George is my name.

[Nukey Shay]

cafeman--

3/4 perspective is actually quite easier than you'd imagine. It's basically just a backdrop, and you can just use a 3d matrix to set your display points. Let's assume that the matrix for MM is set up like (x,y,z)...x and y could be the player image's on-screen position, z could be the height of that area, and the value could determine the "gravity" of those co-ordinates...128=solid ground, 0=drop, 255=reverse drop (as in the "silly race" level). Natually, you wouldn't need to set up every display point in the matrix...but you could just divide x & y by eight or so to filter out the redundant values. Atari hardware also has a playfield priority flag you can set to allow P/M graphics to move "behind" selected colors to give a nice 3d effect (I believe that this is $026f). A subroutine could be called in to check for playfield collisions in this manner...

 

-collision with colors 2/3?

-If negative, branch to check4.

-compare height of playfield object.

(check1)-if carry clear, branch to check2

-set priority low (move in front)

-branch to check4

(check2)-if carry zero, branch to check3

-set priority high (move "behind" graphic)

-branch to check4

(check3)-(collision routine here, reverse direction as if rebounding off of object)

(check4)-set x=hpos/8, y=ypos/8

-check value at x,y,z

-branch if not zero to end

-(fall, set z higher)

-branch to lose life if z too high

(end)-display player object.

 

You could just check the value at x,y,z to start off with, but I think it's cooler to check for collisions on the way down (so you could have it smacking walls as it falls).

 

[ 07-23-2001: Message edited by: Nukey Shay ]