Snake Plissken - game released

[Opry99er]

A little better...

 

 

[Opry99er]

And better still...

 

[Opry99er]

Another SLIGHT improvement, at least I'm in 5 digits now.

 

 

[sometimes99er]

I put the prototype up on Newgrounds, and waited for it to pass judgment. Instead of jumping right into the game, people get the TI-99/4A title and selection screens. Wasn't sure that would be acceptable, but it apparently went down okay.

 

After about 2 days it had gotten the necessary 90 votes with an average of more than 1.75 stars. It was accepted into the vaults. Fine. And after another few days, it has been viewed more than 600 times. A okay.

 

And sites like Y8, Pogo Games, PostGames, 2amGames, POG and 80R have included (copied) the game. There you go.

Edited August 5, 2016 by sometimes99er

[Omega-TI]

I put the prototype up on Newgrounds,

 

Cool, maybe << THIS >> might bring some people into the TI-Realm.

[sometimes99er]

Cool, maybe << THIS >> might bring some people into the TI-Realm.

 

Yep. One way or another. I'll remember to add a link to this development thread.

[Retrospect]

Sometimes99er, this is a great little gem of a game! ... lovely sounds. Nice coloured fonts!

[InfernalKeith]

Beautiful game! You have such an eye for design and detail, and the difficulty curve is spot on.

[sometimes99er]

Sometimes99er, this is a great little gem of a game! ... lovely sounds. Nice coloured fonts!

Excellent. Thanks for the feedback.

[sometimes99er]

Beautiful game! You have such an eye for design and detail, and the difficulty curve is spot on.

 

Excellent. Thanks for the feedback.

 

I do indeed care about design and detail. Also I believe that practice makes master. So in theory, over time, I should be able to get better and better, - I hope. There's a balance here between loads of ideas and quality, and getting it done, letting go and moving on.

 

Thanks again.

[sometimes99er]

Development notes on sprites.

 

I was thinking about how to spice things up with sprites. None were in use.

 

Points

The idea about points popping up was easy to implement. A certain effect without any memory thirsty animation. It could dissolve or burst, but then this would maybe end up distracting. The scoring ingredients (power-ups etc.) could have been exploited much more.

 

Hitting a wall or the tail

At first there were only the crash sound. No visuals apart from the snake making a halt. I introduced a sprite without animation - later named the blood-pool. Upon request to better this I took an old animated explosion and named it the dust-cloud. This animation was hand-drawn for a demo back in 2005 (Space Invaders). Reused in the unfinished Destroyer game. And also appearing in the upcoming Restless II game.

 

Splash / intro screen

Thought about having the dust-cloud appear in gray randomly as 4 or a series of sprites, but since the splash is over and gone in a sec or two, I dropped the idea.

 

 

 

[sometimes99er]

Nice to see that the prototypes have been played at least 3,000 times.

 

The TI versions, still in development, are coming along nicely. Both ROM versions will be 8K and won't need Memory Expansion.

 

 

 

 

[00WReX]

Very enjoyable. Thank you.

 

I'm excited for the ROM versions

 

Cheers,

Shane

[sometimes99er]

Very enjoyable. Thank you.

 

I'm excited for the ROM versions

 

Cheers,

Shane

Thanks. And thank you for feedback.

 

This version is playable and have the following issues.

 

Bugs

• Apples appear too close to other objects.
• Pears and lemons do not appear.
• High score not updated.

Fine tuning

• Position of text, starting position and dust cloud.

 

You're more than welcome to test on real hardware - also including the FlashROM99. Let me know if you find other issues.

 

 

 

 

 

[00WReX]

Excellent, giving it a go right now.

 

Cheers,

Shane

[+mizapf]

I noticed that we have a RPK file (dv_snake_plissken.rpk) on WHTech. At first I wanted to ask whether someone else had the same idea with the same title, but it turned out to be your 2007 version, which you showed on the first page of this thread. Shall I remove that RPK from WHtech?

[sometimes99er]

I noticed that we have a RPK file (dv_snake_plissken.rpk) on WHTech. At first I wanted to ask whether someone else had the same idea with the same title, but it turned out to be your 2007 version, which you showed on the first page of this thread. Shall I remove that RPK from WHtech?

Thanks.

 

I think I'll have the game completed this month or sooner.

 

The /sitelist.txt hasn't been updated, so let's just look at /Cartridges/MAME and it's found at /old/zip/ and /old/rpk.old/cartridges/. You may delete, alter (add 0.01 or 2007), update (to the lastest) or wait.

 

When final I'll PM Ralph to update /Cartridges/FlashROM99/Homebrew_Carts.zip (has version 0.08). I can also PM you ?

 

Edited August 21, 2016 by sometimes99er

[sometimes99er]

There's also a bug with the speed control. And additional bricks weren't placed correctly.

Bugs

• Apples appear too close to other objects.
• Pears and lemons do not appear.
• High score not updated.
• Speed sometimes too fast.

Fine tuning

• Position of text, snake, dust cloud and bricks.

 

Things got misplaced due to me using in-house facilities called CALL HCHAR, CALL VCHAR and DISPLAY AT. These start at position 1, whereas my raw assembler code starts at position 0. Which also made me wonder why TI didn't implement a CALL BOX instead of CALL HCHAR and CALL VCHAR.

 

Instead of

CALL HCHAR(row, column, character-code [,repetition] )

simply

CALL BOX(row, column, character-code [,row repetition] [,column repetition])

 

Examples

CALL BOX(1, 1, 33, 10) would equal CALL VCHAR(1, 1, 33, 10).

CALL BOX(1, 1, 33, 1, 10) would equal CALL HCHAR(1, 1, 33, 10).

CALL BOX(1, 1, 33, 10, 10) would make a (solid) box.

 

[Sinphaltimus]

 

 

Examples

 

CALL BOX(1, 1, 33, 10, 10) would make a (solid) box.

 

 

a reserved argument for CALL BOX(1, 1, 33, -10, -10) would make a hollow box for screen border or sectional borders.

Edited August 19, 2016 by Sinphaltimus

[sometimes99er]

Okay, now pears and lemons start appearing. The randomness of these has to be fine tuned though (matching the prototype or vice versa).

 

Bugs

• Apples appear too close to other objects.
• Pears and lemons do not appear.
• Speed sometimes too fast.

Fine tuning

• Randomness of pears and lemons.

And here's the cart

 

Edited August 20, 2016 by sometimes99er

[sometimes99er]

So this is it. Bugs, fine tuning and testing's done. This could be the final release.





Here's a one page black and white instruction paper (click picture below).

Edited August 23, 2016 by sometimes99er

[00WReX]

Fantastic. And to think you have fitted this into 8k. :thumbsup:

Such a polished game (just like your others).

 

Very nice indeed.

 

Cheers,

Shane

[+Ksarul]

Nice! Do you want this one prepared for a cartridge release? All we need now is a final version of the label. . .

[sometimes99er]

Fantastic. And to think you have fitted this into 8k. :thumbsup:

 

Such a polished game (just like your others).

 

Very nice indeed.

 

Cheers,

Shane

 

Excellent. Thanks a million. Feedback like yours makes me wanna make more TI games.

 

 

[Retrospect]

Yes, and you should keep going too! I've just tried this new revision of the game - delightful graphics, lovely sounds, I like the score number that briefly floats upwards when you collect apples ... the snake looks great. Of course, the miracle is keeping all this within 8K. Good Going!

Edited August 23, 2016 by Retrospect