lowercase i (WiP)

[+atari2600land]

A game in which you control a lowercase i. It will be a cross between Mario and Pitfall and Zelda 2. I got the intro done. Press I on the keyboard to start the game (see the intro that's the only thing done so far). (I stated in my blog earlier I couldn't figure it out, but I did eventually.)

i2.zip

[SSG]

I need to get a multicart so I can play your games on my hardware! If anyone has some plans on one don't be shy to share!

1

[+atari2600land]

Added some stuff, like the ability to move in four directions (up, down, left and right, but not diagonally. Diagonal movement made the game go wacko, so I put in extra code to disable it). Pressing Action makes the i use his dot as a weapon. It moves depending on which horizontal way you were facing last. I worked long and hard on this earlier today (yesterday now, I suppose). A good few hours. I did have a few problems, like moving up making the first quarter of the screen blue. But I eventually worked it out (for now.) Not much you can do so far, though. There is no way to cross the river yet. I will add a boat that you can grab with your dot and pull it back to you. Lowercase i's are afraid of water and refuse to go into it.

 

i5.zip

[CatPix]

I need to get a multicart so I can play your games on my hardware! If anyone has some plans on one don't be shy to share!

1

JFMateos on the forum is working on one, not sure it's done yet.

ReneG7400 sell an old fashioned one as well :

 

http://home.kpn.nl/rene_g7400/C7051_info.html

[SSG]

JFMateos on the forum is working on one, not sure it's done yet.

ReneG7400 sell an old fashioned one as well :

 

http://home.kpn.nl/rene_g7400/C7051_info.html

 

My idea was to build one that reads from a SD card using the case of this broken O2 game i have.

[+atari2600land]

Added some more stuff. Decided that I was going to have to learn bankswitching sooner than I thought. The game is now at 1,200 bytes, and I'm only at screen 3!

+ Fixed a bug pertaining to the boat. The result made the boat movement weird once you reach for it and pull it back, but this is better than the alternative: the bug.

+ Now you can fire your dot at the smaller H and it will die if it collides with the dot.

Can someone test this on real hardware for me? Until I get the program that the C7050 uses, I'm SOL.

 

i12a.zip

[+atari2600land]

As it turns out, that version didn't work on real hardware. I got the hardware testing ability back. Here is one that does work.

 

i12b.bin

[+atari2600land]

THERE! I did screen 4. It took longer than I wanted, but at least it's the way I want it.

All future versions will be uploaded here:

http://www.atari2600land.com/lowercasei/

so go here if you want the ROM.

[+atari2600land]

And again with another update. This one didn't take nearly as long, but it did break the code, so I had to rearrange some stuff. At the end of this build is a fight with a big uppercase H. This is not the biggest, final enemy. This comes later. I got it into my head that the game is pretty easy now, so no matter after the fight, you will lose a bit of health. How much health depends on when you touch the H and when you attack him.

[+atari2600land]

Updated again. Can you figure out how to get past the blue H on screen 7? I'm going to make that H a different color since it's the same as the sky now.

[+atari2600land]

In case you've wondered why I stopped work on this, it's because I don't have any ideas for screens. Do you happen to have any? If so, please tell me and I'll see what I can do. (or is that we'll see what i can do.)

Edited May 6, 2016 by atari2600land

[+atari2600land]

I spent all day playing with the code trying to make it not "flash" when too much code is being processed by the computer. I think I fixed it. It does not flash on O2EM or on real hardware. But now sadly, eight hours have gone and I can't have them back. Oh well, at least there's a lot more hours to come in my life. That, and, I have a working game on my hands.

[+atari2600land]

I spent about 30 minutes trying to make a 4k version of this game. I did it successfully. Now I just have to program the second bank. It stops at the beginning of the second bank. It was easier than I thought it was going to be!

i20fourktest.bin

[+atari2600land]

What lacked in easiness made up for in difficulty trying to get the screen to not flicker when you pressed the joystick past the confines of the screen once the bankswitching has been done. But I think I fixed it.

i21.bin

[carlsson]

Would you mind posting small screenshots of all the screens you have so far, in order to suggest which variations you might be able to add?

[+atari2600land]

Here are all the screens so far:

Edited May 13, 2016 by atari2600land

[carlsson]

Perhaps there can be flying H's who drop V bombs on you, and you have to dodge them and get across the other side?

 

Perhaps there can even be an A cannon that you fire with the dot to shoot down the H?

 

Perhaps there can be a T trampoline that is triggered by pulling a stone onto it using the dot, and it causes the i to fly across a wall and to the other side?

 

etc

[+atari2600land]

I'm busy developing the H-bomb idea, the first suggestion of carlsson. I thought making the i run across the screen would be too easy, so I made a little maze for him to go through. Before I attempt to put in the Hs, I would like to make sure you can't move in the walls. I tested this, but I want to make completely sure it's impossible because it was in previous versions by, say, pressing left and while pressing right while still touching the wall made him move left in the wall. I fast-forwarded the game so the next screen is screen 8. Don't worry, all the code for screens 2-7 are still in there, just inaccessible for now.

i22.bin

[+atari2600land]

The curiosity got the best of me. I moved the TV in my room into the den just so I could test out what I had so far. It works!

I don't know if the code for the subtracting of points works or not yet since I just tested this room and not before it. I have it right now so if a bomb touches you, you lose 11 points off your health meter.

[+atari2600land]

I just tested it from the beginning. Everything works great.

[+atari2600land]

Found a bug and fixed it. You couldn't throw the dot on the bomb screen.

[+atari2600land]

Could someone design a better bomb for me? Mine looks like a fish I think.

[+atari2600land]

Added a new screen, screen 8. Can you get past the wall? (this version starts on screen 7).

i26a.bin

Edited June 17, 2016 by atari2600land

[+atari2600land]

Made the game a little harder. I had to fix a few things since I haven't been testing it the whole way through. Hitting an H will cost five health points instead of just one. Later in the game I will introduce jars of mayonnaise that will replenish the i's health. Why mayonnaise? I love the stuff. I've been meaning to make the game like this but have not got around to it. Does anyone have any ideas? I'm saving the cannon screen for bank 3 which I will make the grid back to blue. I don't know how to change the grid color mid bank with the way it's set up now. I put the link to the website with ROM in my signature.

Edited June 18, 2016 by atari2600land

[+atari2600land]

I's like ketchup more than mayo. I did a little mock-up of how the ketchup bottle would look in the game. I think it works out well. The bottle label is char. 2, the bottle are sprites 0 and 1, the dot is char 1 and the base of the i is char. 0 (like in the game.)