PacManPlus Posted August 13, 2016 Share Posted August 13, 2016 Hi guys: Now that I have Berzerk / Frenzy for the NES completed, I've been thinking of an idea that's been in the back of my mind for some time. Some of you may have seen a 'dual zone' scroll demo I made some time ago using the graphics from Intellivision's "Cloudy Mountain" game. Here's a screenshot: I've had ideas for this for a while, using some elements from both 'Adventure' and 'Cloudy Mountain' to make a sort of two-player Adventure that can be played with one player as well. I've started mapping this out (no coding yet), and this is what I've come up with so far: ; ADVENTURE MOUNTAIN ; ; ONE OR TWO-PLAYER ADVENTURE GAME (IF ONE PLAYER, JUST DON'T USE THE SECOND CONTROLLER) ; ; OBJECT: ; - FIND THE THREE PIECES OF THE CHALICE AND PUT THEM TOGETHER ; - IF TWO PLAYER, YOU NEED TO FIND THEM FASTER THAN THE OTHER PLAYER ; ; RULES: ; - IF ONE PLAYER ENTERS A MOUNTAIN AND FINDS A TOOL (I.E. KEY, AXE, BRIDGE) THAT ITEM IS NO LONGER ; AVAILABLE TO THE OTHER PLAYER IN THE SAME MOUNTAIN (THE OTHER PLAYER WILL HAVE TO FIND ANOTHER ; MOUNTAIN) ; - IF ONE PLAYER KILLS ANOTHER, (S)HE WILL ACQUIRE THAT PLAYER'S TOOLS AND THE KILLED PLAYER WILL ; HAVE TO FIND THEM AGAIN IN ANOTHER MOUNTAIN (ASSUMING THEY HAVE AND LIVES LEFT) ; - IF ONE PLAYER HAS A PIECE OR TWO OF THE CHALICE AND THE OTHER PLAYER HAS THE OTHER PIECE(S), ; AND NEITHER OF YOU CAN KILL THE OTHER, ; IT NOW BECOMES A COOPERATIVE GAME AND THE TWO PLAYERS HAVE TO FIND EACH OTHER (AND RUN INTO EACH OTHER) ; IN THE FINAL MOUNTAIN TO PUT ALL OF THE PIECES TOGETHER AND WIN THE GAME AS A TEAM. ; - YORGLE, GRUNDLE, AND RHINDLE ARE BACK IN THE FINAL MOUNTAIN, AND ALL ARE GUARDING A PIECE OF THE ; CHALICE ; - DEMONS GUARD TOOLS (KEY, AXE, BRIDGE) AND MUST BE SHOT MULTIPLE TIMES WITH ARROWS (NO SWORD) ; TO BE KILLED ; - RANDOM HINDERANCES: ; > BAT (ANNOYS THE CRAP OUT OF YOU BY STAYING AROUND YOU) ; > TERMITE (EATS ARROWS) ; > CRAWLING EYE (KILLS PLAYER ON CONTACT) ; > THE OTHER PLAYER (IF APPLICABLE) ; ; ENVIRONMENT: ; - OVERVIEW ; > MOUNTAINS, STREAMS, FOREST, GATE (TO THE FINAL MOUNTAIN) ; > DIFFERENT COLOR MOUNTAINS CONTAIN DIFFERENT ITEMS (BLUE = BRIDGE, RED = AXE, YELLOW = KEY) ; > GREY MOUNTAINS ARE IMPASSABLE ; - INSIDE MOUNTAIN ; > ALL PATHS ARE VISIBLE (TORCHES ON WALLS) ; > MOVEMENT SCROLLS SCREEN ; > IF PLAYER ENTERS SAME SCREEN AS EN ENEMY, THE ENEMY WILL GIVE CHASE ; NOTE: NEED TO FIGURE OUT A GOOD 'SMART' CHASE ALGORITHM WHERE THEY GO AROUND TO GET YOU ; > PLAYERS WILL 'SEE' EACH OTHER ON THEIR OWN SECTION OF THE SCREEN IF THEY ARE IN THE SAME ; SPACE AS THE OTHER Once I get well into coding, I do plan on replacing the graphics with something more fitting to this game. I have a good feeling about this, and believe it would be fun with one player or two. Please keep in mind - as noted above, playing one player still has the same screen window for both players; you just aren't using the second player. The goal is the same. I will need to find a better maze compression routine. I'd love to see how they did it in Cloudy Mountain. The name is "Adventure Mountain". Sound good? 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevEng Posted August 13, 2016 Share Posted August 13, 2016 Cool beans - always glad to hear about another PMP original! If you're going to leave the player 2 area there for a single player game, it would be fun player 2 was a monster AI, or if the area served some other useful purpose like dungeon map. Great work on the NES port! Did you not get the memo that all 7800 coders are supposed to be raving anti-NES fanboys?!?! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8th lutz Posted August 13, 2016 Share Posted August 13, 2016 (edited) The name sounds good to me and I like concept of the game. The NES port of Berzerk/Frenzy looks great. Edited August 13, 2016 by 8th lutz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gabriel Posted August 13, 2016 Share Posted August 13, 2016 Hmmm. I don't know. Sounds neat. Sounds like the Adventure elements are minimal and this is two player simultaneous Cloudy Mountain for the 7800, which definitely piques my interest. The mazes would have to be primarily horizontal, particularly if the demons are as caffenated as the INTY version. From the screenshot, the player wouldn't have much vertical reaction time. But I've wanted co-op Cloudy Mountain for a long time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinks Posted August 13, 2016 Share Posted August 13, 2016 Awesome!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PacManPlus Posted August 13, 2016 Author Share Posted August 13, 2016 (edited) Thanks guys! @RevEng - I actually like coding for the NES. However I don't like that the platform doesn't have 'SED' and 'CLD'. Hmmm. I don't know. Sounds neat. Sounds like the Adventure elements are minimal and this is two player simultaneous Cloudy Mountain for the 7800, which definitely piques my interest. The mazes would have to be primarily horizontal, particularly if the demons are as caffeinated as the INTY version. From the screenshot, the player wouldn't have much vertical reaction time. But I've wanted co-op Cloudy Mountain for a long time. It's funny you should write that; after I made this post, I thought about changing the mountains to castles, with the last castle being the 'Evil Magician's Castle'. It would make more sense with locked gates and such. Also it would be a reason for the hallways to be lit instead of dark. I think that way, it be more of a balance of elements from the two games... But the name would have to change because there are no more mountains... Regarding vertical reaction time, there are 5 zones per player, and the player is in the middle zone in each 'window' - in the screenshot above, the bottom 'zone' in each window is black, because I was experimenting. I want very much to add an element of controlled randomness to the layouts (both inside the castles and out), but I know with this environment it could be very easy to create an unwinnable scenario, so I will try to have random elements, but some 'rules' to those elements. That's down the road some anyway. Edited August 13, 2016 by PacManPlus 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+cvga Posted August 13, 2016 Share Posted August 13, 2016 I love the idea! Now I'm off to check out Berzerk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevEng Posted August 14, 2016 Share Posted August 14, 2016 Thanks guys! @RevEng - I actually like coding for the NES. However I don't like that the platform doesn't have 'SED' and 'CLD'. Hah, this intrigued me, so I just looked it up. Looks like they did it to copy the 6502 tech without having to pay royalties on patents. Too funny! I'm sure there's well worn NES routines to cover BCD conversion, but you might find Omegamatrix's math/conversion routines of interest. As usual, he pulls off some really neat optimizations. I even borrowed one for the "converttoBCD" utility routine in 7800basic. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gambler172 Posted August 14, 2016 Share Posted August 14, 2016 Hi Bob time for a new 7800 game. I never loved the NES 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinks Posted August 14, 2016 Share Posted August 14, 2016 Hi Bob time for a new 7800 game. I never loved the NES 7800 #1 NES is jabroni says Iron Sheik. I SUPLEX NES MAKE HIM HUMBLE! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XM05ES Posted August 15, 2016 Share Posted August 15, 2016 Wow! This is definitely a cool idea! Would it scroll up and down as well as left and right? (Sorry if this is already answered in the code example.) Maybe "Castles in the Clouds" or "Castles in the Sky?" The castles could still be in the mountains even if no mountains are shown. It's your story! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inky Posted August 15, 2016 Share Posted August 15, 2016 Please at least keep the intellivision graphics at least as an easter egg! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinks Posted August 29, 2016 Share Posted August 29, 2016 Your original games are the most interesting. I am lookimg forward to seeing this game. I am happy that ya still got your sights on the ole 78. You are it's master. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PacManPlus Posted August 29, 2016 Author Share Posted August 29, 2016 (edited) Thank you. I've revised some of the rules, and I now see that this will be a game that will require Cartridge RAM, in the $4000-$7FFF area. I need to hold two *separate* sets of screen RAM, for each player. Not for the overview map (which will be the same for both players), but for when each player decides to go in a different castle. This is what it looks like now: ; ADVENTURE III: THE RACE FOR THE CHALICE ; ; ONE OR TWO-PLAYER ADVENTURE GAME (IF ONE PLAYER, JUST DON'T USE THE SECOND CONTROLLER) ; (IF ONE PLAYER, THE 'OTHER' WINDOW WILL JUST DISPLAY THE OVERVIEW MAP, LIKE WHEN YOU START) ; ; OBJECT: ; - FIND THE THREE PIECES OF THE CHALICE AND PUT THEM TOGETHER ; - IF TWO PLAYER, YOU NEED TO FIND THEM FASTER THAN THE OTHER PLAYER ; ; RULES: ; - IF ONE PLAYER ENTERS A CASTLE AND FINDS A TOOL (I.E. KEY, AXE, BRIDGE) THAT ITEM IS NO LONGER ; AVAILABLE TO THE OTHER PLAYER IN THE SAME CASTLE (THE OTHER PLAYER WILL HAVE TO FIND ANOTHER ; CASTLE) ; - IF ONE PLAYER KILLS ANOTHER, (S)HE WILL ACQUIRE THAT PLAYER'S TOOLS AND THE KILLED PLAYER WILL ; HAVE TO FIND THEM AGAIN IN ANOTHER CASTLE (ASSUMING THEY HAVE ANY LIVES LEFT) ; - IF ONE PLAYER HAS A PIECE OR TWO OF THE CHALICE AND THE OTHER PLAYER HAS THE OTHER PIECE(S), ; AND NEITHER OF YOU CAN KILL THE OTHER, ; IT NOW BECOMES A COOPERATIVE GAME AND THE TWO PLAYERS HAVE TO FIND EACH OTHER (AND RUN INTO EACH OTHER) ; IN THE FINAL CASTLE TO PUT ALL OF THE PIECES TOGETHER AND WIN THE GAME AS A TEAM. ; - YORGLE, GRUNDLE, AND RHINDLE ARE BACK IN THE FINAL CASTLE, AND ALL ARE GUARDING A PIECE OF THE ; CHALICE ; - DEMONS GUARD TOOLS (KEY, AXE, BRIDGE) AND MUST BE SHOT MULTIPLE TIMES WITH ARROWS (NO SWORD) ; TO BE KILLED ; - RANDOM HINDERANCES: ; > BAT (EITHER ANNOYS YOU OR SWAPS OBJECTS... IF BOTH PLAYERS ARE IN THE SAME CASTLE) (NOT SURE YET) ; > TERMITE (EATS ARROWS) ; > CRAWLING EYE (KILLS PLAYER ON CONTACT) ; > THE OTHER PLAYER (IF APPLICABLE) ; ; ENVIRONMENT: ; - OVERVIEW ; > CASTLES, STREAMS, FOREST, GATE (TO THE FINAL CASTLE) ; > DIFFERENT COLOR CASTLES CONTAIN DIFFERENT ITEMS (BLUE = BRIDGE, RED = AXE, YELLOW = KEY) ; > GREY MOUNTAINS ARE IMPASSABLE ; - INSIDE CASTLE ; > ALL PATHS ARE VISIBLE (TORCHES ON WALLS) ; > MOVEMENT SCROLLS SCREEN ; > IF PLAYER ENTERS SAME SCREEN AS EN ENEMY, THE ENEMY WILL GIVE CHASE ; NOTE: NEED TO FIGURE OUT A GOOD 'SMART' CHASE ALGORITHM WHERE THEY GO AROUND TO GET YOU ; > PLAYERS WILL 'SEE' EACH OTHER ON THEIR OWN SECTION OF THE SCREEN IF THEY ARE IN THE SAME ; SPACE AS THE OTHER ; ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ; ; ENVIRONMENT SPECS: ; - OVERVIEW MAP THE SAME FOR BOTH PLAYERS, (20 X 5 TILES) ; - SEPARATE INSIDE MAPS PER PLAYER, DEPENDING ON CASTLE ENTERED ; > CASTLES ARE GOING TO BE A FIXED SIZE (90 X 91 TILES). I think it's getting closer to the idea being at a workable stage. Incidentally, I've never worked a game this way before. (i.e. completely thought out the entire game before doing any coding)... Also, I've started work on another 7800 game as well... A port that I should have started a long time ago. The only problem: I'm moving again, so that's going to take up a lot of my time until it's done. Thanks guys, Bob Edited August 29, 2016 by PacManPlus 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sramirez2008 Posted August 29, 2016 Share Posted August 29, 2016 Wow! ADVENTURE III: THE RACE FOR THE CHALICE sounds like a lot of fun. Like how the 2 player game has the potential for turning into a co-op. Can't wait to hear what your other port is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinks Posted August 29, 2016 Share Posted August 29, 2016 Good luck with your move! Adventure 3 on the 7800!!! Awesomer! Some great chase coding was done in the game lode runner which these running man sprites remind me of (well at least it plays that way) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Propane13 Posted August 29, 2016 Share Posted August 29, 2016 The only problem: I'm moving again, so that's going to take up a lot of my time until it's done. It's weird, but every time just before I move, I start to get the itch to develop again. There must be something about upcoming chaos and a subconscious need to add to it. -John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lynxpro Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 Thanks guys! @RevEng - I actually like coding for the NES. However I don't like that the platform doesn't have 'SED' and 'CLD'. It's funny you should write that; after I made this post, I thought about changing the mountains to castles, with the last castle being the 'Evil Magician's Castle'. It would make more sense with locked gates and such. Also it would be a reason for the hallways to be lit instead of dark. I think that way, it be more of a balance of elements from the two games... But the name would have to change because there are no more mountains... Regarding vertical reaction time, there are 5 zones per player, and the player is in the middle zone in each 'window' - in the screenshot above, the bottom 'zone' in each window is black, because I was experimenting. I want very much to add an element of controlled randomness to the layouts (both inside the castles and out), but I know with this environment it could be very easy to create an unwinnable scenario, so I will try to have random elements, but some 'rules' to those elements. That's down the road some anyway. What about that dual joystick zombie game you were working on, Lord Pac-Man Plus? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PacManPlus Posted August 31, 2016 Author Share Posted August 31, 2016 (edited) It actually wasn't using dual joysticks, but it's been put on the back burner... I haven't had much inclination to work on it. Thanks, guys Edited August 31, 2016 by PacManPlus 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DracIsBack Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 It actually wasn't using dual joysticks, but it's been put on the back burner... I haven't had much inclination to work on it. Thanks, guys Haha. Too bad. I loved where that was going, including the digitized screens. But I get it. You gotta go with something you feel is a labour of love as opposed to something that you don't have that inspiration for. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tep392 Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 Hi guys: Now that I have Berzerk / Frenzy for the NES completed, You've gone to the Dark Side? Joking of course. Very much looking forward to your next project. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PacManPlus Posted August 31, 2016 Author Share Posted August 31, 2016 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GaryH917 Posted September 1, 2016 Share Posted September 1, 2016 Good luck with your move Bob! Looking forward to your new projects 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walter_J64bit Posted September 1, 2016 Share Posted September 1, 2016 (edited) PacManPlus is just awesome, the Jag needs Berzerk / Frenzy. I do have the EverDrive N8 now I'm read to play some Berzerk / Frenzy on the my NES. :thumbsup: Edited September 1, 2016 by walter_J64bit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Defender_2600 Posted September 1, 2016 Share Posted September 1, 2016 Great news, glad to hear about your new project! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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