Caves Of Zargon 2600

[VGAGuy]

I am announcing the development of Caves Of Zargon for the Atari 2600.

 

I am posting this to gauge how good this game concept is before I try to go all out on it.

 

 

The final game is planned to feature:

 

32 screens in 16K of ROM

 

Gravity and inertia physics for all directions

 

Ending cutscene

 

2 win screens

 

2 difficulty levels(ROM space permitting)

 

I won't try to hide it, this game was made with batari basic, I just hope that the game idea is good enough.

The goal of the game is to go through each screen while using as little fuel as possible, along the way there are fuel cans to collect, if you collect all of them and complete the game you get the 100% screen. if you touch the walls you crash and restart the screen with 100 less fuel points, collecting a fuel tank gets you 20000 fuel points.

 

 

The game is also meant to have some speed running appeal(100%, Any% etc...).

 

 

A demo file will be attached below(first 10 screens only and loops the last screen, until you loose all your fuel).

Also seizure warning when you crash.

 

 

Any constructive criticism is welcome.

 

 

Thanks,

 

 

VGAGuy

 

 

(EDIT: fixed MAJOR movement bug)

(EDIT2: Fixed crash at end of last screen)

P.S. If anyone can help with left and right inertia that would be very much appreciated.

zargon.bin

Edited June 10, 2017 by VGAGuy

[RevEng]

Pressing left seems to move you right, and pressing right seems to move you right... bug?

[VGAGuy]

Yes, in my code I accidentaly put x + 1 on both statements. I thought I changed the file when I fixed that.

Edited June 10, 2017 by VGAGuy

[StanJr]

Feels and plays like Thrust+. Are more game elements planned at this time? I'm the worst person to ask about finesse games like this because I unilaterally suck at all of them. If it helps, this is just as frustrating and annoying as Gravitar, which probably means you're doing something right.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Indeed, it plays a bit like Thrust, just way easier (at least for me ).

 

Some screen transitions are a bit unfair, there should be no diagonal starting in the next screen when there are none at the top of the previous screen.

 

Ideas:

• semi-randomly generated screens
• maybe a puzzle element (labyrinths or so)
• vertical scrolling
• floating obstacles
• reverse gravity

[Swami]

It was very entertaining and a little addictive.

 

1. I am wondering why I crash if I try to drop to the previous screen to retrieve missed fuel. Should be a reason like a door closing behind you or else the ability to drop to previous screen.

2. I think it would be cool to add a gas jet from the bottom when you press up and small gas jets from the side when you move horizontally.

3. Does joystick-down do anything? Braking seems to easy, so maybe a force field on the top that really sucks fuel.

 

If you don't mind two ideas:

 

4. Those moving wall sections you have to time for would be a trip.

5. At the end you could have to do a reverse land on a pad to finish, or something similar giving closure -- up to you, of course.

[Swami]

6. Traps that will send you back to the previous screen.

[+Random Terrain]

Crashing hurts my eyes:

 

randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-game-design-guidelines.html#no_flashing

[uosipa llamxew]

Cool! I like it. The jet sound is a bit flaky here... sometimes it doesn't work on the first screen. others it does, but in the following screens it breaks up.

 

I like the crash effect, but it definitely would be cool to be able to turn it off for those who are over-stimulated by such effects... and others who have health issues.

 

Cheers!

[VGAGuy]

Thanks for the feedback.

 

Crashing is meant to be crazy but I don't know how else to pull it off(I wanted to make the TV lose sync but I couldn't get that to work)

I would LOVE vertical scrolling but I can't get it to work.

I don't plan on reverse gravity.

The crash for going off of the bottom of the screen was to save ROM space for the code(I might add that in later if there is enough space).

The lack of jet animations was also due to ROM space but I am optimizing my code and might be able to add them in later.

Joystick down doesn't do anything because I am horrible at modifying the gravity code.

I should add the feature to make the flash turn off and just have a black screen(or just have one normally to save ROM space)

The sharp turns are to make the player think about controlling their speed but I can change them if it gets to be a major problem.

Jet sound being lost on the first screen is a bug I still haven't found out how to fix.

The jittery thrust sound is a bug I decided to leave in because it sounds kinda cool.

 

 

I am pretty new to programming but I will try to make the game better for the public.

 

 

Thanks,

 

VGAGuy

Edited June 17, 2017 by VGAGuy

[RevEng]

Some alternatives to the screen flashing... there's shakescreen, though it's probably a bit less dramatic than you want. To use it, dim the variable (e.g. dim shakescreen=q) and when you want it to shake do something like "shakescreen=rand" every frame.

 

If you get scrolling working, you might shake the screen a bit more dramatically with that.

 

Or you could do a quick full screen particle effect with the bB starfield effect.

[StanJr]

Flashing does not bother me in the slightest. Plenty of classic games flashed like a disco party. Flash it up.

[+Random Terrain]

Flashing does not bother me in the slightest. Plenty of classic games flashed like a disco party. Flash it up.

Programmers did a lot of stupid stuff back then. It's probably because they were high on drugs.

 

Peanuts don't bother me in the slightest, but I'm not going to try to force everyone else to eat them. I'd rather give them the option to be peanut-free if they want to be.

[StanJr]

Are you suggesting that modern programmers aren't also high on drugs? I mean, sure, the drugs are better these days, but still...

[Swami]

Thanks for the feedback.

 

Crashing is meant to be crazy but I don't know how else to pull it off(I wanted to make the TV lose sync but I couldn't get that to work)

I would LOVE vertical scrolling but I can't get it to work.

I don't plan on reverse gravity.

The crash for going off of the bottom of the screen was to save ROM space for the code(I might add that in later if there is enough space).

The lack of jet animations was also due to ROM space but I am optimizing my code and might be able to add them in later.

Joystick down doesn't do anything because I am horrible at modifying the gravity code.

I should add the feature to make the flash turn off and just have a black screen(or just have one normally to save ROM space)

The sharp turns are to make the player think about controlling their speed but I can change them if it gets to be a major problem.

Jet sound being lost on the first screen is a bug I still haven't found out how to fix.

The jittery thrust sound is a bug I decided to leave in because it sounds kinda cool.

 

 

I am pretty new to programming but I will try to make the game better for the public.

 

 

Thanks,

 

VGAGuy

Another idea for not going back a screen is to have a wall on the top of cavern, touching the wall in the right place (colored block) lets you through - one way, wall is on the bottom solid next screen.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Thanks for the feedback.

 

Crashing is meant to be crazy but I don't know how else to pull it off(I wanted to make the TV lose sync but I couldn't get that to work)

I would LOVE vertical scrolling but I can't get it to work.

I don't plan on reverse gravity.

The crash for going off of the bottom of the screen was to save ROM space for the code(I might add that in later if there is enough space).

The lack of jet animations was also due to ROM space but I am optimizing my code and might be able to add them in later.

Joystick down doesn't do anything because I am horrible at modifying the gravity code.

I should add the feature to make the flash turn off and just have a black screen(or just have one normally to save ROM space)

The sharp turns are to make the player think about controlling their speed but I can change them if it gets to be a major problem.

Jet sound being lost on the first screen is a bug I still haven't found out how to fix.

The jittery thrust sound is a bug I decided to leave in because it sounds kinda cool.

 

 

I am pretty new to programming but I will try to make the game better for the public.

 

 

Thanks,

 

VGAGuy

The death animation in Robot Tank is pretty spectacular IMO if you want to jazz it up on special effects. Maybe study how it was coded.

 

I would not tamper with scanline count in order try and force CRTs to roll. Some are more fault tolerant than others. Modern displays might also flash "unusable signal" and can sometimes take ten seconds or more to resync after the anomaly is gone.

 

Even my low latency 9ms ASUS takes around ten seconds to resync if I change the HDMI resolution or frame rate, ie from 60 to 50Hz or 720p to 1080p. Well maybe not ten seconds, but it isn't instant like with old VGA monitors, where a brief click sound and black flash and it's locked onto the signal in less than one second.

[VGAGuy]

I took a look at Robot Tank's death sequence and WOW that is what I wish I could do.

This project may slow down as it might be to advanced for me at the moment but I will look at all the feedback I have been given.

 

Another question, is it possible to make a line trace behind the player when he moves? Kind of like the player is drawing on the screen?

 

Thanks in advance.

[Swami]

I took a look at Robot Tank's death sequence and WOW that is what I wish I could do.

This project may slow down as it might be to advanced for me at the moment but I will look at all the feedback I have been given.

 

Another question, is it possible to make a line trace behind the player when he moves? Kind of like the player is drawing on the screen?

 

Thanks in advance.

I would worry about these two suggestions from me if space or coding issues are a problem:

 

1.The lack of jet animations was also due to ROM space but I am optimizing my code and might be able to add them in later.

2. Joystick down doesn't do anything because I am horrible at modifying the gravity code.

 

I think it would have enough elements to make play seem complete without them.