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SIO2

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It will be a very hard sell to get people into this version with Froggie already out there for the 7800. The bar for a Frogger clone was set pretty high with that one.

 

Indeed.

 

Not aiming for a clone though. Right now, I plan (and plans can change of course) to focus the game on catching flys rather than just getting to the other side without getting killed.

 

Frogger doesn't make sense to me. Sure, maybe once in a while a frog wants to cross the road but frogs mainly want to catch flys or other insects. Maybe he doesn't even need to get to the other side? We will see.

 

At any rate, I am not trying to compete with Frogger or Froggie or any other games. I am trying to make something a bit different yet reminiscent of a type of game. Sort of an alternate universe version. :)

 

When I did Alpha Race people were putting pressure on me to change it to be more like Omega Race but, I like how it finished. I love to play it still. I enjoy Alpha Race more than Omega Race.

 

I have to say, it is nice to get some input from others though. Suggestions have made Alpha Race, Sick Pickles and CybUr better games than I would have created without people's suggestions.

Edited by SIO2
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Anyone got a video of this? Would be cool to see.

 

I need to do some more work on it before it is ready for a video I think.

 

It was passing emulation but not running on real hardware. My first thought is that it is just running out of cycles. I leaned up the code a bit and got some good performance increases and when I take it to real hardware now - it plays without crashing. However, I am still getting very badly corrupted sounds. Not sure what is happening there yet but I am looking forward to working on it some more soon.

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First update in nearly two years!

 

Still a lot of work left.

 

In the version from an old post if you got 10 bonus flies you got a free frog. There was a counter displayed showing how many flies you had left to get but I have that counter disabled at the moment and will probably do away with it all together as I found it confusing and would rather see that space used for something else like a level counter display. I am also thinking about making the flies ramp up in value like first one 50 points second one 100 points third one 150 points, etc. That would encourage the player to hang out in traffic as long as possible to collect as many flies and possible.

 

The version attached here corrects a couple of typos. One caused sound corruption. The other could have set up a recursive loop under certain circumstances. There was also a substantial amount of optimization done.

 

Let me know how it works for you.

 

frogus06142019.a78

 

frogus06142019.bin

Edited by SIO2
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Sorry, all the forum content is currently being rebuilt in background tasks.  It's going to take several days before all the attachments, images, and quote boxes are as they were before the upgrade.  Unfortunately there's nothing I can do to speed this up, and I'm already using the "fastest" method to rebuild this data. 

 

 ..Al

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Today's buggy update.  Caution: It has savekey support but I haven't been able to test it well.  Not responsible for loss of data or damage to your savekey or atarivox.  Proceed at your own risk.

 

Pressing up on the joystick at the title screen will now access a single item menu where you can choose from 3 traffic density settings.  I prefer dense because while more cars come out, also more flies come out.

 

 

 

 

frogus06162019.bin frogus06162019.a78

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14 hours ago, gambler172 said:

Hi Brek

 

works well.I have some suggestions....Could you reduce the size

of the cars???They seem to appear a little bit too big.

And for later labels you could change the terrain...maybe add

a RIVER or a CLOUD section

greetings Walter

I think I suggested parking lot with shopping carts and skateboarders. Besides the scenery change, not sure what new challenges/incentives I would add with them. Variations in size car>shopping cart>skateboarder. Skateboarder might do some trick like 180 into an adjacent lane, cart might lose a watermelon. Cool game already.

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2 hours ago, Swami said:

Looks great. Challenging, but I slowly get better. Unique and fun take on the Frogger concept. Not really anything else out there like it, but very much like a bitd 8-bit game.

Thanks.  That is what I am aiming for. :)

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Hi Brek

 

works very well....but DENSE is damn hard....

I used my savekey...and played DENSE....

i got 250 and put in my initials.   GAM

then i played normal got 200 and put in my initials too....

Then turning off system and start again.....The score in the

DENSE difficulty was saved....but when playing normal.....

the score was not saved.....so i can say....the savekey works

partially...

Hope this info helps....

Tomorrow,i will play around with it again

 

greetings Walter

Edited by gambler172
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2 hours ago, gambler172 said:

Hi Brek

 

works very well....but DENSE is damn hard....

I used my savekey...and played DENSE....

i got 250 and put in my initials.   GAM

then i played normal got 200 and put in my initials too....

Then turning off system and start again.....The score in the

DENSE difficulty was saved....but when playing normal.....

the score was not saved.....so i can say....the savekey works

partially...

Hope this info helps....

Tomorrow,i will play around with it again

 

greetings Walter

In my testing, it works most of the time. Not sure why it sometimes fails.  It may be a timing issue.  I just don't know.

 

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On 6/18/2019 at 10:28 AM, gambler172 said:

Hi Brek

 

yes,sometimes it works,sometimes not.

Do not know why???!

I do not know why either.  The high score module is written by RevEng and we know RevEng's work is awesome and others have used this module and it works.  Somehow though when I put it into my programs, I end up stepping all over it.  I have not been able to put my finger on the cause.  So until the game is about finished the high score part is the least of my concerns.

 

What I am posting below is a slight update that hopefully addresses the issue of cars appearing out of nowhere on the left.  They now move in from the left but still are pretty quick so watch out.

 

Also, I took a stab at the incremental scoring designed to encourage players to stay out in traffic and collect more flys.  Each additional fly is worth more than the previous one.  It is not exactly working yet.  It looks like the tenth fly reverts to the base value?  Not sure.  I will have to do more testing there.

 

Other than that, there was some more work on trying to lean things up and get it to process faster. 

 

I played a few games on my red system and did not have any issues with the high score this time but your results may vary.

 

 

 

frogus06222019.bin frogus06222019.a78

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On ‎6‎/‎16‎/‎2019 at 6:00 AM, gambler172 said:

Hi Brek

 

I have some suggestions....Could you reduce the size

of the cars???They seem to appear a little bit too big.

 

I have to agree, I like this game so far but maneuvering between the cars is too difficult in my opinion, it seems far too easy to get clipped as the play control is not that fine to avoid so many giant vehicles moving at a fair rate of speed.  Also, are the flies only capable of moving in straight lines or can you make them flutter about?  Lastly, the sprite graphics (for the frog, the flies, and the cars) seem a bit on the primitive side at this stage, are there any plans to upgrade them?  If so, let me know as I would be willing to help out.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Interesting comments.  Here are my thoughts:

 

Regarding the sprites:  I am satisfied with the sprites that I have but am curious to see examples of what others might prefer.  I have this philosophy about the 7800 where I see it as the ultimate evolution of the 2600.  So primitive or large and low color count sprites are fine by me as long as they don't flicker. 

 

If the objection to the cars is mainly that they are hard to jump between, that is sort of intentional.  I tend to prefer a twitchy fast and difficult game that surprises me. 

 

Frogus spends a lot of its time randomizing and determining where it will insert sprites.  That means that there is not much horsepower left over for frills.  I am no expert on Frogger but versions that I have seen appear to generate a field of obstacles that remains constant during each level.  This lessens the burden on the processor and frees up cycles for other things.  Having a constant field also allows the player to plan to catch a ride on the log next time it comes by or jump between cars next time they come by.  That is the way Frogger plays but not the way this game plays.  I am wanting to avoid this becoming a clone of Frogger.

 

As Frogus is written now the flys are sprites that could theoretically move in other than straight lines.  Moving in other than straight lines takes more processing time.  When you say flutter about do you mean outside the lanes?  If so, the fly sprite would either potentially cross a car sprite or need some sort of AI to avoid hitting cars. I suppose the fly could also be killed by hitting a car.  That could be interesting but adds another collision detection so, more processing time.

 

The bottom line is:  Anything is possible but most things are improbable because as written Frogus is strapped for time.  I think that the program is doing what I am asking of it fairly efficiently at this point, it just has a lot to do.  Unless I simplify the process for it, I can't add much to it.

 

I would be interested to see other sprite proposals though.  Also if there is anyone that does TIA sounds and wants to propose some music or sound effects, go for it.  Even if I don't use it here in Frogus - other game developers may pick up on it through this thread.  One thing I want to do is have different sounds for the timer ticks and the eating of a fly.  Right now, I think eating a fly sounds about right but the timer ticks should sound different to avoid confusion.

 

 

 

 

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Thanks for the info, I had no idea about all of the particulars that you laid out in your response.  It was very informative and gives a clearer impression of the constraints that you are operating under.  First of all, what is the resolution that the game is running at (I'm assuming that it is one of the 160 modes)?  If you can send me a sprite sheet of what you currently have (yeah I know that this isn't generally done in the Atari 2600/7800 world, but it helps me to visualize), I will see if I can punch them up for you.  This would include the frog protagonist, the flies, the cars, etc.  PM me if you are interested and wish to continue this conversation offline.

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30 minutes ago, NostAlgae37 said:

Thanks for the info, I had no idea about all of the particulars that you laid out in your response.  It was very informative and gives a clearer impression of the constraints that you are operating under.  First of all, what is the resolution that the game is running at (I'm assuming that it is one of the 160 modes)?  If you can send me a sprite sheet of what you currently have (yeah I know that this isn't generally done in the Atari 2600/7800 world, but it helps me to visualize), I will see if I can punch them up for you.  This would include the frog protagonist, the flies, the cars, etc.  PM me if you are interested and wish to continue this conversation offline.

I will PM you. 

 

Thanks.  

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