is puzzle bubble doable on Intellivision

[vprette]

what experts here think about a bust a move / puzzle bubble clone like this one for intv? (monster buster for c64)

 

Edited June 11, 2018 by vprette

[+DZ-Jay]

Sure, but it won't have too much vertical real-estate.

[vprette]

Sure, but it won't have too much vertical real-estate.

 

how many rows of monster bubbles maximum?

[carlsson]

Assuming you use one row of BACKTAB for each row of bubbles/monsters, obviously 12 is the extreme maximum. Then you need to subtract at least one row for the player gun, so I suppose 11 if you cram things. I suppose drawing a couple of mockups would give an idea how much you can fit on the screen.

[vprette]

gameplay suggests 9 rows in game is the max

 

what if I had the c64 6502 assembly source code?

is someone able to port it from a c64 source?

Edited June 11, 2018 by vprette

[+DZ-Jay]

gameplay suggests 9 rows in game is the max

Does the 9 rows include the empty space between that last bubble row and the player's gun?

 

 

what if I had the c64 6502 assembly source code?

is someone able to port it from a c64 source?

I don't think that makes it easier. Do you also have a license from Taito?

[vprette]

Does the 9 rows include the empty space between that last bubble row and the player's gun?

 

 

 

I don't think that makes it easier. Do you also have a license from Taito?

yes

and no, I have not the license of bust a move, so I speak about monster buster at the moment

Edited June 11, 2018 by vprette

[carlsson]

That is an interesting idea, a 6502 to CP-1610 translator. Before anyone posts that the two are too different, remember that in the Atari 8-bit community people have developed a Z80 to 6502 translator that indeed takes a bit of hand work to get fully runnable code, but does a lot of the tedious work automatically. However a lot of the game code would be tied to the target system so source code might only be partly useful, depending on how complex algorithms a game has, plus of course how well commented the source code is.

[+nanochess]

That is an interesting idea, a 6502 to CP-1610 translator. Before anyone posts that the two are too different, remember that in the Atari 8-bit community people have developed a Z80 to 6502 translator that indeed takes a bit of hand work to get fully runnable code, but does a lot of the tedious work automatically. However a lot of the game code would be tied to the target system so source code might only be partly useful, depending on how complex algorithms a game has, plus of course how well commented the source code is.

I've wrote one from 6502 to IntyBASIC but is far from usable and requires lots of changes to get something slow.

 

Maybe I should publish it.

[Kiwi]

There may be issue with color clash. But with shapes, it might be doable. The biggest issue is the row that is offset by 4 pixels and there's multiple images of what that card is going to be. If it is over 64 card, then it's get difficult as new shape get introduced in the later level. Possibly color square cards would be use here to get around the card and color limitation. I did attempt a mock up and ran into that issue. On other hand, with the balls being 16 by 16 and be different color, you may have the game play in tate mode. It would be easier to tile the balls, but will have to make due with 6 balls in a row.

EDIT: It hits me. Actually, making the balls fat, 8x16. I'm going to make a mock up. Programmatically, it's doable.

Edited June 12, 2018 by Kiwi

[+nanochess]

That is an interesting idea, a 6502 to CP-1610 translator. Before anyone posts that the two are too different, remember that in the Atari 8-bit community people have developed a Z80 to 6502 translator that indeed takes a bit of hand work to get fully runnable code, but does a lot of the tedious work automatically. However a lot of the game code would be tied to the target system so source code might only be partly useful, depending on how complex algorithms a game has, plus of course how well commented the source code is.

I've released it in Github https://github.com/nanochess/c6502

 

I'm too embarrassed by this code to make further comments

[Kiwi]

It may look something like this. The pattern on the ball is to help with color blindness. I know one person on the board that has it.



The arrow, white aiming balls, ball and the pattern on the ball are MOBs. In the later levels the white aiming ball goes away. I guess the arrow can take more mobs to make it more definable. MOBs are hard to do a mock-up of. The tileset I have are in bmp and can be ported into the game via IntyCOLOR.

[+DZ-Jay]

It may look something like this. The pattern on the ball is to help with color blindness. I know one person on the board that has it.

 

BubblebobbleIntellivisonMockup.png

 

The arrow, white aiming balls, ball and the pattern on the ball are MOBs. In the later levels the white aiming ball goes away. I guess the arrow can take more mobs to make it more definable. MOBs are hard to do a mock-up of. The tileset I have are in bmp and can be ported into the game via IntyCOLOR.

 

Where are the cute monsters?

[vprette]

that looks already interesting for me to push for a development and publish it... if the monster are too complex to render, we may go for an original title that would not be monster buster... anyone candidate to program that?

 

 

 

It may look something like this. The pattern on the ball is to help with color blindness. I know one person on the board that has it.

BubblebobbleIntellivisonMockup.png

The arrow, white aiming balls, ball and the pattern on the ball are MOBs. In the later levels the white aiming ball goes away. I guess the arrow can take more mobs to make it more definable. MOBs are hard to do a mock-up of. The tileset I have are in bmp and can be ported into the game via IntyCOLOR.

Edited June 12, 2018 by vprette

[vprette]

not being expert enough to test myself, I can propose to you: can you receive the 6502 source, give to your tool and get a clue of what is reusable? if we can make this working, I can provide source code also for another very interesting game..

 

I've released it in Github https://github.com/nanochess/c6502

I'm too embarrassed by this code to make further comments

[carlsson]

I'm sure that single colour resolution monster bubbles would be doable, just the multiple colour layers that would require overlaying multiplexing MOBs.

[+DZ-Jay]

I'm sure that single colour resolution monster bubbles would be doable, just the multiple colour layers that would require overlaying multiplexing MOBs.

 

The targeting dots can be multiplexed, which will make them a bit faint, but that would just make them stand out as just an artefact of targeting instead of a first-class object.

 

The MOBs are only needed for the monsters and the player's "bullet." Targeting and shooting are different states, so the same MOB can be re-used for both. Shooting and "falling bubbles" are different states, so that too could re-use MOBs.

 

It really does not seem to be a hard game to make (comparatively speaking), considering that it does not require any intricate AI or complex object movements, or twitch-fast input responses. The trick is in getting the visuals right.

 

-dZ.

Edited June 12, 2018 by DZ-Jay

[+nanochess]

not being expert enough to test myself, I can propose to you: can you receive the 6502 source, give to your tool and get a clue of what is reusable? if we can make this working, I can provide source code also for another very interesting game..

This tool works using an Atari VCS 4K binary ROM.

 

It's a completely different thing to have source code available.

 

In any case it's a pretty complex thing and can take months of analysis and reimplementation.

 

I would accept gladly to see your code if I wasn't so busy.

[+DZ-Jay]

This tool works using an Atari VCS 4K binary ROM.

 

It's a completely different thing to have source code available.

 

In any case it's a pretty complex thing and can take months of analysis and reimplementation.

 

I would accept gladly to see your code if I wasn't so busy.

 

So... you could take the 6502 source for the Commodore 64, compile it to object code, then reverse-engineer it to get it working for an Atari VCS, then dump a disassembly, compile it into a 4K binary ROM; and finally, process it through your 6502-to-1610 translator.

 

Simples!

[carlsson]

Alex Kazik (the developer of Monster Buster) from P1X3L has previously ported their own C64 games to Vectrex, so perhaps they'd be interested in trying the Intellivision as well?

[vprette]

Alex Kazik (the developer of Monster Buster) from P1X3L has previously ported their own C64 games to Vectrex, so perhaps they'd be interested in trying the Intellivision as well?

 

they have no experience on intv

[artrag]

In intybasic it seems pretty doable.

It would be a nice testbed for fix precision numbers and to implement some trigonometry

But it needs a couple of months of full time work

[Kiwi]

 

 

Where are the cute monsters?

Here they are!

I made another mock up out of curiousity again.

Commodore 64 have much more horizontal resolution than many system for it time and have multicolor tileset mode. So here on Intellivision, the monsters are monochrome but only fits 8 in a row unless we get rid of the sides and go 9 or monsters wide. The arcade Puzzle Bubble has 8 balls horizontally. The cannon nozzle are 2 mobs, basically 2 circles, plus there's the cursor. The monsters in the Commodore 64 explode using sprites, so Intellivision would do the same thing.

[+DZ-Jay]

Here they are!

Monsterbuster.png

I made another mock up out of curiousity again.

 

Commodore 64 have much more horizontal resolution than many system for it time and have multicolor tileset mode. So here on Intellivision, the monsters are monochrome but only fits 8 in a row unless we get rid of the sides and go 9 or monsters wide. The arcade Puzzle Bubble has 8 balls horizontally. The cannon nozzle are 2 mobs, basically 2 circles, plus there's the cursor. The monsters in the Commodore 64 explode using sprites, so Intellivision would do the same thing.

 

LOL! I meant the ones from Bust-a-Move, not from Monster-Buster.

[vprette]

Here they are!

Monsterbuster.png

I made another mock up out of curiousity again.

 

Commodore 64 have much more horizontal resolution than many system for it time and have multicolor tileset mode. So here on Intellivision, the monsters are monochrome but only fits 8 in a row unless we get rid of the sides and go 9 or monsters wide. The arcade Puzzle Bubble has 8 balls horizontally. The cannon nozzle are 2 mobs, basically 2 circles, plus there's the cursor. The monsters in the Commodore 64 explode using sprites, so Intellivision would do the same thing.

 

this is close to monster buster but somehow I like better the first mockup