Quantum Tunnel

[graywest]

UPDATED: THE LATEST VERSION (4/13/2020) IS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST.

 

Hello all. I've been working on cleaning up and finishing some of my old "experimental" games and first up is "Quantum Tunnel". This game used to be "Atomic Disco 2" when I first posted it several years ago.

 

I was looking to make an old-school abstract twitch game. There's minimal story, just fast action. I also wanted to see how many objects I could get moving on the screen at once with the standard bB kernel.

 

******************************

 

Instructions:

 

You're the blue particle on the left side of the screen. Your goal is to power up by collecting strings of like-colored particles.

 

Move the particle up and down with the joystick. Your particle has momentum and will not stop immediately when you release the stick. Learning to move accurately is key to high scores.

 

You begin with 3 lives. Avoid the nanobots - touching these will cost one life.

 

Touching blue obstacles or the sides of the tunnel will cause your particle to bounce around, potentially throwing you into something you don't want.

 

There are two types of collectible particles in the tunnel - yellow and green. You can collect either type, but you'll want to continue collecting particles of the same color in order to increase your bonus multiplier. For example, the first green particle is worth 0 points. If you collect another green particle next, you will receive 100 points, then 125 points for the next green particle, and so on, until you reach a maximum of 500 points per green particle.

 

The color of your score indicates the color of the last particle that you collected. If you have been collecting green particles, but you accidentally touch a yellow particle, you will receive 0 points and the bonus multiplier will reset.

 

Time Freeze power: The status bar at the lower right indicates how much "Time Freeze" power you currently have. Pressing the red button will freeze everything in the tunnel except for you. Use this ability to dodge nanobots, avoid tunnel obstacles, or position yourself to pick up particles.

 

When your bonus multiplier is at the maximum (after picking up 10 particles of the same color in a row) you will also receive a bonus to your "Time Freeze" power meter.

 

At set intervals, the tunnel will begin to pulsate. While this is happening, the obstacles in the tunnel become DEADLY. You can still touch the top and bottom walls of the tunnel, but doing so will bounce you around, potentially throwing you into an obstacle. Building your power meter and utilizing your "Time Freeze" power carefully will become very important.

 

The farther you advance in the game, the more difficult progress will become as more and more obstacles appear in the tunnel, and enemies speed up. Eventually, even your "Time Freeze" power weakens and will only slow the enemies and particles rather than stopping them completely. Don't give up, though. Extra lives are awarded at 30K, 60K, and 80K.

 

The left difficulty switch, in the "B" position, gives you some "Time Freeze" power to begin with. If this switch is in the "A" position, you begin the game with none and will have to earn it by capturing particles.

 

*****************************************

 

If you have a chance to test the game, please leave me some feedback. Bug reports are also good. I appreciate all comments, whether you liked the game or not. Also, please post your high scores. I'm curious to see how far people are able to get and find out whether or not the difficulty ramp needs to be tweaked.

 

I know that there's a bug on my title screen that displays the last score incorrectly. Seems to place an extra digit in the hundred thousands column. I'll see what I can do to fix that. [FIXED]

 

QuantumTunnelv9.bin [LATEST VERSION]
 

QuantumTunnelV8.bin [old version]

QuantumTunnel.bin [old version]

 

 

Edited April 14, 2020 by graywest
Added version 9 of Quantum Tunnel .bin and updated instructions.

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

Heya graywest, Quantum Tunnel is super fun, thanks so much for posting it! :-)

 

Tomorrow night (Monday) at 8PM PT/11PM ET I'll be streaming LIVE the built in homebrew titles on new Retron 77 on my Twitch show ZeroPage Homebrew and I'll also be playing your game as well through the system using the SD card to test out that part of it!

 

Livestream Twitch Channel: https://www.twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew

ZeroPage YouTube Channel: https://goo.gl/aPKSYy

 

If you're not able to catch the show live you can check it out the next day on the YouTube archives on the link above. Looking forward to playing Quantum Tunnel tomorrow on the show and hopefully seeing you in the Twitch chat!

Edited July 8, 2018 by cimmerian

[graywest]

Heya graywest, Quantum Tunnel is super fun, thanks so much for posting it! :-)

 

Tomorrow night at 8PM PT/11PM ET I'll be streaming LIVE the built in homebrew titles on new Retron 77 on my Twitch show ZeroPage Homebrew and I'll also be playing your game as well through the system using the SD card to test out that part of it!

 

Great! Thanks for letting me know - I will definitely be checking out the show tonight!

[Arenafoot]

my high score - so far!

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

The show will be tomorrow night (Monday). :-)

 

 

Great! Thanks for letting me know - I will definitely be checking out the show tonight!

[TrekMD]

Cool, will be checking it out.

[graywest]

I'm back again with some more updates. This is getting pretty close to being complete.

 

Changes:

• With some guidance from RevEng, the score on the title screen is now fixed and correct.
• Added a death animation and explosion sound.
• Tuned the difficulty. The game now begins with obstacles appearing slightly more often in the tunnel and their frequency increases slowly but steadily. I also removed some extra lives that were given out early in the game. The extra lives now appear at 30k, 45k, 90k, 150k, and 300k. Also, the enemy speedup happens slightly earlier in the game, at 45k points.
• Fixed a couple of bugs.

Still to do:

• I might add some music for the title screen - I still have around 4kb left out of 16kb.
• I'm going to tune the enemy generator so that particles aren't sometimes generated so closely together on the y-axis.
• Saving the high score and alternating between the last score and the high score on the title screen.
• Any other suggestions that might come along?

My own top score is somewhere in the 60,000 range. Enjoy!

 

QuantumTunnelV8.bin

Edited July 25, 2018 by graywest

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

I have to say you have some amazing sound design on the game, every move and bounce can be heard with dull grinding underlying it all. The new death explosion well done and very appropriate for the game. I was going to make a comment about the difficulty level staying fairly steady until I hit around the 40k mark and the particles started whipping by me making it a LOT more challenging, great job.

 

As for suggestions, I can't think of any more as it seems most of the things I think I talked about during Monday's livestream seem to be addressed now. I'll definitely be revisiting this game in an upcoming episode of ZeroPage, that's for sure. It didn't get a fair run being shown on the Retron 77 as the video output on that is terrible as it has vsync tearing being still on Stella 3.x

 

I almost made it to the 60k range on my first game on this new build! Super fun!

[graywest]

I have to say you have some amazing sound design on the game, every move and bounce can be heard with dull grinding underlying it all. The new death explosion well done and very appropriate for the game. I was going to make a comment about the difficulty level staying fairly steady until I hit around the 40k mark and the particles started whipping by me making it a LOT more challenging, great job.

 

As for suggestions, I can't think of any more as it seems most of the things I think I talked about during Monday's livestream seem to be addressed now. I'll definitely be revisiting this game in an upcoming episode of ZeroPage, that's for sure. It didn't get a fair run being shown on the Retron 77 as the video output on that is terrible as it has vsync tearing being still on Stella 3.x

 

I almost made it to the 60k range on my first game on this new build! Super fun!

 

Awesome! Glad to hear that you're enjoying it. And thanks for playing it on your show.

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

Heya graywest! Just a heads up that we'll be revisiting Quantum Tunnel LIVE on this Friday's episode of ZeroPage Homebrew on a real Atari 2600 this time!!

 

Twitch LiveStream: http://twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/

 

Looking forward to playing it properly on the show on Friday, hope you can tune in! The stream will start at 2PM PT/5PM ET.

 

 

Awesome! Glad to hear that you're enjoying it. And thanks for playing it on your show.

 

[graywest]

Heya graywest! Just a heads up that we'll be revisiting Quantum Tunnel LIVE on this Friday's episode of ZeroPage Homebrew on a real Atari 2600 this time!!

 

Twitch LiveStream: http://twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/

 

Looking forward to playing it properly on the show on Friday, hope you can tune in! The stream will start at 2PM PT/5PM ET.

 

 

 

I'm interested in seeing how it holds up on a real 2600. I haven't tried it yet myself. Hopefully there won't be any screen rolling or anything like that!

 

Looking forward to the show on Friday!!

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

I just tried Quantum Tunnel through my setup and there's a couple things but nothing game breaking. I've PM'd you a video so you can check it out.

 

 

I'm interested in seeing how it holds up on a real 2600. I haven't tried it yet myself. Hopefully there won't be any screen rolling or anything like that!

 

Looking forward to the show on Friday!!

[graywest]

I just tried Quantum Tunnel through my setup and there's a couple things but nothing game breaking. I've PM'd you a video so you can check it out.

 

 

The video was very helpful.

 

I was also planning to watch your show live this afternoon but didn't get home from work in time. I did catch the archived version though. Looks like I still have some work to do. After seeing you play it, I agree - it looks like it is too easy now. More difficulty tweaks are needed. I want to fix those screen jitters as well. I think I have an idea where the timing issues are, but we'll see.

 

Thanks for the feedback!!

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

You're very welcome. I *love* this game and I can't wait for future versions with a ramped up difficulty. It's on my to-buy list if you decide to put it into a cart!

 

For those of you who missed the live stream here's the archived version on our YouTube channel, Quantum Tunnel is the first game we play:

 

 

The video was very helpful.

 

I was also planning to watch your show live this afternoon but didn't get home from work in time. I did catch the archived version though. Looks like I still have some work to do. After seeing you play it, I agree - it looks like it is too easy now. More difficulty tweaks are needed. I want to fix those screen jitters as well. I think I have an idea where the timing issues are, but we'll see.

 

Thanks for the feedback!!

 

[graywest]

Hello all!

 

Well, I finally returned to this game after almost two years, and I think I've fixed the difficulty problem. There is a new feature as well.

 

At certain intervals, the playfield will begin to pulsate. When this happens, the obstacles become deadly. The top and bottom sides of the tunnel are still safe to touch, but they may bounce you into an obstacle, so beware!

 

I've tuned the difficulty ramp and tweaked a few other things. I'd still like to add a high score feature - looks like I started to do this at one point and then commented it out. Shouldn't be too hard to put it back in.

 

Please try it out and let me know what you think. I'm also interested to hear what your high scores are - mine is around 80,000.

QuantumTunnelv9.bin

[+bhall408]

14 hours ago, graywest said:

've tuned the difficulty ramp and tweaked a few other things. I'd still like to add a high score feature - looks like I started to do this at one point and then commented it out. Shouldn't be too hard to put it back in.

In 10 or so attempts so far, I've been getting in the upper thousands, so a way to go to get to your 80K!

 

As you say, would be nice if the high score were remembered and shown on the title page. Either alternating last score and high score, or showing both on separate lines.

 

[graywest]

On 4/14/2020 at 12:04 PM, bhall408 said:

In 10 or so attempts so far, I've been getting in the upper thousands, so a way to go to get to your 80K!

 

As you say, would be nice if the high score were remembered and shown on the title page. Either alternating last score and high score, or showing both on separate lines.

 

Awesome! I'd say that getting a feel for the particle's momentum, and using the "freeze time" power at appropriate moments are key to getting higher scores. It can take some time, I think.

 

I'm currently working on the high score feature - should have something done soon.

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

We'll be playing Quantum Tunnel on tomorrow's (Sun Apr 19) ZeroPage Homebrew stream LIVE on Twitch at 11AM PT | 2PM ET | 6PM GMT! Hope everyone can watch!

 

Twitch Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/

Games:

• Quantum Tunnel (2020 WIP Update) by Jared Gray West aka @graywest
• Hot Box (2020) by Edward Smith aka @easmith
• Star Fire (2003 Patch Attempt #1 2326/3500) by Manuel Rotschkar aka @Cybergoth

 

(SET VIDEO TO 1080P60 FOR FULL QUALITY)

 

Edited April 21, 2020 by ZeroPage Homebrew

[graywest]

Cool - looking forward to it!!

[graywest]

Thanks ZPH for playing Quantum Tunnel on your show! I'm working out the last few bugs, and then I think it will be complete.

 

Still to do:

• Save the high score (going to need to find a couple more variables for this)
• Fix the occasional frame jumping
• Add a delay after player death - with no delay, the player can immediately crash into another obstacle if they are pushing the button when they die
• Allow the player to turn off the flashing of the tunnel using a difficulty switch (DONE!)

I'm considering making a very limited run of boxed copies, as an experiment. I think I know enough about the printing process to produce everything myself, but I'd like to find out how much it would actually cost me for materials, printing, die-cutting, folding, gluing, etc. I also recently purchased a 3D printer, so I can make cartridge shells in unique colors (baby blue, pink, green, etc.) So I'd like to build out a cart, instruction manual, and box.

 

Would anyone be interested in purchasing one? At this point, I'm just trying to gauge interest, not take money or even start an official pre-order list. But if you would potentially buy one of these, please respond to let me know.

Edited May 15, 2020 by graywest

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

5 hours ago, graywest said:

Thanks ZPH for playing Quantum Tunnel on your show! I'm working out the last few bugs, and then I think it will be complete.

You're very welcome Jared, excellent game!

 

5 hours ago, graywest said:

Would anyone be interested in purchasing one? At this point, I'm just trying to gauge interest, not take money or even start an official pre-order list. But if you would potentially buy one of these, please respond to let me know.

 

Put me down for one, great box art! Looking forward to seeing the colour options for the cartridges.

[adamh9700]

8 hours ago, graywest said:

Thanks ZPH for playing Quantum Tunnel on your show! I'm working out the last few bugs, and then I think it will be complete.

 

Still to do:

• Save the high score (going to need to find a couple more variables for this)
• Fix the occasional frame jumping
• Add a delay after player death - with no delay, the player can immediately crash into another obstacle if they are pushing the button when they die
• Allow the player to turn off the flashing of the tunnel using a difficulty switch (DONE!)

I'm considering making a very limited run of boxed copies, as an experiment. I think I know enough about the printing process to produce everything myself, but I'd like to find out how much it would actually cost me for materials, printing, die-cutting, folding, gluing, etc. I also recently purchased a 3D printer, so I can make cartridge shells in unique colors (baby blue, pink, green, etc.) So I'd like to build out a cart, instruction manual, and box.

 

Would anyone be interested in purchasing one? At this point, I'm just trying to gauge interest, not take money or even start an official pre-order list. But if you would potentially buy one of these, please respond to let me know.

I would absolutely be interested

[+Pat Brady]

Sorry for the necrobump. I just saw this from the ZPH Homebrew Awards. This is a really nice game.

 

If you're still interested in feedback, my suggestion is to somehow change the background music when the obstacles become deadly. Just raising the pitch would probably be enough.

 

If you're still considering doing a physical run, I'm in.

[graywest]

On 2/2/2021 at 2:33 PM, Pat Brady said:

Sorry for the necrobump. I just saw this from the ZPH Homebrew Awards. This is a really nice game.

 

If you're still interested in feedback, my suggestion is to somehow change the background music when the obstacles become deadly. Just raising the pitch would probably be enough.

 

If you're still considering doing a physical run, I'm in.

Thanks!! Yes, feedback is great - I like the idea of changing the music when the obstacles become deadly. I've got to get back to finishing this game up. There isn't much more to do, but I've been feeling lazy lately. ?

[Albert]

Quantum Tunnel will make its debut in physical form at this year's Portland Retro Gaming Expo!  Here's a preview of the box created by @CoreyremarK!

If you're not able to make the show, Quantum Tunnel will be available in the AtariAge Store in November!

 

 ..Al