Penult RPG (Atari 2600)

[+Karl G]

Demo 13 has been added to the first post. Changes since the last demo include:

 

• New outdoor exploration music courtesy of @mvo
• Visual fix for cancelled menus in combat (issue found by @ZeroPage Homebrew)
• Fix for chest looting after bumping into a wall (issue found by @ZeroPage Homebrew)
• Dragon healing shows new total on fey dragon's statusbar right away
• New characters now start with 100 gold instead of 25
• Characters restored to life get (100 x level) gold as a merit-based boon from the queen
• Characters restored to life are at max hitpoints, not 1 hitpoint

The gold from the queen is a temporary fix to ease the pain of character death while I figure out how I want to handle that in the final game.

 

Edit: Demo 14 also uploaded, which fixes some minor map and NPC issues in the castle basement (thanks to @MissCommand for finding these).

[Prizrak]

Any way to reset my game data? I gather my info is stored via AtariVox?

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

8 minutes ago, Prizrak said:

Any way to reset my game data? I gather my info is stored via AtariVox?

All you have to do us hold up on the joystick when you load the game and it'll erase your saved game that's stored on the AtariVox. If you're using a Harmony cart or if your joystick moves around a menu just press it immediately after you select to load the game and there's just enough time to press up before it loads, after just doing this recently. ?

 

- James

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

2 hours ago, Karl G said:

Demo 13 has been added to the first post. Changes since the last demo include:

 

• New outdoor exploration music courtesy of @mvo
• Visual fix for cancelled menus in combat (issue found by @ZeroPage Homebrew)
• Fix for chest looting after bumping into a wall (issue found by @ZeroPage Homebrew)
• Dragon healing shows new total on fey dragon's statusbar right away
• New characters now start with 100 gold instead of 25
• Characters restored to life get (100 x level) gold as a merit-based boon from the queen
• Characters restored to life are at max hitpoints, not 1 hitpoint

The gold from the queen is a temporary fix to ease the pain of character death while I figure out how I want to handle that in the final game.

Great updates! I don't plan on dying again anytime soon but that gold boost should ease a lot of the pain of losing your weapons and armour when you do. ?

 

We'll probably dive back into the dungeons again in the next couple of weeks on the show. I know this time I need to draw some dungeon maps myself due to the minor changes from the Ultima versions (ladder locations etc.)

 

- James

[+Karl G]

Another week, another Penult demo. Demo 15 has been added to the first post. This version fixes a sloppy error that made the dungeon unplayable in the last demo (discovered by @MissCommand).

 

Additionally, I've changed the death penalty again to be even less harsh. The game is challenging enough on its own without making death set the player too far back. So, with this version, getting killed will make you lose all of your gold, but you keep your armor, weapons, and equipment. We shall see if this works well, or if it goes too far on the lenient side.

 

Hopefully this will be the last demo I release for a while. I'm making good progress on the main game. Right now I'm working on the endgame. That doesn't mean that everything else is complete - just that the endgame is the part of the game I'm working on now.

 

Edit: Demo 16 added to fix minor restore issue.

[+Karl G]

I just thought I'd give an update on how the game is coming along. I'm getting close to a beta version - Nearly everything is in the game now, so it's getting down to tweaks and fixes. Some recent progress I've made includes:

 

• Added the endgame sequence
• Leveling characters past level 6 (once you find the trainers)
• Changes to combat for game balance. The most notable of these is that DEX now determines the character's chance to hit with melee weapons as well as ranged weapons. STR was already powerful enough as it added to HitPoints as well as adding to melee damage.
• Adding new spells as well as new uses for existing ones
• New game name entry is now much less irritating

I'm not going to add a new demo version for the foreseeable future so as not to split my development time maintaining two separate code bases. This will allow me to finish the game sooner.

[+Karl G]

Demo 17 is up to correct a couple of issues found by @MissCommand related to finishing the demo dungeon.

 

In other news, Penult is nearing beta! A couple of brave people have volunteered to be beta testers for my game, and I'm looking forward to seeing what they think after they play from beginning to end. It's a big game, so beta testing, bug fixing, and adjusting game balance will likely be a slow process, but I'm excited about reaching this milestone.

[gambler172]

On 10/12/2020 at 3:22 PM, Karl G said:

Demo 17 is up to correct a couple of issues found by @MissCommand related to finishing the demo dungeon.

 

In other news, Penult is nearing beta! A couple of brave people have volunteered to be beta testers for my game, and I'm looking forward to seeing what they think after they play from beginning to end. It's a big game, so beta testing, bug fixing, and adjusting game balance will likely be a slow process, but I'm excited about reaching this milestone.

Hi Carl

really great work.....i would like to see a game like 

this for the 7800

[+Karl G]

2 hours ago, gambler172 said:

Hi Carl

really great work.....i would like to see a game like 

this for the 7800

Thanks! It's not impossible that I'll try my hand at a 7800 version of Penult at some point. I think of Legend of Silverpeak as being a spiritual sibling, though, and I hope @Atarius Maximus eventually finishes it.

[Bomberman94]

@Karl Gi really enjoy playing your game (demo17 via the PlusCart) - any news about your beta and plans for a physical release on cartridge? This is a great addition (and missing genre) on the Atari 2600!

[+Karl G]

1 hour ago, Bomberman94 said:

@Karl Gi really enjoy playing your game (demo17 via the PlusCart) - any news about your beta and plans for a physical release on cartridge? This is a great addition (and missing genre) on the Atari 2600!

I'm glad you are enjoying it! I've been doing a small, closed beta, and it has been going very well so far. I definitely plan to release this one on cart, hopefully later this year.

[+Karl G]

The game is pretty much complete, apart from testing and everything else that goes into a physical release. While I've avoided releasing anything beyond what's included in the demo to avoid spoilers, I wanted to share a couple of things here. The first is a no-spoilers map generated with the same tool I use to create/edit map data (Tiled). Something similar to it will be included with the game. The second thing is an exported MP3 of some of the new music in the game composed by @mvo - specifically what gets played in certain "bad places".

 

 

badplace.mp3

 

[abrower9d9]

3 hours ago, Karl G said:

The game is pretty much complete, apart from testing and everything else that goes into a physical release. While I've avoided releasing anything beyond what's included in the demo to avoid spoilers, I wanted to share a couple of things here. The first is a no-spoilers map generated with the same tool I use to create/edit map data (Tiled). Something similar to it will be included with the game. The second thing is an exported MP3 of some of the new music in the game composed by @mvo - specifically what gets played in certain "bad places".

 

 

badplace.mp3 573.28 kB · 15 downloads

 

I am so excited for this one! Loved the MP3 ??

[+Muddyfunster]

Love the map @Karl G

[Asaki]

Very awesome.

[Bomberman94]

A great addition to the Atari 2600 library and so well done - simply amazing! Must have the physical release ?. Are different release versions planned (besides NTSC and PAL  I guess)?

[+Karl G]

21 minutes ago, Bomberman94 said:

A great addition to the Atari 2600 library and so well done - simply amazing! Must have the physical release ?. Are different release versions planned (besides NTSC and PAL  I guess)?

That I don't know yet. I'd probably prefer to do just one edition, but I would also like to include cloth maps with the boxed version, and I don't yet know how much that will end up costing.

[King_Salamon]

This game is looking more and more ambitious every time I look at updates on it!  Look forward to giving this a go when the cart is released... cloth map eh?  That's kicking it old school!  lol  A nice manual to go with the game as well will be fun!  Might be a slightly pricier game on the Atari Age store but well worth the money I'm sure!

[+Karl G]

I've updated the public demo in the first post to incorporate the improvements made to the engine in my recent betas. Do please let me know if anyone finds any bugs or other issues.

 

Changes since last public demo:

 

• New intro sequence upon character creation
• Added new in town music and improved title music
• User interface improvements
• Demo dungeon changed to reflect dungeon changes in the main game
• Code reorganization to fix corner-case screen jump issues (overcycling)
• Lots of bug fixes

[Bomberman94]

On 4/18/2021 at 9:28 PM, Karl G said:

I've updated the public demo in the first post to incorporate the improvements made to the engine in my recent betas. Do please let me know if anyone finds any bugs or other issues.

 

Changes since last public demo:

 

• New intro sequence upon character creation
• Added new in town music and improved title music
• User interface improvements
• Demo dungeon changed to reflect dungeon changes in the main game
• Code reorganization to fix corner-case screen jump issues (overcycling)
• Lots of bug fixes

Really like your game - one of the most ambitious games for the Atari 2600 IMO. 

Played the last build and title screen/sequence appears to be a bit flickering. I played it on a real TV on my PAL Atari 2600 (light sixer) via PlusCard. I can make and upload a video at the weekend if this helps?

[+Karl G]

6 minutes ago, Bomberman94 said:

Really like your game - one of the most ambitious games for the Atari 2600 IMO. 

Played the last build and title screen/sequence appears to be a bit flickering. I played it on a real TV on my PAL Atari 2600 (light sixer) via PlusCard. I can make and upload a video at the weekend if this helps?

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it. And I'm glad to have a PAL region person try it on real hardware, so thanks for that as well.

 

The only part of the title screen/sequence that should flicker is the part of the frame that contains the hero and dragon. It flips between two frames for this part (one reddish, and one cyan). If the pixels exist in both frames, they effectively mix to produce a white. If the red frame doesn't have corresponding pixels in the blue frame, then that part stays red, and vice versa with the blue. Here are the two frames, and how they should look mixed via flicker:

 

 

 

 

I'm interested to know what you see on your end, and if your results are any different with the PAL60 version than what I see on my NTSC hardware.

[Billy Beans]

This is such an impressive feat of a game for the 2600. Well done sir.

 

It captures the feel of the Ultima III or IV era so well.

[Bomberman94]

On 5/11/2021 at 1:11 AM, Karl G said:

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it. And I'm glad to have a PAL region person try it on real hardware, so thanks for that as well.

 

The only part of the title screen/sequence that should flicker is the part of the frame that contains the hero and dragon. It flips between two frames for this part (one reddish, and one cyan). If the pixels exist in both frames, they effectively mix to produce a white. If the red frame doesn't have corresponding pixels in the blue frame, then that part stays red, and vice versa with the blue. Here are the two frames, and how they should look mixed via flicker:

 

 

 

 

I'm interested to know what you see on your end, and if your results are any different with the PAL60 version than what I see on my NTSC hardware.

I uploaded a video on YT - here’s the link:

 

It it difficult to see: the screen at the beginning is more colorful „in real“ as you can see in the video. Interesting is that after selecting „new game“ the whole screen gets more black and white (it’s like „loosing colors“ - hope you can see it in the video). In addition the characters gets more flickering - after that (at the „points screen“) colors are back and everything‘s fine. ?‍♂️

[+Karl G]

31 minutes ago, Bomberman94 said:

I uploaded a video on YT - here’s the link:

 

It it difficult to see: the screen at the beginning is more colorful „in real“ as you can see in the video. Interesting is that after selecting „new game“ the whole screen gets more black and white (it’s like „loosing colors“ - hope you can see it in the video). In addition the characters gets more flickering - after that (at the „points screen“) colors are back and everything‘s fine. ?‍♂️

I can see it - and I know the cause. I didn't notice before that on that particular screen I jump to 263 scanlines instead of 262. Odd numbers of scanlines cause color loss on PAL consoles. Good catch, and thank you!

[+Karl G]

A new demo has been added to the first post. Demo 19 changes include:

 

• Fixed line count on character creation screen
• PAL color tweak on title screen
• PAL dungeon status bar color tweak
• Fixed corner-case overcycling fix with teleporting monsters
• Teleporting monsters may no longer teleport into solid objects