Elektronite TNT Cowboy - Official Ordering Thread

[Elektronite]

Elektronite, in association with Kai Magazine, is pleased to present...

 

TNT Cowboy

 

 

A NEW game written for your Mattel Electronics Intellivision!

TNT Cowboy is an explosive new Action/RPG game that transports you to the Wild West where people don't use guns to solve their problems, but TNT charges!

Lots of very strange things are happening in this town. Gigantic animals are attacking the people and some folks have even seen ghosts!

Don't wait a second more! Catch the first train to the town that will offer you the greatest adventure of your life!

TNT Cowboy is currently ONLY available as a ROM for exclusive use on the LTO Flash! Intellivision Multicart.

The price for the LTO Flash! ROM (Not for use with other multicarts nor emulators) is $20 US + $1.10 US PayPal fees.

If you do not have an LTO Flash!, you may obtain one from Left Turn Only, LLC. at; http://ltoflash.leftturnonly.info/

Loose cartridge sales will go on sale in late May or June 2019 and be $40 US + Shipping.

Manuals, overlays and boxes will be available separately (when available) for $30 US.

We will be taking 'CIB' pre-orders at that time for the complete in box version of the game. People who buy the ROM and pre-pay for their complete in box copy (And cover PayPal charges) will get FREE SHIPPING when the 'CIB' version of the game is available.

European customers take note:

In the future we will be declaring replacement cost of the materials when shipping, NOT the retail cost. We hope to avoid unnecessary extra charges upon delivery. Please take that into consideration when deciding if you wish to support us by purchasing a copy.

We know that there are a lot of choices when it comes to deciding where to spend your retrogaming dollars. There are presently a TON of choices in the very small Intellivision niche market.

In fact, there may be too many choices at the moment. The truth is that we are starting to struggle a bit. That is why we are taking pre-oders for the complete in box edition. We just cannot manage to raise the tremendous amount of resources required to release games of the quality that you've come to expect from Elektronite without some help. We know that a $70 US investment in one of our 'complete in box' games is a lot to ask. Some people have been passing on our recent releases. Therefore, we are hoping to make our games more accessible and satisfy the people who want to use a multicart, those who want a loose cartridge as cheap as possible, and those who like to have full box versions of our games.

We'd love to be able to accommodate the people who use emulation, but that is simply not possible at this time, until we've recovered our investment. Elektronite has hired a professional programmer to create 3 games for us. Ninja Odyssey, TNT Cowboy and Antropomorphic Force, also known as A.F.

Check out a sneak peek here:

https://youtu.be/MsxC2HRKY0M?t=1

ALL sales of TNT Cowboy ROMS are going towards the development costs of Antropomorphic Force. If we can cover development costs with your help, we can then commission 3 more games. Otherwise, Kai Magazine is probably going to return to MSX development, which would be a big loss for Intellivision fans. If you want to see more quality Elektronite/Kai Magazine games, don't delay, order today!

HOW TO ORDER

Please email your request to:

elektronite (at) hotmail (dot com)

Put TNT Cowboy LTO Flash! ROM in the title

Please give the first FIVE characters (only) of your DRUID (unique LTO Flash! identifier) number. You can obtain the ID number by plugging your LTO Flash! cartridge into the computer via USB and using the Graphical User Interface to find out the number or using the Intellivision to read the ID number from the Intellivision screen.

You do NOT need to copy out the full 32 character long ID number, however the first 5 characters MUST be accurate.

Your ID number is NOT LTO-04-XXX.

We will send you a PayPal address for you to submit your payment.

PLEASE NOTE: After you pay, you should receive the rom within 24 hours but NO MORE than 48 hours. If you do NOT receive your ROM, please check your junk mail box. If the ROM is not there, please send us an email with an alternative email address where we may send the rom. It is our experience that some email domains throttle and delete emails with our roms attached.

[endrixiano]

Cool

I still do not have an LTO cart, I’m waiting for Joe to let me know when it will available in any Europe online reseller.

Thank you

F.

 

 

Inviato dal mio iPhone utilizzando Tapatalk

[mthompson]

Great looking game.

 

Will the non-CIB versions come with instructions?

[+cmart604]

Looking forward to this one. Ill be in for 2 CIB and a ROM

[Elektronite]

Great looking game.

 

Will the non-CIB versions come with instructions?

 

We have a PDF of the game instructions which we will be including in email with the roms. It is not a traditional 'Elektronite style' manual. We will be incorporating the current art and changing the manual to be consistent with other releases. You may download the manual here:

TNT COWBOY MANUAL.pdf

[Elektronite]

TNT Cowboy Promotional Video

Please share!

 

[iesposta]

I’m deciding on this.

Thank you for an LTO cart ROM release option!

 

For me it is not so much the higher cost in deciding to purchase, but rather the presentation and information about the game.

I almost passed initially because the video above does not show the game play with the Intellivision’s Yamaha sound chip. Customers want to see and hear whey they are buying. The other video does have the game’s sound.

The next reason was the text spelling grammar mistakes. Lowercase after a period, uppercase after a comma, and words like Bucks unnecessarily capitalized — all that in just the first half of the video.

 

Things are a lot better than before when you would just have buy a homebrew on the name, the game objective and/or story, and maybe the artwork.

You took the time to post game screen shots, and to post videos.

 

On other systems l, I decide to buy a physical release if I have played a demo of the full game, played a release build during the development — or at least watched a video of someone playing along with their comments.

[Elektronite]

I’m deciding on this.

Thank you for an LTO cart ROM release option!

 

For me it is not so much the higher cost in deciding to purchase, but rather the presentation and information about the game.

I almost passed initially because the video above does not show the game play with the Intellivision’s Yamaha sound chip. Customers want to see and hear whey they are buying. The other video does have the game’s sound.

The next reason was the text spelling grammar mistakes. Lowercase after a period, uppercase after a comma, and words like Bucks unnecessarily capitalized — all that in just the first half of the video.

 

Things are a lot better than before when you would just have buy a homebrew on the name, the game objective and/or story, and maybe the artwork.

You took the time to post game screen shots, and to post videos.

 

On other systems l, I decide to buy a physical release if I have played a demo of the full game, played a release build during the development — or at least watched a video of someone playing along with their comments.

 

Please keep in mind that not all of the video of the game play represents the final version of the game. Its main purpose is to show what the game play is like. (Yes, we could do another video but are showing what we have at the moment). Also, keep in mind that the developer is not a native English speaker. Testers not only look for bugs, but correct English usage as well, and correcting English was necessary in the game. Sometimes, capitals are used to emphasize a word, and it is not necessarily 'correct' to capitalize it. In some cases, in A.F. for example, all capitals are used to allow for a superior graphics mode. It is simply a limitation of the Intellivision itself.

 

We have a review copy out for at least one Youtube channel at the moment and should have a review to show soon.

[+grips03]

Can you confirm if bugs are found in the rom release a new rom will be sent free of charge?

[Elektronite]

Can you confirm if bugs are found in the rom release a new rom will be sent free of charge?

 

Email is free.

[Bamse]

It does look like a fantastic game. I'm looking forward to buying it next month

[+grips03]

 

Email is free.

 

So I'll take that as a yes. If you opened a new account to be less snarky, well then...

[davidcalgary29]

Well, I want a boxed copy. Is this going to be the pre-order threat for that, too?

[imstarryeyed]

Looking forward to the Boxed version as I do not have an LTO but use a Cuttle Cart 3 for my ROMs..

 

In any case TNT Cowboy looks so fun and AF looks interesting, I am hoping the whole game is just not going down but goes horizontal once in a while. I do however plan to support it one way or the other...

[+JasonlikesINTV]

Game looks sweet! Waiting for the CIB version.

[Kai_Magazine]

Looking forward to the Boxed version as I do not have an LTO but use a Cuttle Cart 3 for my ROMs..

 

In any case TNT Cowboy looks so fun and AF looks interesting, I am hoping the whole game is just not going down but goes horizontal once in a while. I do however plan to support it one way or the other...

Thank you for your interest

AF goes down in all the stages.

The reason is because the main game core is huge, everything is designed to go down (scrolls, enemies, artificial intelligence, etc) and to do some stages to the right would mean to duplicate a big part of the code.

The area where the main game core must reside on the intellivision is rather small (the intellivision was not designed for this) and no matter how big the rom or cartridge is, that "accessible at all times" area of the rom is limited no matter what.

But don't worry, the game has plenty of variety, lots of different enemies, etc. so it will not become repetitive or boring at all. I can assure you that.

I went with this "caverns of mars" style game (scroll going down) because it's something very uncommon and unexploited, and I wanted to do something different that could adapt well to the Intellivision hardware.

Due to the intellivisdion 8x16 pixels sprite capabilities, tall vertical sprites work much better than long horizontal ones (necessary for a side space shooter).

So everything has a reason. The game whould not have looked as good going to the right.

 

I am working on a new AF video as I type this message. I will post it soon.

[Kai_Magazine]

By the way, check on Ninja Odyssey thread if you liked TNT Cowboy and AF. You might like that one as well.

I don't know if Elektronite is accepting rom purchases of Ninja Odyssey at the moment but I don't see a reason not to.

[+wongojack]

"ALL sales of TNT Cowboy ROMS are going towards the development costs of Antropomorphic Force. If we can cover development costs with your help, we can then commission 3 more games. Otherwise, Kai Magazine is probably going to return to MSX development, which would be a big loss for Intellivision fans. If you want to see more quality Elektronite/Kai Magazine games, don't delay, order today!"

 

Any chance there could be some package deal to buy an LTO and get all 3 games? I realize LTO is different people but maybe some sort of package would help to push early sales of this and pre-sales of Antropomorphic Force?

[endrixiano]

Looking forward for the boxed version too! Thanks

 

 

Inviato dal mio iPhone utilizzando Tapatalk

[+intellivotion]

let there be CIB, either by buying cart, box, manual and overlays together or separately

[imstarryeyed]

Kai Magazine, I have never heard of them, but I have to say they make some fierce looking games. I am very much looking forward to supporting all of the cart versions of their games they make available on the Intellivision here.

 

I have to say TNT cowboy really impressed me on what can be done in the Intellivison graphics! I got that Pokemon / Bomberman vibe right when I saw it.. neat.

[MonsterSky]

I'll wait for the TNT CIB preorder option, this is another way to support the projects.

[Kai_Magazine]

Here is a current AF video:

 

https://youtu.be/_3zEYiNdU64

 

This game is a work in progress. Some aspects might change/improve. There might be misspellings or other errors that will be corrected on the final version.

I opened a thread regarding AF with snapshots and some info just in case any of you have any questions or comments about it.

[mr_me]

Thank you for your interest

AF goes down in all the stages.

The reason is because the main game core is huge, everything is designed to go down (scrolls, enemies, artificial intelligence, etc) and to do some stages to the right would mean to duplicate a big part of the code.

The area where the main game core must reside on the intellivision is rather small (the intellivision was not designed for this) and no matter how big the rom or cartridge is, that "accessible at all times" area of the rom is limited no matter what.

But don't worry, the game has plenty of variety, lots of different enemies, etc. so it will not become repetitive or boring at all. I can assure you that.

I went with this "caverns of mars" style game (scroll going down) because it's something very uncommon and unexploited, and I wanted to do something different that could adapt well to the Intellivision hardware.

Due to the intellivisdion 8x16 pixels sprite capabilities, tall vertical sprites work much better than long horizontal ones (necessary for a side space shooter).

So everything has a reason. The game whould not have looked as good going to the right.

 

I am working on a new AF video as I type this message. I will post it soon.

You can scale sprites 0.5x vertically and 2x horizontally. You lose resolution one way but gain it the other way.

 

With AF, it looks like you're simulating multiplane scrolling. It's impressive; is that what's taking up much of the computer's resources.

[Kai_Magazine]

I wish to keep all pixels the same size. It looks more consistent and harmonic to me that way.

The advantadge on the 8x16 pixel sprites is that I can use 2 8x8 tiles for 1 sprite and that allows me to show more info on the screen using HW sprites.

The disadvantadge is that this is only useful for 16 pixel tall sprites.

 

Regarding AF resources usage: it takes a lot of the tile redefinition resources and tile resources, but it doesn't take much cpu.

The CPU goes away on:

-Real time tile map de-compression (stage maps are heavily compressed in order to save ROM memory)

-Animations

-Enemy artificial intelligence

-Using tiles as sprites and restoring the background as they move.

-Background reading (ground enemies read the background and walk over it or react to it)

-HW Sprite vs tile-based sprite collisions and viceversa

-Handling 22 live simultaneous objects on screen (intellivision is not designed for so many moving/live elements at the same time): player, player's bullets, player's barrier, hardware sprite based enemies, tile based enemies, enemy bullets, items...

 

This game pushes the Intellivision limits to the maximum (at least within my current knowledge).

Edited April 18, 2019 by Kai_Magazine