Growing Ties

[drludos]

Hi everyone!

 

To celebrate the 30 years of the Lynx, here is new game I've created for the Atari Lynx 30th birthday Programming Competition hosted by Atari Gamer: Growing Ties.

 

 

It's game requiring both an excellent eye and a good hand dexterity.
Patrons want to get custom ties. You'll have to cut them perfect-sized ones!

HOW TO PLAY

Press A to grow a tie.
Press B to cut it.

 

The tie will fall down, and hopefully reach a patron.

Be careful to cut right-sized ties!

 

You'll get 10 points for a perfectly fitting tie, but less points if it's too long or too short.

A perfect sized tie matches the height of the patron's shirt exactly.

As the levels go along, you'll discover more mechanics explained in the game: combo system, modifying tie colors, limited tie supply, limited time, etc.

 

PLAY IT

 

You can play it online or download the rom from my website.

You can also read the detailed entry page of the competition on AtariGamer.

 

This is my first Lynx game, so I'll hope you'll enjoy it!

Any feedback is welcome :)!

 

Edited September 1, 2019 by drludos

[Igor]

Very Very cool, this game made me laugh lots, simple and elegant. I like that you're using the web version of the handy core too. Did it take you a lot of work to get it working or did you get the code I used on my site? It took me an age to work it out initially because there was no documentation for it.

 

Don't forget to leave your comments about this game in the special 30th Birthday Club threads I've created: https://atariage.com/forums/forum/249-30th-birthday-programming-competition-games/

[agradeneu]

Very entertaining game, playing this makes me smile.

[KevinMos3]

Cute graphics and very interesting concept.  I tried playing it on the Saint SD Cart, but could not get it to work.  I also could not get it to work on the AgaCart.  Emulation seems to be the only way to play right now.  Have you been able to test on real hardware with one of these SD card carts?

[LordKraken]

One of my favourite game of the contest. Like the simple concept, oerfectly executed, and also that there are multiples levels, adding more and more objectives.

 

Only thing I'd love to see is the possibility to actually move the "distributor" myself (maybe in on the advanced level?).

[drludos]

Thanks everyone for your comments, and I'm glad you're enjoying the game!

6 hours ago, necrocia said:

Very Very cool, this game made me laugh lots, simple and elegant. I like that you're using the web version of the handy core too. Did it take you a lot of work to get it working or did you get the code I used on my site? It took me an age to work it out initially because there was no documentation for it.

 

Don't forget to leave your comments about this game in the special 30th Birthday Club threads I've created: https://atariage.com/forums/forum/249-30th-birthday-programming-competition-games/

Thanks for the nice words!

 

Regarding the web emulator, I do use an Emscripten version of Retroarch with Handy core.

I don't which one you are using but for this release I used the fork maybe by Toadking: https://toadking.com/retroarch/

It did take quite some time to configure the emulator, but I had previous experience of tweaking retroarch config files, so that helped a lot! ;).

If you want to read my config file, it's simply written directly inside the HTML file itself: https://v6p9d9t4.ssl.hwcdn.net/html/1618669/index.html (look at the source of this file, I added many comments to help readability of the parameters I used). But all credits goes to RetroArch and Toadking really, I simply tweaked config files and set up the code to load a rom directly.

 

2 hours ago, KevinMos3 said:

Cute graphics and very interesting concept.  I tried playing it on the Saint SD Cart, but could not get it to work.  I also could not get it to work on the AgaCart.  Emulation seems to be the only way to play right now.  Have you been able to test on real hardware with one of these SD card carts?

Hi, thanks for the feedback and very sorry to hear that. Do you have any error message?

 

I did test the game on real hardware, using Karri's PCB carts, and it works perfectly on my Lynx II.

One of my beta testers used another cart (custom made with an EPROM chip) and it works on his Lynxes I and II. Maybe the issue for AgaCart / LynxSD is with the code for the EEPROM save (to save highscores), as those cart don't have it. Would you agree to help me solving this issue?

 

If yes, I can PM you a build without the EEPROM code to see if it does boot fine on your Flashcart.

Thanks for your help!

 

[KevinMos3]

8 minutes ago, drludos said:

...Do you have any error message?

...Would you agree to help me solving this issue?

 

With the Saint SD cart I just get a black screen.  No error message.  Tried the rom as downloaded.  Also tried some alterations (padding, tweaking header, etc.  No dice).

 

For the AgaCart, I'm not entirely sure I'm prepping the rom correctly.  I pad it out to 128K then run it through the conversion tool to convert it from lnx file to 256K lyx file (since it needs 256k or 512k).  That has worked for me in the past, but there are a few games from the competition I've not gotten to work on the AgaCart, (some of which work on the Saint SD cart).

[Fadest]

@drludosHow did you set up the LNX header for eeprom ?

[drludos]

I use Karri's CC65 version and template, so I used his own LNX header file as a template.

Here is the content of my current LNX header:

;
; Karri Kaksonen, 2017
;
; This header contains data for emulators like Handy and Mednafen
;
    .import        __BLOCKSIZE__
    .export        __EXEHDR__: absolute = 1

; ------------------------------------------------------------------------
; EXE header
    .segment "EXEHDR"
    .byte    'L','Y','N','X'                ; magic
    .word    __BLOCKSIZE__                ; bank 0 page size
    .word    0                    ; bank 1 page size
    .word    1                    ; version number
    .asciiz    "Growing Ties                   "    ; 32 bytes cart name
    .asciiz    "Dr.Ludos       "            ; 16 bytes manufacturer
    .byte    0                    ; rotation 1=left
                            ; rotation 2=right
        .byte   0                                       ; aud bits 1=in use for addressing
        .byte   65                                      ; eeprom -> use 1 for the most common eeprom, 64 to use SD Cart saves, 65 for both
                                                        ; eeprom [2:0] -
                                                        ; 0 - no eeprom
                                                        ; 1 - 93c46 16 bit mode (used in Ttris, SIMIS, Alpine Games, ..., MegaPak I at least)
                                                        ; 2        56
                                                        ; 3 - 93c66 16 bit mode
                                                        ; 4        76
                                                        ; 5 - 93c86 16 bit mode
                                                        ; (remark: size in bits is 2^(value+9) -- (please recheck!)
                                                        ; eeprom [3-5] - reserved - keep it to 0 for further usage
                                                        ; eeprom [6] - 0 - real eeprom, 1 - eeprom as a file in /saves/flappy.hi on SD cart
                                                        ; eeprom [7] - 0 - 16 bit mode, 1 - 8 bit mode
        .byte   0,0,0                                   ; spare

 

Do you think there can be an issue here?

 

Thanks for your help!

[Fadest]

I use old bll kit, but if I use value 65, Ynxa (and Flappy Bird) downloaded from Atari Gamer site crash on Saint SD card when trying to read or write eeprom. 

I will make some tests at home during lunch. 

Edited September 2, 2019 by Fadest

[power]

i also tried agacart using method in the agacart manual and got a black screen, anyone know how to make it work?

 

scratch that working fine now, use BLL in imagecomvert.

 

game is tons of fun, quite addictive.

 

 

Edited September 2, 2019 by power

[Clint Thompson]

Easily my favorite game of them all, no offense to the others as there were quite a few great ones. Loved this though, simple to pick up and play, kind of reminded me of Tapper but with Ties

 

Nice work!

[Nop90]

2 hours ago, drludos said:

I use Karri's CC65 version and template, so I used his own LNX header file as a template.

Here is the content of my current LNX header:

;
; Karri Kaksonen, 2017
;
; This header contains data for emulators like Handy and Mednafen
;
    .import        __BLOCKSIZE__
    .export        __EXEHDR__: absolute = 1

; ------------------------------------------------------------------------
; EXE header
    .segment "EXEHDR"
    .byte    'L','Y','N','X'                ; magic
    .word    __BLOCKSIZE__                ; bank 0 page size
    .word    0                    ; bank 1 page size
    .word    1                    ; version number
    .asciiz    "Growing Ties                   "    ; 32 bytes cart name
    .asciiz    "Dr.Ludos       "            ; 16 bytes manufacturer
    .byte    0                    ; rotation 1=left
                            ; rotation 2=right
        .byte   0                                       ; aud bits 1=in use for addressing
        .byte   65                                      ; eeprom -> use 1 for the most common eeprom, 64 to use SD Cart saves, 65 for both
                                                        ; eeprom [2:0] -
                                                        ; 0 - no eeprom
                                                        ; 1 - 93c46 16 bit mode (used in Ttris, SIMIS, Alpine Games, ..., MegaPak I at least)
                                                        ; 2        56
                                                        ; 3 - 93c66 16 bit mode
                                                        ; 4        76
                                                        ; 5 - 93c86 16 bit mode
                                                        ; (remark: size in bits is 2^(value+9) -- (please recheck!)
                                                        ; eeprom [3-5] - reserved - keep it to 0 for further usage
                                                        ; eeprom [6] - 0 - real eeprom, 1 - eeprom as a file in /saves/flappy.hi on SD cart
                                                        ; eeprom [7] - 0 - 16 bit mode, 1 - 8 bit mode
        .byte   0,0,0                                   ; spare

 

Do you think there can be an issue here?

 

Thanks for your help!

This file seems the one from my template. Do you use my template to have both SD and EEProm save?

 

It should work with SD and EEProm saves. What is the name of the SD save file?

 

Testing my game there was a HQ cart where it was hanging because a too fragmented SD filesystem. After backupping the SD content, reformatting the SD and restoring the content, it worked.

 

[+TrekMD]

Cool. will be trying this out!

[Fadest]

I changed the header in order to not use save on file feature and it works on Saint SD Cart.

I don't know how file save feature is managed, but if you took Nop90 template, it should work...

[drludos]

Thanks again for the new kinds words, I'm very happy you're enjoying the game!

 

Thanks too for your help to fix the game issues with LynxSD and Agacart. I do use Karri/Nop90 template to have EEPROM and SD save. The EEPROM works fine, but as I don't have a LynxSD I couldn't test the save feature. Based on Fadest and Nop90 feedback, do you know if the LynxSD can refuse to launch a game if it use a "save" feature but that you don't create a save file first?

(I remember reading something about this on Xump readme file :)).

 

Because that might be the case here.

 

In my code, I specified "/saves/growingties.sav" for the SD save file, but I didn't know that you also have to create this file on the LynxSD.

 

KevinMos3 is currently kindly doing lots of tests for me on both the Agacart and the LynxSD.

I should be able to upload a fixed build shortly that run on both devices. The issue was apparently on the rom format itself (you have to pass the LNX file through ImageConvert as "BLL" and then pad it to 256kb for it to work).

Edited September 2, 2019 by drludos

[Igor]

Would you mind sending a blank save file to me, I'll need it for the ROM download package next week...

[Nop90]

the game should work on the SD without the sav file, simply it won't save anything on the SD. If it hangs there is some problems in the code or in the SD filesytem.

Edited September 2, 2019 by Nop90

[Igor]

Yes but to save, the file would be needed. Actually I can just create a 128b null character file and use that.

[+karri]

You can use the onduty.sav that I sent you. But there may be problems with long file names. I would prefer growties.sav to keep it as 8.3

[power]

On 9/3/2019 at 6:51 AM, drludos said:

Thanks again for the new kinds words, I'm very happy you're enjoying the game!

 

Thanks too for your help to fix the game issues with LynxSD and Agacart. I do use Karri/Nop90 template to have EEPROM and SD save. The EEPROM works fine, but as I don't have a LynxSD I couldn't test the save feature. Based on Fadest and Nop90 feedback, do you know if the LynxSD can refuse to launch a game if it use a "save" feature but that you don't create a save file first?

(I remember reading something about this on Xump readme file :)).

 

Because that might be the case here.

 

In my code, I specified "/saves/growingties.sav" for the SD save file, but I didn't know that you also have to create this file on the LynxSD.

 

KevinMos3 is currently kindly doing lots of tests for me on both the Agacart and the LynxSD.

I should be able to upload a fixed build shortly that run on both devices. The issue was apparently on the rom format itself (you have to pass the LNX file through ImageConvert as "BLL" and then pad it to 256kb for it to work).

 

If it helps you the AgaCart manual states to drop the 4 line header, pad the game to 128kb then convert using ImageConvert using BLL to 256kb and lyx format and that worked for me. For anyone with a cart, the manual and conversion tools are on the supplied sd card. I assume these titles may even get bundled in future so conversion won't be necessary going forward. I can't help with saving, i have no idea there.

Edited September 4, 2019 by power

[drludos]

Thanks again everyone (KevinMos3, Krip316, Karri, Nop90, Fadest, Power, Felyx...) for your help on fixing the Flash Carts issues! I did modify the save filename to fit within the 8.3 format as reported by Karri, and I also figured out that you have to use the LNX file on the LynxSD for the save to work! (with the LYX file, it doesn't work even if the save file is on the SD card).

 

Here is a updated build of the game (that should be also the fixed release for the compo deadline! - I'm mailing it to you too Necrocia) in a zip file containing :

- A LNX file that will work on emulators and the LynxSD (with save - see the readme file)

- A LYX file that will work on the AGAcart and flashable devices.

 

I've also uploaded the updated build on my website: https://drludos.itch.io/growing-ties

GrowingTies.zip

[4ever2600]

Tie shopping at Kohls, the adventure begins!  Cool little game you made here!  Gets a bit Kaboom frantic after a while... thanks for all your hard work on this.

[+slx]

Great game, and as far as I can tell, a completely original idea! (Although I found it very hard to measure ties correctly, let alone measure 8-9-10 combos). 

 

Already thought about how this could be ported to 8-bit-Ataris...

[power]

6 hours ago, slx said:

Great game, and as far as I can tell, a completely original idea! (Although I found it very hard to measure ties correctly, let alone measure 8-9-10 combos). 

 

Already thought about how this could be ported to 8-bit-Ataris...

 

yeah, it's so original. i can't think of anything i've played that's similar.  the unique part i guess is that it's a matching game but you make the pieces.

 

Has @drludos considered porting this? It would have a market on say the Switch or other platforms IMO.