Lemmings Squidginator

[+Muddyfunster]

More output from my experimentation with 7800 Basic.

 

It's not a game!,

 

It's not even a mock up of a game, it's just, well, murdering Lemmings.? 

 

If you are easily offended by the pixelated green haired chappies getting horribly killed, please don't download or risk looking at the screengrab!

 

I looked at the SNES and Amiga version sprites which means the sprites translate to be a lot bigger on the 7800 rather than for example the C64/ZX Spectrum version. I wasn't going for lots of tiny sprites, I wanted something bigger for the purposes of my experiment and these fit the bill nicely, to convey a bit of character.

 

Anyway a bit of experimentational fun, feel free to splat some Lemmings, firebutton toggles sound fx (stolen from @RevEng's sound library!).

 

 

 

lemmings_squidginator.a78

Edited March 31, 2020 by Muddyfunster

[Albert]

Very cool!  So, you're doing a Lemmings port to the 7800! That's awesome! 

 

 ..Al

[KevinMos3]

3 hours ago, Muddyfunster said:

More output from my experimentation with 7800 Basic.

 

It's not a game!,

 

It's not even a mock up of a game, it's just, well, murdering Lemmings.? ...

3 hours ago, Albert said:

Very cool!  So, you're doing a Lemmings port to the 7800! That's awesome! 

 

 ..Al

Put me down for a cart!

Not poking fun at anyone in particular, but thought I’d make the joke before ppl actually start flooding the thread with those posts.

 

But seriously, if you did decide to make the port, that would be quite exciting.  I won’t be able to check this out for several more days, but I’m interested to see what kind of lemming killing you’ve got here.

[SlidellMan]

Mike Dailly would be proud of this.

[RevEng]

hi-score?

 

 

 

You already have a lot of great WIPs on the go, Muddy, and I don't wish to put this ahead of them, but I just wanted to share some thoughts on this. Bear in mind that I'm a weirdo who believes in "games as art", and yes, this one isn't even a game... or is it?

 

Lemmings Squidginator actually carries the same flavour of a game in which you can play forever if you're good enough (say asteroids arcade) and high score competition aspect is literally just an endurance and patience test. LS just lowers the bar so anyone can compete.

 

Taken a step further, I think it would be interesting if the lemmings started dying in different ways, with changes happening initially on the hour, but with the time between those changes increasing as play continues. You could also rig it so a new squidgination event would require a brief-and-trivial interaction from the player, or else the lemmings go free and the game ends. Remove pausing, and you have something that really is a game with high scoring bragging rights.

 

I thought you might find the game potential in your design interesting. Don't take any of what I say as a measure of what would be popular or desirable, because I usually tend to be on the very fringe of game tastes, and enjoy things that bend the definition of "game". As an example, I also had a "little dutch boy" wip idea, in which you'd literally just have to hold the joystick button down to keep your finger in the dike, and the game would try to tug on your emotional heartstrings by displaying interactions with different villagers. It would play out like an endless soap opera, and generally try to appeal to your sense of empathy. (and inevitable failure would tell the horrible end to their stories.)