Blocks (Completed!) - Formerly BBlocks

[Just Jeff]

Latest version attached!  Please let us know if you find any bugs/weirdness!

 

New features include:

• Game 4 now alternates players between each move, not between completed boards.
• Sound effect changes- different switch sounds for each player.  Also incrementing switch sounds for multiple runs of matches.
• Game 4 difficulty switches now operate independently for each player.
• Hint delay timer now starts after an attempted switch instead of any joystick movement.
• Bug fixes

On a side note, there was also some more kernel cleanup and it looks a lot neater as you can see below.  We took greater advantage of playfield masking including the thin purple line above the score kernels which made a huge difference as far as timing constraints and code size while setting up the score (or game number)

 

 

main.asm.bin

[Just Jeff]

Good Morning..  The game is complete!  Release Candidate attached below.  We're looking for trouble so if you download the version below and find any issues and huh?s, please let us know.  As a reminder, the game versions are:

 

1-  Standard single player game

2-  Timed version.  Currently set at 70 seconds.

3.  Battle the status bar.  Status bar decreases with time, but when you make a match, it increases.  If it runs out, you lose.  If you fill it, you advance to the next level.

4.  Standard two player game.  Finish a turn, then its the other player's turn.

5,6,7 are two player versions of 1,2, and 3 where both players are playing simultaneously and cooperatively (not competing with each other)

8.  Block matching death battle.  Two players add to, or subtract from the status bar to defeat the other player.

 

 

BBlocks2020DEC12.bin

 

 

Edited December 12, 2020 by Just Jeff
Somehow a paste managed to publish the post prematurely

[+TrekMD]

Awesome! 

[bluswimmer]

Impressive! This is a very polished port. Appreciate how the game has hints for which pieces to be moved; that wasn't a detail I expected to be present.

[JeremiahK]

11 minutes ago, bluswimmer said:

Impressive! This is a very polished port. Appreciate how the game has hints for which pieces to be moved; that wasn't a detail I expected to be present.

Yeah, the game-over routine finds all possible moves, so we piggybacked on that feature. You can disable hints with the difficulty switches. The last minor change I am working on is an improvement to games 2 and 6, showing the timer in the progress bar and making the level never reset. After that it will be officially finished, unless a major bug is found!

[JeremiahK]

I would also like to remind any PAL users that you can hold the SELECT switch on startup to force PAL colors and a 50hz kernel.  I would greatly appreciate feedback on the PAL colors.  They can be adjusted, but I am using the constraint that every PAL color has a different luminosity value to support SECAM, as well.  This is not because there is a market for SECAM games (there isn't :D), but since it is an 8-color game I thought it would just be wrong not to support it.

[JeremiahK]

Here is a new .bin after a little work today.

• Game 8 is now working properly
• Games 2 and 6 are now standalone levels with the timer shown in the progress bar
• The scoring code was reworked to fix a bug causing multiple matches to not be handled properly
• PAL colors got a slight refresh

BBlocks.bin

 

Edit: There is a known issue on levels 2 and 6 where the screen jitters while the level is being started.  I don't know what is causing this, but it will be fixed soon hopefully.

 

Game Modes:

1. Make matches to earn points and fill the progress bar.  When it's full, you start a fresh level, and each match you make earns more points.  Each level takes longer to finish than the previous level.  Game over when you run out of moves.
2. You have 100 seconds to make as many matches as you can.  There are no levels, so the progress bar shows you how much time is left.  The timer pauses for the drop animations.  Game over when the timer runs out or you run out of moves.
3. Similar to #2, but each match you make adds more time to the timer.  If you run out of moves, the board will reshuffle for you.  After a short time, you will level up, which helps you earn points faster, but the timer ticks faster, too.  Game over when the timer runs out.
4. This and the rest are all 2-player games.  You play the same way as Game 1, except both players take turns making moves.
5. This is the same as Game 1, except both players get to play at the same time.
6. This is the same as Game 2, except both players get to play at the same time.
7. This is the same as Game 3, except both players get to play at the same time.
8. The progress bar starts half full.  If the left player makes a match, the bar fills, and if the right player scores, it depletes.  The game ends when the bar is either full or empty.

 

Scoring:

3-in-a-row:	    10 points
4-in-a-row	   100 points
5-in-a-row	  1000 points
6-in-a-row	 10000 points
7-in-a-row	100000 points

 

If you get 2 matches at the same time (both 3-in-a-row), maybe in the shape of a T, L, or matches of different colors, it counts as 1x 4-in-a-row.  Also, the score is multiplied by the current level, as well as the chain-reaction multiplier.  To get high scores, you need to try to make large matches and create chain-reactions.

Edited December 13, 2020 by JeremiahK

[vitoco]

I don't get how the progress bar works in game mode 1. What makes the game to finish suddently?

 

[JeremiahK]

2 minutes ago, vitoco said:

I don't get how the progress bar works in game mode 1. What makes the game to finish suddently?

 

Is it finishing too quickly?  It should take 20-25 matches to finish.

[vitoco]

2 minutes ago, JeremiahK said:

Is it finishing too quickly?  It should take 20-25 matches to finish.

With 7 digits of score, I expected to get much more than 24000 points. BTW, what is a match? When the board clears and starts again?

[+atari2600land]

I played this a few times. My highest score is 31,240 and my lowest score was 90. I like the hint feature, but it comes on too early, unless speed is a factor of having the game end or not. I still don't know what makes the game end. No more matches on the screen?

[JeremiahK]

1 hour ago, vitoco said:

With 7 digits of score, I expected to get much more than 24000 points. BTW, what is a match? When the board clears and starts again?

The progress bar on the top of the screen shows how far you are into the level. When it's full, the board reshuffles and you get more points for each match. After 5 levels, there are 8 colors. We have considered making this optional so you can choose to play with 7 colors only, which should help the game last longer.

Edit: a match is when you get 3 or more in a row to earn points.

Edited December 13, 2020 by JeremiahK

[JeremiahK]

1 hour ago, atari2600land said:

I played this a few times. My highest score is 31,240 and my lowest score was 90. I like the hint feature, but it comes on too early, unless speed is a factor of having the game end or not. I still don't know what makes the game end. No more matches on the screen?

Each game mode is different, I will add them to the post above. Most games last at least a few levels, 90 is very unlucky.

Edited December 13, 2020 by JeremiahK

[JeremiahK]

I just gave it my best shot. I reached level 10 and got a score of 105,350.

[Just Jeff]

8 hours ago, atari2600land said:

I played this a few times. My highest score is 31,240 and my lowest score was 90. I like the hint feature, but it comes on too early, unless speed is a factor of having the game end or not. I still don't know what makes the game end. No more matches on the screen?

What do you think would be an appropriate time to wait for the hint?

[+atari2600land]

A minute?

[+atari2600land]

Also, don't give the player the ability to move unless the program finds a match. It is disorienting to be able to move only to find out there isn't a match and the game ends.

[JeremiahK]

15 minutes ago, atari2600land said:

Also, don't give the player the ability to move unless the program finds a match. It is disorienting to be able to move only to find out there isn't a match and the game ends.

The game takes about a second to check the board for moves.  During this time, you can still try to make moves (otherwise you would need to wait for a second after every move), but the game ends as soon as the program determines there are no moves left.

[+atari2600land]

I wondered if my thought was doable or not. Wonderful game, and if it comes in the AA Store, I'd get it. A new high score for me.

[vitoco]

2 hours ago, JeremiahK said:

the game ends as soon as the program determines there are no moves left.

So that is why the game ends... Then, before you make your move, you must be sure that the next board will still have a match available and continue scoring.

 

[Just Jeff]

On 12/13/2020 at 11:36 AM, atari2600land said:

A minute?

OK well we extended it from 9 seconds to 15 seconds and will post that later..

[Just Jeff]

Hey check it out.. I was catching up on ZeroPage Homebrew and found that we're on Plus Cart!

 

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

8 minutes ago, Just Jeff said:

Hey check it out.. I was catching up on ZeroPage Homebrew and found that we're on Plus Cart!

Thanks for watching and it looks like somebody's been keeping it right up to date too with the latest build!

 

 

- James

[JeremiahK]

A couple weeks ago, we announced that the game was done.  Actually, it was 99% done.  We have spent this past week and today doing all our final touches, and today, Christmas Day 2020, we are PROUD to say that this game is officially done!  The only way anything will change is if a bug is found, but as far as we know, everything in the game should be working as intended.

 

Here is the official binary (This will be kept up to date during final bugfixing):

BBlocks.bin

 

(I will be updating this post with a detailed list of all the specifics for the game modes and features.)

 

As promised:

 

Both NTSC and PAL/SECAM are supported.  NTSC mode is entered by default.  To enable PAL50 mode, push right in the left player's joystick as you power on the system.

 

While you are on the attract screen, the left player's joystick button can be used in place of the Game Reset switch to start a new game.

 

The COLOR/BW switch is used to control the color difficulty.  If "COLOR" is selected, starting at level 10, the number of colors in the board will go up from 7 to 8.  If "BW" is selected, only 7 colors will be used, no matter what level you are on.

 

The progress bar will be GREEN if you have 4 or more possible moves.  It turns YELLOW when the number of possible moves drops below 4, and RED when there are 0 moves left.

 

There are 8 game modes, which can be toggled using the Game Select switch.

1. Standard 1-player mode.  Make matches to fill up the progress bar and reshuffle the board, advancing to the next level.  Each level gives you a higher score for every match you make, and each level is longer than the previous one.
2. 1-player timer mode.  The progress bar starts out full, but slowly depletes over time.  There is only one board to complete, so the level is advanced after every move you make.  The more moves you make, the higher your scores will be!
3. 1-player blitz mode.  The progress bar starts out half full, and depletes quickly.  Every match you make increases the progress bar, giving you more time, and the level is increased at timed intervals (you will hear a sound when this happens).
4. 2-player turn-based mode.  The game plays like Game 1, except each player must take turns making moves on the same board.
5. 2-player version of Game 1.  Both players get to play at the same time!
6. 2-player version of Game 2.  Both players get to play at the same time!
7. 2-player version of Game 3.  Both players get to play at the same time!
8. Battle mode.  The progress bar starts out half full.  Player 1's moves fill the bar, while Player 2's moves deplete it.  Whoever completely fills or depletes the bar wins!

 

Games 1, 4, and 5 end when there are no possible moves left.

Timed games only end when the timer runs out, and Game 8 only ends when there is a winner.  In these game variations, the board will reshuffle if there are no moves left.

Edited December 26, 2020 by JeremiahK

[+atari2600land]

How do you get 7 in a row? Anyway, you're really great for being able to fit this in a 2k space!