+splendidnut Posted November 6, 2020 Share Posted November 6, 2020 Paint The City Paint the city as you explore it's many places. Collect oil cans, shoot them at other cars, grab some balloons and avoid whatever other obstacles cross your path... ...coming soon to a download near you! Use the joystick to navigate the multi-story roads. You can jump bewteen the platforms... but be careful, don't bump your head! *Based on an Arcade game, can you guess what it is?* ------------------------- LATEST (February 24, 2022): NTSC PaintTheCity-NTSC-20220224.bin PAL60 PaintTheCity-PAL60-20220224.bin PaintTheCity-WIP-NTSC-20210330.bin PaintTheCity-WIP-PAL60-20210330.bin 19 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+splendidnut Posted November 6, 2020 Author Share Posted November 6, 2020 Although I've been working on a lot of projects over the past several months, this has been my focus as of late. This project started over a year ago, as a quick (couple of days) POC (proof of concept) before being shelved due to work on other projects. I recently picked it back up amid numerous frustrations on other projects. And despite a rough start at the beginning, it's become quite an enjoyable project. After spending the last 3 weeks working on it, it's finally getting to the point where it might be playable soon. As of right now, a good amount of the player mechanics have been implemented, at least enough to demonstrate the general gameplay concept (*see project_name*). That's the main reason I'm releasing this demo. The other reason is that this project has come to a nice critical point, code-wise. Despite being an 8k file... the project is currently under 4k code and data (it can be a 4K Superchip rom). It's only setup as an 8k rom for running on the Harmony Cart. BUT, at this point, I can't really go much further development-wise without pushing beyond that 4k limit. ADDENDUM: First demo ROM (November 6, 2020) here: PaintTheCity-(early_demo)-(20201106).bin 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted November 6, 2020 Share Posted November 6, 2020 Looks cool! Not sure what arcade game it's based on, but it did make me think of Make Trax. ..Al 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrekMD Posted November 6, 2020 Share Posted November 6, 2020 I like it! Looks quite nice! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bcombee Posted November 6, 2020 Share Posted November 6, 2020 Seems a lot like City Connection! 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+splendidnut Posted November 6, 2020 Author Share Posted November 6, 2020 16 minutes ago, bcombee said: Seems a lot like City Connection! Yup, you got it! This project is based on/inspired by the NES port of the game. One of my favorites Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted November 6, 2020 Share Posted November 6, 2020 3 minutes ago, splendidnut said: Yup, you got it! This project is based on/inspired by the NES port of the game. One of my favorites Neat! I don't think I've ever seen that arcade game before! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted November 8, 2020 Share Posted November 8, 2020 On 11/6/2020 at 2:41 PM, splendidnut said: Paint The City Paint the city as you explore it's many places. This basics are running well already and looks like it's going to be a blast to play! Love the multilevel aspect to it, so much going on!!!! - James 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nathan Strum Posted November 8, 2020 Share Posted November 8, 2020 Nice! I only discovered City Connection through MAME, but thought it was a fun game. Hoping to see development on this continue. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7800Knight Posted November 15, 2020 Share Posted November 15, 2020 Cool! A City Connection conversion for the Atari 2600! Keep us posted on your progress. I wouldn't mind seeing what cartridge and box art might look like. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skwrl63 Posted November 15, 2020 Share Posted November 15, 2020 Following the "work in progress" on this. I would love to see this finished and put on cartridge. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MarcoJ Posted November 16, 2020 Share Posted November 16, 2020 wow, the scrolling city is great. I was wondering how the screen was able to update so quickly having to rol and asl all that playfield data. I see the code recycles the cityscape in the 4 parts. Saves ram too. Well done. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+splendidnut Posted January 4, 2021 Author Share Posted January 4, 2021 I'm really happy with the how the scrolling cityscape background turned out. Getting that working really got me excited about working on this. I personally feel it's a key element for this game... both for providing a nice backdrop to the game and for reinforcing the illusion of movement, helping to offset the coarse horizontal scrolling. ** For those interested in the technical details behind the cityscape: ** The cityscape was done in a very "quick and easy" kind of way... using a bunch of ROM (20 bits wide by 8 "rows" tall, pre-rotated graphics => 480 bytes of ROM total), a couple of MACROs and a very simple kernel: MAC Draw_Buildings LDA building_pf0,x ;4 [4] STA PF0 ;3 [7] LDA building_pf1,x ;4 [10] STA PF1 ;3 [13] -- needs to be 28 LDA building_pf2,x ;4 [17] STA PF2 ;3 [20] ENDM MAC Draw_Sprites ;-- needs to start on/before cycle 68 LDA (carPtr),y ;5 -73- STA WSYNC ;3 STA GRP0 ;3 [3] LDA (curSprPtr),y ;5 [8] STA GRP1 ;3 [11] -- takes 19 cycles... but ends at cycle 11 ENDM And some example code from inside the main kernel: ;--------------------------------------------------------- ;--- draw balloons/falling cars/top half of buildings LDX <curBgOfs ;3 -66- -- set building offset LDY #15 ;2 -68- drawTopOfBuilding: Draw_Sprites ;19 [11] Draw_Buildings ;20 [31] ;---- handle building scaling... which is 4x height (takes 7/8 cycles) TYA ;2 [33] AND #3 ;2 [35] BNE skipYinc ;3 [37,38] DEX ;2 [39] skipYinc: DEY ;2 [41] BPL drawTopOfBuilding ;3 [44] SIDE NOTE: There are two separate loops: one for the top of the buildings, and one for the bottom. I did this to give me two 16 pixel vertical zones for the sprites. Implementing the scrolling background in the way seen above turned out to be a blessing in disguise; It helped provide lots of spare kernel time which could be used for processing the road. ---------------- Sorry for the delay in responding to the posts here... I got a bit wrapped up in bunch of things, part of which involved a lot of work on this project. And I wanted to have enough time to start doing some write-ups on this project as I go. Hope you enjoy this tidbit. Project update coming soon. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+splendidnut Posted January 4, 2021 Author Share Posted January 4, 2021 So... I worked on a lot of things with this over the past month or so. None of which involved implementing the logic in the other cars. I've only recently started working on them. Instead, I mainly worked on getting the initial logic for the balloon, the oil barrels, some sounds and the background music implemented. I spent quite a bit of time working on the music and I'm really happy with how it turned out. You can "kind of" fire bullets... but that's in a very rough state right now, mostly because I need to do some more rework on the display kernel. The big thing I worked on was removing the HMOVE black lines from the display and adding in more repositioning kernels necessary for the bullets and oil barrels. For removing the HMOVE lines, I utilized bits of code @Omegamatrix posted here: https://atariage.com/forums/topic/183219-cycle-74-hmoves/ It was relatively simple to incorporate which helped keep things moving. Thanks Omegamatrix! Anyways... here's the latest, enjoy! PaintTheCity-(early_demo)-(20210103).bin 4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Al_Nafuur Posted January 4, 2021 Share Posted January 4, 2021 22 minutes ago, splendidnut said: So... I worked on a lot of things with this over the past month or so. None of which involved implementing the logic in the other cars. I've only recently started working on them. Instead, I mainly worked on getting the initial logic for the balloon, the oil barrels, some sounds and the background music implemented. I spent quite a bit of time working on the music and I'm really happy with how it turned out. Balloon, oil barrels and background music all work fine on my 2600jr (PAL). But on my 7800 (PAL) nothing moves and no sound, it is just the initial image with city, streets and cars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omegamatrix Posted January 4, 2021 Share Posted January 4, 2021 1 hour ago, splendidnut said: The big thing I worked on was removing the HMOVE black lines from the display and adding in more repositioning kernels necessary for the bullets and oil barrels. For removing the HMOVE lines, I utilized bits of code @Omegamatrix posted here: https://atariage.com/forums/topic/183219-cycle-74-hmoves/ It was relatively simple to incorporate which helped keep things moving. Thanks Omegamatrix! I have no memory of doing that thread. With cycle73 or cycle74 hmoves, I will caution that you don't get full console compatibity. Some late model Atari Jr's and PAL 7800's don't like them and there is no work around. That being said I still use them myself. Here is a post on the issue. https://atariage.com/forums/topic/72308-hunchy-ii/?do=findComment&comment=903045 With the trouble @Al_Nafuur is having perhaps he can try this rom to see if his 7800 even works with early HMOVE's. DetectHmove74Values.zip BTW Paint the city looks great. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+splendidnut Posted January 4, 2021 Author Share Posted January 4, 2021 Just tried it on my Atari 7800 (early NTSC model), and I get the same results as Al_Nafuur... so there must be a stray read/write or some odd-ball initialization issue with the game state machine. Very odd that it runs fine on a 2600, but not on a 7800. I'll have to dig further. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Al_Nafuur Posted January 4, 2021 Share Posted January 4, 2021 11 hours ago, Omegamatrix said: I have no memory of doing that thread. With cycle73 or cycle74 hmoves, I will caution that you don't get full console compatibity. Some late model Atari Jr's and PAL 7800's don't like them and there is no work around. That being said I still use them myself. Here is a post on the issue. https://atariage.com/forums/topic/72308-hunchy-ii/?do=findComment&comment=903045 With the trouble @Al_Nafuur is having perhaps he can try this rom to see if his 7800 even works with early HMOVE's. DetectHmove74Values.zip 10.36 kB · 2 downloads BTW Paint the city looks great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sramirez2008 Posted January 4, 2021 Share Posted January 4, 2021 On 11/6/2020 at 5:18 PM, Albert said: Neat! I don't think I've ever seen that arcade game before! I know I've never seen this game before, but I like it. @splendidnut I'll certainly test your latest ROM with my Hartmony/4 Switch console. Thanks for sharing and look forward to more. I can see this being added to our game nights, whenever that returns. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nathan Strum Posted January 4, 2021 Share Posted January 4, 2021 15 hours ago, splendidnut said: So... I worked on a lot of things with this over the past month or so. None of which involved implementing the logic in the other cars. I've only recently started working on them. Instead, I mainly worked on getting the initial logic for the balloon, the oil barrels, some sounds and the background music implemented. I spent quite a bit of time working on the music and I'm really happy with how it turned out. The music sounds great! The game is really coming along nicely. I like the fact that you even have the highlight flashing across the car's window - I didn't see that before. Nice detail! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sramirez2008 Posted January 4, 2021 Share Posted January 4, 2021 15 hours ago, Al_Nafuur said: Balloon, oil barrels and background music all work fine on my 2600jr (PAL). But on my 7800 (PAL) nothing moves and no sound, it is just the initial image with city, streets and cars. I assume that the latest ROM (Jan 3rd) still has the above mentioned issue, as I tried it on a 7800 and a 2600 (4 switch) and I get a static picture and no sound. Screenshot attached. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Al_Nafuur Posted January 4, 2021 Share Posted January 4, 2021 38 minutes ago, sramirez2008 said: I assume that the latest ROM (Jan 3rd) still has the above mentioned issue, as I tried it on a 7800 and a 2600 (4 switch) and I get a static picture and no sound. Screenshot attached. static on the 2600 too? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colonel Llama Posted January 4, 2021 Share Posted January 4, 2021 I’ll definitely need to try this. I love City Connection! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sramirez2008 Posted January 4, 2021 Share Posted January 4, 2021 1 hour ago, Al_Nafuur said: static on the 2600 too? Yes. The screenshot is actually from one of my 2600s. Maybe it’s my Harmony Encore? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+splendidnut Posted January 4, 2021 Author Share Posted January 4, 2021 10 minutes ago, sramirez2008 said: Yes. The screenshot is actually from one of my 2600s. Maybe it’s my Harmony Encore? Thanks for testing! With your results, I'm definitely leaning more toward there being a general issue with my code. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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