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After having a coarse idea for an one button racing game, I went ahead and started coding.

 

The current result is nowhere near to being complete, but I think it is good enough for a first impression. On real hardware it works with a QuadTari and four(!) sets of paddles, from which only the buttons are used. 

 

Gameplay:

  • Press SELECT to select game length (30, 60 or 90 seconds) and difficulty (white = kids, blue = easy, yellow = normal, red = hard). Difficulty affects computer AI and braking.
  • Set LEFT DIFFICULTY switch to A to activate red colored "SuperBoost" arrows. These occur randomly and provide twice the boost of a normal arrow.
  • Press RESET to start the 5 seconds race countdown (indicated by 5 appearing red lights).
  • During the countdown, each player must press his fire button to activate his/her car. The activated cars will become brighter, the other cars will be controlled by the computer AI. After the countdown, the race starts.
  • During the race, press the fire button while your car is over the boost arrows. The arrows will turn your car's color if done right and black if you missed them. The former will accelerate your car, the latter will brake. 
  • The position of a car reflects its position in the race (not the gap to opponents). This gap will increase during the race, moving the leading cars further to the right. This reduces the reaction time for new boost arrows.
  • Shortly after the race is over, the distance covered by each car will be displayed instead of the cars.

 

Note: This game uses paddles (fire buttons only), up to eight if you use a QuadTari.

 

There is no end to the game yet, you can only try to take the lead.

 

BTW: During coding, I found that the latest Stella 6.5.2 still is missing some QuadTari support. Paddles aren't working as expected. But you can use Joysticks with directions left/right instead. Default mappings for 3rd and 4th controller are the identical to 1st and 2nd controller, but with Shift pressed.

 

And since my QuadTari is still shipping, testing is a bit hard currently. :) 

 

Vroom 8! (v0.2) (PAL60).bin Vroom 8! (v0.2).bin

Vroom 8! (v0.3) (PAL60).bin Vroom 8! (v0.3) (NTSC).bin

Vroom 8! (v0.4) (PAL60).bin Vroom 8! (v0.4) (NTSC).bin

Vroom 8! (v0.5) (PAL60).bin Vroom 8! (v0.5) (NTSC).bin

Vroom! (v0.6) (PAL60).bin Vroom! (v0.6) (NTSC).bin

Vroom! (v0.7) (PAL60).bin Vroom! (v0.7) (NTSC).bin

Vroom! (v0.8) (PAL60).bin Vroom! (v0.8) (NTSC).bin

Vroom! (v0.90) (PAL60).bin Vroom! (v0.90) (NTSC).bin

 

 

VROOM! (v1.0) (PlusROM) (PAL60).bin VROOM! (v1.0) (PlusROM) (NTSC).bin

Edited by Thomas Jentzsch
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39 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

And since my QuadTari is still shipping, testing is a bit hard currently.

 

Mine arrived, but my Atari's been acting up so it's disconnected and sitting on the kitchen table waiting on me to find my soldering equipment so I can recap it.

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I have confirmed that all 8 buttons work.

 

IMG_20210302_1337026.thumb.jpg.5ff983cf1a0b53de4f672bd84a0076cb.jpg

 

13 minutes ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said:

I have four sets of paddles and I'll check it out today (and in the news section of the show tonight)! ?

 

I'm looking forward to seeing you guys race 4 cars each.  :D

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16 minutes ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said:

I have four sets of paddles and I'll check it out today (and in the news section of the show tonight)! ?

Cool! But don't expect too much. There are still a lot of things missing. And to fix (e.g. the cars coming to a full stop if you brake too much). 

 

BTW: I suppose I will name it only VROOM! (without the 8 ). Or VROOOOOOOOM! :D

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2 minutes ago, Karl G said:

I'm looking forward to seeing you guys race 4 cars each.  :D

Me too! :D 

 

I plan to a add a simple AI for the cars which have no driver. Then, when you start a new game, all players have to press their buttons within a few seconds. The remaining cars become AI driven.

 

BTW: You monitor or camera seem to have a heavy blue tint.

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1 hour ago, alex_79 said:

:idea: If someone doesn't have 4 sets of paddles, Track and Field controllers could be thrown in the mix too. The buttons seem to be far away enough that two people can play using a single controller.

Partially broken paddle controllers might get a new life too. :) 

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9 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:
16 hours ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said:

How about VR∞M!

- James

I had thought about this one too. 

I was about to type this and saw you mentioned it already.  I guess that's a 3rd confirmation it's a good name?

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5 hours ago, azure said:

I'm curious if there will be sound effects given the 8 cars and how that'll work out. 

I wonder too. :) 

 

Obviously I cannot play individual sounds for all 8 cars. I suppose I will play sounds for the two leading cars. Sounds will be the typical buzz sound (based on speed, maybe with some shifting). Or a braking sound, in case a player missed the boost arrows.

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1 hour ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

I wonder too. :) 

 

Hmm - shot in the dark, but wonder what it would sound like if you multiplexed the sounds like this:

  • Scanline 0 - trigger sounds for players 1 & 2
  • Scanline 65 - trigger sounds for players 3 & 4
  • Scanline 131 - trigger sounds for players 5 & 6
  • Scanline 196 - trigger sounds for player 7 & 8

 

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1 hour ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

That might work (or maybe not), but even two engine sounds are hardly distinguishable. :) 

I think you'd have to play them at two different pitches and shape their sound envelopes with offset attack and decay so they contrast. When I loaded up the game I immediately thought of the sounds at Disney's Tomorrowland Speedway (better with earphones), but louder and sped up. It sounds like a back to back series rising and falling motor sounds shaped by a combination of throttling and the Doppler effect

Edited by azure
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Next update V0.3 (see 1st post). 

 

Major additions:

  • timer (30, 60 and 90s races) and start countdown
  • some sound (not final yet)
  • human vs computer players

With SELECT you can select a race time, RESET starts the game. During the countdown, the human players have to press their buttons, this will brighten their cars. The other, darker cars will be controlled by the computer. During a race, the position of a car represents its current placement (not distances between cars). The visible gaps slowly increase during a race and are maximized at the finish. 

 

Feedback welcome! The game still fits easily into 2K, so there is plenty space for further improvements.

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41 minutes ago, azure said:

I think you'd have to play them at two different pitches and shape their sound envelopes with offset attack and decay so they contrast. When I loaded up the game I immediately thought of the sounds at Disney's Tomorrowland Speedway (better with earphones), but louder and sped up. It sounds like a back to back series rising and falling motor sounds shaped by a combination of throttling and the Doppler effect

I am not very talented when it comes to sound design. The current version uses two different engine sounds in parallel (AUDC0 = $3, AUDC1 = $f). The current noise is OK, but any useful help is welcome.

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