Jetboard Joust - retro-inspired indie game (in VCS store)

[Mockduck]

Played it last night, still working through the third stage. Game gets tough! Looking and playing great on the VCS.

[BitBull]

10 hours ago, Atari_JaguarVCS said:

Nice, time to boot my VCS back out of Windows 10 and get this game updated!. I recently picked this game up for Switch to since I’ve been enjoying it so much, great game. 

Thanks everyone for your support - glad you're enjoying the game, buying it on Switch as well is real commitment!

 

The game does get tough on later stages, I've found balancing the difficulty one of the hardest things with some people complaining it's too easy and others that it's ridiculously hard! The last build is actually a bit tougher as I've nerfed a couple of weapons that were a bit OP and closed some loopholes where too many health/joust pickups were getting given out. I still sweat trying to complete it, especially in a single run, and I've put some ridiculous amount of hours into it.

 

Has anyone who couldn't use a controller wirelessly before found that it's now OK with the latest update? 

 

[justclaws]

Another VCS owner who LOVES Jetboard Joust, and no disagreement on that. ?
He's right, this game is SO much what we want, from retro-reimagined on Atari.
 

 

 

[Mockduck]

Yeah, gimme more Jetboard Joust. Honestly, I am really happy with the VCS lineup. Not "new" games, but curated wonderfully, and there isn't a total dud in the lot. 

[BitBull]

Hello All,

 

Just to let you know that I've just submitted a maintenance update for Jetboard Joust to Atari. This one contains an important fix for a crash that could occur if the player spawned directly on top of a weapon crate. It also includes numerous smaller bug fixes and improvements and brings everything in line with the upcoming Xbox and PS4 releases. Happy Jousting!

 

james@bitbull

 

[stirrell]

On 5/27/2021 at 12:15 PM, Mockduck said:

For me, I can play the game with both VCS controllers, but the Classic has to be wired in order to be recognized. 

Strangely I just started having this issue in Thrustlander. My classic controller used to work fine wirelessly but then stopped working. Just in Thrustlander. Plugged in it works fine.

 

Sorry, I am not trying to hijack the thread but found it interesting that I have seen this behavior in a single game as well.

 

I just verified that I still have the issue in Thrustlander. The only thing I can do is exit out to the Dashboard with the classic controller through Bluetooth.

Edited November 18, 2021 by stirrell

[BitBull]

29 minutes ago, stirrell said:

Strangely I just started having this issue in Thrustlander. My classic controller used to work fine wirelessly but then stopped working. Just in Thrustlander. Plugged in it works fine.

 

Sorry, I am not trying to hijack the thread but found it interesting that I have seen this behavior in a single game as well.

 

I just verified that I still have the issue in Thrustlander. The only thing I can do is exit out to the Dashboard with the classic controller through Bluetooth.

It is probably the same issue. The Atari controllers have this weird quirk where different firmware actually registers them as a different hardware ID. Atari have made their own edits to the SDL source to ignore the part of the ID that the firmware changes, but if the game build includes a 'bundled' SDL (as most platforms will do) this one is used instead which means firmware updates can break the controller connection. I have to explicitly remove the bundled SDL lib from my builds before packaging up for the VCS. 

[VectorDreams]

2 hours ago, stirrell said:

Strangely I just started having this issue in Thrustlander. My classic controller used to work fine wirelessly but then stopped working. Just in Thrustlander. Plugged in it works fine.

 

Sorry, I am not trying to hijack the thread but found it interesting that I have seen this behavior in a single game as well.

 

I just verified that I still have the issue in Thrustlander. The only thing I can do is exit out to the Dashboard with the classic controller through Bluetooth.

Sometime controllers can BT sync up with a new name that messes up using them wirelessly.  I would go to the BT section in the VCS forget the classic controller (or anything you don't recognize) and BT pair the Classic Controller again.  Then see if it works wirelessly.  There are still some BT bugs in the VCS that can mess up a paired controller.  Just forget it and re-pair it.

 

[+SabertoothRetro]

I was thinking about my personal GOTY as I was driving into work today. Jetboard Joust is at the top of the list for pure fun factor. 

 

[stirrell]

6 hours ago, mperr9187 said:

Sometime controllers can BT sync up with a new name that messes up using them wirelessly.  I would go to the BT section in the VCS forget the classic controller (or anything you don't recognize) and BT pair the Classic Controller again.  Then see if it works wirelessly.  There are still some BT bugs in the VCS that can mess up a paired controller.  Just forget it and re-pair it.

This worked for me. Thanks!

[BitBull]

17 hours ago, SabertoothRetro said:

I was thinking about my personal GOTY as I was driving into work today. Jetboard Joust is at the top of the list for pure fun factor. 

 

Thanks! Really glad you're enjoying it!

 

As well as bugfixes the new update has better difficulty balancing in the later levels and an improved algorithm for generating player loadouts if you start the game via a teleport, now you get a smaller number of higher-level weapons rather than a ton a lower-level weapons. Generally the game is rather more forgiving towards the end than it was.  

[eightbit]

Purchased this tonight! Awesome game. I will be playing this thoroughly this weekend!

[markofwolves]

Hello. With the classic controller, how i can change the weapon? I don't have the button.

[BitBull]

38 minutes ago, markofwolves said:

Hello. With the classic controller, how i can change the weapon? I don't have the button.

 

Hi, 

 

Sadly, you can't. There just aren't enough buttons. I tried other methods like using the rotation of the stick, long-presses etc, but none of them worked to my satisfaction, either triggering too often by accident or getting confused with other actions. It plays better with the modern controller due to the analogue response as well. 

 

Thanks for playing and I hope it doesn't prevent you enjoying the game! 

[markofwolves]

Bad news. I buy Jet to play it exclusively with the classic controller. With regret I will have to ask for a refund

[markofwolves]

Can't you use one of these buttons? We both call the pause menu.

I think the arrow button is the best way.
Play this game with the classic controller is superlative.

Edited January 1, 2022 by markofwolves

[markofwolves]

On 1/1/2022 at 2:15 PM, BitBull said:

 

Hi, 

 

Sadly, you can't. There just aren't enough buttons. I tried other methods like using the rotation of the stick, long-presses etc, but none of them worked to my satisfaction, either triggering too often by accident or getting confused with other actions. It plays better with the modern controller due to the analogue response as well. 

 

Thanks for playing and I hope it doesn't prevent you enjoying the game! 

 

In the end I decided that I will keep it that way, waiting for a fix to play it with the classic controller. Asking for a refund would be incorrect. It is also right to support and reward a job like yours.
I think the only solution is to use the arrow button for weapon change. Controller in hand should work well.
Hope to hear good news soon. I love your game.

Edited January 3, 2022 by markofwolves

[BitBull]

3 hours ago, markofwolves said:

 

In the end I decided that I will keep it that way, waiting for a fix to play it with the classic controller. Asking for a refund would be incorrect. It is also right to support and reward a job like yours.
I think the only solution is to use the arrow button for weapon change. Controller in hand should work well.
Hope to hear good news soon. I love your game.

 

Thanks for the support, I appreciate it!

 

I intend to look into this tomorrow. Will update when I have more info.

[markofwolves]

28 minutes ago, BitBull said:

 

Thanks for the support, I appreciate it!

 

I intend to look into this tomorrow. Will update when I have more info.

Great news. Thanks for the support ?

[BitBull]

On 1/3/2022 at 12:00 PM, markofwolves said:

 

In the end I decided that I will keep it that way, waiting for a fix to play it with the classic controller. Asking for a refund would be incorrect. It is also right to support and reward a job like yours.
I think the only solution is to use the arrow button for weapon change. Controller in hand should work well.
Hope to hear good news soon. I love your game.

 

Hi There,

 

I have just emailed Atari with an updated build. In this one I have mapped the 'back' button on the classic controller to work the same as 'x' on the modern controller. This means you can assign it to 'switch weapon' (or 'fire' or 'joust') via 'controls' on the main menu. It also means you can access weapon info from the 'upgrades' screen. Thanks for this suggestion, I don't know why I didn't think of this before, sometimes it becomes difficult to see the wood for the trees in gamedev! Hopefully Atari won't take issue with this, I don't see why they should.

 

I've also improved playability with the classic controller a bit as I discovered you couldn't move down and left/right at the same time using it (!) 

 

The build number is 1.1.04m. I'm not sure when Atari will get round to putting this live, sometimes they are quick but sometimes they are very slow!   

 

Thanks again for playing and for the feedback.

 

James at BitBull

 

[markofwolves]

2 hours ago, BitBull said:

 

Hi There,

 

I have just emailed Atari with an updated build. In this one I have mapped the 'back' button on the classic controller to work the same as 'x' on the modern controller. This means you can assign it to 'switch weapon' (or 'fire' or 'joust') via 'controls' on the main menu. It also means you can access weapon info from the 'upgrades' screen. Thanks for this suggestion, I don't know why I didn't think of this before, sometimes it becomes difficult to see the wood for the trees in gamedev! Hopefully Atari won't take issue with this, I don't see why they should.

 

I've also improved playability with the classic controller a bit as I discovered you couldn't move down and left/right at the same time using it (!) 

 

The build number is 1.1.04m. I'm not sure when Atari will get round to putting this live, sometimes they are quick but sometimes they are very slow!   

 

Thanks again for playing and for the feedback.

 

James at BitBull

 

Thanks again ?

[markofwolves]

Atari confirms:

 

Hello,
 

Thank you for your message.
 

A controller update is scheduled later this week to fix some controller issues.
 

Kind regards,
Atari VCS Support

[markofwolves]

On 1/4/2022 at 7:04 PM, BitBull said:

 

Hi There,

 

I have just emailed Atari with an updated build. In this one I have mapped the 'back' button on the classic controller to work the same as 'x' on the modern controller. This means you can assign it to 'switch weapon' (or 'fire' or 'joust') via 'controls' on the main menu. It also means you can access weapon info from the 'upgrades' screen. Thanks for this suggestion, I don't know why I didn't think of this before, sometimes it becomes difficult to see the wood for the trees in gamedev! Hopefully Atari won't take issue with this, I don't see why they should.

 

I've also improved playability with the classic controller a bit as I discovered you couldn't move down and left/right at the same time using it (!) 

 

The build number is 1.1.04m. I'm not sure when Atari will get round to putting this live, sometimes they are quick but sometimes they are very slow!   

 

Thanks again for playing and for the feedback.

 

James at BitBull

 

 

Hello Bit. Yesterday last check, no update

[BitBull]

18 hours ago, markofwolves said:

 

Hello Bit. Yesterday last check, no update

I'll give them a nudge later today.

[markofwolves]

4 hours ago, BitBull said:

I'll give them a nudge later today.

Thanks, we hope they update it right away. I almost forgot how to play