My first homebrew game - Lunar Lander

[Yoruk]

Hello there,

 

I'm proud to present my first attempt to create a Vectrex game. It's a very simple port of Lunar Lander :

 

 

The goal is of course to land on the moon without damage, and by using the less fuel as possible.

 

Don't expect a very long and detailed game; this project is for me a way to discover programming on this machine. For now you can "only" drive your ship and turn on the engine, and there is only one landing area. But it does compute the acceleration and speed (not as simple as I could have expected ?) so it does require some skills not to crash on the moon.

 

A Vectrex game is not complete without some artwork, so I also took some time to design stuff. Here is the cartridge label :

 

 

And an overlay ! ?

 

 

All the designs were done on Inkscape. I'm not a huge artist, but I love how came the result.

 

Soon I'll share the binaries, meanwhile I still need to fix some issues and add some features (sound...).

 

The code is written in C, compiled with Cmoc. I'm using ParaJVE for emulation. Also used some custom made tools to create the sprites.

 

For the artwork I'll also try to design a coverbox and to write a manual. Didn't know if there is a way to print DIY cardboxes, it could be great to physically have this game in my game collection. ?

[carlsson]

2 hours ago, Yoruk said:

It's a very simple port of Lunar Lander

[..] it could be great to physically have this game in my game collection

Great work so far, but somehow these two statements contradict each other. I believe going through the steps of printing overlays, programming cartridges, making boxes etc is one of the last steps once your game is perfected. That is another way of saying maybe you'll come up with ideas to spice up the game, and even a unique title that makes it easier to remember, before you finalize it in physical form. Perhaps first land on the moon, then get out to dig for minerals, get back into the lander (if it still has fuel left) and escape a meteor storm, multiple levels and landing places etc. Just my two cent, unless of course you are mostly satisfied with the game in its current state.

[Yoruk]

Thanks for your feedback ! ?

 

Well again my goal for this game was to start "digging" into the Vectrex programming universe and to make something functional, even if it's something short. And I wanted to work on all game aspects (programming, artwork and packaging). I still have some work to do on the game (sound, music, some bugs...) but I'm not planning right now to add more big features.

 

I have the problem of having a lot of ideas / starting a lot of projects but not enough time or motivation to finish them. So here I forced myself to create something functional and short, but something with playable, with a start and a finish.

 

I'll probably DIY print one box to put in my collection, but of course a game like this in this actual state should be not mature enough to be mass produced and sold.

 

So yes I'm mostly satisfied by the game in it's actual state (again for me it's just a sample to understand how to program the console), but I'm planning to create at least two "bigger" games, and maybe in the future they could be mature enough to consider physically releasing them.

 

 

Meanwhile, here is the game box :

 

 

I'll share soon some binaries ! ?

[Yoruk]

Attached is a first release, if someone wants to try it !

 

030721 lunarlander.bin

 

Edited July 3, 2021 by Yoruk

[Retrok7]

Looking forward to the final result!

[SiLic0ne t0aD]

Thanks for sharing! I'll give this a try. ?

 

You can print your own boxes, if you have a large format printer (Canon Pixma Pro-100, etc). There's large silver cardstock on available on Amazon even. @gtoal here made  some nice homemade Tailgunner boxes. Or you could get some blank boxes from Sean Kelly and print out the artwork on a sticker, pasting that on to the box. Cart labels of course are pretty trivial for the most part.. just about any sticky photo paper/label material will work. Lots of options!

[Yoruk]

7 hours ago, SiLic0ne t0aD said:

 There's large silver cardstock on available on Amazon even.

Well I was thinking on doing some printing/gluing on white blank boxes, but I didn't manage to find some on Amazon or Aliexpress. I'm not english mother tongue so I don't really know what could be the good search terms. I only manage to find huge cardboard boxes...

 

 

[SiLic0ne t0aD]

I see.   It's all good, totally up to you. There's white, silver metallic cardstock paper, etc. Here's a couple links to some cardstock that was recommended to me by gtoal. These are US links, but you should be able to find the equivalent for wherever you live, hopefully. At least it might give you an idea of what to look for and possibly try out.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Springhill-Cardstock-199gsm-Bright-Sheets/dp/B06XCDBD2C/ref=sxts_sxwds-bia-wc-rsf-lq2a1_0?cv_ct_cx=Cardstock&dchild=1&keywords=Cardstock&pd_rd_i=B06XCDBD2C&pd_rd_r=84614be9-5a7d-4911-ae08-052578bdf815&pd_rd_w=VBjd0&pd_rd_wg=UYak1&pf_rd_p=0d4eabb3-16b1-456b-8b85-bd2dddc6fc20&pf_rd_r=VDG3P483485VJAPAF0JW&psc=1&qid=1625759185&sr=1-1-08156654-5cdd-4d6a-b40f-f682c1511b75

 

https://www.amazon.com/Springhill-Cardstock-199gsm-Bright-Sheets/dp/B06XCDBD2C/ref=sxts_sxwds-bia-wc-rsf-lq2a1_0?cv_ct_cx=Cardstock&dchild=1&keywords=Cardstock&pd_rd_i=B06XCDBD2C&pd_rd_r=84614be9-5a7d-4911-ae08-052578bdf815&pd_rd_w=VBjd0&pd_rd_wg=UYak1&pf_rd_p=0d4eabb3-16b1-456b-8b85-bd2dddc6fc20&pf_rd_r=VDG3P483485VJAPAF0JW&psc=1&qid=1625759185&sr=1-1-08156654-5cdd-4d6a-b40f-f682c1511b75

 

Sorry for the long links.. I couldn't find shorter versions to share. Hope this helps! Good luck ✌️

 

[Yoruk]

Many thanks, I'll try to find the correct substitutes ! ?