+Dave C Posted September 4, 2021 Share Posted September 4, 2021 (edited) Update: I've made a few minor tweaks for stability, I'm calling this version the final release. - one more fix... one more version... I did do a little work towards having a splash screen / thinking about different gameplay elements but ultimately that will have to be a new game (or maybe a Director's Cut?). In the meantime I'm mocking up some ideas for a new project, can't decide on whether it should be 2600, 8-bit or ... This is a Stampede-like side scroller I've been working on off and on, finally made a push to kind of bring it all together. Comments appreciated. Since I've only ever run it on Stella and Javatari kind of wondering if it actually works on real hardware... thanks Update 2022-01-15: "v1.1" - fixing bug reported by SpiceWare (massive instability in dev mode) Update 2021-12-31: "v1" - minor stability cleanups Update 2021-10-10: "release candidate 2.1 2.5" - tweaked game end to try and prevent too-quick restart Update 2021-10-09: "release candidate 2" - difficulty level adjusted, added charging and hit mechanic Update 2021-10-03: "release candidate 1" - difficulty level adjusted, awards given for high score ... Update 2021-09-11: added gameplay tweaks, and basic sound Binaries attached but the GitHub Page always has latest binaries and code. LegendarySpear_NTSC.bin LegendarySpear_PAL60.bin Edited January 16, 2022 by Dave C complete 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gorgh Posted September 4, 2021 Share Posted September 4, 2021 very nicely done! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Al_Nafuur Posted September 4, 2021 Share Posted September 4, 2021 3 hours ago, Dave C said: Comments appreciated. PAL color version please ? 3 hours ago, Dave C said: Since I've only ever run it on Stella and Javatari kind of wondering if it actually works on real hardware... Except for the colors it works fine on my PAL 2600JR with PlusCart (thanks to @Prizrak for uploading it). 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Al_Nafuur Posted September 5, 2021 Share Posted September 5, 2021 1 hour ago, Al_Nafuur said: PAL color version please ? LegendarySpear.asm LegendarySpear PAL60.bin 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+TrekMD Posted September 5, 2021 Share Posted September 5, 2021 Looks good! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Dave C Posted September 5, 2021 Author Share Posted September 5, 2021 5 hours ago, Al_Nafuur said: PAL color version please ? Nice. I'll work that into the build. I had thought maybe I'd have to do more than change the colors, but if it works this way even better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Philsan Posted September 5, 2021 Share Posted September 5, 2021 11 hours ago, Dave C said: Nice. I'll work that into the build. I had thought maybe I'd have to do more than change the colors, but if it works this way even better. To make a PAL50 version many changes should be done but luckily almost all not very old CRT TVs and all LCD TVs supports the much better PAL60, that keeps NTSC speed. Only colors values needs to be converted. Therefore nowadays almost all homebrews use PAL60. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Dave C Posted September 5, 2021 Author Share Posted September 5, 2021 3 hours ago, Philsan said: Therefore nowadays almost all homebrews use PAL60. Ah, I didn't realize PAL60 was a thing, very interesting. I could potentially do PAL50 in a cheap way by making the horizon at the top of the screen bigger. Potentially I could do something more substantial like make the playfield bigger and/or adjust timing but timing is already a little weird, and changing the graphics / adding riders could run me up against RAM/ROM limits (currently using almost all of both). I've updated the post with NTSC and PAL60 versions. Github repo is here: https://github.com/DChristianson/legendary-spear 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KaeruYojimbo Posted September 6, 2021 Share Posted September 6, 2021 Nice! I really like this so far and I'm looking forward to seeing it develop. I have a couple of suggestions. First, vary the point value of the enemies, making faster ones worth more. Second, if those big rock things are supposed to be stationary objects you're riding past, they should move at the same speed when there are more than one on screen. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Dave C Posted September 12, 2021 Author Share Posted September 12, 2021 (edited) On 9/6/2021 at 7:27 AM, KaeruYojimbo said: First, vary the point value of the enemies, making faster ones worth more. Second, if those big rock things are supposed to be stationary objects you're riding past, they should move at the same speed when there are more than one on screen. Those are really good ideas. Just pushed a new version that adjusts the point values as well as the damage. Also messing with having the rocks be ... almost the same speed. They now move at a speed based on where they are on the screen vertically, trying to go for kind of a parallax effect. Big problem now is I'm right at the limit for 2k. I'm sure I can squeeze more out of it but I'm starting to feel a little caged in. I didn't start with the intention of making a 2k game but now I feel compelled... https://github.com/DChristianson/legendary-spear/releases/tag/v0.8.1 Edited September 12, 2021 by Dave C 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted September 13, 2021 Share Posted September 13, 2021 ZeroPage Homebrew is playing Legendary Spear on tomorrow's (Tue Sep 14, 2021) stream LIVE on Twitch at 6PM PT | 9PM ET | 1AM GMT+1Day! ZPH Twitch Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/ Games: K-Jo Chases The Cheese (2021 Retail Unboxing) by Leonardo Santiago @Leonardo Santiago / Red Button Games Retro Park (2021 Exclusive WIP) by Tom @Darthtom Legendary Spear (2021 WIP) by Dave Christianson @Dave C (WATCH IN 1080P60 FOR FULL QUALITY) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Dave C Posted September 14, 2021 Author Share Posted September 14, 2021 4 hours ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said: ZeroPage Homebrew is playing Legendary Spear on tomorrow's (Tue Sep 14, 2021) stream LIVE on Twitch at 6PM PT | 9PM ET | 1AM GMT+1Day! Awesome! Thanks for the bump, hope to watch live but I'll have some tricky timing with work tomorrow. Looking forward to it! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Dave C Posted September 27, 2021 Author Share Posted September 27, 2021 Update - after taking a little break I've come back and made some refinements based on the Twitch feedback... diagonal movement player should leap backwards after charge attack more horizontal range of movement game speeds up as more enemies pass player moves more slowly while charging Some other ideas haven't been implemented yet make couch compliant (all control from joystick, no reset switch) more points / based on hit accuracy / Joust-style hits enemies should be going other direction being chased / chasing of enemies (both?) enemies have no weapons - look like you are hitting them on the nose Some glitching is happening on hits - I only just noticed it. I wound up spending a chunk of the dev time reorganizing the data + code to stay in the 2K range. Originally I had separate graphics for the player and riders and switched to using the same graphics + reflection I think there's now enough room to tune the gameplay - and maybe some minor graphics tweaks On Javatari and GitHub https://javatari.org/?ROM=https://github.com/DChristianson/legendary-spear/releases/download/v0.9.0/LegendarySpear_NTSC.bin https://github.com/DChristianson/legendary-spear 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Dave C Posted October 2, 2021 Author Share Posted October 2, 2021 Latest changes are up. - couch compliant (when the game ends you can press fire to restart) - more aggressive speed increase - refactoring some of the graphics code to free up code space - cleaning up some graphics and sound glitches This version feels like more of a challenge - prior versions were a bit too easy. Play on Javatari 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Dave C Posted October 3, 2021 Author Share Posted October 3, 2021 (edited) I'm now at what feels ~ close to a "real" game... so the latest version is now "release candidate 1". I just managed to use the last bytes available* to add a reward if you can finish with a max score... ... although I haven't been able to get that score myself (well, not without cheating) * I'm sure there's more room to be found - but... I'm taking it as a sign that this last bit of space in the upper reaches of the ROM just got filled Edited October 3, 2021 by Dave C 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Pat Brady Posted October 6, 2021 Share Posted October 6, 2021 Nice game. Attractive, smooth, and responsive. Is there any significance to the enemy colors? My intuition is that enemy color should indicate something about enemy speed or behavior. In Legendary Spear I notice brown enemies tend to be fast but white and red ones seem indistinguishable. I also can't detect any benefit to charging the spear. Post #13 says the player should leap backwards, but I'm not seeing that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Dave C Posted October 7, 2021 Author Share Posted October 7, 2021 (edited) Thanks for the feedback! There is a little difference in speed and point value between the colors, but it does seem like there isn't as much variety as I would expect - something I'm going to look at, I'm wondering if I have a bug or two somewhere. I have been having trouble tuning the speed and progression in general. I also haven't come up with anything to do with the charge mechanic (other than the visual effect). In the current build the player doesn't so much leap back as bounce back to the original location after an attack - is that what you are seeing? Earlier versions there was no bounce back at all, you would just charge forward and stay there (you also couldn't range very far around the screen) Edited October 7, 2021 by Dave C Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Pat Brady Posted October 7, 2021 Share Posted October 7, 2021 Yes, "bounce back to the original location" is what I see. One possibility is: only charged attacks lunge forward and bounce back, uncharged attacks remain in place. Ideally there would be audible and visual feedback when charging is achieved. The existing pulsing is fine for the visual component, in other words don't start the visual pulsing until charged. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Dave C Posted October 10, 2021 Author Share Posted October 10, 2021 New weekend new release, will update the head messages. I'm likely to take a break after this and do some other projects (other than bug fixes). new hit mechanic - to score you must attack the enemy head on (you can't hit them in the legs and score) new charging mechanic - charge attacks hit anywhere, and can break rocks. cleaned up a bug with enemy variety (was missing a color) I played around with the charge covering more ground, having the hit location affect score etc but couldn't get a balance. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevKelley Posted October 10, 2021 Share Posted October 10, 2021 Just played this. I love it. I definitely see the resemblance to Stampede but I found this to have a slightly different dynamic. It controls well, the graphics and sound are great, and it really was enjoyable to play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Dave C Posted October 10, 2021 Author Share Posted October 10, 2021 Thanks, I was looking at Stampede when I first put it together, but it's kind of more like a side scroller now. But I appreciate now how much variety is in Stampede in terms of the cattle movements and graphics/ I'm now super annoyed at the timing around game end - it's easy to die while pressing the fire button and restart the game quickly when maybe that wasn't your intent. The hit box detection is also a little wonky but not totally sure if that's good or bad. Also it's somewhat maddening that I keep finding a byte here and there I can use to make fixes and stay under 2k (why didn't I see some of these before)... and I just realized there's a way to get a whole 23 bytes (at least) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Dave C Posted October 11, 2021 Author Share Posted October 11, 2021 K. Well I was intent on having a "no screens day" but that is blown. Going to call the latest release candidate 2.5 in honor of AtariDOS 2.5. Fixed a few little errors arounds hits/damage that I was noticing - basically due to some code size optimizations I was using to squeeze the last few bytes like not loading a value into a register that would already have that value as a side effect of some other operation... that weren't valid anymore (TBH I have mixed feelings about those particular kinds of opportunistic tweaks, not only because the fact that I found a lot of them suggests I did a bad job of register management, but also I keep finding the occasional bit of dead code that is totally safe to eliminate). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Dave C Posted December 31, 2021 Author Share Posted December 31, 2021 Updated for end of year... I've made a few minor tweaks for stability, I'm calling this version the final release. I did do a little work towards having a splash screen / thinking about different gameplay elements but ultimately that will have to be a new game (or maybe a Director's Cut?). In the meantime I've been mocking up some ideas for a new project or two, can't decide on whether it should be 2600, 8-bit or ... I like the idea of something multiplayer with the paddles. The 2600 paddle situation is... interesting... I like the idea of doing more animation... and always liked the style of shooter/fighter/platformers like Rolling Thunder, Ninja Gaiden, Metal Slug... my gut says that seems more like something not to try and fight the stock 2600 hardware with... 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kid_snz Posted January 14, 2022 Share Posted January 14, 2022 I just came to see what you actually make and it's amazing. It runs well, the game play is fun, and the graphics are beautiful. I'm a big fan of Contra and can't wait to see what you make next. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SpiceWare Posted January 14, 2022 Share Posted January 14, 2022 Impressive! There are some issues with the game that show up if you have Stella set for Developer Mode, which you should have turned on whenever you're working on a project: The issues I saw were inconsistent scanline counts, and enemy that would abruptly jump a large distance left or right. This is usually a sign of leaving a # off an immediate mode instruction, such as using LDA 4, LDX 4, CMP 4, etc. when you meant to use LDA #4, LDX #4, CMP #4, etc. Due to the design of the Atari these often work OK on most consoles, but will fail on some. More info here(reply #19). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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