Keystone Koppers [Done]

[+Muddyfunster]

Keystone Koppers

Latest DEMO is here (dec22)

 

Keystone Koppers is my take on a port of the classic 2600/5200 game by Garry Kitchen. Keystone Kapers is one of my all time favourite Atari 2600 games!

 

This adaptation for the 7800 is based on the 2600, 5200 and C64 versions and takes elements from all three versions.  It's the first proper port I've attempted and I hope folks enjoy giving it a test run

 

Objective

 

Hoodlum Harry & his gang of krooks have broken out of jail and are looting Southwick's Emporium. Your job is to avoid the boobytraps and obstacles and apprehend the fleeing felons!

 

There are additional on-ROM instructions accessible from the title page. 

 

Controls

 

Left & Right - move left and right.

Up - enter the elevator.

Down - Duck or leave the elevator.

Fire - Jump.

 

On the title screen 

Up + Down to select level (1-12).

Left & Right (or SELECT) - flips the music mode between A & B & Off.

Fire 1 - Start game.

Fire 2 - Instructions.

 

Scoring 

 

Catching the krook awards 1,000 points + a bonus based on your remaining time X your merit bonus.

Points are also scored for collecting bags of money and cases of gold and jewels.

Extra lives are awarded every 10,000 points, to a maximum of 5

 

Hitting an obstacle costs 9 seconds.

hitting a bi-plane costs 1 life.

 

Demo

Keystone Kapers is a 128k + 16k RAM NTSC only binary. (Sorry PAL owners, a PAL version will follow).

 

The latest RC4 demo allows play upto and including level 12. 

 

Latest RC4 DEMO is here

 

The demo supports POKEY for music and SaveKey/Atari Vox / HSC for hiscore saving.

 

Keystone Kapers is Kouch Kompliant!

 

I would very much appreciate any feedback or comments (or bug reports!)  I hope you folks enjoy the demo!

 

Credits

 

I want to say a big thanks to @Synthpopalooza for two fantastic POKEY tunes and also to @mksmith for helping get them into the POKEY player. Thanks chaps!

Thanks to @ZeroPage Homebrew for showing the demo on the stream, and Tanya for her BOSS playthrough.

Last but by no means least, @-^CrossBow^- @sramirez2008 @Trebor . These guys murder and torture every major build to hunt out and identify quirks, glitches and bugs and provide invaluable feedback, suggestions and bug reports.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Updates : 

Final Demo (Dec 22) Latest DEMO is here (dec22)
Version 1b : some additional palette adjustments and a bug fix for the missing footstep sound.

Release Candidate 4. Significant bug fixes, updated and gameplay balancing.

 

Keystone_Kapers_demo_1b_CONCERTO.a78

Keystone_Kapers_demo_1b.a78

Keystone_Kapers_demo_1b_BUP.a78

[mimo]

That looks amazing. I'll try and have a play over the weekend 

[Trebor]

8 minutes ago, mimo said:

That looks amazing. I'll try and have a play over the weekend 

Plays as amazing as it looks. 

Silky smooth with the beloved gameplay turned up with enhanced graphics, sounds, intermission, and other bells and whistles.

[Philsan]

Very nice! I couldn't wait and I played it on my PAL 7800 ah ah.

[+Muddyfunster]

Can I please be allowed to edit the first post to post updates etc.

[+DrVenkman]

1 minute ago, Muddyfunster said:

Can I please be allowed to edit the first post to post updates etc.

Be sure to tag or message a forum moderator - who’s currently running the show in this section, anyway?  

[+Muddyfunster]

Just now, DrVenkman said:

Be sure to tag or message a forum moderator - who’s currently running the show in this section, anyway?  

Good idea  I tried @moderator but nothing doing.

 

@tep392 could you help with this please?  

[+DrVenkman]

1 hour ago, Muddyfunster said:

Good idea  I tried @moderator but nothing doing.

It would be nice if each forum/sub-forum listed the names of the Moderators with primary responsibility for that area. 

I could have sworn there is (or was?) a way to search the entire forum Membership too - @CPUWIZ used to do a lot of moderating in the 7800 forum but I haven’t seen him around lately. Hope he’s doing okay. 

[+Karl G]

Well phooey - I was about to do a test with a POKEY-equipped Concerto, but my 7800 is dead. Hopefully I can get it fixed soonish!

[+Muddyfunster]

11 minutes ago, Karl G said:

Well phooey - I was about to do a test with a POKEY-equipped Concerto, but my 7800 is dead. Hopefully I can get it fixed soonish!

Hope it's nothing too serious Karl and you are up and running again soon.

[tep392]

1 hour ago, Muddyfunster said:

Good idea  I tried @moderator but nothing doing.

 

@tep392 could you help with this please?  

It's done.  The "report post" button will get the attention of every moderator.  I also get e-mail notifications of new reports.

[+Muddyfunster]

3 minutes ago, tep392 said:

It's done.  The "report post" button will get the attention of every moderator.  I also get e-mail notifications of new reports.

Thank you  

[BydoEmpire]

This is awesome, Keystone Kapers is one of my favorite Activision titles.  Your version plays great!  Looking forward to putting a bit more time into it.

Edited November 6, 2021 by BydoEmpire

[+Karl G]

2 hours ago, Muddyfunster said:

Hope it's nothing too serious Karl and you are up and running again soon.

Thanks! It's likely the flaky power button that finally gave out. It's on its way to @-^CrossBow^- for button replacement and BIOS upgrade. 

[gambler172]

Hi Muddy

Plays very well ?

Best version....

[bikeguychicago]

This looks very much in style of a Activision Master System game. Well done!

[TrekMD]

This is totally awesome!  What a superb version of Keystone Kapers! 

[jstrotha0975]

Tried this out today and it's awesome, superb graphics, runs and plays smooth, going up the stairs is super smooth.

[alfredtdk]

Keystone Kapers was the game that I was really impressed by the 2600, although other titles from that time are equivalent. The version of the 5200 I also think is amazing and the c64 is very beautiful too, although a little slow.
As unfortunately I don't have a 7800 I went to test it on Prosystem Retroarch and got it with the repair demo, the only one that worked on my computer.

 

 

[doug0909]

Looks great, but I think this game may be a bit dated. 

 

Nobody buys bouncy balls and toy airplanes in stores anymore, that's the type of stuff you're better off just buying on Amazon. Better return policy. Brick and mortar stores don't have the money for fancy furniture, in store dining tables with sunshades, and cathedral radios. And cops carry military grade arms, not billy clubs, and have bigger concerns than stores which don't pay for private security. 

 

Perhaps there should be a 2021 mode where Hoodlum Harry is stealing Amazon boxes and getting chased through apartment buildings by an armed vigilante... 

[+Muddyfunster]

1 hour ago, alfredtdk said:

Keystone Kapers was the game that I was really impressed by the 2600, although other titles from that time are equivalent. The version of the 5200 I also think is amazing and the c64 is very beautiful too, although a little slow.
As unfortunately I don't have a 7800 I went to test it on Prosystem Retroarch and got it with the repair demo, the only one that worked on my computer.

 

Thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately Prosystem is a quite an old outdated emulator and many titles have issues with it. 

 

I would recommend trying with BupSystem or A7800 if you are able to install those, Keystone Kapers works with those.

[+Muddyfunster]

updated binary on the first post, a couple of palette tweaks and a little bug fix for the footstep sound disappearing.

[alfredtdk]

Thanks.?

[+darryl1970]

@Muddyfunster very nice. I actually smiled when I saw the ZPH reveal, and I didn't even play the game growing up. The graphics are great, the animation is great, and the gameplay looks great. I love the cut scenes.

 

I've been too busy to download the ROM or finish watching the stream. (I previewed Twitch from my tablet before bed one night.) Now that it's on YouTube, I'll be able to catch up during my lunchtime elliptical. I can't wait to actually test it out. It looks great!

[Jinks]

This is easily the best version of Keystone kapers anywhere. 

Games such at this, Millie and Mollie, Exo, Popeye, Pengo and probably 3 or 4 others hopefully make it into cart form soon. Back in 2013 when Bob I think was the only homebrew developer at the time was cranking out 3 or 4 games a year and putting them on cart right away and selling to us 7800 nerds directly. Today we have way more games going on but it seems they get forgotten and lose all the hype because they need extra artwork, manuals, boxes, more channels of distribution etc. 2 or 5 years later most people forget about them or have trouble finding out if they are limited edition who sells them etc. I know not everyone can burn their own games etc. but I miss those times when the game itself was the most important thing not boxes etc. Of course boxes manuals etc. always came after for the people that shelf them to look at and resell. Hell I think I lost my boudlerdash 2600 box and my vikki and vikki 7800 box as they have no lasting appeal for me. The games themselves such as yours have included all the artwork I need to see without it on the packaging. Btw it is great your family is interested in your hobby of classic game programming which you do very well. 

 

Whichever route any developer chooses I am not complaining as that is their choice.  I am just giving my perspective on how I see things which is definitely NOT speaking for everyone.