Robots Rumble [DONE]

[+mksmith]

Welcome to Robots Rumble!

A conversion of an original Spectrum game by Miguetelo and subsequently ported to the c64, Vic-20 and Plus/4. Robots Rumble is an arcade puzzle platformer where you use your magnets to guide the robots to their death across 4 different planets.

 

Check out the other platforms here:

Spectrum

https://miguetelo.itch.io/robots-rumble

C64, Vic-20 & Plus/4

https://majikeyric.itch.io/robots-rumble

 

About

You are Slade, 45 years old, and yes you love your job... to destroy broken robots!

You will be sent to different planets guiding the broken robots through different scenarios. Your mission, throw them into the lava with the exclusive help of two old big magnets.

The magnets have a limited battery charge. They can be charged by picking up the batteries on the map. If you run out of energy, you die. If both magnets are aligned with the robot, it will stop moving.

You must avoid the green stones of kryptonite (the robot will explode causing pollution of the entire planet).

Also watch out for the sentinels roaming around the planet as well.

 

PLAY ONLINE (thanks raz0red!)

 

 

Game Modes

Beginner (new for 7800)

Go from apprentice to master as you learn to utilize the magnets to control the robots with a little less urgency.

Pro

Push your mind and reflexes to the limit as you guide each robot into the lava pits without running out of power!

Speed run (new for 7800)

Mastered the planets? Race against the clock and compete for the fastest time in the galaxy! 

 

Controls

For all controllers move the joystick up and down to adjust the magnets (the activate magnet is highlighted).

One joystick (A)

Hold button 1 to temporarily switch magnets or tap button 2 to alternately switch to the other magnet.

One joystick (B)

Push button 1 to activate the left magnet and button 2 to activate the right magnet.

Two joysticks

Use the left joystick to control the left magnet and the right joystick to control the right magnet.

Tip: two joysticks allows two players to work together.

 

 

Thanks

Original concept & graphics: Miguetelo

Conversion

Coding: mksmith

Music: synthpopalooza

Graphics: reveng

QA: trebor, sramirez, reveng, muddyfunster, zeropagehomebrew, playsoft, patbrady, crossbow

 

 

To be completed

This game is considered complete. If you find any issues or strange behaviour please let me know.

Note: The concerto specific version may exhibit some strange graphical glitches due to the use of the 16kRam and location of the pokey chip.  This will be resolved in a future firmware update. 

 

Atari Homebrew Awards Nomination

Robots Rumble 7800 has been nominated for the best homebrew conversion at the 5th Annual Atari Homebrew Awards 👏👏👏

 

FINAL RELEASE

20220217.robotsrumble.a78

20220217.robotsrumble_concerto.a78

 

Previous releases

06 Dec 2021 - Update 4

20211206.robotsrumble.a78

20211206.robotsrumble_concerto.a78

18 Nov 2021 - Update 3

20211118.robotsrumble.a78

20211118.robotsrumble_concerto.a78

17 Nov 2021 - Update 2

20211117.robotsrumble.a78

20211117.robotsrumble_concerto.a78

13 Nov 2021 - Update 1

20211113.robotsrumble.78b.a78

20211113.robotsrumble_concerto.a78

10 Nov 2021 - Initial release

robotsrumble.a78

robotsrumble_concerto.a78

 

[+Trebor]

Outstanding!  A challenging and engaging title allowing both newcomers (Beginners) and veterans (Pro) to enjoy.  Thanks for sharing this with the community, Matt!

[AtariBrian]

Awesome, I have never heard of that game. Will this possibly one day be sold in the AA store? Also, any word on when your Millie and Molly game will be coming out on cart in the store?

Edited November 10, 2021 by AtariBrian

[Cousin Vinnie]

GET OUT!

[+mksmith]

13 minutes ago, AtariBrian said:

Awesome, I have never heard of that game. Will this possibly one day be sold in the AA store? Also, any word on when your Millie and Molly game will be coming out on cart in the store?

Hi! Not sure about a cart for this one (hadn't really thought about it actually) but hopefully Millie and Molly will be in the store very soon ?

[AtariBrian]

I bet people would like at least a cart or cart/manual of it, I know I would want one. I would never speak for Al but perhaps he would love to add a game like this to his 7800 library. ☺️

[+Trebor]

14 minutes ago, AtariBrian said:

I bet people would like at least a cart or cart/manual of it...

*Raises hand*

[+sramirez2008]

32 minutes ago, Trebor said:

*Raises hand*

+1

[Silver Back]

1 hour ago, AtariBrian said:

 

I bet people would like at least a cart or cart/manual of it, I know I would want one.

 

Yes please.

[+cjherr]

Very nice addition to the 7800 library!

[jstrotha0975]

Looks interesting.

[+mksmith]

Hi all,

 

Bobby has made a start on an updated tune which sounds fantastic - so lookout for a new release soon.

 

Also if anyone is getting the occasional yellow screen please feel free to report - particularly if on the dragonfly.

[Cousin Vinnie]

2 hours ago, mksmith said:

Hi all,

 

Bobby has made a start on an updated tune which sounds fantastic - so lookout for a new release soon.

 

Also if anyone is getting the occasional yellow screen please feel free to report - particularly if on the dragonfly.

I hate how I suck at the game, can ya fix that?

[SlidellMan]

That looks excellent! Did you use the 160 or the 320 screen modes for that conversion?

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

ZeroPage Homebrew is playing of Robots Rumble from ChunkyPixel Games on tomorrow's stream LIVE on Twitch, hope you can join us!

 

Fri Nov 12 @ 12PM PT | 3PM ET | 8PM GMT

WATCH: https://www.twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/

Games:

• 2048 (2021 Exclusive World Premiere | 7800) by MuddyVision: Lewis Hill @Muddyfunster
• Pengo (2021 WIP Update | 7800) by Darryl Guenther @darryl1970, Paul Lay @playsoft & Pat Brady @Pat Brady (Music & Music Engine)
• Robots Rumble (2021 WIP | 7800) by ChunkyPixel Games: Matt Smith @mksmith, Bobby Clark @Synthpopalooza (Sound), Mike Saarna @RevEng (Graphics & Sound)

(WATCH AT 1080P60 FOR BEST QUALITY)

 

[+mksmith]

5 hours ago, SlidellMan said:

That looks excellent! Did you use the 160 or the 320 screen modes for that conversion?

Thanks mate - all 160 mode. I used Tiled for the maps as that allowed me to utilise a great feature of that where you can have multiple palettes assigned to the characterset and the plotmap routine takes care of the rest.  Doing multiple palettes for this sort of thing is otherwise difficult.

[+Muddyfunster]

I'd never come across this title before for the Spectrum, much less the Commodore versions. 

 

Brilliant job on this mate, you and Mike have done a great job, and a Bobby tune will be the icing on the cake. ?️?

[+Pat Brady]

On 11/9/2021 at 6:51 PM, mksmith said:

Controls

Move the joystick up and down to adjust the magnets. When playing with one joystick hold fire to switch magnets.

Tip: two joysticks allows two players to work together.

 

In one-joystick mode, both buttons switch control to the right magnet, but only while the button is depressed (momentary). It feels very asymmetric to me.

 

IMO it would feel more natural to latch, so that when a button is pressed it switches to the other magnet until the button is pressed again.

 

Since 7800 controllers have two buttons, you could make one latching and the other momentary.

 

EDIT: very nice conversion otherwise.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

The initial .a78 file just throws a yellow screen on the DF cart. However, if I disable the RAM on the DF it will boot but with all corrupted graphics everywhere and you are at least able to press the button to start into the game but once there you can only make out the left magnet and move it up/down about 3 spaces total. The robot can just been seen in the mess but doesn't respond to the magnet nor is there any audio.

 

Going to try the concerto version on the DF to see if that does anything different.

 

 

[+mksmith]

2 hours ago, Pat Brady said:

 

In one-joystick mode, both buttons switch control to the right magnet, but only while the button is depressed (momentary). It feels very asymmetric to me.

 

IMO it would feel more natural to latch, so that when a button is pressed it switches to the other magnet until the button is pressed again.

 

Since 7800 controllers have two buttons, you could make one latching and the other momentary.

 

EDIT: very nice conversion otherwise.

Hey Pat - we tried a few different control methods but not that one.  I might have a look at adding that into the next build so it can be tried out.  The original game is more keyboard friendly so we needed to come up with something better for a controller only version. 

10 minutes ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

The initial .a78 file just throws a yellow screen on the DF cart. However, if I disable the RAM on the DF it will boot but with all corrupted graphics everywhere and you are at least able to press the button to start into the game but once there you can only make out the left magnet and move it up/down about 3 spaces total. The robot can just been seen in the mess but doesn't respond to the magnet nor is there any audio.

 

Going to try the concerto version on the DF to see if that does anything different.

Thanks CrossBow - I have been looking into the initial yellow screen and may have a fix for the next build.  The character bit cycling is the really interesting one as due to how the levels are drawn I needed to locate the font in the 16K Ram which does seem to overplay that particular issue but I'm going to play around with this to see if that can be changed (probably font duplication across the banks).  It seems that 128K+16k roms really play with both the DragonFly and Concerto is strange ways. 

[+-^CrossBow^-]

Well the concerto version of the ROM basically does the exact same thing with a yellow screen condition with the DF RAM enabled. If I turn it off I get the same graphical corruption all over the screen. So My guess here is that something in the additional 16k routine isn't being initialized correctly since it does at least try and start up without that enabled but fails to even provide a title screen with the RAM enabled.

 

[+Pat Brady]

22 minutes ago, mksmith said:

Hey Pat - we tried a few different control methods but not that one.  I might have a look at adding that into the next build so it can be tried out.  The original game is more keyboard friendly so we needed to come up with something better for a controller only version. 

Another possibility: push the left button to switch to the left magnet, and the right button to switch to the right magnet (both latching).

[+mksmith]

9 minutes ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

Well the concerto version of the ROM basically does the exact same thing with a yellow screen condition with the DF RAM enabled. If I turn it off I get the same graphical corruption all over the screen. So My guess here is that something in the additional 16k routine isn't being initialized correctly since it does at least try and start up without that enabled but fails to even provide a title screen with the RAM enabled.

Thanks for checking! I normally clear the $4000-$7fff at startup based on a suggestion from Mike (for another issue) but I only just realised yesterday that I hadn't marked that full range with this game as at one time I used $4000-$4fff for additional DL ram (only just noticed yesterday) but found I didn't need it in the end.  I'll put a new build up soon where I'm clearing that full range as the first thing (I normally have clearing and blacking the screen/palette as very first task) - initial testing looks promising so far. @playsoft initially contacted me about this.

[+mksmith]

4 minutes ago, Pat Brady said:

Another possibility: push the left button to switch to the left magnet, and the right button to switch to the right magnet (both latching).

Hmmm another interesting suggestion!

[desiv]

1 hour ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

The initial .a78 file just throws a yellow screen on the DF cart.

Just to let you know what I am seeing on my CC2, I took the .a78 file and stripped the header and it worked with the 128k 16k Pokey mapper I tried.  (Not sure if the game has Pokey sounds, but it was the same mapper that I used on another game and I just copy/pasted the line and changed the rom file name for my first attempt.)

 

As for the game, that's a fun game.  Great concept.  And those colors?  Definitely Spectrum...