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Boom! (Atari 2600)


cd-w

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Sound: when you bombed all enemies and you can access the door, a new sound can be heard. This sound seems to „overlap“ with the normal level sound.

 

Bomb an extra: when you bomb an extra (tried it with the remote extra) the extra explodes and some additional enemies appear. I think it must be like this: bomb an extra -> it is simply gone, bomb the door -> some additional enemies appear (on your todo list if I remember right). 

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On 6/6/2022 at 1:36 PM, Bomberman94 said:

Hard to describe: if you set a bomb over a wall, you go under the wall and while the bomb explodes you go up. In the other versions (I checked Bomberman on the NES and Bomber Man on the Famicom) the bomb explodes, the wall gets destroyed and your man won‘t get hurt - even if you run against the wall (in the direction of the bomb). In this version your man dies after the bomb exploded and the wall gets destroyed. Maybe I can make a video if it helps?

Thanks for pointing this out - I don't have a working NES at the moment so am mostly using YouTube videos to determine the behavior!


I think you mean that in Boom, if you walk into an exploding wall it will kill the player?   Does the NES let you walk into the exploding wall, or does it prevent you moving until the wall has completely disapeared?

 

Chris

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20 hours ago, Bomberman94 said:

Sound: when you bombed all enemies and you can access the door, a new sound can be heard. This sound seems to „overlap“ with the normal level sound.

 

Bomb an extra: when you bomb an extra (tried it with the remote extra) the extra explodes and some additional enemies appear. I think it must be like this: bomb an extra -> it is simply gone, bomb the door -> some additional enemies appear (on your todo list if I remember right). 

This is great feedback - let me know of any other differences you find with the NES version!

  1. Unfortunately I only have 1 sound channel so the "level complete" tune doesn't properly overlap the main tune - I don't think I can fix this.
  2. I have now added this to my working version and will post an update at the weekend.

Chris

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2 hours ago, cd-w said:

Thanks for pointing this out - I don't have a working NES at the moment so am mostly using YouTube videos to determine the behavior!


I think you mean that in Boom, if you walk into an exploding wall it will kill the player?   Does the NES let you walk into the exploding wall, or does it prevent you moving until the wall has completely disapeared?

 

Chris

Yes, you can directly walk into the exploding wall and this kills you (in Boom!). I tried it on real Hardware (Famicom AV) and yes - wall explodes and „prevents you“ to die because of the explosion of the bomb (and the wall). You can walk against the wall (until it disappears) without dying on the Famicom. 

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man, i've waited over three decades for this game and topic. 

 

i don't have access to play the game yet (on vacation with limited electronics) but the i watched the "world premiere" playthrough video and it's pretty spot-on, minus the features already notated.

 

one thing i want to point out is that the little balloon guy is called Valcom, straight out of the NES manual. he was later renamed to Ballom or whatever in later titles such as SNES Super Bomberman. Going completely off of memory the NES character names are: Valcom (red balloon), O'neal (blue onion), Dhal (purple accordian), Minvo (bucktooth orange), Doria (blue floaty blob), Pass (tiger), Ovape (purple ghost), and Pontan (spinning coin of death).

 

there is a feature/glitch in the NES title where you can walk in place by continuing to hold down the bomb button after placing your final bomb while moving in a direction.

 

in later levels, there is a rare fireproof powerup. with this equipped, the only way to die is enemy contact. you can walk around and place a bomb during an active bomb blast, and by repeating this process just shy of once per second, you are pretty much immune and can clear the level very quickly.

 

for clarity to anyone who tries the game, you lose *most* of your powerups when you die, with the exception of additional bombs and blast length.

 

i'd love to see a two player versus mode. no soft blocks, just max bombs & max blast length. that takes you straight to the endgame of battle mode!

Edited by bomberpunk
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3 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Given the much limited visibility, I think you should add a sound for killed enemies. Else you have to double check each off-screen kill.

Yes - this is a good idea and should be easy to add - it can be difficult to tell if an enemy has been killed off-screen.

 

Chris

Edited by cd-w
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Picked up a Genesis controller and going to try without my extension and see if it works now. Looking to play some Bomb! tonight

 

Test is successful, Genesis controllers work on my system fine. Guess the controller extension I bought doesn't like a Genesis controller. Next I'll need a decent controller, this new 6 button knock off I got from the retro store is worth every bit of $10 but it will suffice for now.

 

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

 

 

 

 

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On 6/8/2022 at 11:07 AM, Bomberman94 said:

Yes, you can directly walk into the exploding wall and this kills you (in Boom!). I tried it on real Hardware (Famicom AV) and yes - wall explodes and „prevents you“ to die because of the explosion of the bomb (and the wall). You can walk against the wall (until it disappears) without dying on the Famicom. 

I have uploaded a new beta (02) version to the top post.  The main changes are:

  1. You can't walk into the exploding wall until it is gone.
  2. Bombing the exit door and powerups now causes enemies to spawn.
  3. Minor graphical glitches fixed.
  4. Sound effect when enemies are killed.

Let me know if this is the correct behavior for exploding walls?

 

Chris

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On 6/8/2022 at 11:40 AM, bomberpunk said:

man, i've waited over three decades for this game and topic.

...

there is a feature/glitch in the NES title where you can walk in place by continuing to hold down the bomb button after placing your final bomb while moving in a direction.

...

i'd love to see a two player versus mode. no soft blocks, just max bombs & max blast length. that takes you straight to the endgame of battle mode!

 

Thanks - I hope you enjoy it when you get back from vacation!  I have implemented most of the missing features now, apart from the bomb glitch and hidden bonuses (see latest version in top post).   Let me know if anything is not right compared to the NES version?   Unfortunately there wont be a 2 player mode for now as the screen is too small to make it work.

 

Chris

Edited by cd-w
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On 6/11/2022 at 1:04 PM, Prizrak said:

Test is successful, Genesis controllers work on my system fine. Guess the controller extension I bought doesn't like a Genesis controller. Next I'll need a decent controller, this new 6 button knock off I got from the retro store is worth every bit of $10 but it will suffice for now.

I'm glad it worked - you should take a look at the awesome Edladdin arcade controllers (https://edladdin.com/)!

 

Chris

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Two questions for the group:

  1. Has anyone tested Boom! on an Atari 2600 with an LCD screen - I'm a little concerned that the grid will look terrible on this kind of display?
  2. Should I leave the infinite continues system?   The NES version has a level password system, but that would be hard to implement.

Chris

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On 6/12/2022 at 8:11 PM, cd-w said:

I have uploaded a new beta (02) version to the top post.  The main changes are:

  1. You can't walk into the exploding wall until it is gone.
  2. Bombing the exit door and powerups now causes enemies to spawn.
  3. Minor graphical glitches fixed.
  4. Sound effect when enemies are killed.

Let me know if this is the correct behavior for exploding walls?

 

Chris

I can confirm that „man can’t run into exploded wall“ is fine now.
Also bomb the door causes spawn enemies is now active. 
 

Another one: on real Atari and CRT while entering a high score the sides of the letters fringes. Some letters are hardly recognizable (when in motion). I can make a video if this helps?

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19 minutes ago, Bomberman94 said:

Another one: on real Atari and CRT while entering a high score the sides of the letters fringes. Some letters are hardly recognizable (when in motion). I can make a video if this helps?

 

That's a limitation of this type of display kernel, in order to draw everything it must alternate which pixels are drawn on each each frame:

 

Frame 1

boom_beta02_ntsc_dbg_6ce1f0fd.thumb.png.10098ff12110ab49c2fc7e7333e20713.png

 

Frame 2

boom_beta02_ntsc_dbg_6ce1e759.thumb.png.cf86d110fabdd48a96155b2d470bdfe4.png

 

This alternating causes the fringe effect when things are in motion.  You can even see it on the ZPH premiere, jump to 1:04:34, just need to make sure to watch it at 720p60 or 1080p60 as the lower resolutions are only 30fps which results in one of the frames not being visible.

 

 

 

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21 minutes ago, SpiceWare said:

 

That's a limitation of this type of display kernel, in order to draw everything it must alternate which pixels are drawn on each each frame:

 

Frame 1

boom_beta02_ntsc_dbg_6ce1f0fd.thumb.png.10098ff12110ab49c2fc7e7333e20713.png

 

Frame 2

boom_beta02_ntsc_dbg_6ce1e759.thumb.png.cf86d110fabdd48a96155b2d470bdfe4.png

 

This alternating causes the fringe effect when things are in motion.  You can even see it on the ZPH premiere, jump to 1:04:34, just need to make sure to watch it at 720p60 or 1080p60 as the lower resolutions are only 30fps which results in one of the frames not being visible.

 

 

 

Ah ok - maybe you can draw the characters a bit bigger?

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56 minutes ago, Bomberman94 said:

Ah ok - maybe you can draw the characters a bit bigger?

 

Larger letters would probably help - draw everything with 2 pixel wide lines, like the C=64 font.

 

Also repeating rows of pixels would probably help.  Even though it's not in motion, in the above screenshots you can't make out the letters on the alternating frames.  In the 128 pixel BUS demo I repeat rows of pixels, so letters are recognizeable on each frame:

 

Frame 1

128bus_20170120_dbg_6d25ca8e.thumb.png.574c2e0bb71a13f6b0acc32702971cc6.png

 

 

Frame 2

128bus_20170120_dbg_6d25c10d.thumb.png.7f23076655325b13b47d079377b13f60.png

 

 

An example of an A that might be more legible when in motion:

...XX...
...XX...
.XX..XX.
.XX..XX.
XX....XX
XX....XX
XXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXX
XX....XX
XX....XX
XX....XX
XX....XX

 

Since rows are repeated, can save ROM by only storing half the rows:

...XX...
.XX..XX.
XX....XX
XXXXXXXX
XX....XX
XX....XX


 

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On 6/16/2022 at 8:42 AM, SpiceWare said:

Also repeating rows of pixels would probably help. 

I have uploaded a new version (beta03) which repeats the rows to make the letters more visible.

 

The other changes in the latest version (see top post in thread):

  1. PAL60 version
  2. Extra life after each completed level (same as NES version)
  3. Bomb chains are now possible by holding down the fire button
  4. Player/enemy collision detection is more forgiving

Let me know if you find any further issues, or differences with the NES version.

 

Thanks!

Chris

Edited by cd-w
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On 6/20/2022 at 4:18 AM, cd-w said:

I have uploaded a new version (beta03) which repeats the rows to make the letters more visible.

You don't have to double the lines. You only have to make sure that each pixel is at least 2 lines tall. This allows nicer fonts.

 

E.g. this works too:

..XX..    
.XXXX.
.X..X.
XX..XX
X....X
XXXXXX
XXXXXX
X....X
X....X
X....X
X....X
X....X

 

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2 hours ago, Prizrak said:

Played good here the last few times I've played it.

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk
 

 

is there always like an hidden exit.  I am playing on a light 6'er//harmony regular if that helps.  will play more soon

Edited by chewy
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