[WIP] Moonwalking Dogs of the Wild West

[Fort Apocalypse]

Sometime in the 80s...

 

The King of Pop found a time machine. He went back in time to the old wild west to teach dogs how to moonwalk.

 

You are a moonwalking dog of the wild west! Choose between doing a hat dance while being shot at, walking the dangerous streets of the town, hopping a train while being shot at, or trying your paw at a shootout!

 

Note: the shootout can be imagined to be with a wood cutout of an outlaw, held at gunpoint by an outlaw, who will shoot if you're slow or draw too early.

 

Instructions:

• At the title screen use the selection button to select a dog if you wish, then press fire or reset to go to the selection screen.
• Move the joystick in the direction of the game to play.
• Town (left): stay away from the outlaws and don't run into the buildings.
• Dance (up): dance around a dangerously large hat as you're shot at by the outlaws.
• Shootout (right): center the aim then pull up and fire only when the background turns yellow.
• Train (down): an outlaw is shooting bullets at you, so jump or stay low to avoid the bullets.

 

 

 

 

 

moonwalking_dogs_of_the_wild_west_0.6.bas.bin moonwalking_dogs_of_the_wild_west_0.6.bas

Edited July 9, 2022 by Fort Apocalypse

[Fort Apocalypse]

Release 0.1:

• Title, selection, train, dance, town, shootout.
• No sound yet.

 

moonwalking_dogs_of_the_wild_west_0.1.bas.bin moonwalking_dogs_of_the_wild_west_0.1.bas

[Fort Apocalypse]

Release 0.2:

• No flipping when die.

 

moonwalking_dogs_of_the_wild_west_0.2.bas.bin moonwalking_dogs_of_the_wild_west_0.2.bas

[+Gemintronic]

You might wanna slow your player down a bit.  It gets real easy to accidentally slam into a building or enemy.  Incrementing a counter then dealing with input every other frame might work.  Every time this counter variable goes up by 1 its first bit goes from 0 to 1 and back again.

 

 dim counter = a


main

 counter = counter + 1


 if counter{0} then goto skipinput

 if joy0left then player0x = player0x - 1

 blah blah blah

skipinput

 

[Fort Apocalypse]

4 hours ago, Gemintronic said:

You might wanna slow your player down a bit.  It gets real easy to accidentally slam into a building or enemy.  Incrementing a counter then dealing with input every other frame might work.  Every time this counter variable goes up by 1 its first bit goes from 0 to 1 and back again.

 

 dim counter = a


main

 counter = counter + 1


 if counter{0} then goto skipinput

 if joy0left then player0x = player0x - 1

 blah blah blah

skipinput

 

Yep, I'm using a similar method already to slow the scrolling down (in v0.1/v0.2 source):

 if n&1=0 then goto afterscrlr
 pfscroll down
 ...
afterscrlr

My guess is that the way you're doing it with a bit read, instead of a mask and equals condition, may be faster, though, unless some optimization fixes that.

 

The player can move quickly in the alleys and must have quick access to an alley as the outlaws start coming toward the player more quickly.

 

I'll work to slow the player down when the play first starts and speed up over time.

 

Thanks for playing it, and let me know if you have any more feedback!

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 7, 2022 by Fort Apocalypse

[Fort Apocalypse]

First draft labels

 

Edited July 7, 2022 by Fort Apocalypse

[Fort Apocalypse]

Release 0.3:

• Can try your dog dance moves in title
• Added sound, title music, and select screen music
• Town buildings are a little more sensical
• Town only left/right scrolls when holding fire button
• Town player left/right movement tied to forward speed of outlaws
• Select color more quickly
• Dance dog facing direction is less anxious

 

moonwalking_dogs_of_the_wild_west_0.3.bas.bin moonwalking_dogs_of_the_wild_west_0.3.bas

[Fort Apocalypse]

Release 0.4:

• Stay on top of train

 

moonwalking_dogs_of_the_wild_west_0.4.bas.bin moonwalking_dogs_of_the_wild_west_0.4.bas

[Fort Apocalypse]

Release 0.5:

• Reset playfield position to avoid dog literally hopping on train
• You can move up and down in dance
• Hat moves and can kill you, because it's a dangerously large hat
• Fixed dance so it's either 1 or 2 bullets at once
• Dog can face either direction on train
• Some changes to player and outlaw movement and boundaries
• Can reset to get back to select screen faster (it actually goes into title first to reset things, but you don't see that), but can just wait to go back to title for couch compliance

 

 

moonwalking_dogs_of_the_wild_west_0.5.bas.bin moonwalking_dogs_of_the_wild_west_0.5.bas

[Fort Apocalypse]

Release 0.6:

• Fixed boundary problem causing dog to fall off train, etc.
• Town has better building spacing
• Dog faces last direction after death
• Hat moves less
• Dog is spun / outlaw moves during shootout
• Title music volume envelope changes

 

moonwalking_dogs_of_the_wild_west_0.6.bas.bin moonwalking_dogs_of_the_wild_west_0.6.bas

Edited July 9, 2022 by Fort Apocalypse

[Fort Apocalypse]

Worked on some art

 

 

 

Edited July 9, 2022 by Fort Apocalypse

[Fort Apocalypse]

Various attempts at drawing moonwalking dogs

Edited July 9, 2022 by Fort Apocalypse

[Fort Apocalypse]

New label

 

[Fort Apocalypse]

[alfredtdk]

I like this dog art, he really looks like he's moonwalking.?

 

 

[alfredtdk]

I loved the train stage. The music is captivating. Man, this game of yours reminds me of the best of the 80s, congratulations.

[Fort Apocalypse]

4 hours ago, alfredtdk said:

I loved the train stage. The music is captivating. Man, this game of yours reminds me of the best of the 80s, congratulations.

Thanks!!

 

A list of some possible references to the 1880s and 1980s:

• Moonwalking is heavily associated with the 1980s and MJ.
• the beat played in the selection screen is in key and somewhat close in bpm to the root note of the chords of the keyboard part in Billy Jean that MJ moonwalked in. If you play them side by side just for a few bars, go to the hat dance game and hit reset, it's close to in-sync with the actual song.
• the story of the time machine, the train, and the wild west theme is somewhat similar to the 1980's movie, BTTF III, which was released in 1990 but set in 1885 (the other 80s), during the time of the Wild West. BTTF and BTTF II are classic 1980s movies.
• the shootout has similarity to games like Wild Gunman from NES and BTTF/II (also referenced in BTTF III) as well as other wild west shooting games in the 1980s (and later in the 90s, etc.), though the classic, Outlaw, always comes to mind also (which is from the 70s, but was played on Atari 2600s in the 80s).
• the hat dance in this game is a mix of what some call bullet dancing, which is associated with the wild west (like in BTTF III, when Buford made Marty dance), and Jarabe tapatío, often referred to as the Mexican hat dance, from the 1800s.
• trains are often associated with the Wild West.
• in the town, there are three outlaws. Bufort in BTTF III had three outlaws restraining doc, as shown here before Marty's duel.
• the selection screen and four games is a reference to the Tron arcade game selection screen. The original Tron (1982) was an 80s classic.
• in Innerspace (1987), the Cowboy performs a verse of I'm an Old Cowhand, the tune from the title.
• not unique to the 1980s, but there were many other Wild West films made in the 80s.

 

Edited July 9, 2022 by Fort Apocalypse

[Fort Apocalypse]

4 hours ago, alfredtdk said:

I like this dog art, he really looks like he's moonwalking.?

 

 

Thanks! ?

[alfredtdk]

2 hours ago, Fort Apocalypse said:

Thanks!!

 

A list of some possible references to the 1880s and 1980s:

• Moonwalking is heavily associated with the 1980s and MJ.
• the beat played in the selection screen is in key and somewhat close in bpm to the root note of the chords of the keyboard part in Billy Jean that MJ moonwalked in. If you play them side by side just for a few bars, go to the hat dance game and hit reset, it's close to in-sync with the actual song.
• the story of the time machine, the train, and the wild west theme is somewhat similar to the 1980's movie, BTTF III, which was released in 1990 but set in 1885 (the other 80s), during the time of the Wild West. BTTF and BTTF II are classic 1980s movies.
• the shootout has similarity to games like Wild Gunman from NES and BTTF/II (also referenced in BTTF III) as well as other wild west shooting games in the 1980s (and later in the 90s, etc.), though the classic, Outlaw, always comes to mind also (which is from the 70s, but was played on Atari 2600s in the 80s).
• the hat dance in this game is a mix of what some call bullet dancing, which is associated with the wild west (like in BTTF III, when Buford made Marty dance), and Jarabe tapatío, often referred to as the Mexican hat dance, from the 1800s.
• trains are often associated with the Wild West.
• in the town, there are three outlaws. Bufort in BTTF III had three outlaws restraining doc, as shown here before Marty's duel.
• the selection screen and four games is a reference to the Tron arcade game selection screen. The original Tron (1982) was an 80s classic.
• in Innerspace (1987), the Cowboy performs a verse of I'm an Old Cowhand, the tune from the title.
• not unique to the 1980s, but there were many other Wild West films made in the 80s.

 

It's amazing that you put together so many classic references in just one 4kb game. Looking forward to the final version.

[alfredtdk]

9 hours ago, Fort Apocalypse said:

New label

 

These arts are too good, hard to choose the best one. My heart leans towards the first art, simple and very beautiful, but the second has more richness of details. I was going to suggest a vote or maybe you could use the two separate arts, one for the label and the other to compose the manual in the future.

[Fort Apocalypse]

11 hours ago, alfredtdk said:

It's amazing that you put together so many classic references in just one 4kb game. Looking forward to the final version.

Thanks!! I almost forgot that the three outlaws are also a reference to these three guys.

 

 

Edited July 10, 2022 by Fort Apocalypse

[Fort Apocalypse]

13 hours ago, alfredtdk said:

These arts are too good, hard to choose the best one. My heart leans towards the first art, simple and very beautiful, but the second has more richness of details. I was going to suggest a vote or maybe you could use the two separate arts, one for the label and the other to compose the manual in the future.

Thanks! I started a few polls:

• More intimidating poll
• Less intimidating poll

That sounds good about one for the label and one for the manual!