+atari2600land Posted July 19, 2022 Share Posted July 19, 2022 So I've decided to not clutter up the Channel F thread any more and moved all statuses on the game to its own thread. I began work on level 2. It took a long while, but I finally made it so enemies shoot at you from four directions: from up (with the bullet moving down), from down (bullet moving up), from the left (bullet moving right) and from the right (bullet moving left). Since it took longer than expected, I doubt I'll work on this any more today since I don't want to burn out on this. Here is a screenshot of the game in action, and, just in case you want to experience it for yourself, I've added a special ROM where the elephant level begins at 49 so you only need one elephant to go down. I changed it yesterday so that 20 more elephants come in random speeds and x positions when the fast elephant part is over. And yes, I'll slow the bullets down a lot so it will be easier to decide what direction on the joystick you need to pull. There will be a blocking system with green blockers in place. The bullet hits the blocker, you get a point. If the bullet hits the ship, you lose a life. celery9.bin 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted July 20, 2022 Author Share Posted July 20, 2022 I couldn't go to sleep because I wasn't sleepy, so I decided to work on this game some more. I got level 2 working the way I wanted and added some rudimentary sfx (good sound for doing something good and bad sound which is lower in pitch than the good sound) Let me know if you come across any bugs. Again, level 1 is set at 49 elephants at the beginning, so you need to move only one down the screen to advance to level 2. celery10.bin 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted July 20, 2022 Author Share Posted July 20, 2022 I fixed it so the laser gradually comes on screen from the top instead of just appearing, giving you a little more time to get the blocker in place. celery10.bin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted July 20, 2022 Author Share Posted July 20, 2022 I have been working on this all day to make it fair. Fairness always wins out over beauty. Who wants to play a lovely game to look at when you can't control it? I can't believe I've been working on this for 6 hours straight though. That's just crazy. So anyway, here's the latest version. It starts on level 2 now. Feedback on difficulty wanted. Should I slow the game down even more? celery11.bin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
e5frog Posted July 21, 2022 Share Posted July 21, 2022 16 hours ago, atari2600land said: Should I slow the game down even more? Darnit - that was hard. It seems the "bullets" hit very far from the capsule. My record is 7 - only reason for that is that it came from the same direction 7 times in a row. Looks like it could be entertaining. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted July 21, 2022 Author Share Posted July 21, 2022 OK, I made some adjustments to level 2. I slowed the game down and changed the shape of the ship so it's no longer a mystery where the lasers will shoot. celery12.bin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted July 21, 2022 Author Share Posted July 21, 2022 Here's a version where I fixed the title screen song and everything works okay. You'll notice the cartridge size is now 16k. I'm having a bit of a problem fitting all this stuff into the first half of 8k and still making it work. Level three will be near the beginning of the second half I think. celery12.bin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
e5frog Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 Seems it's not my type of game, things happen too fast. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted July 22, 2022 Author Share Posted July 22, 2022 I found level 1 wasn't working, so I changed it. I had to put in a " org $37f0" and I put the level 3 background after it and now it works. I decided to slow down level 2 some more. I don't know if it should stay this way. Let me know if it seems too easy now. celery14.bin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted July 22, 2022 Author Share Posted July 22, 2022 Yesterday I made a website for the game. You can find it here. http://atari2600land.com/channelf/celery.html the org thing is at the bottom of the code near the signature. org $37f0 include "celerylevel2a.inc" org $47f0 signature: .byte ".chris read 2022" 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted July 23, 2022 Author Share Posted July 23, 2022 Level 3 is now fully playable. You must cross two ponds in order to pass the level. It's way past my bedtime so good night. celery15.bin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikebloke Posted July 23, 2022 Share Posted July 23, 2022 Great work on continuing with this, I don't have access to try it until Friday now, but looking forward to seeing how far you've got with it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted July 24, 2022 Author Share Posted July 24, 2022 Attempted to reduce flickering on level 3. celery16.bin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted July 25, 2022 Author Share Posted July 25, 2022 All right folks, I found a way to reduce flickering to almost zero on level 3, but in exchange, the celery always has to be on the center of the ice block. This looks a lot prettier so I think I'll be sticking with this. celery17.bin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted July 25, 2022 Author Share Posted July 25, 2022 Fixed a couple of bugs: celery no longer multiplies upon death not at the start. block no longer mysteriously grows in length by 1 pixel upon jumping on it. celery17.bin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted July 25, 2022 Author Share Posted July 25, 2022 I gave Mr. Celery two eyes and a mouth on the title screen. What say you? 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
e5frog Posted July 25, 2022 Share Posted July 25, 2022 I got the latest version from the homepage, it was easy enough for me to handle level 2 on that one. Level 1 seems mostly like a challenge in patience, there's not really any difficulty at all... why would the fast elephants come last? Fast elephants only - and maybe they could move sideways as well near the end...? Love this collection of little games, and you got a Frogger type of game in there as well (I only managed one jump). I applaud your productiveness and creativity! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted July 26, 2022 Author Share Posted July 26, 2022 I agree about level 1, so I updated it. The elephants are all fast and some of them move zigzaggedly. It makes the level much harder. celery19.bin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted July 26, 2022 Author Share Posted July 26, 2022 Worked on this a bit more. elephant walking animation restored. elephant now starts at the extreme top. you can still play when you have 0 lives remaining. when you lose your last life, the lives remaining number is blank. celery20.bin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
e5frog Posted July 27, 2022 Share Posted July 27, 2022 celery20 - nice! Made it to the end (restart) for the first time, level 1 is much better but still a bit long compared to the other. How many levels are you planning? There's room to $FFFF, with a gap for the usual RAM I guess. Changing the RAM layout is very possible, not sure if MESSUI/MAME handles it though. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted July 28, 2022 Author Share Posted July 28, 2022 The number of levels I am planning I am not sure. Until I run out of ideas. I'm kind of out of ideas right now, but I have quite a ways to go to fill up the rest of the 16k. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
e5frog Posted July 28, 2022 Share Posted July 28, 2022 So you're stopping at 16k already? Here some inspiration. Might I suggest: https://chromedino.com/ I have the Russian guy's code if you want me to share it. Maybe inspiration from: https://flappybird.io/ ... something like: https://www.mobygames.com/game/vic-20/paratrooper_/screenshots/gameShotId,922912/ Any Game & Watch game? I started Slap Dab some years ago, that could be fun https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIbAOMPxpSc A 3D maze (I have thought about that as well). https://youtu.be/kL5iHY2DSGI "Save New York" is another name https://www.uvlist.net/game-104138-Blitz Seems doable: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHdyR5Fb4eA Maybe a slide puzzle This is my final suggestion, they all need to be "Celeried" of course. https://www.myabandonware.com/game/frog-5fj 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikebloke Posted July 29, 2022 Share Posted July 29, 2022 Nice I got a chance to play finally! Yes level 1 is definitely ramped up in difficulty now. I wonder if it could be scaled though, perhaps no diagonals for the first 10 points... perhaps having a change of direction a third of the screen down at 30? That would break up the difficulty but also increase it gradually. Second level was fun, I am addicted to these kinds of games. Again, I wonder if the difficulty could be ramped during the level, perhaps slower until 60 points, speeding up more at 80? I managed to get past the third level as well... This could be a game in itself if fleshed out! but it was very fun as well. I did encounter what might be a bug: On level 2 I started with the red rectangle coming down - my celery stick was already in the up position for it. When it was blocked it kept coming from the same direction, it did not appear to randomise until I tried moving about two thirds into the level, then it started randomising again. I'm assuming the randomising happens as you react to the next projectile, but because I didn't have to move on my first one, I don't think it went to the trouble of randomising, therefore kept shooting in the same direction. Hope that helps. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted July 30, 2022 Author Share Posted July 30, 2022 The randomization on level 2 should be done all the time. I'll look into it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted July 30, 2022 Author Share Posted July 30, 2022 I attempted to fix it. I don't know what else I could do differently, though. My code is like so: loop: lisu 2 lisl 5 lr A, S inc lr S, A pi Random And then later in the loop, I have this: lisu 2 lisl 5 lr A, S lisu 2 lisl 4 ni %00000011 ; make 2/4 between 0-3. lr S, A lisu 2 lisl 4 lr A, S ci 1 bz begin_laser_down ci 2 bz begin_laser_left ci 3 bz begin_laser_right begin_laser_up: and then there's the random code I borrowed. Random: ; Linear Feedback Shift Register ; save the return address lr K, P pi pushk lisu 2 lisl 5 lr A, S clr as S bz doEor lr 0, A ; Save original number in r0 sl 1 ; shift one step left lr S, A bz noEor ; Do XOR if b7 was 1, workaround for missing carry on "sl" lr A, 0 ni %10000000 bz noEor doEor: lr A, S xi $2b ; Do the XOR thing lr S, A noEor: lisu 2 lisl 5 lr A, S pi popk pk ; return from the subroutine I made some improvements to level 3 as well, just tiny little changes that I doubt you'll notice. In celery21.bin which I posted, you start at level 2. celery21.bin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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