[WIP] Moonshoot

[Fort Apocalypse]

Relive the mid-20th century race to the moon with Moonshoot for the Atari 2600! (DPC+ 32K)

 

Moonshoot is an attempt to roughly simulate the original great wooden home carnival game called Shoot the Moon (*- see footnote.)

 

The point system simulates the original:

• Earth: -250
• First Stage: +250
• Second Stage: +500
• Third Stage: +1000
• Fourth Stage: +2000
• Moon: +5000

 

I've not seen the original's instructions, but I had to have some sort of game ending, so I made up my own getting 3 tries to keep it on the board.

 

Controls:

• Joystick right: open rails more quickly
• Joystick left: close rails more quickly
• Joystick down: open rails very slightly
• Joystick up: close rails very slightly
• Use button to start another round or start a new game if game over
• Use reset switch to start another game

 

*- there have been other versions of the physical game- some more recent. This attempts to emulate the original. You should try it out in physical form, either the older or newer version, if you can, because it's a great game, and it'll give more context to what's going on in the 2600 version.

 

Can involve basic level of skill. Skill requirement could improve in future release.

 

Thanks to @KevKelley, @Dave C, and @Karl G for their feedback as I was trying to develop the rail system. It may continue to evolve, but I think it's more rail-like than it was in early development.

 

 

 

 

moonshoot_0.4.bas.bin moonshoot_0.4.bas

Edited July 26, 2022 by Fort Apocalypse

[Fort Apocalypse]

0.1 Release:

• Gameplay, sounds, etc.!
• For now, there is little skill involved; you just use the joystick to open the rails and hope for the best!

 

moonshoot_0.1.bas.bin moonshoot_0.1.bas

 

In Stella 6.7 w/ luminescence at 30 pct.: (rails show when playing, not in screenshot)

 

luminescence at 98 pct. (just for screenshot):

 

(luminescence at 30 pct.)

Edited July 24, 2022 by Fort Apocalypse

[Fort Apocalypse]

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[KevKelley]

When I play in Emu 2600 the rails didn't show but I suppose it doesn't have the same options as Stella. Real cool

[Fort Apocalypse]

1 hour ago, KevKelley said:

When I play in Emu 2600 the rails didn't show but I suppose it doesn't have the same options as Stella. Real cool

It's DPC+ with 8 virtual sprites, 4 to a side, moving fairly quickly, but the sprites are short. I'll try taller sprites to see if that helps.

[KevKelley]

3 hours ago, Fort Apocalypse said:

It's DPC+ with 8 virtual sprites, 4 to a side, moving fairly quickly, but the sprites are short. I'll try taller sprites to see if that helps.

I tend to test a lot of games on the run on my phone with Emu 2600 XL. Never realized it had DPC+ support. I had assumed it was like Javatari.  Still, love the angled lines.  

[Fort Apocalypse]

Release 0.2:

• Better rails.

Thanks to @KevKelley for testing and feedback!

 

moonshoot_0.2.bas.bin moonshoot_0.2.bas

[Fort Apocalypse]

Release 0.3:

• Additional improvements to rails.
• Changes in placement to avoid stuck situation and to make gameplay involve basic skill. Still needs some work, but action is closer to reality, even if rails are not close and ball not rolling backwards.
• Ball no longer gets stuck at bottom for a while.

 

moonshoot_0.3.bas.bin moonshoot_0.3.bas

[Fort Apocalypse]

Release 0.4:

• Improved readability of game over screen.

 

moonshoot_0.4.bas.bin moonshoot_0.4.bas