[WIP] - LINEMAN!

[KevKelley]

TITLE:

 

Lineman!

 

ABOUT:

 

As with many of my games, Lineman had started as a test program.  While I was finishing up Crossdock (which still remains almost done), I had made this game to work out some ideas using the DPC+ kernel that I had started using with Bag Boy in hopes of figuring out some code.  This started a little over two years ago with no real aim.  Originally I had things like birds nests, transformers, cross streets, and cars but the simplified the game or reworked other elements.  I also played around with Alien Bill's Atari Background Builder (formerly the Splash-O-Matic) and Atari Riff Machine. I was able to use both of them for the titlescreen to make a neat little splash screen and intro song.  I may change the intro song for something a bit longer but thought the two combined had a great look and was something different. After revisiting the DPC+ kernel with Forest Moon Attack, I came up with an idea on gameplay and revisited Lineman to implement some of the new ideas. It was also nice to try and wrap up a game, being that I had several projects in the works and was just finishing up Litterbug.

 

While I had originally tried to avoid flicker, it seemed to be inevitable that it would occur, as when I kept the balloons all moving at the same rate it was extremely easy to just sit in a spot and collect them all as they passed so to help with flicker I try to keep spawning spaced out on a counter as well as distance from other balloons.  If balloons get too close they will go up or down to make the appropriate amount of space.  I also animate the balloon string so that should the balloons get too close and flicker, when the string animates and disappears for a frame it will help reduce the flicker by just a little bit more.

 

As it is now, this game is probably close to 98% complete and just needs a little testing for pacing and difficulty. I may add a couple more things, like additional tool boxes or a couple more things for added difficulty or variation. I think I found all the major game breaking bugs or annoying scanline issues.

 

I have not tested this on hardware but had noticed in emulation there are some graphical glitches where it seems like a scanline on the top of the sprites (the Balloon Boy and Life Counters) that seem to shift several spaces over for a frame. Hoping it is an emulation issue as I have no idea what causes that or how to fix it apart from spacing out the sprites a little more, as my best guess is that it is a result of them being too close.

 

GAMEPLAY:

 

You play as the eponymous Lineman who is working where Balloon Boy (a.k.a Timmy as named by my 4-year-old) has seemingly let his balloons release into the air.  Being the responsible Lineman you are, you must try and retrieve the balloons before they fly off into the sky beyond your reach.  While you make your way up and down the utility poles you must also avoid sink holes, electric shock, and swooping defecating birds. You can also pick up tool boxes that may provide a variety of different benefits ranging from increased score or status bar to an additional life.

 

While on the sidewalk you can move from left to right using the joystick.  You can also jump by pressing the fire button.  You can use this to get over sinkholes that may form on the sidewalk or to jump onto the utility pole if in a rush.

 

While on a utility pole you can move up or down.  If you climb to the top of the pole you can move left or right but be careful, as you can fall off if you travel too far, get shocked, or hit by a bird attacking. While on the pole you can move down quicker by pressing the fire button.  If you press left or right while also pressing the fire button the Lineman will reach out in the direction you push to grab the balloon.

 

On the bottom of the screen you have the Balloon Boy's happiness meter.  On the right is the Lineman's meter.  For each balloon that flies away the balloon boy meter will decrease.  If it runs out the Lineman meter will decrease. In between the two meters are the score and the life counters.  If the Lineman meter disappears you lose a life.  The only way to get a new life is to grab the red tool box.  The white tool box increases your status bar.  All other colors give a variety of points.

 

If you fall into a sink hole the Lineman meter will decrease.  Press the fire button to jump out of the sinkhole.  It will disappear and reform elsewhere.

 

If the bird attacks, you touch a spark, or go to far on the pole you will fall and the Lineman meter will decrease.

 

If the bird defecates on you then you will not fall but you will see the Lineman meter decrease.

 

The game currently progresses from 1-3 balloon, the spark, the hole, the swooping bird, and the poop.  

 

The reset switch will reset the game. 

 

On the game over screen, you can press the reset switch or fire button to start a new game.

 

Enjoy!

 

LM_2022_08_05.bas.bin

 

LM_2023_06_05.bas.bin

Edited June 6, 2023 by KevKelley

[insertclevernamehere]

Did Bag Boy ever get finished or still a WIP?

[KevKelley]

2 hours ago, insertclevernamehere said:

Did Bag Boy ever get finished or still a WIP?

No. I still consider it a WIP. That being my first game and I started ina. Regular kernel before I moved to DPC+, there was a lot I didn’t fully understand and looking at my code from it, I think I have to start over for the most part. 
 

I think I can probably redo everything in it in a few days (versus the months it originally took me) and I probably can get it better, as I did not understand some of the things like bits or sound or DPC variables or even making hitboxes for virtual sprites. 
 

I learned a lot with my practice programs like Lineman. This was one I started a couple years back and seeing where I got stumped and how I found solutions I wanna wrap up all my other programs and go back to Bag Boy. 

[JetSetIlly]

I love the title screen.

[+Random Terrain]

I was expecting this little tune at the beginning of the game.  (Between 52 and 59 seconds.)

 

youtu.be/mB6N1FCKkbU?t=52

 

[KevKelley]

2 hours ago, JetSetIlly said:

I love the title screen.

I loved playing with the Splash-O-Matic. I started with an image of three utility poles and then modified it in Image Composer to eliminate everything around it and then played around with the boy and Lineman and balloon. I figured the silhouette kind of looked really good versus me trying to make it colorful. 

 

This was really my first title screen apart from the one in Crossdock. I had a hard time figuring out the title screen wizard in Visual batari Basic so Alien Bill's website was a godsend. 

[KevKelley]

2 hours ago, Random Terrain said:

I was expecting this little tune at the beginning of the game.  (Between 52 and 59 seconds.)

 

youtu.be/mB6N1FCKkbU?t=52

 

That doesn't seem too complex. I can try to put it in there or at least work it into the title music. What is there now is kind of a place holder that I made when I got it working with the title screen. I can just swap out the data table and see if it vibes. Having Glen Campbell play on an Atari game is very 70s. Lol

[KevKelley]

Originally I did not intend to add too much difficulty and just have things scroll back and forth while the balloons move up. My little one asked me to work on this game as the balloons were his favorite so I may add a Teddy Bear mode.

 

The only other things I am considering adding are maybe having the balloons shift direction partway across the screen (maybe random) or have NUSIZ copies of the balloons so the screen has more balloons, as I like utilizing all the sprites and have various gameplay elements (grabbing, climbing, jumping, etc.)

 

Not sure I could do much more with this but if anyone has any ideas or suggestions I can always try to play around with it.

[rsiddall]

Just an observation (and complement) as your games have a certain look/feel to them that remind me of titles like Mangia*.

Had you been doing this in the 70s/80s, I think your titles would have complimented the SpectraVideo catalog quite well. 🙂

 

Nice job!

Edited August 10, 2022 by rsiddall
clarification

[KevKelley]

9 hours ago, rsiddall said:

Just an observation (and complement) as your games have a certain look/feel to them that remind me of titles like Mangia*.

Had you been doing this in the 70s/80s, I think your titles would have complimented the SpectraVideo catalog quite well. 🙂

 

Nice job!

 

*I know Mangia isn't a SpectraVideo title.

I do like the Activision aesthetic but with some of my games I drew inspiration elsewhere. 
 

I am a fan of the Mangia look and some of the other game companies, like my Lake Eola game I was working on was inspired by Apollo’s Wabbit. 
 

While I like the simple graphics of some of my games, like Cone Ball or Crossdock or Pinfinger, I am starting to like using DPC+ and Superchip Ram kernels. I love the colors and trying to tie the background and playfield into the game design. 
 

And thanks! I find it cool that I got a “look.” Lol. I had saw on one post on Facebook where someone saw a video of a project and immediately knew my style. 

Edited August 10, 2022 by KevKelley

[rsiddall]

4 minutes ago, KevKelley said:

I do like the Activision aesthetic but with some of my games I drew inspiration elsewhere. 
 

I am a fan of the Mangia look and some of the other game companies, like my Lake Eola game I was working on was inspired by Apollo’s Wabbit. 
 

While I like the simple graphics of some of my games, like Cone Ball or Crossdock or Pinfinger, I am starting to like using DPC+ and Superchip Ram kernels. I love the colors and trying to tie the background and playfield into the game design. 
 

And thanks! I find it cool that I got a “look.” Lol. I had saw on one post on Facebook where someone saw a video of a project and immediately knew my style. 

Same...once I was able to transition over to the DPC+ it made things I wanted to do a little easier. Not that I have a great understanding of any of it. I just futz around with things until I can get them to work good enough.

 

Masterbuilder is another SpectraVideo title that reminds me of your style. 🙂

 

 

[KevKelley]

I think most of my games are partially inspired by the games I had when little, like Dig Dug, Joust, Tutankham, Defender, Frogger, Atlantis. I like grabbing and pushing things and since learning more about the Atari I try to utilize all the sprites, missiles, ball, playfield and try to break up gameplay with different elements so you are using all directions and the button so that gameplay isn’t too repetitive. 

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

ZeroPage Homebrew is playing Lineman! on tomorrow's stream LIVE on Twitch, hope you can join us!

 

Tue Sep 13, 2022 @ 6PM PT | 9PM ET | 1AM GMT+1Day

WATCH LIVE: https://www.twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/
WATCH LATER: https://youtube.com/zeropagehomebrew/

 

Games:

• HERO 2 (2022 Retail Build | 2600) by Game Select / Ricardo Pim @Ricardo Pim
• Space Taxi (2022 WIP | 2600) by Just Jeff @Just Jeff
• Duck Race (2022 WIP | 2600) by Fort Apocalypse @Fort Apocalypse
• 8 Tanks (2022 WIP | 2600) by by Fort Apocalypse @Fort Apocalypse
• Lineman! (2022 WIP | 2600) by Kevin Kelley @KevKelley

 WATCH AT 1080P60 FOR FULL QUALITY

 

[KevKelley]

I want to thank @ZeroPage Homebrew for playing Lineman! yesterday!  

 

Working a little bit on it today but added an additional check to prevent someone from just hanging out on the sidewalk being a jerk to Timmy and not getting his balloons so they can reap the reward of infinite toolboxes. Thanks James for highlighting that little loophole!  

 

I also took the advice from James and Tanya and changed the white toolbox to replenishing Timmy's happiness meter.  I was tempted to make the red toolbox replenish the Lineman's health if he has 3 lives but decided against.  I thought it was an excellent point in not allowing the Lineman's health to be increased but there is still the option of the red toolbox replenishing a life making the risk of grabbing one all the more rewarding.  

 

I had also lowered the amount of balloons necessary to get to where some of the balloons will start changing directions.  Still testing some ideas out before next update but so far no real big bugs or issues to fix apart from the above mentioned.  

[KevKelley]

I had been extremely busy these last couple months with work and getting side tracked with various other projects, like my Atari Drum Machine and Beyond Parsec, that I had found myself not being motivated to wrap up loose ends in games like Lineman.

 

I picked this one up today for the first time in 4 months to fix some nagging little issues.  

 

Today I was working on reducing the frequency of poop.  In playtesting I had found that the bird just poops way too much.  I found myself getting pooped on to the point that as difficulty progressed I either just had to take the poop and hope for an extra life toolbox or slide down the pole and miss a balloon.  I think with the less frequent poop it allows the other obstacles to shine, like the swooping bird or the hole in the sidewalk.  

 

I also fixed the floating arm glitch.  This would happen occasionally if you were reaching for a balloon and would fall.  Your arm would stay in the air while you dropped back to the ground.

 

I also added a slight animation for the Balloon Boy when he is standing still, making the balloon sway a little bit.

 

I am also looking into the code of the swooping bird to maybe dial back the difficulty a little bit.  I may also swap when this occurs.  Right now it is second to last obstacle, with the last being the balloons changing directions.  I may switch those two.  I may also make these obstacles appear sooner to make things progress at a quicker pace.  

 

I am also considering changing the point structure if possible making balloons caught on the outside poles worth much more, since they do possess greater risk.

 

[+Karl G]

I'm hoping to see "now with less bird poop" on the list of features for the next release, but I'm easily amused like that. 

[KevKelley]

26 minutes ago, Karl G said:

I'm hoping to see "now with less bird poop" on the list of features for the next release, but I'm easily amused like that. 

Oddly my children wanted more poop. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[KevKelley]

NOW WITH LESS POOP AND MORE BIRD PUNCHING!
 

So after some thought and messing around with various settings (mainly the bird) I think I came up with a solution.  After some testing and feedback it did look as maybe the bird swooping down made things too difficult, especially when paired with the poop and electricity and trying to get all three balloons, etc. etc.

 

I toyed with having the bird swoop differently or only hit the player on the swoop.  But instead I landed on punching the bird!

 

So now much like grabbing a balloon, if the bird is in close proximity to you, by pressing left or right and fire you can punch the bird away.  I thought this adds a little more frantic gameplay.  You have to time the punch and balloon grabbing.  Also provides a little risk/reward for hanging out in the vicinity of the bird.

 

I updated the first post with this test binary.  If you wanna test punching the bird, press the second joystick fire button.

Edited June 6, 2023 by KevKelley

[+Living Room Arcade]

On 8/7/2022 at 2:10 PM, KevKelley said:

It looks great!  The graphics remind me of Circus Convoy.  

[KevKelley]

14 hours ago, Living Room Arcade said:

It looks great!  The graphics remind me of Circus Convoy.  

Thank you! I tried to go for a bit of that Activision look with the skyline. I’m almost done with this game. Just hammering out some minor scanline issues still. 

[+Living Room Arcade]

8 hours ago, KevKelley said:

Thank you! I tried to go for a bit of that Activision look with the skyline. I’m almost done with this game. Just hammering out some minor scanline issues still. 

    The graphics are detailed, colorful and on Stella 6.7, I see no flicker.  I think you nailed it!  Very Activision-like!  

Edited January 3 by Living Room Arcade

[KevKelley]

12 hours ago, Living Room Arcade said:

    The graphics are detailed, colorful and on Stella 6.7, I see no flicker.  I think you nailed it!  Very Activision-like!  

I think the only flicker you would see is an occasional balloon and if the balloons cross the path of the bird or electricity then they may flicker too but I found it to be minimal and not significant, like the Pac Man ghosts.

 

Originally I had planned for more, like a car, dog, robber, etc. or more complex mechanics like having to repair things in addition to catching the balloons but in the end I thought that would be too distracting and might make the game unplayable. This is pretty straightforward. 
 

Last I left off I had experienced some scanline issues with the bird punching so I was trying to make that code work as I thought that kept the game moving at a good pace and varied gameplay a bit, especially since I planned on making this a single screen game. 

[KevKelley]

One thing I love doing is trying to plan my sprites, missiles, and balls. I love the idea of using as many as possible and in different ways. I don’t mind some flicker but I know some do so I try to keep that in mind.