It's Conner time! The final is here! (0.36)

[Fort Apocalypse]

This is neat!

 

Some feedback on Connertime_V0.32 (11).a26:

• The most difficult screens are the ones with the fence.
• I feel like the bird could keep flying over and over and dropping things at different places.
• I feel like my character should die maybe when I fall too far.
• I feel like on some screens, I jump higher than expected.
• There is a weird screen on later levels. I've attached two. Are they vertical train tracks? Is it a waterfall?
• I kept at it for a while; it's fun to see what changes over time.
• Should I have a set number of lives?
• Should the screens other than the ones with fences be more challenging?
• It is great to "save Smurfette" again! It's like the Smurfs, right?
• This feels like standard kernel bB other than the separated scanlines in the playfield. That's not bad, but it does, because of the empty space between "blocks".

 

Edited August 20, 2022 by Fort Apocalypse

[+splendidnut]

8 hours ago, Ecernosoft said:

My labels arent intended to make sense- their there for me to branch to. Sometimes they are also relatable. You can find labels in ICT7800 that relate to the texas blackout.

Sometimes I do things for my friends, like the Anthony secret in Staley.

But most of the time, I need a meaningless label and will put whatevers on my mind and use it.

 

Scrolling is good on 2600. I wanted to add it- and you REALLY REALLY REALLY want me to add scrolling. Ok! Ok!

BUT- you have the code. You can EASILY add scrolling if you want it THAT MUCH.

 

I don't want to be harsh, but I'm probably not adding scrolling because this is my first real 2600 game.

 

Look.  You're the one that said:

 

Quote

P.S. This game is mostly to prove 3 things = 

1. Atari 2600 is more powerful than you think. 

2. You can STILL make a fun, side-scrolling platformer like SMB using stock Atari 2600 hardware (Not even bank switching!)

3. TIA doesn't suck for Sound. I mean, I made beach-runner (Never getting past WIP) on 7800 and it uses in-tune TIA music and 320C.

If you're going to make big claims like that, I'm going to hold you to them.

 

Honestly, at this point your attitude here has soured me with this project.  I was just trying to be helpful.... I can see my help is unwanted, so I will stop bothering you with it.

[Ecernosoft]

2 hours ago, splendidnut said:

 

Look.  You're the one that said:

 

If you're going to make big claims like that, I'm going to hold you to them.

 

Honestly, at this point your attitude here has soured me with this project.  I was just trying to be helpful.... I can see my help is unwanted, so I will stop bothering you with it.

You're right, you're right- I shouldn't have said that! (#2)

Yeah, I'm sorry about my additude. Those posts were made late at night after a really bad day.

[Ecernosoft]

Sorry, @splendidnut. Please, forgive me for my additude yesterday.

I wish I could delete this and start over.

[Ecernosoft]

6 hours ago, Fort Apocalypse said:

This is neat!

 

Some feedback on Connertime_V0.32 (11).a26:

• The most difficult screens are the ones with the fence.
• I feel like the bird could keep flying over and over and dropping things at different places.
• I feel like my character should die maybe when I fall too far.
• I feel like on some screens, I jump higher than expected.
• There is a weird screen on later levels. I've attached two. Are they vertical train tracks? Is it a waterfall?
• I kept at it for a while; it's fun to see what changes over time.
• Should I have a set number of lives?
• Should the screens other than the ones with fences be more challenging?
• It is great to "save Smurfette" again! It's like the Smurfs, right?
• This feels like standard kernel bB other than the separated scanlines in the playfield. That's not bad, but it does, because of the empty space between "blocks".

 

Thank you!

Also, the enemies in the "Haunted" screen will be replaced with something else.

[Ecernosoft]

On 8/18/2022 at 7:21 PM, splendidnut said:

The music is alright, except for the occasionally off notes played in the "secondary" channel.

 

Anyways, you made quite a bit of progress in a short amount of time.  Quite impressive.

 

Are you staying with the "page" based scrolling or do you plan on adding side-scrolling in the future?

 

Here are my final answers:

1) Yeah, I know. I'm probably going to change the song and add some more.

2) Thanks. Please don't be mad at me yesterday, I was really tired. 😃

3) Yes I am staying with the page based scrolling.

 

Reason for 2: While I *could* add it, it would make the game have the *Scramble* effect, changing colors mid-frame is not good.

Edited August 20, 2022 by Ecernosoft
thanks =)

[Ecernosoft]

I meant, changing the color suddenly isn't good.

 

Edit: I changed that post. Can we please end this argument? 

Edited August 20, 2022 by Ecernosoft

[Ecernosoft]

9 hours ago, Fort Apocalypse said:

This is neat!

 

Some feedback on Connertime_V0.32 (11).a26:

• The most difficult screens are the ones with the fence.
• I feel like the bird could keep flying over and over and dropping things at different places.
• I feel like my character should die maybe when I fall too far.
• I feel like on some screens, I jump higher than expected.
• There is a weird screen on later levels. I've attached two. Are they vertical train tracks? Is it a waterfall?
• I kept at it for a while; it's fun to see what changes over time.
• Should I have a set number of lives?
• Should the screens other than the ones with fences be more challenging?
• It is great to "save Smurfette" again! It's like the Smurfs, right?
• This feels like standard kernel bB other than the separated scanlines in the playfield. That's not bad, but it does, because of the empty space between "blocks".

 

I'm working on all that.

P.s. I'm removing the bat in the broken stage due to it's glitchiness.

[+splendidnut]

On 8/16/2022 at 12:47 PM, Ecernosoft said:

DISCLAIMER: This game is my first game on the 2600. It doesn't have amazing sound, visuals, or gameplay. I'm only in 9th grade! I'm not trying to make any big claims.

 

Apologies to @splendidnut, sorry about the argument I started yesterday! I was really tired as in 2 days, 9th grade starts for me. 

That's ok.  It happens.  It was frustrating having my ideas shot down without a second thought.  Things make a bit more sense now that I know the circumstances behind why that was happening.  Thank you for apologizing.

 

[Ecernosoft]

2 hours ago, splendidnut said:

That's ok.  It happens.  It was frustrating having my ideas shot down without a second thought.  Things make a bit more sense now that I know the circumstances behind why that was happening.  Thank you for apologizing.

 

You're welcome... It was 10:30 where I live. I was not thinking straight. Thanks for forgiving me and I removed/altered some of the posts to help me aleviate the shame I put on myself.

 

Edit= I'm also sorry, but I'm probably not going to use scrolling. It's just too difficult and I can't even get the page-based scrolling to work right yet.

Edited August 20, 2022 by Ecernosoft

[+x=usr(1536)]

On 8/19/2022 at 3:11 PM, splendidnut said:

(a label of 'Sorryxuser' doesn't make any sense)

Ok, now I'm totally gonna grep the source tree for all sorts of interesting things

[+x=usr(1536)]

On 8/16/2022 at 11:47 AM, Ecernosoft said:

Version 0.36 is here, which added animations and removed the bat, replacing it with a bird instead.

Connertime_V0.32 (12).a26;This is ROM file 

Connertime_V0.32 (5).a; This is Code

One request: when you're posting updates to the game (or any game, for that matter), please have the filename reflect the version number you're referencing.  Saying that it's version 0.36 but calling the executable "Connertime_V0.32 (12).a26" and the source "Connertime_V0.32 (5).a" makes it really difficult to know exactly what it is that's being looked at.

 

Other than that, played it up to the point where the gates reset to being single gates again.  Worked great on both my short rainbow 2600Jr. and 7800 via a Harmony Encore.  Nothing to really add beyond that as everyone else has pretty much made any gameplay comments I would have had.  It's a good start.

 

Oh, and just for giggles, I ran it on this behemoth as well:

 

That's a 5200 with the VCS adapter attached running the game from the Harmony Encore.  For scale, the CRT is a 19" TV.

 

Disregard the static - the 5200 is fine but I need to do some video troubleshooting on the VCS adapter.  The game ran on that hardware without issues, though.

[Ecernosoft]

Ugh.... 5200 adapters lol!

I'm making ICT on 5200 now so you'll get some better graphics.😆

I just figured out how to get 15 colors on 5200!

When I get a test ROM, will you test for me? I don't have 5200.

Don't worry, I'm not abandoning ICT2600, I'm just starting ICT5200. And sorry, but it will be ONLY for the 5200. No 8bit compatibility here due to differences in the joystick.

 

[Ecernosoft]

12 hours ago, x=usr(1536) said:

One request: when you're posting updates to the game (or any game, for that matter), please have the filename reflect the version number you're referencing.  Saying that it's version 0.36 but calling the executable "Connertime_V0.32 (12).a26" and the source "Connertime_V0.32 (5).a" makes it really difficult to know exactly what it is that's being looked at.

 

Other than that, played it up to the point where the gates reset to being single gates again.  Worked great on both my short rainbow 2600Jr. and 7800 via a Harmony Encore.  Nothing to really add beyond that as everyone else has pretty much made any gameplay comments I would have had.  It's a good start.

 

Oh, and just for giggles, I ran it on this behemoth as well:

 

That's a 5200 with the VCS adapter attached running the game from the Harmony Encore.  For scale, the CRT is a 19" TV.

 

Disregard the static - the 5200 is fine but I need to do some video troubleshooting on the VCS adapter.  The game ran on that hardware without issues, though.

And the fact the atari 5200 is almost as WIDE as a 19'' crt just makes me laugh. They really made the wide putin of the tech world. 🤣

[Ecernosoft]

Here's my progress so far on ICT5200: (The final will show 13 colors on Emul because the last 2 are achieved via artifacting)

Edit:

To give you context of how far I am from the 13 color (15 color on real using RF/comp), this has 6 colors.

It looks like 5 because I'm not using the 6th color yet.

This is emulated.

Also, to give you  more context, Tommorrow starts 9th grade for me. I made this in 6502 ASM. Not C, not Fastbasic, not Basic, just direct Assembly coding here.

(Fun fact- I can't code fastbasic or C yet! Asm is my only reasonable option)

Edited August 21, 2022 by Ecernosoft

[+x=usr(1536)]

25 minutes ago, Ecernosoft said:

When I get a test ROM, will you test for me? I don't have 5200.

It's doable, but all of my 5200 controllers are in varying states of needing repair right now.  Any results I come up with may not be 100% accurate as a result.

  

22 minutes ago, Ecernosoft said:

(The final will show 13 colors on Emul because the last 2 are achieved via artifacting)

If you're thinking of doing an A8 version from the 5200 codebase, you might want to look into PAL compatibility with artifacting before going down that route.

[alfredtdk]

I loved the game. Even though it has Smurf and SMB game elements, I noticed similarities with another game, Metroid.
In my opinion the game is great and evolving well, I can't wait for the final version.
The page system is what reminded me of Metroid, moving from one screen to another is very similar to what happens with Samus. Could you implement something like ports when transitioning from one screen to another? And just something that kind of came to mind.
Anyway, my congratulations, it's incredible, it doesn't even look like a 4kb game.

[Ecernosoft]

5 hours ago, alfredtdk said:

I loved the game. Even though it has Smurf and SMB game elements, I noticed similarities with another game, Metroid.
In my opinion the game is great and evolving well, I can't wait for the final version.
The page system is what reminded me of Metroid, moving from one screen to another is very similar to what happens with Samus. Could you implement something like ports when transitioning from one screen to another? And just something that kind of came to mind.
Anyway, my congratulations, it's incredible, it doesn't even look like a 4kb game.

You'll get it soon! 9th grade starts today for me, so you will need to wait a little longer... =(

I originally intended to make ICT a more space-like game. Metroid like to be specific. I might just do that for It's Conner time 2 on 2600. The 2600 can do some, "creepy" noises to say the least. 

It would be a perfect fit! Or, even better, on the 5200. I can make it on the 8bit as an 8K game. You know what?

 

ICT on the 5200 will be more similar to a plaground style game, while ICT on the 8bit (400 and up!) will be more of a metroid style game. How about that?

[Ecernosoft]

Oh yeah, the game is really only 2.5K.

 

Edit: I feel like many people are missing this. They look at the 2600's specs and go "That's all?"

But in reality, that's all it needed. More modern systems like the NES and 7800 need more because they have higher data formats (Ex. 2bpp, 4bpp) while the atari had it's one or two byte per line formats. Also, the RAM situation really doesn't matter. When you're making a simple fun experience like It's Conner time!, you literally WONT run into the RAM problem.

Edited August 22, 2022 by Ecernosoft