+Karl G Posted September 30, 2022 Share Posted September 30, 2022 Save the Dinos! is my tribute to NASA's recent DART mission. It was hastily coded and only lightly tested, but is a good proof of the game concept. I may or may not develop it further at some point. Premise You are a chronozoologist who studies the development of animal life throughout time on all manner of alien worlds. Your current task is to learn how the dinosaurs of the planet Earth would have continued to evolve had they not been wiped out by a stray asteroid. Your team has developed three Dinosaur Asteroid Rerouting Tactical System probes to divert the asteroid before it can hit Earth. However, the Time Preservation Society has heard of your plans, and is sending more asteroids to Earth. Your team is working as fast as it can to create more probes to divert these asteroids as well. Use them well, and save the dinosaurs! Gameplay Instructions Press the joystick fire button to launch a probe. Press Up to thrust, and Left and Right to change the direction of the probe. Steer the probe to an intercept course with the incoming asteroid at an angle that will change its velocity in such a way as to miss Earth. If you don't get a good enough hit with the first probe, then you may launch another to try again if you are quick enough. One point and one new probe is gained with every successful asteroid deflection. For every 10 asteroids deflected, you gain one additional probe for your reserves. The game ends when you run out of probes to launch, or when one of the asteroids hits the Earth. Release 1 (NTSC) savedino.bin Release 1 (PAL60) savedino-PAL60.bin 18 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SpiceWare Posted September 30, 2022 Share Posted September 30, 2022 Nicely done! Though I will admit, my first thought upon seeing the subject was Time Master Tim's adventure in Dino Eggs! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsiddall Posted September 30, 2022 Share Posted September 30, 2022 Love your version of NASA's DART: Double Asteroid Redirection Test = Dinosaur Asteroid Rerouting Tactical System Acronyms/office jargon drives me nuts. 🙂 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeafAtariFromKansas Posted September 30, 2022 Share Posted September 30, 2022 Far out.. real enjoy playing this...👍 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeafAtariFromKansas Posted October 2, 2022 Share Posted October 2, 2022 @Karl G Let you know that I'm having fun playing this.. see picture here... 😊 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeafAtariFromKansas Posted October 3, 2022 Share Posted October 3, 2022 On 10/1/2022 at 9:13 PM, DeafAtariFromKansas said: @Karl G Let you know that I'm having fun playing this.. see picture here... 😊 Update: I got myself hooked,. I reached 63 points, pretty a bit rough... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Karl G Posted October 3, 2022 Author Share Posted October 3, 2022 1 hour ago, DeafAtariFromKansas said: Update: I got myself hooked,. I reached 63 points, pretty a bit rough.. Awesome! You are probably the world record holder for this game. 🙂 With every 10 points, the downward velocity of the asteroids increases a little bit, so at some point it likely becomes impossible to deflect the asteroid. I'm not sure what point that is though since I'm not good enough at the game to find out. 😅 2 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrekMD Posted October 3, 2022 Share Posted October 3, 2022 OK, I just downloaded this to try it out. I'm keep blowing up my probes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeafAtariFromKansas Posted October 11, 2022 Share Posted October 11, 2022 On 10/3/2022 at 5:47 PM, Karl G said: Awesome! You are probably the world record holder for this game. 🙂 With every 10 points, the downward velocity of the asteroids increases a little bit, so at some point it likely becomes impossible to deflect the asteroid. I'm not sure what point that is though since I'm not good enough at the game to find out. 😅 Another update for this... 💥 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4ever2600 Posted October 13, 2022 Share Posted October 13, 2022 Soooooooo when do you actually save the dinos? Love the game btw, just askin... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted October 18, 2022 Share Posted October 18, 2022 ZeroPage Homebrew is playing Save the Dinos! on tomorrow's stream LIVE on Twitch, hope you can join us! Tue Oct 18, 2022 @ 6PM PT | 9PM ET | 1AM GMT+1Day WATCH LIVE: https://www.twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/WATCH LATER: https://youtube.com/zeropagehomebrew/ Games: Pantheon II (2022 Exclusive World Premiere | 2600) by Mike Indovina @satyrsfaction Invaders from Andromeda (2022 Exclusive World Premiere | 2600) by Cisano @Cisano Stepz (2022 WIP | 2600) by Nick Sherman @Arlasoft Numbers Game (2022 2600) by Glenn Main @Glenn Main Save the Dinos! (2022 WIP | 2600) by Karl Garrison @Karl G (WATCH AT 1080P60 FOR BEST QUALITY) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MissCommand Posted October 19, 2022 Share Posted October 19, 2022 Hey Karl, Love playing this... what a great start to a game! I think we need some cut-scenes between asteroids of the dinosaurs doing dinosaury stuff! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeafAtariFromKansas Posted November 1, 2022 Share Posted November 1, 2022 @Karl G there's another one... New High Score: 75. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Karl G Posted November 1, 2022 Author Share Posted November 1, 2022 12 hours ago, DeafAtariFromKansas said: @Karl G there's another one... New High Score: 75. That's amazing! I'm glad that you are enjoying it. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Al_Nafuur Posted November 2, 2022 Share Posted November 2, 2022 On 9/30/2022 at 5:09 PM, Karl G said: Release 1 (NTSC) savedino.bin 8 kB · 57 downloads A PAL60 version would be cool Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Karl G Posted November 2, 2022 Author Share Posted November 2, 2022 2 hours ago, Al_Nafuur said: A PAL60 version would be cool Done! I've added one to the first post. Let me know if you see any color oddities. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Al_Nafuur Posted November 2, 2022 Share Posted November 2, 2022 10 hours ago, Karl G said: Done! I've added one to the first post. Let me know if you see any color oddities. Colors look fine on my (crappy) PAL CRT. The title screen dino has a nice green and the earth has nice green/blue colors. I'll take some pictures tomorrow. Did you considered using the kernel option no_blank_lines? set kernel_options no_blank_lines I think the earth would look better and as far as I can see the game is not using both missiles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Karl G Posted November 3, 2022 Author Share Posted November 3, 2022 25 minutes ago, Al_Nafuur said: Colors look fine on my (crappy) PAL CRT. The title screen dino has a nice green and the earth has nice green/blue colors. I'll take some pictures tomorrow. Did you considered using the kernel option no_blank_lines? set kernel_options no_blank_lines I think the earth would look better and as far as I can see the game is not using both missiles. Yes, I considered that, but no_blank_lines doesn't work with pfheights, and without the latter, the Earth would be much too blocky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Al_Nafuur Posted November 3, 2022 Share Posted November 3, 2022 28 minutes ago, Karl G said: Yes, I considered that, but no_blank_lines doesn't work with pfheights, and without the latter, the Earth would be much too blocky. Would pfres=32 and SC-RAM work? https://www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-batari-basic-commands.html#pfres Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Karl G Posted November 3, 2022 Author Share Posted November 3, 2022 25 minutes ago, Al_Nafuur said: Would pfres=32 and SC-RAM work? https://www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-batari-basic-commands.html#pfres It probably would, but I don't think it's worth using superchip RAM just to get rid of the lines for the Earth. If I wanted to do that, I would probably just redo the game in assembly where I could make a custom kernel and make it look better yet. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Al_Nafuur Posted November 3, 2022 Share Posted November 3, 2022 14 hours ago, Karl G said: It probably would, but I don't think it's worth using superchip RAM just to get rid of the lines for the Earth. If I wanted to do that, I would probably just redo the game in assembly where I could make a custom kernel and make it look better yet. I modified @RevEng's starfield example to use pfcolors and pfres=32 with 8kSC but the earth is 1/3 higher than the pfheights variant and looks blocky even though the "Icing" effect helps a bit. source code: bbstarfield.bas binary: bbstarfield.bas.bin The multisprite kernel would be an option to get a higher vertical playfield resolution. pros: the resolution can be up to 2 (real) playfield lines the playfield data can be in ROM playfield is mirrored so only 1/2 of the ROM space is needed cons: pfcolors doesn't work with multisprite kernel As far As I remember @splendidnut did some experiments with changing the background color in the multisprite kernel when he developed the custom multisprite/multicolor kernel for 1942. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Philsan Posted December 10, 2022 Share Posted December 10, 2022 Thanks for PAL60 version! I noticed score's color is different. I prefer PAL60. Why the game ends when you run out of probes? Maybe I am wrong but I think it should end only when asteroid hits earth. NTSC PAL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeafAtariFromKansas Posted December 10, 2022 Share Posted December 10, 2022 3 hours ago, Philsan said: Why the game ends when you run out of probes? Maybe I am wrong but I think it should end only when asteroid hits earth. For probes, Yes, when you run out of probes, game is over... you will receive extra probe per 10 asteroids misses the earth... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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