+Karl G Posted October 22, 2022 Share Posted October 22, 2022 The idea for this game came from watching @ZeroPage Homebrew's playthrough of Atari 2600 games. Late in the run was a game called Universal Chaos, which is an unofficial port of the arcade game Targ. I had not heard of either game previously. The Atari port is fun to play, but it seems like a pretty rushed port with some visual glitches. The arcade game seems pretty cool, but the visuals are not the greatest. Anyway - I was inspired to make my own Targ-like game with hopefully better visuals, and slightly different gameplay. The core mechanics are the same, but the "boss" is replaced by a bomber that plants mines. This mechanic is still under development, and will likely evolve. The hyperspace grid is under attack by drones sent by the evil Vincular, who wish to subvert it for their own use in their quest to dominate the galaxy. You are a renowned pilot serving the Collective of Allied Species, and have been tasked with remotely piloting a special ship designed to destroy these drones, and keep the hyperspace grid safe and free for all to use. Good luck with your mission! Instructions: Navigate the grid with your joystick, and use the joystick button to fire a missile. Your ship has 3 speeds, as indicated by the ship engine color, and the speed of the in-game music: blue is slowest, yellow is medium-speed, and red is the fastest. You may turn at intersections. You can turn around completely by pressing the joystick the opposite direction of your ship's movement, but it takes a small amount of time to reverse your momentum (more time if you are moving fast, and less if you are moving slowly). Technical notes: This is a 32K game made with 7800Basic and using 160A mode. I'm happy with my choice of toolset and graphics mode. Sound is TIA, with all SFX in one channel, and music in the other channel. This is an early WIP, and likely has some bugs I haven't found yet, as well as features that are not fully fleshed-out like the bomber. Feedback on gameplay and fun-factor is definitely appreciated! Version 11 - Final (12/18/2022): CartesianChaos-11.a78 CartesianChaos-11.bin 19 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gambler172 Posted October 23, 2022 Share Posted October 23, 2022 Hi Karl Works and plays very well on real hardware 👍 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Muddyfunster Posted October 24, 2022 Share Posted October 24, 2022 I'll second that, this plays lovely Karl. You sent me down a rabbit hole with this one Karl, played your ROM then the 2600 version for a bit then back to yours Will jot down some feedback for you tomorrow. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sramirez2008 Posted October 24, 2022 Share Posted October 24, 2022 Oh baby. I loved Targ BITD. I haven’t downloaded/tested this yet, but will try to do so within the next couple of days. Thanks for sharing the ROM. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariBrian Posted October 24, 2022 Share Posted October 24, 2022 As far as the photo shown in your post, in my opinion it looks like it could be hard to make turns and keep an eye on exactly where your ship is going since your path is a skinny line. Assuming that every board would look similar?? I am not familiar with the arcade but just checked out a quick video of it. Your path is much wider and easier on the eyes. Another game that comes to mind is Spectar for the Colecovision. Hope what I am saying makes any sense. But I am looking forward to this game and seeing more, great job. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariBrian Posted October 24, 2022 Share Posted October 24, 2022 Just now, AtariBrian said: As far as the photo shown in your post, in my opinion it looks like it could be hard to make turns and keep an eye on exactly where your ship is going since your path is a skinny line. Assuming that every board would look similar?? I am not familiar with the arcade Targ, but just checked out a quick video of it. Your path is much wider and easier on the eyes. Another game that comes to mind is Spectar for the Colecovision. Hope what I am saying makes any sense. But I am looking forward to this game and seeing more, great job. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Karl G Posted October 24, 2022 Author Share Posted October 24, 2022 1 hour ago, AtariBrian said: As far as the photo shown in your post, in my opinion it looks like it could be hard to make turns and keep an eye on exactly where your ship is going since your path is a skinny line. Assuming that every board would look similar?? I am not familiar with the arcade but just checked out a quick video of it. Your path is much wider and easier on the eyes. Another game that comes to mind is Spectar for the Colecovision. Hope what I am saying makes any sense. But I am looking forward to this game and seeing more, great job. Yeah; this is just a visual difference between the original and my version - instead of navigating between buildings, you are navigating along a grid. Turning should work the same as both are "maze" style games with specific paths to follow. It didn't occur to me that some might have more trouble with turns based on my chosen visual presentation. If you try the game and find this to be the case, please let me know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Karl G Posted October 24, 2022 Author Share Posted October 24, 2022 Things that still need to be done: Refine the bomber/mine-laying mechanics (still figuring out where I want to go with this) Collision-detection between enemies. The 2600 port ignores this, but the arcade has the enemies switch directions if they hit each other. That means 45 different collision checks to cover all combinations of 10 enemies, though. Title screen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Karl G Posted October 24, 2022 Author Share Posted October 24, 2022 I've uploaded version 2 to the first post. The only change is a tweak to the controls for turning. Basically the code now has some lingering "memory" of turns for a few frames, more when the ship is slower, and less when it is faster. The idea is for the turning controls to feel less "stiff". I think this version does that, but I also left the original version in case anyone wants to compare them. For ease of comparison, here are the js7800 links for both versions: Old steering version New steering version 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+GoldLeader Posted October 24, 2022 Share Posted October 24, 2022 Thanks so much! I will have to try this! I remember both TARG and Spectar from the arcades a Long time ago...And honestly TARG is the game I play the most in my little bartop MAME Multicade. I just keep coming back to it over and over! It's a True Classic! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted October 24, 2022 Share Posted October 24, 2022 ZeroPage Homebrew is playing Cartesian Chaos on tomorrow's stream LIVE on Twitch, hope you can join us! Tue Oct 25, 2022 @ 6PM PT | 9PM ET | 1AM GMT+1Day WATCH LIVE: https://www.twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/WATCH LATER: https://youtube.com/zeropagehomebrew/ Games: Cartesian Chaos (2022 WIP | 7800) by Karl Garrison @Karl G Pac-Man Collection: 40th Anniversary Edition (2022 | 7800) by Bob DeCrescenzo @PacManPlus Asteroids Deluxe (2007 | 7800) by Bob DeCrescenzo @PacManPlus 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sramirez2008 Posted October 25, 2022 Share Posted October 25, 2022 Easy to play, difficult to master. I’m hooked. I’ve been playing the New Steering version for the last hour. Here’s my best so far. Btw, I really like the in-game music.👍 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ecernosoft Posted October 25, 2022 Share Posted October 25, 2022 14 minutes ago, sramirez2008 said: Easy to play, difficult to master. I’m hooked. I’ve been playing the New Steering version for the last hour. Here’s my best so far. Btw, I really like the in-game music.👍 Have you considered a 5200 port? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Karl G Posted October 25, 2022 Author Share Posted October 25, 2022 59 minutes ago, sramirez2008 said: Easy to play, difficult to master. I’m hooked. I’ve been playing the New Steering version for the last hour. Here’s my best so far. Btw, I really like the in-game music.👍 That's great to hear! I've passed along the music feedback to Maggie. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Karl G Posted October 25, 2022 Author Share Posted October 25, 2022 46 minutes ago, Ecernosoft said: Have you considered a 5200 port? At some point I will pray try my hand at 8-bit and/or 5200 homebrew, but probably not for a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariBrian Posted October 26, 2022 Share Posted October 26, 2022 A controller button reset would be perfect for this game since each game could be very quick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Karl G Posted October 26, 2022 Author Share Posted October 26, 2022 11 hours ago, AtariBrian said: A controller button reset would be perfect for this game since each game could be very quick. Actually, you can reset with the controller button after a little over a second. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Karl G Posted October 26, 2022 Author Share Posted October 26, 2022 Thank you @ZeroPage Homebrew for playing this last night. I'm happy that it was so well-received! I've updated the gameplay instructions a bit to clarify that you can indeed turn your ship around (which was not immediately obvious). 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Karl G Posted October 26, 2022 Author Share Posted October 26, 2022 Version 3 added to the first post: First attempt at a title screen Ability to reset mid-game 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Karl G Posted October 28, 2022 Author Share Posted October 28, 2022 Version 4 added to the first post. This one adds a two-player "versus mode". Player 2 controls the white-tipped drone, and the others are still controlled by the computer. If the white-tipped drone is destroyed, then one of the other remaining drones is "promoted" to player 2 control, continuing until only player 1 and player 2 remain on the level. Gameplay is otherwise identical. Note that the ROM size is now 32K. The game actually only uses 16K at the moment, but the addition of title music will likely push it over that. I can't envision it ever needing more space than 32K, however. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silver Back Posted October 29, 2022 Share Posted October 29, 2022 I finally got around to playing the first version and this the game plays well and really hooks you. I'm gonna download version 4 now and see how far you've come. Great work. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Karl G Posted October 30, 2022 Author Share Posted October 30, 2022 Version 5 added to the first post. Changes include: Added Easy and Hard modes Fix for bonus points above wave 9 Mines remaining at end of level now subtract 100 each from bonus points Easy mode: Start with 4 spare lives instead of 3, and enemy speed ramps up more slowly from wave to wave. Hard mode: Enemies are twice as likely to turn at intersections. That's it, but it makes more of a difference than you would think, especially when the final 3 are gunning for you. I may tweak each of these modes later, but this is a starting point, at least. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Karl G Posted November 4, 2022 Author Share Posted November 4, 2022 Version 6 added to the first post. The game now says "GAME OVER" at the end of a game, but the biggest change is the addition of a two-player co-op mode. Two-player co-op mode: Two player ships are on the screen at the same time Both players share the same score, and pool of reserve lives Player shots do not hurt the other player's ship If there are no reserve lives, and one player's ship gets destroyed, then the other player finishes the game on their own If the players' ships crash into each other, then two lives are lost from the reserve lives No background music in two-player co-op mode because 1) I need the extra TIA sound channel, and 2) the speed of the music was tied to the speed of the player's ship, which can't be done for both ships 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Muddyfunster Posted November 5, 2022 Share Posted November 5, 2022 On 10/25/2022 at 1:17 AM, Ecernosoft said: Have you considered a 5200 port? Have you considered a Neo Geo port of ICT? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ecernosoft Posted November 5, 2022 Share Posted November 5, 2022 58 minutes ago, Muddyfunster said: Have you considered a Neo Geo port of ICT? Dude, neo geo is VERY DIFFERENT than the 7800.the 5200 is very easy to program. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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