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BCA (graphics demo - early game WIP sandbox)


splendidnut

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Here is the beginnings of an "original" game I started working on before ChaoticGrill was started (circa 2014... maybe even earlier, I don't remember exactly when).  This was my first 2600 programming project.  It was based off of a PC side-scroller game that I had been working on.  It seemed like something that would nicely adapt to the 2600 due to the way the graphics had been drawn up (page by page).

 

The display kernel in this has quite a bit of history:  It was my first attempt at writing a display kernel.  It then also became my first experiment with writing a display kernel in C (using CC65).  It was one of the things that motivated me to write my own "C" compiler... and rewrite this project in it (first found here).  And just recently, the display kernel has been migrated back to ASM code in preparation to be fixed up and probably rewritten to allow multiple sprites.... which will probably be based off what I learned from working with the bBasic multisprite kernel (for adding more color to 1942).

 

The display kernel is a row-based drawing engine (nice for graphics reuse) with my original (first attempt) at handling 2600 sprites.  It draws 20 rows of playfield (9 lines, one of which is a duplicate when loading next row) and uses 40 bytes of RAM to store the display (gfx offset byte AND a background / ctrlPF byte for each row).  Currently, it's big limitation is that it only supports two sprites (no missiles / no ball).  That's something I'd like to correct before preparing the code for common use.  I could see this being useful for a bunch of different projects.

 

---

 

BCA - Billy's Crazy Adventure

 

image.thumb.png.9dfe7b8dceaf67c85e2e20098ec02af8.pngimage.thumb.png.b3c1227da4c718cec4cf26aef665b95c.png

 

This is mostly just a sandbox of ideas I've slowly been putting together over several years.    There's not really much in the way of game mechanics, and I'm really not quite sure where this game is headed.  Seems like it wants to be an adventure game.  Or maybe an RPG?

 

It's a bit of experiment with doing a limited form of 3D... which may lead to doing some game mechanics which can take advantage of that.

 

I figured I would share this at this stage as it is fun to play around with, especially with the recent things I've added:  some basic terrain handling, and a jumping piranha (sorry, no gameplay interaction with him yet).

 

Enjoy!

 

NTSC (4k ROM):

bca-20221023.bin

 

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41 minutes ago, splendidnut said:

Here is the beginnings of an "original" game I started working on before ChaoticGrill was started (circa 2014... maybe even earlier, I don't remember exactly when).  This was my first 2600 programming project.  It was based off of a PC side-scroller game that I had been working on.  It seemed like something that would nicely adapt to the 2600 due to the way the graphics had been drawn up (page by page).

 

The display kernel in this has quite a bit of history:  It was my first attempt at writing a display kernel.  It then also became my first experiment with writing a display kernel in C (using CC65).  It was one of the things that motivated me to write my own "C" compiler... and rewrite this project in it (first found here).  And just recently, the display kernel has been migrated back to ASM code in preparation to be fixed up and probably rewritten to allow multiple sprites.... which will probably be based off what I learned from working with the bBasic multisprite kernel (for adding more color to 1942).

 

The display kernel is a row-based drawing engine (nice for graphics reuse) with my original (first attempt) at handling 2600 sprites.  It draws 20 rows of playfield (9 lines, one of which is a duplicate when loading next row) and uses 40 bytes of RAM to store the display (gfx offset byte AND a background / ctrlPF byte for each row).  Currently, it's big limitation is that it only supports two sprites (no missiles / no ball).  That's something I'd like to correct before preparing the code for common use.  I could see this being useful for a bunch of different projects.

 

---

 

BCA - Billy's Crazy Adventure

 

This is mostly just a sandbox of ideas I've slowly been putting together over several years.    There's not really much in the way of game mechanics, and I'm really not quite sure where this game is headed.  Seems like it wants to be an adventure game.  Or maybe an RPG?

 

It's a bit of experiment with doing a limited form of 3D... which may lead to doing some game mechanics which can take advantage of that.

 

I figured I would share this at this stage as it is fun to play around with, especially with the recent things I've added:  some basic terrain handling, and a jumping piranha (sorry, no gameplay interaction with him yet).

 

Enjoy!

 

NTSC:

bca-20221023.bin 4 kB · 3 downloads

 

WHAT???

Are you using DCP+ or is this stock?

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  • 1 month later...

Interestingly enough, I worked on an NES version WAY before starting this project (late 90s/early 2000s).

 

NES (screenshot from today, but project originally worked on circa 1999):

image.thumb.png.ef0ea8dce41cf65ba256fa6589cff2b3.png

 

The initial sketch art for BCA was originally drawn up for a PC side-scrolling game project which I started around 95/96.  I made two PC versions... both didn't get past the initial graphics scrolling demos.  I worked on another similar project around the same time that ended up being a bit more interesting.

 

The NES version is the most playable... The basic movement code is there as well as some player/enemy interactions.  The lines under the scoreboard and player seen in the screenshot above were being used to debug the "player jumping onto moving/floating platforms" code.

 

PC - Here's a screenshot from the 2nd version using a revised graphics engine (circa 1998):

(the first engine used high res but only 16-color)

 

image.thumb.png.a8e079b6ead9317a1db573a601c5fde4.png

 

----

 

For the Atari 2600 version, I'm leaning more towards doing a screen-by-screen adventure game, so I'm sifting thru all the original drawings and figuring out ways to adapt things over.

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8 minutes ago, splendidnut said:

Interestingly enough, I worked on an NES version WAY before starting this project (late 90s/early 2000s).

 

NES (screenshot from today, but project originally worked on circa 1999):

image.thumb.png.ef0ea8dce41cf65ba256fa6589cff2b3.png

 

The initial sketch art for BCA was originally drawn up for a PC side-scrolling game project which I started around 95/96.  I made two PC versions... both didn't get past the initial graphics scrolling demos.  I worked on another similar project around the same time that ended up being a bit more interesting.

 

The NES version is the most playable... The basic movement code is there as well as some player/enemy interactions.  The lines under the scoreboard and player seen in the screenshot above were being used to debug the "player jumping onto moving/floating platforms" code.

 

PC - Here's a screenshot from the 2nd version using a revised graphics engine (circa 1998):

(the first engine used high res but only 16-color)

 

image.thumb.png.a8e079b6ead9317a1db573a601c5fde4.png

 

----

 

For the Atari 2600 version, I'm leaning more towards doing a screen-by-screen adventure game, so I'm sifting thru all the original drawings and figuring out ways to adapt things over.

it really shows how far you’ve come!

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