Release of Break It! '22 Extended Version - ABBUC SW-Contest 2022

[C3PU]

Dear Atari-Friends,

 

Now that the ABBUC SW-Contest is finished, I am glad to present to you an extended Version of the contest runner up, now available for PAL/NTSC systems as free download.

- there is a recommended 128k RAM version, which inlcudes a nice additional 3D rendered 256 color animation. In principle, this version will also run on any 48k/64k RAM A800 or XL, but will not be able to play back the 3D animation unless you have 128k RAM.

BreakIt22Extended128k.xex

- for reduced loading time on stock 800/XLs, there is also a 48k RAM version, which is identical except that it does not include the 3D animated scene, which does not play anyway on 48k/64kRAM machines.

BreakIt22Extended48k.xex

 

Compared to the initial ABBUC SW-contest, the here released extended version has the following addiiiotnional featues:

- 12 additional theme-levels, reminding of Jump Man, Bruce Lee, Mario, Space Invaders, Pack Man, Pitfall, etc., just in time for the Atari 50 year aniversary 🙂

- 256-Color 3D-Animation Intro (plays on 128k machines, such as 130XE, or XL with equivalent RAM extension)

- Various in-game music themes

The game itself is a color and action loaded remake of Arkanoid, coming with additional power-ups, new levels, many many colors, combinable power-ups, and very lively game flow and speed.

The current 2022 version supports Paddle/Mouse/Stick/Keyboard controls (cursor left/right & shift).

 

The supported power-ups are as follows:

• B: „Bomb“ - removes blocks one by one automatically, but the ball still has to be kept in the game
• 😄 „Catch“ - allows to catch the ball and release it by the trigger
• E: „Extend“ - increses the pad size
• L: „Laser“ - allows to shoot at blocks
• M: „Madness“ - makes the ball dance around like mad, but will remove several surronding blocks if activated in the right moment
• P: „Pad“ - extra live
• S: „Slow“ - slows down the ball
• T: „Triple“ - splits into three balls
• W: „Wall“ - keeps back the ball, but fades away with every hit of the ball
• X: „Xplode“ - splits into three balls, once an enemy is hit
• @: „@!#%“ - destroys the pad and will cost a live

 

I hope you like the present version and have some fun,

OliverNach obe

[Beeblebrox]

Nice job!! Thanks. 

[+eebuckeye]

Looks amazing!

[darwinmac]

I have been playing the ABBUC version for awhile. I have been very impressed with your game. I am glad it runs on NTSC Ataris as well as PAL. 
 

Bob C

[IndusGT]

Is there a you tube video of this game and/or the animation ?

[TGB1718]

Very nice, thank you

[Beeblebrox]

18 hours ago, IndusGT said:

Is there a you tube video of this game and/or the animation ?

 

[Goochman]

This is a really well done effort - Almost looks like a 16bit version of Arkanoid for the good ole 8bit!

[C3PU]

Please note that the above video only shows the previous ABBUC entry version of the game, which did not have the 3D animation, no in-game music, and less levels. For the here released Extended Version, there is no video available yet. I hope Saberman is providing an update, or maybe somebody else?

Edited November 8, 2022 by C3PU

[Goochman]

107K and Level 9 - fun and addicting!

[spookt]

Really nice release. Had a quick game this morning. Must dig out my paddles and give it another try. Thanks!

[ALEXANDER]

On 11/7/2022 at 5:36 PM, C3PU said:

Dear Atari-Friends,

 

Now that the ABBUC SW-Contest is finished, I am glad to present to you an extended Version of the contest runner up, now available for PAL/NTSC systems as free download.

- there is a recommended 128k RAM version, which inlcudes a nice additional 3D rendered 256 color animation. In principle, this version will also run on any 48k/64k RAM A800 or XL, but will not be able to play back the 3D animation unless you have 128k RAM.

BreakIt22Extended128k.xex 101.82 kB · 73 downloads

- for reduced loading time on stock 800/XLs, there is also a 48k RAM version, which is identical except that it does not include the 3D animated scene, which does not play anyway on 48k/64kRAM machines.

BreakIt22Extended48k.xex 37.64 kB · 36 downloads

 

Compared to the initial ABBUC SW-contest, the here released extended version has the following addiiiotnional featues:

- 12 additional theme-levels, reminding of Jump Man, Bruce Lee, Mario, Space Invaders, Pack Man, Pitfall, etc., just in time for the Atari 50 year aniversary 🙂

- 256-Color 3D-Animation Intro (plays on 128k machines, such as 130XE, or XL with equivalent RAM extension)

- Various in-game music themes

The game itself is a color and action loaded remake of Arkanoid, coming with additional power-ups, new levels, many many colors, combinable power-ups, and very lively game flow and speed.

The current 2022 version supports Paddle/Mouse/Stick/Keyboard controls (cursor left/right & shift).

 

The supported power-ups are as follows:

• B: „Bomb“ - removes blocks one by one automatically, but the ball still has to be kept in the game
• 😄 „Catch“ - allows to catch the ball and release it by the trigger
• E: „Extend“ - increses the pad size
• L: „Laser“ - allows to shoot at blocks
• M: „Madness“ - makes the ball dance around like mad, but will remove several surronding blocks if activated in the right moment
• P: „Pad“ - extra live
• S: „Slow“ - slows down the ball
• T: „Triple“ - splits into three balls
• W: „Wall“ - keeps back the ball, but fades away with every hit of the ball
• X: „Xplode“ - splits into three balls, once an enemy is hit
• @: „@!#%“ - destroys the pad and will cost a live

 

I hope you like the present version and have some fun,

OliverNach obe

You have made a great work ! A video in your honor and thanks for this new version too :

 

[ALEXANDER]

On 11/7/2022 at 7:34 PM, IndusGT said:

Is there a you tube video of this game and/or the animation ?

Here is a new video of the new 3D animation and pallete applied in this new version. Enjoy it !

 

[IndusGT]

10 minutes ago, ALEXANDER said:

Here is a new video of the new 3D animation and pallete applied in this new version. Enjoy it !

 

thank you !

[+Pat Brady]

Looks great! Thank you for 48K compatibility.

[a8isa1]

Great game!  Well done!

 

I have a couple of observations.

 

- On my NTSC CRT TV (circa 2006) less than half of the status line is visible.  Using a utility call Screen Height I see only 228 scanlines.  The top 8 and the bottom 4 or 5 lines being lost.   This TV is actually better than others of my past. The worst was probably in the 200 line range

- Using mouSTer, with default setting, microstep=5, Break It! Extended is playable but mouse control is too sensitive. My USB mouse's lowest sensitivity is 400 CPI.

- Thanks for the flexibility of controllers, joystick, paddles, mouse, and keyboard

 

-SteveS

Edited November 9, 2022 by a8isa1

[+CharlieChaplin]

Haha, regarding mouse, I think the game was made for an ST-mouse which has a little less than 400 CPI (think it is closer to 40 CPI)...

 

[Wrathchild]

Great game

One small request would be to add a Reset trap to take you back to the selection screen?

[C3PU]

15 hours ago, a8isa1 said:

Great game!  Well done!

 

I have a couple of observations.

 

- On my NTSC CRT TV (circa 2006) less than half of the status line is visible.  Using a utility call Screen Height I see only 228 scanlines.  The top 8 and the bottom 4 or 5 lines being lost.   This TV is actually better than others of my past. The worst was probably in the 200 line range

- Using mouSTer, with default setting, microstep=5, Break It! Extended is playable but mouse control is too sensitive. My USB mouse's lowest sensitivity is 400 CPI.

- Thanks for the flexibility of controllers, joystick, paddles, mouse, and keyboard

 

-SteveS

Dear Steve,

 

Thank you for the additional Information. I might be able to fix some issues in a future update.

- the current mouse support actually is for original ST mouse, and at least that seems to work well. I have to admit, I do not have a mouSTer yet, but good to know that sensitivity is not the same as original ST mouse. The thing is that the original ST/Amiga mouses did not track the position autonomously, but once the mouse is moved, only sent pulses by the joystick connector that have to be polled by the CPU. If sensitivity is increased, the pulse frequency might also increase. For some menu driven programs this may not be an issue, since CPU can poll the input ports 100% while waiting for a user input. However, in the present case the CPU is already quite busy and has to poll the ports in background during DLI interrupts. I will have to get a mouSTer and check what is happening here.

- the display hight was originally adjusted to PAL displays. I just returned recently from a long dark Atari break that lasted for 34 years, and so far, I did not have any NTSC devices. Recently, at least I got hold of an NTSC A8, but pobably I will never own a real NTSC CRT, which are hard to get in Europe. I have checked vertical display size on NTSC A8 and a modern LCD of popular Korean manufacturer. That seemed to provide full vertical display size of the playfield, same as Altirra emulation with overscan activated. For the given size of 228 scan lines, I will have to see if the playfield can be shrinked vertically to fit into that.

 

Thanks for trying the program and kind regards,

Oliver

[C3PU]

7 hours ago, Wrathchild said:

Great game

One small request would be to add a Reset trap to take you back to the selection screen?

.. thanks for the input and thanks for playing :-)Nice to see score posted. The reset trap might easily be provided if you would like to have that. In the past, when I used the reset trap, it was only that some users reported that they do not like to switch off machine for changing to another game. But these days, if users have Ultimate 1MB or a cartrige like UNO/Ultimate, they have further means to restart the machine without power off.

- Oliver

Edited November 10, 2022 by C3PU

[Wrathchild]

@C3PU you could also add a check in the reset trap function that tests if shift, control or both are pressed and then issue a cold-restart if detected.

[a8isa1]

Hi Oliver!

 

No worries. mouSTer is actually flexible regarding mouse CPI. I just happen to have my mouSTer fine-tuned for my favorite game hack , Missile Command Plus

 

If one needs to lower mouse sensitivity one just increases the microstep value in a file called mouse.ini. I believe whatever that value is is the number of native pulses on your USB mouse that must pass before one pulse is passed, via quadrature, to the Atari.

 

MouSTer is capable of emulating either an ST Mouse or an Amiga 1351 Mouse. mouSTER also emulates an Atari joystick if a USB joystick or gamepad is connected. 

 

I discovered I like playing Break It extended with a mouse. Unfortunately, I use two different microstep values for Missile Command Plus and Break it, 2 and 8, respectively. Since mouSTer can only have one mouster.ini implemented at a time it's a little awkward to change for each game. I need one SD card for each game. MouSTer loads / saves configurations via a USB flash drive or a bootable media reader

 

Best regards,

-SteveS

[Heaven/TQA]

@C3PU

Thanks Oliver for your games... I played a lot all your 80s games esp. type ins in magazines...

 

 

[chevymad]

Anybody tried it with a PAL, U1MB, VBXE machine? Mine doesn't want to load the file. I get a dark blue screen with a cursor and sio activity, then the screen goes dark. After that my TV actually loses the signal and I have to cycle the power on the atari to get it back.  Same file works fine on my NTSC/800xl/U1MB/Sophia2 machine. I've done a few mods recently and my machine may just not have all the bugs worked out yet, but thought I'd check to see if anyone else has similar issues. 

[C3PU]

On 11/8/2022 at 1:34 AM, IndusGT said:

Is there a you tube video of this game and/or the animation ?

A nice capture of the 3D intro animation on PAL Atari 800 is this one: