Season 13 ~ Week 19/20/21 ~ Atari 2600 Homebrew

[Vocelli]

16 hours ago, kermit73 said:

Boom! - 2551100 (Rollage???)

 

@Vocelli:  Unless @cd-w suggests that there are ways to score in the tens of millions that I have not yet discovered, we might want to establish a "rollage" requirement for this game.

 

The only thing I know for sure that I have not accomplished is picking up the question mark power-up.  It appeared on two levels during my game.  I didn't blow up the block revealing it the first time and the second time I accidentally blew it up.

 

For the first hour or so in my game, I just cleared boards, making it to Level 32 with a score close to 350k.  At this point, the difficulty seemed to have stopped ramping up for several levels so I started purposely allowing time to run out and/or bombed the door to get more bad guys to run up the score.  On Level 34, bombing the door brings out the high point value bad guys and you can score 64k with each wave.  After some experimentation, I found a strategy to consistently repeat this process with almost no risk of getting killed.  Within 10-minutes or so, I had run the score up to 2.5M.  Assuming the game rolls at 100M with the 8-digit score display, actual rollage would have taken another 2-3 hours.

 

Assuming there isn't a significant means of racking up points that I've not yet discovered, my suggestion is to set rollage to 500k, provided you've completed Level 25.  I think there should be a minimum level requirement for rollage since the point pressing strategy I used could probably have been implemented on an easier level.

 

 

 

 

VERY IMPRESSIVE and exciting.

 

I will set ROLLAGE at 2,500,000.

I will set a minimum rollage level at 25. Meaning you must be level 25+ to roll the score over 2.5 Million.

 

Thanks for all the info on this game!

 

[Keir]

Having now tried all 4 games I must say they are all very good!

 

Boom - 154,800

This one is lots of fun. Played for a fairly long time and I'm still figuring things out, seeing new monsters and powerups, etc.

 

Star Castle - 7,480

Holy cow this is hard! I managed to destroy 4 castles (I think) mostly by pure luck.

[Keir]

A couple people had questions about the powerups and I am still trying to figure all of them out, but I thought I'd post what I know. Some powerups go away when you lose a life (temporary) and some do not (permanent).

FIRE - Increases bomb blast radius (this one is cumulative and permanent).

BOMB - Increases the number of bombs that can be set at one time (also cumulative and permanent).

HEART - Allows player to trigger bomb blast by pressing second fire button or Select switch (temporary).

SKATES - Increases player movement speed (temporary).

PASS - This one looks like a person running. It allows you to pass through brick walls (temporary).

BOMB PASS? - This one looks like a bomb with movement lines similar to PASS powerup. It might allow you to pass through bombs, I didn't really get to try it (temporary?).

I'm sure there are others as well.

 

[Jasonhrb]

I've had some time to play these now, and boy they are good. Boom looks and feels like something on a more powerful system, and it's almost hard to believe this is a 2600 game. A very clever game, and one that I have really enjoyed trying. The only issue here might be that the amount of time that a really high scoring game takes maeans that I might not get a chance to improve here just for want of time.

 

Star Castle Arcade is very impresseive. The whole presentation of it feels like something I'd have played on my Commodore 64,and you can really see from this version how Star Castle led to Yars Revenge. It's very hard though, and I am sometimes left wondering how much impact my actions actually have on what happens !. Like so many of the homebrews though, it's a fantastic piece of work.

 

Conquest of Mars I love. Again, it feels like an early C64 / Atari 8 bit game rather than something from the 2600 (which I suppose given the original A8 history of this game and how good a conversion this is, it is in a way) . I'm stuck on one particular type of laser gate at the moment, but wil definitely be coming back for more.

 

In some ways though, my favourite of all is the simplest of the bunch. I love Mr. Yo Yo. It's a real "pick up and play" game, but the unusual control dynamics and different behaviour of the enemies mean there's that little bit more to it to make in interesting. Being 8k, it's also something that I could have imagined getting for Christmas 40 years ago, and being the sad nostalgia nerd that I am, that's something I always enjoy. This is another oneI will definitely coming back to.

 

Anyway, that's enough of my thoughts, here are some scores (the Star Castle score is from the high score table, as the image from the end of game was garbleed for some reason. hope this is OK). 

 

 

[Keir]

Mr. Yo-Yo - 90270

My first encounter with the Snippers. Man I hate those guys! Loving the game though.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

11 hours ago, Jasonhrb said:

Boom looks and feels like something on a more powerful system...

Correct. The game uses an ARM chip clocked at 60 or 70 MHz. This is effectively about 50x more powerful as the console's CPU.  

11 hours ago, Jasonhrb said:

Star Castle Arcade is very impresseive. The whole presentation of it feels like something I'd have played on my Commodore 64,and you can really see from this version how Star Castle led to Yars Revenge. It's very hard though, and I am sometimes left wondering how much impact my actions actually have on what happens !. Like so many of the homebrews though, it's a fantastic piece of work.

Thanks. And yes, it is hard. Way less hard than the arcade original, though. But since the high difficulty is an essential part of the original game, we couldn't make it too easy without making it a different game.

 

And I can assure you, your actions have no random effect.   

[DaveM]

First off, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!

 

I noticed my high score of 792k on Mr. Yo-Yo was posted as the leader in this competition.  I would like to request that it be removed from the high score list in fairness to the other competitors.  I set that score over a year ago, so I don't think it should count.  

 

Since I designed the game and have a bit of an advantage over the rest as far as high scores go, I thought I'd give myself one game to see what I could do.  I haven't played the game in a couple months, so I thought I'd be a bit rusty, but ended up doing rather well...

My scores on the other games are quite horrible, so I'll need to give them more play before I post my efforts.

 

Thought I'd give a few tips that might not be so obvious, especially if you didn't memorize the manual.  Collecting coins is the whole key to high scores.  Coins are worth 100 points if you shoot them, but if you collect them, you not only get 1,000 points, but a couple other things happen.  First, a Notely will automatically appear, regardless of how many enemies you normally need to shoot in that cave.  Second, the value for rescuing Notelies doubles.  That value starts at 200, and you can run it up to 3,200 per rescue.  So, collect 4 coins and you get to max value.  It resets when you lose a life, but just pick up 4 coins and you're right back there.  Coins first appear in the first purple cave, and since the timer there moves so slow, I like to just hang out until I've collected my 4 coins, then I start my rescuing.  

 

Power Pods also have different results depending on whether you shoot or collect them.  Shoot a Power Pod, and you get 300 points, and it acts as a smart bomb, clearing the screen.  You do get points for the enemies you clear in that manner.  Collect the Power Pod, and it starts a coin frenzy, where everything on the screen turns into a coin, and nothing but coins spawn for 4 seconds.  That's usually a very easy way to get your 4 coins to max out the rescue value.  Between the coins and power pods, if you play it right, scores of over 80k are possible just by the end of the first bonus round.  

 

Speaking of the bonus round, those targets are 500 points a piece.  If you get your required 10 shot quickly and there's still lots of time left, let the gem sit there for a while, and pick off a few more targets.  At 500 each, they're worth more than the bonus you'll get for time remaining.  Just watch the timer and make sure you take care of that gem before it runs out!

 

On 12/23/2022 at 3:40 AM, Jasonhrb said:

In some ways though, my favourite of all is the simplest of the bunch. I love Mr. Yo Yo. It's a real "pick up and play" game, but the unusual control dynamics and different behaviour of the enemies mean there's that little bit more to it to make in interesting. Being 8k, it's also something that I could have imagined getting for Christmas 40 years ago, and being the sad nostalgia nerd that I am, that's something I always enjoy. This is another oneI will definitely coming back to.

I'm so glad you're enjoying the game!  The feedback so far has been fantastic!  I hope you'll consider leaving a review in the AtariAge Store:

Mr. Yo-Yo - Atari 2600 (atariage.com)

 

Thanks!

[RaymanC]

Star Castle: 6,020

Conquer: 22,300

Boom: 1,600

Mr. YoYo: 26,430

 

 

[classicgamer_27330]

[classicgamer_27330]

oh crap didn't get the shot of the score lol. It was at least 36,000 but don't remember the exact amount so put me down for that

 

36,000

[Keir]

28 minutes ago, classicgamer_27330 said:

oh crap didn't get the shot of the score lol.

Bummer. Same thing happened to me a few days ago. Then yesterday I played Boom for about an hour. Made it to level 25 with at least 255,000 points but then my computer crashed.

[kermit73]

5 hours ago, classicgamer_27330 said:

oh crap didn't get the shot of the score lol. It was at least 36,000 but don't remember the exact amount so put me down for that

 

36,000

Which game?  If Conquest of Mars, just start a new game, kill off your ships right away, and take the photo when your score is shown as the high score.  The high score table can also work for Star Castle or Boom.

[Lauren Tyler]

Star Castle Arcade: 7,700

 

Conquest Of Mars: 18,300

 

Boom!: 2,900

[kermit73]

Mr. Yo-Yo: 582640

 

All four of these homebrews are great games, but I am liking Mr. Yo-Yo the best.  It starts simple, gradually ramps up the difficulty, and the most difficult levels of the game seem beatable.  The manual and the video posted by @DaveM were very helpful (I recommend checking his out both his posts on page 2 of this thread if you missed them previously).

 

My strategy on the early levels is to make sure I collect enough coins to get the 3200 max for each Notely.  This usually means spending a lot of time on the 2nd board waiting for enough coins to appear and resetting the game if time runs out.

 

Once the blue bouncy fish start appearing, I usually make it a priority to take them out so I don't have to keep dodging them.

 

Once the red scissors start showing up, It's important to wait patiently at the top of the screen and time your descent when picking up a Notely.  Ideally, you can drop just after something passes the center of the screen on the top row.  That gives you the best chance of making it all the way to the bottom of the screen and safely back to the top if scissors are to appear.  It's also important to decide whether to go for the 3-scissor bonus early in the level.  If you can take out two scissors early, it's best to wait near the top of the screen for the third scissors since at their faster speed, they might catch you in one of the top two rows even with very good timing.  If you're well into the round and aren't going for the bonus, I would avoid shooting scissors altogether so they never get to their accelerated speed.

 

I will probably come back to this game before these homebrew weeks are up, but I'm not sure I'll improve much upon this score.  In this game, the RNG was extremely generous with the power coins and it's also the only time I've made it to Lv6 so far.

 

I also posted a video of my Star Castle game (score posted earlier).  This is another game I'll be coming back to, but unless I figure out how to get better control of my ship, my score isn't going to improve much.

 

 

 

 

[Jason_Atari]

Improvements:

 

Mr. Yo-Yo (Game 1 B/B): 62,050

Conquest of Mars (Game 1 B/B): 44,400

Star Castle (Game 1 B/B): 11,510

Boom (Game 1 B/B): 102,000

[Thomas Jentzsch]

2 hours ago, kermit73 said:

I also posted a video of my Star Castle game (score posted earlier).  This is another game I'll be coming back to, but unless I figure out how to get better control of my ship, my score isn't going to improve much.

The key for more points is to keep constantly moving, else the mines will kill you. And for that you have to learn how to bounce from the rings (to reverse direction fast). Have a look at some YT videos, e.g. this one:

Anyway, every score above 10,000 is already quite good. 👍

Edited December 27, 2022 by Thomas Jentzsch

[Jason_Atari]

Vocelli my name is on the high score list twice on Mr Yo-Yo and Conquest of Mars.

[danger]

Star Castle Arcade: 9280

(was a pain to screenshot this one properly, so I ended up recording a gif)

 

Conquest Of Mars: 41900

[Thomas Jentzsch]

2 minutes ago, danger said:

(was a pain to screenshot this one properly, so I ended up recording a gif)

 Enable phosphor effect (ALT+P).

[danger]

4 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

 Enable phosphor effect (ALT+P).

Thanks for the tip, tried it just now, makes it way easier to screenshot/record. 👍

[AtariSphinx]

Conquest of Mars (1 B/B): 46,350

 

Great port of one of my top 20 Atari 8-bit games (along with its Scramble clone sequel CoM 2).  The force fields are a bit more challenging than the computer version but it's an amazing port to a lesser capable system.

 

There was a more easier improved version, Phobos, on the computer by the original CoM author.    Still fun but definitely prefer the original formula. 

[AtariSphinx]

Boom! (1 B/B): 91,800

 

Great game.  Actually started another game after this one and was doing great only to accidentally exit the game when trying to use F1 for secondary button which is near the escape key.   Will try to remap that button to an extra button on my controller.

[Absalon]

don't have much time to play these days.

Conquest of Mars (1 B/B): 48680

[Rickster8]

On 12/27/2022 at 1:02 AM, kermit73 said:

Mr. Yo-Yo: 582640

 

All four of these homebrews are great games, but I am liking Mr. Yo-Yo the best.  It starts simple, gradually ramps up the difficulty, and the most difficult levels of the game seem beatable.  The manual and the video posted by @DaveM were very helpful (I recommend checking his out both his posts on page 2 of this thread if you missed them previously).

 

My strategy on the early levels is to make sure I collect enough coins to get the 3200 max for each Notely.  This usually means spending a lot of time on the 2nd board waiting for enough coins to appear and resetting the game if time runs out.

 

Once the blue bouncy fish start appearing, I usually make it a priority to take them out so I don't have to keep dodging them.

 

Once the red scissors start showing up, It's important to wait patiently at the top of the screen and time your descent when picking up a Notely.  Ideally, you can drop just after something passes the center of the screen on the top row.  That gives you the best chance of making it all the way to the bottom of the screen and safely back to the top if scissors are to appear.  It's also important to decide whether to go for the 3-scissor bonus early in the level.  If you can take out two scissors early, it's best to wait near the top of the screen for the third scissors since at their faster speed, they might catch you in one of the top two rows even with very good timing.  If you're well into the round and aren't going for the bonus, I would avoid shooting scissors altogether so they never get to their accelerated speed.

 

I will probably come back to this game before these homebrew weeks are up, but I'm not sure I'll improve much upon this score.  In this game, the RNG was extremely generous with the power coins and it's also the only time I've made it to Lv6 so far.

 

I also posted a video of my Star Castle game (score posted earlier).  This is another game I'll be coming back to, but unless I figure out how to get better control of my ship, my score isn't going to improve much.

 

 

 

 

Kermit, are you using a normal Atari 2600 joystick for Mr Yo Yo or some other controller? I am finding it VERY difficult using the normal joystick controller for this game as shooting left or right is super difficult while bouncing up and down at the same time.... I think this game is the funnest out of the four, but very difficult to maneuver as well..... @kermit73

 

I cannot stand the blue demon fishes / birds, whatever they are??? ...... 😡

Edited December 28, 2022 by Rickster8
Wording

[danger]

Slight improvement.

Conquest Of Mars: 48930