Circuit Dude: a port of an Arduboy game

[LX.NET]

Hello everyone,

 

This has been too long in my projects that are finished enough to be released.
It is Circuit Dude.

A port of an Arduboy game by Jonathan Holmes at Jonathan Holmes - Online Portfolio (crait.net). It was ported with his permission and I am looking for some feedback on the game. 

The game mimics the look and feel of the original as much as possible, which is black and white. I wanted to focus on the game mechanics and not so much the looks. I used the original graphics and tweaked these a little bit to accommodate for the larger screen on the Lynx.

 

The game has 75 levels and it should be self-explanatory. Finish the game and there is a nice story to be told there. 

If you run this in Handy or on a programmable cartridge, the progress in levels should be saved so you can continue later on.

There is a level editor that allows you to save levels and play these as well.

 

Tested for:

• Lynx Flashcart with 93C46 chip by Lynxman (Let me know if you have a 93C66 or 93C86 version and I will compile that)
• Programmable cartridges by AtariGamer

Untested:

• Support for ElCheapoSD (v1 and v2), LynxSD (v1 and v2)

Known limitations:

• The Read and Send of the editor menu is not working. Work for future 8-bit Hub support. 
• You can select up to 9 levels for saving in the editor, but on a 93c46 chip, it is effectively 1 level.
• You might need to clear the level you are editing the very first time you open the editor.

 

Keeping the post short for now. Any feedback is appreaciated. Have fun playing this.

 

Alex

circuitdude-beta1.lnx

Edited February 26, 2023 by LX.NET

[Ninjabba]

Thanks! Booting it right up! 

[Ninjabba]

Playing it on Argon. Really fun puzzle game! I love the restart animation.

 

One thing that comes to mind.. I haven't played the original, so I'm not sure if this is done, but are you thinking to animate the character? I think it has a great potential for a simple two frame looped walking animation

[Fadest]

It is a really nice game.

I played through the 15 first levels (and will go back to it later) and some are really tricky, I really like this kind of games.

Thanks you for putting it to my attention.

 

Even if I like the minimal aspect of the Arduboy graphs. I see the Steam/Switch version have colored graphs, (less interesting than the arduboy ones in my opinion), but have you considered adding an option to switch between original arduboy 2 colors graphs and a dedicated Lynx graphset ? Some items are hard to distinguish/uderstand in the arduboy version (like holes)

[LX.NET]

1 hour ago, Ninjabba said:

Playing it on Argon. Really fun puzzle game! I love the restart animation.

 

One thing that comes to mind.. I haven't played the original, so I'm not sure if this is done, but are you thinking to animate the character? I think it has a great potential for a simple two frame looped walking animation

Hi Ninjabba,

Thanks for checking it out. Glad you like it so far.

The original also doesn't have animations, except for falling into a pit. It might be an idea, just as a color version. Will look into that for beta 2.

Alex

[+karri]

My kind of game. It is a very similar problem when you design circuit boards. Which traces to draw first.

 

A very stylish game. Quality is never out of style!

[agradeneu]

I really like the steam version. 

 

With some work, similar gfx could be realized on the Lynx.

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

ZeroPage Homebrew is playing Circuit Dude on tomorrow's ZPH stream LIVE on Twitch, hope you can join us!

 

Tue May 2, 2023 | LIVE @ 6PM PT | 9PM ET | 2AM GMT+1Day

WATCH LIVE: https://www.twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/
WATCH LATER: https://youtube.com/zeropagehomebrew/

 

Games:

• Chase (2022 WIP | Lynx) by Oceo Team / marss  @marss / Michal Szpilowski @miker (Lynx Music) / Kezax
• Circuit Dude (2023 WIP | Lynx) by Alex Thissen @LX.NET
• Scooternia (2023 | Lynx) by Alex Hiza @LordKraken

(WATCH AT 1080P60 FOR FULL QUALITY)

 

[+jgkspsx]

Running it off the Lynx GD it crashes with a whine after I finish the first level?

 

 

Happens every time for me.

 

[+jgkspsx]

Works fine on Handy. Really fun. Proud of myself for finishing this one!

 

 

The next few levels get a lot easier, but then level 14 is a stiff challenge. Looking forward to finishing it!

[xhul]

15 hours ago, jgkspsx said:

Running it off the Lynx GD it crashes with a whine after I finish the first level?

Happens every time for me.

Exact same behaviour on mine.

Turning off the sound option doesn't prevent the freeze, just the continuous sound won't play.

[LX.NET]

I'll fix that shortly. I think it is because of the Eeprom save at the end of a level. 

Keep you posted. 

[LX.NET]

Here is a special fixed version for the GameDrive. It doesn't save progress to EEPROM and can be used on all cartridge types. Saving custom levels in the designer is also not enabled. You can design and play custom levels.

I will create a special version that allows saving on GameDrive, or perhaps a version that can switch between no EEPROM, EEPROM or GameDrive support. Let's see.

 

Please do know that I am working with Jonathon Holmes on a color version of this game. It might be released on physical cartridge later on. Also, we are working on uploading custom levels over the serial ComLynx cable from a laptop or PC.

Stay tuned.

circuitdude-beta2-gamedrive.lnx

Edited February 21 by LX.NET