Drone Patrol [Release Candidate 5]

[Trebor]

The polish, including still looking to clear up some minor glitching with the final boss, is truly appreciated.  Experiencing the growth and development of this title has been a real treat!  The POKEY addition is the perfect icing for this cake.

 

A somewhat minor concern for this game, and now the AtariVox Test as well, is the selected font in a couple of instances.  Under RGB, HDMI, and S-Video all will appear just fine.  For those utilizing Composite or RF, it may be a challenge to make out what is being stated.  The below captures are with minimal color bleed and a relatively sharp picture.

 

Title screen of Drone Patrol and the older version of the AtariVox Speech Test look great - very easy to read:

 

The Credit screen (*Thank you* for the mention), Game Over screen, and update to AtariVox Speech Test can be somewhat of a challenge to read now:

 

The font used under the Title screen for the options and score area of Drone Patrol appears to be a good compromise between the challenging to read font, and the largest of the fonts showcased under the original AtariVox Speech Test.

[+Atarius Maximus]

15 hours ago, Trebor said:

The polish, including still looking to clear up some minor glitching with the final boss, is truly appreciated.  Experiencing the growth and development of this title has been a real treat!  The POKEY addition is the perfect icing for this cake.

 

A somewhat minor concern for this game, and now the AtariVox Test as well, is the selected font in a couple of instances. 

 

The font used under the Title screen for the options and score area of Drone Patrol appears to be a good compromise between the challenging to read font, and the largest of the fonts showcased under the original AtariVox Speech Test.

Thank you for the kind words and the feedback, Trebor!

 

Regarding the font, yes I can see that it's a problem on a CRT.  There really isn't a middle ground for that, the font needs to be either four or eight pixels wide.  I'd have to double the size of the font to match the look of the title screen.  While I like the look of the smaller font on an LCD TV, I understand it needs to be legible on a CRT as well.  I'll update that.

 

Thanks again for mentioning polishing up the game, I've certainly tried.  I've spent SOOOO much time playing this game, making code changes, and trying to get everything right!

 

Edit:  Regarding the speech test utility, I think I'm going to leave that as-is.  Honestly it's exactly the same as the original, except it uses 320B rather than 160A. It was created so I could see more phrases on the screen at the same time, so changing it would really just make it look like the original one again.  There would be no difference.  For anyone that would like to use the utility to assist with creating Atarivox speech with a CRT, the old version would work fine.

[+Atarius Maximus]

Based on Trebor's feedback, I've updated the Credits screen and the Game Over screen with a larger font size to make it readable on a CRT.   In emulation there seems to be a brief flash of graphic artifacting when exiting the Credits screen to go back to the main menu. As of yet I've been unable to fix that, but it's a really minor thing.

 

Adding and testing AtariVox speech stalled as I had been unable to get any speech output from the AtariVox when running from the 7800 Game Drive cartridge, which is the only multi-cart I have that will run Drone Patrol on real hardware.  My speech test program had the same issue on the 7800GD, but worked fine on the Concerto.  

 

RevEng took the time to look at the issue and shared the info below with me.  Note: This only applies to the 7800GD.

 

1. Add the following to the start of your Atarivox game:  CTLSWA=$FF:SWCHA=$00:CTLSWA=$00

2. When you're in the 7800GD menu and your game is highlighted, you need to right-button to bring up the menu, and disable the BREAK functionality.  Then launch your game.

 

I'll get back to working on adding speech soon.

 

This build includes a new music player option selectable in the main menu.  It will allow you to play all of the pokey music that's included in the game.  I thought it was a pretty cool, new idea, until I searched and saw that Muddyfunster already did it in E.X.O.   I also updated the Drone Bomber game so you can properly exit that game and get back to the main menu.

 

Edit:  Updated the file to fix a duplicate track in the music player, track 9 and 10 were the same.  Same version number, just updated the attachment.

 

drone_patrol_v68.a78 drone_patrol_v68.bin

[Trebor]

Credits and Game Over screen look great now - thank you!

 

    

 

The game states, "YOU USED A PASSWORD!" at the Game Over screen, even when having started and played through a brand new game.

 

 

[+Atarius Maximus]

Thanks Trebor!  I just checked the code, and I had left the password used flag permanently turned on for debugging purposes, I just forgot to remove it.  I was testing the location of the text.  That'll be fixed in the next update.

[+Atarius Maximus]

H3xaFli6ht mentioned to me that the speed of some of the songs was incorrect, this version corrects that.  I also fixed the "you used a password" issue that was always showing up.

 

I ran out of time today to include all the changes I wanted to make as I'm on my way out of town for a few days.  H3xaFli6ht created a really cool new "have you played atari today" song that I'm going to incorporate into the game, and use a portion of when the AA Logo splash screen appears.  That has not yet been added to the game but will be in the next update.  I wanted to get this version posted because of all of the fixes to the POKEY music.

drone_patrol_v69.a78 drone_patrol_v69.bin

[+Karl G]

Up to version 69 I see.  Nice! 

[+sramirez2008]

This looks and sounds great! Just received my 7800GD and just added v69 to it. Hope to really test it this weekend. Thank you @Atarius Maximus.

[+Atarius Maximus]

@Karl G, Lol! I guess this is the NSFW version of drone patrol.

 

@sramirez2008, thank you!  Happy to hear you've got it loaded up and ready to go.

 

I just got back from my trip, and I'm going to be making a few more changes tomorrow.  Attached is the new "Have you played Atari today?" tune that H3xaFli6ht created, and that I'm going to be incorporating at the very beginning of the game in the AtariAge splash screen.

beatatarishort.rmt

[+Atarius Maximus]

This version incorporates the new "Have you played Atari today?" jingle at the beginning and it also adds a bunch of AtariVox speech.

 

Here's a list of the speech phrases I added if you'd like to take a look:

Spoiler

 "Drone Patrol" Spoken when the main menu loads
 Each Mega-Drone's name is announced when you first encounter them
  boss 1: 'predator'
  boss 2: 'hunter'
  boss 3: 'stalker'
  boss 4: 'battlehawk'
  boss 5: 'scorpion'
  boss 6: 'reaper'
  boss 7: 'warrior'
  boss 8: 'shadow'
  boss 9: 'black hornet'
  boss 10: 'diablo'
 "Megadrone is approaching" spoken when you're transitioning to a boss battle
 "Laser power is low" spoken when your laser power is 12 or lower
 "Shield power is low" spoken when your health is 12 or lower, and takes precedence over laser power is low if both conditions are met
 "Get Ready" spoken when that text phrase appears on-screen
 "Game Over" spoken when game over screen loads
 Various action movie one-liners spoken at level up screen:
  'Hasta La Vista, Baby!'
  'grant me revenge!'
  'I'll be back!'
  'leave room for my fist!'
  'to hell with you!'
  'if it bleeds we can kill it!'
  'they drew first blood'
  'youre a disease, I'm the cure!'
  'We are the shadow'

 

I may add more or make adjustments later.

drone_patrol_v70.a78 drone_patrol_v70.bin

[H3xaFli6ht]

12 hours ago, Atarius Maximus said:

This version incorporates the new "Have you played Atari today?" jingle at the beginning and it also adds a bunch of AtariVox speech.

 

Here's a list of the speech phrases I added if you'd like to take a look:

  Reveal hidden contents

 "Drone Patrol" Spoken when the main menu loads
 Each Mega-Drone's name is announced when you first encounter them
  boss 1: 'predator'
  boss 2: 'hunter'
  boss 3: 'stalker'
  boss 4: 'battlehawk'
  boss 5: 'scorpion'
  boss 6: 'reaper'
  boss 7: 'warrior'
  boss 8: 'shadow'
  boss 9: 'black hornet'
  boss 10: 'diablo'
 "Megadrone is approaching" spoken when you're transitioning to a boss battle
 "Laser power is low" spoken when your laser power is 12 or lower
 "Shield power is low" spoken when your health is 12 or lower, and takes precedence over laser power is low if both conditions are met
 "Get Ready" spoken when that text phrase appears on-screen
 "Game Over" spoken when game over screen loads
 Various action movie one-liners spoken at level up screen:
  'Hasta La Vista, Baby!'
  'grant me revenge!'
  'I'll be back!'
  'leave room for my fist!'
  'to hell with you!'
  'if it bleeds we can kill it!'
  'they drew first blood'
  'youre a disease, I'm the cure!'
  'We are the shadow'

 

I may add more or make adjustments later.

drone_patrol_v70.a78 528.13 kB · 19 downloads drone_patrol_v70.bin 528 kB · 9 downloads

I don't know why but i can't hear any speech phrases here ...

[CPUWIZ]

Does your AtariVox work on other games?

[+Atarius Maximus]

Hey @H3xaFli6ht, I know you're new to the Atari 7800 platform so I'm guessing you're expecting to hear the speech using emulation.  AtariVox speech can not be emulated, to hear the speech you will need to have a real 7800, a multi-cart capable of running Drone Patrol (I use the 7800 Game Drive cartridge, the Concerto cart will not run Drone Patrol), and an AtariVox module.

 

To others that have a 7800 Game Drive, just a reminder that when you're in the 7800GD menu and Drone Patrol is highlighted, you need to right-button to bring up the menu and disable the BREAK functionality in order to hear speech from the AtariVox.

[+Atarius Maximus]

Here's the latest WIP build.

 

I just noticed a bug in every boss battle that has now been fixed.  Holding the fire button down would result in hits being registered even after the laser had disappeared from the screen.

 

I added some cheat codes to this version:

Spoiler

Enter the passwords listed to enable the cheat.

 

00 00 00 00 00 00 01 FE: Unlimited Laser (Easy Difficulty)
00 00 00 00 00 00 01 FF: God Mode (Easy Difficulty)
00 00 00 00 00 00 02 FE: Unlimited Laser (Standard Difficulty)
00 00 00 00 00 00 02 FF: God Mode (Standard Difficulty)
00 00 00 00 00 00 03 FE: Unlimited Laser (Advanced Difficulty)
00 00 00 00 00 00 03 FF: God Mode (Advanced Difficulty)
00 00 00 00 00 00 04 FE: Unlimited Laser (Expert Difficulty)
00 00 00 00 00 00 04 FF: God Mode (Expert Difficulty)

FF 01 00 00 00 00 00 00: Jump to Boss Battle 1 (predator) on Easy Difficulty
FF 02 00 00 00 00 00 00: Jump to Boss Battle 2 (hunter) on Easy Difficulty
FF 03 00 00 00 00 00 00: Jump to Boss Battle 3 (stalker) on Easy Difficulty
FF 04 00 00 00 00 00 00: Jump to Boss Battle 4 (battlehawk) on Easy Difficulty
FF 05 00 00 00 00 00 00: Jump to Boss Battle 5 (scorpion) on Easy Difficulty
FF 06 00 00 00 00 00 00: Jump to Boss Battle 6 (reaper) on Easy Difficulty
FF 07 00 00 00 00 00 00: Jump to Boss Battle 7 (warrior) on Easy Difficulty
FF 08 00 00 00 00 00 00: Jump to Boss Battle 8 (shadow) on Easy Difficulty
FF 09 00 00 00 00 00 00: Jump to Boss Battle 9 (black hornet) on Easy Difficulty
FF 10 00 00 00 00 00 00: Jump to Boss Battle 10 (diablo) on Easy Difficulty

 

The drone bomber game was updated to include a menu-driven title screen, and now includes an instructions screen similar to the "mission briefing" screen available for the main game.

 

I decided not to update the boss explosions when they are defeated, there just isn't enough ROM space remaining in those banks.  I did however slow the existing animation down a bit as each one explodes and falls off the bottom of the screen.

 

 

 

 

drone_patrol_v72.a78 drone_patrol_v72.bin

[+sramirez2008]

Hmm…I’m not hearing any speech either. I tried v70 and v72. If I play Dungeon Stalker, the speech works as expected. I’m using my 7800GD and AtariVox. Btw, the POKEY music player is cool and sounds great!

[+Atarius Maximus]

3 minutes ago, sramirez2008 said:

Hmm…I’m not hearing any speech either. I tried v70 and v72. If I play Dungeon Stalker, the speech works as expected. I’m using my 7800GD and AtariVox. Btw, the POKEY music player is cool and sounds great!

Thanks Steve!

 

Just to confirm, did you bring up the menu on the 7800GD and set "break" to disabled?  I just now tried again on my console and it is working.  You should hear "Drone Patrol" when the main menu loads up.

[+Atarius Maximus]

Here's the latest WIP build.  Other than a few very minor changes, the main change is the addition of an easter egg.  I won't say what it is or how to activate it, at least not yet.   It's hidden, but definitely not impossible to figure out.

 

Unless more bugs are found I'm pretty much just going to be working on AtariVox speech for this game.  It's just about done.

drone_patrol_v73.a78 drone_patrol_v73.bin

[+sramirez2008]

28 minutes ago, Atarius Maximus said:

Thanks Steve!

 

Just to confirm, did you bring up the menu on the 7800GD and set "break" to disabled?  I just now tried again on my console and it is working.  You should hear "Drone Patrol" when the main menu loads up.

Doh! Didn’t have “break” disabled. That did it. -Thanks.

[+Atarius Maximus]

Great!  I'm glad that was it.

 

I took a short video that plays some of the AtariVox speech, for anyone that may be interested.  It also shows the menu and where to disable the break option. I've got the AtariVox connected to my stereo right next to the TV, it's much louder for the video than I would normally have it.

 

 

[+sramirez2008]

I’ll download v73 and test more tomorrow. -Thanks.

 

<Edit> Sidelined by the flu.☹️ Hope to test more this weekend.

[+sramirez2008]

I couldn’t wait. Played a few games today of v73 and I clearly need more practice. However, the game is playing nicely and looks/sounds great.  The speech is pretty clear too.👍

[+Atarius Maximus]

Sorry to hear you've got the flu.   Glad you're still well enough to play some games, but don't forget to take some breaks to rest!

 

Thanks for the feedback, glad it's looking & sounding good to you.  I'll have to work on another video playthrough myself and hopefully beat the game while I'm recording.   Let me know if you think any particular part of the standard game is too difficult or could benefit from a change here or there.  I can also share some general gameplay tips, especially on the bosses, after I do another playthrough myself.

 

[+Atarius Maximus]

I was working this morning on making a full playthrough video and ran into a bug. 

 

On the transition to boss 7, something was draining my health while the drone was offscreen and destroyed it before the boss even appeared.   I disabled collision detection during the transition screen which should correct it.   That's the only change in this version.   It looks like it's going to take about an hour of gameplay to get to and beat the final boss, so playing and testing this game is rather time consuming.

 

After playing again this morning I think I might make some adjustments to the fourth boss battle.  It's a bit different than the others in that it requires much more patience, there are very limited "safe" times to swoop in and take a shot.  It's pretty hard overall for an earlier battle.

 

 

drone_patrol_v75.a78 drone_patrol_v75.bin

[+Atarius Maximus]

Well, in my last attempt to make a playthrough video I made it up to the eighth boss.  I was really close, he only had 7HP left when I bit the dust.  I'll try again soon.

 

Here's the latest WIP build.  I've made some adjustments to the difficulty to try and balance it out a little more and added a bit more AtariVox speech.  I'm done with speech now as I ran out of room in the shared banks.

• Fixed some typos & sprite issues in the mission briefing area
• Add "press fire to continue" prompt in drone bomber after losing a drone "bucket" and when the game ends
• Difficulty Adjustments:

Changed Boss 4 battle so the right talons move up the screen more slowly, giving more time to hover and shoot
Reduced Boss 4 from 450 HP to 400 HP on Standard Difficulty
Reduced boss 7 from 550 HP to 500 HP on Standard Difficulty
Reduced boss 8 from 550 HP to 450 HP on Standard Difficulty

Adjusted Boss HP to vary based on difficulty level:
      Boss HP    Easy    Std    Adv   Expert
      Boss 1      250     300    350   400
      Boss 2      400     500    550   600
      Boss 3      400     450    500   550
      Boss 4      300     400    450   500
      Boss 5      500     650    700   750  
      Boss 6      400     500    550   600
      Boss 7      400     500    550   600
      Boss 8      300     450    500   550
      Boss 9      500     600    650   700
      Boss 10     800    1000   1100  1200

 

• More speech added:

      I'm sorry Dave. I can't do that.  (When easter egg is found and loaded)
      Go Ahead, Make my day!           (Used in place of "they drew first blood") at beginning of level 7
      Password Entry                        (Used when launching password screen)
      Mission Briefing                       (Used when launching mission briefing screen)
      Thank You                               (Used when launching credits screen)

 

I've done everything I wanted to do with this game at this point so the next update will likely be a final release candidate.   At this point I'm only focusing on squashing bugs and making minor tweaks around difficulty and difficulty progression.  I'm still open to any and all feedback.

 

drone_patrol_v76.a78 drone_patrol_v76.bin

[+Atarius Maximus]

For anyone that might be struggling a little bit with the game's difficulty, I threw together some gameplay hints and tips based on how I play the game.

 

Minimize your time in the air to clear a level faster

 

Level progression is based on the number of points you score.  You reach the first boss after reaching 5,000 points, the second at 10,000 points, and every boss after that in 10,000 point increments. 

 

I try and focus the most on the bottom row of enemies as they will give you the most points, and the faster you score points the faster you'll get to the next boss.  Minimizing the amount of time you're in the air will increase your chances of clearing the level and getting to the boss, so move fast and target the higher value enemies first.

 

Always know where the medical vehicle is

 

The medical vehicle will appear on all three rows at the bottom, and it changes rows when it reaches the far side of the screen.  Know where it is, and focus your attention on the other rows when it's present.  Hitting it with your laser quickly depletes your shield.  I generally avoid trying to make "close call" shots near it.

 

Focus your attention on key areas of the screen

 

It's a fast paced game and there's a lot going on at once, so knowing where to focus your attention can make a big difference.  I rarely look at the status bar or the scrolling text when I'm playing. Having an AtariVox plugged in will help here, as it will notify you when you're low on shield power or laser power.  Most of the time I'm only looking at the crosshair and the drone & missiles with my peripheral vision.

 

Time the missiles

 

I will keep track of the missiles and time my up & down movement accordingly.  When they pass you in the early levels, for example, you have about 5 seconds to track and shoot enemies before they are a danger again.  If you know you have a few seconds of safe time, you can focus purely on placing the crosshair and making accurate shots.

 

Don't scroll too far

 

If you scroll too far to the right, the laser cannon will appear at the top of the city.  It has a deadly beam and it's hard to avoid it when you're frantically trying to take out tanks and soldiers.  Scroll a bit in other direction until it goes back offscreen.  Limit your left and right movement and it will stay safely off-screen.

 

Don't be afraid to take a hit

 

Getting hit head on by a missile can cost you a lot of shield, however getting hit by a falling bomb does much less damage.  If you're low on shield power you'll want to be careful to avoid all hits, but if you're doing well, don't worry as much about the bomber plane.  Also, there's no harm in finishing a level with very little shield power remaining, you will receive a full shield recharge every time you clear a level and beat that level's boss.

 

Don't forget the smart bomb!

 

Especially in the later levels, you can use the smart bomb to clear all of the enemies at the bottom of the screen AND receive all the points for them as if you'd destroyed them with your laser.  If you're really close to the boss and low on shield power, using a bomb can put you over the edge in points to clear the level and get to the boss.  That's really what it's intended use is.  You only get three per mission, so use them wisely.  Activate it with the right fire button.  You can quickly view how close you are to the next boss with the progress bar at the top of the screen.

 

Boss Battles

 

Some boss battles have a safe zone that you can hover in and never get hit. Find those spots! A few of the bosses are also designed to require a little patience - constantly swooping in will result in a quick death.  Don't rush it!  Remember that in boss battles your laser power is unlimited, however your shield cannot be recharged once the battle starts.  Some of the bosses also follow pretty predictable patterns, if you find a safe zone and watch for a bit you might find a way to take it out a little easier.

 

Also, in an earlier post I shared some password cheat codes.  You can practice or test your skills on each boss with a password, although only on the easy difficulty level.  The real challenge awaits you in a full playthrough.