Laserface Island (Completed) and Laserface Planet (WIP)

[Your Face]

Hi,

 

I have programmed a few Atari 2600 games, but they have been private for a long time, so I thought others might want to test them.

 

The completed game is called Laserface Island: Laserface.bin. Here is a screenshot:

I also made an instruction manual (in PowerPoint format): LaserfaceIslandManual.pptx. The box art looks the same as the front of the instructions (first time using a digital pen). I had written more instructions here, but it took a lot of space in combination with the second game. Very short summary: Find the bombs to destroy each boss.

 

I also have a work-in-progress game called Laserface Planet (a sequel to the previous game): Laserface2.bin. It is different from the previous game, with more of an emphasis on platforming. It is also 16K game, so it is more complex. The game will start with an outerspace view, from which the player can select a planet to travel to. After the travel animation, the game will play, as a sidescrolling platformer. Left and right control the player, fire is to jump, up-fire is to fly (note: flying is only vertical), and down-fire is to interact with objects. The player can leave the planet (or, if on a lower screen, move to an upper screen) by flying above the top of the screen. Interacting with a ladder will transition to the lower screen. The first goal is to find enough treasure to purchase the rocket shoes from the store (located on the green planet). Along the way, the player can die by depleting the life meter, which happens by falling down holes and getting damaged by enemies. When the player has both the left and right rocket boots, he can go fight the boss. To access the boss, the player must be in the outerspace view, and press the game select switch. During the boss fight, the player can move with the joystick and press fire to shoot. There are asteroids to dodge (the red ones are dangerous), and the boss will rise onto the screen. The goal of the fight is to deplete the boss' life meter by hitting it in one of the eyes, but only when they are red. If the player is too late, the boss will unleash its special attack, and spread unavoidable lasers across the screen. Defeating the boss is the final goal, but there is another factor to the game, which is the asteroids that invade planets. When a planet is invaded it will gradually lose HP unless the player finds and destroys it (interact with it to destroy, it looks like a stone face, supposed to be similar to the invaders in the previous game). If the HP is depleted, the planet will become taken over, and all the citizens on the planet become enemies. This only has a minor effect on gameplay, but when the game is finished I plan to factor the saved planets into a final score.

 

Here is a version that allows the player to skip to the boss fight (both rocket shoes are purchased):Laserface2[BossFight].bin. This game is unfinished, so any feedback and suggestions are appreciated. (the first game has no more ROM space, so I can't do very much more with that one)

 

I made one other game before, just to test how the Atari works. It is old and broken, but I will still put it here: Soccer.bin. Note: on Stella, it will not function when the registers are randomized.

[+Yurkie]

Thank You for sharing your game with the community. I have not loaded it on my multicart yet, any chance you have a video?

[Your Face]

Here are some videos of me playing both games on an emulator. Also, I have not been able to test them on a cartridge yet so I don't know if they will function on the original hardware (sorry if this is a problem).

Laserface2Bossfight.mkv Laserface2TitleAndGameplay.mkv LaserfaceGameplay.mkv LaserfaceVolcano.mkv

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

ZeroPage Homebrew is playing Laserface Island & Laserface Planet on tomorrow's ZPH stream LIVE on Twitch, hope you can join us!

 

Fri Jul 21, 2023 | LIVE @ 12PM PT | 3PM ET | 7PM GMT

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

 

Games:

• Laserface Island (2023 | 2600) by Your Face @Your Face
• Laserface Planet (2023 WIP | 2600) by Your Face @Your Face
• Twisty Passages (2006 | 2600) by Fred Quimby @batari
• Fruit Fly Fun (2023 WIP | 2600) by Chris Read @atari2600land

 WATCH AT 1080P60 FOR BEST QUALITY

 

 

[Your Face]

Sorry about the jitter in the game that was streamed earlier. That was unexpected as I had tested it on Stella and on my Atari Jr. with the Harmony cartridge I recently got. Here is a new version, the jitter should be fixed: Laserface[Fixed].bin. The problem was that my VSYNC was not synchronized on every frame; I added a WSYNC before the VSYNC to fix this.

[+MarcoJ]

12 hours ago, Your Face said:

The problem was that my VSYNC was not synchronized on every frame; I added a WSYNC before the VSYNC to fix this.

Same thing happened to my game Kovi Kovi too on the show a few months back. ZPH has the ultimate rig for finding glitches

[TrekMD]

Cool!  Thanks for sharing the games!

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

On 7/21/2023 at 4:38 PM, Your Face said:

Sorry about the jitter in the game that was streamed earlier. That was unexpected as I had tested it on Stella and on my Atari Jr. with the Harmony cartridge I recently got. Here is a new version, the jitter should be fixed: Laserface[Fixed].bin. The problem was that my VSYNC was not synchronized on every frame; I added a WSYNC before the VSYNC to fix this.

 

Great job fixing it, got a chance to test out your new version and it works perfectly now on both the ladder climbing and the boss screens. Check out the video below of the new version.

 

- James

 

[Thomas Jentzsch]

On 7/22/2023 at 1:38 AM, Your Face said:

Sorry about the jitter in the game that was streamed earlier. That was unexpected as I had tested it on Stella and on my Atari Jr. with the Harmony cartridge I recently got. Here is a new version, the jitter should be fixed: Laserface[Fixed].bin. The problem was that my VSYNC was not synchronized on every frame; I added a WSYNC before the VSYNC to fix this.

And you moved HMOVE out of VSYNC, right?

[Your Face]

Yes, I did that too.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Two comments:

• On my console, the first boss (didn't test any further) doesn't move or shot. It always stays at the bottom. There is some bug in your code, which doesn't show on all consoles. Please let me know when you found it.
• Your ROMs are 4094 bytes only. Looks like your are missing the last two bytes.

Edited August 2, 2023 by Thomas Jentzsch

[+x=usr(1536)]

25 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Two comments:

• On my console, the first boss (didn't test any further) doesn't move or shot. It always stays at the bottom. There is some bug in your code, which doesn't show on all consoles. Please let me know when you found it.

This one may be down to difficulty switch settings:

 

Quote

MULTI-PLAYER:
For computer-controlled enemies, set the LEFT DIFFICULTY SWITCH to B. To control enemies with the right joystick, set it to A.

25 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

• Your ROMs are 4094 bytes only. Looks like your are missing the last two bytes.

Confirmed.  It won't run from a Concerto as a result, but the Harmony Encore doesn't seem to care and loads it as expected.

[+x=usr(1536)]

On 7/5/2023 at 8:11 PM, Your Face said:

I also made an instruction manual (in PowerPoint format): LaserfaceIslandManual.pptx. The box art looks the same as the front of the instructions (first time using a digital pen). I had written more instructions here, but it took a lot of space in combination with the second game. Very short summary: Find the bombs to destroy each boss.

Thanks for releasing this   Still getting into the swing of it, but it's definitely interesting and I'm looking forward to seeing how the sequel progresses.

 

One small thing: I'm attaching a .PDF copy of the manual (which does look really nice).  For cross-platform use, it's generally a more universally-accessible format than PowerPoint.

LaserfaceIslandManual.pdf

[Your Face]

Sorry about the ROM missing the last two bytes, here is another version: Laserface[Fixed2].bin.I think I tried to removed them at one point to save space, but it really didn't save any space.

 

Thanks for making a PDF version, I wanted to convert it at some point but never got to it.

 

I am still working on bug fixes and the scoring sheet for the sequel, I will post another version here when it's stable.

[+x=usr(1536)]

On 8/5/2023 at 1:08 PM, Your Face said:

Sorry about the ROM missing the last two bytes, here is another version: Laserface[Fixed2].bin.I think I tried to removed them at one point to save space, but it really didn't save any space.

Just confirming that this works on hardware - an NTSC 2600 Jr. via Harmony Encore and a 7800 via both that and a Concerto work fine.

On 8/5/2023 at 1:08 PM, Your Face said:

Thanks for making a PDF version, I wanted to convert it at some point but never got to it.

No worries 

 

[Your Face]

Here is an update on the game Laserface Planet. The biggest addition is the scoring screen at the end of the game, and I also did some bug fixes.

- I fixed the bug that made planet selection frame-perfect and inconsistent

- Loading a new screen is more stable. Before it was done in overscan but taking too long, so now it is done during the entire frame.

- The scoring screen at the end scores based on how many planets were saved.

Laserface2.bin

[Your Face]

Here is the box-art I just made for Laserface Island:

[Prizrak]

Looks great 👍

[Your Face]

Here is an updated version of Laserface Planet:Laserface2.bin

 

In addition to various bug-fixes and minor changes, there were some more major changes to the gameplay:

 

The boss fight was changed to be more challenging. Now the boss moves up and down when below a certain health value, and more quickly as its health decreases. Also, as the health decreases, the asteroids gradually become replaced by feet-shaped enemies that cannot be destroyed by the player.

 

The player can now enter the houses. Sometimes the house will have treasure that can be collected.

 

When a planet is invaded there will now be a face enemy traveling across the screen. This enemy has its own screen counter, so to see it you have to be on the same screen. To defeat the enemy you must fly into it with the propeller hat, but don't miss or else you might be damaged. If the enemy is hit 3 times it is defeated, and the planet will no longer be invaded.

 

 

[Phobos867]

This is very cool! I really like the overall concept with the HUB area and non-linear exploration. Is the game beatable yet?

Edited January 14 by Phobos867

[Your Face]

Thanks! I just tested it with the recent changes, and it can be beaten, but I don't know yet if the perfect score is attainable.