Vectron 2024 - controller fix

[intvdave]

I tried this game when making videos for my website and I was not encouraged to try it any more. Using the lower half of the disc to shoot in 7 directions was challenging. Moving the energy block with the side buttons was painful. It was a game I never cared to try again...until....

@wolfy62 IMed me asking to "fix" the controller issues. I thought about several solutions of how to do this and could only come up with one that would not mess up the current controller inputs.

To move the energy block, the upper half of the disc could be used so the lower half still can be used to shoot.

The keypad is not used at all so all the keys are available. To represent what the disc is doing, I mapped the keys below to shoot (sorry if it is not easy to see)

...

4.6

7.9

C0E

 

The game seems to play better and you can be more accurate with your shots.

 

What do you think of these updates? Is there anything else that needs to be updated in Vectron?

[Rickster8]

3 hours ago, intvdave said:

I tried this game when making videos for my website and I was not encouraged to try it any more. Using the lower half of the disc to shoot in 7 directions was challenging. Moving the energy block with the side buttons was painful. It was a game I never cared to try again...until....

@wolfy62 IMed me asking to "fix" the controller issues. I thought about several solutions of how to do this and could only come up with one that would not mess up the current controller inputs.

To move the energy block, the upper half of the disc could be used so the lower half still can be used to shoot.

The keypad is not used at all so all the keys are available. To represent what the disc is doing, I mapped the keys below to shoot (sorry if it is not easy to see)

...

4.6

7.9

C0E

 

The game seems to play better and you can be more accurate with your shots.

 

What do you think of these updates? Is there anything else that needs to be updated in Vectron?

I'm sure anything you did would be an improvement. This game has an incredible concept, but the execution is sorely lacking in the controller setup.... It seems to get high scores you have to master using Free Style.... Which I guess begs the question did you do anything with the two styles meaning Free Style and Fixed Style? 

 

Also particularly annoying about this game are levels 4, 5 and 6 where the yellow spiders come out. I simply cannot get past these levels and because of that I rarely play this game cuz it just pisses me off. Probably could use mr_me's input on this one as I've never seen a score on Vectron higher than his. He's gotten over 400k in the HSC.....    @mr_me

 

Edited November 18, 2023 by Rickster8

[intvdave]

1 hour ago, Rickster8 said:

Which I guess begs the question did you do anything with the two styles meaning Free Style and Fixed Style?

 

I did not change Free Style. It is easy to swamp modes and it does stick between levels.

 

I will take a look at the level progression.

[mr_me]

7 hours ago, intvdave said:

I tried this game when making videos for my website and I was not encouraged to try it any more. Using the lower half of the disc to shoot in 7 directions was challenging. Moving the energy block with the side buttons was painful. It was a game I never cared to try again...until....

@wolfy62 IMed me asking to "fix" the controller issues. I thought about several solutions of how to do this and could only come up with one that would not mess up the current controller inputs.

To move the energy block, the upper half of the disc could be used so the lower half still can be used to shoot.

The keypad is not used at all so all the keys are available. To represent what the disc is doing, I mapped the keys below to shoot (sorry if it is not easy to see)

...

4.6

7.9

C0E

 

The game seems to play better and you can be more accurate with your shots.

 

What do you think of these updates? Is there anything else that needs to be updated in Vectron?

That sounds pretty good.  One thing I'd add is assign the freestyle toggle to keypad 8, although you shouldn't need a freestyle toggle if the block control worked properly.

 

The control layout I had in mind was the upper side button for move block left and lower side buttons for move block right.  And assign the freestyle toggle to the keypad or upper disc directions.

 

It would be nice to have the user select the starting level set.  And then randomly select or shuffle the remaining five level sets.  Supposedly the sixth set is impossible but I've never seen it.

[Rickster8]

1 hour ago, mr_me said:

That sounds pretty good.  One thing I'd add is assign the freestyle toggle to keypad 8, although you shouldn't need a freestyle toggle if the block control worked properly.

 

The control layout I had in mind was the upper side button for move block left and lower side buttons for move block right.  And assign the freestyle toggle to the keypad or upper disc directions.

 

It would be nice to have the user select the starting level set.  And then randomly select or shuffle the remaining five level sets.  Supposedly the sixth set is impossible but I've never seen it.

Yeah that's the problem... The game has really cool colors and really cool later levels, but nobody ever gets to see them because the game was made too ridiculously hard. The only way we could see the later levels is when Papa Pete played a video of a hacked version of the game. That was super cool. I could literally play this game for a year straight and never get past 4, 5, and 6 in the same game.... Uggghhh

Edited November 19, 2023 by Rickster8
Wording

[Rickster8]

Lol, I played this a little tonight just to see where I could get to. I got to Level 4 ONCE!!!! 🤦‍♂️

 

 

 

 

Edited November 19, 2023 by Rickster8
Formatting

[intvdave]

3 hours ago, Rickster8 said:

Lol, I played this a little tonight just to see where I could get to. I got to Level 4 ONCE!!!! 🤦‍♂️

 

Hang tight.... this game will get fixed. I am willing to do more than just the controller updates. I just need someone with experience in playing the game to help me.

[intvdave]

I have implemented the requested key changes and an "auto aim" feature that will aim at the energy block and shoot. The updates so far are:

 

; keypad is used to auto aim/shoot (#1 & #3)
; keypad is used to set FREESTYLE mode (#2)
; keypad can be used to shoot (#4,#6,CLR,#0,ENT,#9,#7)
; up on the disc auto aims/shoots
; upper half of disc can be used to move energy block (not straight up)
; upper side buttons move energy block left
; lower side buttons move energy block right

 

Off to adjust the levels.....

[Zendocon]

On 11/18/2023 at 10:49 AM, intvdave said:

To move the energy block, the upper half of the disc could be used so the lower half still can be used to shoot.

The keypad is not used at all so all the keys are available. To represent what the disc is doing, I mapped the keys below to shoot (sorry if it is not easy to see)

...

4.6

7.9

C0E

 

The game seems to play better and you can be more accurate with your shots.

 

What do you think of these updates? Is there anything else that needs to be updated in Vectron?

The control scheme is similar on the Evercade release of Vectron: use the d-pad in all directions except North.  I had a hard time adjusting to it.  In PIDEjL, I enable a custom keyboard mapping and just use the ZXCVBNM keys for firing, and the arrow keys for moving the Energy Block.

 

Honestly, what this game needs is an interactive tutorial (optional and can be skipped at any time):

1. Acquaint the player with the Energy Block, and have a brief message explaining what it is.  Don't drain energy at this point.
   1. Have the player move the Energy Block (with Freestyle turned on, and remaining on).
2. Acquaint the player with the V-Gun, again explaining what it is.
   1. Have the player shoot the Energy Block with an Energy Blast from the V-Gun.
   2. Turn off Freestyle, and have the player move the Energy Block in either direction.  Explain Freestyle at this point, and that the Energy Block will not move until shot.
3. Explain that the object of each level is to complete the base.  Have the player complete the tutorial level, with Freestyle remaining off and with no energy drain.
4. Restart the level, and explain the Energy Meter.  Have it drain in real time, but only to a certain point, say to halfway, if the player takes too long here.
   1. Have an E-Pak float onto the screen, and explain it with a brief message.
   2. Have the player shoot the E-Pak and explain the released energy.  The Energy Block should be in position to catch it.
   3. When the Energy Block catches the energy, only explain for now that the Energy Meter is being recharged.  (Wait until later to explain the part about the Energy Block being "reinforced" since we haven't introduced the Nasties just yet.)
5. Have the player complete the base as before, but now with Energy Meter drain and periodic E-Paks floating by.
   1. Freestyle can be turned on or off at will by the player - explain this as well.
   2. Allow the Energy Meter to go to zero now.  If it does, vaporize the Energy Block and explain what just happened, and have the player try again to complete the base.
6. Now it's time to introduce the Nasties.  Start by acquainting the player with the G-Sphere.
   1. Explain that the G-Sphere just gets in the way.
   2. Turn the G-Sphere yellow and explain that the player can turn it red again by shooting it.  Have the player shoot the G-Sphere until it turns red again.  The Energy Block is fully functional at this point, with the Energy Meter draining but not all the way to zero for now.
7. Introduce the Hungrees and keep all the Nasties red for now.  Explain that the Hungrees will eat the base sections left behind by the Energy Block after it has been shot.
   1. Have the player shoot one of the Hungrees.
   2. Have the player ram the other one with the Energy Block.
8. Turn all the Nasties yellow and explain why it's important to keep the G-Sphere red.
   1. With the Energy Block stationery, have a yellow Hungree move into the Energy Block and vaporize it.  Explain this is what yellow Hungrees do, and that Energy Blocks are the player's "lives".
   2. Move an E-Pak onto the screen and in position where the falling energy will be caught by the new Energy Block which has spawned in the middle base position.
   3. Have the player shoot the E-Pak and wait for the Energy Block to catch the falling energy.
   4. Explain a "reinforced" Energy Block.  Have the player ram one of the Hungrees with the Energy Block, which will remain reinforced.
   5. Turn off the reinforcement and have the player shoot the other yellow Hungree, which will remain in place, out of harm's way.
   6. Have the player shoot the G-Sphere repeatedly until it turns red again.
9. Explain that Nasties pollute the E-Paks and their energy.
   1. Have an E-Pak float into position, and have a Hungree briefly move into it so it turns tan.
   2. Have the player shoot the E-Pak and catch the falling energy with the Energy Block.
   3. Explain that tan energy only provides partial Energy Meter restoration, and that the Energy Block is not reinforced (no need to demonstrate vaporizing an Energy Block this time by a yellow Hungree).
   4. Repeat the above, but now with an E-Pak that is turned brown.  The explanation this time is that brown energy is useless.
10. Have the player complete the first stage as normal, but with unlimited Energy Blocks.
11. Briefly explain other types of Nasties:
    1. The Splits
    2. The Diamondbacks
    3. The Blue Meanies
    4. Explain that there are other types of Nasties on even higher levels (let the player discover the Sweeps and the Prizum on one's own).

After all that, other things I can recommend are:

• A play mode where the player tries to complete all the levels, but one at a time in any order.  Use JLP to save progress and best scores for each level.
• An "easy difficulty" mode where the action is slowed down.  That should be as easy as setting the value in address $103 to something higher than 3, as when pressing 1, 2, 3 in certain Mattel games.
• Other features to ramp down the difficulty a bit, such as earning an extra Energy Block after every level and granting Double and Triple scoring only when the Energy Block count is maxed out (say at 5, as would have been the case in the original game).
• A real "extra little visual treat" after completing all 99 levels, as opposed to the message "SUPERIOR PLAYER | YOU WIN":
  • Have it be different between the standard play mode and the one I described above.

[Rickster8]

Holy Crap, that friggen G-Sphere. I wish I could meet that thing in a dark alley armed with every destructive weapon on earth. 🤬🤬🤬

[mr_me]

Yeah, the g-sphere is only in the first level set.  Removing it might improve the game.

[intvdave]

6 hours ago, mr_me said:

Yeah, the g-sphere is only in the first level set.  Removing it might improve the game.

With the new controller inputs, it is easy to get through the first level set. It probably needs to stay in.