Stay Puft and Ecto-1

[alfredtdk]

Ghostbusters was one of the first films I watched in the cinema, I still love that film to this day.

With the recent Ghostbuster Frozen Empire, the  Marshmallow Man from '84 transformed into countless cute little creatures.

I decided in this proof of concept what it would look like to faithfully port it in monumental appearance to the 2600 system.

Here you simultaneously control Stay Puft and the Ghostbusters vehicle, the Ecto-1.
To return to the starting positions, press Reset.

 

Stay_Puft.bas Stay_Puft.bas.bin

Edited April 18 by alfredtdk

[alfredtdk]

Stay Puft - Earthquake

 

With BB's hidden feature that makes the screen shake, the shakescreen, I wanted to give the sensation that when a creature as heavy as Stay Puft would cause when walking through the streets of a large metropolis, there would certainly be small earthquakes. In the original film we hear the heavy sound of his footsteps.
For some reason I don't know when using this feature, it directly affects the game's music, changing it to something more terrifying.
Well, I actually liked the end result.

Stay_Puft_Earthquake.bas Stay_Puft_Earthquake.bas.bin

[alfredtdk]

How about you being in control of the earthquakes caused by Stay Puft for an indefinite time by pressing and holding the fire button? With this you can also switch the game's soundtrack.

 

 

 

Stay_Puft_Fire_Button_Earthquake.bas Stay_Puft_Fire_Button_Earthquake.bas.bin

Edited April 18 by alfredtdk

[alfredtdk]

This is a 16k version with no blank lines.
Stay Puft can walk behind buildings.
It also includes an oppressive hazy sky with purplish clouds, symbolizing Goozer's arrival on Earth.

 

 

 

 

Stay_Puft_16k_NBL.bas

Stay_Puft_16k_NBL.bas.bin

Edited April 20 by alfredtdk

[alfredtdk]

It would be very interesting if this proof of concept actually became a complete game, in the style of the classic Rampage. Stay Puft fits perfectly with the giant creatures that cause a scene of chaos and destruction wherever they go, cities are left in rubble, in the same way that the great kaijus in the cinema do, like Godzilla or King Kong.

Stay_Puft_Pfheights.bas.bin

Edited April 21 by alfredtdk

[alfredtdk]

I noticed that there is interest in transforming this concept into a real, complete game, like Rampage.

If you want to collaborate with this project, the source code is available to make changes as you deem necessary, I just ask that you post the changed source code again with the improvements and the bin file so that everyone can check the result.

It will be a completely free, non-profit project, just a way of paying homage to this great cinema classic.
You can also collaborate by posting visual arts, ideas, concepts, forms of gameplay, etc...

As for the title, I think we can keep that temporarily until something more creative comes up for the 2600.

I believe that many players would be happy if this project becomes real.

[alfredtdk]

Sometimes crazy things happen when we add new features to the code, a kind of bug, like the ecto-1 vehicle and parts of Stay Puft having different colors, constantly changing color. Does anyone know what causes this effect? Is there a comment added in the wrong place in the code, which conflicts with the rest of the code, perhaps before the main loop or the drawn screen?

 

This version that uses pfheights has the advantage of changing the size of horizontal lines, you can, for example, increase the size of street pavements, buildings, etc.

Stay_Puft_Color+.bas Stay_Puft_Color+.bas.bin

Edited April 21 by alfredtdk

[+Karl G]

I know what is causing this, and how to fix it. The section of the manual on pfheights says there's a known issue if the first row in pfheights isn't set to 8. When I set it to 8 myself, I got a stable picture when I set it to 8 in your code. However, the other issue is that the numbers already added up to 92 instead of 88, and up to 92 after making that change. It still works like this, but it expands the size of your visible screen, so takes processing time away from your game. This is less of an issue if you don't use the score or a minikernel, however. Anyway, I suggest that you set the first pfheights entry to 8, then subtract 1 from 8 of the other lines to make the total equal 88.

[alfredtdk]

Problem solved, thanks for Karl G  help.
However, when consulting the section I realized that if I want to create new screens I will not be able to use pfheights again with another configuration, because this will be recorded directly in the ROM.
Unless you resort to the use of  SuperChip RAM . Correct me if I misunderstood.
Not that it is something that is so necessary for this type of game.

Stay_Puft_Color+BUGFIX.bas Stay_Puft_Color+BUGFIX.bas.bin

Edited April 27 by alfredtdk

[alfredtdk]

Visual arts made by AI.

[+Karl G]

On 4/27/2024 at 6:16 PM, alfredtdk said:

Problem solved, thanks for Karl G  help.
However, when consulting the section I realized that if I want to create new screens I will not be able to use pfheights again with another configuration, because this will be recorded directly in the ROM.
Unless you resort to the use of  SuperChip RAM . Correct me if I misunderstood.
Not that it is something that is so necessary for this type of game.

Stay_Puft_Color+BUGFIX.bas 27.45 kB · 3 downloads Stay_Puft_Color+BUGFIX.bas.bin 8 kB · 10 downloads

This is not the case. You can specify pfheights as many times as you need to to change the definitions. Yes, the tables are stored in ROM, but under the hood a RAM pointer to the current data is updated. It is the same way that changing the shape of a player sprite or playfield works with a new playerX: or playfield: definition.