JagJam 2024 - A game jam for the Jaguar

[Boris K.]

Hi everyone,

 

maybe it's a crazy idea, but I just opened a jam for the Jaguar over on itch.io. I kindly asked @Songbird and @ctrl_alt_rees to join me in looking at the final games and deciding the winner, and I'll even throw in 200 bucks for the first place. Well, you can read all about it over here:

https://itch.io/jam/jagjam2024

 

Looking forward to your entries. Cheers!

[Boris K.]

Just a gentle nudge so you guys won't forget about this ☺️ Already heard that @pps might look into making something, hope that @BitJag and @DrTypo will have some time as well and let's see who else might consider diving in, maybe even the ones who have not considered to code on the Jaguar before. Cheers!

 

CTRL+ALT+REES also summarized it in this video:

 

Edited May 16 by Boris K.

[+CyranoJ]

25 minutes ago, Boris K. said:

Just a gentle nudge so you guys won't forget about this ☺️ Already heard that @pps might look into making something, hope that @BitJag and @DrTypo will have some time as well and let's see who else might consider diving in, maybe even the ones who have not considered to code on the Jaguar before. Cheers!

 

If you need/want another judge...

[+BitJag]

Thanks for putting this on.  I have a few things I could potentially submit.  I'll keep this in mind and see if I can get something together before October.

[Boris K.]

@BitJag Sounds good! 😀

 

@CyranoJ Thanks, but we're all set on that side. However, I was hoping you'd maybe want to code something ...

[+CyranoJ]

I'm good thanks, but all the best. 

[pps]

Someone has to start the jam...

 

Go Lucky for the Jaguar

[sjc]

My WIP entry, "Shape Shooter 2000": https://21twice.itch.io/ss2k

 

Developed under emulation since I don't have the real hardware (because have you seen the price of those things?!). If anyone would like to try it on a Jaguar and let me know just how badly it runs I will be eternally grateful. The video configuration code is unmodified Atari example code. Happy to share more details if you're worried. Otherwise, it runs in BigP but not Virtual Jaguar (it uses Atari's "new" 3D demo code).

[LordKraken]

I wasn't expecting much with the very lousy itch page but... but... did you just made a pretty good 3d shooter game, with already pretty good control. Really like the fact that you can lock your direction while shooting!.

 

GG!

 

Only wish would be maybe to try to get a better sense of the floor somehow?

[sjc]

Thanks for taking the time to play it, I really appreciate it. Yeah, the Itch page will get a polish sometime soon. And thanks for the feedback, I need to do something about the background and sense of depth, especially since I'm planning to add a few enemies who make more of the verticality.

[pps]

5 hours ago, sjc said:

My WIP entry, "Shape Shooter 2000": https://21twice.itch.io/ss2k 

...

If anyone would like to try it on a Jaguar and let me know just how badly it runs I will be eternally grateful.

I will test it when I'm back home from work - with my PAL Jaguar. Stay tuned... 

Edited September 25 by pps

[pps]

Ok, I had a test.

 

Sad news: Can't see anything but the "purple" background color. Not even the text overlay is visible. Music is also not there,

 

Maybe someone with a real NTSC Jaguar can check if game runs there.

 

EDIT: my test config: PAL Jaguar with JaguarGD latest firmware

Edited September 25 by pps

[+BitJag]

I was just about to post this response, but just saw your latest response.

 

Thanks for posting this, It's fun to shoot things up in 3D every once in a while and it's good to see games added to game jam.

 

A few notes looking at it on real hardware (NTSC):

1. The top line, above the "LIVES" text, is cut off on my CRT television.  Pushing this down another 10 to 12 pixels would remedy this.  It looks like there is another line of blue text on the right as well, this is getting cut off.  (See picture)
2. There is this interesting line down the middle of the screen that shifts a little bit left and right every once in a while.  It looks like this appears when I start shooting, sometimes it goes away, and sometimes it stays until the game returns back to the title screen.  Comparing this to emulation (I just tried this in emulation for the first time), it looks like this has something to do with the particle effects for the green boundaries and the smoke trails for missiles and enemies.  (See picture)
3. The audio volume for the music and sfx could stand to be a bit louder.  Music and SFX are both there I believe.  Maybe increase the volume about 20% if possible.

I'll post a video in a moment.

[+BitJag]

Here is a quick video capture at 60fps (the capture is a bit dark, ignore that).  The glitch with the particle rendering seems to slow things down significantly on real hardware, but that is just a guess.  I also included an image an audio levels meter that represents the average volume of the music and sfx.  It could stand to be brought up significantly, closer to that -25 to -20 range.

 

 

[sjc]

@pps @BitJag Thank you both. This has been very helpful. (And rather disappointing. It's back to the drawing-board for me, I guess.)

[pps]

1 hour ago, sjc said:

@pps @BitJag Thank you both. This has been very helpful. (And rather disappointing. It's back to the drawing-board for me, I guess.)

One note: As I had no luck with Skylar 1.0 on my system, I plan to test another SD @the weekend. I will add ss2k to this test, too and report again (via PM).

[+BitJag]

Found a moment to do another test with your latest build.  It's running at a great speed on real hardware now and the audio is much better. 

 

In regards to the audio, there is the voice that says things when power ups are dropped.  Balancing the volume levels for sfx, voice over (for the power ups), and the music could be tweaked a bit to make sure that the voice can be understood.  It's hard to suggest anything else beyond this for the audio.  Everyone is going to have a slightly different audio setup while playing the game, because of this balancing all three of these audio elements won't be easy to do in a way that makes everyone happy.

 

It seems that the particles are still not being rendered correctly when compared with BigPemu.  I wish I could help out more here, but my knowledge is limited when it comes to generating particle effects like this on the Jaguar.

 

A last set of notes about some stalls at the game's title screen.  I tested this version of your game on 4 different NTSC Jaguar consoles, and two of my consoles wouldn't completely boot the game, while the other two ran the game just fine. 

 

This is what happens.  After sending the game file to my skunkboard, It looks like the TOM's register for the background color is set to the appropriate blue, then, and only sometimes, the text for the title screen is loaded.  Afterwards, the game stalls with no audio (no music). 

 

For one of my consoles, this stall is understandable because I know for sure that this particular Jaguar console has a failing DSP, and often encounters audio issues with some games (I know it has problems with Atari Karts, and with Kobiyashi Maru, another game that I believe uses the U235 engine).   So, I would normally just shrug my shoulders and not mention it here, but I also have the same crash on one of my other consoles that I don't believe have any DSP hardware issues.   When I encountered this, I had to question whether or not the audio engine might have a problem, or it hasn't been properly implemented in this particular case.  These are just guesses though and I need to double check what I think is a working console with other games that have U235 sound engine.  Because it's also possible, and probably more likely, the DSP is starting to fail on this console as well

 

I thought I should bring it up in case it leads you to polishing the code for this game that may resolve this issue.  I just hope I'm not sending you on a wild goose chase.  Thanks again for sharing your game!

 

 

[sjc]

@BitJag Thank you so much for trying again. Your feedback is really appreciated, and the video should really help me track down the particle issue (they seem to be drawn correctly now, but at 0,0 in camera space, an issue which I think was also in the original build).