Raknotron (WIP)

[8bitwidgets.com]

awesome

 

[KainXavier]

This new build has been proved challenging, and I'm still not ready to show it off yet.  Sorry all!  That said, I do have a somewhat humorous video to share with you.  I was writing up behavior for one of the new enemies, and I didn't really think about how fast its movement would come across:

 

 

The current plan is to make the larval and pupal forms of this enemy fully interactive.  I've also got a variant I'm working on but its behavior requires more work to implement.  I'll probably hold off on pursuing that so I can actually get something into yours hands sooner.

 

 

[KainXavier]

I'm sorry it's taken three weeks, but I finally have a new build for you all:

 

 

Raknotron_WIP_R5.mkv

 

Here's what's new:

 

I've introduced three new enemy types, and two enemies appear on-screen simultaneously, albeit with flicker. Animations and collision are in, and the enemies will move around and you can shoot them.  Touching a hostile enemy will reset your position as if you died.

 

The enemies are as follows:

 

Bulgar:  Wind type.  A white egg that hatches a Maggot after 5 seconds.  Can be pushed off-screen or shot to death.  No weaknesses.

 

Maggot:  Lightning type.  A yellow larva that moves right to left.  Pupates after 5 seconds.  Should be shot to death.  Weak to Earth.

 

Brittle:  Lightning type.  A yellow egg that hatches a Flinch upon death.  Can be shot, but should be pushed off-screen.  Weak to Earth.

 

Flinch:  Fire type.  A red larva that moves left to right.  Pupates after 5 seconds.  Should be shot, but explodes upon death.*  Weak to Water.

 

Here's what didn't make it in:

 

Explosions are not in yet.  Neither are pupal forms, sadly.  That said, adding both of those things is my next priority.

 

Also, I had to scale back the # of bullets again.  You're now limited to 4 bullets on-screen instead of 6.  I will work toward increasing that number again, but I have other issues I'll have to deal with first.

 

The road blocks ahead:

 

I've come to realization that the kernel I'm using isn't going to work.  I'll need to write some kind of dynamic, multi-section renderer that does sprite placement on the fly.  I've never done something like that before so it's going to take me some time to figure out how.  You may start seeing separate builds from me as I work on nailing that functionality down.

 

On a related note, I've just about hit the 4K cartridge limit.  So I'll also need to learn about bank-switching and how I can make it work for Raknotron.  I don't really have a size target in mind.  I just want to keep the game compatible with as many devices as possible.

 

Speaking of compatibility, I may need to consider cutting keypad support.  That's been a pretty hard limit for me, but I need to start offloading my code to Overscan, and I don't know how well I can do that in 400 cycle chunks.  It may be better to cut support for now so I can figure out all that I need to do and then work it back in at the end.

 

And there's probably more I had wanted to talk about, but I'm blanking, and I really just need to be done with this post / build now. 😛

 

See you in a week or preferably sooner!

 

Raknotron_07042024.7z

[+Living Room Arcade]

I love it!  👍👍

 

(I watched the video.  I couldn't get the game to start from the .bin file using Stella.)  

[KainXavier]

23 hours ago, Living Room Arcade said:

(I watched the video.  I couldn't get the game to start from the .bin file using Stella.)  

Weird, does the game boot at all?  Also, what version of Stella are you using?  I'm on 6.7.1, but I've also used 6.7 during the course of development.

[+Living Room Arcade]

Never mind, @KainXavier.  In Stella 6.7.1, I just had to go to Options --> Game Properties --> Controllers.  Keyboard was autodetected, just had to change it to joysticks and it's working great!  Love that Robotron-style dual control.  Colorful and fast action!  Love it!  

[KainXavier]

On 7/6/2024 at 11:06 AM, Living Room Arcade said:

Never mind, @KainXavier.  In Stella 6.7.1, I just had to go to Options --> Game Properties --> Controllers.  Keyboard was autodetected, just had to change it to joysticks and it's working great!  Love that Robotron-style dual control.  Colorful and fast action!  Love it!  

Whew, okay, glad to hear it!  You do raise a good point, though.  I should probably include instructions on how to configure Stella along with the ROM.

[Piledriver]

You mentioned somet5hing about PAL and SECAM... I recommend you check these out:

;https://forums.atariage.com/topic/282616-ntsc-color-constants-and-instant-pal-60-conversion/

[KainXavier]

Hey all, I just wanted to drop in to say a new build is still coming.  I wound up implementing F8 bank-switching since I was running pretty low on space.  I think I'll release the new build once I finish that and the pupal enemies.  Also, keypad support will remain for now.  I'll let you know when and if I cut it.

 

On 7/10/2024 at 8:39 PM, Piledriver said:

You mentioned something about PAL and SECAM... I recommend you check these out:

 

Thank you for the video and the link!  I'll be sure to check them out.

 

Regarding PAL and SECAM support, I'm not quite ready to tackle them properly yet, but Raknotron supports PAL-60 and SECAM-60 at least.  You can switch palettes on the fly using the TV Type switch on your 2600 or the Pause Button on your 7800.

Edited July 13 by KainXavier

[KainXavier]

The new build's ready:

Raknotron_WIP_R6.mkv

 

As previously mentioned, Raknotron is now a 8K cartridge that uses F8 bank-switching.  I've also introduced three new enemies, but only two are playable at the moment.  (I'll show off the third once I have explosions in.)  The new enemies are as follows:

 

Bloat: Fire Type.  The pupal form of a Maggot.  Molts after 5 seconds.  Can be shot or pushed off-screen.  Explodes upon death.*  Weak to Water.

 

Chrysalisk: Dark / Death Type.  The pupal form of a Flinchworm.  Molts after 5 seconds.  Deadly to the touch.  Must be shot to death.  Weak to Light / Life.

 

Smite: Fire Type.  An explosive egg that never hatches.  Re-position and detonate to take out enemies.*

 

Black Widow had a lot of interesting ideas that kind of took a back seat to the action.  Pushing eggs around was one of them for me.  I want to change that with Raknotron.  Each egg / pupa has a different strategy, and they also tie into one of Black Widow's more successful mechanics, chaining explosions.

Raknotron_07162024.7z

[+Living Room Arcade]

Nice!  Lookin' good!  

[KainXavier]

Hey all, I'm sorry it's been more than a week since you've heard from me.  I'm still working on Raknotron, but I took some time off to go through my Xbox 360 collection and figure out what I needed / wanted to purchase before the store closed.  With that (mostly) wrapped up, I can get back to the task at hand.

 

Right now, that's writing a new kernel for Raknotron.  The current plan is to support up to 7 sections per frame.  Each section would be capable of rendering two projectiles and two characters.  I'll post a proof of concept as soon as I have something to show off!

[KainXavier]

Sorry all, I'm still working on the new kernel.  Long story short, I wrote a whole bunch of (seemingly) fancy code that I realized wasn't going to work.  So I kind of have to scrap what I have and start over.  I'm happy to start posting snapshots of my code if that's of interest to anyone.