Siddikinz Posted July 22 Share Posted July 22 Hello everyone! I recently started programming in bAtari Basic, and I just want to say that it's an excellent language. I had a lot of fun making my first Atari 2600 game, which is named "Duck and Cover"! Duck and Cover is a game where you play as ducks who need to dodge falling bombs and the mushroom clouds they explode into. The game features a simultaneous multiplayer mode and 32 alternate modes that shake up the way that the game is played. I'm posting here because I want to hear some feedback and suggestions for how I can improve the game. Here is a screenshot of the game in action: And here is a ZIP file containing the ROM and a short text-based manual: Duck_and_Cover.zip Thanks for reading my post, and have a nice day! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Atarius Maximus Posted July 23 Share Posted July 23 I'd add the ability to start the game by pressing the fire button from the titlescreen, as well as after the game is over. Couch Compliance! You'll want to restrain/debounce the firebutton, otherwise a final button press from flapping the duck's wings will register on the game over screen. The easy way to do that is with the code sample below... dim a variable with something like "dim fire_debounce=x". The code below will execute your action after you both press AND release the fire button. if joy0fire && fire_debounce=0 then fire_debounce=1 if !joy0fire && fire_debounce=1 then fire_debounce=2 if joy0fire && fire_debounce=2 then fire_debounce=0::goto _other_game_loop I think what the game really needs is some sprite animations, it would make a big difference. Having the mushroom cloud rise up from the ground, the duck flap his wings when in the air, and his legs move when on the ground would be great. That duck is just begging to be animated! At the end of the game, the bread (I assume you're using the missile for that) that's still remaining on the screen changes to single width and changes color. To fix that, make sure you've got NUSIZx and COLUPx in the loop that's running when the game is over. It feels like the mushroom clouds linger a little too long at the bottom of the screen, I'd probably reduce that. I also noticed that a cloud would occasionally appear a little too far to the side of the playfield. You could also add a difficulty progression to the game so the bombs drop a little faster after you reach a certain point threshold or a certain amount of time has passed. You could consider adding additional lives and using the pfscorebar to display them, or look into one of the many different minikernels to enhance the game. If you haven't already found it, the best resource for learning bB is Random Terrain's site: https://www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-batari-basic-commands.html It's a great first effort! 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted July 23 Share Posted July 23 ZeroPage Homebrew is playing Duck and Cover on today's ZPH stream LIVE on Twitch! Hope you can join us! Tue Jul 23, 2024 | LIVE @ 6PM PT | 9PM ET | 1AM GMT+1Day WATCH LIVE: https://twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/ WATCH LATER: https://youtube.com/zeropagehomebrew/ Games: Punch Chess (2024 Final | 2600) by kamaleon70 @kamaleon70 / Moritz the Underdog (Graphics) / Pedro Pimenta (Music) Cave Bandit (2024 WIP | 2600) by Steve Engelhardt @Atarius Maximus Cave Trap (2024 WIP | 2600) by Steve Engelhardt @Atarius Maximus Sky Saviour 2600 (2024 Final | 2600) by Flump Studios / Paul Marrable @FlumpStudios Duck and Cover (2024 WIP | 2600) by Siddikinz @Siddikinz 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Siddikinz Posted July 23 Author Share Posted July 23 1 hour ago, Atarius Maximus said: I'd add the ability to start the game by pressing the fire button from the titlescreen, as well as after the game is over. Couch Compliance! You'll want to restrain/debounce the firebutton, otherwise a final button press from flapping the duck's wings will register on the game over screen. The easy way to do that is with the code sample below... dim a variable with something like "dim fire_debounce=x". The code below will execute your action after you both press AND release the fire button. if joy0fire && fire_debounce=0 then fire_debounce=1 if !joy0fire && fire_debounce=1 then fire_debounce=2 if joy0fire && fire_debounce=2 then fire_debounce=0::goto _other_game_loop I think what the game really needs is some sprite animations, it would make a big difference. Having the mushroom cloud rise up from the ground, the duck flap his wings when in the air, and his legs move when on the ground would be great. That duck is just begging to be animated! At the end of the game, the bread (I assume you're using the missile for that) that's still remaining on the screen changes to single width and changes color. To fix that, make sure you've got NUSIZx and COLUPx in the loop that's running when the game is over. It feels like the mushroom clouds linger a little too long at the bottom of the screen, I'd probably reduce that. I also noticed that a cloud would occasionally appear a little too far to the side of the playfield. You could also add a difficulty progression to the game so the bombs drop a little faster after you reach a certain point threshold or a certain amount of time has passed. You could consider adding additional lives and using the pfscorebar to display them, or look into one of the many different minikernels to enhance the game. If you haven't already found it, the best resource for learning bB is Random Terrain's site: https://www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-batari-basic-commands.html It's a great first effort! Thank you for the suggestions, I'll try my best to implement them! I like the idea of animating the sprites, that would make the game really pop. To be honest I was so focused on getting the game mechanics to work, I never even thought to add animations! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Siddikinz Posted July 23 Author Share Posted July 23 3 minutes ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said: ZeroPage Homebrew is playing Duck and Cover on today's ZPH stream LIVE on Twitch! Hope you can join us! Tue Jul 23, 2024 | LIVE @ 6PM PT | 9PM ET | 1AM GMT+1Day WATCH LIVE: https://twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/ WATCH LATER: https://youtube.com/zeropagehomebrew/ Games: Punch Chess (2024 Final | 2600) by kamaleon70 @kamaleon70 / Moritz the Underdog (Graphics) / Pedro Pimenta (Music) Cave Bandit (2024 WIP | 2600) by Steve Engelhardt @Atarius Maximus Cave Trap (2024 WIP | 2600) by Steve Engelhardt @Atarius Maximus Sky Saviour 2600 (2024 Final | 2600) by Flump Studios / Paul Marrable @FlumpStudios Duck and Cover (2024 WIP | 2600) by Siddikinz @Siddikinz That's awesome, thanks for checking out my game! I'll be sure to tune in to your stream today! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Siddikinz Posted July 24 Author Share Posted July 24 7 hours ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said: ZeroPage Homebrew is playing Duck and Cover on today's ZPH stream LIVE on Twitch! Hope you can join us! Tue Jul 23, 2024 | LIVE @ 6PM PT | 9PM ET | 1AM GMT+1Day WATCH LIVE: https://twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/ WATCH LATER: https://youtube.com/zeropagehomebrew/ Games: Punch Chess (2024 Final | 2600) by kamaleon70 @kamaleon70 / Moritz the Underdog (Graphics) / Pedro Pimenta (Music) Cave Bandit (2024 WIP | 2600) by Steve Engelhardt @Atarius Maximus Cave Trap (2024 WIP | 2600) by Steve Engelhardt @Atarius Maximus Sky Saviour 2600 (2024 Final | 2600) by Flump Studios / Paul Marrable @FlumpStudios Duck and Cover (2024 WIP | 2600) by Siddikinz @Siddikinz Sorry about the lack of couch compliance, I never thought of that as I've only played the game on an emulator! I will put together a matrix for the game modes before the final release. Thanks for playing my game, I'll keep your suggestions in mind for the future! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted July 24 Share Posted July 24 26 minutes ago, Siddikinz said: Sorry about the lack of couch compliance, I never thought of that as I've only played the game on an emulator! No problem! Very few classic games had couch compliance. 🙂 26 minutes ago, Siddikinz said: I will put together a matrix for the game modes before the final release. Awesome, I think that will help people a lot with trying out all the game variations. 26 minutes ago, Siddikinz said: Thanks for playing my game, I'll keep your suggestions in mind for the future! You're very welcome! Some great concepts in your game, we had a lot of fun playing it. 🙂 - James 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Atarius Maximus Posted July 24 Share Posted July 24 It's a cool idea for a game. There's definitely a few different ways to approach game variations. Rather than a large game matrix of options to choose from, as the developer you can pick the options that you think provide the best gameplay experience and bundle them into difficulty levels, like "novice, standard, advanced, expert". This gives the player an easy choice at the beginning rather than having to try and figure out which options might be the best combination. You're doing that for them. I'm not saying you need to do that with this game, just pointing out that it's another way to approach it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Siddikinz Posted July 24 Author Share Posted July 24 I am currently working on implementing all the feedback I got! So far I have couch compliance, and sprite animations! Now you can start/restart a game by holding the fire button for 1 second. I also animated the ducks and mushroom clouds. The ducks will move their feet when on the ground, and flap their wings in the sky. The mushroom clouds also have a quick animation of them rising from the ground when a bomb explodes. I created a matrix for the game modes, too. I'm going to make sure none of these changes broke anything as well as fine-tune the animations before uploading the updated ROM. I will also release the source code when it's done. I'm also looking into making some cover art and a cartridge label to go with the finished game. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Siddikinz Posted July 25 Author Share Posted July 25 After working on the game for a while, I'm happy with the progress I've made. I think the game looks and plays much better after implementing some of the suggestions I got. I present to you, Duck and Cover version 2! Duck_and_Cover_v2.zip This ZIP file contains the game's ROM, commented source code, manual, and game mode matrix. I think the game is almost finished, but I would still like to hear any last-minute changes I should make before I officially declare it as complete. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Siddikinz Posted July 27 Author Share Posted July 27 Duck and Cover is officially finished! This version fixed an animation glitch from the last release, and added a lives system. I added the lives system because it got annoying having to restart after every death. Now each game gives the player 4 lives, represented by duck eggs! I also designed a cartridge label: Here's the ZIP file containing the ROM, source code, manual, and game mode matrix: Duck_and_Cover_v3.zip The game is now complete, but I will still gladly update it if anyone finds any issues. Thank you to everyone who played my game and gave me feedback while it was in development! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alfredtdk Posted July 27 Share Posted July 27 Wow. Your game improved a lot with the update, the lives made a big difference and it was really cool that lives were represented in the shape of an egg, it was much more fun and enjoyable to play without having to restart after losing a single life. I can't give an opinion yet because I've played very little, but from what little I've played, I've had a lot of fun. Big game. Congratulations 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Siddikinz Posted July 27 Author Share Posted July 27 14 hours ago, alfredtdk said: Wow. Your game improved a lot with the update, the lives made a big difference and it was really cool that lives were represented in the shape of an egg, it was much more fun and enjoyable to play without having to restart after losing a single life. I can't give an opinion yet because I've played very little, but from what little I've played, I've had a lot of fun. Big game. Congratulations Thanks, I'm glad you're enjoying the game! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Siddikinz Posted July 27 Author Share Posted July 27 I almost forgot to do this, but I compiled alternate versions of the game for PAL and SECAM systems. These versions have the colours corrected so they look better in those formats. Here's a ZIP file containing the ROMs: PAL_SECAM.zip I tested these versions by changing the display format in the Stella emulator. Unfortunately I am unable to test them on official hardware because my 2600 is NTSC. If anyone tests these on a real PAL or SECAM system, please let me know if they work! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.