Tumblers

[+Armscar Coder]

A while back, I had an idea for a game mechanic of rolling a cube with different color sides.  Once I got something pretty decent to display in 2D for the 2600, the game Tumblers came together pretty soon after.  I enjoyed the challenge of fitting this game into 2K while implementing vertical scrolling and asymmetrical playfield for the first time.  I have included ROMs for NTSC and PAL60.  Game instructions are available as a .pdf download, but I have also included images of each instruction page below.

 

Tumblers has been pretty extensively tested.  So, excluding addressing any bug findings by the AtariAge community, I am calling this game complete.  I hope you enjoy.

 

Tumblers_NTSC.bin

 

Tumblers_PAL60.bin

 

Tumblers Instructions.pdf

 

     

 

     

 

     

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

Thank you so much for having us host the Exclusive World Premiere of Tumblers last night on ZPH @Armscar Coder and for being in the chat to answer people's questions! It was a blast to play and try for decent score. 🙂 Here's the YouTube archive of the stream for those who missed it.

 

- James

 

 

[Albert]

This is a neat puzzle game, and impressive that it fits in just 2K, including a title screen and music!  This is going to require some practice to get good at, especially as it gets more difficult as the levels progress!

 

 ..Al

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Excellence in just 2K! 👍 

[+Philsan]

Very nice game Andrew!

[killersquirel]

This game is awesome. This would be a great candidate to add to the Plus Cart High Score Club. 

[+Armscar Coder]

On 8/31/2024 at 2:03 AM, killersquirel said:

This game is awesome. This would be a great candidate to add to the Plus Cart High Score Club.

Hey @killersquirel, I am glad that you are enjoying playing Tumblers.  Simply put, I don't have the ROM space to add the code necessary for the PlusROM High Score Club.  My desire is to preserve Tumblers as a 2K ROM game and I am currently sitting at 0 bytes left.  Yeah, I could maybe scrounge up a byte here or there, but I would be really hard pressed to free up enough space to make it a PlusROM game.

 

Just curious, how high of a score have you gotten?

[Lord Innit]

This is excellent.  Controls have been thought out really well and the graphics are very effective. That rolling animation makes me smile. Hard to see how this game could be any better in 2K.  

[Thomas Jentzsch]

2 hours ago, Armscar Coder said:

Yeah, I could maybe scrounge up a byte here or there, but I would be really hard pressed to free up enough space to make it a PlusROM game.

There always is one more byte. Repeat.  

[+Al_Nafuur]

11 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

14 hours ago, Armscar Coder said:

Yeah, I could maybe scrounge up a byte here or there, but I would be really hard pressed to free up enough space to make it a PlusROM game.

There always is one more byte. Repeat.  

For the PlusROM HSC hacks I usually expand the 2K games to 4K, then I have enough space for the additional 40 bytes code. 😉

 

[Thomas Jentzsch]

7 hours ago, Al_Nafuur said:

For the PlusROM HSC hacks I usually expand the 2K games to 4K, then I have enough space for the additional 40 bytes code. 😉

I think with some extra optimizing, this is not required here. I briefly checked the disassembly and already found 40+ bytes.

Edited September 8 by Thomas Jentzsch

[+Armscar Coder]

On 9/7/2024 at 7:10 AM, Armscar Coder said:

Yeah, I could maybe scrounge up a byte here or there, but I would be really hard pressed to free up enough space to make it a PlusROM game.

Just to be clear, I said "I" would be really hard pressed to free up enough space.

 

On 9/8/2024 at 3:21 AM, Thomas Jentzsch said:

I think with some extra optimizing, this is not required here. I briefly checked the disassembly and already found 40+ bytes.

@Thomas Jentzsch, I haven't thoroughly reviewed my code lately, but towards the end of development about a month ago, I was looking at it pretty hard.  I am fairly sure, based on my own wits, that I would not be able to free up that much space.  I will say that I did use your suggestion you posted in the RAPTOR forum for reading/writing from/to the zero page using the X register instead of the Y register for indexing (at least where it was feasible), which did help.

 

I am always willing to hear suggestions on how to improve writing code.  So, with whatever you are willing to share, I am all ears.  I am also open to making a stab at adding the code necessary for the PlusROM HSC, as long as the optimization doesn't compromise any current elements of the game.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

22 minutes ago, Armscar Coder said:

Thomas Jentzsch, I haven't thoroughly reviewed my code lately, but towards the end of development about a month ago, I was looking at it pretty hard.  I am fairly sure, based on my own wits, that I would not be able to free up that much space.  I will say that I did use your suggestion you posted in the RAPTOR forum for reading/writing from/to the zero page using the X register instead of the Y register for indexing (at least where it was feasible), which did help.

 

I am always willing to hear suggestions on how to improve writing code.  So, with whatever you are willing to share, I am all ears.  I am also open to making a stab at adding the code necessary for the PlusROM HSC, as long as the optimization doesn't compromise any current elements of the game.

No problem, I am always willing to help with optimizing for space. Should we do that via PMs?

[+Armscar Coder]

1 hour ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

No problem, I am always willing to help with optimizing for space. Should we do that via PMs?

Yes, let's do that.  I imagine communicating via PMs will be more efficient and not clutter up the forums with a lot of back and forth.