Repeater - My First Homebrew Attempt

[Ze_ro]

Hey everyone, I wrote this little game in my spare time... I hope you enjoy it.

 

 

It's called Repeater, although it's quite obviously a complete rip-off of Simon. For anyone who has never played Simon, the way it works is that there are four colored lights, and a sequence will flash. You have to then repeat that sequence. Every time you succeed, the sequence will become longer, and you'll have to repeat it again until eventually your memory runs out.

 

When you first start the game, it will be in "demo mode", and just keep showing a pattern over and over again. You can start the game by hitting reset, at which point the 2600 will begin the sequence. Instead of using diagonals, Repeater works using "Q*Bert style" controls where pressing up on the joystick will activate the red button, pressing right will activate the blue button and so on. In case this isn't to your liking, you can change the scheme using the right difficulty switch (If the switch is set to B, it will use the method I just described... if it's set to A, the controls will be rotated so that up activates the green button, right activates the red button and so on). While the 2600 is awaiting your move, a joystick icon (at least, it's supposed to look like a joystick) in the middle of the screen will show you which button will be activated when you press up on the joystick, just as a reminder.

 

In case the game seems too slow paced, try flipping the left difficulty switch to A, and everything will speed up!

 

There is no scoring system at all. The game continues until you make a mistake, at which point the game will end and go back to showing the demo sequence. From what I can tell, the sequence should be able to get as long as 116 buttons, at which point the game will likely crash or freak out.

 

I've tested this using Stella and Z26, as well as on an actual system using a Supercharger. I tweaked the colors to look best on an actual system, so they end up looking a little odd in Z26. If you have any problems getting this to work on an actual system, let me know!

 

If this game seems rather simple and lame (and completely redundant since Video Simon already exists)... then please keep in mind that I wrote this primarily as a practice program before I get involved with anything too ambitious. I wasn't even going to release it at first, but I figured someone might enjoy it, so why not? I wrote the vast majority of this game in about a week, and spent another week or so tweaking it and fixing some bugs.

 

Enjoy!

 

--Zero

repeater.zip

[bjk7382]

(and completely redundant since Video Simon already exists)...

 

Don't forget about Off Your Rocker. The graphics may not be the same, but the concept is. I played yours and you should have a score counter so you don't have to keep track of it yourself. OYR does that.

 

I like playing these types of games every once in a while

[Out_of_Gas]

This is excellent!!

I love this!

SO cool!

CART!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Albert]

I just played it for a few minutes, pretty cool. Is the demo sequence the same one that Simon uses? It would be great if you could add some type of score counter, including perhaps a high score as well that could perhaps alternate between the high score and last game score (in different colors) after a game is over. Would be better still if a timer was added, as this would allow people to be competitive even when reaching the same score.

 

..Al

[geosteve]

Cool game, good work!

 

Did you know? Simon itself is actually a clone of a game concept orginally made by Atari... Touch Me

 

I think the score idea would be a good addition

[NoahsMyBro]

Several years ago I wrote a little Windows clone of Simon as an exercise to teach myself VB4. I even produced a Windows Help file for it, and used an MB Electronics Simon logo I found on the 'net for the 'About...' window.

 

I sampled the sounds from a genuine original Simon game.

 

I think Simon makes a pretty good 'Hello World' type program for video game programming.

 

Your game looks pretty cool. Congrats!

[AtariDude]

Nice first effort. I was thinking of doing something similar if and when I ever learn how to code for the 2600.

[Ze_ro]

Is the demo sequence the same one that Simon uses?

 

Nah, it's just something I made up... I was actually trying to find out which tones the original Simon used for it's sound so that I could try to use those as well, but it's hard finding Simon information on the internet since search engines keep coming up with people named Simon instead.

 

As for scores, I was thinking of adding it in, but I've got some other neat ideas for new homebrews that I'm anxious to try out, so I'll likely just leave this as it is. It was never really meant as a serious game anyways.

 

Oh, and I should probably have mentioned that the controls are a little quirky. It only registers a button press when you center the joystick... so if you were supposed to hit blue, you could just as easily rotate the joystick around a couple of times, and as long as your last direction before you center the joystick was blue, then the game won't realize you actually screwed up. This could also lead to problems if you're not careful, or if you have a crummy joystick... like, say you hit down, but as you're moving the joystick back to center, you accidentally hit left or right, you might end up losing because the game might think you actually hit left or right instead.

 

--Zero

[Vic George 2K3]

Interesting but hard to play, having to push the control stick in diagonals.

[Ze_ro]

Interesting but hard to play, having to push the control stick in diagonals.

 

Don't use the diagonals... tilt your joystick as if you were playing Q*Bert.

 

--Zero

[atari_wizard]

awesome, keep it up man.

[Bruce Tomlin]

From what I can tell, the sequence should be able to get as long as 116 buttons, at which point the game will likely crash or freak out.

 

There's no need for this. Just use a pseudo-random number generator, and save the seed at the start of the "level", then put it back when it's time for the user to play along.

 

To initialize the random number generator, just call it repeatedly while the user is holding down the reset switch.

[maibock]

So does this mean now you could make a Real Sports Hockey game?

 

Nice job on the programming!

[+Nathan Strum]

There's a free version of Simon for OS X available here. It uses the original sound samples, if that's of any help to you.

[Ze_ro]

So does this mean now you could make a Real Sports Hockey game?

 

Heheh, believe it or not, I actually HAVE thought about making a hockey game... but I'm nowhere near good enough to do that yet (although maybe someday).

 

I'd like to eventually do a space trading game (Imagine Elite with Space War type scenes instead of 3D graphics)... but that won't happen until I'm confident that I can pull it off. In the meantime, I'm hoping to make a ripoff of Tunnel Hunt, as well as a puzzle game based on picking locks.

 

--Zero