Ladybug - 2600

[+johnnywc]

Hello all,

 

Played some Lady Bug tonight - made a few minor updates:

 

- fixed a logic error that caused insects to be more agressive in STANDARD mode than ADVANCED mode

- fixed a error that caused the colors of the insects to be incorrect on level 14-16

 

Speaking of level 14-16, I got a new high score tonight:

 

265,950 (Standard, level 16, Celery)

 

Any high scores to report?

ladybug.bin

Edited July 14, 2006 by johnnywc

[vdub_bobby]

Hello all,

 

Played some Lady Bug tonight - made a few minor updates:

 

- fixed a logic error that caused insects to be more agressive in STANDARD mode than ADVANCED mode

- fixed a error that caused the colors of the insects to be incorrect on level 14-16

 

Speaking of level 14-16, I got a new high score tonight:

 

265,950

 

Any high scores to report?

I topped 100k last night; got to the mushroom level on STANDARD. Nowhere near 200k, though.

[+johnnywc]

I topped 100k last night; got to the mushroom level on STANDARD.

Great! How is the difficulty ramping IYO? For me, the more I play the better I get. Once you figure out that you can't outrun the insects on the higher levels and use the doors instead, it becomes a little easier. I must say - the symmetrical doors don't seem to hamper the gameplay at all - they actually make it a bit more challenging.

 

Thanks for the feedback!

[vdub_bobby]

Difficulty ramps pretty well. Pretty easy - though not too easy - on the first couple of levels, extremely difficult when my game ended. Haven't played much on the other difficulty levels.

 

Oh, noticed a possible bug...

 

An insect went through a door! Kind of. I turned a door to block an insect and after the door turned it was just barely touching him (i.e., I turned the door on top of him). He then proceeded to go through the door! Freaked me out, though I was able to recover and avoid dying.

Edited July 14, 2006 by vdub_bobby

[Thomas Jentzsch]

An insect went through a door! Kind of. I turned a door to block an insect and after the door turned it was just barely touching him (i.e., I turned the door on top of him). He then proceeded to go through the door!

I don't know how the arcade game handled it, but IMO you shouldn't be able to turn a door on top of anything.

[vdub_bobby]

An insect went through a door! Kind of. I turned a door to block an insect and after the door turned it was just barely touching him (i.e., I turned the door on top of him). He then proceeded to go through the door!

I don't know how the arcade game handled it, but IMO you shouldn't be able to turn a door on top of anything.

Just played a very quick game in MAME and you can turn the doors on top of the insects and they do just continue through them.

 

Also, seems like the arcade starts out much harder than the 2600 version on STANDARD - the colors change faster, the insects move faster and chase you more aggressively.

[+johnnywc]

An insect went through a door! Kind of. I turned a door to block an insect and after the door turned it was just barely touching him (i.e., I turned the door on top of him). He then proceeded to go through the door!

I don't know how the arcade game handled it, but IMO you shouldn't be able to turn a door on top of anything.

Just played a very quick game in MAME and you can turn the doors on top of the insects and they do just continue through them.

Yes - I believe that the 2600 and MAME versions handle these situations in the same way. Do you think the situation you described above regarding the insect going through the door is still a bug? I want to make sure the game is handling that situation properly.

 

Also, seems like the arcade starts out much harder than the 2600 version on STANDARD - the colors change faster, the insects move faster and chase you more aggressively.

 

Yes - I believe you're right. Then again, the arcade is meant to be a quarter-eater; I took some liberty with the gameplay to make the difficulty ramping a little more stretched out than the arcade (the arcade, IMO, gets too difficult too fast). Also, with the smaller maze on the 2600 version (there are 2 less rows), having the insects any more agressive would make the game almost impossible. I think the ADVANCED level is more like the arcade as far as the speed of the insects and timer.

 

Thanks for the feedback!

Edited July 14, 2006 by johnnywc

[atwwong]

HOLY MOLEY!!! This is such an EXCELLENT ARCADE PORT! The differences between each release seem exponential! Just taking a cursory glance at the arcade version in mame and it appears that the animations, sounds, and game play are accurately reproduced (as close as the 2600 can get, which is surprisingly close)! This will be one cart release that I will definitely not miss!!! (okay, too many !!!'s)

[vdub_bobby]

An insect went through a door! Kind of. I turned a door to block an insect and after the door turned it was just barely touching him (i.e., I turned the door on top of him). He then proceeded to go through the door!

I don't know how the arcade game handled it, but IMO you shouldn't be able to turn a door on top of anything.

Just played a very quick game in MAME and you can turn the doors on top of the insects and they do just continue through them.

Yes - I believe that the 2600 and MAME versions handle these situations in the same way. Do you think the situation you described above regarding the insect going through the door is still a bug? I want to make sure the game is handling that situation properly.

I don't know. It happened pretty quickly, and was on my TV so the graphics weren't as sharp as on an emulator, so I'm not completely sure that the door turned onto the insect or just really close. It might be worth doing some testing.

[+johnnywc]

Hello all,

 

Did some more optimizing and freed up some ROM.

 

New version:

 

- fixed a bug that sometimes caused a veggie in the first row on the SPECIAL stage to be the wrong color

- fixed a bug that sometimes caused garbage music to play after the SPECIAL stage

- fixed a bug that sometimes caused 2 insects to "merge" and move in the same exact pattern (for a while I thought that one of the insects just wasn't coming back... )

- fixed the insect movement so now they don't move faster going left and right (makes the laters levels less difficult)

- tweaked the flower sprite so that it's symmetrical now

- centered the text on the VEGGIE BONUS HARVEST screen

- modified the logic of the letter generation so that it becomes easier to get letters you need as the game progresses (nothing worse than going to level 13 and getting NO letters you need!!)

- tweaked the death animation to be more like the arcade

- optimized the game logic; hopefully there are no more screen rolls (I haven't seen one in my last dozen games or so)

- numerous other bug fixes

 

Please post your comments on gameplay (difficulty ramping, etc). My high score stands at level 17: 265,550.

 

EDIT: New binary - found a logic error when choosing the E or A after level 8.

 

Thanks,

ladybug.bin

Edited July 30, 2006 by johnnywc

[+SpiceWare]

Hadn't checked it in a while - it's much better than the last time I played.

 

My letters came up as TIA a few times - was that combination of letters on purpose?!?

[+johnnywc]

Hadn't checked it in a while - it's much better than the last time I played.

 

Thanks!

 

My letters came up as TIA a few times - was that combination of letters on purpose?!?

 

I've seen that combo - pretty cool! Same combo appears in the arcade version though - can't take credit for that...

[r_type2600]

Hello all,

 

Did some more optimizing and freed up some ROM.

 

- centered the text on the VEGGIE BONUS HARVEST screen

 

Please post your comments on gameplay (difficulty ramping, etc). My high score stands at level 17: 265,550.

 

 

Thanks,

 

Plays great, just wanted to check up the new version, and spent another 2 hours "playtesting" on the fly

Could not find any bugs, no screen rolls.

 

One observation: when you pass over a veggie on the harvest screen, there is no sound indicating that you actually picked it up. Of course the score increases properly, but the silence feels a bit flat. Doesn't need to be anything fancy, the dot or letter sound from the game screen would be good enough, just something.

As long as that would not interfere with the background music, and you have enough ROM, of course.

 

Other than that, I could just think of some additional presentation pizza (already mentioned before).

Obviously, that is subject to free ROM.

 

Superb game! Thanks again!

Eric

[+johnnywc]

Plays great, just wanted to check up the new version, and spent another 2 hours "playtesting" on the fly

Could not find any bugs, no screen rolls.

Excellent! Glad you're enjoying the "playtesting"

 

One observation: when you pass over a veggie on the harvest screen, there is no sound indicating that you actually picked it up. Of course the score increases properly, but the silence feels a bit flat. Doesn't need to be anything fancy, the dot or letter sound from the game screen would be good enough, just something.

As long as that would not interfere with the background music, and you have enough ROM, of course.

Yes - I have noticed this. I had 7 bytes of ROM left in that bank and I was able to quickly adjust the music driver to play SFX too. With the dot sound, it doesn't sound good. Maybe the letter sound would be better, but I'll have to free up some space as the letter sound is handled differently from regular sfx since it uses both channels. I'll see what I can come up with...

 

Other than that, I could just think of some additional presentation pizza (already mentioned before).

Obviously, that is subject to free ROM.

 

Superb game! Thanks again!

Yes - ROM is at an all-time low (about 50 bytes scattered through out the 4 banks). I've optimized a dozen times, each time freeing up 100 bytes or so but I'm running out of options...

 

Thanks again for the kind words and the suggestions!

[+johnnywc]

Small update:

 

Changed the 'A' font in SPECIAL and EXTRA to be more like the Lady Bug font. Changed the S, P and A in the maze to match the font in the upper portion of the screen.

ladybug.bin

Edited July 31, 2006 by johnnywc

[+johnnywc]

New high score:

 

Level 17: 290,990

 

Man - this game gets difficult after level 16!! Anyone else get that far? Is it *too* difficult? Seems to be on par with the arcade (which IMO also got extremely difficult).

[Vic George 2K3]

The letter selection seems to have lost its randomness.

[+johnnywc]

One observation: when you pass over a veggie on the harvest screen, there is no sound indicating that you actually picked it up. Of course the score increases properly, but the silence feels a bit flat. Doesn't need to be anything fancy, the dot or letter sound from the game screen would be good enough, just something.

As long as that would not interfere with the background music, and you have enough ROM, of course.

I was able to free up some ROM tonight and added additional sounds to the SPECIAL stage (door, eat veggie sound).

 

 

The letter selection seems to have lost its randomness.

Hmmm... not sure what you mean. Are you getting the same 3 letters over and over? I just played a game and confirmed that the selections are random (albeit less random). One thing I didn't like about Lady Bug in the arcade is that you could go an entire game without getting a letter you needed. It seemed as if it was totally random what letters were presented each level. I have made it so that as the game progresses, the chances of getting letters you need increases. After all, the levels become extremely difficult and the player deserves a reward at that point... Is this what you mean?

 

 

Here's the latest build:

 

- added veggie eat sound (and door sound plays) on SPECIAL stage

- tweaked the drawing of the dots on the right to make them look better (color change for dots to PF is dynamic now, changes 1 cycle early if no dot, 1 cycle later if there is a dot)

 

I was able to free up 100 bytes or so if there are any minor tweaks or suggestions.

 

EDIT: Uploaded the wrong ROM! Here's the latest version with dot sound back in place...

 

 

Thanks,

ladybug.bin

Edited August 1, 2006 by johnnywc

[+Nathan Strum]

The floating wings look nice!

 

But the dot eating sound is gone now.

 

Edit: Also the sound when something runs into a skull is gone.

Edited August 1, 2006 by Nathan Strum

[+johnnywc]

The floating wings look nice!

Thanks! The AVI you sent me really helped a lot!!

 

But the dot eating sound is gone now.

 

Edit: Also the sound when something runs into a skull is gone.

 

My bad - I uploaded the wrong ROM. Fixed version is in above post. Thanks for the heads up!!

[sandmountainslim]

Do you have a label for the game already?

I was thinkin it would be cool if you had a semi-Coleco looking label in tribute to the folks who considered doing the game first.

Or then again maybe they deserve no credit due to their laziness on the matter.

[Lord Helmet]

Do you have a label for the game already?

I was thinkin it would be cool if you had a semi-Coleco looking label in tribute to the folks who considered doing the game first.

Or then again maybe they deserve no credit due to their laziness on the matter.

 

I originally thought a Coleco style label would be cool. I think I posted one in this thread. However, while Coleco did have the rights to the game, and even produced it for the CV and Inty, there was never a 2600 version coded (that we know of). I would say a custom label is the way to go. I would like to see it pay some sort of hommage to the arcade game, whether that be by using some of it's artwork or the logo. That said, the design is up to the author of the game. I'm just glad to finally have Ladybug for the 2600. It's the most arcade accurate port ever IMHO.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

One thing I didn't like about Lady Bug in the arcade is that you could go an entire game without getting a letter you needed. It seemed as if it was totally random what letters were presented each level.

At each level, the maze will contain three letters. One will be randomly selected from the set of {S, P, C, I, L} (which appear only in SPECIAL), one will be randomly selected from the set of {X, T, R} (which appear only in EXTRA) and the third will be an A or an E (which appear in both words)

Not sure if it is implemented like this.

[+johnnywc]

One thing I didn't like about Lady Bug in the arcade is that you could go an entire game without getting a letter you needed. It seemed as if it was totally random what letters were presented each level.

At each level, the maze will contain three letters. One will be randomly selected from the set of {S, P, C, I, L} (which appear only in SPECIAL), one will be randomly selected from the set of {X, T, R} (which appear only in EXTRA) and the third will be an A or an E (which appear in both words)

Not sure if it is implemented like this.

 

Hello Thomas,

 

Yes - this is how I originally implemented it (it's the easiest of course). I find this to be frustrating, especially on the higher levels when even collecting a letter is difficult, never mind actually having it picked randomly.

 

So, for the STANDARD level, I pick twice for the red and yellow letter. That is, it picks once, and if it doesn't find a match it picks again. On the novice level it will try 3 times, and on ADVANCED it will try once. After level 8 it will try one more time for each skill level (maximum of 3).

 

It seems to be random enough to be challenging and not frustrating. Any opinions?

 

Thanks,

[+johnnywc]

Do you have a label for the game already?

I was thinkin it would be cool if you had a semi-Coleco looking label in tribute to the folks who considered doing the game first.

Or then again maybe they deserve no credit due to their laziness on the matter.

 

I originally thought a Coleco style label would be cool. I think I posted one in this thread. However, while Coleco did have the rights to the game, and even produced it for the CV and Inty, there was never a 2600 version coded (that we know of). I would say a custom label is the way to go. I would like to see it pay some sort of hommage to the arcade game, whether that be by using some of it's artwork or the logo. That said, the design is up to the author of the game. I'm just glad to finally have Ladybug for the 2600. It's the most arcade accurate port ever IMHO.

 

Nathan Strum is doing the label and it will have all original artwork. The title logo in the game will be changed to reflect his design. I have seen his concept designs and I am very pleased with the direction he is going.

 

Of course, if anyone wants to hack the title page to keep the original graphic (I'll give it to you if you want it) and make there own Coleco-style label in a Coleco-style cart with arcade artwork, they are more than welcome to (heck, I wouldn't even mind one of those!)