Jumper - Final Version Complete

[gambler172]

Hi

This works better than the last version.But sometimes,i die,without being hitten by a missile.

greeting Walter

[BrianC]

Hi

This works better than the last version.But sometimes,i die,without being hitten by a missile.

greeting Walter

 

Actually, that's because you can also die from falling too far off a ledge. However, I think this needs to be worked on. It seems like sometimes you die as soon as you fall off some ledges rather than after falling for a bit. There were a couple times where I jumped from a ledge and didn't fall down far to another platform, but still died thanks to the jumping in air bug.

 

The game is coming along well, though. I like the new counters on the title screen and I like how the hold jumping isn't being used any more. I also like the new game over animation much better than the old one. The new death problem is an annoyance, but the new jumping style feels a bit more natural. The current jumping with the falling detection from the last 8k version would be a perfect mix.

 

Edit: Tried the newest 16k version some more. Sometimes, the Jumpman won't die when falling from a high place. The falling detection seems to be very hit or miss.

Edited May 27, 2006 by BrianC

[+Atarius Maximus]

This version should fix the problems with falling & dying mentioned by BrianC above. The revisions I made make it much more consistent - you have to fall a certain distance to die, it doesn't matter where you fall from. This version also fixes the jumping in mid-air problem, if you press the button while falling it simply speeds up your descent and doesn't affect the fall counter -- you'll still die after falling a certain distance.

 

There's no other changes this time. I've got to start working on that title song!

 

Steve

jumper16k_4.bin

Jumper16k_4.txt

Edited June 1, 2006 by Atarius Maximus

[+Atarius Maximus]

It was cool to see a pic of Jumper at the MGC Show.

 

I Wish I could have been there.

[+Atarius Maximus]

I was experimenting with adding a multicolored title screen in Jumper using all ASM code, since bB currently doesn't let you create multicolor playfields. I used some examples, and came up with a routine that does kind of work, it displays the same title screen with multiple colors, and includes the sprites, but it flickers like crazy. I understand why it flickers, I just don't know the correct way to change it to make it work properly. I don't think I'll be able to make this work in the final version of the game, but it was an interesting experiment so I thought I'd share the code and the bin for it.

 

Steve

 

EDIT: Just added another version I was messing with during my testing (jct3). If you remove the bB drawscreen call immediately after the inline ASM, the screen displays perfectly with no flicker, however the sprites disappear. The game also won't start when you press reset or the fire button - this is just another example.

jumpercolortest.bin

jct2.txt

jct3.bin

jct3.txt

Edited June 9, 2006 by Atarius Maximus

[+Atarius Maximus]

No new updates to Jumper, still working on the title song (although I haven't been able to put much time into it in the last month). The game is otherwise complete.

 

I came across this copy of Jumpman Lives, a remake by Apogee (released in 1991) that includes levels from the original Jumpman and Jumpman Jr, with 45 unique levels. It's abadonware, as Epyx sued Apogee for releasing it, and it it wasn't on the market for very long - Apogee also doesn't exist anymore. I thought it was pretty cool, and I thought this was an appropriate place to share it. This is the full version with a level editor. It's a native DOS game, but works fine on my XP laptop.

 

Steve

JMAN.zip

Edited July 7, 2006 by Atarius Maximus

[djmips]

Thanks for the jumpman lives binary

[+Atarius Maximus]

I'm finally finished with Jumper, the new title song is complete (which was the last thing on my to-do list). I'm releasing this version as 0.99rc1. This is the release candidate, and I'm doing my final bug checking now. I played through the entire game today and beat it, and everything looks good. Some of the levels are much more difficult (and frustrating) than others, but all of them can be cleared. If anyone finds any bugs or has any more final suggestions, please let me know.

 

I originally intended to make a song similar to the original Jumpman, but I just couldn't come up with something that sounded anything like it, so I made an original tune. It's nothing spectacular, but it's better than complete silence, I suppose.

 

Here's a quick review of the game options:

Left Difficulty: A - Double Speed Missiles, B - Normal Speed Missiles

Right Difficulty: A- Missles are double speed, but do not shoot at you or change direction, B - Slower Missiles that shoot and change direction.

Color/BW Switch: Color - Normal Speed player, BW- Double speed player.

If you put both difficulty switches on A, the missiles are quad speed and do not change direction.

 

Whew...it's nearly 1AM here in Missouri, time to go to bed.

 

Steve

jumper99rc1.bin

Jumper99rc1.txt

Edited July 8, 2006 by Atarius Maximus

[+atari2600land]

Found a bug. Looks like Jumper isn't exactly on this platform.

[mos6507]

Is this going to get submitted to the contest?

[+Atarius Maximus]

Found a bug. Looks like Jumper isn't exactly on this platform.

 

That's intended, there were many concessions made to make the gravity, jumping, and falling code work properly. If you jump up, he will land on the platform properly. I remember in the original Jumpman game there was a similar problem when you jumped up to a new platform, the player would travel "through" the platform a little bit. Think of it as "hanging off the edge" a little bit.

[+Atarius Maximus]

Is this going to get submitted to the contest?

 

Is there a contest where a 16k game could be submitted? I've heard of the minigame competition, but I figured this game would be too big. Which competition are you referring to, and how would I sumbit it?

[+Atarius Maximus]

Just a minor change to the title song on this one. I listened to it for the first time without using headphones, and the drum beat was a little too loud, I reduced the volume on it. Sounds a little better now, I think.

jumper99rc1.bin

Jumper99rc1.txt

[sandmountainslim]

I have been playing this game alot for the past couple days and it is great but the difficulty is HARD!!

Of course that makes it a challenge and makes people wanna play it more. Good work on this one.

Wp

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

 We'll be playing Jumper on tomorrow's (Sun Jun 14) ZeroPage Homebrew stream LIVE on Twitch at 11AM PT | 2PM ET | 6PM GMT! Hope everyone can watch!

 

Twitch Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/

 

Games:

• Jumper (2006) by Steve Engelhardt (@Atarius Maximus)
• Mega Man (2009) by David Galloway (@djmips / Code & Art) and Tommy Montgomery (Sound)
• Paranoid (2020 WIP) by @eshu
• Cows (2015) by Ed Riley (@winkdot)
• Galagon (2020 Harmony Games #4) by John Champeau of Champ Games (@johnnywc), Nathan Strum (@Nathan Strum / Graphics and Design), Ross Keenum (Music and Sound), Dave Dries (Packaging)

 

(SET VIDEO TO 1080P60 FOR FULL QUALITY)

 

Edited June 15, 2020 by ZeroPage Homebrew

[+Karl G]

I was unaware of this port until I saw it on the show. It looks really cool, but there were some things identified on the show that could make it better. The game speed could be slowed slightly, jumps could be a little higher and slower "floatier", and the jump sound could be better.  @Atarius Maximus - I don't suppose you are wanting to work on this again after a 14-year break?  

[+Atarius Maximus]

1 hour ago, Karl G said:

I was unaware of this port until I saw it on the show. It looks really cool, but there were some things identified on the show that could make it better. The game speed could be slowed slightly, jumps could be a little higher and slower "floatier", and the jump sound could be better.  @Atarius Maximus - I don't suppose you are wanting to work on this again after a 14-year break?  

Ha. I saw that it was going to be on the show and almost cringed a little. It was a very long time ago and I was still learning, so there are definite flaws. I’m not likely to revisit that game after 14 years, no.

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

2 hours ago, Atarius Maximus said:

Ha. I saw that it was going to be on the show and almost cringed a little. It was a very long time ago and I was still learning, so there are definite flaws. I’m not likely to revisit that game after 14 years, no.

It was very challenging and lots of fun. I just *love* Jumpman's mechanic so I "jumped" at the chance to put it on the show. ? Thanks for making it!!

 

- James

[kisrael]

On 5/8/2006 at 4:58 PM, Atarius Maximus said:

I've also added an intro song to the title screen, using the example that Kirk Israel has on his bB help page. I used the exact song from the demo (it's the theme song to JoustPong/FlapPing), so I still need to change it.

haha just found this after pulling up the binary and going "hey wait a minute"

(and then I was like, hey wait a minute - how did he get the the music out of the assembly code? totally forgetting that https://alienbill.com/2600/basic/music/ did the work for you! (But as I'm posting elsewhere I'm working on tools to make it very easy for middling-poor musicians to make new Atari music - https://alienbill.com/2600/atari-sound-forger/ )

 

But we're a pretty sharing culture here... and I do think that bassline slaps. 

As a minor thing would you consider posting the "final" binary in the first messge?

[+Atarius Maximus]

2 hours ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said:

It was very challenging and lots of fun. I just *love* Jumpman's mechanic so I "jumped" at the chance to put it on the show. ? Thanks for making it!!

 

- James

Thanks James!  I haven't watched the episode yet, and haven't played the game in a very long time.  I remember it being pretty difficult!

[+Atarius Maximus]

1 hour ago, kisrael said:

haha just found this after pulling up the binary and going "hey wait a minute"

(and then I was like, hey wait a minute - how did he get the the music out of the assembly code? totally forgetting that https://alienbill.com/2600/basic/music/ did the work for you! (But as I'm posting elsewhere I'm working on tools to make it very easy for middling-poor musicians to make new Atari music - https://alienbill.com/2600/atari-sound-forger/ )

 

But we're a pretty sharing culture here... and I do think that bassline slaps. 

As a minor thing would you consider posting the "final" binary in the first messge?

Haha!  Sorry for "stealing" your music.   I updated the last binary I made in the first post as you suggested... good idea.  I remember reading your 2600 info on alienbill.com quite a bit way back when, it was extremely helpful.  Thanks Kirk!

[kisrael]

2 minutes ago, Atarius Maximus said:

Haha!  Sorry for "stealing" your music.   I updated the last binary I made in the first post as you suggested... good idea.  I remember reading your 2600 info on alienbill.com quite a bit way back when, it was extremely helpful.  Thanks Kirk!

Absolutely no worries. 'Til I skimmed the ep just now I didn't realize that the "final" version updated the music - but I would have been ok with you using it (ideally w/a shout out if you "published") 

Looking back to like the earliest posts in this forum, I guess around 2002 I was really acting to be the bridge between the high powered ASM coder folk on the Stella mailing list and less superpowered people in the world  And I'm still tooling around w/ toys instead of actually buckling in to make my own new games ;-D