Batari Basic game possibly for sale?

[+atari2600land]

I've decided to give up on this one. I just don't have the programming skills to make it any good. At least I found a bug in batari Basic, though.

Edited June 16, 2006 by atari2600land

[jbanes]

I've decided to give up on this one. I just don't have the programming skills to make it any good.

 

What makes you say that? I think you're off to a great start! Sure, there's a learning curve ahead of you, but we all went through the curve to get to where we're at. Don't focus on what you can't do. Focus on what you know you can add, and what you know you can learn to add. Keep taking it one step at a time, and you'll have a fun game in no time flat!

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I've decided to give up on this one. I just don't have the programming skills to make it any good.

Yet!

[+Atarius Maximus]

I've decided to give up on this one. I just don't have the programming skills to make it any good. At least I found a bug in batari Basic, though.

 

Don't give up yet! It takes time to figure all this stuff out, but learning it is part of the fun. I've gone through well over a thousand revisions on the few games I've posted in this forum, and I'm still learning. Everyone on this forum has been extremely helpful and supportive of my efforts, just ask for help when you need it. I hope to make my jumper game good enough to sell in the store eventually too, I've got hundreds of hours of time invested in it, and it's still not done.

 

Steve

[+atari2600land]

OK, I'll still work on it, I just won't invest as much time as I have been on it. First mission: Make some enemies in the game.

[R. Jones]

I don't think I would buy the current game as is. If it was part of a multicart, Ants would increase the value for me, but there would still have to be something else pretty interesting on the cart.

 

I'm not a very good programmer, so this might not be easy/possible. But if you represented the player as a ball/missle, you could make the game two player, which would alot more value to it. It would also give you an extra sprite to work with.

 

I hope I don't sound too negative. It's an interesting idea, and the changes you've made so far, have helped a lot.

[+atari2600land]

I squished Ants down to 2K (no pun intended.) All I had to do was take out the exclamation point in the title screen. I had 7 bytes to spare!

ants2k.bin

[+atari2600land]

Ya gotta admit, it's pretty impressive for 1K, isn't it? (the other 1K is forced batari Basic stuff.) How bout if the price was $10 or even $5? Then would you buy it? Cuz I know I would. I've been playing it a lot and really getting into it lately.

[neotokeo2001]

I think this is a nice little game. The core is there you just have to polish it up. Things I would do.

 

Change the game theme and characters. Example:

 

Boom Bot/Bomb Bot

 

The Boom Bot/Bomb Bot must disable the bombs before they explode!

 

Example BIN:

Bomb_Bot_WIP.bin

 

Must do things to add:

 

Sound effect when the ant/bomb is picked up.

 

Sound effect when the ant/bomb escapes/blows up.

 

Screen Flash when the ant/bomb escapes/blows up.

 

The game must revert back to the title screen with the last score instead of just blanking out.

 

 

Not necessary things to add:

 

Instead of having a bar that depletes have a set number that counts down.

 

More attractive Title Screen with a short intro tune.

 

Have the action pause when a new level/screen color has been reached. Have the player push the fire button to resume play.

 

 

Don't give up on this one. If you are stuck on something you have already seen the willingness of others to offer advice and know-how.

[+atari2600land]

neotokeo2001 = "The game must revert back to the title screen with the last score instead of just blanking out."

I changed it so when you press fire after the game goes black, it goes to the title screen displaying the score of the last game. As for those other suggestions, if I want to keep this under 2K (which I really want to do), I'm afraid I won't have room for them, because I only have 11 bytes left.

ants2kversion2.bin

[neotokeo2001]

Why keep it it 2k?

[+atari2600land]

It just seems kinda weird to put in 2 extra kilobytes for a few sound effects. That and I wanted to make an interesting game only taking up 1K, because I've seen the Minigame Compo entries and they're impressive. With Batari Basic taking up the other half of 2k, I've accomplished an interesting game that people seem to have taken notice of. I've tried to put a few sound effects, but I just can't seem to make them last for a second. Maybe some Batari Basic expert can look at this code and do something about that?

For an ant touched, I'd like AUDV0=6 : AUDC0=12 : AUDF0 = 4

and for a miss, I'd like AUDV0=6 : AUDC0=14 : AUDF0=4

ants2kversion2.bas

Edited June 25, 2006 by atari2600land

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Ya gotta admit, it's pretty impressive for 1K, isn't it?

I'll have to comment that game in early September.

 

BTW: Did you already check last year's batari BASIC submissions to the Minigame Compo?

[+atari2600land]

Ya gotta admit, it's pretty impressive for 1K, isn't it?

I'll have to comment that game in early September.

 

BTW: Did you already check last year's batari BASIC submissions to the Minigame Compo?

I only saw one: the shooting blocks one. Were there others?

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I only saw one: the shooting blocks one. Were there others?

Nope.

[+atari2600land]

I only saw one: the shooting blocks one. Were there others?

Nope.

Actually, it looks like "Pirate" was made with Batari Basic.

[+atari2600land]

Update #4: Added a better title screen.

ants2kversion4.bas.bin

[+atari2600land]

Update #5 - If you miss an ant, the game stops for a tiny bit and a buzzing sound occurs. I'd like comments/suggestions for this version.

come on, don't be shy. I know there's been at least six downloads so *someone* must be downloading it. I don't care if you think it's the worst game you've ever played, I just want someone to give me some comments on this.

ants2kversion5.bin

Edited June 27, 2006 by atari2600land

[Jess Ragan]

Yeah, expectations are pretty high for solo 2600 releases. Solar Plexus was once praised as the most professional looking game designed in Batari BASIC, but it faced much tougher competition when it was released as a cartridge.

 

Don't let it get you down... just do the best you can with what you've got. You can squeeze a lot of performance out of Batari BASIC if you know how to use the TIA registers. Also, the language has gotten a lot more versatile and stable in the year since I last used it. Take advantage of that!

 

If I make another game in Batari BASIC, I'm going to either wait until the language is powerful enough to accommodate one of my more ambitious ideas, or brainstorm until I come up with a concept that's so fun and addictive that it doesn't need strong audiovisuals to make it work.

 

JR

[+atari2600land]

I think if Solar Plexus got in a Minigame Compo it'd had more publicity. For example, I didn't even know about it until I posted this topic. I entered mine in this years' so maybe it'll help a little.

[jbanes]

You need some sort of "ping" sound for when you pick up the ants. Otherwise there's normally no aural feedback, making the buzz a rather jarring experience.

[+atari2600land]

"You need some sort of "ping" sound for when you pick up the ants. Otherwise there's normally no aural feedback, making the buzz a rather jarring experience."

-jbanes

 

You mean like this? I also modified the title screen and added a "game over" screen

ants2kversion7.bin

[jbanes]

Much better. Good work!

[R. Jones]

Your new builds are looking alot more polished. I have four unrelated thoughts about this.

 

1. This is really good, for a 2k game, a bB game, or a new programmers game.

 

2. My biggest criticism would be that the difficulty doesn't ramp up. I realize that a large part of that, is the simplicity of the current game, but around ant 70, something should happen.

 

3. Like I said before, the basic idea is appealing. Play to its strengths. Instead of making the ants simply disappear and take a notch off your bar. Have them turn into annoying fire ants that follow you and take notches off your bar. Use the missile or ball, to add some scenery (rock, twigs) that also can be conviently used to smash ants.

 

4. Don't think about selling it while you're making it. Making the game is 1/3 of the fun.

 

If you're gonna think about selling it anyway, I'd reccomend you play Solar Plexus. People were all about this game, saying it was the most proffessional bB game etc. Then, it got released on cart, and it hasn't done that well. When people are playing free ROMs, it's easy to say, "Whoah, this is really cool, considering . . .," but when they actually start talking about plunking down $20-30 on a real cart, people prioritize. So when trying to figure out if people will buy something, don't think, "Is this game good enough to spend money on?" Think, "Would I spend money on this that could have gone to Marble Craze, Thrust, or Dark Mage?"

Edited July 1, 2006 by R. Jones

[+atari2600land]

Well, if I would sell it, it would be a discount cheap game for say $5-$10, depending on how much AtariAge charges for making chips. I'd buy some common Pac-Man carts and put the chips in them, print off labels, print instruction sheets & send them out for people who are willing to pay for it.