Colecovision: Pacific Fleet

[Mark2008]

Well I want AtariAge to carry my game, and I wrote the editor, and he seems really nice.

 

I don't really know how you do this....but I'm an impatient sort of person, and I just would love to talk about the game with anyone that is interested.

 

This is not my first game, I used to do Palm games, like Lunar Lander, and I am a professional programmer, but this is my first ColecoVision Game.

 

I really love all the work that Bienvenu and Kogel did....made it really easy. I have already the first screen up, and animated sprites...and the rest of the game being written in C...which is what I did all my Palm work on....just means that I don't see any issues completing the game.

 

The game may seem like Battleship, in that you place 4 ships, and so does the 2nd player (or the computer, in one player mode).

 

But, its a real time strategy game, with several different missions, land that gets in the way, time element.....well I think it should be quite enjoyable, and if I may say so...I have high hopes that it will be well received as being just as good or better than most original Colecovision games.

 

OK, how was that by way of introduction...no lack of confidence being displayed here! LOL.

 

Anyway....any input, feedback, suggestions, etc. is great!

 

thanks,

 

Robert

 

 

And let me see if I can upload a screen shot of one of the maps...the screen shot is still missing the menu for selecting missions, but gives the basic idea.

 

I don't just use sprites for animation, but to make the screen have more colors. Yes, the ship is really anti-aliased too (uses 3 sprites).

scrnsht.bmp

[newcoleco]

Dear Robert (Mark2008),

 

I want to play this game. Nice graphics!

Keep me informed!

 

Regards,

 

Daniel Bienvenu

Well I want AtariAge to carry my game, and I wrote the editor, and he seems really nice.

 

I don't really know how you do this....but I'm an impatient sort of person, and I just would love to talk about the game with anyone that is interested.

 

This is not my first game, I used to do Palm games, like Lunar Lander, and I am a professional programmer, but this is my first ColecoVision Game.

 

I really love all the work that Bienvenu and Kogel did....made it really easy. I have already the first screen up, and animated sprites...and the rest of the game being written in C...which is what I did all my Palm work on....just means that I don't see any issues completing the game.

 

The game may seem like Battleship, in that you place 4 ships, and so does the 2nd player (or the computer, in one player mode).

 

But, its a real time strategy game, with several different missions, land that gets in the way, time element.....well I think it should be quite enjoyable, and if I may say so...I have high hopes that it will be well received as being just as good or better than most original Colecovision games.

 

OK, how was that by way of introduction...no lack of confidence being displayed here! LOL.

 

Anyway....any input, feedback, suggestions, etc. is great!

 

thanks,

 

Robert

 

 

And let me see if I can upload a screen shot of one of the maps...the screen shot is still missing the menu for selecting missions, but gives the basic idea.

 

I don't just use sprites for animation, but to make the screen have more colors. Yes, the ship is really anti-aliased too (uses 3 sprites).

[Ikrananka]

Hey Robert - graphically looks very nice. If you're really looking for "input, feedback, suggestions" then you really need to post the rom here so that we can play the game and then provide some educated feedback.

 

I always look forward to any new 2 player game as there are a distinct lack of these for the ColecoVision. I'd be only too happy to do some playtesting with my main opponent (my daughter ).

[PressureCooker2600]

Battleship is one of my top five favorite board games!

 

Can't wait to try it out.

[Blackjack]

Looks cool...... post the rom, let's have a go at it.

[hardhat]

The screen shot looks promising. The trees are especially nice.

 

I've also programed games for PalmOS and PSP when I'm not doing ColecoVision games. So welcome to the platform.

[A Sprite]

Great icons. Love the use of anti-aliasing.

 

Now that we've got that out of the way - you asked for constructive feedback, not just compliments. Since you've created games before, I'll take you at your word.

 

Your landscape is too simplistic. There is no interaction between the water and the shore, or attempt to match the style of the icons. It cheapens the overall effect...any texturing, no matter how small, or even an outline, would improve matters greatly.

[A Sprite]

 

Here's an approach used in the MSX conversion of 1942, if you need a comparison.

[+5-11under]

Hi Mark2008,

 

Welcome to the boards, and to world of ColecoVision programming! It'd be great to see a work-in-progress ROM.

 

Thanks,

5-11under

[Mark2008]

Hi Guys,

 

Thanks for the feedback and criticism.

 

I will try to see if I can improve the graphics further, especially since later there will be several maps, not just the one.

 

As I do new maps, I will see what can be done with the shoreline...this is certainly something I'd like to improve.

 

I am posting a ROM today, but its really nothing more than the screenshot with a pointer.

 

I think it will be next week before I have a playable game to post....which will be just that, a playable game, but not the real game in its completion or anything like that.

 

Probably two weeks before the concept of the game is actually implemented and becomes clear.

 

Basically its a real time strategy version of battleship.

 

You place ships. You have 5 points to purchase your armada.

 

1 point buys you a PT boat

2 point is the cost of a sub.

3 points for a battleship

and 4 points for an aircraft carrier.

 

You can, therefore, have a 5 'pt boat' navy if you want. Or 1 sub and 1 battleship navy. etc...whatever you want with your 5 points.

 

the pt boat, takes 2 squares, and sinks with 1 hit.

the sub takes 2 squares and sinks with 2 hits

battleship 3 squares and sinks with 3 hits

aircraft carrier, 4 squares and 4 hits to sink.

 

the have different weapons

 

pt boat, can only fire a precision mortar round ...i.e the classic 1 square shot of battleship

the sub can only fire a torpedo

the battleship can fire precision mortar round or launch a sonar (reveal 9 squares at once)

the aircraft carrier can fire precision mortar round or launch a carpet bombing strike (hit 9 squares at once, that are roughly in the area you asked...but its also partly random).

 

finally, each mission takes differing amounts of times. The sub cannot rapid fire torpedos...after firing one, torpedo's are not available again for 30 seconds.

 

etc.

 

If you lose a ship, you lose its capabilities too.

 

And so on, and tweaking to make sure everything is playable, feels like strategy and fun.

 

I am posting the ROM, just to show a ROM is in progress....not to demonstrate any of the above just yet, but again...I will post these things in fairly quick fashion....probably in a week to have a game with some of the missions implemented, but not all.

 

thanks! Love the feedback, and the criticism.

result.zip

[Mark2008]

I've taken a look at that 1942 screenshot....they must have had more colors to work with....

 

but I have some definate ideas for texturing the water, and improving the wave effect.

Not a lot of choices for doing a shoreline, but I could perhaps widen things in spots and trace the shoreline ....I'll work it up and see how it looks.

[Ikrananka]

I've taken a look at that 1942 screenshot....they must have had more colors to work with....

 

but I have some definate ideas for texturing the water, and improving the wave effect.

Not a lot of choices for doing a shoreline, but I could perhaps widen things in spots and trace the shoreline ....I'll work it up and see how it looks.

Check out the CV game screenshots for Sky Jaguar over at Opcode Games. Eduardo used some very effective texturing considering the limitations of the CV. May trigger some ideas for you for Pacific Fleet.

[Mark2008]

well... I tried. And, in some ways I think it is better, but I'm also at the limit of my artistic abilities...I don't think its getting better at this point:)

 

I really don't like doing the artwork, and now I'm ready for the fun programming

 

Everyone, have a great week, I'll post an update about a week from now.

newscrn.bmp

[newcoleco]

well... I tried. And, in some ways I think it is better, but I'm also at the limit of my artistic abilities...I don't think its getting better at this point:)

 

I really don't like doing the artwork, and now I'm ready for the fun programming

 

Everyone, have a great week, I'll post an update about a week from now.

 

I like the new version. Continue!

 

The most important is : Have fun programming your game project!

 

Regards,

 

Daniel

[A Sprite]

Your new screenshot is better, short of any artists volunteering to make landscape textures for you (and yours aren't bad), the only problem is the straight lines and squares in your beach line and peninsula mixed with the rugged, more realistic edges of the rest of the landscape. The contrast is jarring, like seeing River Raid appear in the middle of an NES era shooter. Shouldn't be hard to fix - just rough it up a little.

 

well... I tried. And, in some ways I think it is better, but I'm also at the limit of my artistic abilities...I don't think its getting better at this point:)

 

I really don't like doing the artwork, and now I'm ready for the fun programming

 

Everyone, have a great week, I'll post an update about a week from now.

 

I like the new version. Continue!

 

The most important is : Have fun programming your game project!

 

Regards,

 

Daniel

 

What he said. Looking forward to playing the game.

 

Good luck.

[Mark2008]

hi guys!

 

I was going to post a playable game by this week.

 

Well, I did do some work over thanks giving. I'm doing one thing at a time, as recommended.

There will, naturally, be a screen where you place your ships...but for now, I just did a hard coded array, with the ship locations already chosen.

 

The 'precision mortar' (shoot at one square) mission is coming along, and it can tell if you hit the ship or not....if you miss it, it marks the miss, if you hit the ship, it marks the hit.

 

But, these missions all are going to have sprite animations, and that is where I ended up wasting a bit of time, and not getting a playable demo out this week.

 

The basic thing is, I want the mortar to fall in a parabolic arc...i.e to do some calculus to do a regular ballistic trajectory.

I'm 38. When I was kid, they always did this with real physics...I mean it was COMMON KNOWLEDGE, how to do it....you couldn't pick up a magazine, without some listing in BASIC that had solved this problem.

 

well I have this mystical belief that google 'knows all', but for the life of me, its like this knowledge has fallen off the face of the planet.

 

Finally, I remembered that an old QBASIC demo written by IBM called GORILLA.BAS had parabolic trajectories, (the gorilla threw a spinning bannana in such an arc)....well

 

OK I found that, and it isn't exactly what I need...plus my knowledge of Calculus is, shall we say, very rusty....but

 

 

here is the thing, I'm not sure my compiler has any float math functions anyway...I mean it should include a math.h, but I don't see a math.h

 

 

OK, so, work around....many work arounds, one would be not to do a parabolic arc....BULL DOGGIES....I am going to do that.

2nd work around....there aren't that many squares...i could do the math on a differnet computer, and just have the precalculated values...it will make the ROM that much bigger, but ultimately thats going to run faster anyway....

 

so...that is what I will probably do...but I'm another week out now, to getting the playable demo (which will not have the features of the final game...but at least will demonstrate some progress).

 

thanks for listening, I guess I turned this into a blog.

 

p.s. my real name is Robert.

 

thanks,

robert

[Mark2008]

This weeks rom:

 

1. Changed map yet again, trying to show 'tides' off the shore.

2. Shrunk the map by a one char on both left and right.

a. some emulators didn't sprite clip correctly on the right border

b. most seemed to do better on the left, but not exactly correct there either.

 

 

3. At the moment it can shoot land top of the screen, whatever.

 

4. It can detect when you hit the two hidden ships on the map.

 

5. There are no animations at all right now, making it appear that you can rapid fire mortars...in the real game you cannot do that.

 

Anyway....so, everyone understands its a demo.

 

It seems to me, some of the C functions don't really understand the 8 lines of 256 chars screen mode.

But its OK, I'm just working around the limitations of it.

 

Eventually the blue and red squares on the right of the screen will be hidden by sprites....they are there right now, because, if I attempt to change a pattern and place a char...those functions only seem to work with the first set of 256 chars, and don't seem to have any way to work with set 2 and 3.....ashame, but just working around it, right now.

 

The ROM is nothing to look at really, but including it, if anyone is interested.

 

thanks,

Robert

result.zip

[+5-11under]

Hi Robert,

 

For the parabola, a couple of things might help:

 

1. For a cannon or whatever shooting at an angle, remember that the x velocity will be some value, and will remain constant, and the y velocity will start at some rate up. Acceleration down will be constant (gravity). Subtract the constant acceleration/gravity from the y velocity every frame. Also every frame, add the y velocity to the y position, and the x velocity to the x position. Then print to the screen, based on the current position...

 

2. Use a 16 bit number for the x and y locations, and when it comes time to print to the screen, divide by a number such as 256 (or whatever works) to obtain co-ordinates in the proper range. Precision will be increased (so you can have a speed such as 1.5 pixels per frame... one frame it'll move 1 pixel, the next it will move 2 pixels, then 1, 2, etc.).

 

Thanks,

5-11under

Edited November 26, 2007 by 5-11under

[Mark2008]

Hi Robert,

 

For the parabola, a couple of things might help:

 

1. For a cannon or whatever shooting at an angle, remember that the x velocity will be some value, and will remain constant, and the y velocity will start at some rate up. Acceleration down will be constant (gravity). Subtract the constant acceleration/gravity from the y velocity every frame. Also every frame, add the y velocity to the y position, and the x velocity to the x position. Then print to the screen, based on the current position...

 

2. Use a 16 bit number for the x and y locations, and when it comes time to print to the screen, divide by a number such as 256 (or whatever works) to obtain co-ordinates in the proper range. Precision will be increased (so you can have a speed such as 1.5 pixels per frame... one frame it'll move 1 pixel, the next it will move 2 pixels, then 1, 2, etc.).

 

Thanks,

5-11under

 

I guess I got stuck on not having the cosine function, which, I think would be needed to do a true gravity based ballistics trajectory...and I just say that because gorilla.bas and most sci calculators expect it, but...but in truth the way you put it...I can do something and fudge the numbers until it looks good on the screen....

 

I really find the input around here to be excellent...thanks again.

[+5-11under]

Hi Robert,

 

For the parabola, a couple of things might help:

 

1. For a cannon or whatever shooting at an angle, remember that the x velocity will be some value, and will remain constant, and the y velocity will start at some rate up. Acceleration down will be constant (gravity). Subtract the constant acceleration/gravity from the y velocity every frame. Also every frame, add the y velocity to the y position, and the x velocity to the x position. Then print to the screen, based on the current position...

 

2. Use a 16 bit number for the x and y locations, and when it comes time to print to the screen, divide by a number such as 256 (or whatever works) to obtain co-ordinates in the proper range. Precision will be increased (so you can have a speed such as 1.5 pixels per frame... one frame it'll move 1 pixel, the next it will move 2 pixels, then 1, 2, etc.).

 

Thanks,

5-11under

 

I guess I got stuck on not having the cosine function, which, I think would be needed to do a true gravity based ballistics trajectory...and I just say that because gorilla.bas and most sci calculators expect it, but...but in truth the way you put it...I can do something and fudge the numbers until it looks good on the screen....

 

I really find the input around here to be excellent...thanks again.

 

If you're starting with an angle and a speed, the sine/cosine table (or math) can be used to figure out initial x and y velocities. From there you can use the math I've already described.

 

Do a forum search for "gravity" or "subpixel" for more good reading.

 

Have fun,

5-11under

[hardhat]

Hi Robert,

 

For the parabola, a couple of things might help:

 

1. For a cannon or whatever shooting at an angle, remember that the x velocity will be some value, and will remain constant, and the y velocity will start at some rate up. Acceleration down will be constant (gravity). Subtract the constant acceleration/gravity from the y velocity every frame. Also every frame, add the y velocity to the y position, and the x velocity to the x position. Then print to the screen, based on the current position...

 

2. Use a 16 bit number for the x and y locations, and when it comes time to print to the screen, divide by a number such as 256 (or whatever works) to obtain co-ordinates in the proper range. Precision will be increased (so you can have a speed such as 1.5 pixels per frame... one frame it'll move 1 pixel, the next it will move 2 pixels, then 1, 2, etc.).

 

Thanks,

5-11under

 

I guess I got stuck on not having the cosine function, which, I think would be needed to do a true gravity based ballistics trajectory...and I just say that because gorilla.bas and most sci calculators expect it, but...but in truth the way you put it...I can do something and fudge the numbers until it looks good on the screen....

 

I really find the input around here to be excellent...thanks again.

 

If you're starting with an angle and a speed, the sine/cosine table (or math) can be used to figure out initial x and y velocities. From there you can use the math I've already described.

 

Do a forum search for "gravity" or "subpixel" for more good reading.

 

Have fun,

5-11under

 

A look up table of 32 or so initial angles might be enough even.

 

Once it is in the air you need to use a parabola: y=A*x*x+B*x+C which can be done by tracking the:

- initial speed

- downward acceleration

at each time step: increase or decrease X by 1, add the acceleration to the speed, add the speed to the y position. I think that in that order it is called "Varlet integration" or "Euler integration". It can be done with floats with that compiler, but the fixed point math (with the position recorded as x/256 fraction) looks just as good really and is as much as 100x faster.

 

I tried your new rom posted, and it is coming along. Keep at it.

[Mark2008]

Thanks for more pointers on the math...I will revisit that, and get it to my satisfaction at some point.

 

Actually, I worked something up last night, and initially it seemed I was on the right track. I imagined a reverse parabola, with a starting velocity of zero, and accelarating going out. Then I reversed that, and I had a fast initial velocity...ending at zero speed at the top of the arc. It looked good, but coming back down, which may not come down the same distance...I just couldn't get it right...I got it close, but....ugh, I did use the /256 math, and that worked great!

 

anyway, you can see the result in this ROM. In the end, I fudged something up that works ok.

 

My next milestone will be to work up, just a small mini game as a proof of concept...it won't be like the final game, just a 1 minute timer saying, find the ships in 1 minute, race vs. the clock.

 

I just like that milestone as a proof of concept, and for something for people to look at.

 

Then I will go back and take all my spaghetti code and organize it into the actual game engine. Which...is coming along fine, i have the plane animation, the title screen, the system for placing ships(almost)....and so, it will come together, I hope....

 

But anyway, by the weekend, the mini game, hopefully another week out, or maybe two, something that looks closer to the action of the actual game.

 

I'll probably take it out of screen mode 2, as well....it doesn't need that mode, and anyway, the library seems geered towards mode 0.

result.zip

[Mark2008]

p.s. my son, age 8, did the splash animation...he's pretty smart. In fact, he understands how the arrays work for placing the ships.

[Mark2008]

1. Coded detection of ship sinking

2. Started sprite animations of sinking ships, coming along nicely, I think

3. Took out the spaghetti code and put everything in proper subroutines

4. all missions, even the classic one square mission are now treated the same in code...i.e its going to calculate the squares hit, even if you are on the misison that only hits one square...its seems to tie together nicely as a coding style.

 

...still need to modify game loop so animations don't play one at a time....not a big issue since I coded all the animations with this eventual change in mind, but I have to do it...do I have time this weekend...I hope.

 

...got totally distracted reading up on Batari Basic all day.

 

Playable demo may still get finished this weekend, if I don't start coding in Batari...maybe not, still looks limited in some ways.

But love that Bee Ball game the other guy is doing (which is not to suggest its a batari product...only that it makes 2600 programming look cool).

 

Anyway....where was I, oh yes, I actually did the title screen and then lost the code for it...its somewhere, not worried, anyway, its an exact copy, pixel perfect of this bmp, attached...plus I will, of course have selection for 1 player or 2 player.

 

Since I blabber on so much, i think I will close this thread and start a new thread after there is a playable demo...that might be more interesting.

fullscreensub.bmp

Edited December 1, 2007 by Mark2008

[Mark2008]

I must not know how to post, I don't see my titlescreen...this is a bmp, but the title scren is actually exactly the same, at this time, with no changes...I may change it later.

fullscreensub.bmp