Good news and bad news.

[Chadivision]

Bad news first.

 

Any of you who have been waiting for me to complete Cyclostar will be disappointed. I didn't plan it very well and it basically needs to be completelly rewritten in order to make it work. I may come back to it at some point, but not anytime soon. I know that a few of you were looking forward to seeing Cyclostar completed (as was I). What I ended up with was a really cool looking demo of a UFO that flashes and fires out of four sides, but I don't have enough cycles during the kernal to put any more sprites on the screen.

 

Now for the good news.

 

I didn't want to announce the demise of Cyclostar until I had something to make up for it. I have just finished writing my first homebrew game entitled "Backfire". It's kind of like Atlantis for the mentally ill.

 

I haven't written the instruction manual yet, but here are the basics.

 

Description: You have two guns, one on the top of the screen and one on the bottom. To control the gun on the top of the screen, press up, to switch to the other gun, press down. Once you are controlling a gun, you can move horizontally and shoot. If you have a clear shot all the way accross the screen, you can accidentally blow up your own gun. Also if you shoot one of the barriers, your shot is reflected back at you and you have to get out of the way (hence the name Backfire).

 

Scoring: There are four types of targets. The spaceships are worth 10 points if you shoot them when they are on one of the center lines, 0 points if they are on a line right next to your gun, or 5 points anywhere else on the screen. There are also red, blue, and green UFOs. The red ones are worth 100 points, the blue ones give you an extra life, and the green ones clear out all of the barriers and set you back to an easier level where you have more clear shots. If you don't shoot any green UFOs for a while, the levels get ridiculously hard.

 

How to win: You can't! This is Atari. You play till you lose. Them's the rules!

 

Difficulty switches, select switch, and BW/Color switch have no effect. Only the 1st joystick is used.

 

I don't have a website yet, but I have emailed the .bin file to Atariage so they can post it and I'm planning on having them sell cartridges, and do a label contest. So to all of you Cosmic Ark fans, I'm sorry about Cyclostar. To all of you Atlantis fans, I hope you enjoy Backfire.

 

Chad Lare

aka "Chadivision"

[MegaManFan]

Hey Chad, can you post the bin as an attachment? I'd love to check it out.

[StanJr]

This is very, very exciting! The game sounds awesome. And your trick worked, now I am not so disappointed about Cyclostar getting delayed

 

How soon will this be available for purchase? And yes, please link us to the download as well!

 

Cool.

[Chadivision]

I tried to post the binary but I got an error that said it was not allowed, but .bin was on the list of acceptable attachments. If anyone knows how to post a .bin file, or what I did wrong, let me know and I'll post it tonight.

 

I just finished writing the game today and I just emailed AtariAge to let them know about it. I would like to have it available for sale as soon as possible, but since this is the first one I've done, I don't know how long it takes.

 

If nothing else, I can put it on a website so that you can download it from there, but I don't have time tonight. I will check back with this message board in case anyone knows why I got that error.

 

I know how to write 6502 assembly, but this internet message board stuff is apparently beyone me!

[CPUWIZ]

ZIP the binary and attach the zipfile.

[Chadivision]

I'll give that I try. I hope this works.

backfire.zip

[Chadivision]

Sorry for the double post.

 

I just tried it and the .zip file worked.

 

Let me know what kind of scores you get. One time I got about 3,500 and my business phone range so I had to quit (I know, I need to get my priorities in order).

 

I'm done with the programming, but I'm open to suggestions as far as tweaking (colors, difficulty, etc.)

 

Let me know what you think.

[StanJr]

I'm trying to run it via z26 but I cannot get past the title screen (which is cool). Do I need an additional file?

[Chadivision]

Just press the fire button. I think it's CTRL in Z26. I have always hated those games that start by pressing the reset switch, then you have to make a mad dash for your chair before you get killed. When the game ends it will go back to the title screen, then just press the button again to start another game.

[Sheldon Sims]

Cool game. I keep shooting myself. Haha.

[StanJr]

Yep, that's it. I'm an idiot. Thanks Chad.

 

Just played it. First impression: the game is a winner, I will buy a copy. Very challenging without being HARD. Its loads of fun to play and fast paced. Switching guns is totally crazy!

 

I'll keep playing it tonight and give you more comprehensive feedback!

 

Nice.

[rockman_x_2002]

I like the game. It's kind of a cross between Atlantis and Demons to Diamonds, which really works out well.

 

The backfire idea is a nice one. It adds that extra challenge of shooting the correct target, or moving out of the way if you hit the wrong thing. Not bad at all.

[Chadivision]

I'm glad you like it. Make sure that you don't score more that 3,500 points though. Right now I have the world record and I'd like to keep it that way!

[Albert]

I've added the game (and binary) to our database here. I also removed Cyclostar from our In Development pages for the time being.

 

When Chad first sent me the binary, I didn't realize you could control both guns (because I foolishly didn't read his entire email at first!) After playing a few rounds and re-reading his email, I went back and controlling the second gun adds an entirely new dimension to the game. It is devilishly hard given you have to be careful not to shoot the other gun, and also be wary of reflective shots!

 

..Al

[StanJr]

Well, so far I can get about 100 points

 

The bullet is way small and very hard to see, adding a new element of difficulty!!

 

And you can forget about hitting those ships in the center line, I'm too busy just trying to shoot the green ship and dodge my misses!!!

 

This game is loads of fun!

[Scooterb23]

I need to play this on a real system, I have to use a joystick.

 

I can only score about 35 points on emulator.

 

Tough game

[StanJr]

I DO like that the bullet will ricocet until it hits something or leaves the play area.

 

I DO NOT like that my gun has a seizure anytime the enemy ship reaches the topmost or bottommost row, making it nearly impossible to hit the ship before it kills me. This leads to frustration and much beating of the keyboard. (see also, not fun)

 

I DO like the little ships in the middle giving me unique bonuses (the all clear ship is especially nice).

 

This game is oodles of fun. Please release on cart soon!

[Brad2600]

I think it's like playing a game that has a mirror effect. It's very interesting but I could get no further than 40-50 points.

 

Eh well.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

What I ended up with was a really cool looking demo of a UFO that flashes and fires out of four sides, but I don't have enough cycles during the kernal to put any more sprites on the screen.

Why didn't you ask e.g. [stella] for help (or did you?) before abandoning the whole project?

 

I am 100% sure there you would get a lot of help and new ideas.

[Paul Slocum]

Fun game! I made it to 280.

 

You should add the score display to the title screen so you can see your last score after the game is over.

 

-Paul

[Spirantho]

Excellent game! But I can`t play it properly on a PC keyboard, I need my CuttleCart II (or even a cart version of the game - any plans for that?).

 

I agree, though - you need to repeat the high score.

[Chadivision]

I most likely will return to Cyclostar at some point. I learned a lot while writing it, but I basically need to start from scartch. It's not so much that I'm stuck, as it is that I'm just burned out on it for right now, and I don't have a lot of time for programming projects.

 

I agree, Backfire is pretty hard to play in an emulator. I designed it using my Cuttle Cart. I am definately going to release it in cartridge format as soon as possible. I have already emailed Albert about it. After the current label contest is finished, I think that we will do one for Backfire. I also have to write the instruction manual.

 

When I was coming up with the concept for the game I had to decide what to do when the ship gets near you. The problem was that it would be too easy if you could just wait until the ship is right next to your gun. You would never miss. I solved this two ways. First, a ship that is right next to your gun is not worth any points and second, the rumble effect makes it a lot harder to hit, but you still have a chance.

 

What would everyone think about me adding a practice mode, where the ships don't kill you, there are no barriers, and the UFO is on the screen all the time, that way you can get the timing down. I had the benefit of practicing the game before I added all of that stuff, so I guess I forgot how hard it really is. I'm just about out of ROM, but it wouldn't take that much more code, and I'm sure that I can find a few more bytes.

[Spirantho]

For myself, I say keep it the way it is, but then I`m not one for "training modes" anyway, I always prefer to jump in at the deep end. I would just change the High Score thing so you can be sure of your best score so far, and then release it ASAP so we can all buy a copy!

[StanJr]

I don't think the game needs a practice mode. I had pondered that last night as I was playing it (for 4 hours ), and my first instinct was YES this needs a practice mode. But as I get closer to 2K points, I think you just need to keep playing. There are some basics to gameplay that must be mastered: Keep aprised of your other gun's location at all times, I use one "primary" gun most of the time and then switch to the other in an emergency, and if the green ship is near the middle, aim for the smaller bonus ships in the middle beam, until the green ship gets within two rows of you. Once I got the hang of those things, the game opened up to me (and it only took me about 3 hours )

 

I do think the score should be displayed on the Title screen as recommended.

 

And due to the gun seizures I have added to my strategy "never let the green ship get to the topmost/bottommost row."

 

This is a great, great game. Thank you, Chad!

[Chadivision]

One thing that makes the game a little easier is the fact that the UFOs always move at the same speed. The ships gradually get faster, but if you can learn the timing for the UFOs, it's the same for every level.

 

If anyone wants a training mode, let me know, otherwise I'll just leave it the way it is.

 

Actually I just came up with a solution. I'm going to write a Backfire for beginners game and sell carts. I think I'll price them at $500 each. While I'm at it, maybe I could make a version of Dodge'em where I can actually get past the second level.

 

 

 

I think what I will do make the game stay on the regular screen for a while before going back to the title screen, that way you can see what your final score was.

 

I originally planned to add the score to the title screen, but it didn't work out. My Chadivision banner has to load 7 bytes of data per scanline (one for the stripe color, 5 bytes for the five copies of the player graphics that make up most of the text, and 1 byte for the ball which is the last pixel of the text). That is way too slow to do line by line as it's being displayed. What I ended up doing was writing a loop that loads it all into RAM after the title graphics are finished being drawn. To make a long story short (too late) My title screen uses a ton of RAM and processor cycles, and I barely got it to run the way it is. I could possibly try to fit it in, but not without some major changes to the title screen. The other option is to get rid of the Chadivision banner, but I spent so much time getting that thing to work that I would really hate to remove it, plus I think it's kind of funny. And isn't the point of all of this... for me to amuse myself (and hopefully you too)?