Working on a new game

[Aaron]

Hello AA forum people.

 

For the past couple weeks, it's been my life-long dream to write an Atari 2600 game, and thanks to Andrew Davie's excellent tutorial I actually have something that kind-of works. It's a recreation of an old TI game called Fall Down - playing it is pretty simple, you just keep falling for as long as you can.

 

I just picked the colors at random, so it probably looks awful... though I think it animates reasonably well at least.

 

I'd like to add a simultaneous 2-player mode (hence the second score counter), but have run into technical problems... I'd need to either move to a 2-scanline kernel or show the players on alternating frames. Or maybe I could use a symmetric playfield instead. Any thoughts on this? Or on the game in general?

fd_24jun04.zip

[DEBRO]

 

You might want to submit this to the Minigame Compo.

 

I'd like to add a simultaneous 2-player mode (hence the second score counter), but have run into technical problems... I'd need to either move to a 2-scanline kernel or show the players on alternating frames. Or maybe I could use a symmetric playfield instead. Any thoughts on this? Or on the game in general?

No need to use a 2LK. You should be able to get both sprites drawn on a single scan line by using VDELx. There are many examples of this. You can check the [stella] archives.

 

A suggestion for game play would be to have the player score more points if they fall through without touching the platform below. Maybe x2 if they pass 2 platforms and x3 if they pass 3 etc.

[DEBRO]

 

 

You might want to submit this to the Minigame Compo.

Oops, already submitted for the Spectrum but I think that's okay. You might want to read the rules as I haven't read them yet.

[Aaron]

 

 

You might want to submit this to the Minigame Compo.

Oops, already submitted for the Spectrum but I think that's okay. You might want to read the rules as I haven't read them yet.

 

Hey, now there's a coincidence - I was the author of the original FallDown Forever on the TI-86 Anyway, I don't see anything in the rules about different authors doing the same game, so I'll submit it eventually.

 

I think I've figured out a way to get both players on the screen now, though there's still the problem of actually writing it...

[Alex H]

Hey, now there's a coincidence

 

Talking of coincidences, I just tried your demo and had to post. I wrote a very similar game to this on the Vectrex called "Spike Goes Down". It was the hidden bonus game included on the limited edition Protector (Defender clone) carts.

 

Anyhow, I just started writing my first Atari 2600 game, and guess what game I'm doing? Check out the attached binary...

[Alex H]

Oops! Let's try attaching the binary again...

go_down.zip

[+Nathan Strum]

There are the beginnings of a couple of cool games there! If I may make a suggestion, having obstacles to jump over on the platforms would add a nice challenge to the gameplay. Perhaps barrels that rolled back and forth or something similar.

[legeek]

I like where both of these are going

 

Cheers,

Ben

[+Nathan Strum]

Shoot... still can't edit posts.

 

Anyway, I was referring to Aaron's game for the jumping obstacles, since the platforms are long enough for that to work.

[bjk7382]

Oops!  Let's try attaching the binary again...

 

I like this game, you should start you own post in this forum.

[Aaron]

I have an updated version with a second player. It needed a little more trickery than I thought... still, it works and all. Also I improved the graphics a little.

 

Obviously it needs some work still... the second player can't die yet, and the scores really should be independent.

 

Alex - Go Down is pretty cool. The collectibles combined with the player's acceleration are a nice touch. Your sprites look a lot better than mine

 

Nathan - Things to jump over would be kind of fun I think. I'm not sure how I'd fit them into the current kernel though.

fd_30jun04.zip

[Cybergoth]

Hi there!

 

Funny to see so many "variants on a theme" popping up at once. You know, TJ and Oliver Achten are also both working on similar concepts. Yet still, each game seems to have a unique twist of its own.

 

Are you targetting the mini game compo as well, Alex? Your game already looks very professional, your Vectrex experience surely shows

 

Greetings,

Manuel

[Godzilla]

Man, alex, the 2600 version is AWESOME :-) Vectrex Spike Goes Down was the best game I played all year the year I got protector SE. (and I buy a LOT of games,) I cant wait to see if the 2600 version gets some music. I love the arms flapping. got 69 points my first try and collected every bonus item up to like the third or forth rainbow question mark (which I missed,) then the bonus items started over...did fall through a platform once, but maybe that was just Z26... Great work! Kudos.

[Alex H]

Cheers for the pos feedback people. I'll start a new thread when I have an update, rather than muscling in on someone elses.

 

Aaron: I like your 2 player mode. 1 player vs. CPU would also be pretty cool - any chance of this?

 

Cybergoth: I've not been very efficient with ROM usage and have already gone over 4k, so it's unlikely I'll be able to enter it into the mini-game compo.

 

Godzilla: I'd very much like to include music in the 2600 version but it's not going to be easy, so no promisses at this stage.

 

I'll post with an update soon.

 

Alex

[Aaron]

Aaron:  I like your 2 player mode.  1 player vs. CPU would also be pretty cool - any chance of this?

Yeah, I've been hoping to get to that eventually. I don't think it would be too hard... all it would do is go left or right towards the nearest hole, though if I add jumping it might complicate things.

 

Right now I'm thinking of having a game mode where the players block each other, so jumping would become important... it'd probably be simpler than putting in obstacles at least.

[Aaron]

Just so Alex can't have all the attention, I've put together an update.

 

Unfortunately my hard drive is dying, so I didn't get as much stuff into this one as I would have liked. Still no title screen, alternate game modes, AI players, etc.

 

What I have done is put in a whole new scoring system - the idea is that the platforms are 'captured' by either player, giving one point each time. When a platform is captured, it changes color to match the player that got it, which looks nice I think.

 

Also the platforms have color gradients now.

fd_11jul04.zip

[Big Player]

Looks good so far! I like the capturing the platform option.

 

Looking forward to more updates.

[StanJr]

The "capture" idea helps a lot.

 

Crazy how this and MGD sprouted up so near each other!

 

One suggestion, right now the game is mega easy. I can play pretty much forever. Adding obstacles, or player blocking or something to increase the challenge would make this a lot more fun.

 

I LOVE the two player aspect, but would like to see some kind of one player mode as well. Entombed is very similar to this game, and it has both modes, so I'm thinking something like that?

 

Keep up the great work!

[Aaron]

Ok, I've been working hardly on Fall Down, and I think it's approaching a point where it might actually be fun to play (well... sort of). So I have a new version for everyone to try out....

 

New stuff:

 

Gradius-style powerups - you can collect little squares and press the fire button to apply them. Currently using 1 gives you a short speed boost, 2 digs a hole in the platform beneath you, 3 gives a longer speed boost, and 4 swaps your position with the other player (in 2 player mode).

 

An AI player. Currently it's not very smart - it doesn't go after the powerups, though it does use them when it gets in trouble.

 

A title screen, with the high score shown on it. Select changes game modes (1 player, 1 player vs. AI, 2 player) and fire starts the game.

 

Jumping. Really the only use for it now is to grab powerups, though I have some plans...

 

X-acceleration. Well, everyone seemed to like this in Alex's game, so why not...

 

And lastly.... some bugs. The guy's feet can disappear at the bottom of the screen sometimes. I think I could maybe fix this one, but it would be a lot of work for something that only shows up rarely. Thoughts?

fd_31jul04.zip

[Blinky]

Ok, I've been working hardly on Fall Down

 

Nice Work. Looking forward to see more of it !

 

The guy's feet can disappear at the bottom of the screen sometimes.

 

You could end the players turn when it touches the bottom of the screen as an extra difficulty so it won't show.

 

On the obstacle idea. Maybe you could make some of the holes move or make them open and close periodically.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Nice work!

 

Some comments:

- IMO the player falls a bit too fast but moves too slow horizontally.

- while the player isn't moving horizontally, you should disable or change the animation.

 

BTW: I noticed the game is 4K now.

[Tsukasa]

Why? It reminds me of dragon warior on the nes.

[Aaron]

- IMO the player falls a bit too fast but moves too slow horizontally.

Heh, personally I thought it was the other way around. The gravity is actually a bit weaker in demo #4 though.

- while the player isn't moving horizontally, you should disable or change the animation.

Yeah, I've been meaning to redo the animation entirely.... drawing is hard though

BTW: I noticed the game is 4K now.

And I've already used up most of it

[Aaron]

Another week, another version of Fall Down...

 

Most of the time I spent on this version was for optimization - I ended up saving a couple hundred bytes, which promptly got used up again.

 

Anyway, new features...

 

Better character animation. It still sucks, but erm, less so - now the guys don't animate while the controls are inactive. Personally I didn't like the Dragon Warrior look

 

New gameplay rules. Now players respawn after they die, so if you screw up it gives the other guy a few lines, but not the whole game.

 

A mode where the players bounce off each other. I had a lot of fun playing against the AI in this mode, so I made it the default. (A good trick is to jump and try to hit the other guy on the way up, so he goes flying off in the other direction) The old pass-by mode is marked with 2-way arrows on the title screen.

 

Better AI. It tries to move while falling and shouldn't get stuck on ledges any more. It still doesn't go after power-ups or jump, but I think that's kind of hopeless...

 

Basic sound effects. Erm, such as they are... Anyone have any tips on creating good sound effects? I read the "Atari Music and Sound Programming Guide", but it seemed to be mainly about music...

 

Varying "stages". Every 8 or 16 platforms the background color will change, along with the hole-creation probabilities. I used this to create choke points in a few places, which livens things up a bit I think.

 

You could end the players turn when it touches the bottom of the screen as an extra difficulty so it won't show.

I eventually decided not to do this for a couple reasons - Alex's game already works that way, and the AI wouldn't be able to play it very well. So the feet-disappearing thing is still there. *shrug*

 

Anyway, development is nearing the end now, as I want to keep this under 4k, not to mention that I've used nearly all the available ram and processing time. Suggestions are still welcome though.

fd_07aug04.zip

[StanJr]

this is shaping up really nicely. I was afraid people would balk at it, seeing as to how it was announced nearly back-to-back with MGD, but its really starting to get legs and become a great little head-to-head game!

 

Nice work, cannot wait to see more.