Aaron Posted February 5, 2005 Share Posted February 5, 2005 Well, I just couldn't help myself. I started working on Fall Down again. So... here's what's new: back when I started writing this thing, I didn't have much grasp of the use of INTIM, so the code had WSYNC statements pretty much everywhere there was a possible branch. Very wasteful... So I got rid of all that stuff, freeing up around 100 bytes for new features (still to be added). I also got to thinking the game might look better (particularly on real TVs) with bright sprites on a dark background, instead of the other way around. The screenshot uses the new color scheme. Opinions please. And that's it for now. I'm kicking around the idea of making it 8k, what with the Mini-Game contest over, though I'm not sure how I'd fill up such a vastly huge amound of space... fd_05feb05.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Mitchell Posted February 5, 2005 Share Posted February 5, 2005 Thanks for FD05! I'll give it a try later today. Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted February 5, 2005 Share Posted February 5, 2005 I prefer the new color scheme. It's more "Atari like". BTW: How do you know that the next compo will be 8k? Did I miss something? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron Posted February 5, 2005 Author Share Posted February 5, 2005 BTW: How do you know that the next compo will be 8k? Did I miss something? Erm no, I just meant that the old version had to be 4k to enter in the compo. I'm not entering FD in next year's (who thinks that far ahead, anyway? ), so I can make it as big as I want. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted February 5, 2005 Share Posted February 5, 2005 Erm no, I just meant that the old version had to be 4k to enter in the compo. I'm not entering FD in next year's (who thinks that far ahead, anyway? ), so I can make it as big as I want. Got you now. | Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miker Posted February 5, 2005 Share Posted February 5, 2005 no shooting, eh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nathan Strum Posted February 6, 2005 Share Posted February 6, 2005 I'm glad to see the return of this game - it's a lot of fun! The new colors look really good, too. Keep up the great work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanJr Posted February 6, 2005 Share Posted February 6, 2005 Glad to see you are back at it. FD is a great two player challenge game! I'm liking the new version, can't wait to see more! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MegaManFan Posted February 6, 2005 Share Posted February 6, 2005 I really hope this will one day have a cart release. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted February 6, 2005 Share Posted February 6, 2005 I really hope this will one day have a cart release. It will! ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron Posted February 9, 2005 Author Share Posted February 9, 2005 Ok, so Fall Down is now 8k. What I've done is put the title screen and the game on separate banks, so right now there aren't any sound effects on the title screen, since that part of the code is in the other bank. Otherwise it seems to be working fine. I've also added some preliminary AtariVox code to the title screen (there's not enough cpu time or ram for it in-game). It should announce "red wins" or "blue wins" at the end of a game, though for all I know it could just blast out static.... maybe someone could try it out? fd_09feb05.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nathan Strum Posted February 10, 2005 Share Posted February 10, 2005 Well, I don't know if the voice works or not (since I'm currently AtariVoxless), but the game seems to be working fine at 8k. If you could add voices to the game, I've got a suggestion... there are times when you're blocking each other from going down a hole, and the phrase that always leaps to mind is, "You fool! You'll kill us both!" Related to that... I'd love for their to be a "shove" power-up. Where you could shove the other guy from behind hard enough to make him miss going through a hole. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron Posted February 16, 2005 Author Share Posted February 16, 2005 Here's an update... The controls are changed a bit in this one. Firstly the game will try to detect the 7800 (thanks to Nukey Shay and batari for the idea), so now you only need to flip the B&W/Color switch once to pause on the 2600. Also, Reset and Select now work like in most other games - Select goes back to the title screen and Reset restarts the game in the current mode. On the title screen, left and right now change the game mode. Most of the other changes have been internal. I've freed up a couple bytes of ram in-game, but I haven't really decided what to do with them yet. Possibly I'll try to improve the sound effects... I still have no idea if the AtariVox stuff works... Related to that... I'd love for their to be a "shove" power-up. Where you could shove the other guy from behind hard enough to make him miss going through a hole. I did actually try to work in something like that by changing the player's mass in the collision code. It didn't quite work though... if you hit the other guy too hard, his velocity would overflow (it's only 8-bit) and do weird things... fd_15feb05.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted February 16, 2005 Share Posted February 16, 2005 Here's an update... Played several rounds tonight, this game is very addicting! I only played against the computer, but I tried all the different modes and they add great variety to the game. I only played in emulation, but I will try it on a real system shortly so I can give you some feedback about the AtariVox. I like the color changes, btw, since I didn't comment on that earlier.. Keep up the great work! ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted February 17, 2005 Share Posted February 17, 2005 Just tried the game on a real 2600 with the AtariVox and the game does announce "Red Wins" when you win. Are you going to add additional AtariVox support? ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron Posted February 17, 2005 Author Share Posted February 17, 2005 Just tried the game on a real 2600 with the AtariVox and the game does announce "Red Wins" when you win. Awesome! Albert, you are the man. Are you going to add additional AtariVox support? Adding a few more phrases on the title screen shouldn't be too hard, but I'm not sure if I'll go beyond that. Saving of high scores would be nice, but the code for it looks more complicated and would likely need a lot more testing... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron Posted February 28, 2005 Author Share Posted February 28, 2005 Another update, this one's a little bigger... Several bugs fixed. I won't go into the details. More speech - "tie" and "new high score". That'll probably be all, though it's really tempting to try to add support for the eeprom... New advanced game mode (down arrow). What it does is start you ~20 lines into the game, since the opening stages can get a little dull when you've played the game a zillion times. Slightly improved sound effects. They now play on both channels, so they shouldn't cut each other off as much. And the part I put the most work into... new music on the title screen. I think it turned out pretty well, considering I've never written any before. It does sound a little weird in the PAL50 version though. fd_28feb05.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted February 28, 2005 Share Posted February 28, 2005 Another update, this one's a little bigger... Just tried it out, looks and sounds great! More speech - "tie" and "new high score". That'll probably be all, though it's really tempting to try to add support for the eeprom... It would be great if you had a bit more speech in the game, especially during gameplay. I'd love to be able to add Fall Down to the list of games that have AtariVox support, but with speech only at the end of the game, it might be a bit misleading. However, if you add support for the EEPROM, that would be much more compelling. I'd be glad to help you test it out, and can even lend you an AtariVox if you have a means of testing the game on a real 2600. New advanced game mode (down arrow). What it does is start you ~20 lines into the game, since the opening stages can get a little dull when you've played the game a zillion times. That's a nice addition. And the part I put the most work into... new music on the title screen. I think it turned out pretty well, considering I've never written any before. It does sound a little weird in the PAL50 version though. The music is also a nice touch, since most 2600 games don't have any at all. You're quickly turning this into a polished game! ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nathan Strum Posted February 28, 2005 Share Posted February 28, 2005 Excellent! The music adds a nice touch to the title screen. This is a really fun, addictive game. There's a great vindicitive replay value to it - wanting to go back and beat the other guy after losing a game. I agree that voices during gameplay would be a cool addition, if they could be squeezed in. There's a lot of potential there. A few random ideas: "Slowpoke!" (when a player gets too far behind) "Shortcut!" (when the hole-in-the-floor power-up is used) "Eat my dust!" (when a speed power-up is used) "Beam me up, Scotty!" (when the swap power-up is used) "Ouch!" (when one player lands on another's head) "You fool! You'll kill us both!" (when they're bumping into each other, preventing them from going down a hole) "Body check!" (when one player slams into the other) "Denied!" (when one just beat the other down the same hole) But, and this is the important part - the game certainly doesn't need voices to be fun. It's already there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanJr Posted March 1, 2005 Share Posted March 1, 2005 Vox support ONLY if it does not detract from more compelling game play elements and truly enhances the experience. Vox is a nice "whistles and bells" frill, but I hope it doesn't become this thing of "does your game have Vox, 'cause only cool games have Vox." Gameplay first, Vox second. Luckily this game is a lot of fun to play, and I look forward to its completion! Great work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted March 1, 2005 Share Posted March 1, 2005 Vox support ONLY if it does not detract from more compelling game play elements and truly enhances the experience. Vox is a nice "whistles and bells" frill, but I hope it doesn't become this thing of "does your game have Vox, 'cause only cool games have Vox." Gameplay first, Vox second. I agree and while I think adding voice support to games via the AtariVox is fun, being able to store your savegames and other data is a very compelling use of the AtariVox. Luckily this game is a lot of fun to play, and I look forward to its completion! Great work! Agreed entirely. ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron Posted March 1, 2005 Author Share Posted March 1, 2005 Re: Speech in game It probably isn't going to happen. I've found enough ram for it, but it still needs ~8 scan lines of processing time that I don't have. While it might work with enough tearing down and rebuilding of code, I'm not really willing to go that far for a "frilly" feature. That said... "You fool! You'll kill us both!" ...would be hilarious. Vox support ONLY if it does not detract from more compelling game play elements and truly enhances the experience. I'll agree with that, except the thing is... the game play is done. Has been for some time now. I'd be glad to help you test it out, and can even lend you an AtariVox if you have a means of testing the game on a real 2600. That I do not, unfortunately. I might have to take you up on the testing though.... (actually, wasn't there some talk of adding eeprom support to Z26?) Anyway... Now that I've spoiled everyone's fun, I do have some good news... I had the day off due to snow, so I was able to get most of the high-score saving code done. It's really a hacked-up mess, since the game wasn't at all designed for it, but I think it should work... A new .bin should be arriving soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard H. Posted March 1, 2005 Share Posted March 1, 2005 Just thought I'd mention the AtariVox EEPROM Memory Static Allocation List (AEMSAL ) It's a list for programmers to reserve memory for their game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron Posted March 2, 2005 Author Share Posted March 2, 2005 And here it is... If I've done everything right, this version should save high scores to the AtariVox. Each mode has its own entry, so you should see the scores change when flipping through the different modes. This also means the high scores reset to zero in Z26, since it apparently detects a non-existent unit. You can see a momentary black frame when the game tries to write to the eeprom. Stella works correctly, in that nothing happens. I also threw a brain-melting easter egg into this version. See if you can find it. fd_02mar05.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted March 7, 2005 Share Posted March 7, 2005 Hi Aaron, I just tried running this on a real 2600 using a Krokodile Cart (wanted to test the AtariVox support) and something appears to be amiss. The title screen rolls constantly, and the music seems to be playing very slowly, or not correctly at all. You can start the game without any problems and it appears to run properly, but once you return to the title screen the game rolls again. Also, instead of seeing "0 0 0" under "HI", you see three blue squares. ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.