47 replies to this topic

[Ben_Larson]

Here's (i think) the final v1.0 of 'Incoming!', with 4 different binaries for your television format of choice.

I can't resist attaching a screenshot of the awesome SECAM version in it's 8 color glory.

Ben

Attached Thumbnails

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Attached Files

•  Incoming1.0.zip   30.94K   542 downloads

Edited by Ben_Larson, Tue Apr 15, 2008 9:12 PM.

[Random Terrain]

That's pretty good. I wish we could do that stuff at the bottom with batari Basic.

[Nathan Strum]

Very cool! Congratulations on finishing the game!

I did run into one weird thing... under the right circumstances, you can't hit the enemy tank because the wind is too strong, and the angle is too steep (unless you cut through the terrain to get to him).

For example, here you can see my shot coming down on the right side, well short. I've maxed out the firepower, and any lower of an angle won't clear the terrain:



However, that seems to be pretty rare. Eventually, the wind died down enough to make the shot (fortunately, I didn't get killed in the meantime).


I'm rather pleased with this one. Nailed him with the first shot:

[Nognir]

Nice one!

I tried the PAL60 version and it has a green background instead of the blue of the PAL version. is this intended?
Anyways.. Very nice work!

[Ben_Larson]

Quote

Congratulations on finishing the game!

Thanks! For those of you unfamiliar with the full story of the game, I originally started on it like 6 1/2 years ago, worked on it sporadically, then basically lost motivation and shelved it for a number of years. A lot of personal problems helped derail things too, but that's a different story. Anyway...then sometime late last year I got the urge to finally finish the long lost project... So it's been a long time in the making, although not beating the all time record of 'longest-in-development-homebrew-that-was-actually-finished' which AFAIK is still held by 'INV+', which was 7 years in development.

Quote

I did run into one weird thing... under the right circumstances, you can't hit the enemy tank because the wind is too strong, and the angle is too steep (unless you cut through the terrain to get to him).

That's just part of the strategy! Happens to the computer sometimes as well. Just gotta lower your elevation and blast through the terrain or hope that the wind changes before the other guy hits you...

Quote

I tried the PAL60 version and it has a green background instead of the blue of the PAL version. is this intended?
Anyways.. Very nice work!

oh that's probably because your emulator is autodetecting it as NTSC, hence the wrong colors. I know there's a setting in Z26 to force a certain palette...

Ben

[Nognir]

Hmm I'm playing it in Stella 2.4.2 and even if I force it to use the Z26 palette the background is green.

I also attached a screenshot:

Attached Thumbnails

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[mos6507]

Ben_Larson, on Wed Apr 16, 2008 12:24 PM, said:

So it's been a long time in the making, although not beating the all time record of 'longest-in-development-homebrew-that-was-actually-finished' which AFAIK is still held by 'INV+', which was 7 years in development.

If I finish Death Derby, I'll beat all records past, present, and future.

Then again, maybe Rob Fulop deserves that distinction?

Edited by mos6507, Thu Apr 17, 2008 2:08 AM.

[batari]

mos6507, on Thu Apr 17, 2008 3:07 AM, said:

Ben_Larson, on Wed Apr 16, 2008 12:24 PM, said:

So it's been a long time in the making, although not beating the all time record of 'longest-in-development-homebrew-that-was-actually-finished' which AFAIK is still held by 'INV+', which was 7 years in development.

If I finish Death Derby, I'll beat all records past, present, and future.

Then again, maybe Rob Fulop deserves that distinction?

You can still go for 'longest-in-development-homebrew-that-was-actually-finished-by-the-original-programmer'

[stephena]

Nognir, on Thu Apr 17, 2008 4:30 AM, said:

Hmm I'm playing it in Stella 2.4.2 and even if I force it to use the Z26 palette the background is green.

I also attached a screenshot:

I think Ben meant that z26 has an option to specify a PAL60 palette (just as Stella does), not that you have to use the z26 palette in Stella. In the lastest version of Stella (>= 2.5), pressing Ctrl-F will switch between NTSC/PAL/SECAM palettes. If you use the z26 palette in Stella, it just means to emulate z26 colours (ie, if you're in NTSC mode, it will just show the NTSC colours from the z26 palette). You'd still need to switch to PAL60 mode to see PAL60 colours.

Note that this didn't work quite right in Stella 2.4.2, so I recommend to upgrade to the latest version (2.5.1).

Also, I forgot to mention, autodetection by format basically only works for NTSC and PAL (it works by looking at the number of scanlines). So PAL60 will be detected as NTSC, and SECAM as PAL.

Finally, the changes for a particular ROM can be made permanent by editing the ROM properties within the game, selecting the correct palette, saving the properties, and reloading the ROM (again, you should be using 2.5.1 for this).

Edited by stephena, Thu Apr 17, 2008 7:27 AM.

[Nognir]

ah thanks! after a few seconds I also found the option in the MacOSX version.
Really a great game. looking forward for the cartridge version

[cosmosiss]

Ben, are you considering making a run of carts? I'm still loving this game.

[CrazyChris]

What is the vcs.h file included in the Zip?


Also, its KILLING me that the barrel on the tanks are
stuck in one position?

Other than that, great game!

Chris

[cosmosiss]

I believe vcs.h is needed to compile the source included.

[Ben_Larson]

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What is the vcs.h file included in the Zip?

It's just a header file you'd need in order to assemble the .asm file using DASM. People tend to use slightly different naming conventions for various things that appear in vcs.h, so I figured it would be a good idea to include the vcs.h that I used.

Quote

Ben, are you considering making a run of carts?

I was talking to Al via email a while back about doing an atariage cart release, but I don't know if he's still interested. We'll see...

Ben

[Nognir]

damn. I forgot to post here.

Even though I changed the Palette Settings in Stella (2.5.1 ) I get a greenish background here in my MacOSX version.
sorry for bothering again but if this will be available as cartridge I will take a PAL60 version

[stephena]

Nognir, on Wed Apr 23, 2008 8:04 PM, said:

damn. I forgot to post here.

Even though I changed the Palette Settings in Stella (2.5.1 ) I get a greenish background here in my MacOSX version.
sorry for bothering again but if this will be available as cartridge I will take a PAL60 version

I don't know what the issue could be. I'm attaching a snapshot of the PAL60 ROM using the PAL60 palette. Also, you can cycle through the palettes 'live' with the Cmd-f key. If you can't get the PAL60 ROM to look like the snapshot I've attached, then it must be a bug in the OSX version of Stella.

[atarian63]

Ben_Larson, on Tue Apr 22, 2008 10:39 AM, said:

Quote

What is the vcs.h file included in the Zip?

It's just a header file you'd need in order to assemble the .asm file using DASM. People tend to use slightly different naming conventions for various things that appear in vcs.h, so I figured it would be a good idea to include the vcs.h that I used.

Quote

Ben, are you considering making a run of carts?

I was talking to Al via email a while back about doing an atariage cart release, but I don't know if he's still interested. We'll see...

Ben

I would buy one!!!

[Ben_Larson]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone has had a chance to test this on an Atari 7800. All I have is a Supercharger so I don't think I can do it.

The reason I bring this up is that a while back on the Stellalist it was mentioned that the playfield graphic timings may be ever so slightly different on at least some 7800s. Since 'Incoming!' uses some pretty tight playfield timing I thought it might be good to check and see...

Thanks,
Ben

[Devin]

Wow. That is probably the best port of the tank battle game I have ever played on a console. I like the fact that this game can be two player and one player. Also, this game is pretty fast paced for a tank battle.

This is far superior to Xonox's Artillery Duel (which is also great).

One minor request though... when a round starts, can you set the power of the cannon to a low value. Sometimes you get a one-shot-kill with the startup values.

Edited by Devin, Fri Sep 5, 2008 12:13 PM.

[Ben_Larson]

Devin - I'm glad you enjoy it. I also think it plays at a better pace than Artillery Duel. With regards to the suggestion, though, unfortunately I think I'm done with development, as I haven't worked on it since I got done with v1.0 in April and I really don't want to lug it back out except for bugfixes. There is an 'easier' mode though, if you keep select held down until the teddy bear face shows up...did you try that yet?

Ben

[AtariLeaf]

Really like this. I loved Artillery Duel and am a huge fan of this genre. I have just about every worms game there is.

Any chance this is going to be made in cart form?

[Supermarket]

I'm looking forward to playing this, then getting down to work on a label for the cartidge art design contest that just opened! I was a big fan of Scorched Earth on PC back in the mid '90s... anyone else here a fan of that game?

[AtariLeaf]

Quick question: Is the wind speed and direction supposed to change after every shot? I thought it remained the same until the following round where it would randomly change again.

And yes, I'm a big scorched earth fan too. It started with scorched earth then lead to the Worms series.

[Nathan Strum]

AtariLeaf, on Mon Oct 27, 2008 12:35 PM, said:

Quick question: Is the wind speed and direction supposed to change after every shot?

It doesn't change every shot, but the wind speed changing is part of the game:

Ben_Larson, on Wed Apr 16, 2008 11:24 AM, said:

Quote

I did run into one weird thing... under the right circumstances, you can't hit the enemy tank because the wind is too strong, and the angle is too steep (unless you cut through the terrain to get to him).

That's just part of the strategy! Happens to the computer sometimes as well. Just gotta lower your elevation and blast through the terrain or hope that the wind changes before the other guy hits you...

[Ben_Larson]

AtariLeaf, on Mon Oct 27, 2008 9:35 PM, said:

And yes, I'm a big scorched earth fan too. It started with scorched earth then lead to the Worms series.

Early on I actually considered doing a game with weapons like Scorched Earth, but I more or less dropped that idea once I realized how hard it was going to be just to do anything starting as a complete noob.

As simple as the game is, I think, in all honesty, probably half the development time was just fixing bugs or rewriting things. It can sometimes start to feel more like work than fun when you get bogged down in all that, which is probably one reason I lost interest in Atari 2600 programming for so long...

Ben