19 replies to this topic

[jbs30000]

This was titled OK, I lied. One More update, but I changed the title because I have posted the completed game now.

I said I wasn't going to post any more updates until I was finished with my QBert game, but after re-writing the code, from scratch (literally) over and over again (something like 5 times or so), and getting this far, I just had to post an update.

Coily is now in the game. I made him move half as slow as QBert because since the pyramid is smaller than the arcade or 2600 version, Coily could catch up to QBert very quickly when he moved at full speed. He still can cause problems at his slow speed though, and when I'm finished with the game there will usually be 2 enemies on the screen, so that will make things harder still.

Attached Files

•  QBAlt.bas.bin   32K   122 downloads

Edited by jbs30000, Sat Apr 26, 2008 5:06 PM.

[Random Terrain]

Will you eventually make it so the player can start the game with the fire button?

[jbs30000]

What's wrong with starting the game with the Reset button?

[Random Terrain]

jbs30000, on Thu Apr 24, 2008 10:36 AM, said:

What's wrong with starting the game with the Reset button?

If this game is eventually played on a real Atari 2600, some people aren't going to be sitting right next the the Atari. They'd have to get up and hit Reset. One of the great advancements was when Atari 2600 games finally started letting us use the fire button to start. It's like having a remote control for your Atari.

[gambler172]

Hi JBS
Great work.But it would be better,if you can start with the fire button.
The game plays much better than the original.
greetings Walter

[midnight8]

Random Terrain, on Thu Apr 24, 2008 9:51 AM, said:

jbs30000, on Thu Apr 24, 2008 10:36 AM, said:

What's wrong with starting the game with the Reset button?

If this game is eventually played on a real Atari 2600, some people aren't going to be sitting right next the the Atari. They'd have to get up and hit Reset. One of the great advancements was when Atari 2600 games finally started letting us use the fire button to start. It's like having a remote control for your Atari.

here's my 2600 remote.

Its ugly but it works. plugs into back of console via vga cable. controls both difficulties rest, select and b/w

Attached Thumbnails

• 

[jbs30000]

First off, pretty cool remote midnight8

Second, even though I don't think releasing it on a cartridge is a good idea (copyright infringement and all) I'll go ahead and change it from the reset button to the fire button.

[Propane13]

Why not do both? I wouldn't say change it.

[jbs30000]

Good idea, thanks.

[jbs30000]

OK, it's done. You can start the game with the reset button or fire button on the joystick.

Also, the game is closer to the arcade now in that the purple ball and the second sprite drop from the top of the screen instead of just appearing on a cube. This makes the game look a lot nicer too.

I've completed two out of the four sprites that are in the game besides Qbert and Coily.

If you're familiar with the game, you can skip the rest of this as it just goes over the other sprites in the game besides QBert.

I'll Skip the sprite you're most familiar with and is on every round, Coily, the purple ball who hatches into a snake. To make my game closer to the original however, I will say that when you jump on a disk and he plunges to his doom, you get 500 points.

Round 1 - Red ball - Chases Qbert. Can only move down.

Round 2 - Sam - Un-fills cubes you landed on. If you touch him he disappears and you get 300 points. In the arcade game there is also Slick who does the same thing, but I didn't put him in.

Round 3 - WrongWay - Chases Qbert - He starts out at the bottom of the pyramid and moves upwards. He also jumps from the side of one cube to another, instead of from the top of one cube to another. In the arcade game he is paired with Ugg who also starts at the bottom and jumps from side to side, although he does it slightly differently than WrongWay. WrongWay was hard enough to make a sprite for (and what I did isn't all that great) and Ugg would be impossible, so Ugg isn't in the game.

Round 4 - Green ball. Freezes the game for a few seconds. Qbert can jump and change cubes but enemies don't move, and if he touches an enemy then nothing happens.

[gambler172]

Hi JBS
And where is the bin?
greetings Walter

[jbs30000]

___________________________________________HERE'S THE GAME___________________________________________
I'm thinking of making a couple of improvements in the future, but for now, the game is complete.

I fixed the little mistakes that were in there and added the following:
1) When QBert or Coily fall to the bottom of the screen, there's a "thud" sound effect.
2) When a round first starts, there's a brief pause. I did this because I found that if I accidentally jump off of a bottom cube,
then when Qbert reappear at the top, he sometimes jumps off of the top too, and giving the game a brief pause where it can't
read the joystick seems to help.
3) The game is harder than I thought, so QBert starts with 9 lives instead of 3. I did this because I had a hard time thinking of
how to make the game award extra lives at certain scores. If 9 lives isn't enough I can make it start with more.
4) Pressing the Reset button puts you back to the Animation that plays when the game is first started, or after you lose all your
lives.

Well, there's probably more but that's all I can think of. Let me know if you find any bugs and I'll fix them.

Attached Files

•  QBert.bas.bin   32K   106 downloads

[jwierer]

jbs30000, on Sat Apr 26, 2008 5:12 PM, said:

___________________________________________HERE'S THE GAME___________________________________________
I'm thinking of making a couple of improvements in the future, but for now, the game is complete.

I fixed the little mistakes that were in there and added the following:
1) When QBert or Coily fall to the bottom of the screen, there's a "thud" sound effect.
2) When a round first starts, there's a brief pause. I did this because I found that if I accidentally jump off of a bottom cube,
then when Qbert reappear at the top, he sometimes jumps off of the top too, and giving the game a brief pause where it can't
read the joystick seems to help.
3) The game is harder than I thought, so QBert starts with 9 lives instead of 3. I did this because I had a hard time thinking of
how to make the game award extra lives at certain scores. If 9 lives isn't enough I can make it start with more.
4) Pressing the Reset button puts you back to the Animation that plays when the game is first started, or after you lose all your
lives.

Well, there's probably more but that's all I can think of. Let me know if you find any bugs and I'll fix them.

One thing I noticed is that the other elements of the game (red ball, green ball, green guy,etc...) come out to frequently. As soon as you kill them or they fall off the screen they reappear and follow the same pattern of going directly after qbert. If you are at the bottom there is no way to evade that red ball. Overall great effort. Are you going to publish the source?

Jeff

[jbs30000]

jwierer, on Sat Apr 26, 2008 5:10 PM, said:

One thing I noticed is that the other elements of the game (red ball, green ball, green guy,etc...) come out to frequently. As soon as you kill them or they fall off the screen they reappear and follow the same pattern of going directly after qbert. If you are at the bottom there is no way to evade that red ball. Overall great effort. Are you going to publish the source?

Jeff

I probably will release the source code, but I'll want to make notes for the code first. The program started out neat and orderly, but for various reasons didn't stay that way. It still is better than my Tron game source code though.

As for the red ball and the others, I might be able to do something, I don't know though. I've been thinking about seeing if I can get them to fall to the left sometimes, and to the right others, instead of them always falling to the right.

[gambler172]

Hi JBS
plays very well.Nice...
greetings Walter

[jbs30000]

gambler172, on Sun Apr 27, 2008 8:46 AM, said:

Hi JBS
plays very well.Nice...
greetings Walter

Thanks. I know it can be difficult to play at times, so soon I'll release the source so people can make it a bit easier for themselves if they want.

[Gorf]

Leave it jbs.....It's a really nice job you did. Very impressive!

[jbs30000]

Gorf, on Tue Apr 29, 2008 5:13 AM, said:

Leave it jbs.....It's a really nice job you did. Very impressive!

Thank you very much.

I did promise to release the source code though, so I'll do that. I was making a text document with notes on the routines and what they do, in case any of them are confusing, but I'm scratching that. If anybody has any questions just ask me and I'll explain.

Attached Files

•  QBert.bas   46.92K   90 downloads

[jwierer]

jbs30000, on Tue Apr 29, 2008 12:40 PM, said:

Gorf, on Tue Apr 29, 2008 5:13 AM, said:

Leave it jbs.....It's a really nice job you did. Very impressive!

Thank you very much.

I did promise to release the source code though, so I'll do that. I was making a text document with notes on the routines and what they do, in case any of them are confusing, but I'm scratching that. If anybody has any questions just ask me and I'll explain.

Thanks for sharing the code. On the title screen the © was off by one color. I think this is what you want for your pfcolors

TitleColors
 pfcolors:
 26
 26
 26
 26
 26
 26
 26
 26
 200
 200
 200
 200
 200
 200
 200
 200
 174
 174
 174
 174
 174
 174
 94
 94
 94
 94
 14
 14
 14
 14
 14
 14
end

[jbs30000]

That works great. Thank you.