81 replies to this topic

[jrok]

Shawn Sr., on Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:25 PM, said:

jrok, on Mon Mar 23, 2009 10:59 AM, said:

Make sure to put in a few different "prizes" of some sort for winning the middle or the top tier. These could be as simple as pictures of prizes and songs, but I think they are sort of needed to communicate the whole "Stacker" vibe.

It's gonna be point based. 50 points for small prize, 100 for large prize.

I suppose you could do both, though. Add fifty points for the small prize then show a picture of a key chain or some other random cheapo prize, add a hundred points for the large prize and show a private jet or jacuzzi or some other exotic prize.

[atari2600land]

New and improved (and still buggy) version. Now the blocks disappear when they're supposed to. They don't fall down, though, they just disappear. I've also added some rems to the .bas file. I have a question, though. Why doesn't the left vertical column not go all the way up?

Attached Files

•  stacker5.bas.bin   4K   62 downloads
•  stacker5.bas   3.32K   47 downloads

[atari2600land]

Fixed a little bug, but it's still kinda buggy.

Attached Files

•  stacker7.bas.bin   4K   55 downloads
•  stacker7.bas   3.33K   46 downloads

Edited by atari2600land, Mon Mar 23, 2009 10:54 PM.

[MausGames]

Are you sure you wouldn't rather do this using the full horizontal resolution? It seems really small and plain, and the game is already about as minimal as it gets.

If you used the whole screen, and the player graphics, it could look something like this:

Edited by MausGames, Mon Mar 23, 2009 11:39 PM.

[atari2600land]

I've worked on this for like 4 or 5 hours straight. The result is all the bugs have been fixed (unless there's some new ones that pop up, in which case tell me.) As for the mock-up, Stacker uses 16 rows instead of 11, so I don't know how to make what I have prettier. Next up is to add the levels.

Attached Files

•  stacker8.bas.bin   4K   113 downloads
•  stacker8.bas   4.66K   44 downloads

[Atarius Maximus]

This is a cool game and has great potential. I downloaded the source to take a look, but when I compile it the resulting bin just gives me garbage on the screen. Are you using any modified files in your bB installation? Maybe I need to update, I'm using the standard 1.0 version that I downloaded a very long time ago...

Steve

Attached Thumbnails

• 

[Shawn Sr.]

Atarius Maximus, on Tue Mar 24, 2009 8:25 AM, said:

This is a cool game and has great potential. I downloaded the source to take a look, but when I compile it the resulting bin just gives me garbage on the screen. Are you using any modified files in your bB installation? Maybe I need to update, I'm using the standard 1.0 version that I downloaded a very long time ago...

Steve

Steve,

Yes there are new updates that you will need for the kernel. I believe they are posted in the Bb thread.

Shawn

[Atarius Maximus]

Shawn Sr., on Tue Mar 24, 2009 9:12 AM, said:

Atarius Maximus, on Tue Mar 24, 2009 8:25 AM, said:

This is a cool game and has great potential. I downloaded the source to take a look, but when I compile it the resulting bin just gives me garbage on the screen. Are you using any modified files in your bB installation? Maybe I need to update, I'm using the standard 1.0 version that I downloaded a very long time ago...

Steve

Steve,

Yes there are new updates that you will need for the kernel. I believe they are posted in the Bb thread.

Shawn

Thanks Shawn, I'll take a look at that thread.

EDIT: Nope, didn't work. I made a new directory, and installed a fresh copy of bB 1.0 that I downloaded from bataribasic.com, they I applied the two fixes posted in this thread: http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...p;#entry1490744. I still get garbage when I try to compile Stacker. Am I missing something else?

Steve

Edited by Atarius Maximus, Tue Mar 24, 2009 8:42 AM.

[jwierer]

Atarius Maximus, on Tue Mar 24, 2009 8:25 AM, said:

This is a cool game and has great potential. I downloaded the source to take a look, but when I compile it the resulting bin just gives me garbage on the screen. Are you using any modified files in your bB installation? Maybe I need to update, I'm using the standard 1.0 version that I downloaded a very long time ago...

Steve

Since he's using pfhalfwidth I am pretty sure it requires the new 16 pixel, double-height playfield for std_kernel available in this thread.

I just tried it and the game played when I compiled using those files, but the title screen was still messed up so I might be missing another necessary update.

-Jeff

[Atarius Maximus]

jwierer, on Tue Mar 24, 2009 10:14 AM, said:

Atarius Maximus, on Tue Mar 24, 2009 8:25 AM, said:

This is a cool game and has great potential. I downloaded the source to take a look, but when I compile it the resulting bin just gives me garbage on the screen. Are you using any modified files in your bB installation? Maybe I need to update, I'm using the standard 1.0 version that I downloaded a very long time ago...

Steve

Since he's using pfhalfwidth I am pretty sure it requires the new 16 pixel, double-height playfield for std_kernel available in this thread.

I just tried it and the game played when I compiled using those files, but the title screen was still messed up so I might be missing another necessary update.

-Jeff

Yep, that did it. It compiles fine now. Thanks Jeff.

[atari2600land]

Added "levels." When you move past 4 lines up, you lose a block; and when you move 8 lines up, you lose another block.

Attached Files

•  stacker9.bas.bin   4K   60 downloads
•  stacker9.bas   5.29K   52 downloads

[MausGames]

What if the playfield scrolled as you play? Then it could be however tall you want it to be.

Why isn't the playfield centered? Your latest bin plays really well, but there are still a few glitches with floating squares.

Edited by MausGames, Tue Mar 24, 2009 3:38 PM.

[yuppicide]

Excuse me as I didn't read this whole thread.

First off, Maus your mockup looks sweet.

Second, I tried the game. Here's problems I see with it:

1 - You wrote in your post "Added "levels." When you move past 4 lines up, you lose a block; and when you move 8 lines up, you lose another block." -- why? This isn't how the arcade game works. You only lose a block if you stack them wrong. You don't lose them just for getting so high. The way it is now you ALWAYS die once you reach that yellow level.

2 - Speed needs to increase slightly with each level.

3 - There's two blue walls on the outside. The right one is higher than the left.. is this intentional?

If there's any sound at the moment I can't comment on that as I am at work without speakers.

Looking great so far.

[atari2600land]

Fixed everything except #3 because I don't know what's causing it. Can anyone help with that?

Attached Files

•  stacker10.bas.bin   4K   56 downloads
•  stacker10.bas   5.16K   44 downloads

[Atarius Maximus]

atari2600land, on Tue Mar 24, 2009 12:40 PM, said:

Fixed everything except #3 because I don't know what's causing it. Can anyone help with that?

I played around with it a little bit and I couldn't get the vertical lines to be the same length either. I did find that if you move their left/right position around, they do in fact appear to be the same length. Maybe this is just a bug in this new kernel you're using?

Anyway, one workaround to the problem would be to simply add a horizontal line to the top of the stacker playfield, I've attached an example. I have to agree with Maus's earlier comment, while it's fun to play, it's very simplistic on the screen. Was there a particular reason you chose to use this kernel? It could be made to look a lot nicer with the standard or multisprite kernel.

Thanks,

Steve

Attached Thumbnails

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Attached Files

•  stacker10b.txt   5.2K   78 downloads
•  stacker10b.txt.bin   4K   56 downloads

[Atarius Maximus]

Assuming you don't want to change the kernel you're using, one other idea I had that I thought looked kind of cool would be to use the sprites as borders. I'm just having fun messing around with your game, you certainly don't have to use this idea. I moved the red marker (missile0) to the right side of the screen, which makes both of them tie in with the sprites nicely.


Steve

Attached Thumbnails

• 

Attached Files

•  stacker10c.txt   6.16K   48 downloads
•  stacker10c.txt.bin   4K   51 downloads

[atari2600land]

Or, I could do something like this:

Attached Files

•  stacker11.bas.bin   4K   51 downloads
•  stacker11.bas   6.47K   45 downloads

[yuppicide]

I have an idea on how to make blocks fall. I am not sure if this will work or if it will be too intensive.

Stacker does not have a score. Why can't we use a hidden score as some sort of check digit for dropping blocks?

Here's how my example would work.. let's say we had a 6 x 6 grid (we don't, yours would be much bigger) where every dot on the grid is a playfield pixel. 6 x 6 would mean you'd have 6 horizontal spaces your line can move and 6 tall.

X X X X X X
X X X X X X
X X X X X X
X X X X X X
X X X X X X
X X X X X X

Now let's say you dropped your first piece (the first piece is 3 wide), your grid will now look similar to this:

X X X X X X
X X X X X X
X X X X X X
X X X X X X
X X X X X X
X X - - - X

The -'s are where your piece is dropped.

Now we're going to use the score to define and tell where a piece is placed.

Here is how your grid would look with no pieces dropped:

0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0

Thus, score = 0.

Here is how your grid would be labeled:

1 2 3 4 5 6
2 3 4 5 6 7
3 4 5 6 7 8
4 5 6 7 8 9
5 6 7 8 9 1
6 7 8 9 1 2

Thus, your piece (3 wide) landed on the bottom row in 891, so if score is 8910, we know there's a 3 piece sitting in the grid spots corresponding to that. If it had been 891 alone, it would have been one row up all the way to the right.. but it can't be just 891 because it needs blocks underneath to hold it up one row, so let's assume it was 891 in the second row and 912 in the bottom row, that's 891 + 912, score = 1803.

Obviously this is just an idea of mine and of course your grid would be much bigger and I haven't totally figured out how to make this work, but maybe it's a start of some sort. Thus, when pieces fall down it just checks the score to see if it can drop part of the line or not.

[yuppicide]

BTW, I think there should be an adult version where prizes could be nudies from the "Shower Scene" game.

[atari2600land]

Made vast improvements to the way it takes away blocks if you don't hit it right. Also added a few sfx that i can change if you want. I have yet to add a sound effect for failing. I am going to add one, though. I have 482 bytes left but i can probably increase that number if needed.

[atari2600land]

Made a few cosmetic changes and added a sound effect for failing. I have 383 bytes left.

Attached Files

•  stacker13.bas.bin   4K   81 downloads
•  stacker13.bas   7.35K   46 downloads

Edited by atari2600land, Thu Mar 26, 2009 2:51 AM.

[Random Terrain]

Doesn't seem like there's that much to the game. Amazing that it would take up so much space already.

[yuppicide]

Actually my idea about falling can be simplified somewhat.. just make every spot a different number and then check it.

[Shawn Sr.]

Stacker is completed now. Game play goes, you complete each stack and the blocks move faster and faster with each stack you complete. A counter at the bottom of the screen keeps track of how many stacks you play with your 4 credits (lives). I just tested out my new printer with a batch of die cut labels and the Stacker labels look sexy cool

Edited by Shawn Sr., Sun Mar 29, 2009 12:32 AM.

[Shawn Sr.]

OK, turns out there is still a pair of bugs. When I tested it on real hardware when playing the game the play area shakes up and down a little like some kinda scanline issue or something. It's really weird cause it doesn't happen at the start screen or when your between levels it only happens when the game is actually being played. This only happens on real hardware also. I can make a video if needed.

The other bug is sometimes when you loose a block, say when you have 2 blocks and you go down to 1 block due to not lining them up right the next row will give you your block back! I was able to make this happen in EMU, pic attached.

Anyone's help is greatly apprricated. Here is the BIN and BAS files.

Edited by Shawn Sr., Mon Mar 30, 2009 11:26 AM.