167 replies to this topic

[Ben_Larson]

Thomas Jentzsch, on Sun Jan 2, 2011 5:31 AM, said:

No reply yet. I hope I didn't kill the motivation.

Well... to be honest.... I already didn't feel very motivated to make more changes at this point. But I can at least answer your points!

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-Lots of screens seem pretty empty (how about more enemies in higher levels?)

This is mostly due to the level storage design. Each screen only holds a maximum of 2 objects (an object being an enemy, ladder, save point, item). Each screen's data is basically 16 bytes long:

Tile pointer data - 6 bits per tile (5 actually, but high bit is reflect bit) x 12 tiles = 9 bytes
Adjacent rooms (left, right, top, bottom) = 1 byte per room x 4 rooms = 4 bytes
Room object types = 4 bits per object x 2 objects = 1 byte
Room object X/Y positions = 4 bits per axis x 2 axes x 2 objects = 2 bytes

Each tile pointer points to one of 32 tiles that all the rooms are built from.

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-Continue seems to restart the game, why not from the last checkpoint?

Well it doesn't really restart the game. You still keep everything in your inventory...

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BTW: How do you score?

You don't, really. The only object is to explore and eventually open all the doors so you can get to the end of the game.

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-The animal to the left could use some animation, maybe the terminals too (Nathan could sure do magic here)
-It would be nice if Panky could duck (maybe only in easy levels?)
-Could not make out any differences between the levels (except for less lives), something like harder physics (e.g. more gravity) or -faster, less predictable and more enemies etc. would sure help.

I think I'm going to plead lack of RAM and ROM space here.

According to my handy text file that has my notes (last updated in July, so possibly out of date) there's only 148 bytes free in Bank 1 and 69 bytes in Bank 2. Banks 3 and 4 handle the title/ending screen and music, respectively. I don't think the situation there is much better either...

[Devin]

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BTW: How do you score?

We are Atari 2600 homebrew programmers.... we never "score".

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Ben_Larson, on Mon Jan 3, 2011 9:40 PM, said:

I think I'm going to plead lack of RAM and ROM space here.

According to my handy text file that has my notes (last updated in July, so possibly out of date) there's only 148 bytes free in Bank 1 and 69 bytes in Bank 2. Banks 3 and 4 handle the title/ending screen and music, respectively. I don't think the situation there is much better either...

If you post the source code, I can have a look at it. I am very good at peephole optimizing for ROM space. And maybe I can spot some RAM which could be shared/reused.

[Brian O]

Bumping this to see if any more progress has been made, or if this game is shelved. I really enjoyed playing it, and would love to see this finalized.

-B

[Ben_Larson]

Brian O, on Mon Aug 1, 2011 1:42 PM, said:

Bumping this to see if any more progress has been made, or if this game is shelved. I really enjoyed playing it, and would love to see this finalized.

-B

v1.0 came out in Sept. 2010. I made an minor update the next month to fix an issue in JStella, which I'm using to emulate it on my site. Here's a link that version which is the latest (v1.01):

http://www.blarworld.net/Panky1.01.zip

I wasn't really planning on making any more tweaks (except maybe for bugfixes)...

Ben

[Brian O]

Ben_Larson, on Fri Aug 5, 2011 6:35 PM, said:

Brian O, on Mon Aug 1, 2011 1:42 PM, said:

Bumping this to see if any more progress has been made, or if this game is shelved. I really enjoyed playing it, and would love to see this finalized.

-B

v1.0 came out in Sept. 2010. I made an minor update the next month to fix an issue in JStella, which I'm using to emulate it on my site. Here's a link that version which is the latest (v1.01):

http://www.blarworld.net/Panky1.01.zip

I wasn't really planning on making any more tweaks (except maybe for bugfixes)...

Ben

Thanks, Ben. Is this game essentially complete then (e.g., you can play through to an ending)? Or is it incomplete?

-B

[KevinMos3]

Brian O, on Sat Aug 6, 2011 8:48 AM, said:

Thanks, Ben. Is this game essentially complete then (e.g., you can play through to an ending)? Or is it incomplete?

Yes, you can play through to an ending. It's a pretty nice ending too. One of the best I've seen in a 2600 game.
If you would like a map of the entire game, you can look at my post here. Warning, it does contain some spoilers.

The ONLY thing that I hope to see changed before it's called completely final and put on cart is those dead ends. If there were something, anything there it would feel more polished and complete to me.

One idea is to just put a static sprite in those rooms such as a flower, or maybe some other animal that the kidnappers have been holding captive, or you could take a darker turn and make it the bones of an animal that has been held captive for too long, or maybe the kidnappers themselves, (such as one of the poachers at each dead end). Putting something in those rooms would make it more interesting and rewarding to go there. I know there is currently not enough ROM space left to do anything too significant, but a static sprite would be sufficient in my opinion.

Ben_Larson, on Tue Aug 31, 2010 9:50 AM, said:

Well I could conceivably add one more item/enemy, but there's no memory left to 'keep track', for example, of whether the player has fetched a certain extra life item yet or not.

Ben_Larson, on Mon Jan 3, 2011 9:40 PM, said:

...there's only 148 bytes free in Bank 1 and 69 bytes in Bank 2. Banks 3 and 4 handle the title/ending screen and music, respectively. I don't think the situation there is much better either...

Maybe Thomas could help find enough space to do something even better.

Thomas Jentzsch, on Tue Jan 4, 2011 11:44 AM, said:

If you post the source code, I can have a look at it. I am very good at peephole optimizing for ROM space. And maybe I can spot some RAM which could be shared/reused.

But again, I would completely happy to just see a static sprite(s).

[Brian O]

Some Panky the Panda box art I created. Thought I'd share.

FYI - Ben didn't ask me to do this. I just did it for fun.

Let me know your thoughts.

Thanks,
B

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[theloon]

That. Box. Art. Is. AWESOME!!!

One thing: When I read aloud the text on the back of the box Cthulhu appeared and violated my roommate.. is this normal?

[Brian O]

theloon, on Fri Sep 2, 2011 3:50 PM, said:

That. Box. Art. Is. AWESOME!!!

One thing: When I read aloud the text on the back of the box Cthulhu appeared and violated my roommate.. is this normal?

Thanks!

Cthulhu was actually supposed to violate you. There must have been a typo.

-B

[TrekMD]

Love that box art! Great job!

[Brian O]

TrekMD, on Fri Sep 2, 2011 4:35 PM, said:

Love that box art! Great job!

Thanks, TrekMD!

-B

[T2KFREEKER]

Now all we need is for a cart release of this. Would be nice to play it on an actual 2600 system.

[Ben_Larson]

Sorry it took so long to respond, Brian - I haven't logged in to Atariage in a while. That box art is indeed pretty awesome.

I haven't made any plans for a physical release, though, and I don't know if Al is planning any new releases anytime soon either. Maybe if enough people pestered him though...

[Ben_Larson]

Oh I forgot to mention one thing, though: the 'pig' in the game was actually supposed to be my attempt at an armadillo.

It does kind of look like a pig though now that I look at it...

[Albert]

Ben_Larson, on Sun Sep 11, 2011 9:47 AM, said:

I haven't made any plans for a physical release, though, and I don't know if Al is planning any new releases anytime soon either. Maybe if enough people pestered him though...

Heck yes this needs to be put in cartridge form!!!

..Al

[Brian O]

Ben_Larson, on Sun Sep 11, 2011 9:47 AM, said:

Sorry it took so long to respond, Brian - I haven't logged in to Atariage in a while. That box art is indeed pretty awesome.

I haven't made any plans for a physical release, though, and I don't know if Al is planning any new releases anytime soon either. Maybe if enough people pestered him though...

Thanks, Ben The game is a lot of fun!

Hoping this makes it on to a cart.

-B

[Brian O]

Ben_Larson, on Sun Sep 11, 2011 9:53 AM, said:

Oh I forgot to mention one thing, though: the 'pig' in the game was actually supposed to be my attempt at an armadillo.

It does kind of look like a pig though now that I look at it...

LOL. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what that was. Judging solely by the colors I assumed it was a pig.
I can always update. It's up to you.

-B