49 replies to this topic

[timdu]

As part of the celebration of the 100th print issue of the 2600 Connection, I am happy to report that we are getting very close to completion for the cartridge release of Mean Santa.

I would like to acknowledge and thank John Harvey , a.k.a. propane13, for his excellent programming work and skills on this project.

Please check out the youtube video of Mean Santa



More info soon.


thanks

Tim Duarte
2600 Connection, editor / publisher issues 1-50

http://2600connection.atari.org

[Devin]

timdu, on Mon Aug 10, 2009 1:41 AM, said:

As part of the celebration of the 100th print issue of the 2600 Connection, I am happy to report that we are getting very close to completion for the cartridge release of Mean Santa.

I would like to acknowledge and thank John Harvey , a.k.a. propane13, for his excellent programming work and skills on this project.

Please check out the youtube video of Mean Santa

http://2600connection.atari.org

Hee hee! It looks fun! I can't wait to see more on this.

[Atari Dogs]

Cool! I will be getting one.

Why does Santa turn into a dog on the last few levels of the video?

[Albert]

Atari Dogs, on Mon Aug 10, 2009 8:22 AM, said:

Why does Santa turn into a dog on the last few levels of the video?

I was wondering that as well.

..Al

[GroovyBee]

You've never heard of Weresanta? Tut! Tut!

[thegoldenband]

I think Santa is almost invisible (he's become sort of a dark speck -- maybe a lump of coal?), and one of the reindeer is trailing him at a fixed distance, a bit like Fire Truck or Thrust.

[timdu]

Ooops... just noticed that! Santa is supposed to be there... he is not showing up in the video for some reason.
I will look into this and perhaps see if we need to make a new video.
My apologies.

Tim

Atari Dogs, on Mon Aug 10, 2009 10:22 AM, said:

Cool! I will be getting one.

Why does Santa turn into a dog on the last few levels of the video?

[videogametrader]

timdu, on Mon Aug 10, 2009 6:57 PM, said:

Ooops... just noticed that! Santa is supposed to be there... he is not showing up in the video for some reason.
I will look into this and perhaps see if we need to make a new video.
My apologies.

Tim

Atari Dogs, on Mon Aug 10, 2009 10:22 AM, said:

Cool! I will be getting one.

Why does Santa turn into a dog on the last few levels of the video?

do you have a release date for this game?

[timdu]

We do not have a definite release date. We originally hoped for July 1. I would imagine if all goes well, we should be able to release the game on or around Oct 1 - just in time for the Christmas season.

-Tim

p.s. As for the missing Santa in the video in the "dog" levels, we are looking into making a newer video. Not sure why that
happened. Perhaps when YouTube compressed the video down, it rendered Santa nearly invisible, but he *is* there.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

IMO you should delay the game a bit. Great stuff!

Make sure that you get the transitions between screens right (constant framerate!). And IMO Santa should hit the chimney for entering the house, not only the roof.

[Nati]

I bet lots of people will buy this when it's released

[Devin]

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[Shawn Sr.]

I'd really like a copy of this game. How would I go about making sure I get one??

[Devin]

The video looks like you might be losing sync when you change screens.

Are you jumping from vertical bank directly into the vertical blank of the next screen?

[Propane13]

Wow; I didn't know this thread was actually active until last night.

I will definitely look into the sync loss issue-- I still have a few bytes to spare (though not many)
The issue is that it's an 8K game, and it's swapping banks for each kernel, and I think some timing is off.
On my TV, it didn't look too bad, but on the video, it definitely is noticeable.
I'll see what I can do-- probably by just adding a few JSR's to the right subroutines should fix it.

For landing on the chimney-- well, actually, it's a good idea in principle, but the chimney is actually supposed to be an obstacle. In original designs of the game, Santa would land on the roof, and then walk over to the chimney and jump into it. But, I'm out of graphics (PF drawn from RAM access + multicolor player sprite, plus a couple of calculations during the kernel), so I was never able to complete that portion of it. In play-testing, it seems to make the game too easy if you can just land on the chimney-- so, that's kind of where the decision came in to have it work like it does.

Anyway, I'm on the thread now, if there are any questions.

-John

[Nathan Strum]

Looks good. I'd suggest adding the dog (or banana peels) much earlier - like the second house. Simply running through and collecting things doesn't offer any challenge, unless you add some sort of countdown timer (Santa has to get out of the house before the parents/kids/dog wake up, or before the cops arrive, that sort of thing).

[vdub_bobby]

Looks good.

I 2nd Nathan's suggestion; at least on medium/hard difficulty start adding banana peels/etc. earlier. And add a timer.

Also, add something that gives the sense of motion when there are no houses on the screen - it looks like Santa is just sitting there for no reason for a few seconds after coming out of a house; there's no illusion of flight until the next house shows up.

My 2 cents.

[SpiceWare]

vdub_bobby, on Thu Aug 13, 2009 12:39 PM, said:

Also, add something that gives the sense of motion when there are no houses on the screen - it looks like Santa is just sitting there for no reason for a few seconds after coming out of a house; there's no illusion of flight until the next house shows up.

Some trees would be nice - various sizes w/taller trees being obstacle of some sort (especially if they were close to the house).

Edited by SpiceWare, Thu Aug 13, 2009 12:03 PM.

[Propane13]

Thanks for the feedback.

To be honest, I do need to say that I'm starting to get pretty restless just to have this wrapped up.
Most of you likely don't know, but it's been over a year-long project, and I've put a few other things on hold for this.
It's been noted on these forums before that the last parts of a project are the hardest, and now I believe it! Code space is filled, and at some point you find yourself having to start making add/drop decisions for features, or re-work bankswitching to port code from one place to another in order to make more space. It's been fun, but man, I will be very glad when it's over.

With that being said, I will definitely take a look at suggestions and see what I can do.
I'll try to get some free time to solve the vertical synching issue first, and then look at other suggestions.

For the timer suggestion, I should note-- there's a timer running in the background during the game (purposely not displayed). If you beat a mode, you'll get to see your completion time, like the old Activision games, so you can brag about it, or try to beat it. So, the point of the game is a race against the clock!

As for other concerns-- I need to say that the video does not show some things on purpose so that you can experience them for yourselves.

Anyway, thanks for the suggestions-- let me see what I can do.
The main goal is to make the game fun, so anything I can do to that end will definitely be looked at.

-John

[videogametrader]

timdu, on Tue Aug 11, 2009 7:42 PM, said:

We do not have a definite release date. We originally hoped for July 1. I would imagine if all goes well, we should be able to release the game on or around Oct 1 - just in time for the Christmas season.

-Tim

p.s. As for the missing Santa in the video in the "dog" levels, we are looking into making a newer video. Not sure why that
happened. Perhaps when YouTube compressed the video down, it rendered Santa nearly invisible, but he *is* there.

If you get it out by the end of the year, you will qualify for nomination for the Odyssey Homebrew of the Year.

www.odysseyawards.com

[Ben_Larson]

Looks really cool. I love the premise of the game too.

Quote

To be honest, I do need to say that I'm starting to get pretty restless just to have this wrapped up.
Most of you likely don't know, but it's been over a year-long project, and I've put a few other things on hold for this.

Yea I know what you mean - it's hard to stay motivated. But there's no real rush either...

[Propane13]

The screen is now stable, and I'm out of ROM space.

-John

[Simon]

Looks interesting.

The hardest part is always to decide when the project is finished.
There are always more possibilities and possible optimizations...

Good luck on finishing this title!
Simon

Edited by Simon, Wed Oct 7, 2009 3:07 AM.

[Devin]

Propane13, on Sat Oct 3, 2009 4:26 PM, said:

The screen is now stable, and I'm out of ROM space.

-John

Excellent! I hope this is out before X-Mas!

[timdu]

Just an update for you... we have a final game binary and as of today Oct. 10, we have proceeded with starting production of the first 100 cartridges. Each game will be numbered 1 of 100, 2 of 100, etc. The game will include a manual and a box. It is a plastic DVD style case... but thicker... it holds a 2600 cartridge quite nicely. I will have more info shortly on the actual release date, but we are hoping for Nov. 1

Tim