176 replies to this topic

[atari2600land]

Here, see if it does that now.

Attached Files

•  2600tris_120709.bas.bin   32K   122 downloads

[Nerf Herder73]

That seems to have gotten it. Thanks!

[atari2600land]

Here's a question for you: Should I get rid of the 2-player option? Nobody is really paying any attention to it.

[RevEng]

I think getting rid of it would be a mistake. Right now most folks are playing it on stella with a keyboard, so 2 player testing would be pretty awkward.

If you're intent to see this one through until its cart-worthy, when its running on real hardware the 2 player option becomes a lot more attractive.

[atari2600land]

OK, I'll keep it in. This update makes playing in 2-player mode go a lot faster, plus the transition from 2-player to 1-player (when a player gets a game over) is a lot smoother. I also fixed a bug pertaining to the 2-player mode

Attached Files

•  2600tris_120709v2.bas.bin   32K   86 downloads
•  2600tris_120709v2.bas   31.71K   82 downloads

[KevinMos3]

Three things about this build:

1.) It acts like auto-fire is on for every movement, (rotation and side to side).

2.) The speed of a forced drop-down is slower than in previous builds.

3.) The game does not speed up. I got almost 300 lines before I finally decided to quit. ...(It's late and I'm not yet tired).

I'm using z26 in case that matters. Also, I agree that the 2-player feature is definitely nice. It's nice to have, even if it's a rare occasion that I'll have a chance to use it. Maybe someday I'll play 2-player with a wife or kid. I would think it would make the game more attractive for a lot of people.

[atari2600land]

I sped the game up a little. Level 9 is the fastest it can go without it being impossible to move the pieces in time. I've also added a nifty (IMO) feature: If you toggle the color switch to black and white at the title screen, you can play a game in black and white! I thought, since you can do it in GoSub, why not this game, too?

Attached Files

•  2600tris_120809.bas.bin   32K   106 downloads
•  2600tris_120809.bas   31.6K   83 downloads

[KevinMos3]

I like it. You've really improved the playability and control. I also like the B/W feature. I didn't find any glaring bugs in this version, but I was able to cause a bit of weirdness.



I did this by intentionally creating a nice little pocket in the stack and then moving a piece into that hole and rotating it as it was trying to lock. I wouldn't worry too much about it because this would not happen during normal gameplay. I was trying to be abusive and see what kind of trouble I could get myself into.

BTW, is there a way to decrease the volume of the music relative to the sound effects, (so that the music would play softer but the sound effects remain the same)? I'm not too familiar with the sound chip's features/limitations.

[Devin]

This project is amazing. I didn't notice the music at first - at least until I accidentally turned it on by fig-iting with the controls (well the function keys).

It would be nice if the music would always default on - and would be disabled if the switch is changed.

[Nerf Herder73]

The most recent version is very good. I'm enjoying it. Sorry that I cannot yet comment on the two-player game.

Edited by Nerf Herder73, Wed Dec 9, 2009 10:40 PM.

[atari2600land]

I got bored, so I added a little demo sequence that comes on after all the letters fall into place on the title screen. To exit the demo and return back to the title screen, press fire.

Attached Files

•  2600tris_121009.bas.bin   32K   90 downloads
•  2600tris_121009.bas   32.39K   69 downloads

[atari2600land]

So...is this finished, or can anyone tell me something I should do/fix?

[Nathan Strum]

I don't have time to test it at the moment - but perhaps later in the week.

[KevinMos3]

I just checked out the latest version (a week late). It looks good. The control is nice and the difficulty is pretty much what I'd expect from a tetris game.

There is one thing I would change/add. The scoring doesn't care if you get 1 row or 4 rows. It just counts the lines. I'm used to getting bonus points for completing multiple lines at once. I've had to change my playing habits for this version. I have a big habit of setting myself up for tetrises (at least that's what we called em on the gameboy when I was a kid), and in this version there's no incentive to do that. Now, I just try to complete lines and not worry about multiples. It was a hard habit to break. It's been so long since I've played it on the gameboy that I don't remember how it scored, (one tally for lines and another for a points score?). I just know I developed that habit competing with friends for points and I've played the same way on every other version over the years.

[atari2600land]

As for scoring: It's going to pretty much stay that way, unless there is a way to fit three scores on the screen at once. I figured line counting would be best for a three-digit score, and bB uses a 6-digit score, so I used the trick to cut the score in half. Could ASM be used to put three scores on the screen, or is that just too much for the 2600?

[e1will]

atari2600land, on Thu Dec 17, 2009 7:55 PM, said:

Could ASM be used to put three scores on the screen

Yes... but if you want to stick with bBasic you could just show them on alternate frames. Show one for a few seconds, then the other, color-coded to help indicate what's what.

--Will

[atari2600land]

I wonder if anyone would like to program three screens in ASM for me. I'd really like to appease people's want for a second score, but I don't know what to do. Even if I have a line counter and a score counter in one-player mode only, bB can't handle two scores, can it?

Edited by atari2600land, Fri Dec 18, 2009 12:14 AM.

[e1will]

atari2600land, on Fri Dec 18, 2009 12:11 AM, said:

I wonder if anyone would like to program three screens in ASM for me. I'd really like to appease people's want for a second score, but I don't know what to do. Even if I have a line counter and a score counter in one-player mode only, bB can't handle two scores, can it?

You may be able to get it to do that in bB (I don't know very much about bB) but you can definitely do it in assembly, with some flicker.

If you write Player 1's score and line count on the left in frame 1, then Player 2's score and line count on the right in frame 2, you could get something like this.

--Will

Attached Thumbnails

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[atari2600land]

OMG! That looks so cool! I wish someone had extra time to do that in ASM and put it in my bB code.

[KevinMos3]

I agree. If you could accomplish this, it would be the perfect finishing touch on an already good game.

[atari2600land]

Apparently nobody has the time to add the line counter and score counter in ASM. That's too bad. Are there any other suggestions?

[e1will]

atari2600land, on Fri Jan 8, 2010 10:58 PM, said:

Apparently nobody has the time to add the line counter and score counter in ASM. That's too bad. Are there any other suggestions?

You could make the different shapes different colors!

(Just kidding. I mean, you could, but that would definitely be an ASM project. And even then, it would be a pain to code.)

Regarding the score, I'm not 100% sure you couldn't do that in bB. If putting them side by side isn't doable, you could always do something like this:

P1SCORE
                        P2SCORE
P1LINES
                        P2LINES

I don't know enough about how bB works to say for sure, but one of the bB experts might be able to comment.

I'd offer to code some ASM for it, but I've got too much on my plate right now as it is, unfortunately.

--Will

[atari2600land]

Made a couple of minor changes. If you've played through and are at the title screen and it goes to demo mode, it doesn't erase the score you had. I also made the demo sequence a little bit longer.

Attached Files

•  2600tris_010810.bas.bin   32K   87 downloads
•  2600tris_010810.bas   32.75K   81 downloads

[lapetino]

Just found this thread and tried the latest version on Stella with the USB joystick. Very nice! The sound effects are a little bit abrasive--too "bonky" when you turn a piece. Can that be changed? Also, a line counter (as you said, only done if you can get ASM help) would be awesome, as would colored blocks. But nice work! I would love to see this on cart. Keep up the good work--this is impressive for dB.

[atari2600land]

Fixed the music on 1-player version so it doesn't pause when a piece has dropped. I also did a few other things, but I can't remember what they are.

Attached Files

•  2600tris_010910.bas.bin   32K   100 downloads
•  2600tris_010910.bas   32.79K   64 downloads