132 replies to this topic

[PacManPlus]

Hi Guys:

As promised, here is the WIP of FailSafe (Countermeasure II) for the 7800. As stated, this is a Work-In-Progress, but is fully playable. There are two things (at least) that I need to finish up before I can consider this for release:
- The addition of PowerUps (all for a length of time)
a) Speed Boost
b) Shot Distance (only the player's shot)
c) Invincibility
d) Freeze Enemies
- Sound / Tunes

I think the difficulty might have to be played with as well, it might be too hard currently even on the easiest setting.

The idea of the game is that you are a tank on enemy grounds trying to prevent the launch of missiles that will basically destroy the world.
The main goal of the game is to a) Get access to the launch code, and b) reach the missile silo to enter the code and stop the missiles from launching. The code is made up of four hexadecimal digits (0-9, and A-F).
In this game, the object for each level is to reach the opposite end of the level. For the first 5 levels, once you make contact with the Depo you will receive a random position of the code. It is possible to get the same position more than once. On the sixth level, once you reach the missile, you must enter the code as quickly as possible using the joystick, and press the button to see if it is accepted. If it is, you have saved the day, and the game begins on a harder level. If you don't enter the correct code before the impact.... well, you'll see.
There are 5 types of enemies that will try and stop you:
1 - PillBoxes: These are the easy ones. They only rotate and do not move. They fire at you when pointing in your general direction.
2 - Jeeps: They come at you, firing constantly. Luckily, they are fairly slow.
3 - Cruize Missiles: These heat-seeking missiles aim for you. They do not fire, but choose to fly into you instead. Luckily, there aren't too many of them... until the 6th level.
4 - Vertical Stationary Plant - As the name implies, they only shoot vertically (but can rarely shoot in other directions) they always aim up or down, so you must be careful when passing them above or below.
5 - Human Fighter: They usually hide behind bunkers, and try to shoot at you from around the corners. They also constantly shoot but are very slow. Their small relative size makes them difficult to hit.

The bottom of the screen shows the tank fuel, and it decreases slowly. Once it is exhausted, your tank explodes (like the original Countermeasure). The top left of the screen show the number of tanks left, and the rop right shows the current level.

Let me know what you think of it and how the difficulty is. (and of course if you find any bugs).

Please note - it does not look like there will be High Score Cart support for this. I am running out of room as it is, and I know that the sound data will take up quite a bit of room.

Again, I'd like to thank jwierer for his excellent level / enemy editor that I used throughout making this game.

Thanks!
Bob









*EDIT* - added latest binary to this post - it's the same as RC10.

Attached Files

•  FAILSAFE.zip   75.06K   327 downloads

[Shawn Sr.]

Just played around with the game, totally awesome as expected.

[the.golden.ax]

Nice. PMP

AX

[TrekMD]

This is awesome! If you plan to release a cart, count me in.

[nonner242]

I would buy a cart no questions asked!
Awesome!

[Corby]

great work as usual Bob. count me in for a cart

[Mayhem]

Anyone care to post a stripped BIN file so we can use it on CC2?

[PacManPlus]

Thanks, Guys!
Are you saying the difficulty is ok how it is? ...I was never that good at Countermeasure...

Mayhem, on Mon Nov 30, 2009 4:53 AM, said:

Anyone care to post a stripped BIN file so we can use it on CC2?

oops, sorry

For the CCII users, the settings are:

7800: FailSafe	FAILSAFE	7800_48K	78BIOS

Attached Files

•  FailSafe.BIN   48K   227 downloads

Edited by PacManPlus, Mon Nov 30, 2009 5:24 AM.

[GroovyBee]

Looks good. There are visual glitches in PAL :-

1) There is a continuous flashing 1 pixel high line at the last bottom pixel in both of the seconds digits. It alternates between black, the background colour and the digit colour. It happens while playing and also on the title screen.

2) There is a short flashing line at the bottom right of the playfield. This happens while playing and at the GAME OVER screen.

3) There is an intermittent long flashing line as the last line in the status bar (from left to right) at the top of the screen. Its the same colour as the digits in the status bar. This only happens while playing.

4) There is an intermittent long flashing line as the last line in the scrolling play area (from left to right). This happens while playing.

Some of the darker enemy shots are hard to see without a specific PAL palette .

[PacManPlus]

Thanks, GB!

I usually try to finish up the NTSC version before I convert it to PAL; I should have stated that in the original paragraph.

I added some 'STA WSYNC' lines between the switching of resolutions (320A top two lines -> 160x2 playfield -> 320A bottom line) because I noticed that the background color was changing mid-raster. I may need to add one or two more of those when I do the PAL version.

Thanks again,
Bob

Edited by PacManPlus, Mon Nov 30, 2009 9:12 AM.

[Shawn Sr.]

The difficulty is a little hard but nothing a learning curve can't fix.

[DracIsBack]

Wow Bob - awesome game. Can't wait to get the final release!

How many levels do you think it will have in the end?

[PacManPlus]

Thanks

The levels themselves and enemy placement are pretty much complete.
Each Missile Launch has 6 levels (each one is fairly long) - the levels repeat after that if you are able to stop the launching of the missiles.
However, there are 8 increases in difficulty. The difficulty increases after each Missile Launch set. The differences in difficulty are:
- Number of enemies allowed on the screen at the same time (starting at 4 for the 'novice' setting, up to 8 )
- Length of shots by both the player and the enemies ('novice' has short shots, and they increase in length 8 times)
- The 'time to launch' decreases from 'novice' to 'expert' (and beyond if you pass that)
- The turning rate of the enemies gets faster from 'novice' to 'expert' (and beyond)

'Novice' starts you at level 1 (obviously)
'Intermediate' starts you at level 13 (the equivalent of stopping the missile launch twice)
'Expert' starts you at level 25 (the equivalent of stopping the missile launch 4 times)

Edited by PacManPlus, Mon Nov 30, 2009 11:52 AM.

[KevinMos3]

It's looking really good. GREAT job on this so far! I agree that the difficulty is a bit high. I wouldn't count on a "learning curve" being able to overcome it. It has to be easy enough starting out to keep interest and not frustrate. I'm not saying it's frustrating now because I haven't played it enough to get frustrated, I'm just saying. I haven't spent much time playing Countermeasure on my 5200, so I'm no expert with this type of game anyhow. I thought Ikari Warriors was frustratingly hard for a long time, but now I can blow through on the easy level and get most of the way on hard (I don't remember if I beat it on hard).

[RayXambeR]

This seems to be a great game!
Perhaps can you think about a two-players mode? Could be fantastic!

[gambler172]

Hi Bob
Great work,but i need to play more,cause it is damn hard.
greetings Walter

[PacManPlus]

Thanks Guys!

I made a change to start the 'Novice' level with only 3 enemies on the screen at a time. This actually makes the game fairly easy. I may change the location of some enemies to even it out a little more. Each 'Stop of the Missile Launch' (every 6 levels) this increases by 1 until it hits a maximum of 8.

I've also added the player explosion and the enemy explosion sounds. As far as sounds go, I need to add:
- Cruize Missile
- Jeep
- Title Screen tune
- 'Saved the world' tune
- 'world destroyed' tune (death march)

It's beginning to look a lot like I won't end up having room for the powerups. I will try to make room, as I feel they are needed to balance out the difficulty and I *really* want to add them.
I won't, however, move to a bankswitched game just for that.

Thanks,
Bob

Edited by PacManPlus, Tue Dec 1, 2009 4:36 PM.

[Trebor]

Cool
Thanks for the update, Bob!

-Trebor

[gambler172]

Hi Bob
is there a new bin available,with the new changes?
greetings Walter

[PacManPlus]

Update:

All sounds added except for 'Save the World' tune. Aside from that, I still need to:
- tweak the placement of the enemies (especially for the 'Novice' level)
- add powerups
- PAL support

Hope you like!

Bob

Attached Files

•  FAILSAFE.BIN   48K   160 downloads
•  FAILSAFE.A78   48.13K   166 downloads

[Trebor]

PacManPlus, on Wed Dec 2, 2009 9:40 PM, said:

Update:

All sounds added except for 'Save the World' tune. Aside from that, I still need to:
- tweak the placement of the enemies (especially for the 'Novice' level)
- add powerups
- PAL support

Hope you like!

Bob

Sweet! Thanks, Bob!

[PacManPlus]

Thanks, guys.

Update. Added powerups! There's a 25% chance of one of the powerups appearing after shooting an enemy.
Added sounds:
- Collecting a power up
- Making a wrong guess at the launch code
- 'Rising' sound while entering launch code

Only need to add the 'saved the world' tune... I am having issues trying to think of one.
Need to add PAL support
Need to double-check placement of enemies.

I have to say, the powerups really do even out the difficulty.

Bin posted soon.

Thanks,
Bob

[PacManPlus]

Update bins:

- My first pass at PAL (FAILSAFP) Please let me know what doesn't look right, as I have no PAL machine to test.
- As stated before, Power Ups have been included:
1) The 'Speed' Powerup ('S') will turn your tank Light Green
2) The 'Shot Distance' ('D') will turn your tank Dark Blue
3) The 'Invincibility' ('I') will turn yout tank Hot Pink
4) The 'Freeze Enemy' ('F') will turn your tank White
These will last a period of time, after which your tank will begin to flash before you lose the power.
- All sounds have been added
- Enemy locations have been tweaked.

All bins in zip file attached.

Thanks!
Bob

Attached Files

•  FAILSAFE.zip   72.55K   155 downloads

[jwierer]

The power ups definitely make it less difficult, though I need to get used to the speed up of the tank. I keep running into things. Excellent work!

[TrekMD]

This continues to get better and better. The power ups are great. Please, do include me if you sell it as a cart. One question/suggestion. Would it be possible to give the tank a different sound with the different power ups? It would be cool to have a sound for each one.