What should the next 2600 RPG be like?

[+Gemintronic]

So, I see a lack in RPGs for Atari 2600. DragonStomper and, er.. I don't see much else. Treasures of Tarmin never came out. What should the next Atari 2600 RPG look/play like?

 

Can't decide? Choose more than one!

Edited August 4, 2010 by theloon

[roland p]

Who is gonna make it?

[s0c7]

I suggest you read this thread.

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/82625-2600-rpg-codename-cie/

[+Gemintronic]

@Roland P: Imagine the person that's gonna make it is competent enough to come through. I already asked around and all my feedback says developers shouldn't announce first. Did you vote?

 

@s0c7: Looks like they were trying to make a turn based RPG. Too bad it fizzled out. What else should I take from that topic? More importantly did you vote?

Edited August 4, 2010 by theloon

[roland p]

I did not vote yet. I'm not an rpg guy. But I played a lot of zelda on the snes emu. Kingsquest would be fun too, but that's an adventure right?

 

sd-snatcher is the only rpg I liked so far. You can find lots of vids on youtube if you want to know what is is.

[+Random Terrain]

I like exploring new territory that is different every time you play the game, finding treasure that is placed using controlled randomness (CR), finding objects that are placed using CR (tools/magic items/vehicles) that will help me do things or go places I normally can't, and so on. I just want to be surprised when I play, even if I'm the one who made the game.

[+Gemintronic]

Looks like s0c7 is leaning towards turn-based RPGs like the CiE he pointed to. I seriously doubt he was just trying to be negative. Seems like Roland P is leaning towards Zelda and SD Snatcher (which I will do research on). Thanks for the constructive input so far guys! Remember to vote when you can

 

@Random Terrain: Your wish is my command! Consider controlled randomness on the top of the feature list!

Edited August 4, 2010 by theloon

[s0c7]

@s0c7: Looks like they were trying to make a turn based RPG. Too bad it fizzled out. What else should I take from that topic? More importantly did you vote?

From some of your other posts it sounds like you are planning to do one. If so, I wish you luck. However, you should create it based on the type you enjoy most, not what you think would be the most popular. These things are very time consuming and if you are writing something you aren't really into it will never get finished. As far as CiE, take away from that that you shouldn't talk about it until you have something to show (a WIP for example). It just gets people worked up.

 

As far as voting goes, I'm more old school than most of what you've listed and have already made a dungeon crawl similar to my favorite Telengard:

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/127378-dungeon-2600-release-candidate/page__view__findpost__p__1590573

[+Gemintronic]

@s0c7: Looks like they were trying to make a turn based RPG. Too bad it fizzled out. What else should I take from that topic? More importantly did you vote?

From some of your other posts it sounds like you are planning to do one. If so, I wish you luck. However, you should create it based on the type you enjoy most, not what you think would be the most popular. These things are very time consuming and if you are writing something you aren't really into it will never get finished. As far as CiE, take away from that that you shouldn't talk about it until you have something to show (a WIP for example). It just gets people worked up.

 

As far as voting goes, I'm more old school than most of what you've listed and have already made a dungeon crawl similar to my favorite Telengard:

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/127378-dungeon-2600-release-candidate/page__view__findpost__p__1590573

 

Haven't played Telengard much but I'll study it for sure. I'm no social butterfly - not that you said I was - I'm just fishing for ideas. What people like. What makes a good RPG. Sometimes what you like can come into focus from others input. I'm not announcing anything as I said in an earlier post in this topic. Right now I don't know what I want to do next. Leaning towards a shooter of some sort.

 

Anyway, thanks for explaining your position in greater detail. I'll take it your informal vote is

 

[*] Other: Telengard. (Seems like a Nethack/Rogue-like to me though)

Edited August 4, 2010 by theloon

[s0c7]

[*] Other: Telengard. (Seems like a Nethack/Rogue-like to me though)

It is, but it pre-dates either of those. Edited August 4, 2010 by s0c7

[purduecrum]

Ultima? Phantasie? (Yes, I went from the 2600 to the C= 64)

[+Gemintronic]

Yeah, I thought about The Magic Candle II and others as a possible voting choice. I thought Final Fantasy was close enough without the complicated commands and grid based battle system.

 

Ultima III for the NES ruined grid based battle systems for me

Edited August 4, 2010 by theloon

[Ben_Larson]

I suggest you read this thread.

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/82625-2600-rpg-codename-cie/

There have been other attempts as well. The most promising IMO was the Homestar Runner RPG, although it died like 6 years ago:

 

http://www.qotile.net/rpg.html

 

There was another attempt at an RPG-like overworld-engine someone wrote a while back too, but I can't seem to find that one at the moment...

[+Gemintronic]

@Ben_Larson: Thanks for casting your vote and contributing some constructive feedback!. If you didn't vote, please don't think of voting as a sign of confidence in me. I know the history of home brewers and 2600 RPGs. I just want to know which way you would swing IF there was another Atari 2600 RPG out there.

 

I mean, anyone can declare a project and even post screenshots. Doesn't make it real. I see a real problem with the 2600 resolution. If I wanted to make a Treasure of Tarmin homage I'd have to go SuperChip just for barely enough resolution. See what I mean below.

 

Must be some really bad blood about the whole 2600 RPG subject. 170 views and only 6 votes for just discussing such a topic. Maybe I should prove everyone wrong (about 2600 RPGs) just to change the mood

Edited August 4, 2010 by theloon

[SeaGtGruff]

@Ben_Larson: Thanks for casting your vote and contributing some constructive feedback!. If you didn't vote, please don't think of voting as a sign of confidence in me. I know the history of home brewers and 2600 RPGs. I just want to know which way you would swing IF there was another Atari 2600 RPG out there.

 

I mean, anyone can declare a project and even post screenshots. Doesn't make it real. I see a real problem with the 2600 resolution. If I wanted to make a Treasure of Tarmin homage I'd have to go SuperChip just for barely enough resolution. See what I mean below.

 

Must be some really bad blood about the whole 2600 RPG subject. 170 views and only 6 votes for just discussing such a topic. Maybe I should prove everyone wrong (about 2600 RPGs) just to change the mood

Hey, that pic doesn't look half bad, considering you drew it with the playfield! And the inventory/command strip looks nice, too.

 

I haven't voted yet, but I'm getting ready to. My problem is, I like different formats, so I'll probably have to vote for more than one.

 

Michael

[eshu]

There was another attempt at an RPG-like overworld-engine someone wrote a while back too, but I can't seem to find that one at the moment...

 

I'm pretty sure you mean: Supercat's RPG demo

[abaudrand]

I've seen Nethack in the poll list but I voted for other as ADOM by Thomas Biskup is my favourite one. I can't remember having such a high "replayness" as most of place were randomly set. Such a deep game that after playing it, I'm sure I've missed half of it (8 times champion of the arena, defeated by the Mummy lord in his pyramid, meet a kind of lord of chaos randomly met as I go further in a dungeon...) I would love to see a reduced version of it on atari...

[+Gemintronic]

A Rogue-like sounds actually do-able. ADOM wasn't built in a day. Some people actually take seven days

http://www.roguetemple.com/7drl/

 

With the score area you could either display 3 stats

|HP|HP Bar|MP|MP Bar|XP|XP Bar|

 

Or six commands a button press away. Naturally, "kick the throne" would be icon #1

 

A Google search turned up negative for A.T.O.M.

Atari Tunnels of Mystery

Edited August 5, 2010 by theloon

[nathanallan]

A rogue-like would be awesome for the 2600. Maybe something like Dragon Crystal (iirc) from the Genesis/SMS. Random terrain (there I said it) and random enemies with it being mapped out as you go. Love those types of games.

Edited August 5, 2010 by nathanallan

[+Gemintronic]

Fakie text mode looks kinda bad without color. Too bad each row only supports one color

 

Good news is SuperChip allows a 5 x 5 grid with a space between tiles

 

..ooohh man! Dragon Crystal for the win! Wouldn't have to fake text graphic for that.

Edited August 5, 2010 by theloon

[purduecrum]

Ultima III for the NES ruined grid based battle systems for me

I think I still hear the music from Ultima III and IV, the Commodore 64 version, in my sleep. I recently obtained III and IV for the NES and played them through, the graphics were disappointing that they didn't match the C= 64 version.

[Ben_Larson]

I mean, anyone can declare a project and If you didn't vote, please don't think of voting as a sign of confidence in me. I know the history of home brewers and 2600 RPGs. I just want to know which way you would swing IF there was another Atari 2600 RPG out there.

Your sarcasm is coming across loud and clear With that said, I vote for Nethack. I think that would be the most doable for a couple reasons:

 

#1 because it would involve procedurally generated content, which means less content to create (and hence less work). Underestimating how long it's going to take to create content is one of the major reason these projects fail IMO.

 

#2 doesn't seem too impossible from a technical standpoint: You could use the playfield to create the room walls, and then use some 4x8 player sprites for the player, objects, monsters, etc. You could probably even use Batari Basic to do it...

[+Gemintronic]

At this point Wizardry, Dragon Quest and Rogue-like styles are tied. The Hive Mind (people who have posted) seems to consider a rogue-like to be do-able. Do-able is critical.

 

Today I tried 4-way scrolling with the Nethack mock-up. It actually worked in SuperChip hi-res! For how long is the question. Once AI, level loading and interface code is in place it could go bonkers. I still have to figure out proper collision and tile loading.

 

In a Windows game I used an invisible object to trigger the player collision events and let the end-user see a static sprite in the center as a placeholder for the character. Not sure if I have to go that far here (yet).

Edited August 6, 2010 by theloon

[psquare75]

I love RPGs. In my mind (for what it's worth) I was picturing say, Indiana Jones style, using two controllers to play to manipulate inventory, with a bar on the bottom for INV. Turn based. like nethack/Rogue.

[SeaGtGruff]

I love RPGs. In my mind (for what it's worth) I was picturing say, Indiana Jones style, using two controllers to play to manipulate inventory, with a bar on the bottom for INV. Turn based. like nethack/Rogue.

I think two controllers is almost a must for complex RPGs, but in my opinion two joysticks are too hard to deal with. I was planning on making a large RPG (that may never get made), and I was thinking of a joystick for the left controller, plus a keypad for the right controller, and possibly with one or more of the console switches being used to flip a controller's function.

 

Michael