194 replies to this topic

[RevEng]

I'm glad you're enjoying the game, StanJr, and the little touches!

[supercat]

RevEng, on Sat Jun 4, 2011 7:40 AM, said:

If you change the chrominance every other frame, than one chrominance is used on the even lines, and another chrominance is used on odd lines. Always.

Hmm... how about this:

Even frames, even lines: Show 'light' data in color $7A, on background color of $72
Even frames, odd  lines: Show 'dark'  data in color $B6, on background color of $B2
Odd  frames, even lines: Show 'dark'  data in color $B6, on background color of $B2
Odd  frames, odd  lines: Show 'light' data in color $7A, on background color of $72

If you can't change the background color every line, then

Even frames, even lines: Show 'light' data in color $7A, on background color of $72
Even frames, odd  lines: Show 'dark'  data in color $76, on background color of $72
Odd  frames, even lines: Show 'dark'  data in color $B6, on background color of $B2
Odd  frames, odd  lines: Show 'light' data in color $BA, on background color of $B2

The latter would probably flicker more, though, and generally not be as good.

[RevEng]

The first one is out because the kernel can't change the background line-by-line. If I take on poker in the future, I'll give this a try with a new kernel.

The second one still has the lines but they're less pronounced then the last try, and yes theres some flicker.

[tremoloman2006]

Great work! I can hardly wait to see the label contest for this one...

[RevEng]

Thanks!

Definitely there are some unique label possibilities.

[espire8]

Found this tread recently and had to comment for producing such an outstanding game.

I been playing this last night and had alot of fun with it!
I did beat all 3 skill levels rather quickly though. I wish the game had betting options up to $200 like atari's Casino, or $100 at the least.

Also, I think the game is too generous starting out both the player and dealer with $500 each as I rarely bet with low amounts as a result. I found the game far more enjoyable when I deliberately "bust" to start myself out with between $100 to 60, - just so I feel like it's an accomplishment when I work my way to $500 again and up. But it's such a chore to always have to do every time I start a new game to get that type of challenge.
Are you still open with making some changes for the reasons stated above?
I think Casino allowed up to $10,000 in winnings before breaking the house,- maybe that can be implemented in your game too? I'd so really like to see an option in your game that start's you with $50 or 100 and the dealer with $2000 or 5000 and with bets starting at $10, 20, 50, 100, 200. Or $10, 20, 40, 80, 160.

Anyway thanks for sharing your work , and well done !

Edited by espire8, Mon Oct 17, 2011 10:09 AM.

[RevEng]

Thanks espire8!

Unfortunately the cash totals don't have a lot of leeway. To save on ram, the cash is represented by a single byte, with a unit size of $5, so $1280 would be the maximum pot size. This works out fine for the game as-designed, because there's a definite goal point.

At present I wouldn't even have space to add a game variation to the title screen, but if a sequel is made I'll definitely go with 16-bit numbers and offer a game variation with more open-ended play as you suggest!

[espire8]

Ah..okay. Didn't know space was that tight.

Well, if nothing can be done with the bet amounts, then Instead, how about just making a minor adjustment? $100 as the default starting account for the player, and increasing the dealer's account to $900? That should be doable, right?

I'm not sure if it's just me, but I actually enjoy more the risk of betting with money I "worked" to build my account up with than the free money I started the game with. It's the only way I get this sense of "holding my breath" when I start to bet higher after tactfully winning my way up from a small amount to begin with. That kind of urgency is what makes the game for me, --you know what mean?

I don't get that sensation when I already have $500 to start, and with a max bet limit of $80, which prevents me from taking any risk bets at the start. So I tend to bet at max without a care. I almost never use the low amounts since if I go broke, I know I can start over with another $500 of free money anyway. I feel the reason for even having low bet increments is for starting a game with low money account in the same low bet range that you may "work" your way up to the higher range, when I want to "risk" it anytime there after. Am I making any sense?

Edited by espire8, Tue Oct 18, 2011 12:50 PM.

[espire8]

Just had to relate this..

I recently was trying to find a quick way to deliberately give my bets away to start the game with a low figure. I had about $180 left and wanted to bring it down to 100. So next hand I got delt a pair of 10's and I split them, doubled-down on both. Then got hit with another pair. Spilt and double-down those too. I ended up winning all four hands including a blackjack and nearly cleaned out the dealer that turn!
Heh-heh... seems that I win more often when I'm trying to lose!

[RevEng]

If only that were the norm in real life!

Here's a release with the $100/$900 split in the hard modes. Please let me know if you hit any issues while testing - I'll add it to the first post after some time

[attachment removed - see later versions]

Other than bugfixes, I'm calling an end to changes... I'm working on a few other projects, and it's getting hard to squeeze the free bytes. Time to put my signature on it and say it's done.

[Random Terrain]

RevEng, on Tue Oct 18, 2011 7:26 PM, said:

. . . split in the hard modes.

Split in the Hard Modes sounds like it would be a good name for a band.

[espire8]

Thanks RevEng!

This is really awesome! I'm so glad you were able to do this. Now I can just dive right into the game without busting down my account for a challenge. Great! I'll report any bugs from this build should any arise.

[RevEng]

No problem - thanks for helping to improve the game!

[espire8]

okay. Found a possible bug.

On HARD level I noticed sometime I can't split my hand when I have a pair of 3's, 5's or 7's, and at one time a pair of K's as well.
At first I thought it were because I'm supposed to have sufficent money on hand to cover for any insurance or "doubling" or "splitting" which I think is a very good idea. But where I had enough funds, sometime I didn't have the "splitting" option when dealt with a pair of the fore mentioned.
I don't know if this is the case with the other levels (Easy, Med) as I just been playing Hard level. I'll investigate those levels too.

Maybe this can be remedied if you have the option default to "SPLIT" whenever a pair of cards appear, - as was done for any BJ defaulting to "STAND".

And if possible, can a new game be started over at the same difficulty level as the last game were set to? Sometimes at Hard level's "game over" screen, I often mistakenly restart a new game at Petra's EASY level whenever I want to replay the Hard level again.

Also, as a suggestion, I think it a good idea to have the dealers strip completely down only on the HARD level instead of in all the levels.
This should encourage players to play the hard level in order to see the "full ending".
Easy level - Petra always keeps her clothes.
Med level - All the dealers strip only to their bikini.
Hard level - All dealers go top-less.
If possible, you may try having different amounts of money to start with like:
EASY - dealer $500 / player $500
MED - dealer $800 / player $200
HARD - dealer $900 / player $100

I'm sorry for suggesting all this so late in the game when you already are calling it finished -except for bug reports. If there's no more room, maybe these ideas can be used for a sequel.

Anyhow, wonderful job on this game for what it is! -- it's a real keeper!

Edited by espire8, Thu Oct 20, 2011 5:17 PM.

[RevEng]

espire8, on Thu Oct 20, 2011 4:32 PM, said:

okay. Found a possible bug. On HARD level I noticed sometime I can't split my hand when I have a pair of 3's, 5's or 7's, and at one time a pair of K's as well.

I tested it by forcing these values into the player hand, and I seemed to get the splits working ok. That said, I did have a check for the player being able to cover the wager that was broken and may have been misbehaving, so I removed it. Now the casino will front you the money for one split, so long as you're not already owing them money.

The suggestion to make SPLIT a default when it's available is good, but it's not easily done due to the code structure and it being a menu item that conditionally appears.

I did bend a bit and modified the title screen menu to stay at the last position between games, mostly because it actually saved me a couple of bytes instead of costing me something. The rest of the ideas will have to wait for the sequel.

[attachment removed - see later versions]

[Mayhem]

You know I played this game quite a bit, and I never saw any issue with the splits, so it is possibly something introduced with the new changes. Still, as long as you think it's fixed now

[espire8]

Mayhem, on Thu Oct 20, 2011 10:56 PM, said:

You know I played this game quite a bit, and I never saw any issue with the splits, so it is possibly something introduced with the new changes. Still, as long as you think it's fixed now

That could be. I'm not sure about others, but I so much like the new changes thou. But I'll be play testing it more. The only bug I found with the latest build is the title screen when restarting a game. There's 'garbage' where the text should be after I press the button, but the selection still functions as it should - continuing on the same level.
The splits also are working well.

Edited by espire8, Fri Oct 21, 2011 1:23 PM.

[RevEng]

espire8, on Fri Oct 21, 2011 1:22 PM, said:

The only bug I found with the latest build is the title screen when restarting a game. There's 'garbage' where the text should be after I press the button, but the selection still functions as it should - continuing on the same level.

Excellent, and thank you. I see the cause for this and it's a simple fix...

 21Blue.NTSC.20111021.bin   32K   35 downloads
 21Blue.PAL60.20111021.bin   32K   23 downloads

[abaudrand]

Any updates?

[RevEng]

21 Blue will eventually be sold in the AA store, but right now it - and a few other titles - are somewhere in the queue behind the mega-production that is BoulderDash... it may be a bit longer.