Game Idea - Railz

[Brian O]

Hi all,

 

I had a game idea for a 2600 game. As I said before, I'm not a programmer, so I'm just putting this idea out there in case anyone would like to run w/ it. I'm not even sure if this is doable, or if anything like this has been done, so if it has just say so.

 

Game description

You control a racecar that has to move along 5 rails, horizontally. The object is to keep the car moving forward by moving from rail to rail (up or down) to avoid enemies, broken rails, and roadblocks. Player uses the joystick to move up or down from rail to rail, and can shoot enemies using the fire button. Roadblocks cannot be shot, and must be avoided. The same applies to broken rails. As the player progresses, the game speed increases, making the player have to make split second decisions when changing rails. There are also items that speed you up (which player may want to avoid if the speed is already too fast), and items that slow you down (which the player may want to get if the game is going too fast). Player loses life if they run into an enemy, roadblock, or broken rail.

 

Scoring

As the player moves forward, the score increases. Player could also increase score by collecting items scattered on various rails. Extra life awarded for every 20,000 points, but lives max out at 3.

 

That's all I have for now. I've also considered lowering the contrast between rail and background (i.e., if the player goes through a tunnel), making it harder for player to see broken rails. Also, perhaps enemies can shoot in higher levels, making player think twice about spending too much time on a rail that has a shooting enemy.

 

Screenshot w/ labels (please excuse the crudeness of the screenshot ):

 

As always, any thoughts are welcome.

 

Thanks!

-B

[Cebus Capucinis]

MULTI-TRACK DRIFTING!!!! I think it could be fun if it was made in some sort of 'slot car' theme, or perhaps just an actual train theme. A runaway train locomotive that has to maneuver the tracks? You could pick up 'sand' or something as a means of being able to turn -- with a bar that slowly goes down indicating the 'sand' level -- it could go down every time you make a move, thus making the game a bit more difficult. The end of the level could be the station or something!

 

The enemies could be cows, and you could shoot out the 'cow catcher' to knock them out of the way! For an even funnier twist, the 'shots' could be cow patties...they crap on the rails and that causes your train to skid off! Kids could be another enemy, placing pennies on the tracks!

[Christophero Sly]

I like it.

[Jr. Pac]

Great idea. Definitely possible, and I like your sprites!

[Brian O]

MULTI-TRACK DRIFTING!!!! I think it could be fun if it was made in some sort of 'slot car' theme, or perhaps just an actual train theme. A runaway train locomotive that has to maneuver the tracks? You could pick up 'sand' or something as a means of being able to turn -- with a bar that slowly goes down indicating the 'sand' level -- it could go down every time you make a move, thus making the game a bit more difficult. The end of the level could be the station or something!

 

The enemies could be cows, and you could shoot out the 'cow catcher' to knock them out of the way! For an even funnier twist, the 'shots' could be cow patties...they crap on the rails and that causes your train to skid off! Kids could be another enemy, placing pennies on the tracks!

 

LOL. That's too funny. I actually considered having it be a train with a few cars, and every time you collided w/ an enemy you lost a car. I'll admit, the cow pies were the farthest thing from my mind

 

I like it.

 

Thanks!

 

Great idea. Definitely possible, and I like your sprites!

 

Thanks!

[Schizophretard]

It reminds me of this.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ1oA-QBflI

[Marc Oberhäuser]

It reminds me of this.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ1oA-QBflI

 

 

Hope the game idea has not much in common with that rubbish... The NES has quite some stinkers in its game list

 

Sound a little bit more like this one (without the action part on the upper screen half):

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ypgt6MrShU

[Brian O]

It reminds me of this.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ1oA-QBflI

 

Never heard of that game. In the game I proposed, you only move in one direction (going faster and faster as game progresses), and you can change rails at any time.

 

Thanks,

-B

[Brian O]

It reminds me of this.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ1oA-QBflI

 

 

Hope the game idea has not much in common with that rubbish... The NES has quite some stinkers in its game list

 

Sound a little bit more like this one (without the action part on the upper screen half):

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ypgt6MrShU

 

A little, except in your game the train can only move to interconnected rails. In my game, the 5 rails stay parallel the whole time, and you can move from rail to rail at any time.

 

Thanks,

-B

[Brian O]

Created a quick animated GIF of the gameplay. It's very brief, since I did it manually. Obviously, there would be more obstacles, enemies, and broken rails, but for the sake of time I kept it simple, since I'm at work:

 

 

 

-B

[Rex Dart]

Damn, I'd play that.

[purduecrum]

Somewhat a frogger hack without a goal of getting to the top? Perhaps a horizontal bump-and-jump scroll'er? Is there fuel status or do you go until you crash? Is it possible to include a token that if the user can obtain would make vehicle invincible to objects and broken rails?

 

Any way to fit this into the Atlas Shrugged (Reardon Steel) story line? Another movie-book related game that is a stretch to the actual story line is so 80's.

[Rex Dart]

Any way to fit this into the Atlas Shrugged (Reardon Steel) story line? Another movie-book related game that is a stretch to the actual story line is so 80's.

 

Dude, that's the beauty of Atari. You can claim tie-in to ANY franchise. Who's to say any different?

[Schizophretard]

It reminds me of this.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ1oA-QBflI

 

Never heard of that game. In the game I proposed, you only move in one direction (going faster and faster as game progresses), and you can change rails at any time.

 

Thanks,

-B

 

Like Taz?

[+atari2600land]

I made a quick demo of Brian's idea.

Right - go

Up/down - move up/down

railz.bas.bin

[Brian O]

I made a quick demo of Brian's idea.

Right - go

Up/down - move up/down

 

That looks good. The player wouldn't have to push right to move, though. The idea would be that the speed of the car would increase as the game progressed and/or if the player ran over a speed boost icon.

 

Lookin' good, though.

 

Thanks!

-B

[Brian O]

Somewhat a frogger hack without a goal of getting to the top? Perhaps a horizontal bump-and-jump scroll'er? Is there fuel status or do you go until you crash? Is it possible to include a token that if the user can obtain would make vehicle invincible to objects and broken rails?

 

 

I like the fuel gauge idea, but not sure if it would make the game too cumbersome. It would present a certain level of tension (not only having to worry about crashing/being killed by an enemy, but also having to worry about keeping your tank filled).

 

As for the invincibility -- that's a good idea, too, but I think that a broken rail would kill the player regardless.

 

Thanks,

-B

[Brian O]

 

Like Taz?

 

Yes, the up and down movement would be similar to Taz.

 

-B

[c_t_f]

I like the fuel gauge idea, but not sure if it would make the game too cumbersome. It would present a certain level of tension (not only having to worry about crashing/being killed by an enemy, but also having to worry about keeping your tank filled).

 

Perhaps there could be different game modes where you have/ don't have the fuel gauge. :-)

 

 

@CTF@

[+atari2600land]

In a programming perspective, 4 rails would be better than 5 because 4 is a power of 2, therefore easier to program random number generators on what comes up on each rail (if anything). I've added some boxes and reduced the number of rails to 4. This is kinda fun to work on.

railz.bas.bin

[Brian O]

In a programming perspective, 4 rails would be better than 5 because 4 is a power of 2, therefore easier to program random number generators on what comes up on each rail (if anything). I've added some boxes and reduced the number of rails to 4. This is kinda fun to work on.

 

Awesome!

 

I can't play at work, since I don't have an emulator on my work computer, but I tried it out on my phone. It actually is pretty fun, even without the miscellaneous items such as enemies, boosts, etc.

 

It's amazing how quickly you whipped that up (maybe not amazing to you, but to me). Wish I had programming skills

 

 

Keep it going. I may have to whip up some box art for this

 

-B

[GroovyBee]

In a programming perspective, 4 rails would be better than 5 because 4 is a power of 2, therefore easier to program random number generators on what comes up on each rail (if anything).

 

You just need to scale appropriately. In pseudo code :-

 

temp1=rand()

if temp1>200 ... its rail 5, set rail object y coordinate, goto Skip

if temp1>150 ... its rail 4, set rail object y coordinate, goto Skip

if temp1>100 ... its rail 3, set rail object y coordinate, goto Skip

if temp1>50 ... its rail 2, set rail object y coordinate, goto Skip

... its rail 1, set rail object y coordinate, fall through...

Skip:

[high voltage]

Hell Driver (ITT)

 

http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-hell-driver_8198.html

 

Edited July 22, 2011 by high voltage

[Brian O]

Hell Driver (ITT)

 

http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-hell-driver_8198.html

 

 

Looks like a cross between Freeway and Grand Prix.

 

-B

Edited July 22, 2011 by Brian O

[+atari2600land]

OK, added back the fifth rail and put in some sfx.

railz.bas.bin