14 replies to this topic

[Master_Programmer]

That's it.

i'm so f****** sick of this project.

i change 1 thing, and EVERYTHING MESSES UP!!!!!

Here, i was gonna surprise everyone with a fantastic Atari RPG, but the whole dang thing screwed up on me, constantly, throughout the whole project!!!!

and what's worse, is i couldn't understand the errors!!!!
none of them made any sense!!!

if any of you can fix this piece of crap, then by all means, take credit for your huge feat of programming skill.

i'm so fed up with it, and so angry right now.....sorry if my responses seem a bit lashy.....

The controls are as follows:

On the title screen, switchselect starts the game

on the map, joystick 0's directions move you

in battle, left and right selects a kind of attack, and fire gets you into the "action" part of the battle.


you wait until the screen flashes, and press down as fast as you possibly can.

if you do it before the enemy, then you damage the enemy.


if you select the up arrow, or the back arrow, or the shield, your next attack's power is halved, but you have a chance of blocking an enemy's attack

if you select the sword, then you do full damage, but have no chance of dodging/blocking an enemy's attack if they hit you.


your score is your hp.


when you get to a certain map, pressing fire will open a shop screen, where your can buy items.

on the shop, the first 2 digits of the score, is the price of the item

the last 2 are your current money.

left and right changes the selected item.

fire buys and item if you have enough money.

down, exits the shop.



Charaters-
the blue and white guy is "N1"
the red guy is "Pico"
and the yellow bunny girl is "Nyp"

items:

The plant looking thing - An herb, heals 500 hp.
the candy - Has no current use....
The odd red thing(it's supposed to be a crystal), - boosts your attack for 1 battle.

The light blue square - Makes your invincible, lasts until after you're hit once.

the running guy - Allows you to attempt to run from a battle(yes you have to buy that. >:3 )
Note: You have a 50% or so chance to run from a battle.

the guy in a weird pose - Giga command....gives you the effects of a crystal and a square, and doesn't go away when used, but can only be used once per battle

The 2 arrows - Switches characters...you can only do this after you've beaten the boss that nyp has to fight



Bosses will be found on the main maps, not in a random battle.

but they have to be touched in order to enter the battle.


touching a Bed will heal you if your hp is below 100.

the doctor guy near the start of the game doesn't do a thing.


and you're supposed to lose the first boss fight.

after that, you become pico



with pico, going down at his start, then touching the "exit" will send you to the fields....going down 2 more screens, will get you to the boss....

after that, you play as nyp.

she has the same boss location as pico, but the boss will have pico's sprite, indicating he's fighting someone....

but, i have no clue if that even goes that far yet, because of all the bugs appearing from nowhere.


Like if i type "gosub battle_bg1:"

it will give me an error, making me type it like "gosub battle_bg1 :"

and then the background stops working.

completely.


anyways, like i said, i can't fix this within the next few days, then this project is as good as dead.

Attached Files

•  Split Second.zip   760.92K   46 downloads

[Master_Programmer]

now, i'm gonna be offline for the next day or so, to keep myself from exploding in someone's face.

[ScumSoft]

Your issues are syntax problems which cause it to error out on legit lines, tracking them down would be hard.

[Random Terrain]

If you add a boatload of REM statements that tell where you are in the program and what things are supposed to be doing, it might become easier to track down any problems.


[I forgot to mention that when a program I'm working on develops strange problems that make me want to punch somebody in the face and drink a bottle of bleach, the cause usually turns out to be an if-then. You probably already know that certain combinations of things can make an if-then choke, but an if-then line just being a few characters too long can cause things to mess up without any errors popping up when compiling. And there's really no way to tell how long is too long, so keeping your lines as short as possible will eliminate any weird problems that were caused by long if-then lines.]

Edited by Random Terrain, Mon Aug 1, 2011 7:08 PM.

[Master_Programmer]

@RandomTerrain:

Yeah, i know...but the statements i know are messing up, are pretty darn short....


Anyways, i'm back, and calmed down a bit....

what's odd, is when i went to fix the battle backgrounds, i copied a playfield definition before the if statements, to test to see if the program was somehow skipping that.

putting the playfield definition there, fixed the whole background problem, which makes NO SENSE WHATSOEVER.

see?
i get problems that make no sense, and fix them with answers that make no sense. DX

anyways, i still have a little bit more to this game, before it's 100% finished.....

and unfortunately, i know someone will ask about harmony support.....

Not happening.

not for a while at least.....give me time to finish it, then i'll try to add harmony support.

[GroovyBee]

Master_Programmer, on Tue Aug 2, 2011 9:00 AM, said:

and unfortunately, i know someone will ask about harmony support.....

What do you mean by "harmony support"? If you mean running on real hardware then that should be pretty high up on your list of things to do in my opinion. Ideally, before adding loads of bells and whistles the game should be playing rock solid on a real machine. That way you know you are developing an idea that is workable.

[Master_Programmer]

GroovyBee, on Tue Aug 2, 2011 9:08 AM, said:

Master_Programmer, on Tue Aug 2, 2011 9:00 AM, said:

and unfortunately, i know someone will ask about harmony support.....

What do you mean by "harmony support"? If you mean running on real hardware then that should be pretty high up on your list of things to do in my opinion. Ideally, before adding loads of bells and whistles the game should be playing rock solid on a real machine. That way you know you are developing an idea that is workable.

when i say this, i'm not trying to seem snotty or smart-alecky, so please, PLEASE, i meant this when i say this, but don't take it the wrong way.

if i want your opinion on how i should make my game, i'll ask.

Okay?
please, seriously, don't take that the wrong way.

i make these games my way, and i don't tend to listen to other people's opinions unless i ask for those opinions.

please, i honestly am trying to be nice about this, i'm trying not to sound mean or anything, really! ):

[GroovyBee]

With that attitude you'll go far.

[Master_Programmer]

GroovyBee, on Tue Aug 2, 2011 9:29 AM, said:

With that attitude you'll go far.

Sorry, i'm really trying to keep anyone from getting mad, but i don't do well trying to program out of the normal order i do things....

basically, i make a game, and bugfix it, then i try to improve it's quality to the best i can, then i try to add real hardware support.

that way, it's easy to add support for real hardware, because all the other work is complete, and the game is already to it's (near)final product.

and there's no graphics, or maps or anything i have to improve after i add support for real hardware.

[Master_Programmer]

Okay, just to make everyone a bit more happy(i hope) i've already started working on making it real-hardware compatible.

so far, the battles are 100% scanline compatible, and i fixed the slowdowns that ensued.

[Master_Programmer]

maps, for the most part, are real hardware compatible so far.

at least, i think so....the closest i have to real hardware, is the z26x emulator for the xbox. >.>

[Master_Programmer]

If everything goes well, i'll have everything aside from making it real-hardware compatible done by tomorrow.

i will make a release then, if everything goes well, then i'll finish the hardware compatibility, and release a real-hardware compatible version.

[PAC-MAN-RED]

Nice work on the sprites.

Illya

[Master_Programmer]

PAC-MAN-RED, on Tue Aug 2, 2011 7:12 PM, said:

Nice work on the sprites.

Illya

Thanks.
That's probably my greatest strength when it comes to game making.
i'm (not to brag) phenomenal with smaller-resolution sprites, and most of the time, the original concept art that goes with it.

[Gateway]

LOL.

The people who have responded in this thread have been very helpful to you. I hope you will consider their suggestions.

I identify with your frustration when it comes to programming, etc. I am a creative, artistic type. I see in my mind clearly how the finished product should look and sound like, but getting there.. takes a lot of patience and trial and error.

I would say that getting a stable scanline count and/or kernal up and running should be your top priority, so that it will run on a real Atari.. then comes the graphics, sound, cool effects, etc. None of your special additions or gameplay elements will matter if the screen constantly rolls.


For me, I have been working on a template for my batariBasic programs, and trying to keep it as "basic" as possible:
a simple playfield,
score working,
player(s) on the screen,
"lives" and other minikernals working properly..

Once all that is working smoothly, THEN I can start adding graphics and unique elements, one bit of code here and there, a little at a time.. if the program doesn't compile anymore, then I know it is something I just changed or added. Don't move onto another part of the program until you fix the thing you just changed, because you will know the program was working the right way before your changes. In extreme cases, you may need to completely change the order of code to get it to run properly( or change your game story to fit with the restrictions of programming the 2600 ). However, with this community's help, and tools like batariBasic, etc., almost any game idea can be realized if you keep at it, and work with the limitations present (though this becomes fewer as more tricks and techniques are discovered and shared with the community )

Good luck with your game.