71 replies to this topic

[bones]

please add me to the pre-order list, looks fun!

[Mr SQL]

Csonicgo and bones,
thank you for the kind words, Breakanoid is all about fun, I've wanted to play this on the 2600 for many years!

Breakanoid status update:

I've finished the Level Editor on schedule, still need to finish the alternate levels version of Breakanoid and tune the binary for the real hardware. Here's a screenshot of the Level Editor in action:



In addition to editing the Breakanoid levels and colour palettes, the Level Editor can also be used to edit the playfields of other games directly in the ROM binaries!

[Mr SQL]

Breakanoid Full Version released today!

It's January 8th and the full Breakanoid release package will be sent to everyone who's ordered it. This is now officially an order thread - anyone who orders Breakanoid now will recieve the full release package which includes the following:

The full version of Breakanoid with all the levels unlocked!

The alternate levels version of breakanoid:

The alternate levels version features three winning level designs from the AtariAge community (thank you tremoloman!) and several levels designed by the Breakanoid beta testers.

The Breakanoid Construction Kit:

Previously called the Breakanoid Level Editor, it's better termed a construction kit because in addition to letting you draw your own levels for Breakanoid you can edit Breakanoids huge 160 entry colour table; Breakanoid is a colourful game and can display up to 35 colours on screen at once and stores different colour themes in it's colour table. Pixel artists will be able to create pleasing fades, mosaic and rainbow patterns with the Breakanoid Construction Kit to go along with their artistic level designs.

The Breakanoid Construction kit runs on the windows platform and outputs a new Breakanoid binary - it lets you edit the colour table and level designs right inside the Breakanoid ROM image to construct entirely new and unique Breakanoid games.

Rights to put Breakanoid on one cart: . . . but which Breakanoid?

I've been asked about offering Breakanoid on cart directly but AtariAge currently performs this service for $25 and this gives Atari fans a lot more flexability to choose which Breakanoid to put on cart - you can decide to put the Alternate Levels version on cart or select one of your own custom versions that you've built with the construction kit - pixel artists may create special one-off carts that become collector items!

Instructions and cart Labels:

Breakanoid comes with instructions that can be used as a colourful cart label (great reference to have right on the cart), a control sheet and instructions for the Breakanoid Construction Kit.


Please note: Both the Breakanoid binary and the alternate levels binary are being tuned for better performance on the real 2600 hardware and will be resent to everyone who has ordered the game once tuning is complete.

[NML32]

I'm still a little confused on how to use the level editor.
How do you move to other levels to edit?
On the level that I edited the ball doesn't bounce off the new bricks. The ball just passes through.

Might just be something I'm doing wrong.

Great game!!

Edited by NML32, Tue Jan 10, 2012 4:51 PM.

[jdrose]

Love the elastic leash. It threw me off until I understood what it was about. The SndFX are very nice too. Moody. Not annoying.

$20 is probably too inexpensive for a cart. Think $24.99 or $29.99 to make it worthwile.

Edited by jdrose, Tue Jan 10, 2012 7:42 PM.

[TrekMD]

I would like to preorder as well. Would love to see this in cart, though.

[save2600]

jdrose, on Tue Jan 10, 2012 7:42 PM, said:

$20 is probably too inexpensive for a cart. Think $24.99 or $29.99 to make it worthwile.

It's the .bin he's selling for $20.

Cart options through the AA Store abound as per post #53...

[Mr SQL]

NML32, on Tue Jan 10, 2012 4:51 PM, said:

I'm still a little confused on how to use the level editor.
How do you move to other levels to edit?
On the level that I edited the ball doesn't bounce off the new bricks. The ball just passes through.

Might just be something I'm doing wrong.

Great game!!

NLM32,
Thank you! Excellent questions - your new level should be solid (no phantom bricks) all the way down with the fully tuned binary (about to send it out to you). To edit another level besides the first one that appears by default in the editor just open it's associated text file ("screen 1.txt", "screen 2.txt", etc) and paste it into the orange and yellow windows, replacing the first level.

[Mr SQL]

jdrose, on Tue Jan 10, 2012 7:42 PM, said:

Love the elastic leash. It threw me off until I understood what it was about. The SndFX are very nice too. Moody. Not annoying.

$20 is probably too inexpensive for a cart. Think $24.99 or $29.99 to make it worthwile.

jdrose,
thank you! When I was tuning it the other day I noticed a very perceptible difference running the game on the real hardware, particularly with the sound effects, seems to have more ambiance.

[Mr SQL]

save2600, on Wed Jan 11, 2012 8:59 AM, said:

jdrose, on Tue Jan 10, 2012 7:42 PM, said:

$20 is probably too inexpensive for a cart. Think $24.99 or $29.99 to make it worthwile.

It's the .bin he's selling for $20.

Cart options through the AA Store abound as per post #53...

Breakanoid is fully tuned for the Atari 2600!

And it plays even better on the real hardware than in the emulator! I will update the demo binary at the beginning of this thread just as soon as I have sent everyone who's ordered the game the fully tuned version!

save2600,
I'm selling the Breakanoid binary, an alternate levels binary and a construction kit for building new Breakanoid games (it builds new binaries) for $20 - and the rights to put whichever version you like best onto a cart.

Collectors who want a game cart have more choices to choose from, including unique one-off Breakanoid games built with the construction kit!

[Mr SQL]

The demo binary is updated - Breakanoid now plays best on real 2600 hardware! Breakanoid is tremendous fun on a phone emulator and in Stella, but subtle differences in the gameplay and display (and not so subtle differences in the sfx) turn up the fun factor even more when playing on a real 2600!

[jeffgamer]

Question: Once we've purchased the game, may we, if we wish, place both versions onto carts for our own private collection?

[save2600]

Thanks for all your work on this and implementing most all of our input and advice. Analog rotary dial input yet or planned? If so, you can add me to the preorder list too Mr. SQL!

[Mr SQL]

jeffgamer, on Thu Jan 12, 2012 12:27 PM, said:

Question: Once we've purchased the game, may we, if we wish, place both versions onto carts for our own private collection?

Jeff,
great question! You only get rights to create one cart - if you want to make another cart with a different version of Breakanoid (or with the same version) you have to purchase Breakanoid again. Carts are collector's items that can be traded or sold - you can trade or sell a Breakanoid cart.

You can play all the versions of Breakanoid for personal use in an emulator like Stella or on a real 2600 with a Harmony cart - with Harmony you can play new Breakanoid versions created with the Breakanoid construction kit immediately after you build them!

Additional personal use rights for Breakanoid:

Breakanoid owners may share the new Breakanoid game versions they create provided they PM me first to verify that the person they wish to share their custom version with also owns Breakanoid.

[Mr SQL]

save2600, on Thu Jan 12, 2012 12:51 PM, said:

Thanks for all your work on this and implementing most all of our input and advice. Analog rotary dial input yet or planned? If so, you can add me to the preorder list too Mr. SQL!

save2600,
you're welcome, thank you and everyone who offered advice and ideas to make Breakanoid more fun!

I will take a look at analog input options, I need to get some paddles and see how they respond in simulated analog mode first as I notice that the mouse in stella offers analog style paddle acceleration like we were talking about (not the "map to every coordinate" analog) and that the effect works nicely both with and without the magnetic paddle. The Genesis d-pad works really well with Breakanoid running on a real 2600 and only thinks it's a paddle The d-pad identifies itself to the hardware as an analog paddle which prevents it from being used as a controller option with paddle games - that's one thing I have to keep in mind if I add paddle support, I don't want to break d-pad support!

[jeffgamer]

Has payment information been sent out yet to those who are interested in this?

[Mr SQL]

jeffgamer, on Fri Jan 20, 2012 11:48 AM, said:

Has payment information been sent out yet to those who are interested in this?

Jeff,
yes, anyone who would like to order Breakanoid may pm me or ask to order on this thread and I will pm them

[Mr SQL]

Here is a clip of BREAKANOID playing on a real 2600! The sound and gameplay are captured well enough to see the difference from the emulator but the animation and phosphor trails can't be filmed properly off of the CRT television - at 15 seconds the action gets so fast the camera is unable to track the ball and drops frames instead of showing the fluid animation.

[Mirage]

This looks great. Breakout/Arkanoid-style games are among my favorites. Not trying to minimize what a great game it probably is with the joystick, but I, too, would really love to see this with a paddle. Break the digital support if necessary to do it, or create a different version that is analog-only, or whatever, but that would really make this 100% top notch. I'd not hesitate to buy it then.

Edited by Mirage, Tue Feb 14, 2012 8:00 PM.

[KevinMos3]

Let me make sure I understand this correctly. This looks like a very interesting game, but...

When you say Breakanoid is shipping, you just mean that you are emailing people a binary and NOT a cartridge, correct?
So, those who purchase the game are getting nothing physically in their hands, just an "electronic" binary, editor, and manual that they can print off themselves.

If this is the case, I don't mean to be a killjoy, but $20 seems way too high a price. The going rate for a cartridge is $20 - $25 in the AA store. That also includes a physical printed manual. I don't mind paying that much for a game I really like when I have the physical cartridge and manual in my hands, but if I then have to pay the expense of putting it on a cart myself and printing the manual myself, I'm definitely not going to spend $20 for a "binary." Keep in mind, the going rate of a cart is only acceptable in the first place because of the cost of producing these outside of commercial mass production.

If one were to go the AA route and have the binary put on cart, that's $45 and still without a printed manual. I hope I've misunderstood something, but if not, I don't think the price is fair and hope others don't follow this model.

[Mr SQL]

KevinMos3, on Wed Feb 15, 2012 11:52 AM, said:

Let me make sure I understand this correctly. This looks like a very interesting game, but...

When you say Breakanoid is shipping, you just mean that you are emailing people a binary and NOT a cartridge, correct?
So, those who purchase the game are getting nothing physically in their hands, just an "electronic" binary, editor, and manual that they can print off themselves.

If this is the case, I don't mean to be a killjoy, but $20 seems way too high a price. The going rate for a cartridge is $20 - $25 in the AA store. That also includes a physical printed manual. I don't mind paying that much for a game I really like when I have the physical cartridge and manual in my hands, but if I then have to pay the expense of putting it on a cart myself and printing the manual myself, I'm definitely not going to spend $20 for a "binary." Keep in mind, the going rate of a cart is only acceptable in the first place because of the cost of producing these outside of commercial mass production.

If one were to go the AA route and have the binary put on cart, that's $45 and still without a printed manual. I hope I've misunderstood something, but if not, I don't think the price is fair and hope others don't follow this model.

Kevin,
BREAKANOID is all about fun, download and try the playable demo!

The playable demo is fully functional with the first three levels of the game and it's free!

If you have a Harmony Cart or Cuttle Cart you can play BREAKANOID on cart for free!

For $20 you get two versions of BREAKANOID as well as BREAKANOID monochrome dreams!

AND you also get the kit for building fantastic new BREAKANOID rom binaries at home!

If you also want a stand alone BREAKANOID cart it's an additional $25 but this gives you the option to choose which version to put on cart; Atari-age will carefully print and affix a colourful label with the BREAKANOID gameplay instructions to your cart.

Go and have fun playing BREAKANOID however you like!

[save2600]

Are analog paddle controls implemented yet?