73 replies to this topic

[-^Cro§Bow^-]

Hmm..something is broke on it now Bruce, this latest build won't run in MESS. It just keeps cycling the 7800 bios loder screen over and over. Actually it just stays on it. I think it might be failing encryption somehow?

[Mayhem]

Didn't have a problem running either demo on CC2. Like Beefdrop, needs tailoring to PAL but looks good so far! Took me a minute or so to figure out how to play it properly heh

Time to add bonuses if you manage to chain completions together etc... the usual puzzle fare goodness

[-^Cro§Bow^-]

Mayhem, you live on the British Isle, so know you wouldn't have a problem running this on your 7800 since the PAL 7800s do not require the encryption. I could be wrong on this also, but the last demo comes up fine in MESS, this latest one just keeps repeating the 7800 rainbow loader that comes up when the 7800 does the encryption check.

My actual 7800 would probably play this version of the demo just fine since it now contains the DevOS Bios on it, but I still haven't managed to make up a RAM cart for it yet.

[Mitch]

Yes, the latest version didn't have the authentication code in it.

Mitch

[DracIsBack]

Mitch said:

Yes, the latest version didn't have the authentication code in it.

Mitch

That must be why I couldn't get TUBES to run on my CC2!

[Mitch]

DracIsBack said:

Mitch said:

Yes, the latest version didn't have the authentication code in it.

Mitch

That must be why I couldn't get TUBES to run on my CC2!

Run it with 78QUICK as your startup file and it will bypass the 7800 BIOS.

Mitch

[Godzilla]

is this anything like locomotion or mega panel or junctions or pipe dream?

those are my fave puzzle games.

[Bruce Tomlin]

DOH!

sign7800 -w tubes-2004-11-03.bin
sign7800 -w tubes-2004-11-03.a78

Attached Files

•  tubes_2004_11_03.zip   5.92K   117 downloads

[Rob Mitchell]

Works now! I thought I had a problem! Great looking game!

Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

[Happy_Dude]

Mad game. reminds me of another pipe game but I just can't figure it out.
Anyway I love it Hope it makes it to cart someday.

[keitaro]

wow! It´s like Dr. sparkz lab, nice to see homebrews in the 7800!!

[Godzilla]

how is this progressing? when can we buy a cart :-)

[Bruce Tomlin]

Uh, I've been working on this other game lately. It's called "real life" and it has some really amazing 3D graphics and surround sound. I particularly like the thrift store levels, when I can get to them.

Please, people, keep in mind that homebrewers generally do it in their copious free time. There's a few out there who seem to have all the time in the world, but most of us aren't as productive as Kenfused.

Besides, the SNES Picross games (via DreamSNES) have been eating my brain these past few weeks when holidays haven't gotten in the way, but I finished the last of them yesterday. And I still want to play more Katamari Damacy.

[Shawn Sr.]

Shaggy the Atarian said:

Wow, it'll be great to have an original puzzle game for the 7800. Much better idea than just porting over Tetris IMHO.    Can't wait to see how it turns out Bruce!

Excelent Demo !!

Now off topic,
Have TETRIS been ported to the 7800 and does anyone know where I can get the BIN if it has?? And where the heck is the SMB 7800

[Shaggy the Atarian]

Tetris hasn't been ported yet, but Klax has. And Klax is a worthy puzzler to have.

[Bruce Tomlin]

Can someone make a screen shot of the title screen?

[Mitch]

Are you talking about the Klax title screen? If so, there's an emulator screenshot here at AtariAge and a screengrab on my website.

Mitch

[DracIsBack]

Alternatively, here's one from a reasom 7800 ...

Attached Files

•  klaxtitle   15.04K   235 downloads

[SS]

What exactly am I supposed to be doing to clear a row? I managed to clear the very bottom row once by building a pipe straight across it but can't figure out how to do so when using the curved or "T" shaped pipes.

[Bruce Tomlin]

Mitch said:

Are you talking about the Klax title screen? If so, there's an emulator screenshot here at AtariAge and a screengrab on my website.

Mitch

I'm talking about the title screen from my own game, you know, the one that's been discussed in this thread? I use Macs, so I don't have a 7800 emulator that supports that video mode properly. (How long has it been since the last MacMESS version?)

[Bruce Tomlin]

SS said:

:dunce: What exactly am I supposed to be doing to clear a row?  I managed to clear the very bottom row once by building a pipe straight across it but can't figure out how to do so when using the curved or "T" shaped pipes.   :dunce:

You don't clear rows. You make groups of pipe tiles that are closed on all ends, using the edges of the field if necessary. The bomb is to give you a chance to get rid of bad ones that are in the way.

[Shaggy the Atarian]

Here's a shot from MESS (I hope it works)

Attached Thumbnails

• 

[Bruce Tomlin]

Thanks!

[Albert]

I somehow missed this game before and I just tried it out! I love Tetris-style games, and this is the first time I've played a blocks game where you had to form contiguous pipe. Very cool! I look forward to seeing this developed further! I also added an entry to the game to our In Development section. Keep up the great work!

..Al

[Bruce Tomlin]

I just wish I could figure out where to go with it next. I mostly just had this idea and wanted to code it up and then figure out if it was fun. And the code to determine a connected chain was challenging enough that I wrote a joystick serial port debug monitor to get it working right. (When I get things tidied up enough with it and with my 6502 assembler, I plan to release the monitor source code.)

I mean, it's kind of fun in the mindless hack 'n' slash way, but I can't think of how to make it fun and challenging. Once I got it running, I realized there were too many open ends and removed them from the bottom row. Last week when I was touching up my proto board to support a 29F256, I played it for a few minutes and thought of requiring the pipes to cross from the left edge to the right edge.

I also probably need to tune the random tile generator. Right now it's roughly tuned to make bombs a little more likely than any other tile, but everything else is evenly chosen. Since there are only two versions of some tiles and four versions of others, this results in twice as many of the four-version tiles.

By the way, the idea I had for scoring was to do triangle numbers on each chain. Blow away three, you get 6 points; blow away six and you get 21 points, etc. (bombs are just one point per destroyed tile, period) This was because the only obvious gameplay idea is to encourage larger chains. Also, I was planning to shrink the playfields to be one tile narrower allowing screen space for scores and stuff. It's just that without a clear idea of what will make for good gameplay, I don't have any motivation to work on it.

After all, back in the day lots of stuff never got past the initial concept stage. At Activision, they had everybody vote on a game. If even one person gave a "no" vote, it was scrapped, with only (IIRC) one game getting a second vote (and passing, I can't remember which game right now). With Katamari Damacy, they had this really fun thing about rolling a ball around, and they had to add the time limits to give you some kind of a goal.

A time limit might be a good idea, since it's so easy to push stuff out of the way (Tetris gives you four squares at once, and they don't always fit, which takes up even more space). And then maybe some level-specific goals like Sega Swirl does. Get a chain of at least n length, leave as few tiles as possible at the end of the level, something like that. Maybe even have tile distribution change depending on the level. I might could also play around with the edges, but that would be a lot of work since right now it's just a simple less than/greater than comparison.

And since it's easy to get crap at the bottom which will never connect, and too deep to get to with the bomb, maybe a way to call on a bomb with the fire button (sort of like the peppers in Burgertime) would be better than having them come up randomly, often when the board is empty. I hate it when I'm trying to build something big and a stupid bomb comes up and I have to find somewhere to get rid of it. Of course then I need to find a way to let you have more bombs. Since there are no lives, maybe this could be score based.

I think the bomb button idea is a good first step. That's the best idea I've come up with since the last version.