64 replies to this topic

[mos6507]

Cootster, on Thu Aug 25, 2005 6:57 PM, said:

Really fun game, another awesome piece of work from you . . .  Nothing like the feeling you get when you see that plane or car go boom when you manage to shoot it.  And it looks great in B/W, which is strangely rare for 2600 games.  Even Atari's official titles never really optimized for it.

One thing that might make the AI act more like a human would . . . Is it possible to have it count the shots the player has left and save its remaining shots for when the player is loading?  That's one of the best strategies:  Unload the first 10 shots continously along with it, reload, and concentrate on keeping it away from cars/planes until it blows its load, then start blasting away at it.  Not only would the AI not be a sitting duck so much of the time, it wouldn't get so many cheap hits in on the cars/planes (which it doesn't even try to aim at, correct?).

The earliest games didn't optimize that well for color either. Most of the early games have almost random day-glo color combinations, colors that don't have enough contrast between them either. I think the average coder knows more about color theory these days than they used to, so it's hard to go back to those naive days.

[vdub_bobby]

Variations added!

Use the L DIFFICULTY switch to choose straight (B/Novice) or steerable missiles (A/Expert). (Still use the R DIFFICULTY switch to choose between NTSC and PAL.)

Choose a game variation with SELECT, there are 72 in all.

Here's a map of the variations:

                                                             Game Variation Number
                                 1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18
            Scrolling Walls          X   X   X   X   X   X   X   X   X   X   X   X   X   X   X   X
            No Walls                                     X                       X   X           X   X
Game       Unbreakable Walls            X                   X   X                       X
Variation  Rebuilding Walls                 X           X           X   X       X   X       X   X
            Invisible Tanks                      X           X       X       X   X       X   X   X
            Unlimited Ammo                           X           X       X   X       X   X   X   X
            Shorter Game


                                                             Game Variation Number
                                19  20  21  22  23  24  25  26  27  28  29  30  31  32  33  34  35  36
            Scrolling Walls
            No Walls             X   X   X   X   X   X   X
Game       Unbreakable Walls                                X   X   X   X
Variation  Rebuilding Walls     X           X   X       X                   X   X   X   X
            Invisible Tanks          X       X       X   X       X       X       X       X   X   X
            Unlimited Ammo               X       X   X   X           X   X           X   X       X   X
            Shorter Game

Variations 37 through 72 are the same as 1 through 36, except with a 30-second time limit rather than a 90 second time limit.

So, please let me know what you think.

Still to do:
-user-interface stuff, like allowing you to end a game early with RESET and some other stuff.
-have the timer change immediately (rather than waiting until a game is started) when game variations #37-72 are selected.
-possible title-screen music

Attached Files

•  m4.bin   4K   144 downloads

Edited by vdub_bobby, Tue Aug 30, 2005 12:17 PM.

[vdub_bobby]

vdub_bobby, on Tue Aug 30, 2005 11:13 AM, said:

Still to do:
-user-interface stuff, like allowing you to end a game early with RESET and some other stuff.
-have the timer change immediately (rather than waiting until a game is started) when game variations #37-72 are selected.

Did this stuff.

Attached Files

•  m4.bin   4K   143 downloads

[vdub_bobby]

Ok, I think this is the final binary of M-4. I hope.

Controls have changed a bit:

Press RESET during attract mode to begin a game.
Press RESET during a game to return to attract mode.
Once you have started a game with RESET, you have five seconds to choose the number of players. Do nothing to choose a 1-player game, press the trigger with the second joystick to choose a 2-player game.

During a game: press up or down with the joystick to move your tank; press the trigger to shoot; press the joystick AWAY from your opponent WHILE pressing the trigger to reload your cannon.

During attract mode, pressing up or down with the left joystick changes the game variation number.
The left difficulty switch selects between straight (B) and steerable (A) cannon fire.
The right difficulty switch selects between NTSC (B) and PAL (A).

Game Variation Matrix: Same as in the post above.

The main change is to the title screen.

Attached Files

•  m4.bin   4K   188 downloads

Edited by vdub_bobby, Mon Oct 10, 2005 2:39 PM.

[cd-w]

vdub_bobby, on Mon Oct 10, 2005 8:39 PM, said:

Ok, I think this is the final binary of M-4.  I hope.
The main change is to the title screen.

Great title screen, and the AI seems much improved from when I last played it

Chris

[kisrael]

Hey, have you considered the "frogs and flies" approach?
Assume player 2 is AI 'til the joystick is moved or button pressed...Frogs and Flies waited a bit too long to kick in the AI, but your game doesn't have as much as a "wait for it...wait for it..." aspect...just a thought.

[vdub_bobby]

kisrael, on Mon Oct 10, 2005 3:37 PM, said:

Hey, have you considered the "frogs and flies" approach?
Assume player 2 is AI 'til the joystick is moved or button pressed...Frogs and Flies waited a bit too long to kick in the AI, but your game doesn't have as much as a "wait for it...wait for it..." aspect...just a thought.

I hadn't considered that approach. And...I probably won't.

At this point, I'm ready to be done with this project and move on. Good idea, though.

[mos6507]

vdub_bobby, on Mon Oct 10, 2005 3:40 PM, said:

kisrael, on Mon Oct 10, 2005 3:37 PM, said:

Hey, have you considered the "frogs and flies" approach?
Assume player 2 is AI 'til the joystick is moved or button pressed...Frogs and Flies waited a bit too long to kick in the AI, but your game doesn't have as much as a "wait for it...wait for it..." aspect...just a thought.

I hadn't considered that approach. And...I probably won't.

At this point, I'm ready to be done with this project and move on. Good idea, though.

Is this going to be a formal AtariAge cart release?

[vdub_bobby]

mos6507, on Mon Oct 10, 2005 4:55 PM, said:

vdub_bobby, on Mon Oct 10, 2005 3:40 PM, said:

At this point, I'm ready to be done with this project and move on.  Good idea, though.

Is this going to be a formal AtariAge cart release?

Yes, on the Minigame Compo Multicart. Which reminds me...I need to submit this to the minigame competition

[Cybergoth]

So, since today just I managed improving my M-4 MARP Rank, it reminded me that I didn't bug Bob in a while to release it on a standalone cartridge... It really deserves it!

[ArcadeAction]

I FULLY agree! I would really love to play this game on my 7800 (should arrive soon). Someone already said on this on this thread that this game is so 'pure', I fully agree to that.

If you decide to release this on a cart, you can put me on the will-definitely-order list.

Edited by vvdleun, Sat Jul 15, 2006 1:38 PM.

[Big Player]

vvdleun, on Sat Jul 15, 2006 3:38 PM, said:

I FULLY agree! I would really love to play this game on my 7800 (should arrive soon). Someone already said on this on this thread that this game is so 'pure', I fully agree to that.

If you decide to release this on a cart, you can put me on the will-definitely-order list.

It is available on a cart. You get six (or seven) other games with it too.

2005 Minigame Cart

[ArcadeAction]

Oops, I missed that obviously.

Is it correct that this multicart is only available in NTSC-format?

Best regards,
Vincent

[A_Username]

Just an idea, but mabey you could utilize the difficulty switches in this, like no games use them, make your tank only drive half as fast or something. Then you can flip your buddy's switch to hard when he's not looking, or prove how macho you are by beating your friends on hard. You don't have to do it, but it is a cool idea.

[vdub_bobby]

A_Username, on Tue Jul 18, 2006 6:33 AM, said:

Just an idea, but mabey you could utilize the difficulty switches in this, like no games use them, make your tank only drive half as fast or something. Then you can flip your buddy's switch to hard when he's not looking, or prove how macho you are by beating your friends on hard. You don't have to do it, but it is a cool idea.

M-4 uses almost every switch on the 2600:

B-W/COLOR switches between color and black&white.
LEFT DIFF turns steerable missiles on (A) and off (B)
RIGHT DIFF switches between PAL (A) and NTSC (B)
SELECT is unused (I think)
RESET begins a game or returns to attract mode if a game is in progress.

And yes, the Minigame Multicart is only NTSC, though M-4 is switchable, as mentioned above. Some of the others might also be switchable; I don't remember.

And development on M-4 is over. Well, I have toyed with trying to squeeze it down to 1K again, but I'll probably wait until next year to do that, if at all.