[Thelbane]

Greetings programs,

Here's my first posting of Reflex in the AA forums. I hope you all enjoy it and I'd appreciate any feedback you might have... Particularly about the gameplay/difficulty and the driving controller support if you have the required hardware. But all comments are welcome!

This is a breakout-like game where the objective is to clear all the bricks and avoid letting the ball go out of bounds. The big difference is that in single-player mode, you control two paddles that move around the bricks instead of just under them. The two-player variations of this game play similar to PONG, except there are bricks between you and your opponent's paddles.

Some quick info:

• SELECT cycles through these game modes:
  • Joystick - Single player
    
  • Joystick - Two player (competitive)
    
  • Joystick - Two player (cooperative)
    
  • Driving controller - Single player
    
  • Driving controller - Two player (competitive)
    
  • Driving controller - Two player (cooperative)

• RESET starts a game
  
• RESET (multiple times) changes levels
  
• TV TYPE cycles through these video modes:
  • NTSC (default)
    
  • PAL 60
    
  • PAL 50

• Holding SELECT or RESET during power up starts the game in PAL 60 or PAL 50 mode, respectively

Enjoy!

 reflex99a.bin (4K)
Number of downloads: 311

-Lee

[Thelbane]

Oh, I forgot to include a link to the level editor. I had posted this to the Stella developers list and since I'm finally using this to generate levels, I thought I'd post it here.

Please note that this tool is only for contributing levels for possible inclusion in the finished game, not generating custom levels for a hacked ROM (sorry).

If you disagree with the disclaimer on the editor page, please don't submit your level.

Thanks!

http://www.ioyu.com/...level_index.asp

-Lee

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Probably you should post this into the Homebrew forum (too).

[Jess Ragan]

Wow. That is one slick homebrew... the production values are easily on par with a professionally designed 2600 game. It's a nifty twist on the Breakout theme, too, although I must admit that the gameplay is a bit more confusing when the paddles snake along the edges of the screen like that. Still, this is good stuff! Reflex may just be in the running for the year's best 2600 release.

JR

[retrocon]

WoW! All I can say is Wow.

Is this really a 2600 game?

How many hours did you put into developing this if I might ask?

[Atariboy2600]

WOW If I dont know any better this could be pulled off as a C64 Game grafx! Great job on it!

[moycon]

Haven't had a chance to play yet (Not until I get home) but I did create a few screens. Very cool!

[Thelbane]

What great responses in such a short time. Thank you!

Thomas, I hope I didn't break too many netiquette rules by linking back to this topic from the homebrew section. That section is pretty far down the list, which is why I missed it the first time. As always, thanks for helping a n00b stay on track.

-Lee

[Thelbane]

retrocon, on Mon Aug 22, 2005 3:10 AM, said:

How many hours did you put into developing this if I might ask?

Hmm... I hadn't been tracking the hours, but that represents about a year-and-a-half of on-and-off coding. Most of the work was done in the first two months, when I was feeling the rush... learning as much as I could in as little time possible. Sometime into development, I hit a couple of walls on stuff that wasn't as much fun to code, so I put it off until the Stella 2.0 alphas started getting released with it's wonderful integrated debugger. That was only a couple months ago and the momentum has built up again since.

But early on... I would say I was easily putting 25 hours a week into it... learning and coding at the same time, losing sleep, etc. These days it's settled down to more like 10 hours a week.

-Lee

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Thelbane, on Mon Aug 22, 2005 2:15 PM, said:

Thomas, I hope I didn't break too many netiquette rules by linking back to this topic from the homebrew section.  That section is pretty far down the list, which is why I missed it the first time.  As always, thanks for helping a n00b stay on track. 

No problem. I was just afraid some people interested might miss your game.

[Bruce Tomlin]

At vgExpo, I was actually tempted to buy a copy... until I realized it wasn't released yet.

And don't take out the driving controller support. While it might be nice to make it work faster (maybe even scale it such that the faster you turn it, the faster it accellerates), it worked fine with my "dialing finger" technique.

[DominiRican05]

Wow! This game is awesome and very addicting! The graphics are nice and smooth, and that theme song has gone to be one of the best tunes I've heard on the 2600...wow!

[Kepone]

I booted it up to see and so far, I love the title screen! Can't wait to play it later!

[Big Player]

This game has come a long way since I last saw and played it on the Stella mailing list. One of the great things about lurking on the list is watching great homebrews like this one grow from simple beginings.

Nice job!

[Jacob Rose]

Worked with my driving controller on real hardware...DC movement seems a little slow, but I guess that's part of the challenge. Cool music!

[remowilliams]

WOW! This is really nice!

Just wrote it to a maxicart and fired it up on the Phoenix, and it is a really nice bit of work. The music is great as well. It is easily in the class of a good commerical product. Though I wish the game supported the paddle controller. Guess I'll have to dig out one of my driving controllers and plug it into the 7800.

Nice Work!

[birdie3]

remowilliams, on Mon Aug 22, 2005 10:30 PM, said:

WOW!  This is really nice! 

Just wrote it to a maxicart and fired it up on the Phoenix, and it is a really nice bit of work.  The music is great as well.  It is easily in the class of a good commerical product.  Though I wish the game supported the paddle controller.  Guess I'll have to dig out one of my driving controllers and plug it into the 7800. 

Nice Work! 

Thank you for releasing this ROM. This game is great. You took an old idea and made it better. I haven't tried it with the Driving Controller yet but that is a perfect choice for this type of game. I would buy this on a cart for sure.

[kencrisis]

This game is so fun and addictive. I would really like to see this on a cart -- by Xmas if possible so I have something to ask for!

[Thelbane]

All the positive feedback is wonderful and maybe a little overwhelming. I don't know what to say! Thank you!

And for those interested, I'm looking into having a cart published, hopefully by Philly Classic in November.

-Lee

[Nathan Strum]

Cool game! Very nice graphics and sound. I like the fact you actually went to the trouble of making a round ball for it.

Is there a way to put english on the ball? I can't seem to make it change angle or direction based on how I hit it.

It reminds me a little of another homebrew that was being developed - Radial Pong. Just curious - instead of driving controllers, had you considered paddles? Admittedly, you'd have to move back and forth instead of being able to just spin continuously, but the control might be smoother.

(Edit) Another thought on the controls - for the single joystick version, would a Gyruss-type scheme work, where you could rotate the joystick around in a circle, to move the paddles around?

This post has been edited by Nathan Strum: Tue Aug 23, 2005 2:39 AM

[kisrael]

Thelbane, on Mon Aug 22, 2005 8:24 AM, said:

retrocon, on Mon Aug 22, 2005 3:10 AM, said:

How many hours did you put into developing this if I might ask?

Hmm... I hadn't been tracking the hours, but that represents about a year-and-a-half of on-and-off coding. Most of the work was done in the first two months, when I was feeling the rush... learning as much as I could in as little time possible.

I had the privelege of communication with Lee a bit during the early days...I'll bet someone who cared could dig up the [stella] posts where I express amazement at how quickly he was putting things together, and also how is sense of 2600 design finesse was dwarfing mine. (My project had a big old hiatus in the middle of it as well, come to think of it...hope I wasn't contageous)

Anyway, great work Lee!

[Thelbane]

kisrael, on Tue Aug 23, 2005 1:03 PM, said:

I had the privelege of communication with Lee a bit during the early days...I'll bet someone who cared could dig up the [stella] posts where I express amazement at how quickly he was putting things together, and also how is sense of 2600 design finesse was dwarfing mine. (My project had a big old hiatus in the middle of it as well, come to think of it...hope I wasn't contageous)

Anyway, great work Lee!

You give me too much credit, Kirk! Where would so many new developers be without your tutorials, references and utilities? I also owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to the development community as a whole for its support and encouragement throughout the development process, especially in the early stages.

So, thank you!

-Lee

[Jacob Rose]

Thelbane, on Mon Aug 22, 2005 1:55 AM, said:

Oh, I forgot to include a link to the level editor.  I had posted this to the Stella developers list and since I'm finally using this to generate levels, I thought I'd post it here.

http://www.ioyu.com/...level_index.asp

-Lee

Really nice level editor! Wow! The only thing missing that would have been helpful was a rotate left/right/up/down function.

I love "cryptkeeper's" Adventure castle. After I did a few purely obstacle-oriented designs, I did a few tributes...Pitfall (the crocodile), Go Fish (I hope my barely recognizable sharks don't offend Bobby ), and Chopper Command (the jet).

[yuppicide]

Nice game.. good graphics.. love that little graphic of a joystick or whatever. Repetitive tho (like Breakout) Game doesn't seem to get any faster or harder?!

EDIT: This game is very fun. Getting that last block left is tough. Love the colors. Gameplay is very smooth and polished. The paddles move perfectly.

This post has been edited by yuppicide: Wed Aug 24, 2005 2:17 PM

[Thelbane]

yuppicide, on Wed Aug 24, 2005 10:32 AM, said:

Repetitive tho (like Breakout) Game doesn't seem to get any faster or harder?!

It doesn't? I was actually concerned that it was too hard... I can barely get through three levels without losing all my lives!

Try flipping the left difficulty switch. This doesn't affect initial ball speed, but it will accelerate faster (fewer paddle hits before it speeds up). Changing the difficulty level affects the next game started, not a game currently being played.

Thank you for the good criticism. (Finally!)

-Lee