14 replies to this topic

[Dave Neuman]

Hi,
My name is Dave and after reading the tutorials here and looking at code samples I have coded my first game. It's a simple rail shooter with 18 enemies. I have three game options Normal Play, Steerable Missiles and No Shields. Shields are available in options 1 and 2 by pushing up on the joystick. The shields can take a limited number of hits before heating up and exploding your ship. There is a limited fuel supply for each level, but it can be partially replenished by catching the white bombs from the enemies. Red enemy bombs cause your ship to explode, unless your shields are up. Each completed level increases you available ships by 1 to a maximum of 6. The enemy speed increases every level, but resets to default speed after every 6 levels. When you fire and hit an enemy convoy it explodes, the survivors spin and cannot be damaged again until you hit a different enemy. Any feedback is appreciated

Thanks,
Dave

Attached Files

•  SpaceBattlesFinal2.zip   2.56K   179 downloads

[supercat]

Quote

My name is Dave and after reading the tutorials here and looking at code samples I have coded my first game.  It's a simple rail shooter with 18 enemies.

Well, the game seems to work. Nothing too terribly exciting, but not bad for a first effort. One thing which is significantly lacking in polish, though, is the way that the game doesn't distinguish between enemies in a group. It would be nicer if the game could use the relative X coordinates of the missile and group to figure out which enemy had been hit, and then use a table lookup of NUSIZx and X offset values to make the proper enemy disappear. Since you're only using one player sprite on those lines, you might use the other player sprite for the explosion.

It's rather irksome the way the enemy bombs change colors mid-drop. It would be nicer if they didn't. Also, if the bottom row of enemies is destroyed drop the bombs from up higher.

Incidentally, you can eliminate HMOVE bars by performing the HMOVE store at cycle 73. One caveat with doing this is that following the HMOVE, all sprites will be eight pixels left of where they'd be following a "normal" HMOVE. If you want a sprite to stay put on a cycle-73 HMOVE, you must set its HMxx register to $80.

[djmips]

Hello Dave, nice debut. Gameplay was easy to pickup. Enemy shots? were hard to see. I think it could tuning in the difficulty rampup. Game had a frustrating aspect, because getting killed seemed to be a little random.

Welcome, and keep up the good work!

[yuppicide]

I for one think the game is very nice so far. It does need work as people stated.

Likes:

- The flashing on the side of the screen when things die.
- Sounds and opening screen sound
- Different enemies
- It's a fun game. Just needs to get harder in difficulty as the game goes on.
- Shield - looks cool too.

Dislikes:

- Dying randomly sometimes because enemy fire just appears out of nowhere
- Don't know if just the bottom enemies fire or the top ones do too, but you don't see any of the fire until it's right on the bottom.
- I had 3 enemies left. The white thing kept dropping outside the right boundry, I couldn't get it and died. It kept dropping in the same spot. Don't know if this is intentional to drop it where I can't reach it or not.
- Polish the game up a bit by making a nicer title screen and fixing any bugs.

Edited by yuppicide, Sat Dec 17, 2005 2:16 PM.

[Cybergoth]

Hi there!

Ah, interesting. A bit like the abandoned Laserresal 2002 project. Or Space Beam (Irem) / Space Laser (Taito) arcades.

A few weeks ago I wrote a quick demo to see how Space Beam might look on the 2600 (attached). Somewhat promising I think, but I don't know when/if I find the time to continue with it...

Greetings,
Manuel

Attached Files

•  cosmic.zip   1.58K   142 downloads

[Dave Neuman]

supercat, on Sat Dec 17, 2005 2:39 PM, said:

It would be nicer if the game could use the relative X coordinates of the missile and group to figure out which enemy had been hit, and then use a table lookup of NUSIZx and X offset values to make the proper enemy disappear.

I'll work on that ... it would look much better.

Quote

It's rather irksome the way the enemy bombs change colors mid-drop.  It would be nicer if they didn't.  Also, if the bottom row of enemies is destroyed drop the bombs from up higher.

Yeah, they kinda irk me too. I'll work on that also.
Thanks for the feedback! - Dave

Edited by dneuman@brasscrafthq.com, Sun Dec 18, 2005 11:52 AM.

[Dave Neuman]

djmips, on Sat Dec 17, 2005 2:42 PM, said:

Hello Dave, nice debut.  Gameplay was easy to pickup. Enemy shots? were hard to see. I think it could tuning in the difficulty rampup. Game had a frustrating aspect, because getting killed seemed to be a little random.

Welcome, and keep up the good work!

Hi, Thanks for the comments and encouraging words. I'll work on the bomb dropping code and difficulty ramping - Dave

[Dave Neuman]

yuppicide, on Sat Dec 17, 2005 3:12 PM, said:

I for one think the game is very nice so far. It does need work as people stated.

Likes:

- The flashing on the side of the screen when things die.
- Sounds and opening screen sound
- Different enemies
- It's a fun game. Just needs to get harder in difficulty as the game goes on.
- Shield - looks cool too.

Dislikes:

- Dying randomly sometimes because enemy fire just appears out of nowhere
- Don't know if just the bottom enemies fire or the top ones do too, but you don't see any of the fire until it's right on the bottom.
- I had 3 enemies left. The white thing kept dropping outside the right boundry, I couldn't get it and died. It kept dropping in the same spot. Don't know if this is intentional to drop it where I can't reach it or not.
- Polish the game up a bit by making a nicer title screen and fixing any bugs.

Thanks for the detailed comments, they are very helpful. My son said the same thing about the enemy fire appearing out of nowhere. I'll work on improving the code for bomb drops. Maybe some animation on the title screen? - Dave

[gambler172]

Hi
nice first effort.If the bugs are removed,it will become a good game.
greetings Gambler172

[supercat]

dneuman@brasscrafthq.com, on Sun Dec 18, 2005 12:44 PM, said:

Hi, Thanks for the comments and encouraging words.  I'll work on the bomb dropping code and difficulty ramping  - Dave

I'd suggest that when the code drops "something", it should decide then whether it's a bomb or a fuel pod. If a bomb, set its position and NUSIZx according to the last row of surviving aliens. If it's a fuel pod, set position randomly and NUSIZx to zero.

[Nathan Strum]

Cybergoth, on Sat Dec 17, 2005 3:42 PM, said:

A few weeks ago I wrote a quick demo to see how Space Beam might look on the 2600 (attached). Somewhat promising I think, but I don't know when/if I find the time to continue with it...

Wow! That's impressive.

[Nathan Strum]

dneuman@brasscrafthq.com, on Sat Dec 17, 2005 11:58 AM, said:

My name is Dave and after reading the tutorials here and looking at code samples I have coded my first game. Any feedback is appreciated

Good start! I agree with the feedback so far - especially about bombs appearing out of nowhere, and having a specific enemy when you hit it, rather than just one out of the group.

Although I think the color-change of the missiles could be used as a gameplay element. For example - have them all start out as white objects, but they wouldn't reveal their true selves until they got close to the bottom of the screen (where the bottom row of enemies is, for example). Perhaps that could be saved for a higher level of difficulty. Or maybe the more your shields get damaged, the closer the missiles get before you can "detect" what they truly are.

[Cybergoth]

Hi there!

Nathan Strum, on Sun Dec 18, 2005 10:16 PM, said:

Cybergoth, on Sat Dec 17, 2005 3:42 PM, said:

A few weeks ago I wrote a quick demo to see how Space Beam might look on the 2600 (attached). Somewhat promising I think, but I don't know when/if I find the time to continue with it...

Wow! That's impressive.

Oh, that's not too special. It's only two sprites per line, it just looks like there's more going on. Getting a screen so crowded is easy doable with Battlezone repositioning

Greetings,
Manuel

[Nathan Strum]

Cybergoth, on Sun Dec 18, 2005 3:31 PM, said:

Oh, that's not too special.

I'll re-phrase then... that's impressive looking.

[Dave Neuman]

Nathan Strum, on Sun Dec 18, 2005 5:30 PM, said:

dneuman@brasscrafthq.com, on Sat Dec 17, 2005 11:58 AM, said:

My name is Dave and after reading the tutorials here and looking at code samples I have coded my first game. Any feedback is appreciated

Good start! I agree with the feedback so far - especially about bombs appearing out of nowhere, and having a specific enemy when you hit it, rather than just one out of the group.

Although I think the color-change of the missiles could be used as a gameplay element. For example - have them all start out as white objects, but they wouldn't reveal their true selves until they got close to the bottom of the screen (where the bottom row of enemies is, for example). Perhaps that could be saved for a higher level of difficulty. Or maybe the more your shields get damaged, the closer the missiles get before you can "detect" what they truly are.

Hi again,
I've done a bit more coding on my first attempt and additional feedback is always helpful.


Changes:

Title screen has animated drop down title with flashing colors.
Alien drop down animation at beginning of level.
Correct alien in group flashes and then dies when shot.
Alien projectile drops from lowest row of surviving aliens.
True identity of alien projectile is not revealed until bottom band.
Color matched alien projectile transforms into either a double width green fuel pod or a single width red bomb.
Dropping bomb makes a bomb dropping sound.
Three alien speeds per level slow, stepping, fast.
Four different enemy patterns as level increases.
Fuel gauge with low fuel warning sound and FUEL LEVEL warning message.
CATCH FUEL message synchronized with fuel pod drop.
Bomb/Fuel pod impact sound and ground flash for bombs.
Missile and Alien projectile collision pushes projectile upwards and increases score.
Alien row is shielded and appears as an "S" after being hit until another alien row is hit.

Thanks,
Dave

Attached Files

•  SpaceBattlesBeta3rr.bin   4K   146 downloads