31 replies to this topic

[Albert]

Rainbow Invaders is a new Space Invaders style game for the Atari 2600 from Italian developer Silvio Mogno. While many games of this nature have been released for the 2600 (to say nothing of the countless Space Invaders hacks), Silvio's game adds a breath of fresh air to the genre. Yes, you are shooting at descending waves of alien invaders, attempting to finish them off before they reach the ground. However, the aliens also periodically drop one of 16 random Special Shots, some of which will help and some of which will hinder your efforts if you catch them. Your ship also features a shield that will make you invulnerable for a few seconds, at the expense of not being able to fire again right away.

You can download the binary here, which also includes a preliminary manual in PDF form. Silvio is looking for feedback and bug reports so he can further improve the game, which you can leave in this thread.

PS: I know the game isn't new, it was in our In Development section for some time until I removed it. I just added it back today. The playable binary is new, though.

..Al

[Cybergoth]

Hehe... maybe he only got motivated of doing an update when his entry got removed

[vdub_bobby]

Cybergoth, on Wed Mar 8, 2006 1:34 PM, said:

Hehe... maybe he only got motivated of doing an update when his entry got removed

From his readme.txt file:

Quote

Rainbow Invaders v0.99, 16.02.06
by Silvio Mogno

What's this? It was a rejected project from AtariAge "In development" page!!!

And

Quote

Thanks to:
...
Skeptic people in 2600 forum that triggered me to re-start working on this project after many years of pause... ;-p

Edited by vdub_bobby, Wed Mar 8, 2006 3:41 PM.

[Cybergoth]

See, we could've gotten that update 2-3 years earlier if Al had it removed when I first asked

[Albert]

Cybergoth, on Wed Mar 8, 2006 3:45 PM, said:

See, we could've gotten that update 2-3 years earlier if Al had it removed when I first asked

If I thought that would really work, I'd do it more often!

..Al

[vdub_bobby]

Commenting on the game...though I'm not usually a fan of Rainbow color schemes, this game looks really good!

The powerup feature is nice, though memorizing all 16 powerups...yeesh!

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Cool!

I got this games also enters the Minigame Competition.

[Albert]

vdub_bobby, on Wed Mar 8, 2006 3:48 PM, said:

Commenting on the game...though I'm not usually a fan of Rainbow color schemes, this game looks really good!

The powerup feature is nice, though memorizing all 16 powerups...yeesh!

Yeah, I had to study the manual to see what they all do, and it'd definitely take some practice ot make sure you avoid the bad ones! You almost need a reference card sitting in front of you while playing the game. Adds some great variety, though and I think they are a welcome addition!

..Al

[jetset]

I like it very much!
The space invader-type shoot em ups have always been a fave of mine, but usually Space Invaders hacks tend to be lame. This one certainly improves on the game. I only played a few minutes, I'll dl the prelim manual later and get a better feel when I have time.
Definetly, if/when this one comes available I want a cart!

[Moondoggie1968]

Albert, on Wed Mar 8, 2006 5:06 PM, said:

<a href="http://www.atariage.com/development_page.html?InDevelopmentID=99"><img src="/images/news/rainbow_2.jpg" border="0" align="right" hspace="5"></a>Rainbow Invaders is a new Space Invaders style game for the Atari 2600 from Italian developer Silvio Mogno.  While many games of this nature have been released for the 2600 (to say nothing of the countless Space Invaders hacks), Silvio's game adds a breath of fresh air to the genre.  Yes, you are shooting at descending waves of alien invaders, attempting to finish them off before they reach the ground.  However, the aliens also periodically drop one of 16 random Special Shots, some of which will help and some of which will hinder your efforts if you catch them.  Your ship also features a shield that will make you invulnerable for a few seconds, at the expense of not being able to fire again right away. 

You can download the binary <a href="http://www.atariage.com/development/roms/RainbowInvaders.zip">here</a>, which also includes a preliminary manual in PDF form.  Silvio is looking for feedback and bug reports so he can further improve the game, which you can leave in this thread.

PS: I know the game isn't new, it was in our In Development section for some time until I removed it.  I just added it back today.  The playable binary is new, though. 

..Al

burnt an eprom and tried it but it flickers like crazy other games work fine.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Moondoggie1968, on Thu Mar 9, 2006 5:41 AM, said:

burnt an eprom and tried it but it flickers like crazy other games work fine.

Weird. The scanline count is constant when running the binary in an emulator and the only stuff that is flickering are the missiles.

[Moondoggie1968]

Thomas Jentzsch, on Thu Mar 9, 2006 3:44 AM, said:

Moondoggie1968, on Thu Mar 9, 2006 5:41 AM, said:

burnt an eprom and tried it but it flickers like crazy other games work fine.

Weird. The scanline count is constant when running the binary in an emulator and the only stuff that is flickering are the missiles.

Well the whole screen flickers about every 5 seconds on my 2600

Edited by Moondoggie1968, Thu Mar 9, 2006 7:47 AM.

[Zach]

Moondoggie1968, on Thu Mar 9, 2006 8:28 AM, said:

Well the whole screen flickers about every 5 seconds on my 2600

Just tested on my Krok Cart and got similar results. It's not a flicker like the ghosts in Pacman. It's a momentary vertical shift of the entire screen as if the scanline count goes to 300 for a single frame. (Although z26 indicates the count is stable at 262)

[DEBRO]

Zach, on Thu Mar 9, 2006 7:42 PM, said:

Just tested on my Krok Cart and got similar results. It's not a flicker like the ghosts in Pacman. It's a momentary vertical shift of the entire screen as if the scanline count goes to 300 for a single frame. (Although z26 indicates the count is stable at 262)

Doing a quick scan of the code shows vertical sync does 2 scan lines. Also, I don't see VBLANK used at all. Am I missing it?

When the screen rolls does the background color change?

[Zach]

DEBRO, on Thu Mar 9, 2006 6:52 PM, said:

When the screen rolls does the background color change?

Nope

[Vic George 2K3]

Interesting work so far. Like the GORF-style firing mechanism.

[Nathan Strum]

I like it quite a bit. One suggestion though - when the powerups are timing out, how about just flashing the bottom of the screen (below the player's ship) instead of the whole thing? It kind of hurts to look at the whole screen changing color like that.

[mechanized]

At risk of sounding like a dick, the power-up/power-down item element doesn't really stick out to me - hell, the colors are what really caught my attention. It's not a mechanic that really seems to lend itself to refreshing Space Invaders, but more than that, it's like applying a more modern and commonplace shooter convention into one of the founding fathers of the genre.

At risk of sounding like ...something else, the first thing that I was hoping to see from the game when I read the tentative Rainbow Invaders title was a game in which one's ship cycled through the colors of the rainbow, and each color would be either the Weakness of a particular color of ship or the ship would be Invulnerable to the color, or even reflect it like Light actually works. Such that:
-In the first instance, the Green Ship would be vulnerable to only Green Blasts
-In the second instance, the Green Ship would not be affected by Green Blasts
-In the third instance, the Green Ship would reflect Green Blasts back at the player

I mean, with a Rainbow theme, that is a focal point that really needs to deliver Color, ya know? Sheer ... colorliness.

Above all that, though, something different would really need to be done with the enemy formations and behaviors to really bring something new to the table, and exploit any of the above.

So I'm sure all of this is way too late to ever be useful, nevermind it was entirely unsolicited, but these were a few things that came to mind. Maybe someone out there can use it, anyway... it's a gameplay mechanic I've been kicking around for years, despite my entire ignorance to game coding and high unlikliness to be able to ever pursue utilizing it.

[vdub_bobby]

mechanized, on Fri Mar 10, 2006 10:54 AM, said:

At risk of sounding like a dick

A. You didn't sound like a dick IMO.
B. Criticism is good too. Just needs to be presented carefully.

[Zach]

DEBRO, on Thu Mar 9, 2006 6:52 PM, said:

Zach, on Thu Mar 9, 2006 7:42 PM, said:

Just tested on my Krok Cart and got similar results. It's not a flicker like the ghosts in Pacman. It's a momentary vertical shift of the entire screen as if the scanline count goes to 300 for a single frame. (Although z26 indicates the count is stable at 262)

Doing a quick scan of the code shows vertical sync does 2 scan lines. Also, I don't see VBLANK used at all. Am I missing it?

I just tried adding a third line during VSYNC and also added writes to VBLANK. Still didn't fix the problem.

[Silvio Mogno]

Zach, on Sun Mar 12, 2006 11:17 AM, said:

DEBRO, on Thu Mar 9, 2006 6:52 PM, said:

Zach, on Thu Mar 9, 2006 7:42 PM, said:

Just tested on my Krok Cart and got similar results. It's not a flicker like the ghosts in Pacman. It's a momentary vertical shift of the entire screen as if the scanline count goes to 300 for a single frame. (Although z26 indicates the count is stable at 262)

Doing a quick scan of the code shows vertical sync does 2 scan lines. Also, I don't see VBLANK used at all. Am I missing it?

I just tried adding a third line during VSYNC and also added writes to VBLANK. Still didn't fix the problem.

Hi,
I only developed the game on emulators, because I haven't a ram cart.
Probably I forgot to add some vertical sync stuff, but I'm fixing it in few days.
Aside this problem, I hope you like this game (it's fully playable on emulators, some days and will be also on a real 2600).

[Nathan Strum]

Another suggestion... the special shot symbols are a little hard to see way over in the corner. If they could be moved over to the middle of the screen, I think that would make them easier to keep an eye on and let the player make better use of them.

Edit: Alternately, could you drop the symbols themselves?

Edited by Nathan Strum, Mon Mar 13, 2006 3:28 PM.

[Random Terrain]

So this is Space Invaders mixed with Arkanoid?

OK, I played it and here is what I don't like about it:

1. I don't like the shields. You can activate them by mistake and then end up getting killed because you weren't ready.

2. You can't start the game by pressing the fire button. Most quality games starting in 1982 gave you that ability.

3. I don't like the attempt to Arkanoid-ize Space invaders on the 2600 since you don't see a specific shape falling down. You have to look way over to the side of the screen to see what the barely noticeable flashing square is supposed to be.

4. The game objects are colorful, but clunky looking. They don't have an Imagic or Activision quality. Maybe studying the best of the old games could provide some ideas.

5. Flashing the whole screen for whatever reason sucks hot, steaming sphincter soup.


Things I like:

I can't think of anything. Plain old vanilla Space Invaders is more fun and is less irritating.

Edited by Random Terrain, Mon Mar 13, 2006 7:55 AM.

[Zach]

Silvio Mogno, on Mon Mar 13, 2006 2:54 AM, said:

Hi,
I only developed the game on emulators, because I haven't a ram cart.
Probably I forgot to add some vertical sync stuff, but I'm fixing it in few days.
Aside this problem, I hope you like this game (it's fully playable on emulators, some days and will be also on a real 2600).

Of course. That's why I tested and paid attention to the bug, because I like the game.

Edited by Zach, Mon Mar 13, 2006 7:25 AM.

[DEBRO]

Zach, on Sun Mar 12, 2006 5:17 AM, said:

DEBRO, on Thu Mar 9, 2006 6:52 PM, said:

Zach, on Thu Mar 9, 2006 7:42 PM, said:

Just tested on my Krok Cart and got similar results. It's not a flicker like the ghosts in Pacman. It's a momentary vertical shift of the entire screen as if the scanline count goes to 300 for a single frame. (Although z26 indicates the count is stable at 262)

Doing a quick scan of the code shows vertical sync does 2 scan lines. Also, I don't see VBLANK used at all. Am I missing it?

I just tried adding a third line during VSYNC and also added writes to VBLANK. Still didn't fix the problem.

When I get a chance I'll fire it up in my CC to see it too.