#145877 - Jayenkai - Sat Nov 24, 2007 2:57 pm
Platdude's Retro Collection - 18
Updated : Now with EIGHTEEN retro games!
The Brief
A collection of retro styled games, kicked up a notch.
Gameplay>Graphics
The Notice
DLDI Patch the _dldi versions to keep your highscores. There are no other differences between the two versions.
I'm now having to include 3 versions of each. It seems that Supercards are fussy enough to want their own special edition of the game. How silly! And people complain about the Games'n'Music!! At least that used the standard format!
The Credits
The Games were coded by Jayenkai.
The Graphics were drawn by Jayenkai.
The Sound Effects were created by Jayenkai.
Some Music was also made by Jayenkai, but then he took it out because it got annoying.
The Email
Contact Jayenkai@Gmail.com if you have suggestions/bugs/additional game ideas. All game ideas are taken into consideration, but not all will be added!
The Websites
My DS Game list - Check in for updates.
Socoder.net - A Game Making forum. (It's like BlitzCoder 2!)
The Games
Centipede : Shoot the centipede. Don't let it escape.
Snake : Guide the Snake. Grab the numbered blocks.
Invaders : Shoot the aliens. Don't let them get to the bottom.
Light Cycles : Try to get your opponents to crash.
Asteroids : Destroy the asteroids before they destroy you.
Pacman : Run around and collect things.
Frogger : Leap your way across 2 busy roads.
Pong : Beat your opponent, "one" ball at a time.
Tetris : Build low!
Buzzard Bait : You might like to call this game Joust. I owned a TRS-80, so I call it Buzzard Bait ;)
QBert : Hop around and change all the bricks.
Spike Dodge : Dodge the spikes, pick up the balls.
Extract : Keep Blue away from Red, and grab the Greens.
Missile Command : Tap to fire. Stop the missiles.
DotPop : Tap the squares. The quicker you tap 'em, the more you score.
Lights Out : Tap to invert a + of lights. Try to turn them all off.
5 In a Line : Shuffle the rows and columns around to make a whole line of a single color.
Tune Tap : Repeat the tune.
The Copyrights
The games contained within this pack are mostly owned by different companies.
The ideas are basic gaming concepts, so I'm hoping they don't mind too much.
These are collected for the purpose of being fun to play, not to rip off the originating companies.
If I was trying to rip you off, the graphics would at least be half decent!
The Download
Col_018
This version contains 18 games.
The Feedback
Place your bug reports, comments, possible future games, and general hugs below.
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Last edited by Jayenkai on Sat Dec 08, 2007 12:11 pm; edited 2 times in total
#145972 - Markzilla - Mon Nov 26, 2007 11:18 pm
It's a good start, but the snake game feels a little bit off in comparison to the others. Maybe just a bit too high-tech.
#145997 - Jayenkai - Tue Nov 27, 2007 11:49 am
You think Snake looks too high-tech!?
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#146035 - Markzilla - Tue Nov 27, 2007 10:33 pm
Yes. The segments are large compared to the entire sprites of the other controllable characters. Also, shouldn't Space Invaders have some barriers to hide behind?
#146046 - Jayenkai - Wed Nov 28, 2007 12:01 am
Nope, sorry.. That's a perception thing! All sprites are 8x8 pixel images.
In fact, those circles are the same circles that are in the Centipede game. They're just more spread out.
(Your Invaders ship looks a bit bigger, but is infact the Racer car with two bullets strapped to it's sides!)
And yes, although technically Invaders should have both Bases to hide behind, and UFO's to occasionally give out bonus points, I haven't added either.
The bases slow down your imminent death.. So they got scrapped ;)
And the UFO was going to throw Power-ups towards you, but I'm not too sure if power-ups are the type of thing that'll work in the collection..
I'll probably just throw it back in for points!
Racer's on the scrapheap since I'm really not a big fan of it's slow/dullness, and I've added in a decent Missile Command, a "Keep away from the Red Blocks" game, and a "Tap the random objects" game.
The Tap the Random Objects game turned out to be a lot less interesting that it was meant to be, so that'll probably end up alongside Racer!
I'm currently adding a DonkeyKong like "Climb/Dodge" thing, but it's incredibly repetitive at the minute.. I'm going to keep tweaking the thing to make a decent game out of it, but if I've not managed it by tomorrow night I'll probably just scrap it and move onto something a little more lively!
Next release coming as soon as I've got 2 menu's filled :)
Screenshots!
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#146124 - Markzilla - Thu Nov 29, 2007 3:49 am
Could you add JNKPlat into this collection, too?
#146202 - Jayenkai - Fri Nov 30, 2007 1:21 pm
I'm not sure what to do with JNKPlat right now, I'm two minds.
On the one hand I've a perfectly good engine up and running already. I could add the level editor in properly (Never did that before, it was pre-dldi!) and bob's your uncle, a perfectly good Editable JNKPlat. sorted!
But on the other hand, I could redo from scratch, add larger sprites, add scrolling, and then add an even better level editor. Bob's your uncle, an even better JNKPlat. sorted!
Putting it into the collection, though, means one thing. I'd need to incorporate a level system into the collection.
Thus far, I've been trying to avoid that. If we have, say 10 games, each with editable levels, and 10 people make 10 levels for each game, then that's 1000 files you have strewn around your DS! That's a whole lot of garbage piling up there!
On the other hand, if I try to create files with banks, and allow all games to save levels into parts of those banks, I might be able to do something with that.
I don't know.
In the meantime, JNKPlat 2007 (for Windows) might be something to try out, since it already has the editor in it.
..
And.. Thanks for remembering ;)
.. Speaking of levels! It took sodding ages designing a decent Pacman maze, and I tend to keep popping back and tweaking it. Not much in the way of difficulty levels.. Normal = Plain, Hard = Some ghosts move 2* speed, Extreme = YOU move 2* speed, making it about 10* harder to control ;)
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#146210 - Jakeohagan - Fri Nov 30, 2007 3:44 pm
that is psychedelic baby, epic job of retro classics.
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God Speed
#146232 - Markzilla - Fri Nov 30, 2007 10:47 pm
Well, in any case, a new version of JNKPlat would kick ass. A touchscreen editor would also be sweet, although maybe a tad excessive for an otherwise small game.
#146253 - Jayenkai - Sat Dec 01, 2007 1:51 pm
Updated! Col_012
Now featuring 12 of the wonderfully retro games.
5 are old, 7 are new, and 1's been thrown away! (Or has it!!!!?!)
And, for those who didn't notice previously, the Difficulty can be switched using either the Y button, or tapping the Difficulty bar.
Enjoy!!!
And, as always, report bugs, and feel free to suggest further possible games.
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#146254 - Jayenkai - Sat Dec 01, 2007 2:24 pm
tut.. FFS, I actually forgot one of the bleedin' Tetris pieces!
No matter, it'll be in the next release!
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#146744 - Jayenkai - Sat Dec 08, 2007 12:15 pm
Now even bigger!
Col_18 features 18 games!
The list at the top is updated.
To all : I'd like to formally apologise for the huge amount of problems in the Tetris game! An insane number of issues cropped up over the day and a half after I released it!
They've all now been fixed, and Tetris should be about as playable as it ever was.
Enjoy! (All games has been thoroughly tested ;) )
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#146750 - tepples - Sat Dec 08, 2007 3:30 pm
In your Tetris clone: - Why does the O tetromino move when I turn it? Other games' rotation systems seem not to do that.
- Why do L and J seem to swing around when I turn them?
- How is each piece chosen?
- How is the initial orientation of each piece chosen?
In your Balloon Fight clone ("Buzzard Bait"): - The player can tweak direction in mid-air using only the Control Pad. The classic games in this genre (Joust and Balloon Fight) only tweak the direction when the player holds a direction and presses the flap button.
- The NES ports of both classic games have a second button for rapid fire flapping.
In "Dodge Spikes": - A spike was detected as hitting my ship, and the game stopped, when the spike was 3 pixels away from the ship. Maybe you need to make the ship graphic a bit wider.
In "Missile": - The player missiles ordinarily go much faster than that and don't slow to a stop before exploding.
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-- Who?
-- You know, the human.
-- I think he moved to Tilwick.
#146751 - Jayenkai - Sat Dec 08, 2007 4:10 pm
Tetris..
Because it does rotate.. I suppose I could shut off rotation for the block, but.. who even bothers rotating the block anyway?!
Again, because they rotate around a single point. I've been trying to get the right point to rotate but I think it might be a moving rotation point. I'll keep trying ;)
3 of each are placed into a bag, then pulled out at random. Once the bag's empty, it restarts. this is 'cos PALib's Random thing sucks, and it kept giving me nothing but | blocks all the time!
PA_Lib's random. Should probably switch that, but I don't think it really matters, does it?
Buzzard Bait
In Buzzard Bait they didn't do that.
Same again..
Dodge Spikes..
the collision detection was made slightly dodgy so the game was more playable. I know it's not perfect, but I was aiming for play, not perfect..
And, Missile..
The slowness was added so that the game wasn't 100% simple to beat.
It's easy to get used to.
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#146753 - Markzilla - Sat Dec 08, 2007 6:49 pm
I have a minor suggestion. Would you mind hosting the .nds file by itself? It would be great if I could download this directly through DSO.
#146755 - tepples - Sat Dec 08, 2007 7:48 pm
| Jayenkai wrote: |
| Because it does rotate.. I suppose I could shut off rotation for the block, but.. who even bothers rotating the block anyway?! |
Because in Tetris clones I've played, movement of a rotating O piece has been a symptom of deeper misunderstanding of the game.
| Quote: |
| Again, because they rotate around a single point. I've been trying to get the right point to rotate but I think it might be a moving rotation point. |
Here's a diagram of the point around which each tetromino rotates in most games since the late 1990s.
| Quote: |
| 3 of each are placed into a bag, then pulled out at random. Once the bag's empty, it restarts. |
So it's a 21-piece bag. Tetris DS uses a similar algorithm using only one of each piece.
| Quote: |
| Should probably switch that, but I don't think it really matters, does it? |
It matters. There are a couple flavors of randomizer used in newer games: the "history" randomizer used in Tetris The Grand Master and the "bag" randomizer used in Tetris DS.
If you need more guidance on how to make a tetromino game, or if there's anything on Tetriswiki that you don't understand, I'd be happy to explain how things work.
[trying to keep myself from repeating gleamgate]
_________________
-- Where is he?
-- Who?
-- You know, the human.
-- I think he moved to Tilwick.
#146756 - Quirky - Sat Dec 08, 2007 8:01 pm
First of all: nice work! Some comments, but don't take them the wrong way, I think it's a great collection.
| Jayenkai wrote: |
Tetris..
Again, because they rotate around a single point. I've been trying to get the right point to rotate but I think it might be a moving rotation point. I'll keep trying ;) |
At the minute the L, J and | all seem to rotate in a way irritatingly differently to the Game Boy version of Tetris - they change column when rotating. Apart from that the feel is spot on, it has just the right slideyness before each piece sticks, for example.
Buzzard Bait: The AI is a bit duff ;-) The CPUs always seem to end up on the floor and only ever seem to "fluke" a kill, rather than hunt for it. AI is tricky to get right though, perhaps have 'em flap a bit more?
Pac Man: Any chance of a classic "eating" animation? Feels weird controlling a grapefruit! ;-) 2 frames: mouth open, mouth closed, would do it.
| Jayenkai wrote: |
But on the other hand, I could redo from scratch, add larger sprites, add scrolling, and then add an even better level editor. Bob's your uncle, an even better JNKPlat. sorted! |
Larger sprites, no! The charm is in the tiny sprites IMO. Also: you get bonus points for not killing the dude when he falls too far. I hate games that do that!
#146780 - Jayenkai - Sun Dec 09, 2007 1:42 am
NOOOOO!!!!!
Well, it's been vaguely going for the past few months.. It was only a matter of time..
..
Tepples, don't take this the wrong way, (and maybe this is the "OMG!WTF!?THE DS BORKED!" talking) but the Tetris is only 1 of 18 little games that I've made within the space of 3 weeks..
I've spent enough time playing Gameboy Tetris' to know that everything after Tetris DX is utterly crap, and that's why I at least bothered to make the tiles slide properly after dropping.
To be totally honest, I really don't care if the rotation that the blocks start off in, is ever so slightly "Not as random as it should be"
The Space Invaders is missing bases, and there's no UFO, either. THAT is something to complain about. The random starting rotation of Tetris blocks... Not so much.
I will try to fix the rotation of the L's, the squares will be static when you strangely try to rotate them, and I'll see what can be done with the | bar... But other than that, I'm leaving the Tetris game as it is. I've spent enough time on it.
Right, onto the other games.
Buzzard Bait's AI is a bit rubbish, yes. They either Go left and flap occasionally, Go right and flap occasionally, or sit down and have a rest!
AI isn't really my strongest suit, and you'll find in most of my games that if I can get away with plain randomness, then that's what I'll go for. (like in QBert.)
I'll up their flapping probability, (and actually did do, already!) but again, I think that might actually be a "PALib's random numbers suck!" issue more than anything else. I might have to find a pseudo-random thing online somewhere, and implement that instead.
As for the Grapefruit issue, take a look at this. It's ALL the sprites. Everything!
1 single image that's loaded into memory a few times. 1 background layer, 1 foreground layer, 1 Spriteset and then all 3 again for the other screen.
It's nothing amazing, but what I'm trying to do is stick with the graphics that are there, and not have to add anything special. That's why Pacman is a Centipede's Tail. That's why Goombas are running after him, pretending to be space invaders, and doing a fine job of looking like QBert.. It's why the asteroids look a little more like random dots than polygons, and it's even the reason that most of the graphics look like strange hobbled together retro graphics! It's because they are.
What I could do (I considered it before but then I must've forgotten!) is to shove a black triangle-ship thing on top of him every so often, thus giving a vague impression of a mouth!
Should work ok!
JNKPlat : I don't mean huge sprites, I mean more like 16x16 instead of 8x8. I'd obviously keep the style intact, and have always tried my best to do that. Like in this collection, Arcade Slots* and even Stringy Things Gameplay is my main target. Even if my graphics look really good, and even if the game idea is brilliant, and even if I think to myself "OMG! This looks really really good!!!" I won't let a game of mine hit the net** until I'm about 80% sure it's going to be good to play.
Whatever I eventually do with JNKPlat, it'll be just as much fun!
For reference I'm going to take a small break from this collection. Maybe until after Xmas..
I should try and get some other stuff done, really!
But don't worry, I'll be back!
In the meantime, feel free to list any possible games you'd like to see in the next version. If I can find a way to do it, I'll give it my best! (Or at least, something closely resembling my best.)
* Arcade Slots was a great collection of Arcade themed Slot Machine games. It included a playable Hogan's Alley game, but everyone was put off by the words "Slot Machine" and so nobody ever played it enough to find the Hogan's Alley game.
** Except for Wednesday Workshop entries.. Those can be a bit pants sometimes.
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#146882 - Sweater Fish Deluxe - Mon Dec 10, 2007 7:59 pm
Personally, I like the way your interpretations of these games play very differently from the "tradional" versions. It's like you took to general game concept and look but applied your own interpretation of the gameplay. TO me, that's a very classic homebrew style like we would have seen on the original B&W gameboy or what I expect a lot of the homebrews on the TI calculators play like.
If I want the original versions, I can emulate them. I play your versions precisely because they're different.
...word is bondage...