Released: pulse

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pixel
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Re: pulse – a horizontally scrolling shoot–'em–up

Post by pixel »

orion70 wrote:Please pixel, throw some basic sounds in the game! I am missing them, too. :);
O.K. I got collision detection and sound on the todo list now.
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pallas
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Re: pulse – a horizontally scrolling shoot–'em–up

Post by pallas »

Let me quickly express my appreciation for this new project! [WHITE SMILING FACE]

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darkatx
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Re: pulse – a horizontally scrolling shoot–'em–up

Post by darkatx »

And I never coded a game...
You sir are a lousy liar! LOL!

Yup, just like playing Gradius. Wow - just wow! Just curious, you said another project in the unfinished pile? What type of coding do you usually do? For a first outing this is well - incredible!
Learning all the time... :)
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beamrider
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Re: pulse – a horizontally scrolling shoot–'em–up

Post by beamrider »

Congratulations, looks amazing - super smooth scrolling.

Yes, would be fantastic with some sound.

Am going to try it on my real vic later... :)
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Mayhem
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Re: pulse – a horizontally scrolling shoot–'em–up

Post by Mayhem »

I sent you a PM Pixel, you may not have seen it...

Definitely looking forward to more tweaks on this :)
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pixel
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Re: pulse – a horizontally scrolling shoot–'em–up

Post by pixel »

Yous can download a new version with sound right away at the initial location. The bonus weapons have been fixed as well.

The experiments attracted a bunch of neighbours to the console which, after some explaining what I'm doing, headed off to install VICE on their boxes to play The Great Giana Sisters and other Commodore stuff. Probably there'll be payback time, soon. 8) And "pulse" once crashed producing an intimidating, atmospheric sound of a hearbeat. That, of course, was caused by cosmic radiation and cannot be reproduced. :/ What the *BEEP*? The collision detection and sprites popping out is driving me nuts. Wish I'd taken the red pill.

I'd die to run this on real hardware with an old, rotten 2kW monster tube at full volume. 8)

@darkatx: Usually I end up coding PHP/JavaScript because somebody is holding a gun to my head. ;) Lisp is my absolute favourite. I started coding back in 1985 and "game" is one of that last items on the list of things I wanted to program before I have to switch universes. ;) I don't know if and what might come up next.

Are some of you guys seriously selling tapes and disks of new game releases nowadays?? :o
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Victragic
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Re: pulse – a horizontally scrolling shoot–'em–up

Post by Victragic »

Nice, very playable despite the influence of cosmic radiation.. :)

Mixing hi-res and multi-colour graphics is an interesting touch and works well. Gorf did that too, on the first screen.

I have five zeroes in front of my highest score. Are there score multipliers later in the game?
3^4 is 81.0000001
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pixel
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Re: pulse – a horizontally scrolling shoot–'em–up

Post by pixel »

Victragic wrote:I have five zeroes in front of my highest score. Are there score multipliers later in the game?
Phew! I'm afraid we finally reached the physical limits. I'd call this a release candidate now. :)
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pixel
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Re: pulse – a horizontally scrolling shoot–'em–up

Post by pixel »

Just in case you missed it: the release candidate with sound is out. The distortions are quite telling – the game doesn't wait for the retrace, if you wonder why there's suddenly a kind of filter effect...

There's only very little room for improvement left. I don't wanna get on your nerves here, too, so let's call it done if there's no major problem while testing it in the next two or three days.

I hate to make promises but I had some idea about how to put even more in. It'd require writing yet another 6502 assembler with some special features. Feel free to become tantalized by growing impatience waiting for the sequel over the next weeks. ;)

Also, I'd love to break out the source, but first, I have to convince somebody here that there's no money to be made out of it. That's what you get for all the flattering. ;) If you have technical questions about the working stuff I'm all eyes and ears anyway.

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orion70
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Re: pulse - now a release candidate

Post by orion70 »

Frantic gameplay and excellent sounds. Thank you soooo much for this :)
I'm not much into this kind of games, but just can't stop playing - even if I have the reflexes of a 70-years old :oops:
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pixel
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Re: pulse - now a release candidate

Post by pixel »

orion70 wrote:I'm not much into this kind of games, but just can't stop playing - even if I have the reflexes of a 70-years old :oops:
YES! STRIKE!1! ;) In the end that's all that matters, isn't it? :)

Couldn't get past 716 points so far...
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Re: pulse - now a release candidate

Post by Boray »

After my first try I think this well could have been one of my favourite games as a kid. It feels like that, like a really well made game from the time. Like a killer version of Skramble. I have yet to try it on a real vic-20. Thanks!
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pixel
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Re: pulse - now a release candidate

Post by pixel »

Anyone who would make a video of it on the real thing?
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Mike
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Re: pulse – a horizontally scrolling shoot–'em–up

Post by Mike »

pixel wrote:Also, I'd love to break out the source, but first, I have to convince somebody here that there's no money to be made out of it. That's what you get for all the flattering. ;)
If you're really concerned about that, you shouldn't have published the game in downloadable form at all. In 2011 I reverse-engineered the source code of a cartridge with 4K ROM within 3 hours, see here: http://sleepingelephant.com/ipw-web/bul ... php?t=5238, so that's about what I'd expect for your game as well, if I'd take the time to launch myselves at it.

It's just at the moment I have another own WIP (for VIC-20 with +16K RAM <- that hopefully suffices), so there ... ;) Also, as long as the author of the game/program is active, I think 'kidnapping' a program the way I hinted at above is generally being frowned upon, and I also consider improvements and bug-fixes their business (maybe pointing to some 'interesting' code snippets):

For most programs I had published here thus far, I also included source. There are some exceptions (mostly production tools/applications) where I didn't. Not because I was afraid, that someone could easily create own versions in general, but because I am not eagerly interested in people creating possibly incompatible versions of feature complete and essentially bug-free programs. If errors crop up, I do my best to correct them.
I hate to make promises but I had some idea about how to put even more in. It'd require writing yet another 6502 assembler with some special features.
I'd very intrigued to know, what features you deem missing in the assembler of your current development setup. Maybe the inline-assembler of BBC BASIC might be of some interest to you. ;)
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Vic 2000
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Re: pulse - now a release candidate

Post by Vic 2000 »

This game gives my some kind of R-Type feeling. Well done. It's possible to get some real intense action on Vic-20, the sound is excellent too. :)
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