New Game: Emu's Massive Hunt (WIP)

[Jeff-20]

This looks so fun! I can't wait!

[AndyH]

Not long now Jeff! I've got the win screen(s) in now and now lots of testing to do.

I'll include a hints section and this map will be part of that, to help with the first part of the game inside the windmill. There is a lot more to discover!

Following the game testing, I will need to optimise to get some space back as I need to create a loader and also a BASIC intro with instructions.

[Rich]

Looking very nice AndyH

[AndyH]

I'm not sure if I've made this game too big and too difficult to complete as a result. So I've made some tweaks I hope will help. Let me know what you think and if you have any other ideas. I'll release an early version here for any Denial friends who'd like to help test once I'm happy that the game is do-able for you to try for yourself.

Emu's Massive Hunt MAP - low-res.png (118.47 KiB) Viewed 844 times

To complete the game you've got to get enough jellies to open the Jelly Door and rescue Rod Hull. You'll get ranked on how many items you collect. You'll complete the game when you reach Rod Hull, or get the good ending (shhh it's a secret, only between us) if you collect all items. I'd be very surprised if anyone legitimately gets to the good ending.

The tweaks I've made are to the starting difficulty levels.

1. Easy
2. Normal
3. Full Metal Emu

On easy, you won't have to collect all the jellies to open the jelly door. On Normal you can miss one jelly and on hardest you will have to collect the lot.

The difficulty levels also determine how many lives you have and how soon Grotbags will wait before she starts harassing you, otherwise the game plays the same in all modes.

[Rich]

I don't think it's to big as the games called the "massive hunt" so it is massive well done,and to add the difficult level is nice touch, this is going to be the best game in 2024 !!!!

[AndyH]

I've scaled back on the number of lives - playing with too many lives felt kind of wrong. On casual level you still get 20 lives to start with. There are extra lives to collect as you explore.

Once again with help from this great place I have got the final tape and disk version of the game ready. Still testing to complete and some locations to name but everything else is done. I think I may have a version for anyone here interested to help do a little testing by the weekend.

[AndyH]

First test version of the game has been sent to testers.

[Rich]

That's great news can't wait to play the final version well done AndyH!! I bet Rod Hull will be happy

[mingle]

This is looking to be one of, if not THE, best platformer ever on the Vic...

As an aside, someone called me a "massive hunt" the other day, or at least that's what it sounded like...

[AndyH]

As an aside, someone called me a "massive hunt" the other day, or at least that's what it sounded like...

I think someone liked Emu too and just wanted you to know.

[AndyH]

Almost complete now. Found a problem on NTSC in the dungeons where I have a colouring routine running to make the area around you light up. Previously I had moved this to run after clearing the sprite characters so I could detect the correct characters on the screen and colour the appropriate ones, then redraw the sprite characters. On PAL this was fine but NTSC had crept into the display area so the updates were fighting with the raster resulting in the inevitable flickering. The answer was rather simple, so I could move this process after the sprite characters I simply needed a shadow colour map to look up from and not the screen characters as I had been doing. Luckily there is a perfectly good shadow colour RAM area built in at $9600 and now the flickering is gone.

[Rich]

Thanks for keeping us updated AndyH nice to see you ironing the bugs out

[AndyH]

This is a playthrough of a bit of the first third of the game (in NTSC). Warning - spoilers!



* I need to fix NTSC a bit further.

[mingle]

Wow - looking really great...

"Mom + Dad" - is this NTSC-specific...

Does that mean the PAL version with be "Mum + Dad" or "Mam + Dad"?

The platform design, baddies and colour-combinations are amazing... Reminds me of a mixture of H.E.R.O and Bounty-Bob Strikes Back...

One comment I have regarding colours: should the keys be yellow, rather than green? Most keys are 'gold' or at least 'brass' coloured?

Cheers,

Mike.

[AndyH]

Hi Mike, maybe a West Midlands regional thing

Keys yes, although in this case the key colour unlocks all doors of the same colour.