Planet X1 ready for live testers

adric22 · Post by **adric22** » Mon Nov 16, 2009 9:56 am

Download main game: http://galaxy22.dyndns.org/vic20/planetx1
Download game map: http://galaxy22.dyndns.org/vic20/MAP.P00

Remember, game requires a VIC-20 with 24K of RAM!

Some keys to know:

CURSOR KEYS - Move tanks
SPACE - Fire
G - Toggle GPS display
Q - Quit and return to main menu
F1 / F3 - Change between tanks

Some keys to try, that are left over from debugging...
1 - plot a map object
2 - cycle through objects to be plotted
3 - toggle allowing tanks to move through walls
S - save map (warning, will also save random generated bases too!)

Things originally planned to do, that may or may not happen:

-Joystick support
-Better random maps with lakes, lava, trees, rocks, etc..
-Lay mines (you can already do this with the plot keys, but it is cheating)
-Game ends when player dies or wins (currently it just sits there and keeps going)[/list]

Pedro Lambrini · Post by **Pedro Lambrini** » Tue Nov 17, 2009 4:41 am

I played around a little bit last night with it and I really enjoy the idea of the game.

I would make one suggestion though. Sometimes when you go away from your base there's not too many landmarks and it's easy to get lost and not find your way back. Maybe a co-ordinates system should be in place? Or, if you think that would make the game too easy, maybe a homing beacon thing. You could have a small flashing square (or sound) that flashes faster as you get closer to your base.

As a concept, though, the game is great and I had fun rambling around looking for 'spiders of doom'. I particularly like the title screen - in fact, I'm going to make a desktop wallpaper from it for my netbook!

TBCVIC · Post by **TBCVIC** » Tue Nov 17, 2009 6:06 am

Pedro Lambrini wrote:I would make one suggestion though. Sometimes when you go away from your base there's not too many landmarks and it's easy to get lost and not find your way back. Maybe a co-ordinates system should be in place? Or, if you think that would make the game too easy, maybe a homing beacon thing. You could have a small flashing square (or sound) that flashes faster as you get closer to your base.

Hm, isn't that what the GPS is for?

adric22 · Post by **adric22** » Tue Nov 17, 2009 7:06 am

Pedro Lambrini wrote: I would make one suggestion though. Sometimes when you go away from your base there's not too many landmarks and it's easy to get lost and not find your way back. Maybe a co-ordinates system should be in place?

Yes, as TBCVIC pointed out.. press the G key for the GPS. This will show you exactly where you are so you can find your way back to the base, or anywhere else you need to remember.

Pedro Lambrini · Post by **Pedro Lambrini** » Tue Nov 17, 2009 8:20 am

Oops.

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Tue Nov 17, 2009 8:57 am

Three points to note:

- I can happily drive with one of my tanks over the other. Looks a bit strange.
- Even though I "lost" a tank, I still could fire around with it and kill spiders.
- There's a depressingly simple strategy to "win" the game: I destroyed my home base first. That move should really end the game immediately.

adric22 · Post by **adric22** » Tue Nov 17, 2009 9:13 am

Mike wrote:Three points to note:

- I can happily drive with one of my tanks over the other. Looks a bit strange.
- Even though I "lost" a tank, I still could fire around with it and kill spiders.
- There's a depressingly simple strategy to "win" the game: I destroyed my home base first. That move should really end the game immediately.

Yeah, I was already aware of those issues. However, I'm not sure how you "win" the game by killing your own base. Anyway, yes, that is some of what I mentioned that was missing. Currently there is no routine in place to actually make the game stop and tell you that you won or lost. No, "game over" screen, essentially. However, the game does know when you have won because it does keep count of the number of enemy bases and you will see it hit zero.. which essentially means you won. Obviously, if your base is destroyed, you lose... even though you can still keep playing.

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Tue Nov 17, 2009 9:23 am

adric22 wrote:However, I'm not sure how you "win" the game by killing your own base.

Currently the player gets the impression, that only bullets from the spiders hitting your base count. Since the player has only one base it looks like it has been erroneously programmed this way instead of counting down from 1 to 0.

GreyGhost · Post by **GreyGhost** » Fri Apr 30, 2010 10:13 pm

Just wondering if anything has been done with this project?

adric22 · Post by **adric22** » Tue Jul 13, 2010 10:14 am

GreyGhost wrote:Just wondering if anything has been done with this project?

Well, I pretty much finished the game. But interest in the project was so low that I shelved it. I had some ideas for enhancements and wanted to make more maps and stuff.

orion70 · Post by **orion70** » Wed Jul 14, 2010 12:49 am

adric22 wrote:...interest in the project was so low that I shelved it

Your interest in the project, I guess

. Mine, it's pretty high.

Ivanhoe76 · Post by **Ivanhoe76** » Wed Jul 14, 2010 4:42 am

adric22 wrote:Well, I pretty much finished the game. But interest in the project was so low that I shelved it.

Sorry to hear it, ardric.... I know that i didn't post anything relating your project (just for my laziness!!!) but I was keeping an eye on it... I downloaded the beta and watched the youtube video too... Anyway it is a very good implementation of fast scrolling and wuite large map.... go on with it!!!

Post by **Jeff-20** » Wed Jul 14, 2010 8:08 am

Sometimes people get too busy to comment or even look at a game when it's first available. I often posts games, and members may not get around to downloading the PRG until a month later. But eventually, someone will download it. I think of it as snail mail.

Keep working on the game, and feedback will come eventually. I was interested.