Denial

Hi All

After a long hard slog - I'm pleased to be able to finally release my version of Pooyan for the Vic-20 with 16K memory expansion.



It can be downloaded at the following link:

Original Version
Pooyan20.prg

Update in 2015 (see below)
Pooyan20-2015.prg

I'd like to thank:

Robert Hurst -for the excellent Software Sprite stack (and support thereof) - without which it would have been a much bigger job and I might not have got started.

Arthur Jordison - for CBMPrg studio which I used to create the graphics

Denial forum members - (notably Mike) for answering 6502 questions

My wife for helping creating the spreadsheet to generate data for the projectile trajectories (and not complaining that I spent so much time on the computer)


[edit 01/01/2014]
I've uploaded a new version in the above link - this contains a few bug fixes and a slight speed improvement.

Barring any major issues this will probably be the final release. I wanted to add more features from the arcade version (different coloured balloons, end of level cut scenes etc) but I have run out of memory and I don't want make it need 24K and thus difficult for most people to play on real hardware.

[edit 02/01/2014]

After some testing yesterday on reflection I thought that the second stage was too easy and got a little dull so I've made it a bit more challenging. To compensate you get an extra life (max 5) after passing each bonus level and the difficulty is increased.

[edit 24/05/2015]
I've add a new version for 2015 based on improvements to the Sprite library as mentioned in this thread.
- fixed sprite artifacts
- flashing meat as per arcade
- slight speed improvements
- fixed long standing bug of bonuses getting stuck on screen

Enjoy!
Adrian

Bug #1: "Forest" only has one "R"

I look forward to downloading this and giving it a whirl... I've played quite a lot of the original arcade Pooyan so will see how it compares...

Mayhem wrote:Bug #1: "Forest" only has one "R"

I look forward to downloading this and giving it a whirl... I've played quite a lot of the original arcade Pooyan so will see how it compares...

Thanks for quick reply .. now corrected

I'd been looking at the arcade screenshot and for some reason read it as two R's

Maybe you thought of "Forrest Gump"

Great Game! Nice fluent gameplay, great music and sound effects. And thanks to multi-color-mode, no color-clash. Who doesn't love those extra-wide pixels? Reminds me of the old Atari-cartridges for the VIC.

Nice!

When I played a second stint (and I did considerably better than on my first try), the game didn't update the high-score display.

Mike wrote:Nice!

When I played a second stint (and I did considerably better than on my first try), the game didn't update the high-score display.

Ok, that should hopefully be fixed now.

btw I am already aware of the following bugs and plan to address in due course - (but I don't think they detract too much)

- popup bonus scores are occasionally left behind on-screen
- sometimes a slight delay after clearing wolves before progressing to next level
- hit testing on rocks hitting Pooyan sometimes lets you live when you shouldn't - although this might not be a bad thing otherwise it could be too difficult
- in rising stage - if all four wolves arrive at top of the screen at the same time then the rock is pushed 4 steps forward in one go
- when wolf has a small balloon on rising stage a large balloon is momentarily shown when defending from arrows

beamrider wrote:btw I am already aware of the following bugs and plan to address in due course - (but I don't think they detract too much)

- popup bonus scores are occasionally left behind on-screen
- sometimes a slight delay after clearing wolves before progressing to next level
- hit testing on rocks hitting Pooyan sometimes lets you live when you shouldn't - although this might not be a bad thing otherwise it could be too difficult
- in rising stage - if all four wolves arrive at top of the screen at the same time then the rock is pushed 4 steps forward in one go
- when wolf has a small balloon on rising stage a large balloon is momentarily shown when defending from arrows

I've fixed most of these and uploaded a new version in the original post.

Updated again - see OP

Fantastic work. I look forward to trying it. Pooyan is truly one of my favorite arcade games. I played it a ton on the C-64 and other platforms as well.

Adrian,

I played your game at lunch today. Very cool. Nicely done!

One small request. A tiny manual/back story?

I never played the arcade version or a port, so I was rather confused with what was going on.

After I was killed just once or twice I got the general idea of moving up and down, shooting the balloons and dodging what was coming at me (apples?).

That being said... I didn't quite get what the thing on the right was, the structure. When the monsters made it to the ground and started interacting with the structure. I wasn't sure what exactly was happening. Can I stop the monster at that point? Do I need to?

I made it to the 2nd level once, and it had the monsters coming up from the bottom. And it seemed I needed to shoot them more than once.

I did find this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pooyan just now... but I think I'm more confused. Arrows and meat? I didn't notice any distinction in what I was shooting.

In any case... if you can provide the usual 3 paragraph VIC-20 game instructions, I'd be much obliged!

Thanks for the feedback folks.

As it isn't an original game I didn't create any intructions on how to play etc. I think the following link provides a very good back story for anyone interested.

http://www.destructoid.com/retrose-tint ... 9585.phtml

I have uploaded a video of the game being played through the first three levels on a real vic to fill in any gaps. See the following link.

http://youtu.be/sl_DXanNKyU

Cheers
Adrian

Really cool, this is the first time I've played Pooyan on any format, but I can tell this is a very polished game.. feels like an Atarisoft convert, and plays just as well - up there with Donkey Kong in my opinion.

Well done, a nice present for the Vic for 2014!

WOW, very nice porting.

Wow, I've just seen the pooyan game on youtube, I have very fond memories of this game on the C64.
How nice to see that it is now for the VIC20.

GREAT JOB! Thanks.
Jan D.