Bomb Jack Beer Edition

[mcgeezer]

Well was supposed to take my little boy to see Thomas the Tank engine over this weekend but due to the shit British weather I decided to some more improvements to Bomb Jack.

This is a good update.

Finally I managed to kill the stability bug (hopefully). I've play tested to level 20 8 times and it hasn't crashed once. Turned out as usual to be something really stupid when the enemies transform.

Some other changes.
Adjusted the collision detection - it is now more like the aracde
Adjusted the Jack fall routine so he can now float much more like the arcade
Modified the platforms to be exactly like the arcade, you will notice the platforms are all nicely rounded.
Got rid of background debug colours - good if you suffer from epilepsy.


Still work to do - I did fix the ESB fall routine but broke it somewhere else.
The music and sound fx are being worked on by Saimon69, they will be improved as we are increasing to three channel sound for music.
There are still GFX glitches to do with the 32x32 sprite routine when the Powerball is collected - this will be fixed.

If you spot a bug other than what I mentioned then please let me know.

This is the best version of the game I have released to date.

New Beta 3 ADF here: http://109.228.4.199/bombjack_beta_3.adf

Geezer

[DamienD]

Yeah, shite British weather ATM... still can't believe it's snowing again in March

Anyway, back on topic... great work mcgeezer

Very close the arcade version but with your own personal twist; love it!!!

[mcgeezer]

Originally Posted by DamienD

Yeah, shite British weather ATM... still can't believe it's snowing again in March

Anyway, back on topic... great work mcgeezer

Very close the arcade version but with your own personal twist; love it!!!

Cheers mate and thanks,
This one is a huge improvement so I've pushed it a fair bit on Social Media.

Got some great design stuff now for the Beer Edition and pretty much have it nailed. Can't wait to get it finished!

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by mcgeezer

Can't wait to get it finished!

I'm sure I speak for everyone, neither can any of us

...but take your time, no rush; it's ready when you're happy and say it's ready

[Dr.Venom]

Hi McGeezer,

Just tried your beta 3. Great to see the progress, shaping up really well

Originally Posted by mcgeezer

The music and sound fx are being worked on by Saimon69, they will be improved as we are increasing to three channel sound for music.

Will the tunes themselves also be different?

I like the game overall, but for me personally the only thing putting me off is the music to be honest, sorry. As an example, I think that the first stage tune is just too slow and not as up-tempo and "happy" as the original.

On MSX2 a remake was done some years ago, which has turned out excellent, also in the music department. I can listen to it on end. For some reason the music in the Amiga edition gets on my nerves after some playing.

[ Show youtube player ]

I want to stress, just my personal opinion .

With that out of the way, everything else seems to shape up like a game that I would be coming back too!

[mcgeezer]

Originally Posted by Dr.Venom

Will the tunes themselves also be different?

Thanks for the feedback! I'm particularly happy with this release as it is much more stable and very very close to the arcade. There is still a couple of enemies missing though.

Many people have mentioned the music. The issue is that we wanted to have 2 channels for sound fx and 2 for music, the problem is is that you can only do so much with 2 channels so we are increasing it to 3.

For the Beer edition I'm hoping to have new tunes, but it really just depends if I can get them authored by a musician willing to do it.

[zzbylu]

Gameplay, beta 3:
[ Show youtube player ]

[Photon]

Looks good so far! Remember fire should be jump/hover so you can spam it for horizontal streaking. Up+fire=high jump which is necessary to get full bonus and escape some enemies. Down should do nothing IIRC.

At least if you want it arcade perfect, although I don't think Paradox's arcade port is extremely bad. (I hope HOL got their dev credits right!)

Or just a remake or remix for fun of course. Being held to an existing version and testing for ages to get it perfect is not as fun as just coding and letting it develop

[mcgeezer]

Originally Posted by Photon

Looks good so far! Remember fire should be jump/hover so you can spam it for horizontal streaking. Up+fire=high jump which is necessary to get full bonus and escape some enemies. Down should do nothing IIRC.

At least if you want it arcade perfect, although I don't think Paradox's arcade port is extremely bad. (I hope HOL got their dev credits right!)

Or just a remake or remix for fun of course. Being held to an existing version and testing for ages to get it perfect is not as fun as just coding and letting it develop

Thanks for the feedback.

The control for the arcade can be found on this link on page 5, this appears to be some official material from Tehkan/Tecmo. Pulling down on the stick should make Jack fall faster, pushing up makes him go higher. Some have said that holding the jump button should make him jump higher which isn't true.

I don't even acknowledge the original port by Paradox/Elite as finished, they forgot to add the Power meter which is a very strategic part of playing Bomb Jack.

Having coded it for a 4 month now, I'm really looking forward to doing the Beer Edition levels, but it has been a great experience and was something I couldn't have achieved when I was younger.

[AmigaBill]

Woah! Just fired up Bomb Jack Beer edition for my stream tomorrow and saw the nice shout out mcgeezer game me. Thanks dude! Can't wait to stream the game!

[mcgeezer]

Originally Posted by AmigaBill

Woah! Just fired up Bomb Jack Beer edition for my stream tomorrow and saw the nice shout out mcgeezer game me. Thanks dude! Can't wait to stream the game!

No worries Bill. I have a new update which has pretty much all of the graphics glitches fixed, if i can today i will post a link - looks much cleaner.

I’ll watch your stream today too - hopefully the game wont crash!

[mcgeezer]

I've done an update to Bomb Jack Beer Edition - it's a bit of a debug build.

Pretty much all GFX glitches fixed.
Made several optimisations
Music massively improved to 3 channels (Thanks @saimon69)

The two remaining enemies are being worked on and are almost finished, they don't appear in this build though.

The purpose of this debug build is to try and track down why the game is crashing on AGA when the Bonus is collected, I suspect it is something to do with which way I'm managing the hardware sprites but I could be wrong.

If you run the game and it does crash I would really really really appreciate it if you could let me know any details because at the moment I don't have an AGA Amiga.

Here's a video for those that want to see it running.

[ Show youtube player ]


Here's a link to the ADF

Enjoy, mcgeezer

PS. You still need 0.5mb Fast Ram and 0.5mb Chip ram to run the game. I'm actively working on compatibility.

[cybernoid]

This is my 1st comment since 2013.

Your game is beautiful.

[saimon69]

Note: stage 3 music is still the two channel one for now, am still working on it :/

[Nightshft]

Yay Update!
Here's just a quick test on
Hardware: A1200 with 2mb chip and 4mb fastram, Kick 3.0, AGA

- played it twice up to level 7 and no crashes on my machine
- most of the time when getting the "P" Bonus (eat monsters) the "P" doesnt vanish but leave some pattern behind
this never happens with other bonus symbols, like "B" or "E"
- started from Workbench 3.1 or booted from Disk, all identical (first impression)

On an A500 with 0.5MB chip and 0.5mb slow ram, Kick 1.3

- no mayor problems up to level 7
- "P" Bonus vanishes ok
- sometimes when the scene gets busy the game slows down
happens maybe once in a level for about 5 seconds when its really busy
(maybe just doesnt happen on the A1200 because the CPU is faster)

-------

Is there any pause key? (F.e. helpful to take a screenshot)
The blue lines are just for debugging?

Originally Posted by mcgeezer

I'm actively working on compatibility.

Appreciated a lot!

PS: I dont have much time for further testing for the next few days, but maybe afterwards.

[mcgeezer]

Here's another update - Beta 4A.

In this build I've made a huge change and added memory management to the game. The game still requires 1mb of ram, however the ram type can now be any, so 1mb Chip Ram owners can now play. In addition the game is also system friendly so if you want you can run it from hard drive!!!

Other changes include:
Moved the game area further to the right, it should be no more centred.
Fixed a bug where intermittent slow downs would occur (thanks Le Caravage)

I've tested the game up to level 20 on my real Amiga (0.5mb Fast) and barring a couple of odd glitches with hardware sprites the game ran flawlessly.

I tested in emulation against A500 with 1mb chip also and have tested on AGA. Emulation is no guarantee it will be free of issues on real hardware though so please do feedback if you spot anything. (I may have to end up investing in an A1200 - any sellers at a decent price???)

Here's the link: http://109.228.4.199/bombjack_beta_4A.adf

Cheers,
Geezer

[DamienD]

<Rick & Morty voice on>

Oooooo, weeeee!!! What an Easter treat.

<Rick & Morty voice off>

...runs off to give this masterpiece a go

[DamienD]

Oh man, it's friggin' brilliant!!!

Arcade perfect; graphics / animations / control / responsiveness

I didn't see any bugs via WinUAE, AGA configuration.

...you must be close to release?

[mcgeezer]

Originally Posted by DamienD

Oh man, it's friggin' brilliant!!!

Arcade perfect; graphics / animations / control / responsiveness

I didn't see any bugs via WinUAE, AGA configuration.

...you must be close to release?

Cheers Damien,

Bugs seem to manifest more on real hardware so that's why I can't bleeding well test properly on AGA - wish I knew what happened to my A1200, pains me to say it I think I gave it to someone and never got it back.

Once the last two enemies go in then it'll be a release candidate.

[DDNI]

NICE! Looks very very good. Chapeau to you!
Could be the ultimate Amiga Bombjack. However my milage is very limited with this beta:::

First time trying any of the betas.
A1200 with Blizzard 1230 MKIV - 32MB RAM
Indivision MK1 AGA

Running from HDD with workbench 3.1 open. Is this supported?
Black screen after losing 2nd life (score board still visible)
Random lockups when collecting Bonus pill
Collected Power pill, gathered a few sunshine enemies, one enemy respawned and killed me - lockup

If MiamiDX running:
Start text is corrupted
Sprite looks smaller (?hires)
Crash on collecting second Bonus token

Running from boot via floppy - with wifi card in PCMCIA (not initialised):
Completed level 1, then black screen with score board - lockup.
Completed level 2, then black screen with score board - lockup.

Running from boot via floppy no PCMCIA cards inserted:
Collected Power pill, graphics corrupted at point of collection.
Died on level 2, body didnt fall to ground, disappeared then reappeared top left quadrant but ghosted, screen blanked except score card and locked up.
Collected Bonus pill on level 1 - crash and lockup.
Coloured line under scroll text is sometimes dots, sometimes green and sometimes red. (?bug)