Downfall - diary of a game...

[Graham Humphrey]

Ah right, I only had a quick skim of the guide so I didn't see that. What I might do is detect what Kickstart is running in the code and if it's older than 2.0, use the standard LoadModule command instead. Hopefully that'll do the trick. Thanks!

[clenched]

Well this is the best a text editor will do.

@{u}@{fg shine}What you'll need:@{uu}@{fg text}
o Blitz Basic II version 1.8 or greater.
o An Amiga@{fg fill}*@{fg text}
o Any music file in protracker format.

@{u}@{fg shine}Machine Requirements:@{uu}@{fg text}
o Kickstart 2.0x+
o At @{b}least@{ub} 1 meg of chip ram.
o A kickin' stereo.

@{u}@{fg shine}Installing the library:@{uu}@{fg text}
First, remove any older version of this library you might have. Look for names
such as "NeilsTrackerLib.obj" or "CiaTrackerLib.obj." Don't delete them, but
move them out of the way for now, keeping them until you're sure you don't need
them, or that you've found the correct library to remove.

I would try some of the older ones this guy talked about.

[Predseda]

Graham, do we need a special screen with instructions? There should be some explanation of power-up as well as ingame keys. I could also put it to the website.

And one more suggestion: I like the new copper a lot, but I liked the old one as well. Could there be used various coppers for one and two players game respectivelly? It would add a bit of variety.

[fishyfish]

Very cool stuff guys, I've got a page or 2 to catch up on yet, but I had a name change suggestion that just struck me that I like.

Remnant

Exact same line of thinking, but is a bit cleaner and more concise a word. Seems a bit more "powerful" a word too. "Remainder" has a slight negative connotation about it.
In my opinion of course

[Predseda]

Maybe negative, but Remainder sounds better than Remnant

I also suggest one more change:

after the game is over in 2 players mode, it is not so obvious which one should enter his hiscore to the hiscore table. So I suggest the no. of player above the chart to be flashing, or maybe better to add the sprite image of the relevant player next to the table (shown in picture bellow as a red circle) when prompted. Could be also animated.

And I would also like wilshy to add one more sound for collecting power-up. Now the sound is the same for everything collected, no matter if it is a power-up or just a fruit.

And I would suggest to remove '/2' powerdown from one player game.

[Graham Humphrey]

Thanks for that clenched, I'll be sure to give that a look.

Originally Posted by Predseda

Graham, do we need a special screen with instructions? There should be some explanation of power-up as well as ingame keys. I could also put it to the website.

I'm going to write an instruction file for this, so I don't feel the need to have a screen in the game also. People will have to RTFM

However something on the website to that effect would probably be good.

And one more suggestion: I like the new copper a lot, but I liked the old one as well. Could there be used various coppers for one and two players game respectivelly? It would add a bit of variety.

Sure, that wouldn't be a problem. I must admit I find the old blue one a bit boring and the new one a lot better. If I (or someone) can conjure up a new design that (a) looks nice and (b) doesn't interfere with the visibility of objects then I'll put it in for sure.

Originally Posted by Predseda

Maybe negative, but Remainder sounds better than Remnant

I agree - cheers Fishy but I do prefer our current name - but thanks for the suggestion anyway

I also suggest one more change:

after the game is over in 2 players mode, it is not so obvious which one should enter his hiscore to the hiscore table. So I suggest the no. of player above the chart to be flashing, or maybe better to add the sprite image of the relevant player next to the table (shown in picture bellow as a red circle) when prompted. Could be also animated.

Maybe. I personally don't think there's much problem with that how it is but then again as I obviously know the game inside out and am 100% used to what it does I would say that. Adding the sprite might be impractical - from memory I don't think Blitz likes blitting shapes that have a different number of bitplanes to the bitmap and of course I'm not sure if the palettes wouldn't conflict either. Maybe I'll print the player number in a different colour to make it stand out?

And I would also like wilshy to add one more sound for collecting power-up. Now the sound is the same for everything collected, no matter if it is a power-up or just a fruit.

I don't know if there'll be time to do this before release. It would probably be better if there was an extra sound but at the same time I don't think it's really a priority. He's doing a couple of other sound effects for me now but I'll ask him if he can squeeze it in.

And I would suggest to remove '/2' powerdown from one player game.

I was going to do this but to be honest, although it's not much use in one-player mode, it still adds balance to the power-ups (all the others have a good/bad variant) and it can still be a bit of a nuisance if you run into it when you have no choice when there's a big long platform

Actually if I'm really being honest, the score powerups are a bit of a waste of time overall, although they're pretty harmless in the grand scheme of things. If I do get round to a sequel I'll probably get rid of them completely.

Thanks all! Priority number one this week is to get the thing working properly on all setups again, then to fix the objects in platforms bug, and then I'll look at the other cosmetic issues if there's time and if it's suitable (and writing the sodding manual). Apart from that, we're as good as done and what a great achievement it has been from everybody concerned.

[Predseda]

Originally Posted by Graham Humphrey

Maybe. I personally don't think there's much problem with that how it is but then again as I obviously know the game inside out and am 100% used to what it does I would say that. Adding the sprite might be impractical - from memory I don't think Blitz likes blitting shapes that have a different number of bitplanes to the bitmap and of course I'm not sure if the palettes wouldn't conflict either. Maybe I'll print the player number in a different colour to make it stand out?

Bad English, sorry. I though blinking, the same way as "Press P1 or P2 fire".

I will add those powerups to the website tomorrow.

[Graham Humphrey]

Great, thanks!

Yeah the flashing is probably easier. I did know what you meant so no problems with your English Just throwing ideas around.

[Predseda]

Just the last pre-production quick pic for our fans...

[Lonewolf10]

That's a cool pic Predseda


Regards,
Lonewolf10

[DJCruicky]

Nice pic, Predseda .

I compiled a version for myself with chains down the left and right of the screen. Them invisible borders were driving me nuts .

Your welcome to try yourself, with the code below. I cheated a bit and just used the line command . (changes in red) .

Select part      ; part goes up by 1 every two frames to allow us to update both bitmaps
 Case 0
  If drawplat<9 ; just blit a blank row to the just below the bitmap
   For x=0 To 19 ; Do this 20 times to fill the row (x ASL 4 is a faster way of doing x*16)
    Block 0, x ASL 4,paste
   Next
   Line 1,paste+4,1,paste+7,3
   Line 319,paste+4,319,paste+7,3
  Else           ; If we've drawn 11 blank rows, it's time to put some blocks on the screen
   If db=0       ; Only do this on bitmap zero
    For x=0 To 19
     Read tile   ; each value in the data statments = shape number to blit
     map(x)=tile
     Block tile,x ASL 4,paste ; all the way across the screen as usual
    Next
    Line 1,paste+4,1,paste+7,3
    Line 319,paste+4,319,paste+7,3
   Else          ; if we're on bitmap one...
    For x=0 To 19
     Block map(x),x ASL 4,paste
    Next x
    Line 1,paste+4,1,paste+7,3
    Line 319,paste+4,319,paste+7,3
    platcount=platcount+1  ; keeping track of how many rows of platforms we've blitted
   EndIf
  EndIf
 Case 1
  BlockScroll 0,paste,320,8,0,paste-#view ; Copies the same row to the row just above the display, so you can't see it
End Select

You may remember I had all sorts of problems with the music on 'Hydrozone'. Music not playing right on 68030 cpus. Missing notes etc.

[Graham Humphrey]

Wow that's some nice going, I may have to try it out myself

The border issue is definitely more of a problem under emulation than on a real Amiga I've noticed. It's still there on my A1200 but it doesn't look anywhere near as bad. Thanks, will give that a go!

(Oh, and really cool pic Predseda!)

EDIT: Yes, I recall your problems with Hydrozone's music. I don't know what it is with Blitz and music but it's never easy.

[Predseda]

I got squished because of missing borders more often on my real Amiga than in emulation
Anyway - those chains could help, I agree.

One small problem, maybe bug, maybe smtg with my equipment: sometimes when I launch Downafall on my real HW it happens, that the game is immediatelly started without pressing of joy button. Not always, but sometimes. I though my son switched autofire on on my joypad before for example, but it is not that case. Anyone else met this?

[Graham Humphrey]

I've never seen that bug ever and I've started the game more than anybody else in history

I'll be interested to see if anyone else reports this.

[Graham Humphrey]

BTW, has anyone got a copy of "NeilsTrackerLib.obj" mentioned by clenched earlier? I can't find it anywhere. The CIA Tracker Lib is on Aminet but that needs KS2.0 also.

[mihcael]

Originally Posted by Predseda

...
One small problem, maybe bug, maybe smtg with my equipment: sometimes when I launch Downafall on my real HW it happens, that the game is immediatelly started without pressing of joy button. Not always, but sometimes. I though my son switched autofire on on my joypad before for example, but it is not that case. Anyone else met this?

Sometimes the it will automatically start a 2-player game and does it again when you die, something wrong with winuae and the mouse i say. I normaly just hit the mouse buttons and move it around a bit then it goes back to normal.

Also music not working at all so far for me. Will try different configs
I tred clenched version in the zone but it freezes on the title screen.

[mombasajoe]

Originally Posted by Graham Humphrey

Also - highscore table now all sorted out for good. It was really weird but the Inkey$ command seems to 'remember' all the previous key presses and record them in the name entry. However by doing a "QAMIGA:BLITZ" before the high score entry, it seems to totally 'forget' all the previous key presses. I've no idea why this works, but it does so I won't complain.

Does the game run on a stock CD32? If so it an input routine via gamepad would be nice

btw: Great project, great game!

[Graham Humphrey]

Originally Posted by mombasajoe

Does the game run on a stock CD32? If so it an input routine via gamepad would be nice

The game should certainly run on a CD32 but as you suggest, no way to input without a keyboard. I'll have a go at implementing something when we do the AGA version.

Originally Posted by mihcael

Also music not working at all so far for me. Will try different configs
I tred clenched version in the zone but it freezes on the title screen.

What configs? Clenched's version should run on 2.0 and up.

Anyone got any ideas for properly working music commands that will be compatible with pre-2.0 versions of Kickstart also?

[clenched]

I tested this on my A500 KS2 1M chip and here is what I discovered. The Degrader program was ineffective because something knocks my Amiga back to NTSC mode. To see how bad it looks, check the NTSC box on WinUAE and run Downfall. Fortunately, with the line below added it works great on A500. A side benefit is now the need run the Degrader is gone altogether. Music speed was fine either way. The music really steps on the SFX too much for me. I think the volume could stand to be lessened a notch.

 
LoadBitMap 5,"Gfx/remainder.pic"    ; load in Remainder Software logo
LoadPalette 0,"Gfx/remainder.pal"   ; load in matching palette
InitPalette 1,32                    ; all-black palette for fading
VWait 50
BLITZ:BlitzKeys On
Poke.w $dff1dc,$20                  ; suggested change
CreateDisplay 2
DisplayBitMap 2,5:DisplayPalette 2,1

[Graham Humphrey]

Nice, thanks

I never tried it on NTSC before but my God it looks awful! Funny how that one line changes that... cheers, that's neat!

I will bear in mind the comments about the music volume too... it does make the SFX sound a little odd.

In other news:

'Objects in platforms' bug - FIXED!

DJCruicky's line border suggestion - ADDED!

Predseda's new credits screen complete with power-up descriptions - ADDED!

99% complete now, or thereabouts...

Oh, and on the subject of Remainder Software, I set up a Facebook page tonight - http://www.facebook.com/RemainderSoftware

All news and updates when Downfall is released will be posted there also. And a dedicated website will be following at some point.