Downfall - diary of a game...

[Lonewolf10]

Originally Posted by Graham Humphrey

Got a third set of levels from mihcael through the virtual post earlier today. Thinking about it, I'm probably content to stick with 30 levels. Of course if anybody wants to change/add their own then you know where the source code is; do what you like by all means

Ok. I'll hold off on posting my AMOS lvl editor hack thingy for now. I have actually started working on a GUI version to make level designing easier. Then those that want additional levels can create their own custom versions

Originally Posted by Graham Humphrey

As things stand now and assuming all goes smoothly from here on in, I'm looking at trying to get the game fully finished and released at around Easter time.

Cool


Regards,
Lonewolf10

[Predseda]

It is not a waste of time to finish the level editor as it can be used for AGA version of the game.

[Graham Humphrey]

Originally Posted by Lonewolf10

I have actually started working on a GUI version to make level designing easier. Then those that want additional levels can create their own custom versions

Nice! I look forward to seeing that.

[mihcael]

Is there game and/or title music coming?

[Graham Humphrey]

There's meant to be...

[Retro1234]

Finaly!! I tried this and im loving this and the graphics well done guys for getting this together

Can I ask a few questions?
To late
could it be possible to jump? like platform to platform
What about some background graphics?
What about increasing the speed a bit sooner in game?

Anyways great work realy looking forward to seeing this finished

[Predseda]

I am sure the first answer is NO. You can pass the short gaps if you have extra speed, though

Second answer - we plan this for DeLuxe version (AGA).

Third answer - the game speed is constant, only the leveldesign increases difficulty.

[mihcael]

Originally Posted by Predseda

I am sure the first answer is NO. You can pass the short gaps if you have extra speed, though ...

I compiled a version where you could jump, i even gave the grey dude extra jumping prowess (due to his large legs).

[Predseda]

Hey, the game is not completed yet and a trainer already appears!

[Graham Humphrey]

WIP11 is here - but with a hitch. For some reason if you try to run the game on an Amiga with a Kickstart older than version 3 you get a visit from the Guru:



On version 3.x it runs fine (although - interestingly - you only get the music on AGA...).

I definitely think it's related to the music player commands somehow but I can't be certain on that. I'll have to check this out and if anybody else knows please let me know!

Back to the game itself though and we have:

One music module by Reynolds - this plays throughout the game but can be switched on and off at any point if you press M.

The highscores have been completely 100% fixed.

A nice new copper background as suggested by DJCruicky.

The entire set of thirty levels is now complete! Thanks Mike

The invisible objects bug has been fixed, at last! (Although the 'items in platforms' bug frustratingly remains. Again, any hints appreciated...) I've also increased the frequency at which the items appear.

And of course Predseda's Remainder Software logo now appears at the start.

Hopefully, bugs permitting (and I seem to have created a pretty big one) the full release will be next weekend.

[prowler]

Wow, this game has come a long way since the WIP1 release only a couple of months ago!

Thanks to Graham and the rest of the team, we'll soon have our very own "EAB Beginner's Guide to programming an Amiga game in Blitz Basic 2" in just a few forum pages!

If you succeed in releasing the full version next week, then I can begin my training and proceed at my own pace without the pressure of all these WIP versions appearing at a much faster rate than you first led me to expect.

[Reynolds]

I've tried it, but it's quite buggy under WinUAE w/ WB3.0...
Will move it to my good old A1200 for a clean run...

[Graham Humphrey]

What's exactly the problem with it when you tried it, Reynolds?

EDIT: Definitely the music-related commands. Took them out, recompiled, now works fine under 2.04...

[Lonewolf10]

Error 8000 0003 is an odd address error (e.g. 8001). All addresses should be even (e.g. 8000) on the 68000 CPU. Later CPU's can cope with odd addresses.

I will download WIP11 and update the Level Editor


Edit:
I tried WIP11 on WinUAE with my A600 setup (Workbench 2.05) and it gives the 8000 0003 error on bootup. When I switched the CPU to 68010 it worked fine. Since this is the first version with music, perhaps the music data starts at an odd address? *shrugs*


Regards,
Lonewolf10

[DJCruicky]

Thank you for the update Graham. The new copper colour looks good, thanks for using it .
Shame the game stopped working on a A500. I had a look myself, but no help from me sorry to say . Thought it could have been something to do with what is said in the blitz manual.

Careful attention must be payed regarding entering Blitz mode. version 1.3 and older of the operating system can take up to 2 seconds to flush any buffers after a file is closed. You should always ensure that absolutely no disk or file access is taking place before entering Blitz mode. At the time of this writing, no software method of achieving this has yet been discovered. The best we can suggest is that a VWAIT 100 should always be executed before using Blitz mode.

....but never fixed it.

Sorry *shrugs* from me too.

Anyway, hope you find a fix, the game is looking good so far.

DJC

[Graham Humphrey]

Cheers guys, it definitely looks like the problem Lonewolf describes. I tried it on an A500+ with a 68020 processor in WinUAE and it worked perfectly. Whether the LoadTrackerModule/StartTracker commands work with a 68000 is debatable I'd say.

I've played about with it a lot and still no joy. I even tried putting in some code to detect what processor is being used and if it's a 68000, use the standard LoadModule command (which isn't perfect) but still no dice.

I don't really see an easy way round this at the minute.

[Lonewolf10]

I have been thinking about the problem with the pickups appearing in platforms. There are two
ways to get around this - one is to detect exactly where platforms are (too big a hassle to code and a waste of CPU power), the other is simply to place pickups when platforms are not being drawn.

After taking a look at your sourcecode from WIP8 I believe the latter can be achieved by not drawing pickups when drawplat is equal to 8,9 or 0 (depending on where your handle for the pickups are, you can ignore either the 8 or 0 - you'll have to experiment to find out which).


Regards,
Lonewolf10

[clenched]

Here are a few instructions either side of the 68000 crash:

0002545A 4bf9 00bf e001           LEA.L $00bfe001,A5
00025460 43fa 0106                LEA.L (PC,$0106),A1
00025464 2039 0000 0001           MOVE.L $00000001,D0  <= crash here
0002546A 4eae fffa                JSR.L (A6, -$0006)
0002546E 42b9 0002 554a           CLR.L $0002554a

This code belongs to XbonesCiaTrkLib.obj in the Blitzlibs:Otherlibs drawer and the deflibs file. In an assortment of Blitz stuff there is an archive "CIATrkrLib.lha" with a module called XBciatrackerlib.obj. I deleted XbonesCiaTrkLib.obj first and ran the makedeflibs Blitz program to remove the library. Reset to be sure the changes are reflected in Blitz. Move the XBciatrackerlib.obj to where the first one was and run makedeflibs and reset again. Now Blitz is ready to compile Downfall. In the Zone is an ADF that boots on A500+ A600 A1200 quickstarts and CIATrkrLib.lha. I don't know if one of the libraries is superior to the other. This game looks real polished to me. It's OK with me to take that stuff down from the Zone when finished with it.

[Graham Humphrey]

@Lonewolf10

Thanks, I'll try that - I had a play about with that before but clearly did it wrong as I stopped the objects being blit onto the screen altogether Will take a closer look at it!

@clenched

I have no idea how you worked that one out but that's brilliant, thanks! I really appreciate that. The only problem is that on Kickstart 1.3 the game just freezes up when loading the music but I can work around that somehow and in any case we're in a miles better position now then we were this time yesterday so thank you

[clenched]

Yes, If you look in the .guide that comes with this library, it's wanting Kickstart 2 as a hardware requirement. I have a tough time accepting there isn't something better out there too. I just happened to have this one already on my harddrive.