Turbo Sprint RELEASED!!!

[fgh]

Hey Geezer. Did you see my little report above?

[mcgeezer]

Originally Posted by fgh

Hey Geezer. Did you see my little report above?

Indeed I did and thanks for the report, I'm collating all bugs from everyone that has reported them including videos.

As an aside, the difficulty was the most problematic thing.

I've uploaded a new beta 1.5

Game does not stop after 5 minutes
Hiscore save removed (it was causing problems)
Difficulty now much easier.

Get it from.

https://mcgeezer.itch.io/turbo-sprint

Geezer

[Superman]

Thanks for the update and this is indeed much easier now. One thing I have found when using a joystick on my A1200 is that if you hold a certain direction too long then it intermittently just fails to turn and goes straight. In order to make it keep turning you have to release the joystick then push it again if that makes sense. So you are essentially tapping the desired direction at times to make it respond fully. Using keyboard seems to not suffer with this and much easier to steer with.

You have done an amazing job with this though and I’m sure its not an easy task.



EDIT: I think I might of been a little quick to judge on the steering issue after a bit more playing. I think its because the joystick is more difficult to control so when you hit the wall and bounce off there is a second or 2 where the car wont turn but it will accelerate. That makes you just hit the wall again and crash some more. Its definitely more noticable on the very narrow twisty circuits and not the wider easier ones so that would make more sense.

One other thing I have noticed is as I was was driving around with a green car another ghost green car was dropped by a helicopter onto the track and it just sat there stationary.

[kremiso]

Thank you for this new beta, so fast

better than the previous for controls, rebounds and difficulty level

now crude picky things :

-your car is still too nervous and fast, and sometime act as a crazy horse (for someone can be a pro, as realism);btw, ie if you crash in an underground part, can be difficult to 'exit' from the other side (hope you got the sense of this)

-it's impossible to not win in the first track now (default path), cause the higher speed than the cpu cars; later tracks are surely challenging

for last a bug, in the track with the long jump at the center (track2?) the cpu cannot win because the drone cars have not enough speed to jump through

[fgh]

Only had time for a very quick attempt at the new build. (Latest winuae, 1200 quickstart w/4MB fast, default keyboard layout A for joy 2 input)

The steering is the main problem for me. Cars are now slower than arcade but steering is much harder due to it turning slightly in the opposite direction when you stop turning.

Also tried several rounds of just bumping into walls, and 3 out of 4 wall hits, it's correct, but some times the car reacts to a wall hit by instantly rotating 180 degrees and continuing with same speed in opposite direction. (Possibly happening only if left/right is still pressed?)

Keep up the good work! This will be a great one

[mcgeezer]

Originally Posted by fgh

The steering is the main problem for me. Cars are now slower than arcade but steering is much harder due to it turning slightly in the opposite direction when you stop turning.

Also tried several rounds of just bumping into walls, and 3 out of 4 wall hits, it's correct, but some times the car reacts to a wall hit by instantly rotating 180 degrees and continuing with same speed in opposite direction. (Possibly happening only if left/right is still pressed?)

Keep up the good work! This will be a great one

Appreciate you taking the time.

Yes - the steering still needs some work, basically the code tries to work like a real steering wheel and when the steering returns to centre it isn't quite working properly.

The 180 turn is a clear bug, it's a just an entry in a table that isn't quite right. If I put the debug on you'd be able to fish out which car frame it is when it collides with one of the 5 response tiles.

Happy to do a build for you if you want to take the time.

[roondar]

I'll be sure to check the new version out as well. You know, two high quality beta games releasing on the Amiga in a single week - it's a good time for Amiga fans

[mcgeezer]

Originally Posted by roondar

I'll be sure to check the new version out as well. You know, two high quality beta games releasing on the Amiga in a single week - it's a good time for Amiga fans

There really isn't much difference from the previous build Roondar other than what I stated, all reported bugs will remain until I fix them.

About 1 months work of work - have about 30 bugs. Some easy, some not so easy.

But this is the point of releasing Beta's - the community plays the game and acts as a huge playtesting benefit.

[roondar]

Okay, good to know. But I might still see if I can unearth some as-yet unknown bugs. Plus, I like top-down racing games

[mcgeezer]

Originally Posted by roondar

Okay, good to know. But I might still see if I can unearth some as-yet unknown bugs. Plus, I like top-down racing games

People are reporting that the car is "pulling" from side to side at speed so I think work needs to be done their.

[DamienD]

Obviously I don't know it's been done code wise, but these 2 x similar type of Amiga games get it spot on:

... Indy Heat
... Ivan ''Ironman'' Stewart's Super Off Road

[fgh]

Originally Posted by mcgeezer

Appreciate you taking the time.

Yes - the steering still needs some work, basically the code tries to work like a real steering wheel and when the steering returns to centre it isn't quite working properly.

The 180 turn is a clear bug, it's a just an entry in a table that isn't quite right. If I put the debug on you'd be able to fish out which car frame it is when it collides with one of the 5 response tiles.

Happy to do a build for you if you want to take the time.

I'd be happy to try a debug build.

I think it would make sense to support paddles (=spinners = 360 wheels like ssprint arcade has) but not 270 degree wheels (regular ones that return to center), as that would make for a very different experience.

I had another go with v1.5 today.

Additional bugs found

• Puddles are rendered on top of whirlwind and cars
• On track 6 (? Bottom left on track select) when oil field appears at top center, drones crash and burn continously after respawning
• Are the walls that sometimes appear in the middle of the road a feature or a bug?
• Will the title screen be changed to Turbo Sprint?
• It seems car movements triggered by puddles, whirlwind, and wall bumps do not trigger wall collions, so during these you sometimes go through walls you otherwise cannot.
• Sound of hitting water is sometimes high pitched wrong sound (repeats first milisecond?)
• On track 8 (? Top left) yellow car starts on grass and skips half the first round, plus the whirlwind stopped and its animation froze
• On same track the track limit on the very left was off by a 2-3 pixels so car can move on top of wall.
• Sometimes the puddle hit boxes are slightly off, extending or moved too far up by a few pixels (Track 7, Middle left on track selector)
• Sometimes the thinnest walls can be driven through. (Track 7, S turns ++)

Differences from Arcade

• Arcade drones navigate around many oil and brown puddles, but not around whirlwhind or water. Route is hardcoded though, so they always navigate around certain spots where oil sometimes occurs (They do not navigate to pick up bonuses)
• Only one wrench and one point bonus appears at a time, they time out before the next shows up.
• The current 'Prepare to race' thumbs up animation is quite fast and repeats a lot. Perhaps leave it at 1-2 rotations and/or add a few frames (or pause) when thumb is up and between loops?
• Gravity when you miss the jump is a bit less heavy on arcade
• (Missing crowd animations on scores screen)

[Havie]

Tried 1.5 tonight and although control is not quite right, it's a lot better. You definitely seem to start a bit fast though - managed to win every race until I got to the track with the jump. Drones fell off and didn't explode cleverly missing the corner.

Also, the track with the short cut at the top right (missing out the chicane) - I managed to get into the inside seciton of the track and drive around and drop off.

Bounces still send you 180 on occasion but this is improved too.

Had one strange bug when I lost and entered my initials, I'm sure I pressed to race the next track but it started without my car at all and the drones drove around by themselves, occasionally leaving a previous image behind. Then the game crashed after I selected to race again.

Amazing progress in a short time and the steering is nearly there - perhaps you need to not have the self-centring element at all?

[DamienD]

Just tried out v1.5.

I played using the keyboard, and I see what people mean with the steering. It's like you stop pushing in a direction and then there's a force that pushes the car in the opposite direction for a second.

Very cool though

One question though Graham, why is the screen so small? By my calculations it seems the game area is only 256 x 190.

Here's a comparison of meynaf's Atari ST port and your version:

meynaf:



mcgeezer:

I mean, using emulation I can fix this, by setting a resolution of 640 x 400

[mcgeezer]

Thanks for trying it.

The screen is like that because the game is running in hires mode (640x400) but the display from the arcade is only 512x384.

You’ll find there is not as much detail in the ST port if you look close.

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by mcgeezer

You’ll find there is not as much detail in the ST port if you look close.

Of course I know that, and can see Graeme.

You used the Arcade graphics

[mcgeezer]

Been a while since I did an update, I've been having a break.

There's about 6 bugs remaining from the 30 found.

Anyway... reason for the video is to show the little nitro (NoS) turbo pickup.

[ Show youtube player ]

Not long now for a release methinks.

Geezer

[vulture]

nice!

[Lisko]

Could this be made compatible with expanded ecs with 68020 and fastram (furia a600) or there are chipset limitations that can't be overcome (aside from 256 colors mode)?

[mcgeezer]

Originally Posted by Lisko

Could this be made compatible with expanded ecs with 68020 and fastram (furia a600) or there are chipset limitations that can't be overcome (aside from 256 colors mode)?

ECS lacks the necessary display resolution and hardware sprite capabilities that are in AGA. So in short, no.