Target Renegade

[Havie]

Saimon has sent me a couple more bits of music - level 3 and title screen.

Not 100% on the title music yet but have created a title screen from the original (in 32 colours - was considering a HAM one but 32 colours looks ok to me) and played the music over it to see what I think. Will upload a video at the weekend to get opinions.

32 colour version


Original

[fgh]

Great work so far! Awesome that all these classics are being ported to the Amiga!

I did a mockup to suggest a different layout for the title screen:



(I would at least drop the outline and shadow on the game title, as the font is supposed to look like a stencil..)

[Havie]

I like what you have done there. Will try yours out. Shouldn't really be messing around with title screens at the moment as actual game programming needed but just wanted something to go with the music, to see the overall effect.

Thanks.

[Havie]

Originally Posted by fgh

Great work so far! Awesome that all these classics are being ported to the Amiga!

I did a mockup to suggest a different layout for the title screen:



(I would at least drop the outline and shadow on the game title, as the font is supposed to look like a stencil..)

I see the image is in 256 colours - could you do one in 32 colours? I have tried using PPaint to reduce the colours but it looks too grainy!

[Havie]

Update 8

Realised that I need to add shadows to the bad guys - doh.

Also have capture the last player move of grab and knee as images. Not implemented yet as I need to work out when to grab and when to punch. My theory is grab is closer but as punch and grab are both performed with the fire button, I have to check all the proximity of all the bad guys and if one is in the right space then perform a grab and knee and not a punch. This will make the grab/knee context sensitive.

Did some work on the biker too so now have all the biker walking frames sorted and have substituted the biker for the dummy and animated the walk. Collision still works so starting to add in the game play now.

The game also starts at the title screen and then goes straight to the first level when you press fire.

Loads of shapes used - currently up to 70 and have estimated I will need up to 200 images per level.

Progress a bit slower than I would have liked but sadly other things have got in the way. But should have some bikers walking around and falling over soon.

Not sure if I mentioned this before but scrolling is all done so ready to implement this after required number of baddies have been beaten-up. On the verge of getting as far as my pc version but in a much quicker time.

The I need to work out how to get baddies to attack you - I'm hoping Dean might have a good understanding of this.

More coming soon...

[fgh]

Originally Posted by Havie

I like what you have done there. Will try yours out. Shouldn't really be messing around with title screens at the moment as actual game programming needed but just wanted something to go with the music, to see the overall effect.

Thanks.

You’re welcome!

Originally Posted by Havie

I see the image is in 256 colours - could you do one in 32 colours? I have tried using PPaint to reduce the colours but it looks too grainy!

Oh, I only meant to sugggest a different layout. Not for you to actually use it directly. Hence the quick photoshop work and 256 colors.

I’ll send you a PM shortly.

[fgh]

I had some more fun with this, here is an actual 320x256 32color version if you want to test it out

(Attached is IFF version, 320x256 version and 2x scaled preview)

Edit 09.10: Pixelling is fun! (Version 3 uploaded)
Edit 07.10: Updated picture after some palette and shading improvements

[Havie]

Great - thanks, looks great!

Progress has slowed at present as having family issues and my weekends (when I do most of my programming) are currently being taken up with driving to visit and look after my dad,

I am trying to organise a laptop that I can use to run WinUAE and program TR when I am visiting as he spends a lot of time sleeping.

I want to get the bad guys moving into position and attacking you so I have the bare bones of the game. Hopefully soon...

[acidbottle]

Family is always first, hope your dad is better soon Havie.

[Havie]

Sadly dad is no longer with us but he was always impressed by my programming so I'm sure he would have liked the game so now I will finish it in his memory.

Have found some time to get back into this and am working on the baddie ai. Currently they move into the correct place to attack the player and face him as you move around. Need to work on the code as when there are three baddies on screen in the original, the swap places depending on who is closest.

Also noticed something I have never noticed before - you move up and down at twice the speed of the baddies!

Thought I'd post to assure all the project is still coming...

[dreadnought]

Originally Posted by Havie

Sadly dad is no longer with us

Sorry to hear that mate.

Originally Posted by Havie

but he was always impressed by my programming so I'm sure he would have liked the game so now I will finish it in his memory.

[VincentGR]

So sorry, my friend.

[acidbottle]

Sorry to hear your news Havie.

Game is shaping up very nicely though and looking forward to more progress when you can.

[saimon69]

Feel your pain, having lost my father too some years ago

[Silverstreak]

So sorry to hear about your Dad.

[Havie]

Thanks all for your support.

[Havie]

Update 9

Progress beginning to happen again. have the biker frames in place and have started on their AI. Interestingly, these old games look very simple but as we know (see Pacman for instance) there is a lot more sophistication to them then first appears. To get the port right, I have to get the AI right (obvious) but like a bad Pacman where the ghosts just go straight for the player, the baddies in the ZX version don't just home in on the player.

What they appear to do is this:

Two baddies will position themselves in the correct place in front of and behind
the player in order to be able to attack.

The one in front moves up first until he is level with the player and them moves in.

The one behind moves along first under or above the player and then moves down until level with the player and then moves in to attack position.

A third guy then sits above or below the player ready to move in when one gets knocked down.

Also, if the player moves up and down and becomes closer to one player then the nearer one then moves into the attacking position using the above rules.

There also seems to be a bit more of a following routine once the bad guys on in position.

Initially I was just doing the 'bad' movement and homing in on the player. So, after a rethink, I realised that I need to use states to decide what each bad guy is doing and to which of the three possible positions they are aiming to get into. I also think there will need to be a basic sort to work out who is closest and which state they should be in.

With two players it will become slightly more complex as I think there are five bad guys on the screen (?) and the algorithm will need to decide between the two where the floating one goes.

Hopefully I am on the right lines but please feel free to discuss/suggest ideas!

[Havie]

Update 10

So my Z order routine wasn't working properly - seemed ok but there was a problem with the 1st baddie. So did a bit more research, ask for help and now it is working as it should.

Then there was an issue with baddies disappearing which was related to the rewritten z order routine and the fact that I was Blitting the baddies using the x,y coordinators rather than the sorted x,y coordinates in the z order list - doh!

Now that baddies work sort and Blit properly, I can see that the movement routines are not quite right. On some occasions all three move into postion depending on their state - so 1= left of player, 2 = right of player and 3 = in line with x axis of player but above or below. I can also see that as the player moves around, the states are remapped according to which baddies is closest to where so this appears to be working. BUT sometime baddies get stuck or two sit on top of each other which means that my closest calculation code isn't working as I thought!

Having a break to mull it over and hopefully will bet it sorted later and then I can make the baddies stunned and fall over when attacked and make them attack the player.

Slowly getting there but hopefully, if I can get this all working as I want then progress will speed up as most of the baddies work in the same way in terms of movement.

And I really want to add the motorbikes!!!

[Havie]

Quickie Update

After a think, I realised that checking which baddie is closest every loop and updating their state every loop leads to some interesting effects. So have now changed it so that they will only update their state when one of the baddies has been hit.

Also, had a complete rethink on their movement code, simplified it all and now they move how I want. So if a baddie has to move past the player to attack from the other side, the move down first, past the player and then up into the attack position. This means:

1) They don't attempt to walk through the player.
2) You can't easily attack them as they walk under the player.
3) Looks more like the Speccy version.

Now to get the player to properly attack and knock the baddies down and then I'll be able to see how the changing state works!

[Havie]

Update 11

Been a while since my last update. Here is a picture:


Progress is going ok:

• Have sorted out attacks so you can now hit the baddies. They take 3 hits and then fall down.
• Once they have been knocked down 4 times, they disappear and a new baddie comes on from either the left or right.
• After 3 baddies have been 'killed' then the screen scrolls to next section.
• Got shadows working properly when baddie falls over (this was a right old pain). You'll notice that knocked over baddie has a longer shadow. Was almost tempted to remove shadows but I think they 'ground' the characters to the level.

It is literally starting to look like a playable game now! I'll try and get a short video done so you can see it in action.

Next steps:

Still some bugs in baddie AI code to sort - sometimes do strange things and always end up with all baddies to left of player for some reason?
Add second baddie type and Biker on bike.
Work out the data for where each new baddie comes from.
Make player enter lift and level scroll up and then right to left (and down to basement and left to right again).

My biggest concern at the moment is the amount of graphics needed. Currently have planned 165 images and there are loads more as I need to add player with weapons and biker with weapons (player can do virtually all their moves holding a weapon). I did consider adding the weapon to the player sprites but this won't look right! Then I have to add probably another 100 or so sprites for the second player. I could cheat and have them look the same with a P1 and P2 but this would be a last resort. For speed, I load the whole level into memory and hardware scroll through it - I could save memory by using a tile map if needed. We shall see...