Trapped

[garryg]

gliptitude,
I could just use different line types for the door types, also less change to the current engine!
Each map is based on a grid (2D array), with each position holding a number that determines the contents of that room.
Most locations on this grid are used for Trapped, but the grid itself is only 10x10.
My thinking for the main game is to make this grid much bigger, say 50x50, but use less of the possible locations for playable 'rooms.' This means I can draw out a much larger sprawling map when I want to, rather than just have the claustrophobic feel of Trapped.

Mayhem,
The cave doors in Atic Atac have a lot of lines.
Drawing in the room wals also takes up a lot of cycles.
I'ts possibly doable... but last time I tried I gave up!

[gliptitude]

Ah okay that makes sense.

[Mayhem]

Oh I didn't mean the screen drawing had to be as complex as Atic Atac, but maybe "borrow" a few of the gameplay elements.

[garryg]

Ah, I see. Yes a more arcade type game could be done using 80-90 percent of what I have already.
In some ways it would be simpler as you don't really need the puzzle elements or the same amount of object tracking as I have just now. I would really just have to modify some elements and add a shooting routine.

this could be a side project, or I can make the main game a bit more like this, although I intended it to be more exploration and puzzle based.

My main concern for a longer game is still lack of a save feature.

[gliptitude]

Maybe you could have a primitive password system, like I, Cyborg and Gravitrex Plus do, (I think each of those games just has THREE different passwords), or a more complicated one like many many NES games have?

[garryg]

Apr 4, 2016 9:20:01 GMT -5 gliptitude said:

Maybe you could have a primitive password system, like I, Cyborg and Gravitrex Plus do, (I think each of those games just has THREE different passwords), or a more complicated one like many many NES games have?

I was thinking about that, but it would have to represent the current room, objects you are carrying, position of non-carried objects, and time remaining. (assuming this game doesn't have a score - haven't decided yet)

So the string would basically need to represent the room + object array + remaining time. The size would then depend on the number of objects used, based on four it could be something like:  321CA000FF64 , but this could be much larger.

e.g. (room)32,(object locations)1C,A0,00,FF,(timer)64 - provided all the values can be stored in one byte each)

[gliptitude]

I haven't done the math but trust it adds up like you say. .. But i was thinking you indicated previously there might be multiple levels, i.e. after one map is completely solved you advance to another fresh map. So in that case you wouldn't track all of the variables you just listed. The password would only identify which map you start a game on, so it would really only have to be ONE digit/character (probably should be more just so it looks like a "password" and is harder to guess)

.. If the full game has the same time constraint as the original Trapped then i don't see how you could ever play a map starting anywhere other than the beginning.

[garryg]

By 'levels' I meant levels like a house e.g. basement, ground floor 1st floor ... Attic

[garryg]

If anybody is interested I put a video of me completing the origonal Trapped up on youtube

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZU2LigCTyus


Its just on an emulator though, not my real Vectrex (which the last version did work fine on)



Ps. I started making the larger game around a year agow, but have since lost the source code for both this and the original trapped!

Some may be on an older PC, that I don't have access to just now. But all the on-line stored stuff is gone 

[cNp]

Oh no, that sucks Garry, you had a lot of promise in your work... hope you recover most of the work... fingers crossed.

[VectorX]

It's a shame indeed (I didn't see the edit to the post until cNp pointed it out). I'd like to see the bigger version of the game and what you had in mind for it. Definitely a very different one for the Vectrex!

[TrekMD]

Dang, very sorry to see that. Let's you can indeed recover the files from the older computer when you're able to access it.

[garryg]

Good'ish news. I found an old version of Trapped on a laptop we no longer use.

This is good because it's very close to the original blank framework.


The larger game was based on a possible 400 location grid, and had up and down movement (stairs, ladders, and trapdoor) as well as the 2d movement of Trapped.
It aslo had 4 slot inventory, but you could swap out items.
It has 'inside' and 'outside' locations, Inside had doors outside you cloud go in any direction unless something was blocking it.

This stuff I could probably do quite quick again, it was the puzzle part that was taking more time.

I'm also thinking of finishing a couple of my older ideas.

[cNp]

That is good news Garry, I have your WIP for your varius projects on my multicart, be good to see you back developing

[D-Type]

Glad you got some/all of your wip back!