Post by mountaingoat on Aug 29, 2015 8:51:52 GMT -5
I am releasing my very first complete Vectrex game - Marine Fox.
While watching Shark Week on tv I was wondering if one could do an animated shark on the Vectrex. I was able to make one moving. As I was watching the sharks go up and down the screen it occurred to me that it looked a bit like the vertical missiles of the Sentinels in Solar Fox.
If you guys don't know Solar Fox, it was an arcade game and also a great Atari title. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_Fox
So I continued down the path of making a submarine which is trying to avoid the sharks while picking up the crystals from the water. I made some changes to the original Solar Fox mechanics that seemed more appropriate for the Vectrex - for example you can turn in any direction instead of just up/down/left/right. I also kept some that to me were integral part of Solar Fox, for example once you start moving there is no stopping.
The game was my real Vectrex learning project. Have not done any substantial assembly in who knows how long :-) I did not go crazy with optimizations as I needed to keep things simple and easy to understand (for myself).
If I get the time to clean up the code a little more, I plan to release the sources as well so others may learn some tricks a bit faster than it took me.
Anyway, here it is, the link for game, the bin directory has the binary image and the doc has a little 2 pager game flyer/description.
github.com/mountaingoate/vectrex/tree/master/games/marinefox
The game is completely free for non-commercial purposes.
I want to express my sincere thanks to Juan Felix Mateos who not only made the excellent cartridges without which I could not have made this game. In addition he also tested the game and provided a lot of very valuable comments. Thank you again Juan!
There are a few known bugs:
1. At the very first start of the game, it takes a couple of seconds for the Vectrex to draw the Medusa and the sharks. I must be missing some vector initialization, if you have any ideas, please let me know. This only happens the very first time.
2. Also sometimes a shark resets after it started traveling up/down a lane. This is clearly a logic issue with the code. I should fix it but it can help, very nice not getting eaten after you prepared yourself mentally :-)
If you guys have any questions, comments or find other bugs, just let me know here.
While watching Shark Week on tv I was wondering if one could do an animated shark on the Vectrex. I was able to make one moving. As I was watching the sharks go up and down the screen it occurred to me that it looked a bit like the vertical missiles of the Sentinels in Solar Fox.
If you guys don't know Solar Fox, it was an arcade game and also a great Atari title. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_Fox
So I continued down the path of making a submarine which is trying to avoid the sharks while picking up the crystals from the water. I made some changes to the original Solar Fox mechanics that seemed more appropriate for the Vectrex - for example you can turn in any direction instead of just up/down/left/right. I also kept some that to me were integral part of Solar Fox, for example once you start moving there is no stopping.
The game was my real Vectrex learning project. Have not done any substantial assembly in who knows how long :-) I did not go crazy with optimizations as I needed to keep things simple and easy to understand (for myself).
If I get the time to clean up the code a little more, I plan to release the sources as well so others may learn some tricks a bit faster than it took me.
Anyway, here it is, the link for game, the bin directory has the binary image and the doc has a little 2 pager game flyer/description.
github.com/mountaingoate/vectrex/tree/master/games/marinefox
The game is completely free for non-commercial purposes.
I want to express my sincere thanks to Juan Felix Mateos who not only made the excellent cartridges without which I could not have made this game. In addition he also tested the game and provided a lot of very valuable comments. Thank you again Juan!
There are a few known bugs:
1. At the very first start of the game, it takes a couple of seconds for the Vectrex to draw the Medusa and the sharks. I must be missing some vector initialization, if you have any ideas, please let me know. This only happens the very first time.
2. Also sometimes a shark resets after it started traveling up/down a lane. This is clearly a logic issue with the code. I should fix it but it can help, very nice not getting eaten after you prepared yourself mentally :-)
If you guys have any questions, comments or find other bugs, just let me know here.
