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Post by Malban on Feb 21, 2017 14:08:26 GMT -5
Hi,
finaly I took a bit of time and looked at the games.
Some (I hope not too) critical comments (part 1):
ROBHOP
A little jump and run game, where you must collect "screws" to repair your robot.
To finish a level - collect the battery. Falling does not hurt.
Some collision detection seems to be "strange".
You can not die or death has no consequences (other than perhaps starting new)
The level must always be chosen from the main screen (even finishing a level does not
start the next level).
Game seems a bit unfinished.
Technical:
- screen refresh upon start = 12 Hz (nearly unbearable)
- nice overlay - although, overlay does assume, that all vectrex have the
same vector "layout" (which is not the case)
Conclusion:
In principal a fun little game - the screen refresh makes it nearly unplayable.
General vectrex game: 2/10
For a first vectrex game: 5/10
SPIKES
A jump and run game, where you must reach the exit and not hurt yourself touching
any "spikes".
The game consists of only two levels - which I consider unfinished.
Technical:
- refresh rate is ok.
- the vectors of a level are drawn in one GO - on real vectrex the levels look
not 100% correct due to drift.
- the game binary was saved with the "RAM", the binary is larger than 50kb and thus
does not run on a vectrex. Truncating the file to a shorter than 32769KB size does work.
- the game over String line one is not terminated, which results in garbage on a real vectrex
General vectrex game: 2/10 (would be higher if there were more levels)
For a first vectrex game: 5/10
SPACE ATTACK
A simple shoot em up. Player can move left and right and shoot enemies. There are 3 different enemie types.
The game playes ok and the screen refresh doesn't hurt the eyes to much. The score is visible all the time, so
the player knows where he stands.
Only two things that I find bothering:
a) you do not see in any way, when an enemy hits you (no explosion, no sound, no animation...)
b) you have five lives, but these are not displayed.
Both points taken together it feels "random" when the game over screen is shown - since you do not
always recognized when hit.
Technical:
- refresh rate is ok
- ships are good recognizable and "big"
General vectrex game: 4/10
For a first vectrex game: 8/10
ABSORBTEX
You move your ship around the screen and try to collect more fuel than the enemy in a given time frame.
The game allows you to chose the level you play (4 levels)
The ship can be moved with the joystick and rotated with the button
Technical:
- refresh can go REALLY low (below 15 Hz in higher levels)
- the enemy ships just move diagonal
- cool to see a rotation of the playership
General vectrex game: 3/10
For a first vectrex game: 7/10
LAST BATTLE
Another shoot em up. Enemies must be shot by a player moving at the bottom. The enemies approach in Galaga like fashion.
The player can not be harmed. A Level lasts till
a) either all enemies are destroyed (some require more than one shot)
b) the player is out of bullets (35)
Without overlay (and correctly placing it) the bullet meter can not easily be discerned (its just a dash at the top of the screen).
Why the author chose that a player must SELECT a level every single game instead of just going on to the next - is beyond me.
The game features nice large sprites and also rudimentary sound (shot/explosion).
Funny - there is misspelling in the instruction, where the enemy ships are called "sheeps" :-)
Technical:
- refresh is most of the time good - if you play a high level and have many bullets in the air - it drops
- fluid movement of ships, good control, good collision detection
- sound
- cool "animated" score at level over!
- overlay assumes all vectrex are alike (which is not the case), the small "bullet" section will certainly not
fit all vectrex equally
General vectrex game: 5/10
For a first vectrex game: 9/10
HEXTREX
You must protect your (centered) base from incoming ships. You can move around the base (HEX) and shoot at the
incoming ships.
- The ship movement is strangely implemented you must push the joytick in the direction you
want to move and press button 1 - on the release of the button, the ship moves!
- Fire is button 2 - together with the movement - a major obstacle to master the game is
to learn the controls.
- very annoying after game over you must reset the vectrex to start another game!
Technical:
- refresh rate is quite low (20-25 Hz)
General vectrex game: 2/10 (the game and the idea is not bad, but the controls and reset to restart really bugs me)
For a first vectrex game: 5/10
BLOX BREAKER
A breakout clone.
The ball moves hoizontally faster than the player - this ensures the player must do a bit
of forward thinking and calculation - not to bad.
Collision detection is sometimes a bit croocked - and I also had the ball bouncing "downward" from the player
(and thus losing a ball [player has 3 to start with]).
The higher the levels - the more blocks are visible - this means there is a dramatic drop in the framerate
(below 15 Hz). This makes the game sometimes hard to the eyes - but also a bit easier (since slower).
There is rudimentary sound support.
Technical:
- refresh rate is low to very low (10-25 Hz)
- rudimentary sound support
- collision detection sometimes "off"
- ball also sometimes drawn in blocks
General vectrex game: 3.5/10
For a first vectrex game: 7/10
TRAFFIC RACE
This is presented as a racing game - although I would say its a "dodge" game.
You drive on a road and must not get hit by other cars.
The game has a very good presentation, there are mountains in the background and trees on
both sides of the road which "scroll" (zoom) by.
The overlay is great and fits the scenario.
The game offers three different difficulty settings - which I find even on easy
quite hard (the difference is only the count of lives).
Funny:
- The instruction mentions a "Star Castle Cartridge" - a little bit to much copy/paste :-)
Technically:
- the explosion is somewhat "strange" it takes huge amounts of cycles
- after a death the "lives" are displayed a little bit to long for my taste
- basic (explosion) sound
- refresh rate is actually very good (except explosion) about 50Hz!
General vectrex game: 6/10
For a first vectrex game: 9/10
Regards
Malban
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Post by hcmffm on Feb 22, 2017 7:10:12 GMT -5
Thank you for these useful and intersting reviews, Malban! Good idea to have an additional "For a first vectrex game" rating.  |
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Post by Peer on Feb 25, 2017 7:40:33 GMT -5
Great to see that there is still interest in our course work Thanks a lot for the nice reviews, Malban! I hope more will follow for the remaining games. Just to put things into the right perspective: Most of the final results are still prototypes, and most of them have neither been really tested on the original hardware, nor optimized. This was mostly due to the limited amount of hours the students could afford to spend on this course. Moreover, for most of them this was the first true programming and software project beyond prior academic examples. I have taken this into account when it came to grading the results of the course. So a student's individual progress and learning curve might not be truely reflected in the outside appearance of her or his final game. Altogether, this was one of the most fun lectures I have ever given so far Cheers, Peer PS: Another thing I wanted to add is that, when I started the lecture, I myself was just about to start learning about Vectrex programming. So please blame any insufficiencies of the games on the lecturer rather than on the students  Though I am a well versed and experienced software developer, I am not (yet) an experienced Vectrex programmer. However, I strongly intend to change this |
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Post by Peer on Mar 3, 2017 7:49:58 GMT -5
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Post by Peer on Mar 3, 2017 13:51:44 GMT -5
... since I have been asked in what way the link above is related to Vectrex programming, well, carefully read the information given on the web page and follow the instructions...
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Post by Malban on Mar 3, 2017 16:31:17 GMT -5
Most questions I could answer straight away - but you got me at the last question. That one is so arbitrary! I tried the obvious (the one done on the PDP1 (which I have written an emulator for btw) - but that wasn't right. Than I went further back to some sport for two - also tried boardgames, and read about what Alan Turing did in his spare time. But to no avail. I even wondered if lady Lovelace had something to do with it. I wonder what you consider the first, either it is outside wikipedia and any sensible search, or you need some correct spelling - or German - or I am simply to dumb. Wait - I got it. I am disappointed - THAT you think is the first??? HEHE - 90 hours... good luck,... {Hidden Password}
Is not wave 13, although that would have been cool too! |
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Post by Malban on Mar 3, 2017 19:00:09 GMT -5
Part II
(only three games - the last took some time)
BACTERIA
In this game you play the title giving bacteria. You must eat the food that appears randomly on
the screen to grow.
Actually - I like this game! It offers some diversity and computer opponents.
The game can be played in three modes.
Game 1: (more like training) you are alone and must eat the food that appears.
You grow and after a time limit there is an end :-).
Game 2 (and three also, more info in the instruction):
You have an opponent Bacteria, which also tries to eat the food. If you are larger than the
opponent - you can eat him vice versa.
What I find really great is, that with the numbers of players - you actually enter the number of
"enemy" Bacteria. So there is realy some action and avoiding going on.
The only thing missing for me is a little "intro" and some game over screen which shows your high score.
But overall - a great effort and an original concept.
Technically:
- with many players - the screen update suffers a little
- basic sound
- a "game over" would have been great!
General vectrex game: 6/10
For a first vectrex game: 9/10
HEADLESS RUNNER
You run on some sort of way and must either jump low, high or dodge obstacles. The longer you last the
higher the score.
The main character is rudimentary animated, which is nice and quite sufficient for the game.
The game has two different modes which vary slightly in speed and approaching objects.
The game actually might be fun - but there are bugs, which may - or may not hinder gameplay.
I have not looked too hard to find them, but they seem to be two fold:
a) some obstacles are not drawn correctly (or are not generated at all). On a real vectrex there is
only one short line visible - but you do not get a score and can also not fail
(but within the flow of the game it is obvious - obstacles ARE missing, sometimes quite a few after another)
b) randomly - but mostly after a "reset" (selecting player 2) the system crashes
Technically:
- the highscore is displayed alongside the current score - I like that
- screen update speed is ok
- basic sound
- I don't like the bugs (see above)
General vectrex game: 3/10
For a first vectrex game: 6/10
BRICK CRUSHER
This is another breakout clone.
This is game is actually quite complete - in the sense that:
a) it has different levels, that "automatically" follow each other without user action
b) it has a "game over" screen which gives you some feedback
c) it has a "game finished" screen, which tells you that you did well.
The only drawback is, that the game only features 4 levels - but you can not have it all - can you?
In addition to the "normal" breakout - some bricks losen spikes, which fall down - you must
avoid them - which might prove tricky if you also have to hit the ball.
Technically:
- screen refresh can get really low - but on a real vectrex it is still bearable
- basic sound
- sometimes one of the "outer" (left or right) bricks seems to have a quite lose collision detection
- honorable mention - nice overlays!
General vectrex game: 6/10 (5 plus a bonus point for "completeness" :-))
For a first vectrex game: 9/10
BASELOOT
The game is only playable on an emulator. From what I figured,
the "objectlist" of drawn vectors is not terminated correctly.
At the beginning only 5 objects should be drawn - but the
draw loop continues with addresses in "not compiled" ROM areas.
It seems the emulators fill up the unused ROM area with values that are
more forgiving than the real thing.
On a real machine the game is not playable.
Since I do my tests on a real machine - I did not test the game further.
These were my "look ats" for today.
Just a word on "perspective" :-).
I know it is somewhat "unfair" to compare the results of the course with (most) other games for the vectrex.
Please don't get me wrong - I think it is great that a course like that is offered at university and I would have loved to have one like that in my own university time. The results - for programming beginners - are absolut great, also considering these are "studies" and not hobbies and also keeping in mind the limited available time.
Nonetheless - as a vectrex hobbyist - I am also interested in the "quality" of the games compared to other available games.
As a "curiosum" they are great, as an university project also. But lets face it - the quality (in comparisson) leaves room for improvement. And think I should be able to mention that in all honesty and fondness that I possess for the project and the programmers.
Actually I did expect to see one or two new faces around the place (not that you Peer are not welcome...) and had hoped to interest them in continuing privately to get rid of some of the rough edges.
Or did I just go blind and some of your students are hiding around here somewhere :-)?
I'll try to finish my "reviews" over the weekend.
Regards
Malban
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Post by 50tbrd on Mar 3, 2017 20:11:24 GMT -5
I liked Artillery Strike. It just needed the game settings to be consecutive levels.
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Post by gauze on Mar 3, 2017 20:27:00 GMT -5
I am disappointed - THAT you think is the first??? and it's not even a computer game! the original brown box or /|\ version was discrete logic. ps I didn't know the 2nd to last one didn't feel like writing a c program to calculate it for me hehe. |
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Post by VECTREXER on Mar 3, 2017 21:34:07 GMT -5
Same here. Got through them except the last one. Will have to figure out that one. |
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Post by Malban on Mar 4, 2017 12:05:13 GMT -5
Ok - the last batch (or is something still missing?)
BATMAN VS SUPERMAN - LASERWARS
Basically a Bomberman clone.
I am very arbitrary about this game.
The game idea, the presentation and the details of implementation are great.
For me (the games I have looked at until now) this is the best of the lot.
If this game was implemented with a little bit more technical finesse it would
be a great game indeed.
Not only is bomberman a great game, particular a two player game - this implementation
actually sports:
POSITIVE
a) 1 player against a computer (vectrex that is)
b) 2 player against each other (using two controllers)
c) collectible extras (after bombing a star) like
- "place more bombs"
- "move faster"
- "extended laser range"
d) different types of labyrinths (star setup)
e) game variant lets you play with all bonus set to max - THAT is fun, the speed
is great, there are no stars to cause flickering etc...
f) good scoring concept, scores visible!
g) you can "kick" the bombs away!
h) game over screen - with a nice vectorlist of the winner!
But also:
NEGATIVE
- sometimes there is a graphical bug, that corrupts the vectorlists (player one and title screen)
- The actual screen refresh rate makes my eyes hurt
- the "beginning" speed of your players is for my taste to slow
- you NEED an overlay, otherwise you get "stuck" since you can't see the labyrinth
- since all vectrex are different there should be a callibration for that overlay
Strange:
If you stand on your own bomb (exactly) it does not harm you - is that intentionally?
Funny:
The instruction says for the joystick: "Move you ship around"
Technically:
- screen refresh can go lower than 20Hz - ouch
- there is a bug, that can corrupt the vectorlist - not game breaking, but irritating
This actualle seems to be a bug, that ROM area is written to by the game - on a real cartridge this does not matter.
(although bad style)
- basic sound
- I don't like the bugs (see above)
General vectrex game: 6.5/10 (give me a bug free, better refreshing version and I would rate that game 8 or 9!)
For a first vectrex game: 9.5/10
HURDLES
This is a sports game - you have to jump hurdles!
The presentation of the game is very good!
When you start the game you see a little intro of a guy running over hurdles
and a hint of a reward ceremony.
The game continues to go to a selection title screen (with animated hurdles on top).
It feels "Track and Field"ish - great!
Within the menu you can chose different game modes - and there even are 9 pages
of instructions.
The competition mode sports different "lengths" of disciplines
first 110m than 400m and than 1000m (where I was disqualified).
After the competition you are rewarded with a nice little ceremony display.
You can controll the guy using the buttons.
Button 3 is jump - the longer you press the higher he jumps.
(Is it on purpose, that while in the air I can jump again - and thus keep him
in the air quite some time?)
(Is it on purpose, that while "jumping" and one touches the joystick, that he
immediately falls down?)
The actual runnning feels (for a sports game) quite slow - but if it were
faster the controls would probably prove more fatal than they are (you have
to press the button pretty exactly).
The instruction is sometimes false, since (at least there I noticed) - within the
1000m run the "meters" do display the number of hurdles taken, not the meters!
Technically:
- screen refresh is quite low for the amount of vectors display (about 30 Hz)
(this is probably due to the Strings displayed)
- the controls (see above) sometimes feel a bit buggy
- basic sound
General vectrex game: 4/10 (could also be much better - the whole game feels "to slow" for me actually - sport should be ACTION)
For a first vectrex game: 7/10
###### INTERLUDE ######
Following problem I had with a couple of games from the lot (but with Hurdles I chose to investigate further):
INTENSITY
At first I thought it was the screensaver of my VecFever - but now I think (KNOW!)
it is actually the games.
Intensity MUST be set once in a while by a vectrex game - otherwise intensity
(like the vectors) drift to zero.
After 2-3 minutes you only see a black screen!
After a reset the intensity is set to a default value (dunno 7f?) but if not set once in
a while the actual intensity displayed degrades to zero.
This is happening with this game (and a couple of others - which tests I do not repeat now).
Doing the competition mode - at the end of the 1000m run - I could barely discern the screen anymore!
(added that to VIDE emulation now!)
###### INTERLUDE END ######
ARTILLERY STRIKE
This is (as the name suggests) an artillery clone - nowadays you might call it an "angry bird derivat" :-).
The game is pretty straight forward - angle your gun correctly to hit the enemy.
There is nothing much special going on, there is no two player variant.
Ten different levels of increasing difficulty (which must be chosen manually).
The in game music is taken from "Armor Attack" which is fitting.
Nice:
The angle of the gun seems to be correctly calculated on the fly!
Technically
- the WaitRecal routine is called multiple times per update round,
this makes the display more "shaky" than needed, since each call "waits" till
30000 cycles have passed (since last call)
- the ingame music is VERY repetitive
- personally I would have favoured joystick input for angles
- the above mentioned "intensity" (bug)
- the game was saved with "RAM", therefor the binary won't run on a
vectrex (unless truncated)
General vectrex game: 4/10
For a first vectrex game: 7/10
SPACE ASSAULT
This game is another "shoot'em up". You can move across the whole screen and shoot (upwards) different weapons:
a) a blaster (always, two shots needed)
b) torpedos (always, 1 shot needed)
c) BFG2k (can be collected for a certain time, for the "indestructable" enemies)
You have lifeforce which gets reduced when hit in some way.
There are "extras" you can catch as e.g. a shield (no damage) or extra health - or the BFG.
What I find a bit strange is, that it seems to be pointless to kill the aliens -
since obviously they die as soon as they hit the ground...
The instruction gives some side punches to other games (Quake - Farmville).
Also one of the aliens is called "Jäger" (German: hunter).
Technically
- there seems to be a bug in the game - since it tries to WRITE to a ROM location.
If write access to ROM is enabled in an emulator (or one tries to run the game on a vecFever,
which allows ROM access per default) the game crashes after some bad ROM writes.
On a real vectrex (card) this won't be noticable - but I wonder where these "writes" would belong
to in earnest!
- the game was saved with "RAM", therefor the binary won't run on a
vectrex (unless truncated)
- sound is supported
- the speed of the game is very good - most of the time 50Hz
General vectrex game: 6/10 (good game actually!)
For a first vectrex game: 9/10
THE HUNGRY PYTHON
The game is an adapation of the "snake" theme.
Starting the game is sometimes tricky - since as "starter" the snake runs "thru" the walls, once you start steering you have to
avoid the screen edges. If you happen to start at the wrong time - you crash right into the wall - and game over!
Due to the lower screen refresh rate with a longer snake - it seems that the game gets easier the longer you play.
(up until the snake length suddenly resets - at 32 body "length")
Funny:
Pressing in game the "not occupied" button two plays a BIOS music tune.
Funny 2:
The manual explains a second control panel - but the game is single player.
Technically:
- the WaitRecal routine is called multiple times per update round,
this makes the display more "shaky" than needed, since each call "waits" till
30000 cycles have passed (since last call)
- in addition to that the screen refresh can get really hurtfull with a long snake
- the above mentioned "intensity" (bug) [only "in game" - in game mode 1 I got about 90 points befor it went all dark]
- basic sound
General vectrex game: 4/10
For a first vectrex game: 7/10
THE SNAKE
The game is an adapation of the "snake" theme.
As in other snake games you are not allowed to touch the walls - you die as soon as this happens.
I find the "menu system" annoying.
The game starts right away when the cartridge is loaded - ok (no menu - I can live with that).
But after you die (which will inevitably be just as you start the game) - RIGHT away the next game starts.
But within the play area the GAME OVER letters are written (and also the score - which by the way is buggy -
since always ZERO).
While the text is displayed (and the screen updates are down to one half) the snake already moves again and you have
to steer it - otherwise you jump from one game over to the next.
As if that is not bad enough - ingame, after you reach a certain length you enter the next "level"
(snake shortened - speed goes up) - here the same!
Some cycle eating text is displayed - you start at full speed with a new snake. And after the text disappears
(since screen updates now are really fast (no text + short snake) - you almost certainly crash against a wall.
(for me - 3 out of 4 times) which makes it nearly unplayable.
Technically:
- displaying game over and level increase IN Game is a terrible idea - the speed difference
between only small snake (50Hz) and the +text version (25Hz) is half!
- in addition to that the screen refresh can get really hurtfull with a long snake
- the above mentioned "intensity" (bug)
- basic sound
General vectrex game: 3.5/10 (although I like the graphics better than from THE HUNGRY PYTHON)
For a first vectrex game: 6.5/10
Thats all!
Two notes:
- See above the Intensity interlude!
- VecFever
I tested all games using the VecFever. Per default (is switchable but did not do so) VecFever allows writing to ROM areas.
Some of the games do that - and crash therefor (or behave weirdly) on my real vectrex. I tried to figure out when that happened.
Writing to ROM for me is a bug!
But the game might nonetheless be working ok on the real machine sporting a cartridge of the game.
Regards
Malban
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Post by hcmffm on Mar 4, 2017 13:05:31 GMT -5
Wow, thank you very much for all these reviews, Malban! This is very valuable feedback for both the developers of the games and the people who want to try out these games.
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Post by VectorX on Mar 4, 2017 13:23:33 GMT -5
^Another thanks from myself, as I need to add all of those to the games page on the wiki. Been meaning to do that for a while.
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Post by Peer on Mar 4, 2017 14:52:10 GMT -5
An many thanks from my side as well. Next time I hire you before grading the course results Would have saved me lots of time and work... |
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Post by Peer on Mar 4, 2017 14:59:26 GMT -5
Adding some bits and pieces here related to previous posts:
After completion of the course, some of the students originally had announced to go on with their projects, but almost all of them started working on their final thesis last October (elective courses are in semester 6, thesis is in semester 7) and are facing their final exams right now. I guess that is the reason why there was no further Vectrex related activity from their side.
We never got around to serious testing and bugfixing due to lack of time, but I have collected and saved the complete sources. Maybe at some point in the future I will find the time to fix some of the issues Malban discovered and reported, and generate some updated versions if the authors agree.
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