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Post by Peer on Sept 8, 2019 2:02:08 GMT -5
I hope you had nice holidays, Peer. Thank you for release candidate 1-3 which I just tried out on two of my Vectrexes. My results: + Vec-Man runs fine on both non-buzz Vectrex and buzz Vectrex. + Calibration is easy and fast to perform. I had no issue and calibration range was sufficient. + Difficulty level of the first levels is fine, now. I made it to level 8. + Sound is good. + Graphics are a bit small but that's fine and does not disturb. There's no flicker at all. Some minor issues/suggestions: Calibration: Label "4:EXIT"Currently, in calibration the label says "4:EXIT". When pressing, the next screen of calibration is shown. Suggestion: Label could be "4:OK" or "4:NEXT" because the user does not exit calibration when pressing button 4. Calibration: Screen skippedCurrently, you switch to the next calibration screen by pressing button 4. To me it happened that one screen was missed out. I guess it was because my button 4 was pressed for too long or my button 4 bounced. Copyright in Pause screenCurrently, when pausing the game you can see "COPYRIGHT BY P.J." at the very bottom of the screen. Suggestion: Vopyright in the title screen not in Pause screen (but FAIK the "GCE" cannot be changed.) All in all Vec-Man is a very nice clone of a known game which is very well done. The moving pills are a good variation and make the game even more interesting. I've played it for a few time only knowing that there are heaps of more levels with changing layout and more ghosts. Hi Helmut, many thanks (again) for your tests and your feedback! Yes, the graphics got a wee bit smaller compared to the previous RC. That is due to implementation specific reasons. I really want to keep the game 100% flicker free, so I used every C level trick I could think of. At the same time, I had to deal with vector drift and with various other analog effects on real consoles. The current RC 1-3 is the best I managed to come up with so far. In parts I had to opt for a trade-off between runtime-efficiency and effective size of the graphics, all in combination with the initial calibration routine. Regarding calibration: I will gladly implement your suggestions  Regarding copyright: Well, is says “programmed by P.J.”, not “copyright by P.J.”  I will probably hide that somewhere else in a secret place, more in the true spirit of the original 1982 developers and games… Regarding game-play: Cool that the difficulty now feels right. You are the first to report having reached a certain level. I am thinking about setting up a high-score section on the Vec-Man web page. If anybody sends in a screenshot of the title screen showing the console high-score (this is only updated if game-play is started at level 1), I will record and post the top results there. What do you think of such an idea? Spoiler: Out of curiosity, while playing, did you exploit the different "colors" (brightness) of the ghosts for finding a strategy against them?
Many Cheers, Peer
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Post by hcmffm on Sept 8, 2019 6:19:54 GMT -5
Thank you for your prompt reply, Peer. Yes, the graphics got a wee bit smaller compared to the previous RC. That is due to implementation specific reasons. I really want to keep the game 100% flicker free, so I used every C level trick I could think of. At the same time, I had to deal with vector drift and with various other analog effects on real consoles. The current RC 1-3 is the best I managed to come up with so far. In parts I had to opt for a trade-off between runtime-efficiency and effective size of the graphics, all in combination with the initial calibration routine. I understand. As written before I like the small and flicker-free graphics. Regarding calibration: I will gladly implement your suggestions Good. Regarding copyright: Well, is says “programmed by P.J.”, not “copyright by P.J.” I will probably hide that somewhere else in a secret place, more in the true spirit of the original 1982 developers and games… Right, it was "programmed by". No real need to hide this but such a note is something for the start-screen and not for the pause screen, I think. In the pause screen this looks a bit like advertisement to me which is surely not your intention. ;-) Regarding game-play: Cool that the difficulty now feels right. You are the first to report having reached a certain level. I am thinking about setting up a high-score section on the Vec-Man web page. If anybody sends in a screenshot of the title screen showing the console high-score (this is only updated if game-play is started at level 1), I will record and post the top results there. What do you think of such an idea? Good idea. I much like competition and highscore lists. Though there is a website with many Vectrex records, already: www.vectrex.co.uk . Perhaps you ask VectrexMad, the owner of that website, first before he gets flooded with Vec-Man highscores. Spoiler: Out of curiosity, while playing, did you exploit the different "colors" (brightness) of the ghosts for finding a strategy against them? No, until now I didn't find out about different behaviour of the ghosts and a strategy. I find it hard to distinguish the various brightnesses and I'm bad in observing the ghosts. And I haven't played Vec-Man much, yet.What about other players? Two more suggestions: First time start-up: "PRESS 4 TO SKIP"Currently, on the very first start-up the special menu is shown. Here you can choose calibration or skip the calibration and start the game. The text says "PRESS 4 TO SKIP". It's not quite clear what the player skips, here. Suggestion: Change text to something like "PRESS 4 TO PLAY" or "PRESS 4 TO START". BTW: Does Vec-Man save the calibration settings? When does the calibrate menu appear and when not? Text "GAME 1"Currently, in the menu it says "PLAYER 1" and "GAME 1". With "GAME" you control the level you start with. In the game it says "LEVEL 1", "LEVEL 2", and so on. Suggestion: In the menu change text from "GAME" to "LEVEL". |
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Post by TrekMD on Sept 8, 2019 11:53:29 GMT -5
I did use the ParaJVE version to try it in the emulator. I did no try the regular binary as I assumed it might run into issues with ParaJVE.
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Post by Peer on Sept 9, 2019 1:58:59 GMT -5
I did use the ParaJVE version to try it in the emulator. I did no try the regular binary as I assumed it might run into issues with ParaJVE. Correct, the regular binary does not work completely well with ParaJVE. For performance reasons, the game uses some very small scaling factors for drawing certain elements. On a real console, all those item can still clearly be seen and identified. In ParaJVE, this results in just dots being displayed. That is why I created the special ParaJVE version. It does not contain the initial calibration (no need for it) and it is slightly less performant. But since there is no "flicker" in ParaJVE this goes unnoticed.
I can only guess that the issue you ran into was indeed emulator (or Windows?) related.
Cheers, Peer
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Post by Peer on Sept 9, 2019 2:40:47 GMT -5
Right, it was "programmed by". No real need to hide this but such a note is something for the start-screen and not for the pause screen, I think. In the pause screen this looks a bit like advertisement to me which is surely not your intention. ;-) Good idea. I much like competition and highscore lists. Though there is a website with many Vectrex records, already: www.vectrex.co.uk . Perhaps you ask VectrexMad, the owner of that website, first before he gets flooded with Vec-Man highscores. No, until now I didn't find out about different behaviour of the ghosts and a strategy. I find it hard to distinguish the various brightnesses and I'm bad in observing the ghosts. And I haven't played Vec-Man much, yet.What about other players? Two more suggestions: First time start-up: "PRESS 4 TO SKIP"Currently, on the very first start-up the special menu is shown. Here you can choose calibration or skip the calibration and start the game. The text says "PRESS 4 TO SKIP". It's not quite clear what the player skips, here. Suggestion: Change text to something like "PRESS 4 TO PLAY" or "PRESS 4 TO START". BTW: Does Vec-Man save the calibration settings? When does the calibrate menu appear and when not? Text "GAME 1"Currently, in the menu it says "PLAYER 1" and "GAME 1". With "GAME" you control the level you start with. In the game it says "LEVEL 1", "LEVEL 2", and so on. Suggestion: In the menu change text from "GAME" to "LEVEL". Thanks again for all your thoughts and feedback! |
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Post by hcmffm on Sept 10, 2019 15:31:18 GMT -5
Thank you for your long reply, Peer. It's hard to reply to a long post adequately. So I make it short. ;-) You never know... I think it's always a good idea to inform people about things to avoid bad feelings/surprises. And I'm pretty sure that vectrexmad will happily hosts Vec-Man highscores if you ask him. I've just tried out the calibration using your above hints and it worked out very well: Faint ghost is faint while the brightest ghost is bright (not super bright but bright). I guess I could distinguish the five ghosts if I saw them all at a time but when seeing one ghost, only, it's hard to tell whether it's the brightest or second brightest ghost. Two ideas for making brightness calibration clearer: 1. Perhaps you can include Vec-Man in the calibration. This way the player can compare with the other ghosts (during the game he/she will also have to compare). 2. The faintest ghost could have a label "Faint" (or similar). EDIT: Maybe not really a good idea. When using the VecMulti calibration is shown only once. When you press "Reset", Vec-Man is restarted but there's no calibration menu. This is why I asked. O.k., I assumed so. Perhaps a simple workaround is by changing "LEVEL <xx>" to "LEVEL/GAME <xx>". Though it doesn't look that clean and neat anymore. Decide yourself... Thank you, Peer, for your effort you put into Vec-Man! |
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Post by Peer on Sept 11, 2019 2:22:50 GMT -5
Hi Helmut, great, many thanks once more for testing and giving feedback! When using the VecMulti calibration is shown only once. When you press "Reset", Vec-Man is restarted but there's no calibration menu. This is why I asked. The calibration menu really does appear at first start only. The calibration values (and the current highscore) are preserved when pressing the reset button. The reset button can be used to abort gameplay and to start a new game at any time. At one point I had a version in which calibration was offered again after reset, but I found that a bit annoying.
I have prepared a new RC 1-4, incorporating all your suggestions. I have not uploaded it to the webpage yet because I still have to test it once more on a real console. Since the gameplay itself has not changed at all, I will probably just email it to you directly instead.
Many Cheers, Peer
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Post by Peer on Sept 11, 2019 12:18:00 GMT -5
Greetings everyone,
release candidate version 1-4 is now available for download on the Vec-Man page. For the most recent changes, please read the previous posts.
Cheers, Peer
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Post by Mayhem on Sept 11, 2019 15:54:48 GMT -5
So I had a chance to play tonight... admittedly the older 1.3 version not the just posted 1.4 version.
I like it! My only suggestion really is that it doesn't get hard enough, quick enough. I made it through to round 25 while barely busting a sweat and then had to switch off as I'd run out of time before doing something else tonight. I like the mechanics with the random dots, and the moving dots and the tunnels at different places per level. I just never felt much under pressure though.
Also I only tried it on my better behaved Vectrex, I will make sure to test it against the troublesome Vectrex with the wacky calibration requirements to see how it fares!
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Vec-Man
Sept 12, 2019 9:00:37 GMT -5
Post by Peer on Sept 12, 2019 9:00:37 GMT -5
So I had a chance to play tonight... admittedly the older 1.3 version not the just posted 1.4 version. I like it! My only suggestion really is that it doesn't get hard enough, quick enough. I made it through to round 25 while barely busting a sweat and then had to switch off as I'd run out of time before doing something else tonight. I like the mechanics with the random dots, and the moving dots and the tunnels at different places per level. I just never felt much under pressure though. Also I only tried it on my better behaved Vectrex, I will make sure to test it against the troublesome Vectrex with the wacky calibration requirements to see how it fares! Great! Many thanks for testing, especially for giving feedback on the difficulty. So far, only three people have commented on the difficulty, including you. I have just uploaded the next release candidate version 1-5. That one offers three different modes of difficulty (GAMES 1 – 3). Difficulty 1 is identical to release candidate 1-4, difficulty 2 is a bit harder, and 3 is hard. Or rather should be I am not sure if I will keep it like this, or if I will settle for just one difficulty. Looking forward to reading your thoughts! Cheers, Peer |
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Post by TrekMD on Sept 13, 2019 7:42:23 GMT -5
I did forget to mention the difficulty. I got to 30 levels fairly easily. I'll have to test the new version.
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Post by Mayhem on Sept 13, 2019 8:14:06 GMT -5
Will see if I can try game 3 over the weekend with version 1.5
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Vec-Man
Sept 14, 2019 3:02:56 GMT -5
Post by Peer on Sept 14, 2019 3:02:56 GMT -5
I did forget to mention the difficulty. I got to 30 levels fairly easily. I'll have to test the new version. Great, thanks for letting me know. Also great that you want to test the new version! |
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Vec-Man
Sept 14, 2019 3:12:22 GMT -5
Post by Peer on Sept 14, 2019 3:12:22 GMT -5
Will see if I can try game 3 over the weekend with version 1.5 Cool, thanks!
Juts as a note: There is a total of 256 levels. The "difficulty" (according to parameter settings) continuously ramps up from level to level. This also includes the maze layouts.
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Post by hcmffm on Sept 14, 2019 15:33:17 GMT -5
@peer:
From what I can see the user can choose the difficulty level (GAME 1-3) but no longer set the level, right? This is o.k. for me - most important bit is that the highscore (=level) still works. I didn't tell you before but Vec-Man is a hot candidate for this year's Vector War.
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I will probably hide that somewhere else in a secret place, more in the true spirit of the original 1982 developers and games…
