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Post by hcmffm on Aug 7, 2023 3:21:16 GMT -5
Thank you, for the video of Happy Bird, Brett. At the end of the video the bug can be seen, right? Vectrex Academy is over and I'm not sure whether Peer can still route info to the students - but I guess so.
ATM, I'm on holidays at the Baltic Sea - without Vectrex console. But I've played the new games a bit and will post some short feedback tonight.
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Post by Peer on Aug 7, 2023 4:04:20 GMT -5
Thank you, for the video of Happy Bird, Brett. At the end of the video the bug can be seen, right? Vectrex Academy is over and I'm not sure whether Peer can still route info to the students - but I guess so. ATM, I'm on holidays at the Baltic Sea - without Vectrex console. But I've played the new games a bit and will post some short feedback tonight. I will forward this to the programmer. If possible, it would be great to have some more specific information about the glitch. playvectrex: Is this what can be seen at the end of the video? Does the glitch occur completely randomly, or can it be triggered or reproduced in some way? |
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Post by playvectrex on Aug 7, 2023 10:30:04 GMT -5
Hi, yes the glitch can be seen at the end of the video. Basically what happens is sometimes when you are near but nowhere near touching the bottom pipe, you die. If you play the game for a while you'll see you can get very close normally to the top and bottom pipes, sometimes even touching them... but randomly you'll be just about ready to jump where you have been jumping comfortably away from the pipe, and the game counts you as dead. Sometimes you are not pointed down like in my video, and sometimes you are pointed more down when it happens.
If the bug is not in the hit detection code, it could be in the code that updates the position before drawing updates. Hit detection should be after both of those though, so what you see is what you get.
I got sucked into playing Wet Cat last night, and it's a perfect game IMO. I would love to see that one in Vector War. I think everyone will have a lot of fun with it.
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Post by playvectrex on Aug 7, 2023 10:42:47 GMT -5
I've read the instruction manual for Wet Cat, and it doesn't say if it ends at all. I'm curious what the theoretical end limit would be if there isn't a programmed ending. It gets pretty fast moving above 400, and if I'm not hitting many springs I can't keep moving fast enough. My high score so far is 485, and many 400+ games.
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Post by stevenv on Aug 7, 2023 13:24:33 GMT -5
I would also like to know if there is an ending to Wet Cat ( not that I can get past 300)
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Post by Peer on Aug 8, 2023 1:53:06 GMT -5
I would also like to know if there is an ending to Wet Cat ( not that I can get past 300) The programmer gave me permission to reveal "that the game can be won by reaching a specific score…"  |
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Post by Malban on Aug 8, 2023 3:32:08 GMT -5
I still think it would be nice to have sources to all "your" games.
Can't you take that in the class description, that all sources will be given to open source after finishing the course?
Might even encourage the students to enter good/meaningful comments ...
Just a thought...
Cheers
Malban
(PS. I got your mail about Clean Sweep - no I didn't know, interesting though ... )
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Post by hcmffm on Aug 8, 2023 3:56:31 GMT -5
O.k., here come short reviews on the remaining new four games of Vectrex Academy 2023. I'm on holidays but have less time for providing feedback due to fine weather and activities, so there won't be any detailed feedback. Please let me know in case you haven't received detailed feedback, yet, and you're interested in such. Tee timeTee time is a mini golf game and quite some positive suprise: There are several holes with a lot of variation in it. Game control is very precise - ball decelerates a bit too quickly. A multi-player mode would be cool (one after another). Score card which is shown at the end flickers a lot. Perhaps contents of score card could be split into two pages. Alternatively, the font could be optimized, e.g. a 1 could be just a vertical vector. But all in all Tee time is very well done with lots of thoughts and work put into the various holes. Vec T-Rex RunNice set-up and I like the name of the game "VEC T-REX RUN". Jumping is quite challenging right from the start - if you don't time your jumps right you'll end up in a cactus. I've scored about 400 points, only, and am curious which challenges will follow when scoring higher. 1024A longer time ago I've played 2048 but at first I had no clue what to do (perhaps reading manuals might be a good idea). But soon I realized how to combine the shapes. The shapes are well chosen. ATM, scoring is a bit "rough", i.e. you get a point whenever combining into a complexer shape that didn't exist before which doesn't happen very often. IIRC, I scored 9. Another game that is well done and fun to play. VECVENTUREI confess that role play games (RPG) are not quite my game type. And I admit that I didn't read the manual of VecVenture. You guess it: I've tried to play VecVenture but failed poorly. I've fought against a snake twice but hit point went down and down. Looks as if I used the wrong weapon. Nevertheless I had the impression that VecVenture is very playable and another surprise of Vectrex Academy 2023. All in all, your (the students') result is amazing and outstanding: Each of the 12 games is pretty complete including some soundFX and scoring. And games have variations in it like the various car types in VecDrift or the one or two player mode in Tank Master. Vector War XIII will be announced, soon and Wet Cat is a hot candidate - it would be cool if Wet Cat would be beaten within Vector War and not beforehand  . There are other candidates for Vector War like VecDrift, Cliff Jump, Get In Shape, Happy Bird, and more, but I still have to try out a bit more and then decide. All you students have put a lot of effort, time, and love into your games and one can really see this when looking at the results. Thank you very much for this! May all your other lessons be as successful as this one! |
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Post by SiLic0ne t0aD on Aug 8, 2023 22:17:31 GMT -5
Finally had a chance to try some of these. Some great games here this year! I didn't read any instructions yet, but just had a quick play, with some of my favorites being: Happy Bird, Wet Cat, and Tee Time (probably my favorite & is the first Vectrex golf game that I'm aware of). Cliff Jump looks like it can be really fun too, but I need to read the manual and practice. Anyway, keep up the great work! 😎
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Post by nexus6 on Aug 9, 2023 3:01:10 GMT -5
The golf game (Tee Time) had not been on my radar until now. Nice!
Malban's suggestion is a good idea. Then programmer can leran from them or, if there should be a motivated programmer in the forum, someone could develop the games, that were created in a short period of time, further. Provided that the students agree to this.
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Post by Chainsaw on Aug 9, 2023 6:44:40 GMT -5
Now after some bad month (sickness, lot of work etc) I have a few days off now, and played all games of the 2023 Vectrex Academy. Don't want to write a lot of reviews, somehow ALL games are great, nice and funny, and sure, some like the one game more, some like the other game more, it is a matter of taste.
My favourite is Wetcat (because I like cats, and also the gameplay - I was also already fan of the Nintendo Game&Watch Climber or other games like Ice climber). Next weekend a friend will visit me, then we will try out the 2 player mode of Tank Master (we also play sometimes Armor Ambush on the Atari 2600)...
Also after comparing some beta versions to the final games, there was a lot of progress in a lot of the games, and all games are looking great. OK, will try out VecVenture and Cliff Diving again later - have to read the manuals first.
*** Thanks to all the programmers of these great games. I admire your work. ***
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Post by Peer on Aug 9, 2023 7:01:05 GMT -5
Thank you guys, for all the great feedback here in all those recent posts! What a great motivation, not only for the students, but also for me! I still think it would be nice to have sources to all "your" games. Can't you take that in the class description, that all sources will be given to open source after finishing the course? Might even encourage the students to enter good/meaningful comments ... Just a thought... ... Malban's suggestion is a good idea. Then programmer can leran from them or, if there should be a motivated programmer in the forum, someone could develop the games, that were created in a short period of time, further. Provided that the students agree to this. "I am sorry Dave, I am afraid I can't do that." I have already thought about this a couple of years ago and investigated the possibilities. As much as I like the idea, unfortunately, this is not an option. Let me explain. The source code is what the students hand in as their results of this class. In other words, handing in the source code equals the exam. The grades the students get for this class are based on what they have written, and on how "well" their source code is written. The course is, after all, a programming class which only "accidentally" uses the Vectrex as a target system. And for everything exam-related, there are (for good reasons) regulations which are to be observed and followed. Technically, making the sources of the projects publicly available, would correspond to conducting e.g. a written math exam, and then, afterwards, openly publishing what each student has written as answers, which would be a violation to general examination regulations and privacy policies. Requesting, or asking for consent to such publishing prior to the exam, would also be in violation to those regulations. I have not tried to argue my way around this, as I am already stretching and bending the laws of physics as far as some other marginal topics are concerned (external visibility of the project web pages, availability of the game binaries). The whole concept of the Vectrex Academy course by itself is already a bit unusual in the overall university setting. And unusual things are often met with suspicious (and sometimes envious) eyes, so I rather play this safe and do not pursue this matter any further. "This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it." 😉
Many Cheers, Peer
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Post by hcmffm on Aug 11, 2023 3:15:14 GMT -5
"This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it." Luckily, the Vectrex can be programmed - other than the Odyssey. |
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Post by Peer on Aug 11, 2023 4:38:26 GMT -5
"This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it." Luckily, the Vectrex can be programmed - other than the Odyssey. "Dave, this conversation can serve no purpose anymore. Goodbye." |
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Post by nexus6 on Aug 12, 2023 11:55:27 GMT -5
All games are nice and well done, but Wet Cat is for me the banger this year.
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. There are other candidates for Vector War like VecDrift, Cliff Jump, Get In Shape, Happy Bird, and more, but I still have to try out a bit more and then decide. 
