New game! Whack 'Em Smack 'Em Byrons

[ArugulaZ]

Thanks to Oscar Toledo Gutierrez's CVBasic, I was able to write my very own ColecoVision game, Whack 'Em Smack 'Em Byrons. (It's patterned after Whack-a-Mole and specifically Mole Attack for the VIC-20.) Over the last six months, CVBasic has grown to support a variety of other systems, and my games has been adapted for those machines, including the SG-1000, the MSX computer, and the obscure Spectravision computer. Now that CVBasic offers support for the 6502-powered Creativision, I've decided to bring my game to that format as well.

However! Porting the game to that system has proven more difficult than anticipated. The timing that worked well enough on the ColecoVision doesn't on the Creativision, due to its slower clock speed and adoption of the PAL video format. The current build of the game is playable from start to finish, but I'm not entirely happy with the way it runs... which is where I hope you'll come in. I could use some play testers to get Whack 'Em Smack 'Em Byrons over the finish line. I don't plan to completely overhaul the game- it's pretty much the way I want it to be on other formats- but I would like to get some feedback from a difference audience. Are you enjoying the game? Should it be written with the PAL format in mind? (The consensus on AtariAge is that it should be, since very few Creativisions run in NTSC format.) The intro animation isn't too tacky, is it?

Your best bet for playing the game as intended is either on real hardware (and I have no idea what the flash cart scene is like on the Creativision) or ColecoDS, the ColecoVision/TMS emulator for Nintendo DS systems. FunnyMu is not ideal, because it only allows cardinal directions for input, and Whack 'Em Smack 'Em Byrons all but requires diagonals to make any progress.

This is strictly a volunteer position... I haven't yet made a dime off the game myself, and don't anticipate making any money off the Creativision version in particular. However, if you're okay with that and want to encourage homebrew development on this system, I would appreciate the assistance. Thanks much for your time!

[Scouter3d]

Hi ArugulaZ and welcome to the forum!

the only flash cartridge to play homebrew games on the Creativision (as far as i know) is the MegaSDCart (created by @username@ and my humble self... :0))

It is also possible to burn the ROM to an eprom and use one of the multicarts (the last version is by cheshirenoir iirc ...) or insert the eprom into a modified CSL cartridge (i called these "Everycart")

I will gladly give "Whack ´em" a few testruns :0)

Cheers, TOM:0)

[Scouter3d]

Hi,

so here is my first impression...

The game runs and sound / video play ok , maybe it is a bit fast

But the big thing is the joystick diagonals...
the 4 main directions N,S,E,W work
but the diagonals do not work correctly, most of the time you get 2 flickering hammers at the same time...

this looks like a problem with handling the 16 (yes, really 16) Joystickdirections the Creativision Joysticks offer.

see attached pic...

20240823_135551.jpg

Cheers, TOM:0)

[ArugulaZ]

Okay. Geez, I'm not sure what I can do about this. I've been having issues with diagonals on the Creativision from the start- the emulators don't read diags properly either- and it may take an update of the compiler before it's addressed. Sixteen directions, really? Like an Intellivision? One wonders what the point was in that, considering that most games on this system don't even use eight directions, let alone sixteen.

CVBasic has support for the keypad or keyboard in some systems (MSX, ColecoVision, Spectravision). I don't think keypad support has been added to Creativision yet, but again, I don't fully understand how the keypads on the Creativision controllers work. They're each half of a keyboard, right? You put 'em together and you can type on them? So the left keypad should at least have QWE/ASD/ZXC, which would be enough to play this game. I just need to have access to the keypads, and I don't think I have them... at least not yet.

Apologies for the inconvenience, but I do appreciate the testing. I'll do what I can to fix the issues.

[Scouter3d]

Hi,

not sure how you read the joystick values... (and i have no clue about CVBasic)

but i guess you could directly PEEK the correct joystick values from the PIA or use a BIOS function?
(you see i am not a programmer :0))

Cheers, TOM:0)

[MADrigal]

Moving this into the 'games programming' section.

[MADrigal]

They're each half of a keyboard, right? You put 'em together and you can type on them? So the left keypad should at least have QWE/ASD/ZXC, which would be enough to play this game. I just need to have access to the keypads, and I don't think I have them... at least not yet.

Yes CreatiVision has an actual keyboard, with two separate halves + one joystick, each piece plugged to one connector: one connector to the left and one to the right of the console. Have a look at the manual and photos here: https://www.madrigaldesign.it/creativemu ... .php?id=42

But there is also an optional official after-market rubber-keyed keyboard which comes as a single piece. It has no joysticks and it also connects to the two connectors. Hardware-wise it works exactly as the two separate 'pads'. Get the manual from here: https://www.madrigaldesign.it/creativemu ... .php?id=25

Everything (joysticks, buttons and keys) are mapped via the same principle. Emulators typically map everything except the diagonals. One way could be by mapping the 1st player's joystick to the keypad. For example FunnyMu uses SDL and SDLK_* allows access to all numeric pad:
SDLK_KP0 keypad 0
SDLK_KP1 keypad 1
SDLK_KP2 keypad 2
SDLK_KP3 keypad 3
SDLK_KP4 keypad 4
SDLK_KP5 keypad 5
SDLK_KP6 keypad 6
SDLK_KP7 keypad 7
SDLK_KP8 keypad 8
SDLK_KP9 keypad 9 (from https://www.libsdl.org/release/SDL-1.2. ... dlkey.html)
Problem is that you also need to map the right joystick in the emulator - and you would typically use the keypad for this. So the only way would to build special versions of the emulator mapping exclusively the joysticks into the A..Z keys area, or adding options to remap keys to the emulator.

[MADrigal]

Played the game a little bit - that's an absolute cracker! Love the intro, too! Plays great on FunnyMu Unofficial except the diagonals

[Scouter3d]

Hi,

@username@ created the CV BIOS Referece, there you can also find the BIOS function for reading joysticks and keyboards...

https://www.madrigaldesign.it/forum/vie ... f=13&t=348

Cheers, TOM:09

[ArugulaZ]

I don't think CVBasic allows you to access I/O through the BIOS. I attempted that with some other system (MSX, I think) and had no luck. I'll probably have to wait for Nanochess to expand his compiler and offer direct access to the keypad... and I'm hesitant to bug the guy about it, since he's already done so much to optimize the compiler for the sake of my game.

I dunno. Maybe there's a backdoor; some way to make the game work properly on this system that I hadn't considered. I'll have to mull it over.