UCC2016 Final Results!

Discuss Everything related to UCC, share progress of your game, ask questions, etc.
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Jubatian
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Re: UCC2016 Final Results!

Post by Jubatian »

Damn...

Which video mode is used in Grobian's Stormforce? On the wiki, you (Uze) listed it as a Mode 3 game, but its resolution is totally off to be Mode 3, and is also totally off to be Mode 2 (which I first assumed). Upon closer inspection it is a RAM tiled mode (by memory activity in CUzeBox) at 24 tiles width (192 pixels, 7 cycles per pixel), then what told me it must be Mode 74 was the pattern at 0x0F00, the block before the last. It is a very distinctive pattern corresponding with the palette buffer of Mode 74 (you don't see this in FoaD since it uses the reset concept and the main program's stack and various temporaries keep overriding it, although you see it for a moment when the Uzebox logo displays).

Then I checked the source. It is M74. He used the sprite demo to build the game. Odd, I wouldn't have thought it as the mode wasn't even officially released! :shock: (just sitting in my Uzebox fork).

So now there are two games in existence using M74! :)

(And I managed to actually finish the first level, finally! :D)

(Edit: Seems like it isn't always easy to notice unusual effects if they flow well with the game. I dug a bit deeper in the source realizing it implements some fading. Let's check the game... It uses fading, I just didn't even notice it until now as it is used in a fitting way, that type of smooth fading which is impossible with the DDR register)
grobian99
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Re: UCC2016 Final Results!

Post by grobian99 »

Hi Jubatian!

Yes,you're right, Stormforce uses M74 , i hope you don't mind :)

When i started creating it i was trying with Mode 3 but the M74 sprite demo was quite impressive.
so i switch over to M74 when i found the documentation in the wiki.

With this mode it was quite easy to implement the effects like the star field or the fading.

I'm still thinking about adding some more features to to the game as there is still some space left.

I would like to add some kind of music or soundtrack but unfortunatelly my skills for that are far to limited.
But maybe if someone could provide me some nice fitting music for the game, i will update it ;)

By the way, sorry for not posting more often to the forum, but i didn't find much time for that in the past...


Regards

Markus
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D3thAdd3r
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Re: UCC2016 Final Results!

Post by D3thAdd3r »

grobian99 wrote:But maybe if someone could provide me some nice fitting music for the game, i will update it
Are you looking to keep the entire game original media, and avoid something like a Gradius midi conversion?

I kind of thought that looks a little different than mode 2 also, but I had assumed it was since what else could it be. Kudos for being an early adopter, that's is an adventurous move. M74 still seems a bit overwhelming to me, just for the amount of stuff it can do(good problems to have of course).
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Jubatian
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Re: UCC2016 Final Results!

Post by Jubatian »

grobian99 wrote:Yes,you're right, Stormforce uses M74 , i hope you don't mind :)
Of course not! Nice, I thought the mode was just too complex for anyone to even dare to try it, and you pulled this off without even silently asking me how to do something with it, figuring out what you needed on your own (such as adding scrolling which didn't have any demonstration before I released FoaD for the UCC).

If you like the genre, now there is another option for video mode: Mode 72. This is more ROM intensive (depending on the tileset you use), but it leaves you with lots of RAM and CPU time to use for more intensive game state and logic, might be useful for shooters (I will design additional sprite modes for it with dedicated small bullet sprites to exploit the full 20 sprite capability).

I see there should be lots of room for extra stuff there, yours is actually the smallest game of the UCC entries at 43K (FoaD's demo isn't actually 60K, it reserves lots of currently empty space, but even deducting those, it is I think somewhat larger than this). So keep on, make it something even better! :)
grobian99
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Re: UCC2016 Final Results!

Post by grobian99 »

D3thAdd3r wrote: Are you looking to keep the entire game original media, and avoid something like a Gradius midi conversion?
A original media would be perfect, but i think that´s the most complicated...

I´d like to add some music for the gameplay and a kind of jingle for starting and finishing a level.

I tried to convert some NSF files, but so far the results were not that good.
I´m using OSX, so it´s a bit difficult to get the right tools to editing and converting.
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D3thAdd3r
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Re: UCC2016 Final Results!

Post by D3thAdd3r »

I whipped up 2 song conversions with Stormforce in mind. I converted them quick and dirty, tweaked a bit on patches, and hacked it into my current project(why the rom is so huge) so I don't have any large time investment here. Don't feel obligated to use them in your final version, but if they help inspire your development on this game it served it's purpose. Else a decent little music demo, and we haven't had one of those for a while 8-)

If your patch structure has not changed I think you can just copy over the existing, include the music and start it, since it includes the effects in your posted source.
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grobian99
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Re: UCC2016 Final Results!

Post by grobian99 »

Hi,

thanks a lot, :)
i will give it a try.

regards

Markus
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Jubatian
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Re: UCC2016 Final Results!

Post by Jubatian »

Nebososo's 65536 in 1 is still a very nice game to play :)

I took the console to a friend to have some fun (for multiplayer, we played Tank-Fu, well, I think that's about the best multiplayer game for the console now, the diversity of the levels worked nicely). He also noticed Monster and Trollen among the games, finding those very entertaining to play (and by Monster, recalled the old DOS Duck Tales game which had a similarly designed, but much simpler cave level, of course likely another Hunt the Wumpus knock-off). The level generation in this game is excellent!

He also turned out to be a better player than me in Grobian's StormForce. I think he almost completed Level 2, at least got to areas previously unseen by me. It still remained a mystery whether that game had a Level 3...
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Kerby
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Re: UCC2016 Final Results!

Post by Kerby »

Yes, the game has a level 3, I completely passed level 2. By the way, level 3 is like the first level!
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