Arcade Homebrew: Sokoban LE for Taito L System

Started by zapiy, October 12, 2015, 19:07:55 PM

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cmonkey

The files need to be in a 'roms' folder within the MAME folder.

So the structure should look like :-

MAME -> roms -> plotting -> ic10/etc

zapiy

Wallop, works a treat and what a great achievement.

Just brilliant. :113:

Own: Jaguar, Lynx, Dreamcast, Saturn, MegaDrive, MegaCD, 32X, GameGear, PS3, PS, PSP, Wii, GameCube, N64, DS, GBA, GBC, GBP, GB,  Xbox, 3DO, CDi,  WonderSwan, WonderSwan Colour NGPC

cmonkey


zapiy

Actually don't remember this game from the Speccy days but how addictive is it. Great choice for a conversion.

Own: Jaguar, Lynx, Dreamcast, Saturn, MegaDrive, MegaCD, 32X, GameGear, PS3, PS, PSP, Wii, GameCube, N64, DS, GBA, GBC, GBP, GB,  Xbox, 3DO, CDi,  WonderSwan, WonderSwan Colour NGPC

Saturn

Awesome game! Took me a while to get to a Windows machine. Loaded right up via the info you guys posted.
Thanks for this, will try to spend some time on it this weekend 8)



Quick rundown for self in Windows:
Download MAME/64
Unzip to C:mame64
Create a file in C:mame64 named gal16v8-b86-04.bin
Copy cmd.exe from C:WindowsSystem32 & paste into C:mame64
Double click and paste: mame64 plotting
Alt + Enter to exit full screen
Play

For Ubuntu 14.04:
Extract the files then rezip only b96-07.ic9, b96-08.ic8, ic10 and a 0 bytes (user) created gal16v8-b86-04.bin
sudo nautilus /usr/local/share/games/mame/roms to add
When loaded, an error will appear about missing CHD files, etc. Disregard by pressing Enter and play.

cmonkey

Hope you enjoy it :-)  Now go secret warp searching....

Saturn

Got this working in Ubuntu 8)
Anyone get past level 8? I thought level 4 was a mind bender but jeeeeze lol.

Awesome game btw. I haven't found any warps yet and not sure how to trigger one/them but still searching and documenting the passwords as I go.

cmonkey

Level 8 is easy compared to some of the later levels!  I can get to level 13 before I start to really struggle.  If you let the attract mode play through all 8 of the first levels it may help you.  Failing that there are plenty of Sokoban solving applications out there, for when you get really stuck!

I can safely tell you that if you've reached level 8 then you've already gone past the first secret warp level....  A little hint, level walls can be deceiving..... ;-)

So which music track do you like the best?  I think the track by Alone Coder is fantastic, personally. :-)  Which graphical style do you prefer?

Post the level passwords up on here so that other players can play some of the other levels too!

Saturn

Man, I was trying to push against walls when I could so it looks like I need to go back and try that some more! Thanks for the info :113:
I was thinking that if I were already stuck on 8 with 92 more to go, I was in bad shape lol. Guess that was accurate.
Here are the passwords I've found so far:
2. CAPBOD or CAAAOC
3. DAAGFC or DACFGC
4. EAEDHC or EAMEID (-> make a row of 4 across below you with 1 above 2nd in row)
5. FAGCBC or FAFGMD (Warp 1, starting from southeast corner-5 spaces north, 1 space west. Takes you to level 32)
6. GAABLC
7. HANGGD
8. IAOEGD
9. JABFDC
10. KADCDC
11. LAKFGD
12. MAJGHD
13. NABDND
14. OAGBJD
15. PADBPD
16. ABAGLC
17. BBFHCC
18. CBJFND
19. DBNBOD
20. EBDHDC
21. FBJHKD
22.

33. BCIGND or BCACJC or BCPCID or BCDHBC or BCHFDC or BCFHDC or BCJDDC or BCNAMD
34. CCHCBC
35. DCLAMD
36. ECIHJD
37. FCKHED
38. GCLGFD
39. HCGHKD
40. ICIBPD
41. JCDEOD
42. KCBDMD (warp 2-push block to the left 2 spaces to the left then go up and weave around)

91. LFACOD
92. MFFDFD
93. NFMEOA
94. OFJAAD
95. PFHBAD
96. AGBALC
97. BGPFHD
98. CGCHND
99. DGNAKD

Didn't know if I could/should post them earlier but now that it's open season, anyone else feel free to add to them. Personally, I don't think I'll proceed unless I do it myself but given the long, boring days at work who knows.

Favorite Graphical Set is either The Tower or Futurist and been listening to Alone Coder and Karboflex (with the volume down for Karboflex as the high notes can be a little piercing :p ).
Top notch game!

cmonkey

Thanks for the kind compliments :-)

I figured that not many people these days have the time to play through 99 levels of any game, that's why I put the secret warps in.  If you find them both then you only need to complete 24 levels of the game to see the game end sequence.  You can then always go back to the game, if you want, in the future.

The original Spectrum game has a built-in level skip cheat, which is activated by holding down the 'e', 'c' and 's' keys at the main menu.  You then hold down the 'c' key and press either 'm' (to skip forward a level) or 'n' (to go back a level) during game play. 

I wanted to use the L System Plotting board as my base level target board and that particular board only has a 4-way stick, 1 fire button and 1 start button, I also wanted to target 1-player control panels on arcade cabs (as many people only have a 1-player control panel).  This limitation meant it was going to be pretty much impossible to port the method of activation of the original cheat mode, so I came up with the idea of the secret warps to replace the level skip cheat.  At one point I toyed with the idea of using the Konami code to activate it, but it didn't seem right using that code on Taito hardware!

Don't forget, you can easily replace the ORIGINAL tune in the game, all instructions to do so are in the readme.

Saturn

I'm glad you re-did it to include the warps :113:

cmonkey

Very well done on finding the first secret warp!  :41:  I was wondering whether I'd made them too hard to find, but evidently not!  Onwards and upwards...

Saturn

Let me say, I don't remember the last time I enjoyed a game this much. Very addictive on top of that.
I've been updating post #23 as I go. Was stuck on level 40 for hours lol. Finally got past it in a moment of exceptional clarity and hoped 41 would be a bit easier. Not the case at all. 41 makes 40 look like a weekend resort in the Bahamas. There are probably experts laughing at my dismay but tomorrow's another day 8)

If you include level 5 as being 'played', I'm on the 14th (hopefully) of 24 levels to see the ending. If I haven't missed the 2nd warp that is.
Anyway, this game freakin' ROCKS

cmonkey

I'm really happy that at least one person out there is enjoying my humble coding efforts :-)  Full credit needs to be given to Compiler Software though, I merely ported their fantastic game to arcade hardware.

You're certainly doing better than I did at completing levels without resorting to a solving application.  The figure of 24 levels to complete the game, if both warps are found, does NOT include level 5 as one of those levels, so you've only actually completed 13 of the 24 needed to beat the game.  Sorry!  The good news is that you're agonisingly close to the second warp now....

I presume you're playing it in MAME, and not on real hardware?  Having had the luxury of playing it both ways I can safely say that it seems to play slightly better on real hardware.  The control mechanic seems to work better on hardware and you spend less time overshooting your destination square and then having to use 'undo' to go back 1 step.

I don't know whether you've seen it or not but there's a full level map on Compiler's website :-

http://compiler.speccy.org/files/maps/SokobanMap.png

Level 24 on that map has a bug in it (since that map was created the bug has been fixed in the code by the guys at Compiler, it's just the map itself which hasn't been updated to reflect the fix).

Really glad you're enjoying the game though, makes the dev time worthwhile when I hear comments like this :-)

Saturn

Quote from: "cmonkey"I'm really happy that at least one person out there is enjoying my humble coding efforts :-)  Full credit needs to be given to Compiler Software though, I merely ported their fantastic game to arcade hardware.
Well, props to Compiler Software for the game but if you hadn't ported it and zapiy hadn't posted this, I never would have heard of it.
Kudos to all involved. :) And that's some good news indeed. A glimmer of hope and certainty that I didn't miss the warp.
More than enough to continue the battle :15:

Quote from: "cmonkey"I don't know whether you've seen it or not but there's a full level map on Compiler's website :-

http://compiler.speccy.org/files/maps/SokobanMap.png

Level 24 on that map has a bug in it (since that map was created the bug has been fixed in the code by the guys at Compiler, it's just the map itself which hasn't been updated to reflect the fix).
I had not seen this. Considered trying to put it to use by looking and mapping out moves but hands on trial and error is probably the way to go. I've noticed that the amount of moves are more with smaller push distances lately. Everything has to be so precisely placed in order for it to work out. Whoever came up with these must have a headache from hell!

Quote from: "cmonkey"Really glad you're enjoying the game though, makes the dev time worthwhile when I hear comments like this :-)
Glad it's worth it. We need more incredible ports like these (the world as a whole) Great stuff :113: