New Atari 2600 Homebrew - Scramble

Started by TrekMD, November 14, 2015, 14:28:59 PM

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TrekMD

Here is something that came as a total surprise!  Atari Age user johnnywc has just released a new homebrew for the Atari 2600:  Scramble!  The game is about 95% complete and it looks awesome! 

[size=140]How Far Can You Invade Our Scramble System?[/size]

OBJECTIVE

Scramble is a classic arcade game in which the player must navigate their ship across a side-scrolling terrain through six unique stages. Each stage has its own challenges and obstacles, including ground targets, rockets, fuel tanks, flying saucers and meteors. The player must avoid or destroy these hazards while maintaining the ship's limited fuel supply. The objective is to reach the end stage and destroy the enemy's base while trying to get a high score.

HOW TO PLAY
 
To play Scramble, use the joystick to navigate your ship over the terrain while avoiding the enemy attacks. Press the fire button to launch missiles and drop bombs (gamepads use button A to fire missiles and button B to drop bombs). Points are scored for travelling a certain distance and destroying enemy installations. Additional fuel is gained by destroying the fuel tanks. A player starts with 3 ships; a bonus ship is awarded at 10,000 points. The game ends when all ships have been destroyed. Good luck! 
 
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Features:
 
- one player, 3 skill levels (NOVICE, STANDARD, EXPERT)
- one button alternating missiles/bombs or two-button gamepads (Sega Genesis).  Gamepad must be plugged in prior to turning on the game since it is auto-detected.
- Stores up 10 hiscores during the game.  If you have a SaveKey or AtariVox, it will save your high scores so they will be available the next time you play.  To reset the high score table, press the button and move the joystick right on startup.
- Pause a game using the Color/BW switch or Pause button on a 7800.  Press the joystick button to resume the game or flip the Color/BW switch (Pause button on 7800)
- While a game is Paused, if the RIGHT DIFFICULTLY is in the A position, you can use the joystick to change the current stage or level (left/right for stage, up/down for level).  Score is reset to 0.  Unpause to start a new game from the stage/level selected (good for practice and testing)
- 8 increasing levels of difficultly

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[align=center:3k5pmj6d]Check out more details and download the game binary here:
[size=180]Development Thread[/size][/align:3k5pmj6d]

Going to the final frontier, gaming...


Shadowrunner

That is a great looking version of Scramble, very impressive.

TrekMD

It sure is!  It's hard to believe this is the 2600!

Going to the final frontier, gaming...


IndieRetroNews

Nice find! Made sure to tag RVG on our site :D

TrekMD


Going to the final frontier, gaming...


TrekMD

Today's update:
QuoteHere are a list of the changes:

- button/reset can be used to bypass AA splash screen to jump straight to the title screen
- fixed a bug where a delay/debounce was not used when changing the starting level using the PAUSE/right difficulty 'cheat' (it worked when changing the stage)
- changed skill level colors to green (novice) yellow (arcade) and red (expert).
- score color is always white; changed the progress display border color to match the skill
- implemented auto-fire (left difficulty = A). Hold down the button to auto-fire, press button for single shot.
- score table display now shows one score at a time with a slight delay
- implemented a one-second delay when starting a stage on a new game or when a life is lost, per the arcade (displays # of ships remaining during that second then decrements after 1 second).
- fireballs are a little bit higher on NOVICE and ARCADE level (it was too close to the mountain before)
- saucers are now synchronized instead of having a random startup height
- rockets launch a bit earlier
- fixed a bug where the reserve ship display was corrupted if the # of ships in reserve was >3. max reserve ships increased to 255 (was 7)
- fixed a bug where launched missiles would still travel horizontally when your ship got hit (they should travel straight up when the terrain stops scrolling)
- max ship X value is 2 pixels more to the right (per the arcade)
- increased the maximum sprites from 12 to 14 as I noticed on the busy levels (tunnel, fireball) sometimes your explosion wouldn't be displayed. I hope this doesn't cause screen rolls!
- implemented autofire for 2-button gamepads also (still use LEFT DIFF A to enable)
- launch frequency for rockets is now greater for higher skill levels
- on frames where the terrain/ground objects are scrolling (every 8th frame), I adjust the x value during collision detection for missiles/bombs. This *should* fix the issue where it appears that your bombs are missing a target.
- fixed a bug where an extra ship wasn't being awarded for 100,000 (lol guess who finally broke 100K :)
- tweaked the collision detection to make it more accurate.
- tightened up two areas in the maze at the end to better match the arcade.
- fixed a bug in the rocket vertical speed routine; they should move a bit faster on higher levels
- fixed a bug where if you destroyed the base and then crashed, the next level would start and after a few seconds it would display the Congrats message and skip to the *next* level. In this case, it will now forces you to destroy the base *and* successfully escape before allowing you to go to the next level.

Check the first post on the development thread for the latest binary.  :)

Going to the final frontier, gaming...


Saturn

This looks really cool. The graphics are amazing!

TrekMD

Latest update...

QuoteHere's the latest release for Scramble, approaching release candidate soon assuming no issues. Last chance to test and get in those suggestions! :))

Going to the final frontier, gaming...