where is the download for this? (if there is one) It looks amazing! Great work! Smile
The graphics are AMAZING!

Keep up the great work. I would love to play this on my calc.
john35588 wrote:
where is the download for this? (if there is one) It looks amazing! Great work! Smile
There isn't a download yet for the TI-84+CE as it's still in development, but if you have an 83+/84+ monochrome calculator, you can download the latest version here.

I'm sure I'll post a few demo downloads of the colour version as development continues, though Smile
JamesV wrote:
Small update on the CE version.. I've added in a couple more tiles, finished the explosion and door opening animations (although the latter isn't demonstrated here), finished the one-way laser beams, and drawn a placeholder alien sprite Razz I'm having trouble getting the aliens to look how I want when reducing the original 32x32 sprites down to 16x16 (I suck with pixel art), so I might need to ask for help at some point - I'll see how I go Smile



I can maybe help you with the graphics! Very Happy
3 years later... Neutral

I've spent some time over the last week working out where I was on this. I was previously using Paint.NET to draw the tiles/sprites and my own subpar utility to convert them.. But I've now switched over to using Aseprite for drawing and Mateo's convimg for conversion (same as what I used for Banchor) and it's going to make things a lot easier going forward.

So there's not a lot of progress on the face of it, but behind the scenes things are much cleaner. Different levels will utilise palette swapping to give some colour variation like the original Amiga game (see below me testing cycling through the 6 different palettes).

I also found I was handling key presses weird on this which was slowing things down a little, so I've fixed that. It's running at a good speed. But still missing a bunch of tiles and proper enemy sprites Razz

This looks like it might even be cooler than Banchor, at least graphics-wise! I can't wait until it is released!.
This post also made me a new member! #75
randomguy wrote:
This looks like it might even be cooler than Banchor, at least graphics-wise! I can't wait until it is released!.
This post also made me a new member! #75
Thanks! This is certainly a very different looking game, much more grungy, but also higher res with actual 16x16 sprites instead of the 8x8 scaled up sprites that Banchor used.

I mucked around last night with doing some partial palette modification to achieve the below transition into the emergency countdown sequences, which I'm happy with as it looks more or less the same as the Amiga version.

It's done by decrementing the G & B channels down to 0 over 32 frames for the palette entries that are used by floor and wall tiles.

James is killing it lately with progress! What is your source for inspiration?

Looking great, I love the palette change on emergency countdown.
Looking good, JamesV! I wasn't around at the time of you originally making this thread, so I'm happy I get another chance 3 years later. That palette change effect looks very good, as do the animations for the projectiles and electric things.

Keep up the great work, I hope to see more progress on this soon (but maybe let people finish Banchor CE before releasing another game, we can't all just play your games all day, as much as we'd like to).
tr1p1ea wrote:
What is your source for inspiration?
I was playing some Diablo 2 back in Jan, and that got me motivated to finish up Banchor. Consequently, getting that finished got me motivated to work on this some more Razz

Speaking of which, still progressing along. The last week has been spent setting up the tileset engine, so there will be 5 tilesets, and each of those tilesets have between 1-6 colour variations via palette switching. Obviously this won't be apparently on the monochrome version, but the CE version will have plenty of variation.

Below shows 3 of the tilesets that are mostly complete, which are the tilesets used for the existing 2 campaigns. The other 2 tilesets that I'm starting on now will be used for Episode III.

Looks amazing, the explosions are next level! The whole thing looks incredibly detailed.

It runs very smooth and the tileset variations give lots of variety.

Hoe much more do you have to do before a release?
Team 17 (or more specifically, Rico Holmes) did an incredible job with the original graphics, which the majority of this is ripped straight from, or in some cases ripped, scaled down and touched up.

tr1p1ea wrote:
Hoe much more do you have to do before a release?
A lot, but I'm happy with how I'm progressing. An abbreviated version of my to-do list is something like:

- Finish getting the existing game fully playable on the CE (Intex terminals still not working, more sprites, proper level transitions, visual effects for things such as level shrouded in darkness, countdown timer, etc.)
- Back port things such as multiple tilesets to the monochrome version
- Add 2(?) new enemies.
- Design the 30 new levels for Episode III. I have the overall campaign layout sketched out, but haven't drawn up any actual levels yet.
- Add additional Achievements and cheat codes.

I'm hoping to have everything finished up by around the middle of the year, assuming I don't get distracted by other stuff Razz I might release a few demo levels of the CE version sooner though for anyone interested in trying it out.
I've spent the last week working on getting the Intex computer terminals working on the CE version, getting the rest of the main menu working (eg. changing game options), as well as some of the basic visual effects/transitions. So nothing too fancy to show.. But here's a clip showing the above.



The Intex terminals are functionally finished, but I've got plans to make them look cooler, and same with the mission objective screens.
This is looking awesome! Can't wait to try it out! Very Happy
arusher999 wrote:
This is looking awesome! Can't wait to try it out! Very Happy
I'll be putting up a download link for a Beta later this week, stay tuned! Smile
3.0.0 Beta 1 can be downloaded here!

Here are the beta readme notes:

Code:
                       A L I E N   B R E E D  5
                           CE 3.0.0 Beta 1


I've included the v2.1.0 readme PDF that lists all the controls (which are identical on the new CE version), so refer to that if you're not familiar with previous versions of the game.

The main purpose of this first Beta is to get something out for people to try on the CE.

- Only the first 6 levels of Episode I are available.
- I haven't included the non-CE app for the TI-83+/84+ this time round, as there is still some tileset engine backporting I need to get done, but the plan is to include this in the next Beta.
- If you have played v1.x or 2.x of the non-CE version, then the game should feel very familiar, but look much cooler in it's colour form!
- There are likely bugs (I know of one minor one with enemies appearing out in space near the bottom of levels sometimes), but hopefully nothing nasty! Nevertheless, this is a Beta, so be warned! I recommend Archiving everything before playing.
- There's no visual indication of the player taking damage as yet. There will eventually be a HUD showing health, keys, ammo, etc. For the purpose of the Beta, you can see some simple stats on the Pause screen.
- Enemy sprites are all generic placeholders at the moment. Boss sprites aren't done at all, so they look like floating pixel garbage :P
- All the game files (AB5, ab5gfx, ab5lvl) can be Archived on your calc (in fact, again I recommend this, so that the game has plenty of RAM to load levels, etc.)
- I haven't tested with any shells, but I can't think of any reason this would cause issues.

Most importantly, if you do have any issues, please let me know either on Cemetech in the project thread (see below), or via email (also below).

Thanks, and enjoy!


Project Thread:
https://www.cemetech.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12244

Email:
jamesv82@live.com.au
I'm still working on cleaning up backend stuff, but I did improve the countdown sequence a little by adding in the screen shaking effect, and the level explosion sequence when the timer runs out.



There are a few tileset things to finish off Episodes I & II, then I want to do the HUD, and backport the tileset system to the 83+/84+, then I'll probably put up an updated beta.
Wow, that's looking incredible! I'm amazing how quickly you have the tileset scrolling, even with all the animations and NPC movements. Keep up the great work.
Running really smoothly! I love the red + explosions in the countdown ... it actually generates a great deal of urgency/panic!
KermMartian wrote:
Wow, that's looking incredible! I'm amazing how quickly you have the tileset scrolling, even with all the animations and NPC movements. Keep up the great work.
Thanks Kerm! A few of my coding sessions have been supplemented with your recent Train Simulator vids Smile

tr1p1ea wrote:
Running really smoothly! I love the red + explosions in the countdown ... it actually generates a great deal of urgency/panic!
Yeah the original game doesn't really have the screen shaking / random explosions during the countdown sequence, but I added them in lieu of the awesome soundtrack and VO work that I loved on the Amiga versions.

EDIT: The HUD is now working on the CE, and the player flashes when taking damage. I've mostly finished back porting the multiple tileset stuff to the 83+/84+ calcs so that the game is playable on there again too.

  
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