Ice Hunter

[Beebson]

Ice Hunter is a nice 1983 platform game for the 64. Title screen says just Hunter, the inlay has the full name. You will have to find ice blocks from the caverns as they serve as building blocks for your igloo. Carry the ice blocks to the underground river and use them to travel to your igloo building site. You can kill the wolf and the sea lion either by making them to fall from the bridge or dropping an ice cube to their heads. Ice cube is fatal to the bird, too. Next levels will scroll (jerkily). There´s also a power pill, you can "eat" enemies by picking it up.

Longer game play.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBSMSblZ3M0

With sound.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cI2s9rS67Ug

Original game suits almost perfectly for mode 5, as the graphics are the blocky type, except smaller hires text for scoring. Without the reward screen, this might fit even to mode 2, and benefit with it´s colours, as the original uses 8 colours, though 3 of them are not in BBC palette. If this game was converted to BBC in 1983, they surely would have used mode 5, perhaps mode 2 and made the different reward screen the BBC way. But I thought to test the graphics in mode 1, to get the original look of the small text and to give extra colour for the player with dithering and to give the game some arcade look, to make the BBC look the better computer than 64.

The reward screen can be mode 5. But again I wanted to use dithering to separate ice from the sea, thus making it possible to use this picture in just 4 colours. The same could be done in mode 5, though, except the dithering will be more "blocky". But I want to test if it was possible to make this game in mode 1 in 1983, with 1983 knowledge. Using mode 1 just to make it stand out from the 64 games.

If the memory would be too tight, we could include just the igloo on the white background and make the player walk towards it. But in that case, probably the existing water graphics could be used on the right edge of the screen to put the player there, floating on an ice cube, then jumping to the ice/shore.

I have drawn the player again to reward screen, so some pixel or colour may be wrong. Dithered player won´t work too well against lighter background colours. It´s allright, but could be better. As it looks good against black, I would like to keep that dithered player, but in reward screen solid player would be better. Though, if cyan colour is changed to blue, the player has a better contrast against the blue sea, at least on AcornPad, until he enters the ice/shore. But I like the cyan colour, as it makes the igloo and the mountains and the ice look more ice like. I think the blue is a bit too dark there.

I would like to make one improvement to original game, if the reward screen can be fit in and there´s still a little amount of memory left. Each time the reward screen is shown, the colours (except white) could be randomly changed to some pre-chosen colour combinations what will give an impression about the different weather or different time of the day. The sea is not always either cyan or blue.

[nicolagiacobbe]

Nice project. Do you have a complete map of the game? I wasn't able to imagine what would the scrolling reveal. I suppose the screen is procedurally drawn but the action of the code is not obvious.

[tricky]

You could change some colours on interrupt and so keep the score and time different colours as well as the sky and mountains on the reward screen.

[Beebson]

To prevent any misunderstanding, there´s no project other than my mock-up pictures and thoughts. I would like to make it, but I have no coding skills.

I don´t have any maps, I had already looked for some 64 sites and did some search, too, but couldn´t find a map for this game. I think the scrolling will reveal just the opposite side of the screen. I may have tried it back in time, but as usually you just want to stay alive during the play, I am not sure if I had seen what there will be behind the corner. I think some review says the same, that scrolling just wraps the left side to the right side. It should be easy to see from some video, though. Or if you have somebody to help you while you play. That helper could watch if it´s only the same left hand side graphics what will appear on the right side.

As far as I know, there will be just one more wolf, ie two wolfs and the sea lion and the bird, but I have never seen more than just few levels. I was hoping someone with 65xx skills could have a look at the original 64 code. On the other hand, I think everything is seen already in the longer video, the screen design may vary, but I think there can´t be many more enemies at the same time before the game becomes too hard.

It should be possible to program it from the scratch using the existing graphics, changed to suit mode 1. Using mode 1 is just to make the game look like the arcade games of the day. The level design from the first few levels and the game play can be seen from the videos and by playing it on emulators. It shouldn´t be too hard to even get the original copy from some online shop or auction site. At least some years ago this game was frequently sold. But for the level design it might be good to break into code while playing it and have a look to find where the level design data is.

Changing the colours with the interrupt is a good idea. Though, the left bottom of the mountain might have the same colour as igloo and the sea, then, but that is a minor thing, and the picture may look even better that way.

[Cybershark]

So - to prevent any misunderstanding - you're suggesting that, not only should someone do all the work for you, but that they should also purchase a copy of the original game too?

[Beebson]

Buying the original 64 game is optional. Usually there are just two ways of test playing the original game, either using the emulator or playing it on the real hardware, so I thought to hint that the originals should be still available, if somebody wants to enjoy 64 original first.