Pitfall

[fizgog]

Alpha version 0.010

This build adds the following : -

Added game over send effect
Further optimisations and code cleanup

Fixed : Stopped falling sound and losing points when falling into swamp - should only lose a life and play death sfx
Fixed : Stopped player being hit by logs when falling into holes and making him judder up an down

Pitfall-0.010.ssd

(35 KiB) Downloaded 25 times

Getting close to a final release

[fizgog]

Bug in previous version - that's what happens when your still coding at 2am in the morning

Alpha version 0.011

This build adds the following : -

Fixed : Stopped drowning sequence falling through to lower level and not killing you

Pitfall-0.011.ssd

(35 KiB) Downloaded 25 times

[ChrisB]

Coming along nicely.

Bug - occasionally (best kind of bug) the game doesn't seem to correctly initialise a screen leading to duplicates.

pitfall duplicate.png (4.15 KiB) Viewed 6058 times

[Cybershark]

the game doesn't seem to correctly initialise a screen leading to duplicates.

Yep, I can verify that. Sometimes just the rope, not the duplicate scorpion. One remains static while the other animates.
Was going to report on the fall-through lakes but see that's been fixed now

Another thing I've just noticed - which seems to date back a few versions - is a glitch when walking over a (static) log repeatedly. When the log is redrawn after the character passes, the vertical offset of the redrawn part seems to be off. This increases on every subsequent walk over until it reaches this height:

[fizgog]

Thanks both, the duplication bug will be me going crazy cleaning up the code and optimising without thinking through the consequences

That second bug I’ve not seen before, but will look into it later tonight

Things to do before the final release

Fix the 2 bugs
Revisit the rope logic
Check quicksand timings
Add pause
Add sound on / off
Add game escape
Add joystick support
Add clean reset when break hit

Think that’s everything

[fizgog]

Both bugs fixed

Wasted 2 hours last night trying to fix the second one and gave up at 1am, slept on it and 5 mins this morning it was fixed

There was a missing CLC

Need to look at the other missing features next

[Rob_hawk]

Wasted 2 hours last night trying to fix the second one and gave up at 1am, slept on it and 5 mins this morning it was fixed

So often the way!

[fizgog]

Quick update to say I’ve added the Escape key to end the current game and Escape gain to exit the game cleanly.

Started to rewrite the swamp annimation and vine swinging code, but have completely broken the game as its started locking up.
I need to go back to a previous git version and start this bit of coding again, but I’m feeling drained at the moment

[Cybershark]

You have been going pretty flat-out on this. Puts almost all of the other coders on here to shame!

Take a breather and get your head straight again

[fizgog]

Alpha version 0.012

This build adds the following : -

Fixed reported duplicate errors
Fixed reported log background corruption bug

New vine swing code, thanks again to ChrisB for further help in the optimisation of it.
Added Pause On / Off
Added Sound On / Off
NB Long key presses required on both P and S

Added Escape from current playing game
Added Escape from game - clean reset
Added clean reset when using Break

Pitfall-0.012.ssd

(35.5 KiB) Downloaded 31 times

Still need to look at the quicksand animation code as it's not correct compared to the Atari 2600 version, and I also need to add joystick support

[TobyLobster]

I've noticed that when traversing the screens from right to left, after losing a life you respawn on the left hand side, allowing you to skip the screen. Is this authentic / expected behaviour?

[fizgog]

I've noticed that when traversing the screens from right to left, after losing a life you respawn on the left hand side, allowing you to skip the screen. Is this authentic / expected behaviour?

Yep authentic, you always restart on the left hand side

Also thanks for trying and let me know if you come across any bugs that need fixing that I don't know about.

[Cybershark]

Fixed reported duplicate errors

Moving to the right, this screen seems to still be intermittently problematic:

[fizgog]

I’ll take another look at the code and I’m still also investigating the quicksand timings

[fizgog]

Alpha version 0.013

Hopefully fixed duplication on scorpion - seems it was taking longer than a vsync frame to build the screen

Accurate quicksand animation - but code needs further optimising

Notes about quicksand
Original Atari 2600 version takes 51 cycles every frame
Quicksand stays open for 2 seconds and goes away for 3 seconds
Animation to grow and shrink quicksand changes every 4 frames
Between frame counts 18 and A7 it's not there
Between frame counts BC and FF it's fully there

NB
Seems when you first enter the scene the quicksand opens and closes fast before settling down - need to look at this

Pitfall-0.013.ssd

(35.75 KiB) Downloaded 19 times

[fizgog]

Alpha version 0.014

Fixed initial scene enter with quicksand
Further optimisation of quicksand - still needs a bit more though

Give the following build a try and see what you think

Pitfall-0.014.ssd

(35.75 KiB) Downloaded 21 times

[ChrisB]

Good progress.

Couple of noted issues.

The gold/treasure dosen't seem to reset on starting again once collected (Presume it's meant to).
I was killed by quicksand that I couldn't see - on the first screen with quicksand only if you enter at the "wrong" time you can sink into the ground without the quicksand being visible.

[fizgog]

Good progress.

Couple of noted issues.

The gold/treasure dosen't seem to reset on starting again once collected (Presume it's meant to).
I was killed by quicksand that I couldn't see - on the first screen with quicksand only if you enter at the "wrong" time you can sink into the ground without the quicksand being visible.

Thanks I'll take a look and yes It should reset, I think I also notice there was some treasure not showing but could be collected.

This version contains the nuLA support, no other code changes though

Pitfall-0.015.ssd

(35.75 KiB) Downloaded 15 times

Example

*EDIT

Treasure reset fixed in next build

[fizgog]

Alpha version 0.016

This fixes the treasure reset when starting a new game
Game over now plays little game over tune - Not much memory left though
Further optimisation added on a lot of functions to reduce bytes and cycles

Pitfall-0.016.ssd

(35.75 KiB) Downloaded 21 times

*Edit

I've been moving code around and made further optimisation to gain more memory to play with

Code: Select all

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Pitfall Memory Map
-----------------------------------------------------------------
End of ZP   :  &61
Font Size   :  &A0
Tile Size   :  &1C0
Sprite Size :  &580
Object Size :  &400
Pond Size   :  &258
SFX Size    :  &4AA
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Bytes Used  :  &2DD8
Bytes Free  :  &228
-----------------------------------------------------------------
NB Bytes Free before paged aligned sprite mask storage :  &7
-----------------------------------------------------------------

[Cybershark]

I have still encountered invisible treasure when moving west through the game - but it shouldn't make any difference which way you travel, should it? Think there may still be something up with the tar pit timing too...

Still, it's incredibly inspiring to see what you've accomplished with this

[fizgog]

I have still encountered invisible treasure when moving west through the game - but it shouldn't make any difference which way you travel, should it? Think there may still be something up with the tar pit timing too...

Still, it's incredibly inspiring to see what you've accomplished with this

Thanks for testing, not had anytime to look as work / life is getting in the way, but I’m going to have to add some sort of GOD mode so I can do a proper test of the game.

[fizgog]

Added special keys display, in the bottom right (like zalaga and galaforce)

Was going to look at the invisible treasure tonight but have come down with flu and a headache so I'm going to have to give it a miss

[Rob_hawk]

Get well soon.

[lovebug]

great progress

get well soon

[fizgog]

Feeling well enough to plod on with this

Alpha version 0.017

This fixes the hidden treasure bug
Added special keys display
Added Game over box
Added Well done box (if you collect all 31 pieces within the time limit)

Pitfall-0.017.ssd

(36 KiB) Downloaded 18 times

Well done

Game Over

Money Bags Treasure

Ring Treasure

NB Need to re-look at the quicksand code next and then try and add joystick support which I've never done by bypassing the MOS

[fizgog]

Alpha version 0.018

This versions contains the following: -

Fixed quicksand timings - seems to be working fine as I've been testing it.
Fixed clock countdown - seems once it reached 00:00 it went to 99:99 instead of actually ending game
Added new fonts for clock and score - as I didn't like the other one.

NB Only joystick support to add before an official release

Enjoy

Pitfall-0.018.ssd

(36 KiB) Downloaded 17 times

[ChrisB]

Nearly there! I'm not very good at this - then again I wasn't very good on the 2600 either....

Bug: If you go left from the main screen at startup the first quicksand that you find starts open then opens. Might be some uninitialised value there.
Request: Any chance you can smooth the rope movement with some more steps?

[fizgog]

Thanks for that, seems when initialising the swamp it was ignoring the size of the quicksand on certain frame rates, it's now fixed and will be in the next release at some point

I would of liked to add more animation to the vine (and will if I can find more room) , but I'm running out of space and still need to try and add joystick support - I've had to junk the "congrats" melody

Currently using 16 frames one way and 16 the other way, also it does the same animation twice at each end so it seems "Newtons third law" is taking effect, would either need to use #%00111111 ;$3F (64 frames) or change the code if I wanted to do less than the 64

Code: Select all

.VineTableX ; xpos of vine
EQUB $00, $02, $06, $08, $0C, $11, $16, $1C
EQUB $23, $29, $2E, $33, $35, $39, $3C, $3F
EQUB $3F, $3C, $39, $35, $33, $2E, $29, $23
EQUB $1C, $16, $11, $0C, $08, $06, $02, $00



    INC vineFrame
    LDA vineFrame
    AND #%00011111      ; $1F (32 frames there and back)
    STA vineFrame

Current memory left 28 bytes + 5 bytes before the sprite mask aligned data

Code: Select all

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Pitfall Memory Map
-----------------------------------------------------------------
End of ZP   :  &62
Font Size   :  &128
Tile Size   :  &1C0
Sprite Size :  &580
Object Size :  &400
Pond Size   :  &258
SFX Size    :  &4AA
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Bytes Used  :  &2FD8
Bytes Free  :  &28
-----------------------------------------------------------------
NB Bytes Free before paged aligned sprite mask storage :  &5
-----------------------------------------------------------------

[ChrisB]

A "quick fix" might be to reduce the screen height slightly. The trees are just a solid block of colour and removing one line from them would not change the look very much - but would give you 600+ bytes per line. It's bit of a pain to reorganise the various plotting routines this late in the development cycle.

[Cybershark]

Still seeing a little judder on some of the tar pits and lakes. It's like how they are initially plotted does not match their actual timing state but, once the cycle has caught up, they are fine.

Played through quite a way - moving east - and scooped up several treasures. The only other surprising thing that I noted was that I shouldn't have been able to pick one of them up, as it was on the surface level and I was walking under it at the time. Do you only perform a check in the X-axis?