Yesterday I decided to make a new Odyssey 2 game. I attempted to put three sprites on the screen moving randomly. In the end, I could only put one. So I decided to make it like my Atari 2600 game Fruit Fly Fun.
This is what it looks like so far. I decided on white as the background color so the black fly would be easily visible. That and I can't think of another Odyssey 2 game with a white background. I've always wanted to make a game with a white background.
In the last blog entry I said I found a bug. I finally figured out what that bug was. And I think I fixed it.
I did a few things to the game since the last time.
I added the standard Cedar Games logo back in. I tried to fit it into a bank I already had that had room in it (bank 2), but it wasn't going to work. So I had to make this an 8k game and put in a new bank to use.
I added the beginnings of the Whack-an-O game.
I made the score red this time to differentia
So I woke up this morning to discover another bug. So I moved a little bit of code around and then played the game for like 30 minutes and didn't run into it any more. Seems really odd though.
I should mention that I wanted the score to reset when it does. Because I told it to do so. It seems like the only thing I could do. I couldn't use the same score for both. Since one game is a one-player game and the other is a two-player game. I don't think there's enough room for a player vs. comput
I took a few more hours and actually made it so the game updates the score automatically when you win, not when you press o to start a new game. I tested it on a real Odyssey 2 and it works!
The thing is, when you press reset the game resets all the scores. Also, if you've been using the game and go to the tic-tac-toe game, the scores gets wiped out as well. In this screenshot, X just won his second game. Man oh man, this was HARD to do. The computer would not give up without a fight.
I decided I was sick of Game Boy programming for now. I'll say this though: It's a lot EASIER to program something on the Game Boy than it is on the Odyssey². I returned to my canoeing game (still nameless). I added a new level. And then the next day (today) I sat there for four hours to come up with the beginnings of a couple more levels. It was hard, but I managed to put in the beginnings of four more levels. Right now, level 2 just repeats over and over again. But I got the screens in anyway.
For a change of pace, I decided to work on "Can You Canoe?" for the Odyssey². It took a long time, way longer than I expected, because the alien kept not displaying correctly. Level 4 is on the moon. I decided to make it so that the enemies zigzag after level 3. So the swimming alien moves up and down accordingly.
There will be a total of 6 levels. I don't know what to have happen after level 6, though. Perhaps just go through all the levels again and again until you die. I don't know
It took at least a couple of hours straight of coding and rearranging code, but I finally got it working again.
I never did figure out what the problem was though, I just knew it had something to do with one of the variables. I don't know the problem with the variable, so I was really flying blind here.
So now with the problem fixed, the next step is to test it on a real Odyssey². That will have to wait until later today because it's 3 a.m. and my eye hurts and I'm sleepy. It's bedtime
I've been working on a version of Basketball for the Odyssey². I made a website where you can download the work in progress game. It is here. I worked and worked on it, it kept not wanting to work because of the Odyssey²'s dumb "page" coding. I kept reaching across page boundaries. A page is a block of code that's 256 bytes of code. You cannot go over the boundaries and spill into the next code "page" with continued code. It's all very complicated, but after a few hours, I think I got it back wo
The TV on the 11 o'clock news and the occasional hoots of a nearby owl keep me company as I work on a new game. I am working on a new Odyssey 2 game. It is a port of Wizard of Wor. So as not to get in trouble with CBS, I have changed the name of it. What would a game about a wizard in a war be called? Why of course: Battlewizard! I made sure to put my custom sound making code in the game so I don't have to work it in with horrid results later. The only sound in the game now is a thud in case you
So I finally got back into Odyssey2 programming again.
This game is like Mario Bros. It's called "Pipe Down". It only has two enemies, and the fireball is always on. But I did try to add some interesting things. Like if you don't kick the enemy within a certain limit, it gets back up and starts walking again (which is in Mario Bros.) Unfortunately I don't have room for much else (like coins or other enemies). The last version I tested works great on a real Odyssey 2, though, so that's
2024 begins with more Odyssey 2 work. I decided to try to put in a fourth game. To see if it's worth it. Is it fun?
In this game, the x will rescue other x's while avoiding those pesky o's. I made a game before called Oranges for the Odyssey 2, but it was never made into a game for sale. So I think it's okay to steal ideas from myself. Oranges was sort of like this except there was no one to save and there were 5 oranges.
The o's and x's travel from right to left. The green x whi
The nose I had in Nosehair fo Odyssey 2 looked, well, crappy. So I decided to try to see if I could change it. This result looks a lot better than what I had before I think.
Along with some other changes, I think this game may be close to, if not completely, finished. I tried to attempt a better nosehair demon, but it's VERY hard to draw a person-line 8x8 pixel sprite.
To design the nostril, I cut off the upper part of the arrow so only the lower half was showing, and placed it at
So I finished my Game Gear game about the burgers. Big surprise no one cares enough to want to publish it. So now I'm on to my next game. I've decided to make a better Soccer Odyssey 2 game. I did 1 on 1 Basketball before. So I worked and worked and worked some more. And I'll probably work more on this unless the game craps out on me and decides to break (which it has done a few times on just this ROM. I had to erase what I had and restart from the past save point a lot.)
I have way too muc
With 1 on 1 Basketball's in-game code potentially completed, I went to work on a title screen for the game. After the "Cedar Games" intro, this is a first attempt at the title screen to the game.
Not a very splashy thing, I know, but since this is the Odyssey² we're talking about after all, something like this should do. Some more work needs to be done on it (like centering and stuff), but I just wanted to show you my idea for a title screen to my game. The entire thing works now. Titl
