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Frank the Fruit Fly (Pokemon Mini WIP)


Gamegearguy

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Some people like to make homebrews for the NES. Some like the SNES. I'm different. I like to tackle stuff that only a few people have done. I've made a Channel F game. And I've been working on this game for the Pokemon Mini called Frank the Fruit Fly. There is a small homebrew scene for the small handheld that only a few people know about. So it's fitting that I try to make a homebrew game for it. To download the latest version, go to its website. Here are a few pictures of the game in action.

 

appleingame.png

area52.png

frankandablueberry.png

franktitlenew.png

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Thanks for all the kind words on the project. Since I am one of the lucky ones with a Pokemon Mini flashcart and there were a few things I didn't understand and were annoying me, I completely figured them out and now I think the program is just the way I want it now. Time to work on it some more and add new things. I doubt this will get done any time soon since I keep having trouble thinking up stuff. In this latest screen here, Frank is in an oasis in the desert. And those are supposed to be palm trees.

screen27.png.f36ca4c76af14c79b80bf9047e2e74ff.png

Someone else designed the frog. I forget who. Thanks to whoever did! My plan is for the frog to jump and Frank needs to avoid touching the frog. In earlier stages, the frog had his tongue out, but the frog learned that since that isn't going to work, he might as well not do it. I don't know if this looks good, or should I reverse it and make the ground white and the water gray? Or just get rid of the water altogether.

I've been working on this for a year and a half now, and the code is 7,999 lines long. And I'm only on level 3.

Edited by Gamegearguy
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  • 3 weeks later...

I was having trouble with the game but with help I finally got past it and I hope to finish it one day. I just finished level 3 and I'm about to begin work on level 4, the ocean. I bet you didn't know fruit flies can swim! I added about another 1,000 lines. Now it's past 9,000 lines! And I'm only about half-way done.

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  • 4 weeks later...

A few more screenshots of what I've been up to for the past month or so.

screen33.png.823752d3aeda505cf4ee87f79bcfa7ba.png  screen35final.png.c6171b7700431b16b841f19aeb372be3.png

I want to have it done by September 2021 for the Pokemon Mini 20th anniversary, but I don't know if I can or not, judging on how slow on it I've been working. The biggest thing I have to worry about is lack of ideas. Found a new (apparently better) way to compile the game, so I work on it the old way and then convert what assembly code I have with a program that turns it into better Epson assembly code.

Edited by Gamegearguy
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On 11/6/2019 at 6:59 AM, Gamegearguy said:

Thanks for all the kind words on the project. Since I am one of the lucky ones with a Pokemon Mini flashcart and there were a few things I didn't understand and were annoying me, I completely figured them out and now I think the program is just the way I want it now. Time to work on it some more and add new things. I doubt this will get done any time soon since I keep having trouble thinking up stuff. In this latest screen here, Frank is in an oasis in the desert. And those are supposed to be palm trees.

screen27.png.f36ca4c76af14c79b80bf9047e2e74ff.png

Someone else designed the frog. I forget who. Thanks to whoever did! My plan is for the frog to jump and Frank needs to avoid touching the frog. In earlier stages, the frog had his tongue out, but the frog learned that since that isn't going to work, he might as well not do it. I don't know if this looks good, or should I reverse it and make the ground white and the water gray? Or just get rid of the water altogether.

I've been working on this for a year and a half now, and the code is 7,999 lines long. And I'm only on level 3.

Looks great!

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  • 1 month later...

Thanks! Here are a few more screenshots of what I've been busy on these past few months. Every time I get a new idea, I rush as soon as I can to the computer since after 38 screens, I'm kinda running out of ideas. I wanted to make 8 levels, but I'm not sure I can. In the first screenshot, Frank is inside a whale. In the second one, Frank tries not to touch the sharp sea floor while pipes blow him downwards. Right now Frank is in an ocean level.

 

screen37.png

screen39.png

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On 12/29/2019 at 1:32 AM, Splain said:

Whoa, I thought the Pokemon mini was strictly monochrome, I didn't know it could display grey. This is a very cool project!

A lot of those little monochrome LCDs can flicker fast enough to manage 4 effective colors of greyscale.

The effect was pretty popular on TI calculator games in the late 90s.

 

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23 minutes ago, arch_8ngel said:

A lot of those little monochrome LCDs can flicker fast enough to manage 4 effective colors of greyscale.

The effect was pretty popular on TI calculator games in the late 90s.

 

Not trying to derail the conversation on this awesome side project, but I know that on the OG Game Boy, there is a a bit of a "fade" delay on all of the pixels which is why you could often see sprites streak as they scroll on stage. It's made me wonder if with clever pixel "flickering", the GB could realistically achieve more than 4 shades of grey.  Of course, this affect would probably look hideous on a GB Pocket, and all subsequent pieces of hardware, but it'd be interesting to try and demo such a technique to see if 8 or maybe even 16 shade of "green" could be achieved.

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Editorials Team · Posted
3 hours ago, RH said:

Not trying to derail the conversation on this awesome side project, but I know that on the OG Game Boy, there is a a bit of a "fade" delay on all of the pixels which is why you could often see sprites streak as they scroll on stage. It's made me wonder if with clever pixel "flickering", the GB could realistically achieve more than 4 shades of grey.  Of course, this affect would probably look hideous on a GB Pocket, and all subsequent pieces of hardware, but it'd be interesting to try and demo such a technique to see if 8 or maybe even 16 shade of "green" could be achieved.

I believe there were guidelines that tried to prevent this kind of "cheating" on GB games, although I suspect that Road Rash on GB tries something like that, which prevents it from running on GBC/GBA. It just crashes when you get to the actual gameplay.

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Just now, Splain said:

I believe there were guidelines that tried to prevent this kind of "cheating" on GB games, although I suspect that Road Rash on GB tries something like that, which prevents it from running on GBC/GBA. It just crashes when you get to the actual gameplay.

Someone posted on Reddit a couple of days about that game and bug.  They mentioned that Road Rash is the only GB game that has to play on original hardware and, I think, emulators can't even properly play it.

I've been wanting to ask if anyone knew what that specific bug was and how it was exploited.  I find it interesting and more interesting that it pasted Nintendos QA tests.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I like what you're doing there.  Have you considered working perhaps with someone who can do some sprite / drawing work for you as it really seems to vary by the challenge.  The game seems for what it is and on that handheld fairly deep against the stuff Nintendo put out for it in some cases.

 

I had one of these like 15 years ago and I'm finally getting one back soon, hopefully get a DITTO to follow that.  I seem to have a thing for rare Nintendo non-console screw ups.

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