itch.io

The 5000 pieces puzzles wall is almost finished:

Only some sort of cover for the gaps between the puzzles is missing (as it's proving to be hard to find something suitable; at the moment, the best option I came up with is using flat 1x8 Lego bricks).

And here's a highly-informative, well-written, humorous review - courtesy of  GGGames.

"Games like this (still) don't really pop up all that often – on the C= or elsewhere. It's simply one of the milestones – top level kind of awesomeness that enriches a platform's game library [...] you need to play one of the best platformers for the Machine [...] it's a masterpiece in video game design, programming, and execution."

Another glowing review, this time from RGN: check it out here.

"The sheer quality of the graphics is striking; at times, it feels as though you’re looking at something from a 16-bit console rather than an 8-bit home computer. [...] And then there's the quirky charm — the abstract puzzles, the moments of trial and error, and yes, the delightfully absurd pig fart mechanic — all combining into a unique, unforgettable experience."

Eventually, it happened: the updated AmigaOS 4 version was released yesterday ;)

Finally, these are the blocks that bring the FORTRESS zone to life:

By chance, I stumbled upon this again, and now I have a different answer. Further tests proved that saving didn't work if the location was in the first 64 kB of the image. The KFF author confirmed that it's a restriction imposed by the firmware. The update released about 11 days works around this issue and now saving works also on KFF.

A specific game of mine here on itch.io, out of the 19 projects that can be paid for, is being exploited for fraudulent purchases since June (27 times, until now).
Such purchases can be detected as they follow this scheme:
* the email address is <name><surname><number>@gmail.com (the first 11 times there were also dots separators);
* the payment is made by credit card via Stripe;
* the card holder name (sometimes with the address) is exposed on the invoice (unlike on the invoices of the regular purchases I've checked for comparison);
* the card holder name does not match the one in the email address;
* the card holder is from the US;
* the IP is from some other country;
* the payments is of $5 (the minimum amount);
* the game is not downloaded.
My guess is that some hacker stole the credit cards information and makes low-value purchases to get the card holders names and addresses for bigger frauds.

I have always duly reported these purchases to the itch.io support and 16 of them have been marked as fraud and refunded (it looks like support has still to process the last 11, with the oldest one dating back to 22 days ago).
However, these purchases are really annoying because:
 * reporting them steals time;
 * until they are processed, I can't request payouts;
 * maybe they cost me payment processor fees (I've asked support, but I didn't receive an answer yet);
 * some users reported that they couldn't but the game as they got an error, so I'm wondering if that was because of some filter that itch.io put in place to prevent the fraudulent purchases.

Did anyone experience the same and, if so, how did you deal with it?

The QUOD INIT EXIT IIm blocks have been refined to produce even more stunning graphics for the CLIFFS zone of QUOD INIT EXIT  IIo:

The FUN PARK zone uses 2 charsets to both mimic the QUOD INIT EXIT (the first game) graphics and to provide new graphics:

And how about the TOWERS zone graphics?

TIP #8

Always duck when an Evil Master is about to pass above Zampo's head, as Zampo might sit and, due to his increased height, collide against the baddie.

TIP #7

If you are stuck or need to return quickly to (a place close to) the active checkpoint, touch an Evil Master or something dangerous - witch Cotechina will take care of the rest ;)

TIP #6

It's best to use portals only when there's nothing else to do. And, when you break out of the "suspended" state, mind the baddies and be quick!

TIP #5

Use the turbofart to land on otherwise unreachable places. To recharge it, catch the Gasorade bottles or kill baddies by means of the PIG-OF-STEEL mode.

TIP #4

Whenever you get a chance, operate the switches, as they open the barriers and/or build the paths that will give Zampo access to new areas (maybe later on).

TIP #3

When Zampo takes a rest on top of some peculiar zone-specific tiles, he becomes golden, faster and immune to the Evil Masters. Make the most of this PIG-OF-GOLD mode and beware: if Zampo touches something dangerous, he returns normal.

TIP #2

Catch spinach cans! Besides filling the belly a little bit, they allow (for 10 seconds) Zampo to kill the baddies and, as a prize, earn a full refill of belly and turbofart charge! This is the so-called PIG-OF-STEEL mode.

Would you believe that all the background graphics of the FACTORY zone are made of just those few little black&white blocks shown at the top?

Fifth puzzle in the making...

Fourth puzzle in the making...

Third puzzle in the making...

First of all, thanks for your interest in BOH.

BOH is a 16-year old game: there are no plans for it.
No other ports will happen. Maintaining multiple versions is a costly undertaking, and the current versions are already too many (in fact, the Linux and MacOS versions have been retired). Time is better spent on creating new games.
The sources will not be made public, sorry.

Second puzzle in the making...

The full set of jigsaw puzzles has arrived! Once pieced together, the 16-bit-esque graphics of the game maps are going to look more stunning than ever and to grace the walls of the room they were born in ;)

Unfortunately there is not going to be an update for AmigaOS 4 (in the foreseeable future, at least) as my AmigaOne machine (the only AmigaOS 4 machine I have) suddenly stopped working and I just do not have time to try the emulation or cross-compiling route. That said, the fix is just really a matter of polish - the game is perfectly working and usable also without it.

As for the MacOS version, supporting multiple version is very demanding, so it was not an option.

Aaand, here's a tiny preview of the pictures for the other 4 puzzle:

9 hours sufficed to piece it together:

(Sorry for the less-than-ideal photo quality. Also, please note that the puzzle is still lying on a think cardboard surface, so it's a bit deformed.)

QUOD INIT EXIT IIo's huge maps lends themselves to this very alternative use ;)

This is the first and successful proof: the puzzles of the other 4 maps will soon follow.
Picture of the whole puzzle coming in a few days.

From the tests I made, it really looks like the problem is not in the game, but in KFF (that's why I opened the issue of KFF's GitHub). Unfortunately, there hasn't been any reply yet, nor have I received any feedback from EF owners, so I still don't know for sure.

That said, if you send me an email from the same address you purchased the game from and tell me which zone you reached, I can send you a cartridge image which will allow you to start from there.

Thank you so much, your feedback is much appreciated!

The game saves to cartridge the index of the furthest zone reached, so, when the game is restarted, it is possible to select the zone to start from by pushing the joystick up/down in the menu.
Note: the feature requires an EasyFlash-compatible cartridge/device; on VICE it works perfectly, but on my Kung Fu Flash the feature suddely stopped working, so I opened this issue on GitHub. Could you tell me whether the feature works for you and which cartridge/device you use, please?

You might find this review+interview video on BastichB 64K interesting:

"Overall this game is pretty awesome."

It optimizes the machine code generated from the AMOS code, some of the AMOS routines that get embedded in the executable and some of the amos.library functions (if the library gets embedded in the executable). You can find the details in the manual included in the archive.

I'm glad you appreciate my efforts and that you find the game so good. Thank you so much, I hope you'll enjoy helping Zampo with his quest!

Thank you so much for the information and the compliments!

When I returned to the C64 quite some years ago, one of my objectives was to make colorful hires games, so I chose ECBM for the platform part of the first QUOD INIT EXIT (the sky, instead, is a hires bitmap). In this game, I "just" pushed things further ;)
By the way, I'm not a C64 historian, but I'm under the impression (and I stress that it's an impression, so I might well be wrong) that after the release of the first QUOD INIT EXIT the ECBM got more love than before by the C64 scene.

Thank you for playing and recording the game, and for the nice words!

Out of curiosity, do you know how long exactly it took you?

P.S. I took the liberty of adding a spoiler alert tag to the topic title.

Thanks for your interest in BOH, but,no, sorry. Maintaining multiple versions is a costly undertaking, and the current versions are already too many. Time is better spent on creating new games.

My pleasure!