Only on the second floor in level 2, i have speed problems on my Amiga-500 machines, when my sprite is on a conveyor-belt. The rest of the game really works very well, on 7MHz OCS/ECS Amigas. About this floppy-motor thing. I will look on the disk, if this file is there. If this is the case, you mean, that this problem is gone? I also asked this motor-thing, because in the last years, I've encountered more than one time, a problem with various new demos or games for the Amiga that were released on the Pouet.net, where the programers forgot, to reset the _MTR-Signal in the CIA or something similar to this and then the software sometimes goes on loading on real floppy-drives or the drive-LED always stays on, even when the Amiga game or demo, is already fully loaded and running. Maybe this also is a consequence of programming in emulators, not sure?
Sparky-D
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Works now, thanks. I really like the japanese level-order more. Had you recognized the other two mentioned things (floppy-motor and the problem in Lv2 on the second floor there, when running on the conveyor-belt)? The other three levels run well on A500, only in this second level there are some problems, but only on the second plane there, it seems. On a A1200, there's no problem in Lv2 (tested it today), so it has definately something to do, with missing speed on Amiga500 machines. Seems like Level2 needs more CPU-power, than the other three levels of the game. Can something be done here, then it would also run well overall, on A500 machines, or has everything already been maxed out?
Sounds very good, it's definitely worth a try. We'll just have to see, if it's too jerky then, or if it's still good playable with auto-frameskipping. Galaga is one of my favorite games, that's why I'm looking forward to this update. Same for Pooyan, i played it alot in different Arcades, back in the time. I guess, in Pooyan not much more can be done, to have it running in real fullspeed on A500 machines?
By the way. The Amiga is really lacking ports of some of the old Arcade-classics, for which there are good ports on other retrosystems (like for example C64, NES, A7800, etc). I was already wondering why, back then in the 90's, when i had my first Amiga500. So it's good, that you're bringing some of the classics over there now. Nice work.
Ah, it's autodetected. This is cool. I compared the speed in two emulator-windows at the same time, by emulating a Amiga500 in one window and a Amiga1200 in the other and the game is indeed playable on the A500, in this 25FPS mode. Sadly it does not run in real fullspeed, it seems, because it plays a bit faster on the A1200 (and of course more smoothly, because no frames need to be skipped, on the AGA machine). But nevertheless, like i already wrote, it's at least playable on the A500 now, so i think this 25FPS mode (every second frame skipped), was a good idea anyway.
One last question about this, because this frameskipping thing is interesting. I can remember, that you once wrote me on the webpage of your "Galaga 500" game, that this game also runs at a 25FPS-mode on A500 machines, but that it's still too slow on non-AGA-Amigas, because some of the code still has to run at 50fps (or something like that). But would it be possible, to give "Galaga500" an auto-frameskip mode for A500 machines, or would the frame jumps in the gameplay then be too large, making it run too choppy or jerky? Maybe it would be worth a try? Or perhaps, if that's not possible, an alternative mode, in which only every third frame is displayed and maybe the game could only then switch to this, when the A500 could not hold the fullspeed in the 25FPS mode anymore (e.g. too many opponents on the screen at the same time, etc) and otherwise run the game in 25FPS mode (as it is now)? Perhaps it could then maintain the full speed of the Arcade version on A500 machines then? What do you think?
Thanks for the infos. I tried it in different ways (write this in an extra-line of the startup-sequence, write it in the line in which "Prompt "Selection:>" is written, etc, but it don't work in all the ways i tried. How exactly must it be written there, in an extra line or behind some other stuff?
Maybe it would make sense, to make the japanese level-order a selectable point in this menue, that comes, when the user load the game (this menue, in which different things can be chosen, like manual, infos, cheat-keys and so on). Wouldn't that make sense? The Japanese level-order is the better one anyway.
Two other things I noticed while playing. (1) The floppy motor doesn't shut off after the game has loaded, i think this should be changed (better for the hardware).
(2) In Level 2 (the one with the conveyor-belts), the game runs a bit jerkily, especially when you are on the second plane, at least on my A500. Sometimes entire animations for the Mario character are missing then and he seems to disappear shortly and then reappears. The other three levels run perfectly fine on the Amiga500. I have a suspicion, as to what the problem in Level 2 might be. If Mario is on the conveyor-belts and runs in the direction, the belt is also running in that moment, he speeds up considerably and then the player can notice things like frameskipping alot more, which could be the problem here, on A500 machines (if the game runs in a 25FPS mode there)? Mario then runs jerkily and seems to disappear for a short moment and then is suddenly two steps ahead, when he reappears. Perhaps this could be fixed, by not running the game with frameskipping, in such moment, when the Mario sprite is on the conveyor-belts in the second level? I don't know, how much slower the gameplay then will be on A500 machines, because if that's too much, then this suggestion obviously doesn't make sense. But if it's not much, maybe it could make an improvement in this "disappearing reappearing" problem? I haven't tried the game on an A1200 yet, but I assume, this problem doesn't exist there, when the Mario sprite is on the conveyor belts.
Nice, thanks for implementing. One suggestion more, for future versions of the game. The shield is on the Commodore-Key, i saw. It could additionally also be on Fire-2 (Pot-x) and also on Space-bar. The reason, this might make sense, is, that there are some controllers for the C64, that have a Fire-2 button (ArcadeR joystick, Cheetah Annihilator joystick, etc). And there are also some adapters, that allow you, to have the Space-bar (respectively the Fire function on joyport-1, which has the same function as Space-bar in alot games) on a button on a connected MegaDrive controller for example, such as the GenAssister, which connects to both joyports of a C64 at once, etc. It's very good for many shooters, that have a function on the Space-bar. If the Shield function in Slither could be triggered by Space-bar and also by Fire-2 (Pot-x), this would cover all of these different adapters and controllers. Then those players, who owns one of these hardware, would no longer have to reach for the keyboard, to be able to use the shield function in the gameplay, but would have this function directly on another button on their controller. Just a suggestion of course, but i think, it would make sense. And the Shield can additionally still be on Commodore-key too. In some emulators it already works very well now, with the current version of the game. More precisely, in those C64-emulators, that allow the user, to remap keyboard-keys to a controller (like for example Denise, HOXS, CCS64). There you can remap either the Commodore-key or the Space-bar (if that happens) to another button on your controller. It's a clear improvement in the gameplay, when you don't have to let go of the controller, to reach for the keyboard, but can do everything at once with one joystick/joypad.
Not bad and i always liked Centipede and clones of it. But one thing is a bit strange. When starting the game, then the user initially hears neither FX nor music, during the gameplay. That's a bit confusing, you could even consider this a bug or something like that, because you don't always have the itch.io manual-text for the game, that describes what to do with F5. Months later, this can be forgotten and you then no longer have this text and then the user must find this out by himself. At some point, you might get the idea, to try out the F keys and then you realize, that you can use them to activate the music or FX. Or maybe you never find this out and you think that it's normal to have no FX and no music in this game.
Wouldn't it be better, if (1) at least the FX were active by default, instead of not hearing anything at all, and (2) wouldn't it actually be better, if you could also choose between FX and music, directly in the game-menu (where you can choose between joystick and keyboard controls)? A text there could explain the F-keys and their function on the audio-settings.
Hy. Unfortunately, I can only help to a limited extent in this case, as I've never created anything with SEUCK myself and therefore don't know exactly, where to find these enhanced version. It's apparently called the SEUCK Redux engine, but I can't say much more about it. But there are a few online pages that mention it, for example here https://itch.io/c/2039017/enhanced-seuck-games-c64-pal-only or here
https://tnd64.unikat.sk/Seuck_Compo_2025.html
SEUCK Redux is apparently by Martin Piper, as can be read on this second linked page. So you could try contacting either Martin Piper, Alf Yngve, or Richard Bayliss (i guess, the email-address of at least one of the three, should be found on the internet). They should be able to help, as these three have already been involved in several good SEUCK Redux games (e.g. Zap Fight 2, Flying Cobra RX, Dark Force Redux, Super Silverfish, etc). That would be my tip here, because if you take a look at the highest-rated SEUCK games to date (for example, on Lemon64, sorted by highest rating)
https://www.lemon64.com/games/list.php?list_genre=Shoot%27em+Up&list_sub_genre=S...
the games at the top, are almost all such SEUCK games, that use the Redux engine. There are a few exceptions, but generally speaking, SEUCK games like this play better, because more can be implemented technically and these SEUCK games don't seem so monotonous in terms of gameplay.
Looks really nice, especially for a SEUCK game. Nice graphics and good use of colors too, for example when it comes to the bullets. I could imagine, especially if the final version of this game will use the enhanced SEUCK engine (more enemies on screen at once, better collision detection, enemies directly targeting the player-ship, etc.), that we'd have another good shooter on the C64. I really like "Zap Fight 2" and some other enhanced SEUCK games, so it's definately possible, to get a good game, out of this construction-kit, especially with the extended engine. And "Star Hero" also makes a very good impression in its preview so far. Hope, it will be finalized.
Any plans for a 2-player splitscreen-mode in Dr. Maria? That would be a big improvement to the already good game, because playing this puzzle game against each other is more fun, than playing the levels. I see this in other Dr. Mario versions (e.g. Super-NES, N64, etc), therefore this would be superb. And choosable cpu-players would be the absolute highlight, then you wouldn't need another human player, which you don't always have at your disposal.
Hello. Good work, especially when considering, that this is your first game on the C64. I have two suggestions for a possible v1.1 version. There should also be a selectable mode in the game-menu, that speeds up the entire gameplay (both, the player-sprite's movements and those of the enemies), e.g. a choice of the difficulty-level (easy and hard), because the gameplay is a bit slow, in my eyes. If a player then selects hard mode, everything could run a bit faster. And it would also be nice, if the highscores were saved in the game. For the sake of fairness, two score-lists would be necessary then, one for the easy and one for the hard mode. Such things would improve the game and nice to have in a future version.
Hy. It's indeed a bit better now and i also like the diagonal movement idea and the other improvements in v1.2. What generally doesn't work in the game, is, that after a 180° turn, the new line is directly next to the previous one. In "Light Cycle Duel", there's always a small gap between the old and the new line, after a turn, although this of course reduces the number of tracks, to be driven on the playing field considerably. But that seems to be the way, it was intended, because the cars are a bit bigger than the lines. If that would not be the case, all the lines to be driven in the game, could always be right next to each other and the playing-field would become considerably larger. But that would be a major change, one you might not like? I wanted to at least mention it once. At least, now it almost always work, to make such a tight 180° turn, as the game allows in the moment. So in any case, it's yet another improvement of the game.
A really nice shooter. By the way, a REU version of the game would be superb, for the future. There are some C64-emulators in the meantime, that can emulate the use of SCPU and REU at the same time (for example Denise or VICE) and a single large .reu file of the game, could be loaded much faster and more conveniently, than several individual d81 disk-images.
Nice little Pacman clone. It would be nice, if the game could also be started with 512kb Chipram + 512kb Slowram and not only with 1MB Chipram, because 512kb+512kb is the standard, that the vast majority of the Amiga500 computers have (it's the original 512kb Chipram plus the A501 memory-expansion hardware that alot of users have and which offers 512kb Slowram additionally). At the moment, Pumpkin sadly can not be started on the most Amiga500 machines, but if the game could also use Slowram, it would work on all of these machines and the A500 is the most widely used Amiga model. So it would make sense, to update Pumpkin at this point.
Good update in V1.1. The somewhat jerky control of the falling pills, is now smoother. Only wished, there would be a possibility, to play against another human player (splitscreen) and also against a cpu player. That would be fantastic, especially the latter. Maybe sometime in the future in an upcoming V1.2? Nice puzzle-game for the C64 definately.
A good puzzler in the "Puzzle Bobble" (Bust a Move) style. A possibility to play against another human-player and especially CPU-opponents would have been superb here. Maybe someday a DX-version of "Tiny Bubbles" can be released? On the Arcade-machine, but also on consoles like the Playstation or the N64, playing against strong CPU-players gives the most fun. More than always playing the levels alone. An updated version of this game, therefore would be really great.
Jess, because of the other point, i mentioned in my comment here, two months ago (this thing with the tight turns). Today a preview of a game was released, in which exactly this, works very well and which has a similar game-principle to Light 'Cycle Duel DX'. This one here:
https://csdb.dk/release/?id=247555
I thought I'd mention it briefly, maybe it can give some inspiration, in the point of "tight turns, that are easy for the user to implement (with no lines in between)"?
Best regards and thanks for improving this cool game. Especially the 4-player-simultan function (with 4-player-adapter) is great and a nice party-game, when friends come to visit.
I have a bugreport to V1.06. At the moment, this nice version of Galaga, is one of the games, that is being played intensively by several people, in a competition on the Forum64. A few of the players encountered two bugs in Galaga, that only occur relatively rarely, but are undoubtedly present. I will describe these briefly, so that they can possibly be fixed in a final V1.07 version.
(1) In rare cases, one million points are added to the current player-score, without a real reason.
(2) Also in rare cases, the game freezes, after a level and you are left, floating alone in space without a new level starting. At first it was assumed, that this bug only occurs, when a player has shot down all the enemies, before they can position themselves in the field. But this is not the case. It has been proven in the meanwhile (via screenshot), that it also sometimes occurs, when there are still enemies in the field. A screenshot was posted in Forum64, where two enemies at the top and the player's spaceship below, can be seen and the game froze (is no longer playable).
These are the two problems, that were discovered. Apart from that, this version is by far the best Galaga version on the C64. It would be great, if these two things could be fixed, so that you can use this game in competitions without any risk. At the moment, it's of course annoying, if you have a great score and then one of these two bugs occurs. They occur only rarely, but of course you never know, when.
Yes indeed, some of those Redux games even don't feel like SEUCK anymore. The special-edition of "Zap Fight 2" is my alltime favorite SEUCK game and a really good shooter for the C64. The later released trilogy-edition of "Zap Fight 2" looks even better (nicer score-display etc), but unfortunately this seemed to be at the expense of playability and less enemies are on the screen then. Therefore i like the special-edition of this game more. SEUCK Redux games are really interesting and a next step, compared to the normal SEUCK games, which can sometimes (not always) be a bit boring. Looking forward to a possible part 2 of "River Barrage". Maybe with a 2 players simultan mode? By the way, my favorite game from you is "Trance Sector Ultimate", a really good clone of good old "Solar Fox".