A trailer was uploaded on 7/9. Here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaK-RjiZedAThe following message was written on June 24th.
By next weekend, I'm going to pass the files off. Expect 3-4 weeks after that point to see the game out there. I'm still in talks about the LE version, but it's finally going to be done.
For the release, there will likely be two options.
#1 - Cart + manual for approx. $35
#2 - CIB + an art booklet that showcases unused/altered ideas for about $7 more.
Expected to post a trailer sometime soon.
===OLD MATERIAL BELOW===
Well, I figured I'd throw this out there. I've decided to go at it again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBz4AX1tmsM - Here's an engine demo video that I put together on 8/6/10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlfqN92v7Xo - Video from 8/29/10 showing off the first area and boss.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNrsYjvLp88 - Video #2 from 10/17/10 showing off 3 other sectors
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tl9CsEpZ9Xw - Video #3 from 4/9/11 showing new features and another area
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBxmswDIiLk - Video #4 from 7/14/11 showing the intro stage and preliminary cutscenes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AaC7-SjOb8 - Video #5 from 11/18/11 showing a status, manual, and label preview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUb_P102SZ0 - Video #6 from 4/21/12 showing revised intro stage and scenes
This time around, I'll have some new skills, and more types of blocks such as ice and conveyors and such.
Thus far, I've got a basic room format loading. The nice part about doing this a second time is I'm accounting for bank switching and compression from the getgo. Whee!
***Just a note, there used to be screenshots here. I purged them as most of them are broken links and were just preliminary stuff anyway.***
Ice is really easy to do if your motion is based on acceleration (like Mario or MC Kids) instead of instant on/off velocity (like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2). Since there's normal deceleration when the player is on the ground, just decelerate more slowly if it's ice. I guess the Mega Man games sort of had ice, didn't they...
But acceleration-based motion is not how Battle Kid controls. Designing good ice mechanics for the kind of motion seen in Battle Kid seems tricky, especially since it's going to be used for lethal platforming puzzles.
Ice has both slow-to-accelerate, and slow-to-decelerate going for it, or slipperiness, or anything else you can think of.
Too late since you got the room compression done, but maybe make the screen bigger and use the select button to see your X/Y and special item(s).....Just a thought. BK3 maybe?
Like always, something to get us hyped up for. Especially the title screens, which look anti-aliased.
That is anti-aliasing. No way a NES could display that. A GBC maybe, but not a NES.
So what kind of compression are we using here? Some kind of RLE? Free-form resizable shapes like SMB, Zelda 2, or Metroid?
Dwedit wrote:
So what kind of compression are we using here? Some kind of RLE? Free-form resizable shapes like SMB, Zelda 2, or Metroid?
It's a mix of RLE or LZ. In reality, RLE is the more likely one to get used. Basically, if you have tile $01 and want to repeat it 10 times, you'd go: $01,$FA...
Dwedit wrote:
That is anti-aliasing. No way a NES could display that. A GBC maybe, but not a NES.
I'd do it with three colors in each palette: outline, text, and half outline half text.
If it's a mix of RLE and LZ, then it's LZ. RLE is the special case of LZ77/LZSS with distance one. I'll assume you mean "LZ77 where matches at distance one have a shorter encoding or longer maximum match length".
You thought about doing some scrolling in this one? Single screen seemed to work well enough before, nothing wrong with that, but scrolling would give it that final bit of "NES authenticity".
Memblers wrote:
You thought about doing some scrolling in this one? Single screen seemed to work well enough before, nothing wrong with that, but scrolling would give it that final bit of "NES authenticity".
Negative. BK, past and future will always be the same formula. I do, however, have some thoughts on another scrolling type game for a followup. But we'll worry about that when the time comes.
If possible, I would suggest to change the way screen transitions are done unless there is a technical limitation behind it.
The "black flashing" transition seems harsh on the eyes. If you cannot keep the screen content, at the least if you could keep the status bar while the rest is updated would be already better. But this is my opinion only. Maybe other people don't mind as much as me.
Banshaku wrote:
The "black flashing" transition seems harsh on the eyes. If you cannot keep the screen content, at the least if you could keep the status bar while the rest is updated would be already better. But this is my opinion only. Maybe other people don't mind as much as me.
It should be about 2 frames faster this time around. I really believe I've optimized it now. BK1's just was too big a mess to re-write.
The only real issue I had with the lack of scrolling in BK1 was the vertical parts. Either jumping multiple times to get onto the next screen, or jumping too high and landing on a re-spawned enemy.
But I suppose there aren't really too many ways around this. For this most part, I like that there is no scrolling. Especially in the puzzle-like levels.
Banshaku wrote:
The "black flashing" transition seems harsh on the eyes.
I second that. With some time between transitions (like the time it takes to walk through a whole screen) they weren't bad, but when I jumped to a new screen at the top just to fall back to the bottom one, the flashing almost gave me headaches.
Sivak wrote:
It should be about 2 frames faster this time around.
Faster isn't necessarily better. In fact it might be worse...
Since you have no scrolling, couldn't you try to render the new screen to the hidden name table, keep the old screen visible while that happens, and only switch to the new name table when it's ready? With unrolled loops it should be possible to draw a full name table in 4 VBlanks (that's pretty quick if you ask me), if you buffer the data in RAM beforehand instead of decompressing the maps directly to VRAM.
You are probably gonna say no, but I had to suggest it because that's something that bothered me a lot in the first game.
Astonish wrote:
Either jumping multiple times to get onto the next screen, or jumping too high and landing on a re-spawned enemy.
Exactly. The flashing was pretty annoying, but having enemies you killed a second ago being brought back to life was too.
tokumaru wrote:
Since you have no scrolling, couldn't you try to render the new screen to the hidden name table, keep the old screen visible while that happens, and only switch to the new name table when it's ready?
The thing with this is the new screen could conceivably be in ANY direction, left, right, up, or down. It'd be impossible to tell what way for sure the player is going to go.
You can also do it zelda style. Whenever a player reaches a new screen. Stop. Turn off backround rendering. Upload new screen. Scroll. And turn it back on again.
Sivak wrote:
The thing with [loading one screen ahead] is the new screen could conceivably be in ANY direction, left, right, up, or down. It'd be impossible to tell what way for sure the player is going to go.
Then how does Metroid Prime predict which door Samus is about to shoot to open? Try a heuristic:
- Find to which screens it is possible to travel. For example, if there is no path up or no solid ground within a jump height of the top of a screen, don't consider loading up; if there is a solid wall to the left, don't consider loading left; if the entire floor is solid, don't consider loading down.
- If the player is standing or above solid ground at the moment, demote down.
- Promote the side closest to the player.
- Promote the side that the player is facing.
I'm just putting in my 2 cents that even if you do keep the flip-change, freezing the screen to load when you mispredict is probably better to look at than blanking it. At least it gives the player some reference when jumping off the top and immediately falling back down.
People really don't mind a lag under 1 second before the screen scrolls to the next area. Zelda and Mega Man 2 delay for about a half-second before they start scrolling on the next area.
What they DO mind is the game repeatedly changing areas when you jump against the top of the screen, and don't have enough power to make it very high on the next screen, so they immediately fall back to the previous screen. One possible solution: If you know the player won't have enough jump height on the next screen to get anywhere, don't change areas. Instead, just have the player jump into the status area. But even then, that's kind of misleading because it doesn't clearly tell the player that they can go upward, and people might get frustrated at the game if the area change rejection kicks in when they don't want it to.
Sivak wrote:
tokumaru wrote:
Since you have no scrolling, couldn't you try to render the new screen to the hidden name table, keep the old screen visible while that happens, and only switch to the new name table when it's ready?
The thing with this is the new screen could conceivably be in ANY direction, left, right, up, or down. It'd be impossible to tell what way for sure the player is going to go.
Why is that a problem? The NES has two name tables, and during your game you always have one of them visible and the other one hidden. Whenever a new screen is to be loaded, it's drawn to the hidden name table within the time of a few Vblanks while the other name table remains visible (avoiding the black flash). Once the hidden one is ready, swap them so that it becomes the visible one and the old one gets hidden. The positions of the screens in the map have no part in this.
EDIT: Oh, you meant you don't know which one to decompress, is that it? Well, you don't have to. When the player touches any of the 4 edges of the screen and triggers a screen switch, game logic will stop running, right? There should be enough CPU time in a frame to decode 1/4 of the new screen, so that this portion can be sent to VRAM during VBlank. I believe that a 4-frame pause will hardly be noticed.
tokumaru wrote:
Oh, you meant you don't know which one to decompress, is that it?
Correct. That's why I recommended the heuristic.
Quote:
There should be enough CPU time in a frame to decode 1/4 of the new screen, so that this portion can be sent to VRAM during VBlank.
Is that just the nametable, or also CHR RAM data?
tepples wrote:
Correct. That's why I recommended the heuristic.
I think the heuristics complicates things unnecessarily if the delay is only 4 frames.
Quote:
Is that just the nametable, or also CHR RAM data?
I was obviously calculating for the name table only... If too much CHR-RAM has to be updated, the delay isn't the only problem, since the tiles being overwritten might be in use in the current screen. If this is the case then I see no way other than blanking the screen.
Another thing suggested in this thread was to keep at least the status bar always visible. I like that idea, it should help reduce the impact of the effect.
Of course another way to make going up/down less annoying thanks to falling back is elevators etc in the game.
Cool. I'm almost through the first game. Enjoying it very much! Of the six guardians, I think I found the color mancer boss to be the most difficult (so far).
The game update chr-ram on every screen change. This is why the screen was blanked.
I see 2 or 3 possibilities to make the transition more friendly to the eye:
1) Keep status bar on screen and blank after it to allow loading the CHR-RAM that require to be updated (someone could explain the way to do it, I don't even know myself yet)
2) Keep the background data the same for specific sectors in the game. The chr-ram is only updated when you change sector. This apply for the background only, characters may require to be loaded on a per screen basic. The downside is that you have to be more creative with less data for that sector.
3) This one I'm not sure if this is do-able but you could, hmm how I can explain that, "remove" pixels from the chr-ram to gradually remove the map data and put back in the data that way. It would give some kind of fade in/out effect but I'm concerned that the transition between screen would be too long for a twitch action game.
Option 1 seems the simplest to make (once you know how to do it) and less restrictive.
Second one seems the better for transition since you could allow to scroll between screen, a nice plus. There would be the issue about raster effect for the status bar but still, that could be something interesting.
A very simple thing to do is quick fade outs and fade ins. I mean regular palette fades, without CHR-RAM tricks or anything.
Is a good sprite zero hit enough to keep the status bar on when loading a new screen?
Well, I'm starting the controls today. In response to all the blanking screen concerns, I really don't see a way around it.
I need to use time to update all the BG, CHR RAM, and other PPU stuff. If the status bar was left on the top, then the PPU would be left on and that'd make the room loading take way longer.
I'll hopefully have an engine test demo for all to play in the near future. Thanks.
Sivak wrote:
If the status bar was left on the top, then the PPU would be left on and that'd make the room loading take way longer.
You could do like strat said and use a sprite 0 hit to detect the end of the status bar and disable rendering at that point, so you'd still have a lot of the frame's time left for VRAM updates. Well, it's up to you.
Quote:
What they DO mind is the game repeatedly changing areas when you jump against the top of the screen, and don't have enough power to make it very high on the next screen, so they immediately fall back to the previous screen. One possible solution: If you know the player won't have enough jump height on the next screen to get anywhere, don't change areas. Instead, just have the player jump into the status area. But even then, that's kind of misleading because it doesn't clearly tell the player that they can go upward, and people might get frustrated at the game if the area change rejection kicks in when they don't want it to.
I would just design levels in such a way that the big jumps are not inbetween screens.
InvalidComponent wrote:
I would just design levels in such a way that the big jumps are not inbetween screens.
Yes, I think this is the best solution.
Or (this is almost the same) do it like Cave Story does it. When you jump upwards changing screens, it will automatically guide the character to the platform that's on the left or right. So you'd have to have some extra parameters for levels, like "if entered from below, move player here".
You can see it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaZMGNwG0pY#t=5m15s (don't watch it all if you don't want to get spoiled
^^if you design it so you dont need it alot AND have an elevator like mechanism that'd probably be best.
On any screen where the player needs to jump up and to the side through a gap, try putting a little arrow in this gap pointing up and to the left or up and to the right. I can't show you a sample because I'm not at home with my screen grab equipment.
You could also have the vertical parts scroll whilst having epilepsy screen changes for the horizontal parts.
I like the idea of diagonal arrows showing where you'll have to land, and level design that keeps the play away from the top of the screen if it's not solid. This requires absolutely no reprogramming and will greatly reduce the flickering problem.
Well, progress continues. Added another simple screen to the first page showing off that you can jump and fall now.
Gigantic thanks to tokumaru for all the pointers on better collision methods.
Progress keeps on continuing. I got ICE to work. It wasn't as horrible as I was thinking... So I'm almost ready to start doing the process of adding enemies and general game design.
Still have a few things to do like shooting and dying (no, you actually can't die yet!)
This time around has been significantly easier.
I may post a video or something when a general engine comes together.
Hey all. Updated this with a demo video if you wanna see how it's all looking. It's in the first post, but I'll post it below this too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBz4AX1tmsM
- Is possible to add hit points to the main character? It could be a HP like DuckTales.
Zepper wrote:
- Is possible to add hit points to the main character?
Go back to Mega Man.
tepples wrote:
Zepper wrote:
- Is possible to add hit points to the main character?
Go back to Mega Man.
Owned......And QFT ^_^
Sivak wrote:
Hey all. Updated this with a demo video if you wanna see how it's all looking. It's in the first post, but I'll post it below this too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBz4AX1tmsMI like that a lot. Has quite the IWBTG feel to it (was that the intention?)
Hojo_Norem wrote:
I like that a lot. Has quite the IWBTG feel to it (was that the intention?)
Yes. The Battle Kid series has always been based on I Wanna Be The Guy. Sivak asked the creator of that game for permission to make these.
tepples wrote:
Zepper wrote:
- Is possible to add hit points to the main character?
Go back to Mega Man.
- Better than a certain tetramino game...
- Anyway, meh, I don't think a one-hit-kills rule would be cool again...
Zepper wrote:
- Better than a certain tetramino game...
Of course block stacking games have a life bar: the amount you've stacked. To recover health, clear lines.
Zepper wrote:
- Anyway, meh, I don't think a one-hit-kills rule would be cool again...
I think a certain amount of consistency in a series is to be expected.
There's always easy mode. Still one hit, but bosses'll take fewer tries.
Kasumi wrote:
There's always easy mode. Still one hit, but bosses'll take fewer tries.
I have a possible plan for the easy mode, but won't be revealing that yet. There may be some cases where it's NOT one hit.
Sivak wrote:
I have a possible plan for the easy mode, but won't be revealing that yet. There may be some cases where it's NOT one hit.
I THOUGHT that might be so. I original posted without the second sentence, since I remembered you posting about the pink armor shielding you from a hit at one point. But I checked, and it isn't the case in the final product, so I threw in that edit.
Kasumi wrote:
Sivak wrote:
I have a possible plan for the easy mode, but won't be revealing that yet. There may be some cases where it's NOT one hit.
I THOUGHT that might be so. I original posted without the second sentence, since I remembered you posting about the pink armor shielding you from a hit at one point. But I checked, and it isn't the case in the final product, so I threw in that edit.
The idea I have is that the shield will work for small bullets. You get ONE shield hit and it is recharged at a nonagram. Spikes or physically touching an enemy still = death. Large bullets (i.e. stuff that's more than 8x8 pixels) will most likely be 1 hitters too.
how about mercy invincibility? Since enemies like the snail would kill you most times if the first shot hits you, even if you're technically protected against it.
Updated the first post with a new video demo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlfqN92v7Xo - Here it is too.
Looks very cool and brutal.
- Nice, awesome work! Just one thing: those blocks to "indicate" a save room looks like spikes... or it's me? ^_^;;
The boss looks great! I love it!
Zepper wrote:
those blocks to "indicate" a save room looks like spikes...
I though so too! I couldn't read the text that was pointing to them the first time so I went back a little while thinking "what's so special about those spike balls that requires an explanation?".
I mistook the save room emblem for spikes as well. I'm not going in to a room that looks like the entrance to the room will kill me.
Great artistic work on the first boss. Looks really nice!
The save room doorway emblem reminded me of
something else. (But
that would just be
.)
you're doing an excellent job. the game looks really nice. congratulations!
Looking and sounding good there! One quick question, is this going to work properly on a PAL machine, or am I going to have to import a NTSC machine? (TBH I wouldn't mind doing that, its just I haven't had the opportunity to do so yet...)
If Battle Kid 1 is any indication, it will probably run at 50FPS, and play the music one half-step lower.
Looks good! Cool music, too. The difficulty doesn't look too bad, for being the first level too.
Hey all. I put up a new video of some more of the game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNrsYjvLp88
Looking good. I like the backgrounds, looking nice and fancy.
Like the music, wish it was a little more technoey but I like it.
Like the vast number of enemies and new stuff.....
Looks like it's going great, keep it up!
Hey, just an update for this site too.
I'm around 430 rooms, 4 bosses, and about 24 enemies. The main area needs 2 more parts mapped, which will bring the total rooms to approx. 480. After that, I'll be putting in some secretive secret areas, which won't be too huge, but they'll be there nonetheless.
I'm hoping to do another video soon showing off some of the new stuff. Last video was in October, so I think we're due soon.
All new video in the first post.
Just a status update: I got the 8th boss done today, so that means the main area is basically done.
I need to make the final area and sort out how events will play out, but I would say that the game is roughly 75-80% at this point.
The main area is around 520 rooms. When the final area and intro stage are put in, that number will probably be around 630 or so.
I did a full run earlier with all the content in place and it took 55 minutes and 5 deaths, most of which were me being dumb.
But it's all coming together pretty well.
this game is looking great, keep up the work
Hey all. Uploaded a new video today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBxmswDIiLk
Shows off the intro stage and cutscenes. We're around 80% at this point.
Just a status report: The map is 100% including the final area. There will be some tiny extra rooms for the final boss and whatnot, but none will contain enemies, so yay.
All I have to do now is make a final boss and then do the extra little stuff like scenes, events, some more music tracks, and all will be finished!
Thanks for the update! With this progress, can we hope for a 2011 release?
Another update: I finished the final boss tonight. Things are really looking up now.
Sivak wrote:
Another update: I finished the final boss tonight. Things are really looking up now.
good to read the game is still progressing. i would still love to feature the game for the upcoming print issue of
retro. well... you know where to find me anyway...
Updated the first post showing off a new video with a status report, label, and manual preview.
Anyway you might offer the option to buy the ROM directly from you instead of having to buy the cart from retrousb?
SkinnyV wrote:
Anyway you might offer the option to buy the ROM directly from you instead of having to buy the cart from retrousb?
I doubt his contract with bunnyboy would allow it...
With graphics like that for the label you HAVE TO make some boxes aswell! I'd personally pay 20-30 dollars extra just for that!
infiniteneslives wrote:
I doubt his contract with bunnyboy would allow it...
Yeah, that's what I had figured. At least setting up a donation page if there not one already could generate cash from the lost sale of people who doesn't want or need the retrousb cart version.
SkinnyV wrote:
At least setting up a donation page if there not one already could generate cash from the lost sale of people who doesn't want or need the retrousb cart version.
I have a donate button on the side of
my site.
Sivak wrote:
SkinnyV wrote:
At least setting up a donation page if there not one already could generate cash from the lost sale of people who doesn't want or need the retrousb cart version.
I have a donate button on the side of
my site.
But no ROM? lol.
Sivak wrote:
I have a donate button on the side of
my site.
Thanks, I wasn't aware of it! I was wondering how much profit you are making per cart sale but I also suppose this is not something you are free to talk about.
Posted a new video in the first thread.
Status news: There's very little left now. I got the ending done, so I just need to go back and revise dialogue. The intro stage's end scene is actually proper now, heh.
I anticipate a May release.
Sivak wrote:
I anticipate a May release.
Woot Woot!!!
I assume they'll be up for sale on retrousb.com like the original right? Is there any means to reserve a copy or is bunnyboy having massive pile of them made up to kick off the release? That way we don't have to fight over them
Yes. It will be up there. I'll have a date sometime, so stay tuned.
This morning I got it all done. Tonight and the next few days I will be vigorously looking at things one last time.
Get ready, guys.
Congrats Sivak!
Perhaps when I manage to conquer the third boss from the original BK I'll reward myself with a purchase of this game (I'm pretty sure she cheats
.) At least that way when my frustration builds with one of them and I need a break, I'll have the other BK to pick up and make progress with.
infiniteneslives wrote:
Congrats Sivak!
Perhaps when I manage to conquer the third boss from the original BK I'll reward myself with a purchase of this game (I'm pretty sure she cheats
.) At least that way when my frustration builds with one of them and I need a break, I'll have the other BK to pick up and make progress with.
I was stuck at the same place for soo long!
Looking forward to playing it! Just hope the final boss will be a bit more badass this time... the Supermech in BK1 was kind of dull compared to the previous ones.
Congrats!
I hope you make money and we can see BK3 someday
We're getting there. The past month and a half had me being very distracted with a personal matter. Tonight I got the last bit of content squared. Oddly enough, the last thing was naming a music track...
Hope to get a trailer video out there soon. Thanks for your patience everyone.
Thank
you!
@Sivak:
I think it may be remarkable that your first game is now being seen at second hand game shops. Not as a new cart mind you.
Also, I appreciated your youtube videos that were kinda half documenting half tutorial on NES development. I hope you have time for more someday.
Never got a message back about dealing with websites that pirate your full version. I'd imagine it's less apathy and more my email got lost amongst the U-Force Enlargement Pill advertisements :p
I updated the first post with some tentative release info.
So, if I buy it this time, what is the probability of receiving a prototype version?
Count me in for option #2!
Can a computer file be purchased?
I posted the trailer tonight. Here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaK-RjiZedA
Looks most excellent. Well done! I can't wait
Quote:
Can a computer file be purchased?
Sorry, Admin. I could not resist.
Denine wrote:
Sorry, Admin. I could not resist.
Call me dumb too, but I didn't really get the joke. As I see it, the guy asked an valid question. Are you saying that if a person doesn't own an NES he's not allowed to want to play the game?
I'm not saying that there should be a downloadable version (as this would most likely make pirating the game insanely easy), but the guy has all the right to ask without being called dumb.
Ehh, sorry then.
He's question was so long not answered so I thought everyone feels about it like me.
Sorry about it, zzo38.
Also, I don't own NES. And It's impossible to play battle kid with
Pegasus. And getting NES is a pain in my country.
Quote:
I'm not saying that there should be a downloadable version (as this would most likely make pirating the game insanely easy)
That's the point. It's so obvious, so asking about downloadable file that makes no sense to me.
All in all, sorry about it, I'll try harder to understand peoples intentions next time.
Denine wrote:
Also, I don't own NES. And It's impossible to play battle kid with
Pegasus.
A Pegasus looks like a clone of the Famicom. I was under the impression that adapters existed to play NES Game Paks on a Famicom.
It would be possible if only adapters were's as rare(rarer?) as NES itself.
And there's one important economical point here: NES costs about 2x more than Pegasus. Buying it for one game(did I mention how rare NES games are on Polish market?) makes little sense.
So, I'm waiting until Sivak releases Battle Kid(first one) as free download,
as said here.
Yep, sorry Sivak, not going to buy this game. But I won't pirate it either.
I can wait patiently. Oh, and sorry about all this offtop. Back to the Battle Kid 2.
Would it be just as fine if these games were made available in Famicom format to fit your famiclone? Because if so, I'll get on IRC and tell bunnyboy he could make a few more sales to customers in developing countries that way.
Sivak mentioned that SRAM was expensive. I wonder how much a tiny EEPROM would have been to use?
SRAM is dirt cheap, like $1. Since you're already using 8KB on the CHR-RAM side, cheap it up using a 32KB chip and back that up and swap it, a la racermate.
You can use the same SRAM chip as CHR-RAM and WRAM at the same time? Aren't they on different buses?
Denine wrote:
Yep, sorry Sivak, not going to buy this game. But I won't pirate it either.
I can wait patiently. Oh, and sorry about all this offtop. Back to the Battle Kid 2.
I can wait patiently too. If it happens to come downloadable in future (even if not when it is first released) then I may download it but believe me I don't mind paying the normal price for the game. But I don't want a cartridge I want a .NES file which can be played on the computer.
Perhaps that is what you can do, you can sell the computer file too (in addition to the cartridge) after the game has been sold already for a while, after some amount of time?
There's actually a cheaper option which I forgot to mention, and Memblers promotes it whenever it comes up: using the PRG or CHR EEPROM itself for save games. Cost: free if CHR, 6ยข for a 741g14 if PRG (unless you find one where nWR overrides nRD). Downsides: screwing it up damages or bricks the game; an EEPROM with sector erase is required; EEPROM isn't available for reading during erase or write so if PRG, save game writing routine must be copied to internal RAM first and if CHR, video must be disabled during erase.
tepples wrote:
Would it be just as fine if these games were made available in Famicom format to fit your famiclone? Because if so, I'll get on IRC and tell bunnyboy he could make a few more sales to customers in developing countries that way.
You really can do it?
Wow, would be great. But..I'm not sure about it. To be honest, in countries like mine, I'm not sure if the game sells very well. I'll buy it, but piracy is often more choosen option. I don't want bunnyboy or you to lose money on making cart that won't sell.
About compabibility, I'v never heard about not working famicom game with pegasus. And my famicom games(Kirby, SMB3, Rockman3 and few more) are working perfectly.
NES to Famicom adapters are easy to find. I use this one, myself:
$13 at gamedoctorhk
Personally, I think a ROM release that can be purchased via paypal would be more effective at getting it into the hands of people that want to pay for it than another physical release in an even more obscure format, but... well, I'm sure Sivak has thought hard about how he wants to release his game already.
I asked on #nesdev:
bunnyboy wrote:
Adapters to play NES games on Famicom are everywhere and cheap, just ugly. Stone Age Gamer has them for $11+shipping, and they certainly aren't a low cost place.
It appears he refers to
this product.
Jeroen wrote:
I have an adaptor. If you look carefully they're not hard to find. The reason the carts are not available is because it'd require a Famicom mold to be made, which would probably only be for a (relatively) small part of the community. Or if you go to famicomworld.com plenty of forum members can sell you some.
And you only need to buy one adapter to play
all these. This includes Nomolos and both Battle Kids.
Huh, I really need o learn how to use google propelly. I think this will be best solution for everyone.
Thanks all.
FYI, PowerPak doesn't work with The Stone Age Gamer adapter. Not sure if the other linked one has the same problem. Just something to know.
The one I linked (from gamedoctorhk) has worked for me with everything I've tried (offhand I know I've used Powerpak, TMNT, Battletoads, Solar Jetman, SMB/DH, and some carts I built myself from ReproPak). This was all on a Famicom. It's ugly, but it works fine so far.
Just posted a new demo for the game.
http://sivak.nintendoage.com/BK2-NewDemo.zip - File
This is how the game is now versus how it was 11 months ago, heh.
Very cool, but the pressing select from pause to get to the menu thing is very awkward.
I strongly recommend the more traditional approach:
Start: brings up the menu
Select: does a straight up pause
(a la, Zelda)
Unless you have other plans for Select in-game...
Also the character art is amazing. A big improvement from BK1.
I like it, like the options and everything in it, but don't like how you can't leave the options menu with the start button. When you get into a menu with a button, you need to exit with that button to keep a logical flow of button assignments to the person playing the game. Bad design, but it's not too much of a game killer. That 1 pixel wide font on the other hand, is. I know I've commented on it a ton, but it's nearly impossible to read on a TV.
Sivak wrote:
I'm still in talks about the LE version, but it's finally going to be done.
What's the LE version? I'm guessing Limited Edition to some degree? Any word on what to expect for differences?
Finally got a chance to check out the updated demo, the characters are pretty BA. Too bad Timmy hasn't gotten a hair cut since the last game. Kids these days...
Unfortunately I'd have to agree the start->select->B->start button combo to get in and out of the menu does throw me off a bit. That said, I'm still racking my brain over the MM3 menu system.
In any event like everyone else I'll be here waiting with bated breath for the release.
The LE version is a special edition that has a numbered cart, ROM, and case. May or may not do numbered manuals this time. They mainly go out to significant contributors or friends, but those that are left over are put into a pool where folks can enter and if their name is drawn, they are admitted, but they still have to pay for the thing.
I guess regarding the menu system... I had some difficulties when programming it and the paused method was just more convenient to do. I'm not going to attempt a rewrite at this phase. All I can say is you will get used it and players won't likely use it a whole lot. It's not like Mega Man where you switch weapons constantly. That's about all I can really say about it...
As of this morning, I sent him the final files. Thanks for the patience all.
You should really put out this stuff yourself. Its pretty easy. Plus you wont have to give the retrozone prick any money. There are alot of products I would of bought, if they were not sold through retrozone. I refused to give him a penny more of my money after getting zero support for a DoA snes powerpak and never answering any of my concerns getting it replaced.
I wanted to quickly announce here that I have, with Sivak's permission, made the new Battle Kid 2: Mountain of Torment Demo available on Apple's App Store. It's a free download for any iPad, iPhone or iPod touch running iOS 5 or later.
View Battle Kid 2 Lite on the App StoreThe app features the latest version of my Macifomlite emulator/ROM wrapper and has the following new features:
* Native support for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch at standard and Retina resolutions.
* Square-pixel and 4:3 aspect ratios available in portrait and landscape modes, respectively.
* Support for iCade-compatible external Bluetooth controllers. (Configurable from the BK2 Lite item in the Settings app)
* 60fps video and 44.1khz audio on all supported devices.
For those who are interested, I'd be grateful for any feedback on the app via PM. I plan to push an update to coincide with the full cartridge release from RetroZone.
I'd also appreciate it if someone would heckle the first reviewer
Battle Kid on a touch screen? Oh no...
Some criticism:
- Still slight stuttering on the audio from time to time.
- Nearest-point filtering in the landscape mode looks kind of crappy, especially in text parts. Maybe it's a lesser of two evils when compared to bilinear filtering, though...
- The buttons in landscape mode obscure the game play, I prefer Mega Man 2 Lite's way of having the buttons on the sides.
Ah yes, this finally came out. I myself can't actually play it though.
Still is a cool means for others to try the game out.
thefox wrote:
- Nearest-point filtering in the landscape mode looks kind of crappy, especially in text parts. Maybe it's a lesser of two evils when compared to bilinear filtering, though...
mikejmoffitt and I agree that perhaps the best compromise in this case is to blow it up to x2 using point sampling and then blow it up to the final size using bilinear.
tepples wrote:
thefox wrote:
- Nearest-point filtering in the landscape mode looks kind of crappy, especially in text parts. Maybe it's a lesser of two evils when compared to bilinear filtering, though...
mikejmoffitt and I agree that perhaps the best compromise in this case is to blow it up to x2 using point sampling and then blow it up to the final size using bilinear.
I agree, that looks really good!
thefox wrote:
Battle Kid on a touch screen? Oh no...
Bluetooth controls are also available, and that's my preferred way to play. I've surprised myself with how proficient I've become with the touch controls in portrait mode, though.
thefox wrote:
Some criticism:
- Still slight stuttering on the audio from time to time.
- Nearest-point filtering in the landscape mode looks kind of crappy, especially in text parts. Maybe it's a lesser of two evils when compared to bilinear filtering, though...
- The buttons in landscape mode obscure the game play, I prefer Mega Man 2 Lite's way of having the buttons on the sides.
- You're right. For the next version I'm making my audio buffer a tick longer to smooth over that. I'm mindful of audio latency, though. It would be nice if I could sync to sound as I do on the desktop but I don't have an efficient way to do that yet.
- I'm going to look into tepples' suggestion here.
- I did this so I could have the same scaling in place for landscape mode with and without external controls enabled. It doesn't work so well for games like Battle Kid where you enter from one side of the screen and exit through another in nearly every room. For the next version I think I'll scale the video less in landscape when using touch controls to keep it out of the video area.
Thank you for the honest feedback. It really helps me to prioritize changes for the next version.
tepples wrote:
thefox wrote:
- Nearest-point filtering in the landscape mode looks kind of crappy, especially in text parts. Maybe it's a lesser of two evils when compared to bilinear filtering, though...
mikejmoffitt and I agree that perhaps the best compromise in this case is to blow it up to x2 using point sampling and then blow it up to the final size using bilinear.
Hadn't thought of that but I see the logic. Investigating...
thefox wrote:
Battle Kid on a touch screen? Oh no...
- The buttons in landscape mode obscure the game play, I prefer Mega Man 2 Lite's way of having the buttons on the sides.
I put in a couple of days working to improve touch controls for version 1.1. I've rewritten my touch routines to be more tolerant of errant taps, reduced the size of the dead-zone in the center of the d-pad, and redid landscape mode on iPhone along the lines of Mega Man 2.
On top of that, I've implemented a new mode where you can output to an HDTV and use the whole surface of the device as a controller. You can even pair a Bluetooth controller in this mode and basically have a wireless NES. It's a little more costly, but it upscales to HD quite nicely! I uploaded
a little demonstration.
This is really cool! Is there any good Blue-tooth controllers for iPhone?
Anyway, great idea to release this game this way as an option. I suppose Sivak will get his share of every copy that will be sold?
Kreese wrote:
This is really cool! Is there any good Blue-tooth controllers for iPhone?
It works with all iCade-compatible controllers which includes the
iControlPad and the entire
iCade family. I have an iCade for my iPad and am rather impressed with the quality of the controls. Here's a
video of me playing BK2 on it.Kreese wrote:
Anyway, great idea to release this game this way as an option. I suppose Sivak will get his share of every copy that will be sold?
At the moment I'm only publishing the freely-available demo of BK2. Whether or not the full game will see a release apart from the cartridge version is up to Sivak and bunnyboy.
I tried the new iPhone version on lecture break today, and here are a couple of things I noticed:
- At one point the Left button on the "d-pad" got stuck. Sorry, but I have no idea how to reproduce this.
- In landscape mode clicking on top of the screen takes you to retrousb.com, even though there's no visible link. I tried couple of times to open the notifications bar or whatever it's called (you know, by sliding downwards at the top of the screen), and it would open up the link instead. Also when I returned to the game again, it would sometimes re-open the page instantaneously even when I didn't touch anything.
- Sometimes the controls didn't seem to work after re-opening the game. Once again, no idea how to reproduce this, but I'll let you know if it keeps on occurring again.
- Would be nice to have an option to turn the sound off. Also would be nice if it allowed the music player to be used while playing the game.
thefox wrote:
I tried the new iPhone version on lecture break today, and here are a couple of things I noticed:
- At one point the Left button on the "d-pad" got stuck. Sorry, but I have no idea how to reproduce this.
- In landscape mode clicking on top of the screen takes you to retrousb.com, even though there's no visible link. I tried couple of times to open the notifications bar or whatever it's called (you know, by sliding downwards at the top of the screen), and it would open up the link instead. Also when I returned to the game again, it would sometimes re-open the page instantaneously even when I didn't touch anything.
- Sometimes the controls didn't seem to work after re-opening the game. Once again, no idea how to reproduce this, but I'll let you know if it keeps on occurring again.
- Would be nice to have an option to turn the sound off. Also would be nice if it allowed the music player to be used while playing the game.
Thanks for testing it out and letting me know about these issues. The problem with the d-pad getting stuck in one direction was something I saw on a pre-release build but appeared to be resolved by a code change. It's possible that iOS cancelled a touch for some reason and didn't send me a 'touchesEnded' notification. I'll have to look into that.
Having the RetroZone link still work in landscape is a little wonky, I agree. I'll change that for the next update. I've not had trouble pulling up Notifications, losing touch or having the link re-open so I'm wondering if your config and mine have behavioral differences.
Could you PM me with your device model and iOS version so I can see if there's a config-specific issue here? Thanks.
Noticed one more problem in the iPhone port when playing today: one time that I reopened the game, the sound didn't work. As a little detail, when I tried to adjust the volume by pressing the +/- buttons, it adjusted the ringer volume, not the game's volume as it usually does. Closing and reopening the game fixed this.
thefox wrote:
Noticed one more problem in the iPhone port when playing today: one time that I reopened the game, the sound didn't work. As a little detail, when I tried to adjust the volume by pressing the +/- buttons, it adjusted the ringer volume, not the game's volume as it usually does. Closing and reopening the game fixed this.
Fixed one bug this morning that would prevent the game from unpausing after an SMS or phone call (and possibly other OS interruptions). The purchase link and rotation would still respond, making it seem like the controls had just stopped working. Not sure whether or not that's related to your earlier report.
I spent some time trying to make the + / - buttons adjust ringer volume rather than app volume, but even with audio playback disabled it doesn't happen. Maybe your phone thought it was plugged into an audio dock?
Thanks for the info, as always. PM me with other weird happenings.
I hope for a release this year. What's up with this?
Kreese wrote:
I hope for a release this year. What's up with this?
I did post something on my site recently.
http://sivak.nintendoage.com/I had a talk with Brian and barring any bad problems with the USPS, 2 weeks is sounding conceivable.
Great to hear that things are on track again. We cross our fingers and hope for a BK-christmas this year.
Lookie what's due out tomorrow!
Sorry for short notice, but I'll write a more detailed post with information later. I got this in the early morning.
Uhh, I don't like how Timmy is presented in the label.
He's like "I'M bad guy!" I just don't like it.
The guy to his left look kind of Sigma, from Megaman X series. Dunno why.
Also, first guy from Timmy's right....ugh, I know it's just my imagination, but he reminds me of a
one hell of a android.
Good job on releasing the game, though! Hope it sells well.
When I tried to play the Battle Kid 1 demo on PocketNES, it was nearly unplayable because I was pressing the A and B buttons too hard and too much, so the system was shaking all the time. I guess a separate screen really is required for this game.
Yeah! Woohoo! Game ordered. Great news Sivak!
Thanks.
I like how the issue of ordering more than two is handled; rather than disallowing it, such orders will simply take longer to fulfill.
It's the first application of
shortest job first that I've ever seen on an online store.
Hmmmmm... I thought I would get mine soon. Still "in production" at the website.
My copy shipped yesterday, not bad for being ordered over a month ago.
Are you being sarcastic? If so, is there something stopping you from expressing your displeasure directly?
Dwedit wrote:
My copy shipped yesterday, not bad for being ordered over a month ago.
There was a batch that would ship pre-Christmas and the remainders were January. There was a notification on the site for that.
My copy finally arrived!
edit: beat first boss, 26 deaths so far.
edit: beat second boss, 86 deaths so far.
edit: beat 2.5th boss, 173 deaths so far.
Dwedit wrote:
My copy finally arrived!
edit: beat first boss, 26 deaths so far.
edit: beat second boss, 86 deaths so far.
edit: beat 2.5th boss, 173 deaths so far.
Already over 100 deaths after the first boss... I guess I should quit right now!
Very fun, this game holds a candle to any 1st party game released during the NES's hayday.
Reached 254 deaths before the third boss. These stages are brutal.
edit: Beat third boss, 312 deaths total.
Dwedit wrote:
Reached 254 deaths before the third boss. These stages are brutal.
edit: Beat third boss, 312 deaths total.
You've got me beat, Ivan's machine (boss 2.5?) got me about 50 deaths on its own, I was near 300 at that time.
Beat boss 4, 502 deaths total. 4th boss was pretty easy, only 12 deaths against him.
edit: Beat boss 5, 618 deaths total.
edit: Beat boss 6, 980 deaths total.
Battle Kid 2 (as well as BK1) is awesome. I'm looking forward to a third Battle Kid in the future! Keep them coming, Sivak!
I might buy it if I can purchase the download of the ROM image file instead.
There are rumors that you will eventually be able to purchase the ROM as DLC for EMUya on OUYA.
tepples wrote:
There are rumors that you will eventually be able to purchase the ROM as DLC for EMUya on OUYA.
But I just want the plain ROM image file that I can use on any device with an emulator. I don't mind to pay, though (as long as the price isn't really high).
tepples wrote:
There are rumors that you will eventually be able to purchase the ROM as DLC for EMUya on OUYA.
Last I heard he is working on an update to BattleKid 1 using the BattleKid 2 engine for EMUya.
