I'm glad to finally present to you my new NES game.
Download the game (392K) or
watch a video (spoilers alert, it shows solution for few levels!).
The game is a logic platformer. You control a hero and his alter ego. You have to switch between them to clear a level. It is a bit similar to Binary Land.
This game is a port, or maybe a remake, of recent ZX Spectrum game of the same name. The original version created by Denis Grachev from
RetroSouls, you can see video of it
here and get it
here. NES version got new graphics, original music by
Kulor (composed for the game), and some other changes.
Interesting technical feature of this game is that it is written in C, with cc65 compiler. You can get source code
here. More details about this and development process in general are available in notes.txt file provided with the game.
Well, that's pretty cool. I liked Binary Land and thought that game mechanic was fun, I think it's even a little better in this game. I haven't made it too far yet (just to where the music changes), I have a feeling I'll have to use savestates or replay the first levels a bunch of times, heheh.
Pretty interesting to see the source code in C too.
Absolutely love the graphic style and music. Looking forward to playing this.
Another awesome homebrew NES game! Damn you guys are kiling me! :-) Yay puzzle games!
Outstanding work! I love the polished feel your games have (right down to including a label and a manual). It's surprising how well the "drop every 6th frame" frame rate conversion works to unify the frame rate between NTSC/PAL.
About notes.txt: "in case of the problems when C code does not work as expected, you need to figure out what to do by examining of the generated assembly code". That is true, but I'd like to remind everyone that NintendulatorDX (and NESICIDE, I think) can do source level debugging for C sources as well, which makes debugging somewhat easier. It's not yet perfect, because "Step" steps assembly instructions and not actual C code lines. Also C identifiers need to be prefixed with "_" in the watch window.
good work, I really like the idea and look of it!
Shiru wrote:
I'm glad to finally present to you my new NES game.
Absolutely awesome! Great job!!
I'm not a fan of puzzle game but the polish and the fact that it was made it C it quite interesting. Good work so far.
Great work.
The fact it was written in C is well surprising ! So NES games CAN be written in C.
I haven't asked Kulor yet, but you going to release the NSF with it as well?
There is the original FTM of the music in source code, so you can easily get it by yourself (i.e. just load it into FamiTracker and export as NSF).
Oh duh, kulor pointed that out to me too.
Edit: kulor and I both share the same complaint that the Level 2 song shouldn't have been cut. It's very out of place to have a strange waltz song around a level filled with skulls and moss. xD
Doesn't sound entirely finished, but at least it's in the FTM for me to enjoy.
I already said it on NA, but I figured I'd post here too... great job! I've made it to the third set of worlds, but I can't seem to get by Made In Heaven :' ( That's a tough one. My son and I have been staring at the screen for some time now haha Lovin' this release Shiru.
thefox wrote:
About notes.txt: "in case of the problems when C code does not work as expected, you need to figure out what to do by examining of the generated assembly code". That is true, but I'd like to remind everyone that NintendulatorDX (and NESICIDE, I think) can do source level debugging for C sources as well, which makes debugging somewhat easier. It's not yet perfect, because "Step" steps assembly instructions and not actual C code lines. Also C identifiers need to be prefixed with "_" in the watch window.
I'm already on it. I had some issues with C stepping but hope to release an update today or tomorrow that supports it.
B00daW, I like the mood of the first version of level 2 theme and think it works with the second graphics set better, but we weren't able to agree on how to change it to sound nice to my ear (in second half), and there wasn't much time to discuss or work on it more. Well, actually we agreed I'd fix the song as I like, but then Kulor rolled out second version, and I decided to just go with that. Besides of the second part, there were other problems with the first version, like DPCM attenuate of triangle channel which didn't worked properly at the time, and noise channel had to be changed, because it was too loud and introduced more 'detune' feel.
Am I the only one who finds the game extremely hard ? I can't even pass level 2.
Bregalad wrote:
Am I the only one who finds the game extremely hard ? I can't even pass level 2.
I had issues with the first level till I realized how you were limited how many times to "alter your ego" So really just make sure you time the skulls properly. Figuring that out I was able to get through several levels with no problem, even without using all the alters available. Just plan and time yourself...
Say Shiru, have you ever though about releasing any of your games on hardware in the future? It would be really cool to see a multicart or something your work. I guess the competition cart will have a couple.
Lan Master and Lawn Mower will be on the competition cart. This one - I don't know, there are other authors involved. If there will be demand, I'll think about it.
I don't know why. But on level 3 I fall down from the bridge all the time in NEStopia. I can only run like 3-4 steps then I fall. In FCEUX it works.
Otherwise, great game! I have to finish it!
I successfully beat the game in Nestopia during testing. I also just tested level 3 again, no problems there.
Strange. When I played on my PowerPak and in FCEUX it worked fine, in Nestopia it gets like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXP7YOIcyvM
I thought it could be something with the Retrozone controller I was using, tried switching to keyboard. But that didn't help.
Video looks seriously bugged - bridge parts aren't falls as they supposed to (see these sprites at top of the window?), and they disappear as you step on them, not when you leave a bridge piece. If it never happens on the hardware, report to the Nestopia author about the problem, as I think it is a bad idea to fix software for a certain emulator's quirks.
I personally have no idea how this can happen, if you don't use a cheat code or something (maybe accidentally enabled).
Hehe, yes I had a cheat enabled. Sorry about that... Now it works just fine. Now I have to beat the game. I've come quite far!
The amount of quality NES homebrew is dramatically raising recently
Thanks for your hard work Shiru (and of course the other two guys too!).
-koj
Hah!
Another game from Shiru.It's really good.Small and Hi quality.I enjoy playing it.BUt..ermm..anyone know how to get past "made in heaven"? I have no clue how to get green pellet above the start point.
Congrats to the team.
I find most of it is too easy. I completed the game.
However I like the idea of game. And I like that source-codes is available.
Completed in 20-25 minutes. Pretty fun, but it would be nice if there were more levels.
Superb graphics and sound though, nice trick with the BG animations, I never would've thought of that.
awesome job doing keep it up!!
Thanks Shiru
Alter Ego got free
PC version.
Shiru wrote:
Alter Ego got free
PC version.
Yea, I was surprised to see this pop up in my youtube stream a few days ago. I follow a few indie game guys on youtube. Did you have any part in this? I see they are distributing your NES version along with this.
Denis used my NES graphics as base for PC version, and Kulor made improved soundtrack, which he is also
released as an album recently.
Does the PC version use any of the code from the NES version?
I don't know, probably not. It is XNA, .NET, etc.
XNA uses C#. Is there a way to translate automatically between C# and any "native" language so that changes to one are reflected in the other, or must one write the program three times, producing a C# version, a native version, and an exhaustive unit test framework that checks whether the C# version and the native version produce bit-for-bit identical physics and AI?
I don't know much about C#, but as I know, it does not have global variables, just like many other object oriented languages. C on NES forces to use them a lot, so you certainly need to do some changes in the code (put it in a class or something). Also, type sizes are different.
So now how do we port Alter Ego to AS3 so that it can go on a Flash game collection like Armor Games?
(Just as a stopped clock is right twice a day, spam can occasionally be on-topic.)
Okay I bump this topic to say I just finished the game, and I want to congratulate Shiriu and his team for developing this game.
I said before it's hard but I was completely wrong, in fact it turned out to be quite easy (if you just spend some time and some live to understand the game) but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
The music is really good too !
The only "bad" thing about this game is that the enemy skulls are so slow it pisses me off to wait for them to slowly walk and I usually lose lives stupidly running into them from behind.
Also there is no real reason to replay it once you figured out all the puzzles. Although I'll probably find myself replaying it once in awhile for the music.
tepples wrote:
So now how do we port Alter Ego to AS3 so that it can go on a Flash game collection like Armor Games?
(Just as a stopped clock is right twice a day, spam can occasionally be on-topic.)
Why port a single game? Convert an emulator into an xcode project that will run one ROM with a checksum file so it isn't a "general emulator"
App Store Money.
Apple forbids emulators that let users run games other than those built into the emulator.
tepples wrote:
Apple forbids emulators that let users run games other than those built into the emulator.
Exactly.
Package Alter Ego.NES and a checksum file into the .IPA
Okay, maybe checksum isn't the right word. A password file that only allows the appropriate ROM file to run.
And that is in fact
being done for another game in which Shiru was involved. It's just that the licensing for Alter Ego is less clear, it being a port of someone else's game and all.
tepples wrote:
And that is in fact
being done for another game in which Shiru was involved. It's just that the licensing for Alter Ego is less clear, it being a port of someone else's game and all.
If there's anyone who'd like to clarify and negotiate the rights, I'm down to give Alter Ego the Zooming Secretary treatment and put it on the App Store.
I tried this game and it's really entertaining! (Didn't know about puzzles like this) When I get more time, I'll try to beat the last level. Great job, Shiru & company.
Maybe I'll try the other versions.