Post by Mindbleach in Slaughter comments

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The posted version is a full 2x turning speed. It is a bit much, but... it really is better. If you're searching in a cheat-engine, the number wouldn't show up, because it's two INC or DEC instructions in a row. If you're looking at the source code, first of all, my apologies. But in any case it's about halfway down movement_alone. Ctrl+F "not strafing."

Reversed mouse input is definitely the game. I have no idea why it does that. I tried fixing it recently, to use the input more directly, and turning left was twice as fast as turning right. That's straight-up haunted. It's on the same to-do list as the hilarious variety of ways multiplayer can break. Less debugging, more exorcism.

Enemy placement is the screen with letters and numbers on top of floor tiles. There's a 7x7 subscreen, showing a zoomed-in view, since the grid for enemies is finer than the level grid.

How you'd save levels is a password system. Which I really thought I had an easy solution for. Quicksaves are already in VRAM - that's where they're stored. So this week I figured, I could store them as hex. Displaying the second screen would be a human-readable version of that data. Unfortunately for that human, even simple levels weigh about two hundred bytes, and then get fatter as enemies move around and bleed on things. My approach to that problem was: tough shit. The idea of someone typing in a four-hundred-digit "password" is funny enough, before the implication of a mapping scene. Unfortunately for me, even with compression, doubling the size of passwords like that can easily wind up too big to fit on one screen. So I still have to do it the hard way.

In the meantime, the way I save levels to put them in the ROM is opening up Memory Tools and copying them straight out of RAM.

trifalger8 days ago(+1)

The level design is outstanding. I've noticed some really ingenious layouts all over the game but I finally found the last enemy in level one and man... I thought those glide jump paths in later levels were sneaky but here in level 1 was the sneakiest I'd found so far. I actually thought it was a glitch because I went over the level many times searching to no avail.

If it's any help with save size I think I'd be ok with/without blood on the ground.

Hey there's friendly fire amongst enemies! And boy it helps in the last level. I cleared out all the enemies in the open ground and let the ones in the cave kill themselves a bit but unfortunately got taken out before I could reach the finish. So close. It's neat though to see their shots and bodies explode behind walls, reminiscent of the Farsight gun in Perfect Dark.

trifalger1 day ago(+1)

I 100%-ed the game! ...sorta. I killed all of the enemies but try as I might I couldn't find the final portal. I did end up using the Give Up menu to cycle through to see what was past the last level and man, the credits... much appreciated!!

The value of this game is crazy. 7 fully populated and varied 3D environments with platform puzzles and diverse enemies. I don't think I'd ever have believed someone describing this game to me on NES.

It blew up on youtube! Awesome! It looked like the top comments were neck and neck with how impressive but dizzying/confusing the graphics were. I went into NESDEV and response seemed about the same. I personally love the graphics and both my 11yo son and I had no issues navigating the environment or identifying enemies, especially with the recent releases. I checked the post again and I see a lot more support now. I think it just needs more footage out there and more people playing it to gain traction and grow wings.

Mindbleach16 hours ago

The game now has what I think are the two final levels, and one of them should clear up the final level. The other kind of final level. You know what I mean.

Enemies are a little more diverse, but not super well balanced. I tore out a bunch of code expecting I'd draw more guys, and instead let each level change their height and behavior. That needs tweaking. Enemy placement and quantity also need tweaking. Mostly to fill out secretive areas beyond that one trolling hidden guy in the first level. That was a placeholder for a secret exit or something, an entire year ago, but I might as well put some combat in the upper area if that's simply not a feature.

The game isn't done, done, but I think this is it for capital-c Content. I went from barely fitting four levels to having enough ROM for ten or eleven. There's nine and that's enough. According to John Romero that's a megawad.

The menu needs a whole do-over. It works for both players, finally, but it should really appear on either side. (Same side or opposite side?) God help me, I may yet redo the whole sprite-projection function, or at least drop it to 30 Hz when the game chugs. The tileset is surprisingly underused... and a lot of diagonals and dropoffs are still placeholders, somehow. It deserves music, and I have room, but apparently I cannot be arsed. I took a hard look at SNES controller support and said no. Maybe after I leave it alone for another six months.

I'm not sure what comes after this. Possibly chopping down a quick and dirty Wolf3D port. Possibly aforementioned dot-throwing. Possibly a C64 port, since I've got all the hard parts in 6502 assembly, and that machine could save your edited levels. But from here to at least the end of the year, it's only tweaks, fixes, and telling people the game exists.

The latter of which I did get scooped on.

It has been fun to watch the numbers go up, and tell people on Youtube to try their own ridiculous projects. Mmmight do a lower-detail version, per suggestions? It'd be an easy ROM-hack. I could add a mapper and make the tile graphics swappable, but quite frankly, I don't wanna. It's too much of an invitation to put in even more work. I want to do what's next.

itch.io

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