Post by Sparky-D in Serpland (C64) comments

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Sounds good mano, that you rewriting the game and also, that you want to improve graphics and some other things. Looking forward to this new version.

The Poke you mentioned, you could write it here on the side. Maybe also other players of "Serpland" want to change Level3 to normal-speed? Or, i think this would be even better, you change this thing in the game and then release it as v1.1 here. Then even some C64-beginners, don't have to be afraid, that they can't manage this thing with the Poke themselves.

Best regards.

manolober1 year ago

Yes, other players have also complained about the speed of the third level and so now I'm inserting the note to normalize the speed of the third level in a new comment above us.
I decided to follow your advice and make the development page but not for small things such as the speed of the third level only when there will be a nice block of news such as when all the imperfections and small shortcomings will be fixed. If you play it again let me know what level you have reached.
Thanks for the feedback.

Sparky-D1 year ago

Hy. I inserted the poke and it works. In the very first game then, i already made it to level 5 now :)

manolober1 year ago

Congratulations, you are a good player!
I encourage you to continue even if the fifth and sixth, I won't say the seventh, are quite difficult then, from the tenth onwards, there are four or five more feasible schemes.
However, the fifth one requires a bit of skill because you immediately have to do the part on the left of the screen. Maybe in the future I will remove it or make it easier.
I wish you a good match. Goodbye and thanks.

Sparky-D1 year ago

Okay, thanks. Looking forward to the rewritten game. :) One suggestion for this. I found out, that sometimes it can be hard in Serpland, to steer the snake in the way i wanted, when several crossroads are close together. Sometimes i steer in a direction, but then the snake no longer reacts, probably because, either the player is not fast enough with his controller-inputs, or, because the player has not brought the joystick back to the zero-position (the middle) in between, I assume? I think the latter is more likely to be the problem. Then the snake sometimes don't use that way, which i wanted, in one of these crossroads, that are close together. Maybe something can be improved in this point, that the snake reacts better, in the rewritten game? But this problem can only be noticed, when intersections/crossroads are really close to each other, otherwise not.

manolober1 year ago

The snake responds well to commands: you just have to be agile! You have to be quick in a short amount of time to make the snake change direction. I guarantee you: even I am not a galactic player, I can still finish the thirty-ninth level which requires professional skill. But anyway, the point is this: I made it too hard. I want to make it less difficult and more enjoyable. For this I will also look at the command routine. However, I'll give you some advice: you can use different tools. For example the keyboard or a gamepad if you can't use the joystick: each of us behaves differently depending on the medium we use.

Thank you again for the feedback. Let me know where you get to. HI.

Sparky-D1 year ago (6 edits)

Well, normally i am a good player and i have good highscores in alot of different retrogames, better than alot of my friends back then. :-) In Serpland, as long as there aren't many intersections close together, I can't find any problem. But if you have to turn in different directions in the game in quick succession, then it gets difficult sometimes, I've found, at least with my different "Competition Pro" joysticks, this is the case. I have the feeling, that the joystick then sometimes don't get back to it's zero-position fast enough and when i then move the stick into a direction again, then the snake sometimes don't react. I guess, because the joystick was not brought back into the neutral middle-position fast enough before. Maybe it plays better with a gamepad, I'll have to try it out? But if I compare the game, for example with this snake game here

https://gb64.com/game.php?id=22844&d=18&h=0

then I don't have any such problems there, even not, when alot of intersections are close together. But the snake there is a bit slower also, which certainly plays a role too?

manolober1 year ago

Thank you so much for the observation and the report you left me. I will no doubt revisit the joystick routine in the future.

I also thank you for the nibbler version for the C64 which I honestly had never seen or don't remember: I tried it and it is much easier than my Serpland.
I'm debugging my little game, if you need help in any particular level, try to let me know.
Thanks again.

itch.io

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