Results and Downloads posted [2014 Compo] / Double Action 53

[NovaSquirrel]

Should be the newest version now. I deleted the .zip for the old version so I don't accidentally reupload it anymore.

[JRoatch]

@tepples
2. All in ines offsets.
- DABG: $69fc - $8009
- Blaster: $3896 - $4009
- Conway's Life has an uncompressed CHR page with 6144 bytes of blank tiles
- and of course robotfindskitten has lots of reserved space for non kitten items.
3. I didn't find more mapper writes other then at $FBBC and $FBC1
4. Attached is a set of 64x56 screens.

[tepples]

So DABG didn't get much bigger but Sliding Blaster did. I've patched out MilioNESy's mapper writes, set the appropriate map mode, and added the new screenshots.

recursive.png

Cute Thanks for the screenshots.

The last thing is descriptions for these:

• Sgt. Helmet - Training Day
• Theremin
• Anything else you can think of

Once I release the first "beta" version, where should we publicize this?

[Tom]

Here's the latest copies of Love Story and Theremin with various bug fixes.

[NovaSquirrel]

For Sgt.Helmet, the description could be:

Shoot enemies, push boulders and collect keycards to unlock doors and advance through the mission.
Pick up 5 bombs along the way to drop off at the target.

+: Move
A: Shoot

[tepples]

Thanks. Now the only thing holding up beta is the occasional crash when picking things up in Sliding Blaster, even the latest version (dated October 27).

[NovaSquirrel]

Code: Select all

  SoundEffectWithDebounce:
    lda CollectSoundDebounce
    bne NotAmmo
    ...
    lda #15
    sta CollectSoundDebounce
    rts
  NotAmmo:
    cmp #METATILE_HEALTH
    bne NotHealth
    ...
    jmp SoundEffectWithDebounce
  NotHealth:

Originally NotAmmo just led to an RTS before I added the health pickup. Now it doesn't, and NotAmmo will assume that A contains a metatile ID when it's really the countdown value for CollectSoundDebounce. If it's 3, NotHealth will not be branched to, and the code inside will jump to SoundEffectWithDebounce.

[tepples]

Congratulations on finding and fixing the underlying issue.

It's time to get some test coverage for real. Find people to fire up a PowerPak or an emulator that supports the Action 53 mapper (iNES #28) and get to work.

(As usual, if this gives a "File Not Found" error on your PowerPak, you'll need to download MAP1C and install it in your CF card's POWERPAK folder.)

[JRoatch]

I hope I'm not too early to be thinking about this, but I thought about the cart label a bit and worked on it for a few days.
This is so far what I got:

2014-11-02_vol2-beta-label-wip.png

It's all SVG vectors except for the bitmap screens which currently are just rips from the multi cart menu. Once it's complete and balance I'll post a link to the final SVG file.

Some questions:

• Is the idea composition and style OK?
• Is the infiniteneslives banner OK or should it be changed/removed?
• I'm having difficulty imagining the exact poses of the the RHDE pair, though I'm sure it should feature a poli and a volci fighting.
• Is the last pair of characters OK? if not what would be better?
• Anything else?

[tepples]

I intended for "Double" to be in the TrueType version of the Chicago font published by Apple (Identifont sample). If you don't have a Mac handy, you can start with the bitmap version of Chicago, run a couple passes of Scale2x, and fix sharp corners. (I've done so and attached the result.) Later I'll attach a high resolution version of the Action 53 logo.

Earlier, when I was working on remaking RHDE's title screen in Blender in response to the "MS Paint is eww" reaction that my first title screen got, I envisioned a poli carrying a chair behind him and a volci hitting him over the head with a baseball bat. I need to finish that.

[tokumaru]

I intended for "Double" to be in the TrueType version of the Chicago font published by Apple (Identifont sample).

Why is the lowercase "L" different from your version?

If you don't have a Mac handy, you can start with the bitmap version of Chicago, run a couple passes of Scale2x, and fix sharp corners. (I've done so and attached the result.)

Looks good, but why would go through all this trouble when you can use the preview feature in pages like this to get a reasonably sized PNG (with alpha!) of any text you want?

EDIT: It's not actually PNG, this page generates a GIF, but it's trivial to put that against a white background and invert the colors to generate an alpha channel you can apply to a solid color layer.

[tepples]

I've customized Chicago to have a lowercase L distinct from capital I. And making the pixel art myself gives me finer control of the font size and the like than the previewer widget you linked.

[NovaSquirrel]

I've customized Chicago to have a lowercase L distinct from capital I.

What a coincidence that the game in the multicart with "Double" in its title uses the same customized Chicago:

[Punch]

I still don't think fonts like Chicago and the classic 8 bit one (I forgot the name) are OK to simply use in a legal and moral sense. But since you guys are using them freely I don't think there are problems with that? Please educate me.

[tepples]

The font in NovaSquirrel's work (FHBG, DABG, Sliding Blaster, and Conway's Life) and most of my pre-RHDE NES work (Concentration Room, Russian Roulette, Thwaite, Password Demo, and ZapPing) is an 8x8 rendition of Susan Kare's Chicago that I first made for the Who's Cuter tech demo. I used Chicago for "Double" in the DA53 logo because DABG uses Chicago.

Bitmap fonts are not copyrightable, as I've explained before. The font designer can apply for a design patent, but even if Ms. Kare had patented Chicago in 1984 when the Mac first came out, it would have expired back when NESticle was still popular. So all your 8x8 font are belong to everyone.