Demo rom of my new Columns clone game

Sivak · Post by **Sivak** » Mon May 12, 2008 8:30 pm

Hey folks. Thanks to the help I got, I have a pretty clean rom of a functional Columns game. Right now, things are simple and only 8 blocks are in the rotation of what you get (one of which being the magic jewel), so things won't be too challenging. Though you can see how the engine works currently.

To check it out, go to:

http://www.nintendoage.com/media/_userm ... UMNS%2Ezip

Compton · Post by **Compton** » Tue May 13, 2008 9:24 am

Pretty stable!!

I only played it for about 4-5 minutes, but it seem pretty good!!!

Of course it needs all the simple things, like a title, scoring and music (it dies after the first sfx), but you got a working game. The rest should be easy in comparison...

One issue i would like to point out, you should lock the input from a button after a single column rotation, because i think they swap for every vblank that the button is held down.

Great work though, i am impressed.

Celius · Post by **Celius** » Tue May 13, 2008 10:23 am

Hey, very nice! Yeah, I like the sound effects. Nice manipulation of the square channel.

I have to say, I'm kind of jealous, because I've been here since around June of 2005, and the only game I've made was a really crappy one with terrible sound effects that probably wouldn't even run on a real NES because it was coded so terribly. But this one's pretty good, and you haven't been here for very long! Looks pretty professional too!

Dwedit · Post by **Dwedit** » Tue May 13, 2008 10:33 am

Freeze 002F to 00 to hear the music

NotTheCommonDose · Post by **NotTheCommonDose** » Tue May 13, 2008 4:20 pm

It's better than that other game you made where you play with the cpu and never once win.

Sivak · Post by **Sivak** » Tue May 13, 2008 8:11 pm

Thanks for the comments. I'm working on a scoring system. I'm actually trying to come up with a good multiplication routine as scoring numbers can get kind of big when you get up there.

The basic way the Genesis scores is:
30 * number of 3 of a kind instances * level number + 1 (you start on level 0)

If you cause a combo to occur (i.e. after blocks drop & a new score happens) then that gets scored the same way but everything is 2X the value. If a third combo happens, 3X, etc....

Obviously scored points then get added to your score which can lead to some complex addition. It's not like Siamond where your score goes up by 1 every time... heh.

CommonDose: Geminim is totally beatable. Just learn to add binary, treat them like decimal numbers, and compare to even digits.

tokumaru · Post by **tokumaru** » Tue May 13, 2008 9:03 pm

Sivak wrote:I'm actually trying to come up with a good multiplication routine as scoring numbers can get kind of big when you get up there.

But you don't need anything fancy, you only need a couple of multiplications every once in a while. The plain old "shift and add" will work just fine.

jason_m · Post by **jason_m** » Sun Jul 27, 2008 8:53 am

Works on a nes with PowerPak. When a block lands on the very top if the stack so that part of that last block goes off the top of the play area, (I mean off to the side, not in the middle) the very next block begins right on top of the last block, ending the game.

jason_m · Post by **jason_m** » Sun Jul 27, 2008 11:47 am

Also I notice that the "bang" landing sound happens prematurely when a block graphically touches the top of another block. The affected block can still be moved and then dropped completely and it bangs again.

Post by **tepples** » Sun Jul 27, 2008 1:48 pm

jason_m wrote:Also I notice that the "bang" landing sound happens prematurely when a block graphically touches the top of another block. The affected block can still be moved and then dropped completely and it bangs again.

A lot of falling block games have separate sounds for "land" and "lock", where there is a delay between landing and locking.

Sivak · Post by **Sivak** » Sun Jul 27, 2008 1:56 pm

Er, this is the old thread. That rom is very old and was only meant to show off the very fundamental game. This was back when things were still very much in progress. Luckily progress is farther. Regarding all replies:

-Multiplication routine is fine for me now. I used the Russian Peasant's Algorithm.
-The collide sound is the hit sound. I don't have a "lock" sound. The regular Columns game for Sega had no "lock in place" sound either. It did have a border around the falling block that disappeared when it was locked though. The only problem is that border would be a lot of extra sprites. If you press down, that'll force an instant lock. Otherwise it's 45 frames (.75 seconds)

Zepper · Post by **Zepper** » Sun Jul 27, 2008 5:18 pm

Sivak wrote:Er, this is the old thread.

- Yes, he's ressurecting a couple of threads. Just a note, nothing against him.

bogax · Post by **bogax** » Wed Jul 30, 2008 12:16 am

Sivak wrote: -Multiplication routine is fine for me now. I used the Russian Peasant's Algorithm.

I like Whiteflame's
http://codebase64.org/doku.php?id=base: ... it_product

show yours ?