tips for making an Atari2600 style game?

I think I already know the answer to this, but I wanted to check with the slimes before I began.

I'm working on an Atari 2600-esque mini game, and I was wondering if there was a way to make it so using a door would not fade the screen out between rooms. I'm going for a primitive, choppy feel.

I realize I can (and will most likely end up) use NPCs with teleport script triggers to achieve the effect I'm looking for. However I noticed this after I already placed all my doors

So I'm curious if there is a was to turn off fading between doors. I have a short maze type game with about 30 rooms, and 2-4 doors in each room, so it isn't a big deal to script all the teleport to map triggers, it will just be tedious.

Anyway, thanks

Have an NPC where the door would be that runs a script that uses the teleport to map command, or the put hero command if it's on the same map.

EDIT: put hero is in pixels, don't use that. Use "set hero position" instead. My bad.

---

My pronouns are they/them
Ps. I love my wife

Yeah, I just bit the bullet and made all the scripts... didn't even take too long. I was just being a goober.

Thanks though

Glad you got it working

---

My pronouns are they/them
Ps. I love my wife

Indeed!

It's funny, I'm usually trying to get Custom to do fancy things, but now I'm trying to get it to look and behave primitively. I'm working on a short game to accompany a story I'm going to be writing.

I'm trying to get the game to look and run as faithfully to the Atari 2600 as I can (the teleport NPC scripts are sooo choppy and crummy looking, it's great!)

So I'll probably be doing research, and maybe asking some more questions here on how I can make the game appear more primitive. I'm trying to make it "cold-start." I've already removed the loading screen, but the title still fades into the gameplay. I imagine I can remove the "title screen" and just replace it with a script that will show an image (maybe primitive animation) and cut right to gameplay without fading there either.

Other than that, it will probably be mostly NPC triggers. I want to implement a score display, or hi-score system like old Atari games. And I'd love to have some kind of gun powerup, but that may be beyond me at this point. I'll do further research...

You can remove the title screen in addition to the load screen. Then you can script something that shows a screen without fade in if you like, and then implement it as a "New Game Script" in the Edit General Game Data screen in the editor.

A score you can make using the slice editor, just make a text slice and then give it a lookup code. It's a bit complicated manipulating it but not too hard.

In my battle system I display the hp on screen using slices, and I do it by creating a blank string ($0= "") and then appending a number (in this case, the player's score) and then setting the text slice's text to the string ID 0. Let me know if this makes sense and if it's even what you're looking for.

---

My pronouns are they/them
Ps. I love my wife

Actually there is a simpler way: use "suspend doors" and script door transistions yourself with an on-step script. I thought we had a script somewhere (only a few lines), but the closest I could find was: Scripts:Activate doors with a use key

Cool, thanks for the tips!

Yeah, I figured I could get the basic title screen/flash-animation with a new game script after suspending the title load screens. In addition, I'll probably set a keypress to exit, and another to reset the game, while doing away with the player menu.

Thanks for the slice display codes. I'll have to try those out when I get ambitious. I also need to work out a point system so I can make a score counter relevant! haha

I was able to successfully get the door linking I wanted with NPC triggers, but I'll try to keep that code in mind too, in case I need it for something. I may yet link a sound effect to the Door-teleport NPCs, not sure yet

I'm taking a look at the scripts for the "Space InvadOHRs" game so see if I may be able to work in that gun powerup. I'm going to study the scripts and see if I can make sense of the bullet firing, and hit detection. As it is, I'll only ever have one enemy on the screen at a time, which may make things simpler.

But I'm babbling again, Thanks for the help! It is as always, much appreciated!

I appreciate the new title of the thread. I'm always happy to help, although I may not be the most helpful. I lack the experience that others have, but I'll do my best to figure anything out with you along the way.

EDIT: For the score, there might be a better solution, depending on your preference. You can set the strings' position in advance in the slice editor and then append a number to them, or you could use the "show string at()" command, which in this case might be simpler. Look into both ways to see your preference, because this way is a bit easier.

---

My pronouns are they/them
Ps. I love my wife

I'm having some trouble with making my game bypass the menu while exiting. I've got my bitsets set to skip the title screen, and the loading screen, and I'm trying to use a script to make it so the ESC key runs the "Game Over" command.

As it is now, hitting the ESC key still simply brings up the in game menu. I've been going through the Plotscripting dictionary, and looking at other games' script files. I can't quite figure out what the problem is. Usually in these situations I've got some really stupid mistake, and I'm just posting here to see if anyone has any thoughts on this that I'm not getting.

Also, is skipping the title and loading screens the way to do away with them, or is there another way that "disables" them completely?

Anyhow, hanks

There must be some way to disable the main menu activation, but I'm not sure what that would be. I can't seem to find how to do that. You could leave in a menu that still looks Atari style, and then have an option "quit" that runs a script that just runs this



And I think skipping the title screen is basically disabling it. I'm not sure why you would need to do more.

Also, posting your script here will help anyone troubleshoot for you.

---

My pronouns are they/them
Ps. I love my wife

Alright, cool. Thanks for the help I was going to post my script, but I edited it so much trying to get it to work that it was in really rough shap, and frankly, I was embarassed, haha! Also, I got frustrated.

I'll try a few more tweaks, and workarounds, and if I'm still having trouble, I'll clean the scripts up so they're easy to read and analyze.

I was pretty sure that skipping the title, and loading screens in the bitsets is the way to do what I'm trying, I just wanted to check here in case. The plotscripting dictionary briefly mentions "disabling" the title, and load screens, so I wanted to make sure

Thanks!

The way to disable the main menu is to set the "Menu action plotscript" in the special plotscript triggers menu. Only available in nightly builds. The old way to do it is to "suspend player" for 1 tick when Esc is pressed.

One interesting thing about the Atari 2600 (I had typed up a big thing before SS exploded, and I'm too lazy to rethink my points) is how it handled GUI type things. They had soooo little memory to work with, they couldn't do a lot, so they went with HARDWARE instead of software! Take a look at this sucker! See that button marked game select? You flip that, and you go through your different modes. One player, two player, one player timed, one player high score, two player co-op! Map designs, etc., there were ever some compilation games. And there might even be a little attract mode until you hit the game reset button!

If you haven't already, you should check out some of the different emulation options. I know I've seen "Retro Game! 500 in 1!" kind of kits at the drug store for like 9.99 that you just plug into the TV, or if you're gonna be a criminal you can probably download the whole library of Atari 2600 games quicker than you can download a single OHR Game. It's a great way to get a feel for the capabilities (and limitations) of that particular piece of hardware.

And while you're at it, Take a look at this! the controller for ColecoVision, about 4 years after the Atari 2600. They used those numbers for all kinds of crazy stuff, including most of the GUI stuff on start-up. From what I remember of Coleco games, there was always a splash screen followed by

INPUT NUMBER OF PLAYERS

1 - 1 PLAYER
2 - 2 PLAYER

CHOOSE GAMETYPE:

1 - EASY
2 - NORMAL
...

etc.

which made things feel a little more "computer-y", but also made it more of a hassle to change things, say if a friend decided to join in, or if things were too hard. And then I don't even have to mention how easy things were 3 years after that when Super Mario Brothers came out with its sexy little menu, demo, fancy colors and physics and what have you.


END OF POINTLESS TECHNOLOGY RANT

As for your plotscripting problem, I think the option you're looking for is in the "Special Plotscript" section of the General Game Data menu. If you set your "Menu-Action" script to your game over script, the game should automatically end every time someone hits Alt or Escape (Whether they want it to or not!). I had to hit F1 and look at the onboard help to figure out what the Menu-Action script actually did, 'cause I thought it had something to do with beeps and boops when you moved the cursor around but apparently not. I think you're absolutely on the right track when it comes to the Skip Title and Loading bitsets, can't wait to see what you come up with.

EDIT: And holy crap, that's a nightly only feature? I saw 20140416 on my custom and thought for sure that was a stable. Has it really been that long, wow!

Great! Thanks for all the tips and info! I've still been using the stable version of custom, I've never used any of the nightly builds, so I'll try the suspend player option for hitting Esc. I suppose I ought to at some point start working with the nightly builds.

And Giz, yes I had ought to go back and play some 2600 games. As it is now, I'm going from memory of the last few times I played (only a few years ago, but still...) I remember using the different switches to get different modes and whatnot, and how sometimes if the cartridge wasn't compatible or designed for it, you could get some interesting glitches.

I also find it interesting with the 2600 (probably because it had such a relatively long life) You never knew quite what kind of game you would get. I mean, you could get something like Pitfall, or Swordquest, or you could get something like Spider-man which, if I remember correctly, was pretty much one screen. (I remember being quite fond of Stampede)

I also like thinking about some of the quirks that went along with the console, imagining them in modern day gaming. I like thinking about someone buying some Call of Duty game, and in order to play it, they have to put the game in, start the system, hold a button and hit reset. Or some other strange combination. which didn't seem that strange back then.

One other thing I may look into once I get things working better would be 8 direction movement. I believe I've seen it referenced here, but I haven't played any OHR games that implement it yet. I think it would give the game a more analogue, joystick-y feel.

In any case, thanks again to everyone helping out with this endeavor. I'll be sure to post the finished product (keep in mind, it won't be much!)