Announce: Mechatron (Robotron remake) ready for beta test

[nzo2]

Hello All,

I would really like some playtesters to check the difficulty curve on my Robotron remake. Pretty much everything is finished and the main task which remains is making sure the 256 levels are suitably progressive.

A level designer is included, so jumping to any level and tweaking is allowed.

cheers!

Download the game here. (http://norrish.force9.co.uk/robotron)

[Traveler]

I'll give it a go when I get home from work.

Not sure though, if I'll be playing all 256 levels though :wink:

[Traveler]

I've played your game for the last 45 mins or so. And I must say, it's quite fun actually. The whole feeling and especially the sounds remind me alot of the old atari games.
Something you might want to consider though is a manual pause between the levels. You're speeding through each level with very little time for the player to gain a bit of awareness of what is happening.
After having shot the last enemy (which most of the time, is quicker that I realize), the screen goes blank for a split second, the flashy intro appears and before I know it the next level starts.
There's no clue about the amount of points I've scored, how many people I've saved (or didn't save), what level I'm at etc.
I think some extra info, as well as a 'get ready for the next level, press the whatever key to continue' would work well here.

Another thing you really should look into is the way you handle the usernames. I've had the option to add my name to the score list a couple times (I think I even made first place) but each time I did not get any further than 'A'. Please have it so that I can type my name.
I understand it fits the retro feeling of past games, but mind you that it should not be a game on its own.

Lastly, while playing your game, Vista decided to throw me a message that there was an important update to install. Cool, i thought, but dont bother me while I´m playing.
I returned to your game, only to find out that it did not run anymore. Just when I was doing so well...
Alt-tabbing back to windows, should not mean the end of the game.

Two other 'real' bugs:
After looking for a pause button, I discovered that P did the trick. Fortunately there didn't seem to be a way to unpause though. :?

Pressing escape while everything 'warps in', appears to be a great way to let the game crash.

In all it's already a great game. There's still some work left to do, but I'm sure when you iron out these last issues, it will be even better.

[czar]

Nice

I have played a few games. I was asked to put my highscore in twice and yet both times I couldn't find it on the highscore table. The highscore tables was not in view very long and is really hard to read.

I would like to be able to pause every 3 waves or so. i.e. that between levels it comes up with press a key to continue. I now have a sore left arm from 10 minutes of play.

I found it annoying on later levels that the level would start and 1 second later I would be dead again because an enemy materialized beside me.

Graphically pretty good - really nice improvement. In the later waves the games slows down quite a bit at times. Have you thought about converting to say Asphyre? That is very quick in 2d.

pet annoyance - the flashing text - everything flashes it makes it even harder to read the already hard to read font you have used and must be a nightmare for people with epilepsy.

Otherwise - its a grand effort

[VilleK]

Fun! The graphics and animations are great. Especially the grunts.

Sound effects are also very good, with a mix of the original Robotron effects with new ones that fit perfectly.

I found it frustrating that with arrow keys and WASD control I could not move and shoot diagonally at the same time. What technique do you use for reading keypress?

The game is much to easy. I like it in the original Robotron that the first time you try that game it is game over within a minute, but you really want to have another go, and you continue to play because you want to improve your score. It is ok that the first 5 levels are easy, but then the difficulty should increase much more.

Online highscores are a great feature too! I agree that you should be able to type your name instead of rolling the letters.

Overall: great work :)

[nzo2]

Thanks for having a look.

VilleK:

I have no idea what's happening with your keys: I am using the usual DXInput for reading the keys and this is the first time this has been reported. So you are saying that 2 movement keys cannot be pressed at the same time?
The difficulty is something that is being worked on right now. The point of the level designer is for someone to make a realistic and challenging level set. We are in the process of taking the original roms apart to try and get the original level data.
You will find that the game gets very difficult as you progress - what level and score did you reach?
The hiscore screen remains the original "slap together" version. New screen is currently under development.

[nzo2]

Czar:

Yes, the attract mode is quite fast switching. I left it like that while I have been working on the attract mode. Also, from next release, I have completely changed all the text writers to a better method (easier to read!)
If you are familiar with the original game, then after playing a good game, you would feel like you have been to the gym! The original was relentless in play. However, there is a pause key (p) if you need a rest.

The game describes a square around the player in which no enemies are able to spawn. I could make this area larger? I think you mean that when the level starts, an enemy rushes in an runs straight into you?

Haha.. Epilepsy? I think people who have epilepsy will have already been told to stay away from Robotron :!:

[nzo2]

Traveller:

See my comments in the previous message regarding pausing between levels. I am assuming from your other comments that you don't have experience of the original game - one of it's main features is not letting up on the gameplay. People used to play 2P so that they could get a rest from time to time :)

Yes, the complete hi-score entry system is to be replaced, as this was a very quick hack to get something working for that part. The new part will be much better.

Also, you know about the retaining of surfaces problems (as I do) and if you can show me some routines which will help me preserve the DXDraw when dialogs / OS interferes, then I will include them !

P = Pause, and C = continue. I need to extend that routine and also add it to the instructions.

I have never seen a crash from pressing escape on warp. Can you let me have the full details (reproducable?) would be great thanks!

Thanks a lot for all your inputs!!

[Traveler]

Traveller:
I am assuming from your other comments that you don't have experience of the original game - one of it's main features is not letting up on the gameplay.


That is true, I've never played the original game :)
I can understand why you would want to remain as close to the original as possible. Perhaps a solution is to make it available as an option.
A message, on by default, but with a checkbox behind it to turn it off if wanted by the player(s). Alternatively, you could also make this option available in the configuration section.

I'll see if I can find something for the alt-tab problem.
I'll also check the warp crash bug again.

[Huehnerschaender]

I played to level 6 or so when a "Floating point division by zero" error occured at level startup...

Can't tell anything clearer, because it came all of the sudden and it was unable to see anything except a black screen with that message box.

You should check all your divisions in source code and check for zero before you divide.

[VilleK]

I have no idea what's happening with your keys: I am using the usual DXInput for reading the keys and this is the first time this has been reported. So you are saying that 2 movement keys cannot be pressed at the same time?
It is very strange. I'll try to explain: It seems like 3 keys can be detected but not 4. If I move left and fire up/left diagonally (so left arrow + WA are pressed) then it works but if I then want to move down also (by pressing down arrow together with the other 3 keys) it just keep moving left. So I have to let go of the fire button to start moving diagonally.

The same thing happens with all other combinations of 3 keys, like moving diagonally and firing straight: if I want to fire diagonally then I have to release a movement key.

My computer is a standard configured Windows XP computer, and I have no keyboard problems with other games. I really hope you can fix this because it is a bit annoying.

About the difficulty curve: The first time I played I went on for 20 minutes or so with a 500k score, and then I intentionally lost all my lives because it did not become more challenging and I felt like I could keep playing forever :) . The original Robotron is my all time favorite game and I still play it regularly on Xbox Live Arcade (which is based on the original ROM).

[nzo2]

I played to level 6 or so when a "Floating point division by zero" error occured at level startup...

Can't tell anything clearer, because it came all of the sudden and it was unable to see anything except a black screen with that message box.

You should check all your divisions in source code and check for zero before you divide.

Bah I thought I had that one. I will check all possible divide by zero again.

[nzo2]

I have no idea what's happening with your keys: I am using the usual DXInput for reading the keys and this is the first time this has been reported. So you are saying that 2 movement keys cannot be pressed at the same time?
It is very strange. I'll try to explain: It seems like 3 keys can be detected but not 4. If I move left and fire up/left diagonally (so left arrow + WA are pressed) then it works but if I then want to move down also (by pressing down arrow together with the other 3 keys) it just keep moving left. So I have to let go of the fire button to start moving diagonally.

The same thing happens with all other combinations of 3 keys, like moving diagonally and firing straight: if I want to fire diagonally then I have to release a movement key.

My computer is a standard configured Windows XP computer, and I have no keyboard problems with other games. I really hope you can fix this because it is a bit annoying.

About the difficulty curve: The first time I played I went on for 20 minutes or so with a 500k score, and then I intentionally lost all my lives because it did not become more challenging and I felt like I could keep playing forever :) . The original Robotron is my all time favorite game and I still play it regularly on Xbox Live Arcade (which is based on the original ROM).

Well, I`ll try and duplicate pressing extra keys and see what happens.
I have read that DXInput can be an issue on XP and beyond?

With a little luck, the original game level data will be the default set, but the difficulty curve seems to be in need of some attention. I think you will find it getting quite difficult bt level 50 or so and it can't be so difficult as to not be able to get to level 256 (and beyond) at all :)

[Clootie]

It is very strange. I'll try to explain: It seems like 3 keys can be detected but not 4.
This is usually a hardware keyboard limitation. Some keyboards have really crappy controller that is not able to remember more than specific number of keys pressed at the same time. So, where is high probability what you problem is not software problem at all.

[nzo2]

Updated: 0.0.3.1 online now.

Quite a lot of new stuff and fixes. Oh.. and this version has the original ROM levels now !!!

[VilleK]

Excellent! Now it feels much harder, just like the original. And it's great that you have the real level-data. No complaints so far. :D