Gameplay
Fly through the tunnel as fast as possible avoiding the walls. The tunnel is divided in to Zones, with four Quadrants per zone. Each zone is progressively longer and more difficult than the previous, with sharper turns, more turns, and narrower sections.
Each quadrant has a time limit - note that this is not the time limit that the quadrant must be completed in, but the time until your ships engine power is cut (T+ engine shut-off). Engine power is required for anti-gravity and maneuvering as well as propulsion...ie if the time runs out your hope lies in gliding (or sliding!) to the finish. As quadrants advance, the time limit becomes stricter. Note that your progress in the quadrant is indicated by the right hand HUD gauge.
Hitting walls will slow you down, and reduce the energy of the ship (indicated by gauge on left hand side of HUD). Energy will be slowly replenished during the period of flying through the 'safe section' at the end of each ZONE (grey section with orange stripes). If energy becomes fully depleted the ship will fail and you will lose a life. Similarly, failure to complete a quadrant in time will cost a life. You begin the game with three lives, indicated by the three red lights on the left hand side of the dashboard.
Points are continuously awarded for progress, with a bonus for completing each quadrant (unless T+ shutdown occurs). Additional ships can be unlocked by making progress in the game. Faster ships will yield higher scores than slower ones.
Controls
Insert Coin = Up / GPIO input (defaults to free play so not required!)
U/D - pitch
L/R - roll
(O)/(X) - yaw
(O)+(X) - brake
Tips
- Learn to use the controls! You will need to use and know when to use roll and yaw most effectively.
- Brake just before / during the 'charge section' at the end of each zone (grey section with orange stripes) to have more time to charge energy.
- Aside from the above, don't brake!
DIP Switches (menu items)
NOTE altering these will reset game!
RESET PROGRESS
CREDITS: FREE (default) / UP / GPIO
GPIO OUTPUTS: OFF (default) / ON
GPIO Input / Outputs
IMPORTANT: GPIO pins are referred to by Raspberry Pi 'WiringPi' standards. See below for WiringPi configuration.
DISCLAIMER: I will not be responsible for damaging your device. Please do not enable GPIO settings, or connect anything to GPIO pins to anything if you are unsure what you are doing!
--- MINSOFT GPIO STANDARD --- PIN TYPE SETTING FUNCTION DETAILS 0 INPUT (PULL UP) CREDITS: GPIO Credit switch Connect switch between pin and ground (via optional resistor, eg 1k ohm) 1 OUTPUT GPIO OUTPUTS: ON Start/Warning LED Connect LED between pin and ground (via suitable resistor, eg 220 ohm) 2 OUTPUT GPIO OUTPUTS: ON Start/Warning LED Connect LED between pin and ground (via suitable resistor, eg 220 ohm) 3 OUTPUT GPIO OUTPUTS: ON Vibration motor Connect motor via suitable circuit (eg http://playground.arduino.cc/uploads/Learning/solenoid_driver.pdf) 4 OUTPUT N/A N/A N/A |
WiringPi Configuration:
//set pin 0 as input, pull up (COIN) gpio mode 0 in gpio mode 0 up //set pins 1-4 as outputs gpio mode 1 out gpio mode 2 out gpio mode 3 out gpio mode 4 out |
Brilliant!
Has a bit of PowerDrome (Amiga) in it!
Controls curves are really top notch (given the lack of analog inputs better suited for this type of game).
Note: Bladerunner fan I see, nice music...
Note: 8191 tokens without any minification or string "hacks", congrats!
Excellent stuff - congrats on finishing it! :D
That Vangelis "Blade Runner" chip tune cover is still SO DANG good! :D
Thanks all, glad you like it!
freds72: I tried to 'simulate' analog controls as best as I could...pleased you approve.
Cheers and I'd love to hear how far you can get / scores etc. I always find it tricky getting the difficulty level right.
Straight to favourites, this is awesome! Love the UI and the sense of speed in the later sections. I only made it to 1.3 but I wasn't using the brake :D
So cool. The sound and visuals. I am a sucker for the glitching graphic stuffs so the beginning was a treat. Great music. It brings me back to that first board of the c64 Aliens game. So good. Thanks for making this!!
Awesome job, fun to play, neat visuals. Controls took a second to get used to but that's not a bad thing.
Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated!
Anyone unlocked any of the other ships yet?
I unlocked the Kestrel, but I can't get much farther than ~2K - there's a wicked turn I need to figure out first. Amazing game by the way, this is superb.
Nice one, thanks for the feedback!
Next ship is unlocked by completing Zone 5 with the Kestrel...good luck!
Feels a lot like Tunnels of Armageddon I used to play a ton of in the ol DOS days.
Love how its more race against the time style.
Dip switches and LED lights use implemented eh?
Would love to see a dedicated cabinet for it.
Great work nice music, quite fun.
Is rotation really needed? I haven't found a use for it yet but instead my first play I'd tilt to move left or right like flying a jet, dunno why. Strafing does everything needed, least in early stages.
Haven't gotten too far yet.
One of my new favorites also btw.
Funnily enough, someone else said another one of my games (Tie Hunt) reminded them of Tunnels of Armageddon. I haven't played it but I've got an Amiga so will have a go at some point...
When I've referred to 'DIP switches', they aren't real switches, just the menu options. But yes, the LED/motor outputs and coin input do work via GPIO. Poor quality, but you can see some of it here.
As for the rotation...you probably can get quite far without it. Originally I only had rotation (roll) and up/down (pitch). I added the rudder (yaw) control as it was a bit unfair at times (in narrow sections) that you could not rotate without hitting the walls (especially in bigger ships). You may notice that the yaw is less responsive than the pitch...and when the turns get tighter it can be better to use the roll / pitch.
I should see how far I can get using only pitch & yaw...
Blade Runner end credits. I wonder what Bladder Runner Blues who'd sound like.
Is there any way to get coin acceptor to work with the game on pocketchip
And also will you show us how to make that grandstand scramble Pico-8 tabletop that appears in some of your Twitter posts
Sorry I didn't see your replies before, Dogerizer...
The PocketChip has GPIO pins so should be possible to use one of them as an input for the coin, but I haven't done this with a PocketChip so cannot give any advice on that.
Briefly, my Scramble machine contains a Raspberry Pi 3 with LCD screen. The main inputs & audio amplification is handled by a Picade USB encoder. The 'extra' inputs & outputs documented above use the GPIO pins. Is there anything specifically you would like to know?
This is one of the few pico games I return to time after time. Not often, but eventually I'll play another few games. Great sense of speed! The ships all feel different too.
Something strange happened. Looks really cool though I lost a life.
Yes, exactly once. After I died it went back to normal. I had lives left so the run went on normally.
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