Ive been hard at work making a port of the pretty good puzzle game from from the game "game center cx 2" called "Triotos". i would describe it but this guy did it well enough i dont think its needed for me to just retype what he did.
However the problem is that i do not have the skills nor the knowledge to actually program the damn thing. i can use my limited knowledge to imagine how it could work but after that its pretty much blank.
Ive made most of the sprites done and the gamefiled (although im still working on the background) and ive done some basic code.
I forgot how to post cartridges so uh...here's just a mediafire link (sorry)
Aren't these games the same as Columns?
Here's a Columns clone written in LUA using love2d framework:
https://github.com/EmmanuelOga/columns
Columns on Genesis/MD
Yeah it seems like columns with some vertical and L shaped pieces.
@mickio1, you can do this. There is a columns clone from pico-jam2. You can download that and lookup the code. Or you can search for columns programming tutorials and follow those, but translating them to Lua.
I know that for someone who never programmed this seems like an impossible task, but once you jump over few of the first hurdles it will start making sense. You can do this!
yea its not easy though... if i could get some help to point me in the right direction or something. also if your talking about that game where there's the 4 elements and the eggs i already tried to use that and it dint work well.
Also from what im seeing it dosent look a lot like columns in terms of mechanics other than the fact it throws 3 blocks at once. Although Columns is a badass puzzle game.
Here is a summary of the game rules.
https://tetrisconcept.net/threads/triotos.2394/
Personally I'd look at both Tetris and Columns clones in pico8. Whilst not exactly what you want, there are enough similarities (block management, dropping, matching, movement, etc) that it should give you enough to go on.
You can do this! We're here to help 😃
@mickio1 I am talking about this game. The game you are describing is by Benjamin Soulé, who in my eyes is a wizard with Pico8, but his code is not very newbie friendly. I haven't really dug into Adrian09_01's (the author of Magic Jewelry) code, but at a first glance his code seems a bit more descriptive, it might be worth a look.
Just as @matt said, the best thing you can do is lookup some tetris, columns tutorials. They won't be for Pico8, but that doesn't matter that much, what you want is to figure out the logic for the game. Once you understand how the game is coded, check out some Pico8 games that follow that logic. Try to connect the functions to the logic you heave learnt. See what code does what.
There is an advice that I have seen over and over again in various articles about "how to make games". It simply says - "Do!" Just start making a game. Any game. Sure, you want to make Triotos, but you can start with something simpler. I would actually start with something simple and Pico Zine is a great resource for that. Just grab an issue and go through one of their tutorials. Even a simple pong will teach you a lot! Then, step by step you will get closer to the skillset you need to make Triotos.
Believe me, I know how tricky this first hurdle is. But once you get the basics, the knowledge will start snowballing. Making game is hard. There isn't a simple answer we can give you on how to make Triotos, but we can help you with the issues you will have along the way. Don't give up.
i actually did all of the pico-8 fan magazines. as you can see im not sure it did a whole lot.
Then I would start with the simpler tasks related to Triotos.
Create a title screen.
Create the game states, so you can skip from intro, to play, to game over.
Draw your background to thr screen.
Draw some blocks.
And go from there.
Here's my rough implementation (based on a heavily modified version of Tetromix). Endless mode seems to work OK. 2P mode has no garbage mechanics. No CPU support, sounds or music.
Holy shit, man. if you ever come by Quebec i think imma need to give you a blowjob. i can do sounds and music no problem. might also make a color version because i prefered those graphics but fucking A-grade right here.
No need for that, I'm quite a fan of this game, too. Heck, the only reason I could do it so quick is because I already did a falling-blocks game before.
Here's a new version, with slight bugfixes, new colored graphics and a hold feature (activated by holding both (O) and (X) at the same time). May need more testing, though.
come on, man! the least i can do is put some sweet phat beats while you do the hard work. btw i found a bug that lets you switch the holded thing as much as you want. normally its only once a block. also there's a bonus for clearing the board but i forgot how much.
Yes, I know about that. But does that give the player any advantage? All the player can do is switch it back and forth. Doesn't really sound like something that can give anyone an advantage. I can add a limit if necessary, though.
i suppose in the grand scheme of things it dosent change much. anyway here's the cartridge with sound effects. i havent applied them to anything so you could decide what fits best. ive also added a second block for the multi-block so it can be animated and look snazier. and also so that it can be easier to see. http://www.mediafire.com/download/hbcsvbl9ybq9awc/triotos.p8
Sorry, i still cant remember how to post carts.
You do the same thing as when you create a new topic for the cartridge, except, when you get the [ # whatever # ] thingy, you don't click the "create topic" button, but instead just paste it into the comment of this topic.
I got it! just take the cartridge and do what you want with it. the sounds should save you some time anyway. as for the music im still working on that because frankly im not sure how to make it sound like folk-japanese.
I added the rule that limits all falling blocks to two colors (as specified on the website in the OP) and prevented the player from using the hold function more than once.
As for sound effects, have you tried using the tracker mode (shown in the sound editor as a series of horizontal dashes)? It allows to add different effects to the bleeps you're playing.
For example, check out what I did in Tetromix. Both its music and most of the sound effects use these effects to achieve a better sound.
its looking pretty damn sweet so far i will say. yea im not super well versed in the tracker mode but ill try things for the music. though i dont think i need to go that deep for sound effects, right? unless you want me to try and replicate the original ones.
Also i must say that so far this isnt really much of a demake. its pretty damn sweet imo. But uh...Are there levels? the game dosent seem be getting any faster. That could get really problematic.
I'm currently trying to figure out the speed of different levels in the original game (i was lucky I had a RAM search feature).
There seems to be a weird system with regards to levels. Levels first start at a slower pace (say, 90 frames per row for level 1 or 80 for level 10), then drop every level (88,86,84,82,80), then suddenly drop to an ever lower value (60,60,60) and, upon hitting every tenth level, rise again, albeit a little faster than before (80).
In fact, after some more searching, I may have found the actual table of these speed values in the original game's memory. It is 249 bytes long (which would correspond to levels 1 ~ 250) and it eventually ends at a point where pieces fall at a speed of 1 row each frame (60 rows per second).
For comparison, the GameBoy version of Tetris gracefully stops at 3 frames per row at level 20 (which is reached upon making 200 lines), and Tetromix (which is a 30fps game) stops at 2.
title music. got it by ear, cut it down a bit
@adrian09_01 awesome dude! however the cart isnt working. cart format error 1 in fact. might wanna fix that...
@usr_share that is fucking weird...maybe we could just wing it and try and mix the speed with that of regular ol tetris? Frankly i never got far enough in the game where it could slow down i think.
Cart format error is usually just because the .p8 was uploaded instead of the .p8.png. Maybe the site should warn us when we do that?
Woulnt that be an idea. or maybe make it so both .p8 and .p8.png works.
zep is not very good at programming safeguards into the site or sanitizing user input. The only reason the entire BBS hasn't been hacked from a dozen entry points (a few of which I've stumbled upon) and replaced with a malware page yet is because it's all custom software on a very small website which no evil persons have found reason to bother specifically going out of their way to compromise yet and the automated spambots roaming the Internet don't know how to exploit it on their own... .-.;
This file does appear to simply be a .p8 you can download and rename to run it locally, since the browser version fails to load it, yes.
Yea. after testing it its actually pretty good. however the song keeps playing and playing over itself? also nice job adding a sound effect for turning the blocks. ive made the sounds but coulnt find where to put them in the code.
Somehow having a sound effect for turning makes the game more playable/fun.
Adjusted some instruments on the title BGM.
Added a fourth (and actually last) pattern to the title BGM -- sadly, it only has the lead right now.
Commented out sfx() commands that caused single patterns from said BGM to play.
Added a "music on/off" switch to the main menu.
Removed the VS.RIVAL mode from the menu, since there's no AI yet (and I'm not a good enough coder to make one).
I would advise @adrian09_01 to experiment a bit with the tracker mode and using volume/effects in the music and SFX. I really like your Columns / Magic Jewelry clone, but the music... Thanks, anyway.
@usr_share I did the AI in my cart, along with the Haggleman portraits from DX on the 3rd sprite page, but it's the old version without your changes.
oh crap, your cart has the 2nd font on the 3rd sprite page where I put the Haggleman portraits
color one it seems. based on the fact it has colors and a hold feature. my original crappy art was also based on the color one too. why limit ourselves even more than what pico-8 limits ya to?
I dug trough the code and manage to add most of the sound effects for the game! i kinda fucked up some places since sounds play at random sometimes but i coulnt figure out why.
did a small transplant from usr_share's cart to display menu texts, but set it up to use the existing font to leave place for haggleman portraits, enabled the death cheat code (not ported from triotos, just sped up default ai to make an action every 1/30 second)
btw wtf is with that line 419 and 425 (q and tab respectively) rotation for P2? it tries to perform arithmetic on field ? a nil value - a simple fix maybe that I can apply to my cart? one second after my ai starts playing there's that error - it's also on the original 0.1, 0.2, 0.25 and 0.3 Triotoses
No idea. if you could fix the sound issue with the version of the cart i posted that would be awesome. but so far i think its looking more and more better.
anyone can figure where's the draw block function? need to override x = x - 1 for player 2
if you press CTRL+F and type in draw block or something youll find it super easily.
Here. I got rid of the big font for menu item descriptions and replaced it with my own proportional font that only takes up 16 sprites.
Also, the wildcard blocks are animated again.
Awesome! and now i need to apply the sound effects all over again. Fuck!
No need to do that. I just noticed the new version and am reuploading an even newer one, with the sound effects and all.
you uh...forgot the sound effect for moving the blocks around.
Oh, sorry. It was applied to the btnr() function (which works a little bit like btnp(), but with smaller delays), so I didn't notice it. I would instead advise you apply the sound effect to the move_block() function instead.
Guys, are you on the PICO-8 Slack (https://pico-8.slack.com)? Maybe it'd be better if we create a channel there to handle stuff like that instead of having to check this thread all the time.
looks cool but i made an account and now it asks me for an email and password but its not doing shit. won't login.
Oh, I kinda forgot there's an invite system. Try either https://slofile.com/slack/pico-8 or http://catgirl.goddess.moe:3000/.
Sure. I'll try to import all the modifications into my version.
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