This game is based on the 1986 Intellivision classic Thunder Castle. It has dragons, and... dragons! So far only level 1 is (basically) complete, and there are 3 map variations that are chosen at random on startup. Eventually it will have a title screen as well as 2 more levels (I believe you can get to level 2 currently, but it's totally incomplete, doesn't have the right enemies or powerups or the second and third map variations). Level 2 will have 2 wizard enemies instead of the dragon, and level 3 will have 3 demon enemies.
Press action/fire to use items you pick up. Avoid the comb. A couple items don't have their functionality yet. Get the bat to become invincible for a short time in order to slay the dragon!
Credit to @solar for the excellent sounds and music!
Video of the original INTV game: https://youtu.be/WiK1fumT18E?t=1m8s
W o a h , just copied the text (clipboard) you are right at the maximum edge of coding space it looks like !
Playing ... Dude. This game ROCKS ! As far as I can tell, it's a complete program getting up to level 3 dragons. Flag for disabling the debug text and I think it's ready for release.
Well, part of the reason it's taken close to a year, other than simply not touching it within the last 5 months or so, is that I actually scrapped all of this code entirely and started a complete rewrite. The rewrite is much more neatly written, the code is a lot smaller, and it's all object-oriented and more efficient overall. Part of the decision to do the rewrite wasn't based on the code though, and I think I still had enough tokens left to barely finish it, but setmetatable was introduced into PICO at the time and I felt it would be better to use that to go with a more OO style and get it all cleaned up.
Unfortunately the rewritten version is much more focused on structure; building a solid foundation for the engine and planning around how all of the game's functionality will work from start to finish, rather than building it to be incrementally more playable from the start, so there is no playable demo of that code yet (it has some playability but not as much as this old version).
The music is nothing short of awesome. I have to ask, how did you get that in there ? Did you have to work with a blank cart first that just had music - or did you have some other wizardry way of transferring music from one cart to another ?
As for the recoding, I think someone once said, if it ain't broke, don't fix it !
Plays fine here, very challenging, especially on the invisible maze level. But you know, that is just how arcade games are. They go, oh let's make it easy, wanna make sure you get past the first level.
Then later, think you're hot stuff for getting past level 2 huh ? Awright wise guy, try an invisible maze with the dragon ! queue evil laughter
VENTURE was a big part of this. I played and played and it got harder and harder until there was no way a human could possibly get past a level. Just as they wanted. Another satisfied quarter. :D
https://youtu.be/PA9Y-63-tss?t=3
Oh and by the by. Listen to the STAIR sound effects as the player descends them. That is a combination of TONE and white noise - and currently an impossible sound for PICO to play.
For the music, @solar made the music and the SFX, and I just opened the p8 file in a text editor and copied those sections and then pasted them into my cart.
The invisible maze level won't be in the final version, it's just because you beat level 1 and there isn't actually a level 2 (but the code is there to progress the level and maps).
ZEP REALLY needs to make at least the ability to copy one page of audio to another open PICO app. I'm still fighting trying to determine the size and memory positions of SFX, listed as 0x3200 in memory.
It's only 6-sound effects I want for my keyboard, and somehow I'm just not getting the length for each of them correctly.
I'm now wondering if it's a VTOC in front.
Killed me some dragons! Nice game!
It took me a while to figure out what was going on - in particular that I could walk into (some) enemies to kill them, no button press required, and that the change of music is significant - so a bit more visual feedback wouldn't hurt, if cart size allows.
Looking forward to playing the final version. :)
Thanks for the feedback guys! Planning to get back to work on it very soon, so there should be some progress updates incoming :D
Aah ! I'm on the 2nd level inside the castle and I can't move - and the dragon just walked off the edge of the screen ?
Found a better full-screen version of the original Intellivision game HERE:
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