I would say lose the DOH soundsThanks for the feedback, I wasn't expecting a reply for days!
Also, did you happen to use sound effects from EV NOVA? (Escape Velocity)
I think it's pretty fun, played a few waves. Didn't download it tho, any chance of making the controls customizable or the MAME standard? Also, 2p mode/cocktail flipping mode? I like my shooters oriented vertically also. Keep after it!It should work with the mame standard controls as well ie the control key will fire, cursor for movement, p pauses, any other key does the shields (if you have them). I'm not so sure whether the Nuke button (N) is a mame button but few people manage to get high enough scores to earn the nukes anyway. I hadn't thought about a 2 player mode but if it proves popular then I could add this - I half wondered about having both players on screen at the same time and firing away at the same aliens - not sure how that would work though in real life.
Thanks for your comments:Wasn't obvious no, it felt like I'd just inserted a coin and pressed start without being prompted because it granted me control of the game. Current behavior is fine if you were running in 'PC mode' but if you wanted an 'Arcade mode' it isn't really arcade behavior.l
- Attract screen : I'll look into this and try something similar. If you don't touch the controls then the game will take you through controls, high scores, hints etc but perhaps this isn't obvious or quick enough.
Don't worry too much about my criticism here. Java is widely used, even things like Minecraft use it, and I consider jDownloader a very useful piece of software. Reasons I don't like it.
- Java : it's a java program so I don't have an option here. Perhaps it could be cross compiled into an exe but I've never tried this.
Well it's my MAME development box, 3ghz C2D, 16gb RAM, so not exactly cutting edge, but no dinosaur and definitely better than what most people will be running in cabs (see the countless threads about people still trying to run 10 year old versions of MAME!) Can't say for sure what the problem is, just that it seemed to pause to load (or allocate?) stuff. This was in both IE10 and Firefox.
- Pre-load : this might depend on the hardware. It should try and pre-load stuff but maybe your hardware is a little older than mine. Is this a common issue?
That's ok, if you want a retro look then you don't want to go TOO high resolution anyway ;-)
- Full screen : it will be full screen with no border though the resolution won't change.
Um, ok, I wonder what creates the association then, because I have Java installed and all I got in both FF and IE was 'this link is not associated with any application'
- JNLP : this is pretty standard for web start programs in java. I guess if it's on a cab then you'd call the jar file anyway.
Well your licensing model is up to you, you could easily offer them as 'free for personal use' With different pricing details for commercial use / inclusion with cabinets. I think the chance of anybody paying a significant sum for something like this is low, but if relative to the cost of the cab it's cheap for the manufacturer to provide a legal game they might consider it.
- Free software for cabs : I like the idea of people enjoying the game on their own cabs and that's what it was written for. However if the software is being used to help sell cabs then I think it's fair that a small payment is made to cover the time it takes to write this stuff.
I'm currently looking at making it more mame cabinet friendly. My aim is to have the game running in a cab after all. I'm looking into your other suggestions. The only reason why I mentioned a price was that you were sounding like you sold cabinets and wanted a bunch of work doing to help you shift more cabs - I was simply pointing out that perhaps it was a little unfair to profit from someone else s work. I obviously misread your comment :)
77774, flubbed two bonus ships right when I needed them. The shield bonus is pretty much worthless for me. I'd rather a single shot protection that I can fire though and just have one rather than three. Fun.Management of the bonus ships is key to getting high scores. To be fair though, 80K ain't bad. Later in the game there is the option of super shields that switch on automatically and allow you to fire through. Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for playing.
I'm glad there seems to be a lot of people starting up home-brew arcade style games.
Le Chuck - I just saw your cabs - I'm totally in awe - especially of the Barrel of Kong.
Normally yes, but in this case not :)Le Chuck - I just saw your cabs - I'm totally in awe - especially of the Barrel of Kong.
Wrong Arcade Icon, bro.
Normally yes, but in this case not :)Le Chuck - I just saw your cabs - I'm totally in awe - especially of the Barrel of Kong.
Wrong Arcade Icon, bro.
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/p480x480/992888_453281131432418_1199402028_n.jpg)
Thanks, Scott. Mike better want to make good use of that "Doh" sound right about now...Half point, Yotsuya.
DOH (to keep you happy). I did click LeChuck's sig, where it said all our builds, and that was one that came up. To be fair all the cabs were stunning but I just liked the simplicity and usefulness of that particular cab ... it's a bar table, you can spill your beer on it and you can play Donkey Kong. And talking of playing games, has anyone tried the new version out and would it go in a cab better now? obviously it would need to be full screen and load the mame settings automatically.
Christ knows how John managed level 23?
JDFan - an impressive score :applaud: The difficulty does continue to climb even past that score (and on past a million!). I can't quite picture anyone getting there though.I think it might be possible after some practice but it does get pretty intense approaching the half way mark !
Christ knows how John managed level 23?
Actually it was lvl 25 in that game but have practiced a few more times and improved a bit at dodging (still haven't been able to use the shields properly though now that they can be shot through I quess I'll have to download the new version !: ( Not sure what level was in the pic below as it moved to the enter initails screen while I was pasting the below into PS but it was a bit higher than the earlier pic)
Yeah, it's confusing. Arcade Icons is a consortium of builders. We play in the same sandbox for certain benefits. Joel did Kong. I'm mostly wrapped up in R2Emu right now, which is also barrel shaped so I'll call it partial credit. ;) For my builds visit the Compendium.Ah! I was thinking this on Facebook the other day. I was looking at Barrel of Kong and said hang on that's LeChuck's coat of arms arcade
I prefer games I can complete to ones where its a high score challenge but then once again its opinions. Has anyone ever beat Space Invaders does anyone know if its possible? I got pretty far in Pheonix the other day.
PS it makes me smile that you can get further than anyone else but yet can't seem to type your name in correctly at the end :)
tried it - see what you mean - fixed it & released again
PS It's odd that I've had no comments about the little things in the game. The fact the alien eyes always watch you or how moons sometimes circle planets or stars twinkle or how there's even real constellations in amongst the stars.
Worked out what the problem was and I've now fixed it. You only need to download the zip file if you want to run the program in full screen mode.
You just made my day :)
I wanted to know of any progress! Get it running as a windows .exe?Many thanks for asking. I have been working on it a bit though I haven't released the code as yet - probably about a week away - I'll post when it's ready to try. The work has been mostly around little things like better explosions, ensuring the high scores appear, explaining what the different colours mean in the high scores, dropping the wandering aliens down from passing ships, more interesting boss levels every 100K. This last point is a bit awkward as obviously not many players can get this far (yet) but I wanted to keep things interesting for those that can. Other changes have revolved around a smoother feeling game. I'm currently a bit stuck on turning the java program into an exe but I'm trying out launch4j and have my fingers crossed. The moment I can release an exe then I'm sure more people will be able to play it in their cabs. I do think it's a fun game and possibly a little bit addictive.
Absolutey. I was thinking of making a custom gamelist full of home-brew games, and then having my cabinet load up one at random when I start it. I am working ononetwo of my own and I know Well Fed is about ready to start on his...
WFG, I dunno if I mentioned this before, but... http://unity3d.com/#2d (http://unity3d.com/#2d)
I tried to find the old thread and failed so just started a new one. Sorry.
What's new?
- Boss levels every 100K
- Introduction of levels. You start on campaign (similar to the old game). Progress through hard (for those that like to shoot more than think) and finally end up in boss mode (where you just play each of the boss levels in turn). Trophies are awarded at the end of each level.
- 200 High scores are kept for each level
- New types of aliens
- Game play
- Ground effects from crashes etc
- New lives/shields/nukes slide into place
- Aliens walk across the landscape
- Loads more ...
Sound works, display doesn't. I get a blank black screen. W764.
OK did a bit of testing and was able to get it working correctly instead of getting the black screen or corrupted color palette :applaud: - Seems Java and many older games have a problem with the color palette for 256 color - to get it working I just switched my monitor to Windows Basic Mode (which turns off aero and corrects the conflict) - To do this right click on desktop and choose personalize - From the box that comes up under Basic and High Contrast themes find Windows 7 Basic - Double left click on it and it will switch your OS to the windows basic theme shutting off aero and it's effect which seem to be the conflict. After doing this run the alienswarm.jar file and it loads the game.
When finished - change your theme back.
themeswitcher.exe basic
java -jar "AlienSwarm.jar"
themeswitcher.exe Landscapes
exit;