New guy here. Sharing my cab-friendly homebrew game

[slhomme]

Hi everyone!

First off, just wanted to say thank you all for this amazing forum. This is my first post, but I've actually been following it since last summer. It has been a HUGE help in building my first cab.  Here's a photo of the build (very inspired by the popular "Taitorama" from koenigs.dk.



I'll start a project topic very soon for more details about it.

One of the reasons that motivated me to build this, was to play on my own homebrew games. So I've just created a first game, and thought I'd share it with you all.  Nothing revolutionary, but it's pretty fun and very "arcade" spirit... and of course 100% cab friendly. Oh yeah and you can customized a little bit of it (changing the letters that the spaceship has to catch)!

It's configured to use the defaults MAME control settings, but you can change it to whatever you want. Personally, I included the game in my custom MALA game list so it launches/plays exactly like any other MAME games.

So I'm very pleased to share it with everyone here and hopefully you'll enjoy it



[youtube][/youtube]

You can download it over here. Should work all fine on Win vista, 7, 8 (I haven't tested XP though):
 http://thinkmojo.com/?wpdmdl=4380

There's also an Android version available on Google Play for those interested (free too):
http://bit.ly/LlCLgp.

Any feedback / ideas to improve the game are very welcome!

Cheers.

[Generic Eric]

Thanks for making your game available on the WIN platform and android.  I look forward to trying both.  If you have any pictures of your build progress or any tips to share, do so.  Folks love that.

[Le Chuck]

This game is FUN!  The music track is catchy the baddies chase you down, nice retro feel with some modern touches.  Good game man!

I'd like to see it vertical, seems like it's begging for a vertical orientation for some reason.  Awesome sauce tho, really fun!

[Slippyblade]

This game is FUN!  The music track is catchy the baddies chase you down, nice retro feel with some modern touches.  Good game man!

I'd like to see it vertical, seems like it's begging for a vertical orientation for some reason.  Awesome sauce tho, really fun!

Damn it, now I need to try it.

[pbj]

Best BYOAC member ever

 

[ark_ader]

Is the source code available?

[hsr]

Should work all fine on Win vista, 7, 8 (I haven't tested XP though)

Very cool.  Didn't work in XP for me though.

[mgb]

Thanks for the game.
I checked out the video, looks great. Its kinda like if bullet hell shmups were available in '78.
I will try it out soon

[Le Chuck]

Player ship and some baddies could be smaller, the big ships are fun tho!

[yotsuya]

Awesome project! Good job! 

[Generic Eric]

I don't know if this is practical, but how about global high scores?

This game is FUN!  The music track is catchy the baddies chase you down, nice retro feel with some modern touches.  Good game man!

I'd like to see it vertical, seems like it's begging for a vertical orientation for some reason.  Awesome sauce tho, really fun!

Vertical, yes please.

[EMDB]

Great game and a very catchy soundtrack.

Some requests:
- configurable resolution.
- option to disable scanlines (I have a hardware scanline generator)
- 1 coin = 1 credit.
- use points i.s.o. time.
- You can only use 3 characters although the predefined one are longer? It's not clear how many you can enter upfront.
- '.' and a '-' would be nice to enter initials.

[adder]

Should work all fine on Win vista, 7, 8 (I haven't tested XP though)

Very cool.  Didn't work in XP for me though.

here worked fine for me in XP

ps. nice work author

[hsr]

Should work all fine on Win vista, 7, 8 (I haven't tested XP though)

Very cool.  Didn't work in XP for me though.

here worked fine for me in XP

ps. nice work author

Updated my DirectX and all is working fine now in XP.

[DaveMMR]

Very cool - worked with UltraStick + 3 buttons without any issue.
As others have already said, vertical orientation option and points instead of time-based (plus three lives - I'm not a big fan of these "one hit and done" games of late.)

[slhomme]

Hi All,

Thanks for the feedback, glad to hear that people like it. Here's a quick list that tries to address everyone's feedback.

- Cab build progress
I will share photos/tips of the progress soon in a new topic.

- Vertical orientation
Will need a little bit of work, and might require some adjustments in the game play too (because more real estate in  the screen = easier to avoid enemies, so I may need to add more enemies etc, change ships speed etc)

- Is the source code available
Not yet, but I'm considering open-sourcing it. Just need to clean up the code and replace the music (which is a stock music that I can’t redistribute as is).

- Didn't work in XP for me.
Make sure to update your DirectX and also update directX 9. Some applications and games require DirectX 9. However, Windows 7 is installed with a more recent version of DirectX (11). go to the DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer webpage and follow the instructions to install DirectX 9 and receive updates to DirectX 9 and previous versions of DirectX. http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=159853

- Global high scores
I’d love to do this, just need to find a reliable way to set this up. Might take me a little bit of time. In the mean time, don't hesitate to share your highscore!! I'm sure everyone would love to compare with other playes (I DO!) My personal best time is 3:09.

- Configurable resolution
Will work on it.

- Option to disable scanlines (I have a hardware scanline generator)
Will add the option to disable it.

-  1 coin = 1 credit.
Will add the option define how much coins is a credit.

- Use more than 3 letters for highscore names + include special characters.
Will work on that too.

-  Points instead of time-based
Could be interesting, although I really like it with a time base system. Might add the option to choose between time vs points

- 3 lives
Not sure about lives, it will change the game dynamics quite a lot, so I need to think about this (and how it could be implemented).

[Le Chuck]

Vert doesn't add any screen space, you just trade the current lateral maneuver for vert.  It's got a real shump feel to it so that's why I was recommending vert.  Look forward to the updates.  I like that stock music lol.  It's good stuff. 

[yotsuya]

I kind of like the time thing. Seems very old school to me.

[EMDB]

I get this error message on my cab running Windows 8.1:

############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in Vertex Shader compilation
ShaderName: shader0

D3DXCompile failed - result

at gml_Object_O_Shader_Draw_0
############################################################################################

It works fine on my Desktop also running Windows 8.1 

[slhomme]

Try to update your directX 9. Some applications and games require DirectX 9. However, Windows 7 or 8  is installed with a more recent version of DirectX (11). go to the DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer webpage and follow the instructions to install DirectX 9:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=159853

It's a fast and easy, and should fix the issue. (And don't worry DirectX9 will run alongside your DirectX11 without any issue.

Let us know if it worked (pretty sure it will).

[EMDB]

Try to update your directX 9. Some applications and games require DirectX 9. However, Windows 7 or 8  is installed with a more recent version of DirectX (11). go to the DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer webpage and follow the instructions to install DirectX 9:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=159853

It's a fast and easy, and should fix the issue. (And don't worry DirectX9 will run alongside your DirectX11 without any issue.

Let us know if it worked (pretty sure it will).

Thanks! I assumed Windows 8 having DirectX 11 should be able to run this but indeed the DirectX 9 installation fixed the issue.

I added your game to the MAME wheel of my HyperSpin setup, created a preliminary theme and wheel image and adapted my HyperMap tool (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,134128.msg1382552.html#msg1382552) to be able to launch Space_Commander.exe i.s.o MAME when the game is selected.

[Slippyblade]

Ye god I suck at this.  My best so far is about 0:45...  The fact that the enemies can come in at arbitrary points of the playfield is what is screwing me. I think I'm to use to predictable waves.

[DaOld Man]

Welcome to the forum!!
Thanks for the game, it is pretty neat.

[Felsir]

- Global high scores
I’d love to do this, just need to find a reliable way to set this up. Might take me a little bit of time. In the mean time, don't hesitate to share your highscore!! I'm sure everyone would love to compare with other playes (I DO!) My personal best time is 3:09.

Check out https://parse.com/docs/ I've used it and it works great. Easy to implement. Store the scores in a parse-object and it saves it in the cloud. You can retrieve parse object with a linq-query like request. The site mostly targets mobile devices, but anything with an internet connection can access it. It's free for up to 1 million requests per month.

[pbj]

This forum will get your head all screwed up with all the nitpick feature requests.  You won't please everyone.

[yotsuya]

This forum will get your head all screwed up with all the nitpick feature requests.  You won't please everyone.

Truer words never spoken.

It's cool you want to accomodate requests, but remember, it's your program.

[slhomme]

So, I made a small update to the game to include some of the requests (I've updated the download link in the original post):

- Turn off/on scanlines (settings.ini)
- 1 coin = X credit (settings.ini)
- Made it more clear that highscore name is 3 letters only.

If you make changes to the settings.ini file, you might need to reload it while in the game (press "0" in the title screen, then "shift").

I started working on a Vertical version... but so far it's not a success, I have some few issues, I'll need some time to see what I can do about it.

I think next on my list is the global highscore, I really want this one! I'll have a look at  https://parse.com (thanks Felsir, for the suggestion).

I added your game to the MAME wheel of my HyperSpin setup, created a preliminary theme and wheel image and adapted my HyperMap tool (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,134128.msg1382552.html#msg1382552) to be able to launch Space_Commander.exe i.s.o MAME when the game is selected.

Looks really nice!!

In the mean time, don't hesitate to share your highscores

[zanna5910]

I think its really fun.  Great job man.

If you could create a demo video for download and include a logo so I can add to my hyperspin, that would be awesome!  If someone else has one, let me know.

[EMDB]

So, I made a small update to the game to include some of the requests (I've updated the download link in the original post):

- Turn off/on scanlines (settings.ini)
- 1 coin = X credit (settings.ini)
- Made it more clear that highscore name is 3 letters only.

Thanks! I think you should make global hiscores also optional. Not many cabs have internet access...

I think its really fun.  Great job man.

If you could create a demo video for download and include a logo so I can add to my hyperspin, that would be awesome!  If someone else has one, let me know.

Here's my Hyperspin theme. It also contains a wheel art. It's not very fancy, I'm not a graphics artist...

[zanna5910]

I think its really fun.  Great job man.

If you could create a demo video for download and include a logo so I can add to my hyperspin, that would be awesome!  If someone else has one, let me know.

Here's my Hyperspin theme. It also contains a wheel art. It's not very fancy, I'm not a graphics artist...

Thanks buddy!  I'll grab it when I get home tonight.

As far as brainstorming, it would be really cool if some spaceships only went in a pattern as well vertically down the screen, but could aim to shoot at you.  That way you had chasers and flyers taking up the screen.  I think its really fun as is, and the toon is really catchy.

[thrasherx]

The download link is dead.  Any chance we could get a new upload?

[slhomme]

The download link is dead.  Any chance we could get a new upload?

I just updated the link, you should be all fine now. (it's a direct link the zip file).   

[wp34]

The Windows link doesn't appear to be working.  Any chance you could update this?

[taylormadelv]

The Windows link doesn't appear to be working.  Any chance you could update this?

+1 but the Android version is fun!

[wp34]

The Windows link doesn't appear to be working.  Any chance you could update this?

+1 but the Android version is fun!

It agree.  Controls are tricky do to on a touch device but slhomme has figured it out with this game.

[Le Chuck]

I still have this saved (win copy) if the link is deadskis, I can help a brutha out. 

Still desperately waiting for a vertical oriented version, or the option to rotate it.  That would make this the bees knees. 

Was playing this a few days ago, really enjoy it. 

[DeLuSioNal29]

Link is dead again.  Anyone have it?

Thanks in advance!

D

[slhomme]

Hey guys,

Sorry about the dead link... I just updated it in the original post, so you should be able to downlaod it again!

Glad to hear you guys enjoy the game. One day I'll get back to it and make other modes (2-palyers, story etc) and possibly a vertical version too. Just need to find the time...hopefully before summer time!

Cheers.

[Le Chuck]

and possibly a vertical version too.
Cheers.

[wp34]

Hey guys,

Sorry about the dead link... I just updated it in the original post, so you should be able to downlaod it again!

Glad to hear you guys enjoy the game. One day I'll get back to it and make other modes (2-palyers, story etc) and possibly a vertical version too. Just need to find the time...hopefully before summer time!

Cheers.

Thanks!  I really enjoy the Android version and my cabinet wasn't done when you posted the Windows version originally.  I'm really looking forward to playing this on my cabinet.   

[Generic Eric]

and possibly a vertical version too.
Cheers.

secondthird

[squinky4]

Played the Android version, it's a lot of fun.  Wish I could run this on my cab, but that has linux on it.

[EMDB]

Thanks!  I really enjoy the Android version and my cabinet wasn't done when you posted the Windows version originally.  I'm really looking forward to playing this on my cabinet.   

Playing this on my cab is really fun. It truly gives the authentic space shooter feeling. The controls are great. It would be nice to be able to enter full names in the hiscore table.

[Generic Eric]

As typical  with most touchscreen games and my thumbs, my thumbs get into way.  Perfect for arcade.

[equlizer]

awesome game and nice to see a fellow edmontonian 

[DeLuSioNal29]

Just gave it a whirl on my other machine and it works great.  Have to see if I can install it on my arcade machine, but it has joystick encoders.  Anyone know if this game works with joysticks?

Also, I did not see where you can configure the buttons anywhere.

D

[Fast351]

Very cool game!  Kind of like Asteroids on steroids!

Catchy tune too

[wp34]

I installed this tonight and am having a blast playing.  It is much more fun with real controls.  Thanks again for doing this.   

Just gave it a whirl on my other machine and it works great.  Have to see if I can install it on my arcade machine, but it has joystick encoders.  Anyone know if this game works with joysticks?

Also, I did not see where you can configure the buttons anywhere.

D

Hit the "0" button to get into the setup.  I was able to map my U360 and buttons there.

That being said is there a way to map the ESC key?

[slhomme]

Love to hear you all enjoy the game. I've setup a cab with the game at work and it's been pretty fun to play with everyone... trying to get on top of the HightScore table (top score right now = 03:17min)... it took us about a year to pass the 3min mark! Anyway, would love to hear about YOUR scores

awesome game and nice to see a fellow edmontonian 

Glad to hear there are other people from Edmonton around here!! If you ever come by the Mercer Building (Startup Edmonton) one day, let me know I'd love to connect!!

As typical  with most touchscreen games and my thumbs, my thumbs get into way.  Perfect for arcade.

Yeah agreed... the game was developed for my own cab and after a few weeks I thought I'd make an android version too but to me there's no comparison...this game is meant to be played on a cab!

That being said is there a way to map the ESC key?

Will try to add this in the next version

Played the Android version, it's a lot of fun.  Wish I could run this on my cab, but that has linux on it.

I'll try to make a linux (ubuntu) version too, I'm using Gamemaker Studio and there's an linux export module, never tried it though.

[wp34]

I got to 1:26 yesterday but have not been able to improve on that today. This is a really fun game.   

The black and white look reminds me of markc74's Blip cab.

[DaOld Man]

Sorry about reviving this old thread, but I am having trouble running space commander on an XP machine that I installed in a bartop.
It has directX 9.0.
WinXP SP3.
Any hints?
Here is a screenshot of the error I am getting:

[headkaze]

Sorry about reviving this old thread, but I am having trouble running space commander on an XP machine that I installed in a bartop.
It has directX 9.0.
WinXP SP3.
Any hints?
Here is a screenshot of the error I am getting:

D3DCompiler_43.dll is a DirectX 9 file used for compiling HLSL shaders. I'm not sure if that helps or not.

[Minwah]

This looks cool, hadn't seen before...

Does anyone know what resolution(s) it can run at? Guessing not low res modes?

[DaOld Man]

D3DCompiler_43.dll is a DirectX 9 file used for compiling HLSL shaders. I'm not sure if that helps or not.

Thanks headkaze, but Im afraid I don't understand. I have downloaded directx 9 on it. Is there anything else I can try?
Its a IBM board with 768 megs of ram. On board video, and a Pentium 4 2.8 GHZ processor.
"Super Tux Kart" runs very choppy too, so Im thinking the on board video may be the bottleneck, so I tried an older ATI AGP video card I had in my junk box and couldn't tell any difference in either game.
But the ATI may be a junky card. I cant seem to find where I laid it right now so not sure of model number.
Mame, NES, SNES, Gameboy, Sega Gens emuls all seem to work good.
Space Commander is a very cool game, as is Super Tux Kart. Be a shame to not be able to include them on the machine.

[DaOld Man]

Update.
I took the NVIDIA GForce FX5200 (128 meg ram) card out of my old XP machine and Space commander now works. So it must be the on board video on the main board causing the problem I was seeing with SC.
However, it did not help Super Tux Kart at all, in fact it may be worse.
Still playing around with the card settings.
I hate to use that video card because I am keeping my old XP desktop machine around just in case I need to work on a program (such as CP Rotate) on it.
Also, the IBM mainboard defaults to onboard video if the CMOS battery dies (I think, need to double check that).
This means that if it does die, the cover will have to be removed, video cord connected to onboard vga connector, set up bios for video card, then cord switched to the card connector.
Can be a pain in the butt.

[Neogojira]

Looks like I have a new game to check out after work!

[DaOld Man]

Yeah, its a real neat game. Feels like the old arcade shooters.
Well, my Nvidia card fixed Space Commander, but now fix it felix jr is stuttering real bad.
I am just about ready to take FIFjr, SC, and STuxKart off the machine.

[EMDB]

Yeah, its a real neat game. Feels like the old arcade shooters.
Well, my Nvidia card fixed Space Commander, but now fix it felix jr is stuttering real bad.
I am just about ready to take FIFjr, SC, and STuxKart off the machine.

FiFJr and SC are two of the most popular games on my cab. They run very well on the -quite low end- Radeon 5450 card in a core2duo PC running Windows 8...

[DaOld Man]

FiFJr and SC are two of the most popular games on my cab. They run very well on the -quite low end- Radeon 5450 card in a core2duo PC running Windows 8...

Yeah Im really scratching my head over here. FIFJR runs good on the on board video but SC wont run at all (I think it has to do with the shader abilities of the video, like Headkaze suggested). SC runs great on the NVIDIA AGP but FIFJR sound stutters and screen is very slow updating, pretty much un-playable.
I would like to keep both the games, plus SuperTux Kart is a neat racing game (free download), but it wont run right on either video setup.

Anybody got any ideas?

[headkaze]

Anybody got any ideas?

Since it appears to be a problem with compiling a shader you could try opening settings.ini and turning off the scanlines:

Code: [Select]

scanlines = 0 ;    -->   0=off 1=on
Another thing you could try is opening shader0.shader in Notepad and simplifying the shader. Something like this (paste over the main() section)

Code: [Select]

void main()
{
    vec2 q1 = v_texcoord.xy / resolution.xy;
    vec2 uv = 0.5 + (q1-0.5)*(0.98 + 0.006);//*sin(0.9));
    vec3 oricol = texture2D(gm_BaseTexture,vec2(q1.x,1.0-q1.y)).xyz;
    vec3 col;
   
    col.r = texture2D(gm_BaseTexture,vec2(uv.x+0.003,uv.y)).x;
    col.g = texture2D(gm_BaseTexture,vec2(uv.x+0.000,uv.y)).y;
    col.b = texture2D(gm_BaseTexture,vec2(uv.x-0.003,uv.y)).z;
       
    float comp = smoothstep( 0.2, 0.7, sin(time) );
   
    gl_FragColor = vec4(col,1.0);
}

[DaOld Man]

Thanks HK.
I take you are talking about settings in SC.
I don't see the scanlines options in the settings file.
I tried adding it and taking it back out and I don't see any difference in the way the game looks.
I just tried it on my desktop, all three games run fine on it anyway (I5 Win7 64 bit).
I will try it on the XP machine tomorrow, and the other suggestion you made for the shader0 file.
Thanks, I will let you know how it turns out.

EDIT: I just won a Nvidia FX5200 video card w/ 256 meg ram on ebay. Probably be here next week sometime.
I thought I would try that, but it would be nice if I could get FIFJR and SC both to run good off the onboard video. I think I have given up on STKart for now. May try it with the new video card when it gets here.

[DaOld Man]

Switched back to onboard video and tried the changes, but they still don't work.
I checked the settings and it did have the scanlines option. It is version 1006. the one on my desktop pc is 1005.
So I tried 1005 on the arcade, but still doesn't work.
But FIFJR runs just fine on the onboard video.
I can understand why SC doesn't run on the onboard, because Im sure the onboard has some issues running DX9, but I don't know why FIFJR doesn't run on the NVIDIA FX5200 card.
Well it runs, but is very choppy and not a pleasure to run at all.

[JDFan]

Thanks HK.
I take you are talking about settings in SC.
I don't see the scanlines options in the settings file.
I tried adding it and taking it back out and I don't see any difference in the way the game looks.
I just tried it on my desktop, all three games run fine on it anyway (I5 Win7 64 bit).
I will try it on the XP machine tomorrow, and the other suggestion you made for the shader0 file.
Thanks, I will let you know how it turns out.

EDIT: I just won a Nvidia FX5200 video card w/ 256 meg ram on ebay. Probably be here next week sometime.
I thought I would try that, but it would be nice if I could get FIFJR and SC both to run good off the onboard video. I think I have given up on STKart for now. May try it with the new video card when it gets here.

IIRC the old FX5xxx series were the ones Nvidia made some shader implementation shortcuts to in order to boost their benchmark scores ( I seem to remember they upped the vertex shader count and reduced the pixel shaders so that the benchmarks ran better but certain pixel shader processes are severely hampered by the low number of pixel shaders) and as a result in real world use they have some problems with certain games as they do not conform to the standards. ( I know I had an FX5700 series card when Oblivion released and it would drop from around 30fps to sub 1 FPS any time you got near a fire in game due to the shader Bethesda used for certain effects until Beth released a patch to turn off that shader specifically for those cards ) - SO it might be a problem with the card and the shader the game is using !

[DaOld Man]

Thanks JD.
The NVidia works fine with SC, but not the onboard video.
The onboard video works fine with FIFJR, but not the video card.
I have weighed the factors, and since the video card adds more hardware to the cabinet, plus if BIOS gets reset the cable will have to be switched back to onboard to set up BIOS, I have decided to go with onboard video and not include SC in the games. (There is weeping and gnashing of teeth).
I plan to try the new (old) NVidia card when it gets here, but I don't really have a lot of hope.
But I will have more junk in the junkbox LOL.

[Howard_Casto]

If it makes you feel any better, I wrote the damn wrapper and I'm having trouble with FIFJR stuttering.  It seems to take issue with certain cards for some reason.

[abispac]

Thanks ,fun game, i just added to my hyperspin colection.

[processedmeat]

Any chance of getting the Windows download link back up?  The link takes me to the home page to what I'm assuming is your company.

[JDFan]

Any chance of getting the Windows download link back up?  The link takes me to the home page to what I'm assuming is your company.

USe that link and then look on the right hand side and find the box labeled I fixed it felix for the download link for the wrapper As shown in the attached :

[processedmeat]

Any chance of getting the Windows download link back up?  The link takes me to the home page to what I'm assuming is your company.

USe that link and then look on the right hand side and find the box labeled I fixed it felix for the download link for the wrapper As shown in the attached :

Thanks for the reply, but I should have been clearer about looking for the Space Commander link instead of the Fix It Felix one.

[JDFan]

Any chance of getting the Windows download link back up?  The link takes me to the home page to what I'm assuming is your company.

USe that link and then look on the right hand side and find the box labeled I fixed it felix for the download link for the wrapper As shown in the attached :

Thanks for the reply, but I should have been clearer about looking for the Space Commander link instead of the Fix It Felix one.

Ahh - Sorry forgot this thread was Space Commander not FIFJ -- Here is a dropbox Link to version 1.0.0.6 of the game THat I had downloaded awhile back (not sure if it was updated after that but it is the latest version I had) That will at least get you playing until the OP responds and/or fixes the dead link !

Dropbox Link -- https://www.dropbox.com/s/y4pmqhzhnrgfqja/Space_Commander-1.0.0.6.zip?dl=0