In the making: Arukanoido – an Arkanoid clone

[vicist]

Sometimes, real life sure does suck.

[LeonardoDaPinchy]

Having just tried the game I was blown away and wanted to make a tiny contribution of some sort, so I knocked up a quick box for it.

[orion70]

Now this is a box

[pixel]

Looks amazing! Thank you!

BTW I got a great job… as a programmer… so I'll be having my hardware back… this year, I assume.... Tell me about impatience...

[pixel]

Sent back some advance for the physical release as I didn't like the idea of keeping other peoples money for ages and have been asked to post a statement about what's up with this project.

Well, let's start with what's up with me: in June 2019 I've finally found a great company I was willing to work for. That's a company that's been on the web for almost 20 years and generates "real" money. Not some nutty start-up wanting to conquer the world, etc. Since I've been suffering from chronic depression for quite a while I had to wise up and tear down almost all connections to my former, discomforting life, too clear my head. When I exploded on the Chernobyl thread I assumed it'd be better to take a break from the VIC as well. I was in a very bad shape, able to scare off people thrice my weight. Took me about half a year of self-imposed anger management till I could relax and endure idiots again. In a metropolis like Berlin... One day I went to the doctor's and she said: "Software architect? Where's the battery slot? You seriously need to relax before you're going to implode.". But as I said: great company I could put my mind on all waking hours. Now I have more cash than I can possibly spend on the road wisely and seem to be reassembled.

Finally I started to code a bit in my free time again as well. Still, I'll be carrying on very, very carefully and am not inclined to make any promises. Although I'm also in the event business and we sell zero tickets at the moment, I'm afraid they kept me on full-time schedule and that's taking up most of my energy. Will have enough of that once I'm done with their code base. Life as a digital nomad would also have to end to get the man cave back. All this could have happened a bit sooner if I hadn't been glued to the VIC every time there was a pain in the neck.

All that said I need to release something unrelated to Arukanoido some time before this goes on. Thanks for your support and patience. Stay healthy – and stay the **** at home.

[Noizer]

Welcome back save at home!

[Spectrum]

Welcome back! Yes, I am staying at home... of course. I am in Italy, situation is so critical here, so I really have no choice!
I am playing with the VIC at least a night a week, and I'm superhappy to know you are OK. We'll wait for your news and updates!

[Philsan]

Very good game, thank you very much Pixel!

[pixel]

A new demo (revision 908) is now online (see first post in this thread).

It fixes a couple of hidden bugs and, if you up to +32K RAM and press 'M' in the in-game title screen, you can have original arcade sounds and tunes alongside beamrider's native VIC tunes. The PRG does not work with that but the other versions (TAP, WAV, cart IMGs) do.
The thing will crash with the Ultimem plugged in.

If you can find bugs you can keep them.

It'll be finished like when meat getting grilled is finished: when it's ready. The pandemic should help with that.

Have a nice Sunday.
pixel

EDIT: Supporting the NEOS mouse seems to be impossible to do – the jitter would be unbearable.

[pixel]

Revision 915 fixes some dumb mistake when playing original arcade sounds.

Download: http://hugbox.org/pixel/software/vic-20 ... o-demo.zip

Guess it's now the first VIC game blasting out samples at full volume, isn't it?

[Noizer]

Should I have a look or maybe only when vice has finally reached its "perfection" in the distant future? Why is the measure of all things real machine, if only the less care?

[pixel]

Got my VIC & paddles back. Dudes, that almost gave me an eoitrecn. So much for my motivation to finish this.

[pixel]

New demo #942 is out!

THE GOOD NEWS:

Lots of bugs have been fixed. You need +32K to run the demo. (Will require a minimum of +16K but will make use of up to +37K when released.)
The joystick mode is family-friendly with original arcade sounds alongside ball sounds by beamrider (both at the same volume!). If you hated the original for it's mind-boggling turn of speed the paddle mode will not improve your mood. It will play only beamrider's sounds and tunes. More on that later. You can switch to them in the title screen by pressing 'M' in the title screen for joystick mode, too.

The cart's board has been designed (by someone else) to make this the only version to save scores and game states. Am very happy that it happened so quickly. The price (with case) will probably be around $50. Yes. I know... I won't be making more than a couple of cents with each sell. It's for the love of such devices.) But hey! You didn't complain at the arcade back then.

So far it looks very much like the original game play. Even original ROM tables have been included. (No, your honour! Someone hacked by Denial account!) But I'm not sure about things like when and what bonuses should show up. The Japanese are legendary for planning every detail.
If you notice any differences please tell me!

With +37K there's still ~9.5K left to rock on. (Oh no! Another five years to wait... )

The time has come to optimize. Nothing has been optimized before. The sprite renderer is like for a 3K game. Easy fixes for that are around but the hard core thing is the game logic. At times (in paddle mode) it has to calculate stuff as if there were 24 sprites on the screen to make the balls move smoothly. That might be a little showstopper. That's why you don't get arcade sounds with paddles yet.

The non-cart versions support the Ultimem (not ready for demo'ing).

As usual you'll find the tape (TAP and WAV), disk (PRG) and regular cart images here http://hugbox.org/pixel/software/vic-20/arukanoido/ – the demo version only comes with 8 of the 32 levels.

Thanks in advance for testing! Am enjoying this more than ever before. I hope you do, too. And thanks for your incredible patience.

love + respect
pixel

[tokra]

Gogogo! Tried it (in VICE) with Joystick and Paddle-mode but could not notice anything different in regards to sound? It played the arcade music in paddle-mode as well. I know I can switch with M in the title-screen. So what sounds are actually different in paddle-mode? To be honest, I personally prefer beamrider's original VIC-sounds.

[pixel]

Gogogo! Tried it (in VICE) with Joystick and Paddle-mode but could not notice anything different in regards to sound? It played the arcade music in paddle-mode as well. I know I can switch with M in the title-screen. So what sounds are actually different in paddle-mode? To be honest, I personally prefer beamrider's original VIC-sounds.

Huh? Tested it on VICE and VIC. There should only be beamrider's sounds in paddle mode. Otherwise it'll become a slide show. beamerider's variant will always be the better choice if one wants more fluent graphics. Except perhaps with the Ultimem version. Half a meg speed code, another for audio. 6:30min load time from tape. I'll make his stuff the default again and leave the originals as a technical gag.