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Robocop Prime

Started by Gryzor, 12:44, 08 February 14

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Gryzor


Carnivius

Thanks.

Can't believe it took me ages to figure out how to get a 'grab' function working from a one button joystick with all his aiming, shooting, crouching and all that.   But then I realised it's easy as heck.  To do the grab you simply hold up at same time as you press fire (which makes logical sense since you are lifting upwards) and since if you're close enough to an enemy for the fire button action to switch from shoot to punch, then the punch is replaced by the grab.  And then that could lead on to another control fork.  Treating the held enemy as new weapon in a way.  Could then use fire button to punch the grabbed mook to get him to talk, or hold up again while pressing fire to throw him (knocking back other mooks in the way) or just press down to put them back down on the ground safely.  Also it best to grab them once the others are all dead or unconcious in case they shoot at you in effect Robo using the grabbed guy as a shield.

The grab sprites for RoboCop in that screenshot are simply the exact same sprites as he uses when aiming his gun diagonally up but with the gun sprite not active and the enemy repositioned so it looks like Robo's got him by the throat.   Yay for fun new features that don't use up much more memory.  :)


Something else I wasn't sure about was in regards to enemies respawning or not.  Not an issue in the original game since it's very linear whereas in this you can go back and forth and through doors and such.  Way it was was that the enemies were respawning back in place when you went in or out of a new 'room'.  And that wasn't very realistic.   I know many 8-bit games simply respawn the enemies anyways (and often have them appearing as if teleporting which obviously wouldn't work here).  And I thought that may be a limitation in 8-bit games to not keep track of who's dead.  But then I realised SwitchBlade seems to keep track as you're usually going back through rooms.    So what I've done now is write a bit of code which does 'tick off' which enemies are already dead but so that it's not too boring walking back there is another enemy respawner object which spawns the odd enemy or two randomly now and then.  Just so you know there's always the possiblity of a wandering crook but not the big riot you've already cleared out.
Favorite CPC games: Count Duckula 3, Oh Mummy Returns, RoboCop Resurrection, Tankbusters Afterlife

Gryzor

Great solution about respawining; as I was reading your post i was thinking the exact same thing - respawning all enemies always seemed kind of stupid to me, but then again leaving the play area empty is too plain...

steve

Instead of respawning, you could leave the bodies on the ground and some of them might not be dead, they could grab or shoot you if you come back that way or tend their wounds and re-enter the fight.

Carnivius

#179
Quote from: steve on 22:33, 23 November 14
Instead of respawning, you could leave the bodies on the ground and some of them might not be dead, they could grab or shoot you if you come back that way or tend their wounds and re-enter the fight.

Nice idea though I don't really want bodies cluttering up the screen on what is to hopefully be on a real CPC sometime.  There's good reasons why they used to blink out of existence on 8 and 16 bit games. :P   Also anybody half-dead and then tries to grab onto RoboCop is just too stupid to live. :P   Still, I like how on the Death Wish III game (which is also an influence on this one) the bodies get dragged off screen by a guy in white (presumably a paramedic or some other medical person) but that's easier to do on a flick screen game like that (in a scrolling game you'd be perhaps too tempted to walk after them to see where they end up).  Still it's something to consider when I get round to proper enemy deaths (at moment they simply disappear when out of energy as I haven't done their death sprites yet.   So much to do!)
Favorite CPC games: Count Duckula 3, Oh Mummy Returns, RoboCop Resurrection, Tankbusters Afterlife

Carnivius

Unintentionally but amusingly the grab works on the window crooks as well. As if he's pulled them out of there. :P




Favorite CPC games: Count Duckula 3, Oh Mummy Returns, RoboCop Resurrection, Tankbusters Afterlife

Neil79

Give us a shout when it's ready and we will feature it :)
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Carnivius

Cheers.
Just trying to nail the script that does arcs at moment.   It's a general script that is called (with whatever x velocity and y velocity values the object assigns) that makes an object move in an arc motion whether it's a grenade being thrown across the screen, Robo throwing after grabbing him, or things being knocked back from an impact or explosion.  I think I've just about got it working correctly. :)   Had a funny moment where the ED-209 object (still currently being read as a crate for collision testing til I do his animation and AI) got knocked across the screen by one punch from Robo.  Was awesome.

Then I'm gotta make some control improvements (mainly because he's instantly throwing them after grabbing them because both use the Up+Fire but it should wait for the player to let go of either of those first before checking for the second Up+Fire to throw)

Then get the enemies shooting and aiming properly and do their hurt, fall and dead sprites.

And then the game's gonna feel pretty playable (though it is still using a looped sample background rather than actual proper tiles cos I haven't got around to the actual level design yet.  Want to get the core gameplay components feeling just right first)
Favorite CPC games: Count Duckula 3, Oh Mummy Returns, RoboCop Resurrection, Tankbusters Afterlife

Carnivius

Bugs can be fun.

Was tweaking the grab move code and somehow the enemies got positioned too high and it looked like Robo was lifting them up by their right ankle.  Still able to walk about and turn and everything.

Some odd collision thing with the enemies when thrown meant they were somehow able to stand on top of each other.  And so as RoboCop I was having a bit of fun trying to throw one on the other, then one on top of that one like stacking them up high.  Was what you may see in a circus. :P

Started coding basic AI stuff for ED-209.  Detecting if a 'threat' is near, then the upper half raises up and the guns start shooting.  Simple enough?  Well, my first attempt I got the maths wrong and the entire upper half (torso, guns, thighs) detached from the lower legs and actually swam (like a fish, it even had a weird glitchy graphical 'shimmering') right off the top left of the screen.   Was very surreal to watch. 

Was improving and refining Robo's punch code now I understand it a bit better.  But I made a mistake and when he punched a crate it was HE who exploded, and the crate was unharmed.   And then bizarrely he walked on by himself from the left of the screen all ready to have another go (some odd bug that detects if his object has been destroyed it creates another one and was using the automatic walking on he should do when he gets out of his car but there was no car this time).

Some strange thing when I was fixing up the head code (negating the need for seperate left views of the heads cos they look identical to right so I just flip those now) meant that everybody (Robo and the crooks) was spinning their heads around and around like they all posessed like in the Exorcist.  Looked kinda terrifying.

They're entertaining enough that I was almost tempted to leave them in, but nah.  I'm not Ubisoft.  I actually like to fix huge bugs and glitches before releasing a game.
Favorite CPC games: Count Duckula 3, Oh Mummy Returns, RoboCop Resurrection, Tankbusters Afterlife

ervin

Quote from: Carnivac on 12:08, 01 December 14
Bugs can be fun.

Was tweaking the grab move code and somehow the enemies got positioned too high and it looked like Robo was lifting them up by their right ankle.  Still able to walk about and turn and everything.

Some odd collision thing with the enemies when thrown meant they were somehow able to stand on top of each other.  And so as RoboCop I was having a bit of fun trying to throw one on the other, then one on top of that one like stacking them up high.  Was what you may see in a circus. :P

Started coding basic AI stuff for ED-209.  Detecting if a 'threat' is near, then the upper half raises up and the guns start shooting.  Simple enough?  Well, my first attempt I got the maths wrong and the entire upper half (torso, guns, thighs) detached from the lower legs and actually swam (like a fish, it even had a weird glitchy graphical 'shimmering') right off the top left of the screen.   Was very surreal to watch. 

Was improving and refining Robo's punch code now I understand it a bit better.  But I made a mistake and when he punched a crate it was HE who exploded, and the crate was unharmed.   And then bizarrely he walked on by himself from the left of the screen all ready to have another go (some odd bug that detects if his object has been destroyed it creates another one and was using the automatic walking on he should do when he gets out of his car but there was no car this time).

Some strange thing when I was fixing up the head code (negating the need for seperate left views of the heads cos they look identical to right so I just flip those now) meant that everybody (Robo and the crooks) was spinning their heads around and around like they all posessed like in the Exorcist.  Looked kinda terrifying.

They're entertaining enough that I was almost tempted to leave them in, but nah.  I'm not Ubisoft.  I actually like to fix huge bugs and glitches before releasing a game.

:laugh:

You didn't take vids of any of that did you?
Would be tremendous to see it in action.

But yes, the crazy things that can happen with bugs...
Back in 2008 I wrote (though sadly didn't fully complete) a Sabre Wulf remake for the Retro Remakes comp.
I was using Blitz3D at the time (WONDERFUL language by the way), and I was trying to get sabre man's collision with the jungle working with B3D's built-in collision features.
No matter what I did, he would get stuck in some scenery, walk through others, etc etc etc.
In the end I just rolled my own collision code. Took a bit longer but it was well worth it in the end.

I'll complete that remake one day... (probably in Unity).

Carnivius

#185
No videos, sorry. Bugs all fixed now (well those ones are.  New ones will obviously occur during further development).

I'm wondering if I'm gonna get abuse for putting prostitutes in the game.  Obviously you can't buy their services (Robo probably doesn't even have the equipment) and they simply hang around the street til combat occurs and they run away.  It's just a lil extra thing to add a bit more 'life' to the outside levels (and they use the same leg/skirt sprite as Dr Lazarus except her labcoat covers some of it) but in this recent wave of craziness in the gaming press I don't know if I'll get some hate.   Oh and they are positioned a bit higher up (to look further back on the sidewalk) so makes sense that bullets just pass by them and they cannot be killed (no violence towards them here).

I have more 'positive role model' females such as Lazarus (brainy scientist) and Lewis (tough badass cop).  We'll see what happens...
Favorite CPC games: Count Duckula 3, Oh Mummy Returns, RoboCop Resurrection, Tankbusters Afterlife

seanb

Was that sort of stuff in the films?
Yes so put them in the game.
tired of this forced positive female rolemodel nonsense.
usual end up with a tripe cliché just to apease whiners who have no interest in what they are demanding changes in.

Stick them in and any more crazy glitches record them for us even if it's just a gif.

Would be fun to have a glitched version to  play as well but that's not possible
Thou shall not question Captain Wrong!

Carnivius

#187
Well, they're in (they don't run off yet as I haven't done the leg animation so they simply slide off when bullets are fired or punches occur).  Also a new head type for the enemy object to randomly pick.  Gotta have the 80's punk if it's an 80's style violent game y'see. 




(and yeah the films have them I think.  Second one certainly does at the beginning. They mug a guy who just mugged an old homeless lady.  I checked the credits and one of the women was credited as 'hooker' so yep.  I made sure  :) )
Favorite CPC games: Count Duckula 3, Oh Mummy Returns, RoboCop Resurrection, Tankbusters Afterlife

ervin

That looks so very awesome!
I am *really* looking forward to playing this!

Carnivius

Merry Christmas.  :)

Favorite CPC games: Count Duckula 3, Oh Mummy Returns, RoboCop Resurrection, Tankbusters Afterlife

ervin

I'd give that 100 Likes if I could!
8)

Hellraiser

What happened with this game?Shame not to see any development...

robcfg

As far as I remember, Carnivac was doing the awesome graphics and waiting for a coder willing to program it.

Carnivius

#193
Quote from: robcfg on 21:35, 04 March 15
As far as I remember, Carnivac was doing the awesome graphics and waiting for a coder willing to program it.


Still in development (I did quite a bit of PC code today in fact) but am mainly working on a phone game at moment as I am unemployed and need money to retake driving test and get me a car so progress on Robo is a lil slow at present. :)    That also why I'm not very active on here at moment as I haven't had much to come show and I don't feel like I'm much good at contributing to topics otherwise.  ???
Favorite CPC games: Count Duckula 3, Oh Mummy Returns, RoboCop Resurrection, Tankbusters Afterlife

Sykobee (Briggsy)

Hope the phone game goes well :-)

VincentGR

Oh, nice thing you still work on it!
Robocop is my favorite movie and game on CPC!

Carnivius

Quote from: Sykobee (Briggsy) on 23:14, 04 March 15
Hope the phone game goes well :-)

Thanks.  Took me ages to come up with a good game concept that would work well on touchscreens aaand that I would enjoy developing/playing myself (I generally dislike touchscreen controls).   Thankfully I got inspiration from an early CPC game. :)
Favorite CPC games: Count Duckula 3, Oh Mummy Returns, RoboCop Resurrection, Tankbusters Afterlife

seanb

You're making a touchscreen Roland game?
Fantastic  ;D
Thou shall not question Captain Wrong!

Carnivius

Favorite CPC games: Count Duckula 3, Oh Mummy Returns, RoboCop Resurrection, Tankbusters Afterlife

CraigsBar

Quote from: Carnivac on 19:30, 08 March 15
Kind of.
hopefully not 'Roland in tap-hell of android monsters on eye-os'
Or worse still...... 'Flappy Roland' Arrrggghhhhh.
IRC:  #Retro4All on Freenode

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