Homebrew: Island Adventure (HuCard)

cabbage · 08/23/2012, 04:29 AM

Thought I should post this here--

Island Adventure (Neo Compo 2012).pce

It's a little action-adventure game I made over the past few weeks for Neo Team's annual homebrew competition. It's pretty lacking in a lot of ways but there are a few weapons to find and a some little quests to do with a sort of hazy storyline sprinkled in sporadically. I made it as an exercise in programming to get more comfortable with the PC-Engine, and I don't really expect to continue working on it (though there's certainly room for improvement)

Anyway it's a 4 megabit ROM that works fine in mednafen and on my neo team flash cart and JP Duo-R. I think it should work fine on other carts and emulators too--please let me know me if you find compatibility issues. Since there's no save function, you might want to play on an emulator and use save states to avoid frustration, hehe.

If you play through the whole thing, please send me a PM and let me know what you thought, and how long it took you to finish!

Thanks for reading and I hope you can get some enjoyment out of it should you choose to play it.

edit: Essential Walkthrough (obviously containing spoilers)

touko · 08/23/2012, 05:08 AM

Excellent,why you don't work Anymore on it ??

Arkhan Asylum · 08/23/2012, 10:11 AM

Those graphics are awesome.

Did you do it all in C?

EDIT: Also, be sure to let us know how the contest goes. I thought about entering something into that.

but then I remembered I have enough crap to do already, lol -_-;

hoobs88 · 08/23/2012, 10:20 AM

I'd like to check it out but I don't have a flash cart. Hopefully I can play it on my PSP with my PC Engine emulator.

JoshTurboTrollX · 08/23/2012, 10:28 AM

looks brilliant man!! Make moar!!

Arkhan Asylum · 08/23/2012, 10:32 AM

It should use Squirrel to have really cheesy DOS sound effects. It looks like a DOS game, in a good way, IMO.

Post more screenshots!

I'm going to play it when I get home tonight.

soop · 08/23/2012, 10:47 AM

Wow, you've been busy!

Great idea though, make a simple game first while you're feeling around, and then you won't get frustrated trying to make a game beyond your power. Looks great, but I can't wait to see what you come up with next

My idea (which I've neglected shamefully) was to do TMNT, then a supersprint clone, though I dare say I'm not sure about the AI on that.

Arkhan Asylum · 08/23/2012, 10:59 AM

Quote from: soop on 08/23/2012, 10:47 AMGreat idea though, make a simple game first while you're feeling around, and then you won't get frustrated trying to make a game beyond your power. Looks great, but I can't wait to see what you come up with next

Exactly!

and heck, this is homebrew for an olllddddd console. I'd be happy with anything from other people. Start making something, soop.

GoGOGO

NecroPhile · 08/23/2012, 11:11 AM

Ooo, goody! I'm looking forward to giving this a go tonight.

Nando · 08/23/2012, 12:20 PM

Pacifist Crab FTW!

highly enjoyable, WAY TO GO!!! played on Ootake for PC and PCE.emu android

touko · 08/23/2012, 03:03 PM

Musics are pretty cool ..

Arkhan Asylum · 08/23/2012, 03:08 PM

Quote from: touko on 08/23/2012, 03:03 PMMusics are pretty cool ..

oh! oh!

It's using Squirrel!?/!/1

Nando · 08/23/2012, 03:35 PM

Quote from: touko on 08/23/2012, 03:03 PMMusics are pretty cool ..

'twas catchy and retrolicious.

cabbage · 08/23/2012, 06:27 PM

Thanks for your kind words, everyone. I'm not a good judge of my own work and with no team to work with or even beta testers, so I always appreciate feedback

touko--I guess I could work improve some things later... I think I need at least a short time off from this project, and I have some other ideas I want to explore.

Arkhan-- Yes, all in C, and with squirrel. I almost PM'ed you the night before the end of competition with a question about squirrel but I figured out how to get it to do what I needed. Unfortunately these are not my original musics--I just found some cute songs on vgmusic.com. The few sound effects are still very DOS-like. Squirrel 3.0 is excellent, by the way! I'm still intimidated by 'drums' though, hehe. I hope some more people try working with it soon... seems like a waste to have such a powerful tool just sitting, barely touched by hobbyists...

hoobs-- I guess it will work, if the PSP emulator is any good. You can always play on PC. I used mednafen personally.

joshua-- ah, thanks! PC-Engine is such interesting hardware and the homebrew tools have become quite use-able in recent years, so I'll try to keep it up and make something nice

soop-- I am bad at AI, too, hehe. Are you still studying HuC? I used the same code I showed you for printing text in this game, hehe

Necro-- It's a quite simple game, please try to keep your expectations low ;)

Nando-- Thanks, really, for playing and for your kind feedback! It's cool to hear it works on android phone emulator, too!

Keranu · 08/23/2012, 06:29 PM

Awww I love this little game you made! Best PCE demo ever! Very cute!

Bernie · 08/23/2012, 06:39 PM

Love it. Now, lets make it BIGGER.

Arkhan Asylum · 08/23/2012, 07:06 PM

This is excellent stuff. I really like the fact that it looks like an OLD OLD OLD PC game.

This definitely wins my award as best demo ever. I hope you win the contest, because this is coooool as fuuuuuuck

cabbage · 08/23/2012, 07:41 PM

Keranu · 08/23/2012, 08:56 PM

The last dungeon was an awesome twist, by the way!

hoobs88 · 08/23/2012, 11:03 PM

Quote from: cabbage on 08/23/2012, 06:27 PMhoobs-- I guess it will work, if the PSP emulator is any good. You can always play on PC. I used mednafen personally.

I'm not familiar with Mednafen. I might have to look into it since I can't seem to find the memory card for my PSP that contains my emulators.

esteban · 08/24/2012, 12:32 PM

Well, damn, I'm going to have to figure out how to use my flash cart to play Island Adventure.

In the meantime, can someone post (nonm-spoiling) screenshots or music so I can get a taste?

Thank you, kindly, in advance.

hoobs88 · 08/24/2012, 02:18 PM

Finally found my memory card which contains my PCE emulator for the PSP and was able to play through the game! Took me a while to figure out that the crab in front of the house near the village was actually friendly. Nice job! I liked it. How long did it take to write/make it?

OldRover · 08/24/2012, 02:52 PM

This has come a long way from the soundless prototype version. Good job man.

JoshTurboTrollX · 08/24/2012, 03:13 PM

I'll slap this on my xbox tonight to test it out in a sort of less computer+keyboard way using mednafen X. I can record it and post it to youtube unless someone else wants to.

JoshTurboTrollX · 08/25/2012, 02:03 AM

27 minutes of gameplay -

Don't watch if you don't want certain parts of the game spoiled.

(However, there isn't much spoiling going on. I tend to suck at most videogames

)

Arkhan Asylum · 08/25/2012, 02:12 AM

That song is so fucking catchy lol.

cabbage · 08/25/2012, 04:23 AM

Quote from: JoshTurboTrollX-16 on 08/25/2012, 02:03 AM27 minutes of gameplay -

Very nice! Thanks for making that video! It's interesting to be able to watch and hear someone playing my game... I can already see so many things I should have done differently, hehe. Really, thanks for making it. Maybe I'll send you some demos in the future so you can help me test them before release

Also--I could never decide which speed setting I prefer, either. Fast mode is just the default because I used it during tests to save time

I think the novelty factor of this game can wear off very quickly... so I wrote a guide to help people play through it really fast before it becomes too frustrating

I added a link in the first post or click here.

_Paul · 08/25/2012, 07:36 AM

Just played through this, took about 18 minutes to complete and was good fun! Some of the dialogue was quite funny

Opethian · 08/25/2012, 07:45 AM

cheers cabbie

JoshTurboTrollX · 08/25/2012, 08:55 AM

Quote from: cabbage on 08/25/2012, 04:23 AM
Quote from: JoshTurboTrollX-16 on 08/25/2012, 02:03 AM27 minutes of gameplay -
Very nice! Thanks for making that video! It's interesting to be able to watch and hear someone playing my game... I can already see so many things I should have done differently, hehe. Really, thanks for making it. Maybe I'll send you some demos in the future so you can help me test them before release
Also--I could never decide which speed setting I prefer, either. Fast mode is just the default because I used it during tests to save time

It was no problem at all. I had a blast, I just hope I didn't bring the value of the game down with my trbl lack of skills LOL!

Quote from: guest on 08/25/2012, 07:36 AMJust played through this, took about 18 minutes to complete and was good fun! Some of the dialogue was quite funny

O_O , I put about 18 minutes into the game BEFORE I made this video. However, in my defence that was on a keyboard using hugo on my comp. lol

Again, this was great fun!! Thank you Cabbage!!

meka · 08/25/2012, 07:35 PM

I played through it and it's very good, would be nice if you could make it into a full game.

esteban · 08/26/2012, 12:19 PM

Quote from: cabbage on 08/23/2012, 04:29 AM
Island Adventure (Neo Compo 2012).pce

I love the "no-frills" Ys border! It actually adds elegance to the utilitarian presentation.

Quote from: JoshTurboTrollX-16 on 08/25/2012, 02:03 AM27 minutes of gameplay -
Don't watch if you don't want certain parts of the game spoiled.

(However, there isn't much spoiling going on. I tend to suck at most videogames )

Thank you! I'm going to watch it for a minute (so as not to spoil anything), but I will LISTEN to it for a few minutes

cabbage · 09/12/2012, 02:30 AM

Quote from: guest on 08/23/2012, 10:11 AMEDIT: Also, be sure to let us know how the contest goes. I thought about entering something into that.

but then I remembered I have enough crap to do already, lol -_-;

The results were announced--this game won 3rd prize.

I think there were more entries (and much nicer) than expected--there had been some talk of canceling the compo due to decreasing interest. After the nice result this year, surely there will be a Neo Compo 2013... let's hope for some new PCE homebrew to be shown

touko · 09/12/2012, 03:23 AM

cool, congrats for your prize ..

Arkhan Asylum · 09/12/2012, 09:55 AM

Quote from: cabbage on 09/12/2012, 02:30 AM
Quote from: Psycho Arkhan on 08/23/2012, 10:11 AMEDIT: Also, be sure to let us know how the contest goes. I thought about entering something into that.

but then I remembered I have enough crap to do already, lol -_-;
The results were announced--this game won 3rd prize.

I think there were more entries (and much nicer) than expected--there had been some talk of canceling the compo due to decreasing interest. After the nice result this year, surely there will be a Neo Compo 2013... let's hope for some new PCE homebrew to be shown

Hey, 3rd place is pretty awesome. I would have given you 1st place (I looked at some of the other entries)

I like how your game really captures the old-ass-CRPG feel to it, and I still like the tune in it alot. It's a nice tune.

Post up the MML, or an MP3 or something!

Nando · 09/12/2012, 10:54 AM

Congratulations! and yes post ze music.

roflmao · 09/12/2012, 11:14 AM

Congrats, cabbage. I finally got around to playing some of this yesterday (hooray for flashcards!). It was a hoot.

JoshTurboTrollX · 09/12/2012, 11:17 AM

Good stuff!!

I had a fun time playing through this one! Would love to see a suped up version. ;)

esteban · 09/20/2012, 01:09 AM

I missed this thread earlier!

CONGRATULATIONS CABBAGE!

Let me echo the folks who requested the music earlier...if you have an .mp3, I'll gladly host it for you.

cabbage · 09/20/2012, 03:12 AM

hmm.. people enjoyed this little project so much, i wonder what to make next....

Quote from: esteban on 09/20/2012, 01:09 AM...if you have an .mp3, I'll gladly host it for you.

I don't have an mp3 of it; feel free to rip your own and host it if you want!

For anyone interested, here's the original midi and the converted mml. edit to add the other song: midi / mml

before you get excited (arkhan), the mml is not optimized. i just ran the midi through 3mle and cleaned up the output and added squirrel channel init stuff...

Arkhan Asylum · 09/20/2012, 10:10 AM

lol, thats OK. It's a start.

Did you compose the tune, or did you lift it from somewhere?

cabbage · 09/20/2012, 05:01 PM

Quote from: guest on 09/20/2012, 10:10 AMDid you compose the tune, or did you lift it from somewhere?

lifted it...

Quote from: cabbage on 08/23/2012, 06:27 PMArkhan--(. . .)Unfortunately these are not my original musics--I just found some cute songs on vgmusic.com.

Arkhan Asylum · 09/20/2012, 05:39 PM

oh I must have missed that post.

It all sounds very nice though duder. This is the first official non Aetherbyte use of Squirrel.

Let your geek flag fly high!

cabbage · 09/20/2012, 06:53 PM

It might be the first third-party game using squirrel, but don't forget the nyan cat demo which came before this! That MML is much more elegant than those used in Island Adventure.

I'm still planning to develop some composition skills so I can make original tunes. Should have some free time next week so if I have a usable computer by then I'll probably start pestering you, arkhan, about how to do custom instruments and drums and such ;)

Squirrel is really a pleasure to use, I can't thank Aetherbutt enough for all the hard work put into it.
Any musicians reading this: please try to use squirrel... or at least make some cool midis or sheet music--I'll be happy to help you convert to MML if you're intimidated by text editors, hehe

touko · 09/21/2012, 03:17 AM

Quote from: cabbage on 09/20/2012, 06:53 PMSquirrel is really a pleasure to use, I can't thank Aetherbutt enough for all the hard work put into it.
Any musicians reading this: please try to use squirrel... or at least make some cool midis or sheet music--I'll be happy to help you convert to MML if you're intimidated by text editors, hehe

Yes, i'am planing to use squirrel for my next project ..
As soon as I've finished chuck no-rice, I will test squirrel more deeply .

Arkhan Asylum · 09/21/2012, 10:20 AM

Nyan Cat IS the first MML user, but it's not a game.

Feel free to bug me in PMs here or at Aetherbyte's forum. It might be best to post on the MML forum there so anyone else who happens to check it out can see too.

I'm always on IRC also, idling. So if you leave messages there and keep your machine idle as well, I can reply when I get it.