Inferno for MSX2

[Arkhan Asylum]

So, I've been working on this MSX2 game called Inferno on and off for a few years between Atlanteaning and such:
http://www.aetherbyte.com/aetherbyte-inferno_for_msx.html


https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1180821755323526

It's not PCE, and it's not coming to PCE, but I figure people here may be interested anyways.

It's getting fairly close to being done, and is currently being playtested.

You'd need

A) an emulator
or
B) An MSX2 with FM, or MSX2+

to play.

For anyone curious why it's not coming to PCE:

1) The sprites are all >32 pixels wide, and most are >32 pixels tall, and would ALL need redone.  It would be a bit of a nightmare, on top of Inferno being 16 colors total, so it would all need reshaded. 
2) MSX is a good time.  Hudson got some of their starts there, and Mr. HueyCard's starts are on MSX, so you should like it too
3) I don't really feel like it.   Saber Rider (once it gets rolling), and fresh topics will be more fun than porting a game you guys could play already anyways.

I might be needing a few more playtesters, if anyone is interested.

[NecroPhile]

If a PCE port is a bridge to far, that means you're gonna port it to PC-FX, right?

Fuck yo' eurotrash msx. 

[Gypsy]

This game looks...hot....

I'll see myself out.

[SuperDeadite]

A1ST owner here.  I do have a flashcart someone gave me, but I've never actually used it.  Let me know if you want to test.  I can even make a shitty video for my shitty youtube channel if you want.

[Arkhan Asylum]

If a PCE port is a bridge to far, that means you're gonna port it to PC-FX, right?

Fuck yo' eurotrash msx. 

Eurotrash?  This is developed on 100% Japanese Toshiba power.

pleb

[NecroPhile]

Yeah, man, I know.  I'm just joking from the 'tards you had to deal with in that coding contest.

[Arkhan Asylum]

Yeah, man, I know.  I'm just joking from the 'tards you had to deal with in that coding contest.

oh yeah.  I forgot I even did that, lol.

They played this on their gimpy 50hz machines.

Even Paul was doing that until I told him to amp it up to 60hz Japanese hardware and he went OH WOW, THE MUSIC SOUNDS BETTER NOW.

50hz is the devil.

[Gredler]

More screenshots or videos please. Looks great from everything I've seen though. I will try to remember to check it out next time I am able to sit down at a pc outside of work

[Opethian]

where is my signed copy infermo?

[Arkhan Asylum]

where is my signed copy infermo?

Roy stole it.

[BlueBMW]

Its a pretty slick game guys.  First time I played it was like Bonk's Adenture in platforming hell, but now its just straight hellawesome.

[Arkhan Asylum]

playtesters: feel free to paste pictures in here.

There is no video footage except for what was made by #msxdev people when I started this as a demo years ago.

You may see those on youtube.

I wouldn't bother though.

The instruments sound like dicks, and the games way cooler now.

[xcrement5x]

I will link this page to a guy I know that's pretty into MSX, he might be able to playtest for you.  Pretty sure he has a forum acct too.

[Arkhan Asylum]

I will link this page to a guy I know that's pretty into MSX, he might be able to playtest for you.  Pretty sure he has a forum acct too.

you can find it on Facebook too.  There's an INFERNO FOR MSX2 page.

[esadajr]

looking forward to this, thanks for the hard work

[SuperDeadite]

Alright got it on the flash cart.

Music is teh awesome.
Graphics are teh cool.

However I have no idea how many times I can get hit before I die. 
If I use the keyboard to skip stages I always spawn in the column on stage 3.

[Arkhan Asylum]

Alright got it on the flash cart.

Music is teh awesome.
Graphics are teh cool.

However I have no idea how many times I can get hit before I die. 
If I use the keyboard to skip stages I always spawn in the column on stage 3.

The heart at the bottom speeds up when you're near death.   I don't have it in the version you have, yet, but when you are officially 1 hit from dead, the mouth chomps nonstop on the right. 

I am also adding sounds to indicate that you're about to die.   

also, yeah, that keyboard skipping ahead (that I didn't officially mention to anyone, but you found anyways!) might need fixed.  I changed some things.   

Anyway, if you spot any rooms that flatout suck or are too hard to manage, just list em up.  That's what the M indicates on the screen.  (Map Number).

Some of the screens you start with an enemy on you, for example.  Those need fixed

[cho_aniki]

Looks wonderful, I will definitely place an order when it comes out.

[SuperDeadite]

Alright on Stage 2  "m 015" I simply can't get through this room without taking multiple hits, since the hit boxes on everything are clearly larger then the sprites and the hearts are aimed at you, I always take at least 3 hits getting through here.  Maybe I just suck though.

Stage 1 M 009, ok this is a bug or some kind of invisible invincibility power up here?  I climbed up into the spike cage area from below, hit the spikes and it made a weird sound effect, after that the heart meter seemed to reset to no damage status, after that nothing seemed to hurt me, I would get hit and flash, but I could stand on top of spikes for 10 mins and not die,  ended up just running through everything absorbing damage, continued on to stage 2, and the effect continued.  Just ran through stage 2 absorbing everything, made it to stage 3, then spawned inside the skull column, and could not continue as I am le stuck.

Ok, did a hard reset, tried this again, and it didn't happen, so yeah must have triggered a bug somehow.

And if I play legit, or use the keyboard warp, I always spawn stuck in the column on stage 3

[geise]

where is my signed copy infermo?

Roy stole it.

[Arkhan Asylum]

where is my signed copy infermo?

Roy stole it.

I am glad that shitstick isn't around anymore.

Also,

Sent Deadite a new romomromrorlglngmlgmnhn

Feel free to post screenshots in here.

[SuperDeadite]

Yay new rom!
I can actually move around in Stage 3 now yay!
But on Stage 3 M 004, there is a switch activated wall/door I can't open.
There is a room before this with 2 switches, regardless if I push the top one only, bottom one only, or both the wall/door does not open.  If I push any of the switches, then enter the room again they reset and I can push them again.  So it seems the game is forgetting I pushed the switches as soon as I exit the room.

Also, unless you are just fucking with me, I have figured out the "invincibility" bug.
Enemies and enemy projectiles will give me a proper game over.
However if I lose my last HP by jumping up into spikes, it actually resets my HP to 255!
This works on the very first screen of the game, and it works every single time.

Screenshots, notice I am at 0 HP and still alive, then one more jump into the spikes, and I'm now at 255 HP.   

[Arkhan Asylum]

Yay new rom!
I can actually move around in Stage 3 now yay!
But on Stage 3 M 004, there is a switch activated wall/door I can't open.
There is a room before this with 2 switches, regardless if I push the top one only, bottom one only, or both the wall/door does not open.  If I push any of the switches, then enter the room again they reset and I can push them again.  So it seems the game is forgetting I pushed the switches as soon as I exit the room.

Also, unless you are just fucking with me, I have figured out the "invincibility" bug.
Enemies and enemy projectiles will give me a proper game over.
However if I lose my last HP by jumping up into spikes, it actually resets my HP to 255!
This works on the very first screen of the game, and it works every single time.

Screenshots, notice I am at 0 HP and still alive, then one more jump into the spikes, and I'm now at 255 HP.   

Ok good, switch-feedback.

It's possible that the switch-maps are messed up.  If you stamp the wrong tile down in the tile editor, the switches won't work right.


Excellent catch though on that spike bug.  I see what happened.  Something I changed with taking damage didn't carry over into the spike-collision code.

and, I am too used to not getting hit by spikes anymore, so I never noticed it.

woo.

How does the ladder-climbing feel? 

[geise]

Ark, this looks freaking rad!

[munchiaz]

looks awesome.

[esteban]

Arkhan, this will find its way to PCE.

I THANK YOU.

Inferno PCE 2018

[Arkhan Asylum]

UPDATE:

The digital copy was released on 12/31 while we get the cart shells / etc. sorted out.

Check it out!  No MSX required.

[esteban]

UPDATE:

The digital copy was released on 12/31 while we get the cart shells / etc. sorted out.

Check it out!  No MSX required.

I think I will have to figure out how to do MSX emulation because Inferno looks awesome.

I even bought a controller over the summer so I wouldn't have to use a keyboard for platformers anymore.

[Mathius]

Are you taking pre-orders? How many batches are you planning to sell?

[Arkhan Asylum]

Are you taking pre-orders? How many batches are you planning to sell?

im not sure. it depends on how the cart shells go.

[Arkhan Asylum]

https://aetherbyte.bandcamp.com/album/inferno-hot-tracks-from-the-abyss

SOUND TRACK IS AVAILABLE

[turboswimbz]

Marched of the damned is awesome,

and destroy reminds me of some old school Falcom stuff

Great work Ark. the synth versions is a really nice add on to see how this came together.

I may need to start emulating the MSX

[Arkhan Asylum]

I may need to start emulating the MSX

It is worth emulating.  Since emulating is freeeeeeee

[Arkhan Asylum]

KINDA RELATED

neat

[Gredler]

https://aetherbyte.bandcamp.com/album/inferno-hot-tracks-from-the-abyss

SOUND TRACK IS AVAILABLE

How'd I miss this? Good shit ark thanks for doing it!

bewbs on the album are a +1 too. sweet licks dude!

[Mathius]

Have you guys decided against doing a physical version?

[Arkhan Asylum]

Have you guys decided against doing a physical version?

No, I am actually just waiting on an e-mail to be replied to.

It is looking like the resin dude's going to be a bust, though.   So, I will just be eating the cost of that mold and stuff, since he still can't get that shit right.

We'll see once he's "done", but I've already got 3D printed ones to use, and someone who can reliably produce those for me.

The resin ones have nicer detail, but it seems he doesn't understand the importance of aesthetics along the edges.

If I wanted wonky edges, I could've just imported the euro carts that I specifically avoided.

[Mathius]

That does kinda suck. One way you could look at it though is this is your first run. You can always make improvements on a second run if it's feasible at that time.

Dude, you'd be doing me a solid if you would please hold me a copy when they come in. Just message me. If I'm broke at that time we should still be able to come to some type of arrangement.

Do you have an idea what your retail cost will be?

[Arkhan Asylum]

That does kinda suck. One way you could look at it though is this is your first run. You can always make improvements on a second run if it's feasible at that time.

Dude, you'd be doing me a solid if you would please hold me a copy when they come in. Just message me. If I'm broke at that time we should still be able to come to some type of arrangement.

Do you have an idea what your retail cost will be?

I think it's going to be like 50 or 60$.  I haven't fully added up how much all this shit cost yet.

I also don't want to overshoot the current games prices, but there's obviously going to be a slight difference since they have readily available cartridges in Europe, so even myself using those costs more because its an import.

AND THE RESIN GUY HERE FAILED ME.



It's annoying.  He lead me to believe he could do much better than the European ABS carts.   Those carts are done shittily, so they come out inconsistent.  All of my homebrew has varied quality.  The lines arent straight, and such.

He said he could do them better, and faster.   Resin casting is fast.

The problem is, he can't do them as clean as he thought.

He was far too overconfident, and now is saying that the price per shell will be kinda beefy.

More than if I'd get even the racist Korean shells (that cost more because we live in USA, not for any other reason).

It's been interesting.   European ones suck, the one person that could maybe do red ones never responded, and then finally said they'd only give me red shells if I let them publish the game.

and the Korean dude found out I am foreign and jacked the price up. 

BUT WE GOT 3D PRINTED RED ONES SO FUCK EM.

[Psycho Punch]

Is the Korean thing for real? What a bunch of dickheads, I wonder what's the thought process that goes on their heads to do that for an extremely niche product with a very small pool of buyers.

[Arkhan Asylum]

Is the Korean thing for real? What a bunch of dickheads, I wonder what's the thought process that goes on their heads to do that for an extremely niche product with a very small pool of buyers.

Its "something" to do with having to stamp MADE IN KOREA or some shit on international ones or something

but I don't really buy that this doubles the cost.  I wanted to buy like 300 of them off the dude. 

Fuck that though.  other MSX projects have used those carts.  I am not sure if they paid the asshat fee.

[cabbage]

Is the Korean thing for real? What a bunch of dickheads, I wonder what's the thought process that goes on their heads to do that for an extremely niche product with a very small pool of buyers.

Its "something" to do with having to stamp MADE IN KOREA or some shit on international ones or something

but I don't really buy that this doubles the cost.  I wanted to buy like 300 of them off the dude. 

Fuck that though.  other MSX projects have used those carts.  I am not sure if they paid the asshat fee.

I think it's more like the Korean price is the "bro" price, similar to how folks might cut a discount to other pcefx members around here. The Korean retro community is relatively small...
Still, a discount for large bulk orders would be nice, especially for a new homebrew game instead of just repros.
Oh well, at least you got it sorted. The new 3D-printed shells look nice, too.

[Mathius]

Well that's a clusterfuck. That even gave *ME* a headache. I hope you can get this all sorted out.

[Arkhan Asylum]

I am a fan of the 3D print.

People are becoming more accepting of the 3D print texture, it gives us color options, and it works.

So, might as well just go with that.

[Opethian]

[Mathius]

^^That's kinda creepy lol