Sydney Hunter And The Caverns Of Death

[mickcris]

I would guess they are going to be using the dee-bee card:
http://www.db-elec.com/home/products/debee-card

It looks like this is now confirmed based on this FB post:

https://www.facebook.com/335391163273663/videos/864320143714093/

yeah you are right.  i didnt notice but the picture posted earlier was the dbelctronics guy's photo.  That is his setup with the crt tv hanging on the wall.  you can see it in some of their other youtube videos.

[esteban]

"Always show a working prototype #RetroVGS"

It's the gift that keeps on giving teh lulz. 

Hahahhahahajja.

[wildfruit]

This looks really decent. Would be interested in both Hu and CD just to compare the music.

[Dicer]

I would be awesome if rover just recorded the chiptunes to redbook tracks.

Seconded...

[wyndcrosser]

very intriguing.

[DildoKKKobold]

Rover, as a noob dev, I have a few technical questions -

1. When they provided the assets, what format did they provide? This could be interesting, because I'm not sure how the palette requirements/sprite size requirement for the SNES version match up with the PC Engine. Also, we are still struggling with sounds and music. I imagine that it is fairly difficult to port these from one platform to another.

2. Did they provide any code, or is this all scratch built? Does this mean every "port" of Sydney Hunter is really going to be its own game with its own feel? Generally, it seems that unless there are really tight specifics, such as the code on how jumping works, control in the air works, and etc, each game will have totally different control. They may end up feeling like totally different games at that point.

3. How much time is this going to take you? I think the answer to 2 changes this massively, if you are rewriting a game from scratch.

[OldRover]

Answers...

1. Everything was in PNG format. Not only that, but none of them were indexed correctly. It's not a whole lot of work for me to make adjustments, and I did not really expect the graphics to be PCE-ready anyway. Sprite sizes and whatnot was not a problem... things like that are almost entirely universal across all the old consoles, with a few exceptions here and there (such as the PCE not having an 8x8 pixel sprite size, but at least I understand *why* that is). Image2PCE was a tremendous help in doing the title screen. For sound, I am going to use Squirrel, and their musician better brush up on his MML.

2. No source code was provided. It was just "here's the game, code it". The original was done in Flash, so source code would not be particularly useful anyway. I have asked a few times for mechanical details but I'm still waiting... in the meantime, I'm just coding it the way I feel works best while trying to stay true to the original game mechanics... though I have added a couple of technical features that the original did not have (such as down + jump on a vine to release from the vine and just fall straight down).

3. Honestly... I am at a standstill at the moment because they have not provided me any further maps to work with. I did the first level entirely from my own screenshots of the Flash version... and that is an incredible waste of effort when you can just work from map data. Normally, a game this simplistic would only take a couple of months to code from scratch... if I had all the assets, I'd be done with it already.

This game engine is easily the most solid platform engine I have ever coded. I've since reused it as well; it forms the basis of the Henshin Engine game code... though I actually further improved the jump mechanics since then.

[glazball]

Bumping because I'm hoping to hear about any updates

[OldRover]

Update time.

Well, they have provided me with more assets, including more maps... not all of them, but at least now the first six levels are in the game. However, they seem to be dodging my requests for technical details by telling me "just play the flash version". My time's at a premium as it is and I already have two other active titles I'm working on right now, so having me trudge through an inferior version and doing oodles of tests is just wasting my time. With any luck, I can at least get the last few maps.

If no technical details are provided in the end, I will simply keep improvising, as I have done up to this point, and the PCE version will simply play a bit differently than all the others (then again, the SNES version already plays differently than the flash version... and there is also a Genesis port... which I imagine also plays a bit differently than both).

[esteban]

Update time.

Well, they have provided me with more assets, including more maps... not all of them, but at least now the first six levels are in the game. However, they seem to be dodging my requests for technical details by telling me "just play the flash version". My time's at a premium as it is and I already have two other active titles I'm working on right now, so having me trudge through an inferior version and doing oodles of tests is just wasting my time. With any luck, I can at least get the last few maps.

If no technical details are provided in the end, I will simply keep improvising, as I have done up to this point, and the PCE version will simply play a bit differently than all the others (then again, the SNES version already plays differently than the flash version... and there is also a Genesis port... which I imagine also plays a bit differently than both).

(1) I trust your judgement more than anyone else. I know it is frustrating that they are not providing guidance...it really is absurd.

(2) It will be charming, to me, if all the versions have unique qualities. As long as the mechanics are not fundamentally flawed/gimped in any version (most importantly the PCE version), then it will be OK.

(3) COVERT OPERATION: PCE version should have some PCE Easter eggs hidden in it, IMHO. Nothing that disrupts the integrity of the original game...just some wonderful little references/moments for PCE version. IF YOU WANT TO BE REALLY SNEAKY, some of these Easter Eggs can be aural...I can think of many fun things to do with sound alone. Visual treats are a bonus.

[TheClash603]

Update time.

Well, they have provided me with more assets, including more maps... not all of them, but at least now the first six levels are in the game. However, they seem to be dodging my requests for technical details by telling me "just play the flash version". My time's at a premium as it is and I already have two other active titles I'm working on right now, so having me trudge through an inferior version and doing oodles of tests is just wasting my time. With any luck, I can at least get the last few maps.

If no technical details are provided in the end, I will simply keep improvising, as I have done up to this point, and the PCE version will simply play a bit differently than all the others (then again, the SNES version already plays differently than the flash version... and there is also a Genesis port... which I imagine also plays a bit differently than both).

(1) I trust your judgement more than anyone else. I know it is frustrating that they are not providing guidance...it really is absurd.

(2) It will be charming, to me, if all the versions have unique qualities. As long as the mechanics are not fundamentally flawed/gimped in any version (most importantly the PCE version), then it will be OK.

(3) COVERT OPERATION: PCE version should have some PCE Easter eggs hidden in it, IMHO. Nothing that disrupts the integrity of the original game...just some wonderful little references/moments for PCE version. IF YOU WANT TO BE REALLY SNEAKY, some of these Easter Eggs can be aural...I can think of many fun things to do with sound alone. Visual treats are a bonus.

It is ridiculous that they basically gave you a few screen shots and said "MAKE DIS."  I am impressed you are as far along as you are, and can't wait til play.

As far as easter eggs, you should do something low key, such as make the playable character Bonk.

[elmer]

It is ridiculous that they basically gave you a few screen shots and said "MAKE DIS."  I am impressed you are as far along as you are, and can't wait til play.

That's how all Arcade conversions used to get done in the early days, which is why every machine's arcade game releases are unique and have their own feel.

It's a bit disappointing to hear that things haven't improved much in over 30 years, especially when porting a recent original homebrew flash game, and with John Lester and CollectorVision running a kickstarter campaign and getting paid money upfront for these games.

[Gredler]

It is ridiculous that they basically gave you a few screen shots and said "MAKE DIS."  I am impressed you are as far along as you are, and can't wait til play.

That's how all Arcade conversions used to get done in the early days, which is why every machine's arcade game releases are unique and have their own feel.

It's a bit disappointing to hear that things haven't improved much in over 30 years, especially when porting a recent original homebrew flash game, and with John Lester and CollectorVision running a kickstarter campaign and getting paid money upfront for these games.

It's both a blessing and a curse depending on how you look at it, and it's the same at a lot of the bigger game companies not just the homebrew scene. I worked on a few cartoon network and disney games, and had zero reference other than "watch the show." I ended up making stuff they liked, and one of the things I made ended up going into a show down the road.

This is not uncommon, and might be an opportunity to flex your creative muscle

[OldRover]

Well, I am just kind of glad that my version does not seem to be a part of the Kickstarter for this game... or at least it was not the last time I checked... I don't really wanna be involved in any kind of mess with that... way too many productions funded by Kickstarter have failed.

[elmer]

Well, I am just kind of glad that my version does not seem to be a part of the Kickstarter for this game... or at least it was not the last time I checked... I don't really wanna be involved in any kind of mess with that... way too many productions funded by Kickstarter have failed.

Not directly a part, but you've been mentioned as proof of their ongoing efforts ...

Hi Guys,

I wanted to let you know that we are continuing to work hard on Sydney Hunter and the Caverns of Death.
...
Oh and we have recently found both TurboGrafx 16 and Sega Genesis/Sega CD programmers, so Sydney Hunter and the Caverns of Death will be ported to those platforms as well.  Our obvious priority right now though is porting the game to the SNES and NES first.

Thanks,

-The CollectorVision Team