Retro game ideas?

Game development specific discussions.
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BasicCoder2
Posts: 3906
Joined: Jan 01, 2009 7:03
Location: Australia

Retro game ideas?

Post by BasicCoder2 »

While lurking back here again I see ron77 on his own forum is looking for participaion in a game competition. It must be about 5 years since I messed about with some retro game code. The last code snippet I see posted in the section seems to be Aug 2015,
viewtopic.php?t=23857
Not having enough imagination or time to make a complete game like "Toad on Fire" my code was always just proof of concept for me as a pass time when I had nothing better to do.
Anyway I thought maybe another snippet of code for fun and looking at some of the old retro games I thought perhaps some Boulder Dash code as I don't think I tried that before.
I was thinking of posting the code but as the game isn't mine and is probably copy protected I thought better of it.
Now if only I could think up my own retro tile based computer game to code like Boulder Dash but original :)
This is a screen shot of my Boulder Dash clone.

Image
paul doe
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Joined: Jul 25, 2017 17:22
Location: Argentina

Re: Retro game ideas?

Post by paul doe »

Looking really nice so far.

Sometimes, original ideas are hard to come up with. The next best thing, then, is taking an old idea and interpret it differently. Look at the successful games out there. Not all of them have 100% original ideas (most of them don't, in fact), but they take a tried and true idea and execute it in unique and interesting ways.

In your case with your Boulder Dash clone, have a look at Mr Driller, for example. Same basic concept, different execution, and a completely different game experience.
BasicCoder2
Posts: 3906
Joined: Jan 01, 2009 7:03
Location: Australia

Re: Retro game ideas?

Post by BasicCoder2 »

Mr Driller is certainly a lot more complex than the original Boulder Dash game. Falling tetris like blocks. Complex graphic effects. My interest was always in the coding challenge, not playing the game, so I guess I can't complain about the complexity. However I think a game can still be addictive and easy to learn without all the eye candy which I find distracting.

In the early FreeBASIC days there seemed to be a lot of coders using FreeBASIC for coding games, probably as an easy replacement for C++, but they have all gone now and if still doing it are probably using easier to use game development software.

On the other hand I see some seem to like to not only dabble in retro coding they do it the hard way with products like the fantasy console Pico-8.
https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php
And using souped-up versions of older computers,
https://www.thebyteattic.com/p/agon.html
paul doe
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Posts: 1730
Joined: Jul 25, 2017 17:22
Location: Argentina

Re: Retro game ideas?

Post by paul doe »

BasicCoder2 wrote: Nov 03, 2022 5:18 Mr Driller is certainly a lot more complex than the original Boulder Dash game. Falling tetris like blocks. Complex graphic effects. My interest was always in the coding challenge, not playing the game, so I guess I can't complain about the complexity. However I think a game can still be addictive and easy to learn without all the eye candy which I find distracting.
...
The underlying mechanics are the same, they're just implemented differently. And yes, get the basic mecanics fun and tidy first, then add eye candy (if at all; some games don't really need much of it).

A bit like comparing Gradius (for the MSX) with Deathsmiles. They may look different on the surface, but the underlying mechanics are still the same: dodge bullets, kill enemies, pick powerups so you can dodge bullets/kill enemies more efficiently, and so on. These comprise the game loop, which is what the game requires you to do when playing it. That's the part that makes a game what it is, an interactive feedback loop (otherwise known as 'gameplay').
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