|
|
HomebrewSega Master System / Mark III / Game Gear |
Home - Forums - Games - Scans - Maps - Cheats - Credits |
SKBN
Game for Master System
| Version | Date | By | Download |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.4 | 27 Mar 2021 | raphnet | SKBN-SMS-1.4.zip (125KB) |
 |
Discuss thisThere is a forum topic for SKBN |
 |
Competition EntryThis was a competition entry in 2021 |
Old Versions
| file name | size (bytes) |
|---|---|
| total 4 files | 434K |
| SKBN-SMS-1.0.zip | 72K |
| SKBN-SMS-1.1.zip | 115K |
| SKBN-SMS-1.2.zip | 121K |
| SKBN-SMS-1.3.zip | 125K |
Yes, yes, another Sokoban clone.. But this one has lost its vowels ;-)
SKBN is a sokoban clone called SKBN. The 128kB ROM contains the 1043 levels of the Microban and Sasquatch level sets created by David W. Skinner.
In this project, I focused mostly on making sure that all levels of those sets would be playable, even large ones.
To achieve this, the engine supports different tile sizes: 16x16, 12x12, 8x8 and 4x4. The 12x12 engine was the most challenging, as the two grids of 8x8 tiles (native) and 12x12 tiles (virtual) create interesting complications, combining vertical and/or horizontal splits. The required tiles are built on-the-fly while displaying and playing the level. The 4x4 engine is useful for previews, but also for very large levels. Those may not be very playable unless you use an emulator or an RGB-connected display. I would like to add support for 24x24 tiles, but the level sets I included do not contain such small puzzles.. Maybe in a future version.
The in-game menu has options to undo a move or the last push. The history can hold 1000 moves.
Of course, solving more than 1000 levels in one session is unthinkable (probably) so the completion status of the levels is saved in SRAM, or directly on flash, if the game is running on a compatible cartridge.
I did not have time to compose music for the title screen, but I did manage to include sound effects for walking and pushing crates.
Tested on real hardware using a Japanese SMS and a US Megadrive.
v1.1 - Added a short "end level" jingle. - Added "Dimitry & Yorick" and "Sokogen-990602" level sets by Jacques Duthen (Easy levels) - Fixed the "parallax" effect at the end of a level (was not well controlled and jittery on real hardware). - Corrected initial player position (was not centered until first movement) - Fine tuned player sprite position in 12x12 tiles levels (was a bit too low) - Removed the debug info (number in upper right corner) in 12x12 tile display mode
I noticed some most levels in the new sets are small enough to be displayed with 24x24 tiles. This will be in v1.2!
v1.2 - Added a 24x24 tiles mode. - Boxes now move smoothly, in-sync with the player when pushed. (instead of teleporting). - Reworked the player artwork and other small cosmetic details. - Corrected a bug which caused unsolved levels to show as solved in the menu when scrolling. - Display "player on target" correctly during previews.
Thank you Kagesan for reporting the last two issues above!
About the 24x24 mode... I wrote in the initial description that there were no levels that small in the sets I initially included, but for some reason I was wrong! It turns out most Microban levels do fit!
It may not matter much today, with emulators and sharp RGB monitors, but I like to think that if this game had been made back then, large tile modes would have been an important feature for this game, for clarity on the typical home user RF-connected TV set...
v1.3 - Added a "Well Done" message when a level is solved. - Fix a bug where the player could move in diagonal, and undoing the last move would then remove a wall block and add a new box to the level! - Move the Level number in the status bar one column to the right to avoid displaying text in the first column. - Small tweaks to the tile screen (sharper box corner, black contour)
v1.4 The original author of the levels has kindly pointed out that I misspelled Dimitri in "Dimitri & Yorick" :-O So in this version, only one byte has changed ;-)
