Forums

I am reworking the graphics. When i have more works done, i will make a new teaser. Thanks for your comments. It has being a hard work, but funny for me.

eruiz00 wrote

I am reworking the graphics. ... It has being a hard work, but funny for me.

That´s the most important part buddy, never lose the fun!

what game engine are you using ?

custom or game specific ?

I'm seeing some games using the alexx kidd engine and i have to say i don't like the jumping mechanics.. to rapid and not good control of the jump..

One of my favorite plataform games are cool spot and asterix... the control is very good..

Ummmmm... The Game has It own engine for tilemap, collisions, etc, which is something like astroforce engine changed for a platformer.

At lower level i cannot tell you how good are the wonderful smslib and psglib libraries by sverx.

Both sdcc (for faster compiling and testing) and z88dk (when you want more space, in both Code and assets banks due to his zx7 integrated compresor), and slightly better performance (as some libs seems to be Converted to ASM manually).

Last but not least, rest of tools developer by people from here. Calindro, Maxim, etc.

Info about development.

Hard working on graphics (finally i am Doing the work myself... Though was not capable to do this Sort of work, but It has being fun for this moment)

Also doing size optimization. Tuning zx7 Code compresión (What to compress...) And ANSI c optimization (packing common patterns, changing switchs for arrays of function pointers , along with Game stages redesign (using common tilesets in some stages which could share tilesets) and kidded psg compresión, have been working on more bosses (something like middle stage bosses) and more variety in enemies and story, and deeper shmup stages for the Game.

In resume, working. Will try to do a new video later.

Regards.

Respect dude 8)

Becoming one of the best games in master system platform..

For shure the best in homebrew so far..

Thanks !

But the only thing i can assure is that It is one of the homebrews which has done more headaches to his developer!!!

Hard working here. Have to change many things yet but i feel the Game live for now. This video show other new ideas from the Game and some graphics reworking since the last video.

Amazing! can't wait for play it!

New video with the bosses of the Game...

eruiz00 wrote

New video with the bosses of the Game...

OH MY GOD!

Thanks!

I am going to need force to finish It. Is the most difficult part of the process!!!

eruiz00 wrote

Thanks!

I am going to need force to finish It. Is the most difficult part of the process!!!

*FORCE* :D
The bosses look just great man, your game has so much potential. It is so good that I would say you would be able to find a publisher for it; there are some out there.

no forcing here. only <3
thanks for the updates and be kind to yourself! It'll be great when it is good and ready for all of us to enjoy.

-Segasonicfan

Oh my god, this looks amazing. Hoping for a cart release!

A kind tester has opened my eyes in some aspects of the game so working in pulling these. I am mear of final release, though.

Some native english interested in checking the dialogs of the Game? Should not be more than half an hour. Send a prívate. Thanks!

eruiz00 wrote

A kind tester has opened my eyes in some aspects of the game so working in pulling these. I am mear of final release, though.

Some native english interested in checking the dialogs of the Game? Should not be more than half an hour. Send a prívate. Thanks!

Thats great news! I am looking forward to playing it, looks like its going to be the best Homebrew for SMS so far and will waise the bar for future productions ;)

Hi!

First of all, merry christmas and happy new year to everyone here!

This is my gift. The v1.0 rom of the game i have been working on the second half of this year. I think it is finished, and i am very proud of it.

You are warned. It is a large (about 1:40) game and, although has been tuned, maybe it is not easy for everyone (hey, some old genesis games i played 30 years ago were not easy too, but fun anyways!). You can config the energy on options page (to 6 hearts) and continue from where you want. Has a scene selector (from 1 to 80).

Wanted to launch with a piano version of the songs of the game (the best feature on the game for me) like those you can hear from ffvii, by example, but had to finish a real life work this month a had no time, but will finish it sometime in 2018.

So please play it and enjoy it. Will make me happy if you tell us something (whatever you think) about it.

Happy year!

silvervalley-final.zip (174.79 KB)

This fantastic, thank you for sharing this!!

If you don't mind, I think we could write a little front page news about it too! I have created a page now
http://www.smspower.org/Homebrew/SilverValley-SMS

Happy holidays :)

eruiz00 wrote

Hi!

First of all, merry christmas and happy new year to everyone here!

This is my gift. The v1.0 rom of the game i have been working on the second half of this year. I think it is finished, and i am very proud of it.

You are warned. It is a large (about 1:40) game and, although has been tuned, maybe it is not easy for everyone (hey, some old genesis games i played 30 years ago were not easy too, but fun anyways!). You can config the energy on options page (to 6 hearts) and continue from where you want. Has a scene selector (from 1 to 80).

Wanted to launch with a piano version of the songs of the game (the best feature on the game for me) like those you can hear from ffvii, by example, but had to finish a real life work this month a had no time, but will finish it sometime in 2018.

So please play it and enjoy it. Will make me happy if you tell us something (whatever you think) about it.

Happy year!

woow!!! really wonderfull gift , cant wait to play when come back home.

GRACIAS!!!

Congratulations! Of course I suck at playing it, but it's very impressive what you just did. :)
I don't agree the best part is the music - it's surely good but not better than the game itself. Fortunately you did include a scene selection option so I could see the end sequence, that would never happen otherwise.
There are a few minor issues but nothing really important (for instance when blinking the hero can't collect hearts, maybe you deactivated collisions completely?)
Again, great stuff mate. :) I hope more will come, and I'd really love to support you even more with your next games.

eruiz00 THANKYOU !!!!

Congratulations!!!!!

I was playing first time around 30 minutes and must say it is FANTASTIC !!!!

I need to play all game ;)

Happy new year !

Wow! so nice game!

sweet! giving it a try now.

This is great! I can't wait to test it tomorrow! ;)

Look forward to playing it,thanks.

Congratulations. Very well done.

I just played it to the first jewel and had a blast. Very nice game with a lot of variety. Superb music, too.

There are some spots where enemies disappear completely due to the sprites per line limit, and I think it's pure evil that some scenes start with enemies advancing towards or shooting at the player immediately. Other than that, I'm duly impressed, and I see me having quite a bit of fun with the game in the next days (and probably weeks).

Wow, what a great gift for 2018. Plays very good.
Requesting a patch to swap the buttons 1 and 2.
Currently button 1 is jump and button 2 is attack. That should be the other way around.

Silver Valley and Weka Invaders, the SMS is alive and kicking.

Great game, very Castlevania-esque. ;)

Wow, this is incredible!!! Having a fun time tonight playing Silver Valley.
Awesome work, eruiz00 :D Happy 2018!
I agree with D, the buttons aren't what I'm used to, but that is OK, I use an emulator which lets me configure the inputs per-game :)

As expected, amazing homebrew, thank you so much eruiz00 !

I finished the game today. I skipped level 39 'cause I don't understand how to touch the boss and level 48 'cause nothing happen when the cross is destroyed. Maybe you can give me some advice?

Some critics:

- Title screen: no information about options? Press fire???
- Too bad there is no bonus/upgrade with pause menu.
- Sometimes hearts are hard to collect (hitbox problem?).
- On shmup horizontal levels, the left column blank should be activated.
- No score.
- No background priority over sprites (would be nice in some levels for relief).
- Weird scrolling when going down on vertical platformer levels.
- When going right/left and then falling, the character is falling straight.
- When jumping straight, it would be nice to be able to move a little on the right/left while in the air.

First of all' thanks for playing!

Second' thanks to the guys Who helped in the process. They are in credits. Sorry to others Who could not help as i was in a hurry.

I see you have really played the Game. In stage 39 simple Jump and Slash the dragon. The player Will Jump back to the wall. IT is a weaker dragón. About 6 hits and Will be defeated.

In church.... PRAY for your destiny and do not destroy the Cross. Remember only have to PRAY about 10 seconds.

There are a secret hub in the Game. when you pass the caverna the people talks you about It. It helps to understand the ending in other way.

I wanted to do more things' but muy knowledge in z80 assembly is limited. Had to switch to z88dk to get more space and did custom optimizations more than even did with astroforce. Have to say that the Game does not compile with todays z88dk or sdcc, as its Code surpases the limits. It compile only with z88dk prior to october.

Next time Will try to make a smaller Game but more featured (score powerups, etc). For now, lets work for the compo!

First of all wish a Happy New Year 2018 to everyone and the following thanks to eruiz00 this fabulous game and to all who have helped make this possible.
In my case I have taken it with enthusiasm and I have said that I am playing and enjoying it from phase 1 and right now I am stuck in phase 12. I know there is a possibility to choose a phase but my intention is to play the whole game from the beginning and not Skip any level.
I would like to contribute some ideas that have occurred to me after the hours I have dedicated to the game.
The first idea I can think of is about the movement of the character because when he is crouched the attack is the same and is at the same height as when standing, I discovered that when you crouch and jump the character slides forward crouched but As I say it strikes me that the attack being crouched is no shorter than when you are standing and also that when you jump you can not attack on both sides or move in the air.

The next thing I want to highlight is the very high difficulty of the game from the beginning, I mean the first boss that to be the first I think he has too many blows to defeat him and I also missed not getting an extra heart or something to tackle the next phases and the other thing that I found very difficult is the machine "Crap Man" of which the first level is very difficult but the second is impossible. Right now as I say I'm stuck on level 12 and only add that in this phase there must be some problem because the hearts that are obtained after defeating enemies can not be taken.
At the moment I continue trying to pass the damn level 12, A greeting
I leave the message also in Spanish, which is my native language and maybe it is better understood.

Lo primero de todo desear un Feliz Año Nuevo 2018 a todo el mundo y lo siguiente agradecer a eruiz00 este fabuloso juego y a todos los que han ayudado a que esto sea posible.
En mi caso lo he cogido con ganas y he decir que estoy jugándolo y disfrutándolo desde la fase 1 y ahora mismo estoy estancado en la fase 12. Se que hay posibilidad de elegir fase pero mi intención es pasarme todo el juego desde el principio y no saltar ningún nivel.
Quisiera aportar algunas ideas que se me han ocurrido tras las horas que le he dedicado al juego.
La primera idea que se me ocurre es sobre el movimiento del personaje ya que cuando esta agachado el ataque es igual y esta a la misma altura que cuando esta de pie, he descubierto que cuando estas agachado y saltas el personaje se desliza hacia delante agachado pero como digo me llama la atención que el ataque estando agachado no sea más corto que cuando estas de pie y también que cuando se salta no se pueda atacar a ambos lados ni moverte en el aire.

Lo siguiente cosa que quiero destacar es la elevadísima dificultad del juego desde el principio, me refiero al primer jefe que para ser el primero creo que tiene demasiados golpes para derrotarlo y también me ha extrañado el no conseguir un corazón extra o algo así para acometer las siguientes fases y la otra cosa que me ha parecido muy difícil es la máquina de “Crap Man” de la cual el primer nivel es muy difícil pero ya el segundo es imposible. Ahora mismo como digo estoy estancado en el nivel 12 y sólo añadir que en esta fase debe haber algún problema ya que los corazones que se obtienen tras vencer enemigos no se pueden coger.
De momento continuo intentando pasarme el maldito nivel 12, Un saludo

Woohoo! Congratulations on finishing this great project, eruiz00! And thank you very much!

Jajajajajaajaja

Gracias por los comentarios.
Crapman es un guiño a un juego al que le tengo mucho cariño. Es el mystical ninja de super nes. Uno de los mejores juegos que se han hecho nunca. En el mismo te encuentras varios minijuegos durante el desarrollo del mismo.

Podría poner un vídeo en el que me llegue al nivel 4... No he investigado mucho, pero cada vez los fantasmas van más rápido, hasta el nivel 8. Hasta ese nivel van más lentos que tú.

Sobre la dificultad.... Menos mal que kagesan lo testeo y me aconsejó sobre la misma.... Hace un mes era mucho más difícil!!! (Yo es que soy masoquista) aún asi, creo que con 6 corazones y el esquema de fases cortas, continuando, es muy jugable. Yo no intentaría jugarlo sin continuar desde el comienzo, no obstante.

Dentro de unas semanas miraré que puedo mejorar y sacaremos la versión final.

Muchas gracias!

Comment that in the end I decided to use the phase selector and use the 6 energy hearts to spend the game completing all the levels.
I loved the game and discover some of its secrets, for example that if you crouch the bats do not attack you and you can kill them easily. Another trick is to jump in certain places by jumping the screen with you makes certain obstacles disappear.
I had a hard time passing level 39 since that damn boss needs 9 shots to finish him and also discover that you can climb much faster by hitting the jump button; I enjoyed it a lot because it took more than an hour to make the dust bite the bug.
And as a final part just add the things that I think I would like to review to polish this game gem:
What I think is most disfiguring the game are the blinks and I think they happen when there are many enemies at once on the screen or many things moving, in fact when the main character suffers to wait to catch hearts.
The already commented of not being able to take hearts in the zone of boat or of eagle since these fall to the void and they are lost, there only to point out that perhaps a better weapon in those zones would help since with the present little more it can be done apart from Dodge enemies and these areas would be a little more entertaining.
When you hit a boss sometimes it is invaluable to know if you have given or not, I do not know if it is easy to add some effect as a splash when it is given or maybe a few tenths of a second after the impact or go red until it dies; In short, appreciate something else that hurts you.
And finally to talk about level 67 because there must be something wrong because you can go through all the walls and can pass even where you should not.
I feel the long post, but it's like that. Thank you again for this incredible game and hopefully my ideas will serve to beautify it a little more if possible.
I also put the text in Spanish to better express what I want to say:

Comentar que al final me decidí a usar el selector de fases y usar los 6 corazones de energía para pasarme el juego completando todos los niveles.
Me ha encantado el juego y descubrir algunos de sus secretos, por ejemplo que si estas agachado los murciélagos no te atacan y puedes acabar con ellos fácilmente. Otro truco es el de saltar en determinados sitios haciendo saltar la pantalla contigo hace que ciertos obstáculos desaparezcan.
Me ha costado mucho pasar el nivel 39 ya que ese maldito boss necesita 9 golpes para acabar con él y también descubrir que se puede subir mucho más rápido dando al botón de salto; disfruté mucho ya que me costó más de una hora hacer morder el polvo al bicho.
Y ya como parte final sólo añadir las cosas que creo me gustaría se repasen para pulir esta joya de juego:
Lo que creo que más afea el juego son los parpadeos y que creo suceden cuando hay muchos enemigos a la vez en la pantalla o muchas cosas en movimiento, de hecho cuando los sufre el personaje principal toca esperar para poder coger los corazones.
Lo ya comentado de no poder coger corazones en la zona de barca o de águila ya que estos caen al vacio y se pierden, ahí sólo apuntar que quizá un arma mejor en esas zonas ayudaría ya que con la actual poco más se puede hacer aparte de esquivar enemigos y estas zonas serían un poco más entretenidas.
Cuando se golpea a un boss a veces es inapreciable saber si le has dado o no, no se si es fácil añadir algún efecto como una salpicadura cuando se le da o quizá unas décimas de segundo parado tras el impacto o ir enrojeciendo hasta que muere; en definitiva que se aprecie algo más que le haces daño.
Y ya para finalizar hablarte del nivel 67 ya que debe haber algo mal ya que se pueden atravesar todos los muros y se puede pasar incluso por donde no se debería.
Siento el post largo, pero es que me sale así. Gracias de nuevo por este increíble juego y ojalá mis ideas sirvan para embellecerlo un poco más si cabe.

Muchas gracias por el comentario. Chequeare todo eso que dices. En particular' me extraña lo del nivel 67... Lo voy a mirar ahora mismo. Lo de los murciélagos ni lo había pensado' ha sido una casualidad!
Respecto a lo de las fases de vuelo' si' pienso que un disparo a lo shmup sería más logico, veré si cabe (no hay espacio para codigo' está todo relleno)

Saludos!

Very nice homebrew, good work! Was it made mostly in C?

Played it up to stage 17 and I like it. I recognize some characters from many games but some of them I'm not sure yet. Will continue once I find some time.

There is one song I'm trying to figure out if it came from your game or not. I listened very fast to the sound test menu but cannot find it. It stuck in my head and I'm almost sure I heard it from a video or something.

I will see if I can make quick version in deflemask. I really want to figure out from what game it came from (I guess yours).

For the graphics, i often get inspiration from others, redrawing over the original sprite, as i am not a graphics designer.

For the music, this is not the case. I am sure you can search and find music which seems similar, but this time (in astroforce there are a song which ressemble stage 1 music of trouble shooters 2 on genesis) i did not got inspiration more than some songs with castlevania inspiration theme.

For the new project, yesterday was trying deflemask, it seems better than mod2psg2, I am trying better percussion and cleaner sounds, lets see...

The game is in C. Was developed with sdcc and z88dk, using smslib/psglib. But the libraries used are asm coded, Fun fact for me is the massive use of zx7 compression on all the graphics and tilemaps, shrinking the 3mb rom which should be to 2mb.

Regards

For graphics, I'm in the same boat, not a designer so I'm more used to take existing sample for testing my code.

For music, I didn't means the song was copied from someone else. Sorry if it sounded that way. It just the song that I have stuck seems to come from your game. Maybe it was not. Maybe it's from another game or I was inspired from your music and got a brand new song, who knows :) I tried tonight deflemask but I have no idea how to use it so I guess I won't be able to reproduce it for a while.

As for C, good do hear. I was going to write my first sample in asm but maybe I should just write it in C after seeing how great it went for your game.

I learned a lot with astroforce and with this Game about c optimizations on this limited system. Avoid signed ints and use chars where posible. Also', although people says arrays of properties are faster than arrays of structs' i find cleaner to pass the struct pointer to a function. This way you only calculate the offset (if the structs' is in an array) one time. Also, i find function pointers a Big deal to save space.

Both Astroforce and silvervalley run at 30fps (the player, enemies, scrolling, etc. Only runs one time each pair of frames. Collisions do each four frames. This is the trick here. I would like to learn ASM to avoid this Sort of things' but no time.

Kind regards.

I made a thing. Enjoy!

cover_sms_silver-valley-[h].png (955.12 KB)

cover image for ROM management software

Marvellous! Great talent here!

Can I count with you for the next project? It would be great to have an artistic box like this before launching the final game.

I think with extra time it could be much more realistic... For example, original games tend not to use alpha blending (it may have been literal cut and paste), and typically had the box text hand kerned extremely closely. Games with the corner flash didn't usually use that font either, and later games would usually have a custom logotype. The grid spacing seems too tight, as well.

I'd suggest making a deal with someone like Revo to make some professional quality materials for a physical release, maybe involving some money and some agreement to put things online in a suitable form at the same time. I can't guarantee he'd do it though :)

Checking for sms boxes on google... does not seems sega got in bankrupt hiring pros for their drawings, which it is a shame. I remember the fantastic msx/msx2 boxes (full of kanji texts and nice drawings) of my childhood. In fact, remember the gollvelius msx box, the nemesis 3 box, even the impressive phantasm soldier or mirai boxes (although these were bad bad bad games...), the marvellous kings valley 2 box or the knightmare saga boxes. The metal gear or the vampyre killer boxes.... (cannot stop, sorry!) :)

The internet focuses on US releases with terrible art. Later releases often had an airbrush aesthetic, and even later European releases had art on a par with other systems. However, homebrew tends to aim to keep the white grid look...

Nice to see a box art :)

ichigobankai would be the person to ask to make real cartridges and amazing both side box art + manual. All his work has been very polished. If that's something both of you wanted I imagine he could find a way to make a small batch of physical release.

Maxim wrote

I think with extra time it could be much more realistic... For example, original games tend not to use alpha blending (it may have been literal cut and paste), and typically had the box text hand kerned extremely closely. Games with the corner flash didn't usually use that font either, and later games would usually have a custom logotype. The grid spacing seems too tight, as well.

I'd suggest making a deal with someone like Revo to make some professional quality materials for a physical release, maybe involving some money and some agreement to put things online in a suitable form at the same time. I can't guarantee he'd do it though :)

The title and "The mega cartridge" is the exact font used back in the 80s, or at least the font is based on the typeface document.

I could not find what font the corner flash is written in. If you know, you can tell me and I will change it otherwise I think it is just fine.

If the author will provide me with a clean logo id be happy to make a version with that instead.
Grid spacing is just fine. I used a real cover to make the grid.
This is not for a physical release, I don't have a physical master system anymore. I inject my dumped games into VC wrapper and play them on 3ds. I made this cover if anyone has ROM management software like launchbox or hyperspin.

I was the one who matched the font and leaked a copy... But later games used a heavier weight, the thin one goes with the terrible clip art style, and as I said have extreme kerning which for me is a big part of the look. The grid is also wider on those games.

Author	Message
eruiz00 Joined: 28 Jan 2017 Posts: 556 Location: Málaga, Spain	Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2017 12:07 pm
	I am reworking the graphics. When i have more works done, i will make a new teaser. Thanks for your comments. It has being a hard work, but funny for me.

Gordman Joined: 21 Aug 2012 Posts: 363 Location: Berlin, Germany	Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2017 7:36 pm
	eruiz00 wrote I am reworking the graphics. ... It has being a hard work, but funny for me. That´s the most important part buddy, never lose the fun!

nuno14272 Joined: 10 Aug 2017 Posts: 31	silver valley Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2017 3:51 pm
nuno14272 Joined: 10 Aug 2017 Posts: 31	what game engine are you using ? custom or game specific ? I'm seeing some games using the alexx kidd engine and i have to say i don't like the jumping mechanics.. to rapid and not good control of the jump.. One of my favorite plataform games are cool spot and asterix... the control is very good..

eruiz00 Joined: 28 Jan 2017 Posts: 556 Location: Málaga, Spain	Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2017 5:29 pm
	Ummmmm... The Game has It own engine for tilemap, collisions, etc, which is something like astroforce engine changed for a platformer. At lower level i cannot tell you how good are the wonderful smslib and psglib libraries by sverx. Both sdcc (for faster compiling and testing) and z88dk (when you want more space, in both Code and assets banks due to his zx7 integrated compresor), and slightly better performance (as some libs seems to be Converted to ASM manually). Last but not least, rest of tools developer by people from here. Calindro, Maxim, etc.

eruiz00 Joined: 28 Jan 2017 Posts: 556 Location: Málaga, Spain	Posted: Sat Oct 28, 2017 7:51 pm
	Info about development. Hard working on graphics (finally i am Doing the work myself... Though was not capable to do this Sort of work, but It has being fun for this moment) Also doing size optimization. Tuning zx7 Code compresión (What to compress...) And ANSI c optimization (packing common patterns, changing switchs for arrays of function pointers , along with Game stages redesign (using common tilesets in some stages which could share tilesets) and kidded psg compresión, have been working on more bosses (something like middle stage bosses) and more variety in enemies and story, and deeper shmup stages for the Game. In resume, working. Will try to do a new video later. Regards.

Gordman Joined: 21 Aug 2012 Posts: 363 Location: Berlin, Germany	Posted: Sat Oct 28, 2017 9:13 pm
	Respect dude 8)

nuno14272 Joined: 10 Aug 2017 Posts: 31	Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2017 11:31 am
nuno14272 Joined: 10 Aug 2017 Posts: 31	Becoming one of the best games in master system platform.. For shure the best in homebrew so far..

eruiz00 Joined: 28 Jan 2017 Posts: 556 Location: Málaga, Spain	Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2017 1:09 pm
	Thanks ! But the only thing i can assure is that It is one of the homebrews which has done more headaches to his developer!!!

eruiz00 Joined: 28 Jan 2017 Posts: 556 Location: Málaga, Spain	Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2017 10:27 pm
	Hard working here. Have to change many things yet but i feel the Game live for now. This video show other new ideas from the Game and some graphics reworking since the last video.

law81 Joined: 21 Oct 2015 Posts: 303	Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2017 11:09 pm
law81 Joined: 21 Oct 2015 Posts: 303	Amazing! can't wait for play it!

eruiz00 Joined: 28 Jan 2017 Posts: 556 Location: Málaga, Spain	Posted: Sun Nov 26, 2017 7:32 pm
	New video with the bosses of the Game...

law81 Joined: 21 Oct 2015 Posts: 303	Posted: Sun Nov 26, 2017 9:02 pm
law81 Joined: 21 Oct 2015 Posts: 303	eruiz00 wrote New video with the bosses of the Game... OH MY GOD!

eruiz00 Joined: 28 Jan 2017 Posts: 556 Location: Málaga, Spain	Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2017 5:39 pm
	Thanks! I am going to need force to finish It. Is the most difficult part of the process!!!

Gordman Joined: 21 Aug 2012 Posts: 363 Location: Berlin, Germany	Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2017 11:40 pm
	eruiz00 wrote Thanks! I am going to need force to finish It. Is the most difficult part of the process!!! FORCE :D The bosses look just great man, your game has so much potential. It is so good that I would say you would be able to find a publisher for it; there are some out there.

segasonicfan Joined: 05 Jan 2006 Posts: 374 Location: USA	Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2017 5:06 am
	no forcing here. only <3 thanks for the updates and be kind to yourself! It'll be great when it is good and ready for all of us to enjoy. -Segasonicfan

highlandcattle Joined: 04 Sep 2006 Posts: 25	Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2017 10:15 pm
highlandcattle Joined: 04 Sep 2006 Posts: 25	Oh my god, this looks amazing. Hoping for a cart release!

eruiz00 Joined: 28 Jan 2017 Posts: 556 Location: Málaga, Spain	Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2017 6:32 am
	A kind tester has opened my eyes in some aspects of the game so working in pulling these. I am mear of final release, though. Some native english interested in checking the dialogs of the Game? Should not be more than half an hour. Send a prívate. Thanks!

Ivanzx Joined: 23 Sep 2015 Posts: 8	Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2017 10:46 am
Ivanzx Joined: 23 Sep 2015 Posts: 8	eruiz00 wrote A kind tester has opened my eyes in some aspects of the game so working in pulling these. I am mear of final release, though. Some native english interested in checking the dialogs of the Game? Should not be more than half an hour. Send a prívate. Thanks! Thats great news! I am looking forward to playing it, looks like its going to be the best Homebrew for SMS so far and will waise the bar for future productions ;)

eruiz00 Joined: 28 Jan 2017 Posts: 556 Location: Málaga, Spain	The ROM! Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 11:31 am
	Hi! First of all, merry christmas and happy new year to everyone here! This is my gift. The v1.0 rom of the game i have been working on the second half of this year. I think it is finished, and i am very proud of it. You are warned. It is a large (about 1:40) game and, although has been tuned, maybe it is not easy for everyone (hey, some old genesis games i played 30 years ago were not easy too, but fun anyways!). You can config the energy on options page (to 6 hearts) and continue from where you want. Has a scene selector (from 1 to 80). Wanted to launch with a piano version of the songs of the game (the best feature on the game for me) like those you can hear from ffvii, by example, but had to finish a real life work this month a had no time, but will finish it sometime in 2018. So please play it and enjoy it. Will make me happy if you tell us something (whatever you think) about it. Happy year! silvervalley-final.zip (174.79 KB)

Bock Site Admin Joined: 08 Jul 2001 Posts: 8648 Location: Paris, France	Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 11:39 am
	This fantastic, thank you for sharing this!! If you don't mind, I think we could write a little front page news about it too! I have created a page now http://www.smspower.org/Homebrew/SilverValley-SMS Happy holidays :)

law81 Joined: 21 Oct 2015 Posts: 303	Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 12:15 pm
law81 Joined: 21 Oct 2015 Posts: 303	eruiz00 wrote Hi! First of all, merry christmas and happy new year to everyone here! This is my gift. The v1.0 rom of the game i have been working on the second half of this year. I think it is finished, and i am very proud of it. You are warned. It is a large (about 1:40) game and, although has been tuned, maybe it is not easy for everyone (hey, some old genesis games i played 30 years ago were not easy too, but fun anyways!). You can config the energy on options page (to 6 hearts) and continue from where you want. Has a scene selector (from 1 to 80). Wanted to launch with a piano version of the songs of the game (the best feature on the game for me) like those you can hear from ffvii, by example, but had to finish a real life work this month a had no time, but will finish it sometime in 2018. So please play it and enjoy it. Will make me happy if you tell us something (whatever you think) about it. Happy year! woow!!! really wonderfull gift , cant wait to play when come back home. GRACIAS!!!

sverx Joined: 05 Sep 2013 Posts: 3823 Location: Stockholm, Sweden	Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 3:50 pm
	Congratulations! Of course I suck at playing it, but it's very impressive what you just did. :) I don't agree the best part is the music - it's surely good but not better than the game itself. Fortunately you did include a scene selection option so I could see the end sequence, that would never happen otherwise. There are a few minor issues but nothing really important (for instance when blinking the hero can't collect hearts, maybe you deactivated collisions completely?) Again, great stuff mate. :) I hope more will come, and I'd really love to support you even more with your next games.

BcnAbel76 Joined: 28 Feb 2016 Posts: 502 Location: Barcelona	Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 5:23 pm
	eruiz00 THANKYOU !!!! Congratulations!!!!! I was playing first time around 30 minutes and must say it is FANTASTIC !!!! I need to play all game ;) Happy new year !

kusfo Joined: 29 Mar 2012 Posts: 886 Location: Spain	Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 6:38 pm
kusfo Joined: 29 Mar 2012 Posts: 886 Location: Spain	Wow! so nice game!

Wainstop Joined: 22 Oct 2017 Posts: 16	Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 6:52 pm
Wainstop Joined: 22 Oct 2017 Posts: 16	sweet! giving it a try now.

haroldoop Joined: 25 Feb 2006 Posts: 874 Location: Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil	Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 8:07 pm
	This is great! I can't wait to test it tomorrow! ;)

OmegaPrime Joined: 18 Dec 2014 Posts: 95 Location: Canada	Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2018 3:50 am
	Look forward to playing it,thanks.

Kagesan Joined: 01 Feb 2014 Posts: 877	Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2018 1:25 pm
Kagesan Joined: 01 Feb 2014 Posts: 877	Congratulations. Very well done. I just played it to the first jewel and had a blast. Very nice game with a lot of variety. Superb music, too. There are some spots where enemies disappear completely due to the sprites per line limit, and I think it's pure evil that some scenes start with enemies advancing towards or shooting at the player immediately. Other than that, I'm duly impressed, and I see me having quite a bit of fun with the game in the next days (and probably weeks).

D Joined: 01 Apr 2005 Posts: 250 Location: Almere, The Netherlands	Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2018 3:02 pm
	Wow, what a great gift for 2018. Plays very good. Requesting a patch to swap the buttons 1 and 2. Currently button 1 is jump and button 2 is attack. That should be the other way around. Silver Valley and Weka Invaders, the SMS is alive and kicking.

haroldoop Joined: 25 Feb 2006 Posts: 874 Location: Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil	Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2018 10:50 pm
	Great game, very Castlevania-esque. ;)

dink Joined: 09 Dec 2013 Posts: 228 Location: detroit	Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2018 2:11 am
dink Joined: 09 Dec 2013 Posts: 228 Location: detroit	Wow, this is incredible!!! Having a fun time tonight playing Silver Valley. Awesome work, eruiz00 :D Happy 2018! I agree with D, the buttons aren't what I'm used to, but that is OK, I use an emulator which lets me configure the inputs per-game :)

Revo Guest	Posted: Wed Jan 03, 2018 6:16 pm
Revo Guest	As expected, amazing homebrew, thank you so much eruiz00 ! I finished the game today. I skipped level 39 'cause I don't understand how to touch the boss and level 48 'cause nothing happen when the cross is destroyed. Maybe you can give me some advice? Some critics: - Title screen: no information about options? Press fire??? - Too bad there is no bonus/upgrade with pause menu. - Sometimes hearts are hard to collect (hitbox problem?). - On shmup horizontal levels, the left column blank should be activated. - No score. - No background priority over sprites (would be nice in some levels for relief). - Weird scrolling when going down on vertical platformer levels. - When going right/left and then falling, the character is falling straight. - When jumping straight, it would be nice to be able to move a little on the right/left while in the air.

eruiz00 Joined: 28 Jan 2017 Posts: 556 Location: Málaga, Spain	Posted: Wed Jan 03, 2018 6:42 pm
	First of all' thanks for playing! Second' thanks to the guys Who helped in the process. They are in credits. Sorry to others Who could not help as i was in a hurry. I see you have really played the Game. In stage 39 simple Jump and Slash the dragon. The player Will Jump back to the wall. IT is a weaker dragón. About 6 hits and Will be defeated. In church.... PRAY for your destiny and do not destroy the Cross. Remember only have to PRAY about 10 seconds. There are a secret hub in the Game. when you pass the caverna the people talks you about It. It helps to understand the ending in other way. I wanted to do more things' but muy knowledge in z80 assembly is limited. Had to switch to z88dk to get more space and did custom optimizations more than even did with astroforce. Have to say that the Game does not compile with todays z88dk or sdcc, as its Code surpases the limits. It compile only with z88dk prior to october. Next time Will try to make a smaller Game but more featured (score powerups, etc). For now, lets work for the compo!

M.Osorio Joined: 12 Aug 2016 Posts: 92	Thanks for this jewel Posted: Wed Jan 03, 2018 7:45 pm
M.Osorio Joined: 12 Aug 2016 Posts: 92	First of all wish a Happy New Year 2018 to everyone and the following thanks to eruiz00 this fabulous game and to all who have helped make this possible. In my case I have taken it with enthusiasm and I have said that I am playing and enjoying it from phase 1 and right now I am stuck in phase 12. I know there is a possibility to choose a phase but my intention is to play the whole game from the beginning and not Skip any level. I would like to contribute some ideas that have occurred to me after the hours I have dedicated to the game. The first idea I can think of is about the movement of the character because when he is crouched the attack is the same and is at the same height as when standing, I discovered that when you crouch and jump the character slides forward crouched but As I say it strikes me that the attack being crouched is no shorter than when you are standing and also that when you jump you can not attack on both sides or move in the air. The next thing I want to highlight is the very high difficulty of the game from the beginning, I mean the first boss that to be the first I think he has too many blows to defeat him and I also missed not getting an extra heart or something to tackle the next phases and the other thing that I found very difficult is the machine "Crap Man" of which the first level is very difficult but the second is impossible. Right now as I say I'm stuck on level 12 and only add that in this phase there must be some problem because the hearts that are obtained after defeating enemies can not be taken. At the moment I continue trying to pass the damn level 12, A greeting I leave the message also in Spanish, which is my native language and maybe it is better understood. Lo primero de todo desear un Feliz Año Nuevo 2018 a todo el mundo y lo siguiente agradecer a eruiz00 este fabuloso juego y a todos los que han ayudado a que esto sea posible. En mi caso lo he cogido con ganas y he decir que estoy jugándolo y disfrutándolo desde la fase 1 y ahora mismo estoy estancado en la fase 12. Se que hay posibilidad de elegir fase pero mi intención es pasarme todo el juego desde el principio y no saltar ningún nivel. Quisiera aportar algunas ideas que se me han ocurrido tras las horas que le he dedicado al juego. La primera idea que se me ocurre es sobre el movimiento del personaje ya que cuando esta agachado el ataque es igual y esta a la misma altura que cuando esta de pie, he descubierto que cuando estas agachado y saltas el personaje se desliza hacia delante agachado pero como digo me llama la atención que el ataque estando agachado no sea más corto que cuando estas de pie y también que cuando se salta no se pueda atacar a ambos lados ni moverte en el aire. Lo siguiente cosa que quiero destacar es la elevadísima dificultad del juego desde el principio, me refiero al primer jefe que para ser el primero creo que tiene demasiados golpes para derrotarlo y también me ha extrañado el no conseguir un corazón extra o algo así para acometer las siguientes fases y la otra cosa que me ha parecido muy difícil es la máquina de “Crap Man” de la cual el primer nivel es muy difícil pero ya el segundo es imposible. Ahora mismo como digo estoy estancado en el nivel 12 y sólo añadir que en esta fase debe haber algún problema ya que los corazones que se obtienen tras vencer enemigos no se pueden coger. De momento continuo intentando pasarme el maldito nivel 12, Un saludo

Centrale Joined: 06 Apr 2015 Posts: 89	Posted: Wed Jan 03, 2018 7:57 pm
Centrale Joined: 06 Apr 2015 Posts: 89	Woohoo! Congratulations on finishing this great project, eruiz00! And thank you very much!

eruiz00 Joined: 28 Jan 2017 Posts: 556 Location: Málaga, Spain	Posted: Wed Jan 03, 2018 9:16 pm
	Jajajajajaajaja Gracias por los comentarios. Crapman es un guiño a un juego al que le tengo mucho cariño. Es el mystical ninja de super nes. Uno de los mejores juegos que se han hecho nunca. En el mismo te encuentras varios minijuegos durante el desarrollo del mismo. Podría poner un vídeo en el que me llegue al nivel 4... No he investigado mucho, pero cada vez los fantasmas van más rápido, hasta el nivel 8. Hasta ese nivel van más lentos que tú. Sobre la dificultad.... Menos mal que kagesan lo testeo y me aconsejó sobre la misma.... Hace un mes era mucho más difícil!!! (Yo es que soy masoquista) aún asi, creo que con 6 corazones y el esquema de fases cortas, continuando, es muy jugable. Yo no intentaría jugarlo sin continuar desde el comienzo, no obstante. Dentro de unas semanas miraré que puedo mejorar y sacaremos la versión final. Muchas gracias!

M.Osorio Joined: 12 Aug 2016 Posts: 92	I finished this great game Posted: Fri Jan 05, 2018 11:04 am
M.Osorio Joined: 12 Aug 2016 Posts: 92	Comment that in the end I decided to use the phase selector and use the 6 energy hearts to spend the game completing all the levels. I loved the game and discover some of its secrets, for example that if you crouch the bats do not attack you and you can kill them easily. Another trick is to jump in certain places by jumping the screen with you makes certain obstacles disappear. I had a hard time passing level 39 since that damn boss needs 9 shots to finish him and also discover that you can climb much faster by hitting the jump button; I enjoyed it a lot because it took more than an hour to make the dust bite the bug. And as a final part just add the things that I think I would like to review to polish this game gem: What I think is most disfiguring the game are the blinks and I think they happen when there are many enemies at once on the screen or many things moving, in fact when the main character suffers to wait to catch hearts. The already commented of not being able to take hearts in the zone of boat or of eagle since these fall to the void and they are lost, there only to point out that perhaps a better weapon in those zones would help since with the present little more it can be done apart from Dodge enemies and these areas would be a little more entertaining. When you hit a boss sometimes it is invaluable to know if you have given or not, I do not know if it is easy to add some effect as a splash when it is given or maybe a few tenths of a second after the impact or go red until it dies; In short, appreciate something else that hurts you. And finally to talk about level 67 because there must be something wrong because you can go through all the walls and can pass even where you should not. I feel the long post, but it's like that. Thank you again for this incredible game and hopefully my ideas will serve to beautify it a little more if possible. I also put the text in Spanish to better express what I want to say: Comentar que al final me decidí a usar el selector de fases y usar los 6 corazones de energía para pasarme el juego completando todos los niveles. Me ha encantado el juego y descubrir algunos de sus secretos, por ejemplo que si estas agachado los murciélagos no te atacan y puedes acabar con ellos fácilmente. Otro truco es el de saltar en determinados sitios haciendo saltar la pantalla contigo hace que ciertos obstáculos desaparezcan. Me ha costado mucho pasar el nivel 39 ya que ese maldito boss necesita 9 golpes para acabar con él y también descubrir que se puede subir mucho más rápido dando al botón de salto; disfruté mucho ya que me costó más de una hora hacer morder el polvo al bicho. Y ya como parte final sólo añadir las cosas que creo me gustaría se repasen para pulir esta joya de juego: Lo que creo que más afea el juego son los parpadeos y que creo suceden cuando hay muchos enemigos a la vez en la pantalla o muchas cosas en movimiento, de hecho cuando los sufre el personaje principal toca esperar para poder coger los corazones. Lo ya comentado de no poder coger corazones en la zona de barca o de águila ya que estos caen al vacio y se pierden, ahí sólo apuntar que quizá un arma mejor en esas zonas ayudaría ya que con la actual poco más se puede hacer aparte de esquivar enemigos y estas zonas serían un poco más entretenidas. Cuando se golpea a un boss a veces es inapreciable saber si le has dado o no, no se si es fácil añadir algún efecto como una salpicadura cuando se le da o quizá unas décimas de segundo parado tras el impacto o ir enrojeciendo hasta que muere; en definitiva que se aprecie algo más que le haces daño. Y ya para finalizar hablarte del nivel 67 ya que debe haber algo mal ya que se pueden atravesar todos los muros y se puede pasar incluso por donde no se debería. Siento el post largo, pero es que me sale así. Gracias de nuevo por este increíble juego y ojalá mis ideas sirvan para embellecerlo un poco más si cabe.

eruiz00 Joined: 28 Jan 2017 Posts: 556 Location: Málaga, Spain	Posted: Fri Jan 05, 2018 4:56 pm
	Muchas gracias por el comentario. Chequeare todo eso que dices. En particular' me extraña lo del nivel 67... Lo voy a mirar ahora mismo. Lo de los murciélagos ni lo había pensado' ha sido una casualidad! Respecto a lo de las fases de vuelo' si' pienso que un disparo a lo shmup sería más logico, veré si cabe (no hay espacio para codigo' está todo relleno) Saludos!

banshaku Joined: 31 Dec 2016 Posts: 24 Location: Japan	Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2018 5:53 pm
banshaku Joined: 31 Dec 2016 Posts: 24 Location: Japan	Very nice homebrew, good work! Was it made mostly in C? Played it up to stage 17 and I like it. I recognize some characters from many games but some of them I'm not sure yet. Will continue once I find some time. There is one song I'm trying to figure out if it came from your game or not. I listened very fast to the sound test menu but cannot find it. It stuck in my head and I'm almost sure I heard it from a video or something. I will see if I can make quick version in deflemask. I really want to figure out from what game it came from (I guess yours).

eruiz00 Joined: 28 Jan 2017 Posts: 556 Location: Málaga, Spain	Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2018 6:57 pm
	For the graphics, i often get inspiration from others, redrawing over the original sprite, as i am not a graphics designer. For the music, this is not the case. I am sure you can search and find music which seems similar, but this time (in astroforce there are a song which ressemble stage 1 music of trouble shooters 2 on genesis) i did not got inspiration more than some songs with castlevania inspiration theme. For the new project, yesterday was trying deflemask, it seems better than mod2psg2, I am trying better percussion and cleaner sounds, lets see... The game is in C. Was developed with sdcc and z88dk, using smslib/psglib. But the libraries used are asm coded, Fun fact for me is the massive use of zx7 compression on all the graphics and tilemaps, shrinking the 3mb rom which should be to 2mb. Regards

banshaku Joined: 31 Dec 2016 Posts: 24 Location: Japan	Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2018 7:46 pm
banshaku Joined: 31 Dec 2016 Posts: 24 Location: Japan	For graphics, I'm in the same boat, not a designer so I'm more used to take existing sample for testing my code. For music, I didn't means the song was copied from someone else. Sorry if it sounded that way. It just the song that I have stuck seems to come from your game. Maybe it was not. Maybe it's from another game or I was inspired from your music and got a brand new song, who knows :) I tried tonight deflemask but I have no idea how to use it so I guess I won't be able to reproduce it for a while. As for C, good do hear. I was going to write my first sample in asm but maybe I should just write it in C after seeing how great it went for your game.

eruiz00 Joined: 28 Jan 2017 Posts: 556 Location: Málaga, Spain	Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2018 12:23 am
	I learned a lot with astroforce and with this Game about c optimizations on this limited system. Avoid signed ints and use chars where posible. Also', although people says arrays of properties are faster than arrays of structs' i find cleaner to pass the struct pointer to a function. This way you only calculate the offset (if the structs' is in an array) one time. Also, i find function pointers a Big deal to save space. Both Astroforce and silvervalley run at 30fps (the player, enemies, scrolling, etc. Only runs one time each pair of frames. Collisions do each four frames. This is the trick here. I would like to learn ASM to avoid this Sort of things' but no time. Kind regards.

releasethedogs Joined: 13 Mar 2016 Posts: 2	Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2018 9:37 am
releasethedogs Joined: 13 Mar 2016 Posts: 2	I made a thing. Enjoy! cover_sms_silver-valley-[h].png (955.12 KB) cover image for ROM management software

eruiz00 Joined: 28 Jan 2017 Posts: 556 Location: Málaga, Spain	Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2018 1:59 pm
	Marvellous! Great talent here! Can I count with you for the next project? It would be great to have an artistic box like this before launching the final game.

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14734 Location: London	Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2018 4:45 pm
	I think with extra time it could be much more realistic... For example, original games tend not to use alpha blending (it may have been literal cut and paste), and typically had the box text hand kerned extremely closely. Games with the corner flash didn't usually use that font either, and later games would usually have a custom logotype. The grid spacing seems too tight, as well. I'd suggest making a deal with someone like Revo to make some professional quality materials for a physical release, maybe involving some money and some agreement to put things online in a suitable form at the same time. I can't guarantee he'd do it though :)

eruiz00 Joined: 28 Jan 2017 Posts: 556 Location: Málaga, Spain	Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2018 6:36 pm
	Checking for sms boxes on google... does not seems sega got in bankrupt hiring pros for their drawings, which it is a shame. I remember the fantastic msx/msx2 boxes (full of kanji texts and nice drawings) of my childhood. In fact, remember the gollvelius msx box, the nemesis 3 box, even the impressive phantasm soldier or mirai boxes (although these were bad bad bad games...), the marvellous kings valley 2 box or the knightmare saga boxes. The metal gear or the vampyre killer boxes.... (cannot stop, sorry!) :)

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14734 Location: London	Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2018 8:29 pm
	The internet focuses on US releases with terrible art. Later releases often had an airbrush aesthetic, and even later European releases had art on a par with other systems. However, homebrew tends to aim to keep the white grid look...

Bock Site Admin Joined: 08 Jul 2001 Posts: 8648 Location: Paris, France	Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2018 9:01 pm Last edited by Bock on Mon Jan 08, 2018 9:35 am; edited 1 time in total
	Nice to see a box art :) ichigobankai would be the person to ask to make real cartridges and amazing both side box art + manual. All his work has been very polished. If that's something both of you wanted I imagine he could find a way to make a small batch of physical release.

releasethedogs Joined: 13 Mar 2016 Posts: 2	Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2018 7:30 am
releasethedogs Joined: 13 Mar 2016 Posts: 2	Maxim wrote I think with extra time it could be much more realistic... For example, original games tend not to use alpha blending (it may have been literal cut and paste), and typically had the box text hand kerned extremely closely. Games with the corner flash didn't usually use that font either, and later games would usually have a custom logotype. The grid spacing seems too tight, as well. I'd suggest making a deal with someone like Revo to make some professional quality materials for a physical release, maybe involving some money and some agreement to put things online in a suitable form at the same time. I can't guarantee he'd do it though :) The title and "The mega cartridge" is the exact font used back in the 80s, or at least the font is based on the typeface document. I could not find what font the corner flash is written in. If you know, you can tell me and I will change it otherwise I think it is just fine. If the author will provide me with a clean logo id be happy to make a version with that instead. Grid spacing is just fine. I used a real cover to make the grid. This is not for a physical release, I don't have a physical master system anymore. I inject my dumped games into VC wrapper and play them on 3ds. I made this cover if anyone has ROM management software like launchbox or hyperspin.

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14734 Location: London	Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2018 8:17 am
	I was the one who matched the font and leaked a copy... But later games used a heavier weight, the thin one goes with the terrible clip art style, and as I said have extreme kerning which for me is a big part of the look. The grid is also wider on those games.

Forums

View topic - Upcoming game: Silver valley