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Enjoy!

cover.jpg (2.22 MB)

The cover

v77

That looks very nice. Love the homages, especially the Contra: Hard Corps boss and the Beamrider screen.

However, I ran into a problem, playing on emulators (Emulicious and SMS Plus): At the start of each stage, when the call from HQ comes in, there's no way I can take it. No matter which button I press, the game stays stuck in a loop with the blinking speech bubble.

Is there something special I have to do to proceed and I'm just too stupid to find it out?

Kagesan wrote

That looks very nice. Love the homages, especially the Contra: Hard Corps boss and the Beamrider screen.

However, I ran into a problem, playing on emulators (Emulicious and SMS Plus): At the start of each stage, when the call from HQ comes in, there's no way I can take it. No matter which button I press, the game stays stuck in a loop with the blinking speech bubble.

Is there something special I have to do to proceed and I'm just too stupid to find it out?

The button to access to the weapon selection and the calls is the pause button from the console. I debug, play, etc. with emulicious and had not a single trouble with that point... maybe it is not a good idea to use that button for such functionality? (I did not enjoyed a master system when child)...

Oh wow, look forward to giving this a try later, well done eruiz00. This looks like a cracking game.

Excellent! Congratulations. Yet about the pause button i have a question. I tested in 2 emulators. (Fusion and Emulicious). In 1st stage, Street of Rage, and the pause button dont work even that for weapon selection or even for simple pause game. Is something already imagined?
Estupendo game!

This definitelly bugs me!

I have tested the rom in emulicious and It works withiout trouble. In fact, this has never been a trouble for me....

Maybe someone with deeper knowledge (calindro, sverx, someone else) could explain whats happening, as i do not find a reason.

Thanks for the game.

I played in real hardware and works fine, pause button answer calls but after that pause button do not do nothing.
Today normal difficult and only first stage, I played with normal pad and the first boss is very difficult, I think I need the rapid fire unit to defeat it.
You always use the same difficult curve, very difficult from the beggining to the end ;)

It also took me a bit too much to figure out how to answer the phone...

Button 1 wasn't working, button 2 neither, so I tried pressing UP, then DOWN... mmm... don't tell me I should press PAUSE.

Yep, SEGA labelled it PAUSE but a programmer might use it for whatever because that button doesn't pause the hardware in any way.

Blame SEGA :P

eruiz00 wrote

Maybe someone with deeper knowledge (calindro, sverx, someone else) could explain whats happening, as i do not find a reason.

pressing the PAUSE button would simply raise a flag (a boolean variable) with devkitSMS/SMSlib - then of course you check the status of that flag with

SMS_queryPauseRequested()

which returns the status of that flag (true if the button has been pressed [at least once] since reset.

Then of course at the end of your function that service the PAUSE or whatever you do here, you need to make sure the flag is reset again using

SMS_resetPauseRequest()

If you do this, I can't imagine this to fail in any way...

Let's see.... actually, you only need to push the pause button in three scenaries:

1. To enter in the call screen.
2. To enter in the weapon selection screen, if you have some additional weapon.
3. To exit the weapon selection screen.

When you enter in the call screen, you have to read all the text into that screen, and then, the game will return to the platforming scene. You do not have to press agaiin the pause button to exit.

The function I use to get the pause status is this:

// Check for pause
unsigned char CheckStagePause()
{
// Get the pause state from smsdevkit
unsigned char a=SMS_queryPauseRequested();

// Reseteamos el estado de pausa
SMS_resetPauseRequest();

// Return the value
return a;
}

M.Osorio wrote

Thanks for the game.

I played in real hardware and works fine, pause button answer calls but after that pause button do not do nothing.
Today normal difficult and only first stage, I played with normal pad and the first boss is very difficult, I think I need the rapid fire unit to defeat it.
You always use the same difficult curve, very difficult from the beggining to the end ;)

LOL The fact is I finish the game without trouble at all :D so many years playing classic games!!!

You always can play the entire game with some of the options before start the game, to have infinite energy and/or infinite waeapons.

I think using the pause button to access the inventory is fine, many games do that. Having to use it to answer the calls is unintuitive, though. I think it any button should be allowed here.

The game is very (!) difficult, not least because you seem to love to set up "trap" like situations with certain combinations of enemies or environmental hazard any first time player who doesn't know what's coming won't be able to avoid.
Also, the controls are not quite as responsive as I'd like. There seems to be a bit of lag between pressing a direction/button and the resulting action on the screen, but that may be intentional.
It would be nice to have more "popcorn" enemies that die in one hit. They are all really sturdy, which is especially apparent in the shmup stages. You'd expect at least the small enemy ships and the gun turrets to die in one hit.

I found a few (minor) technical issues, too. Once I fell into the lava in stage 3 and it triggered a chain-death loop I could only escape by resetting.
I think you should check your timing when updating columns/rows while scrolling. There's often a one pixel edge flashing, because you're updating the tiles while they are partly on screen.
I also suggest implementing some sort of flicker routine. There are many scenes where the game exceeds the 8 sprites per line limit and it doesn't look pretty if parts of them just disappear.

Enough of the criticism, though. I think it's a great project. I absolutely love the music throughout. The visuals are good, too, even though I think they don't really use everything the SMS has to offer. Often they remind me of the colour-reduced graphics of a certain other console...

Great game! I don't think the graphics are too dark, I think the colors are ideal for the kind of story the game tells and the art style the game adheres to. But I do agree with Kagesan about the enemies: some of them feel like bullet sponges and end up slowing down the action. In the first stage, for example, the humans should be much weaker than the robots. Actually, since they're the first kind of enemies the game throws at the player, I think they should die with a single shot. But apart from some difficulty tuning, the rest is very, very good. Thank you so much for this amazing gift, eruiz! I love your games, they're games no SMS fan should go without, and this one is no exception! Thanks a lot!

Well, even that pause button work - "To enter in the weapon selection screen, if you have some additional weapon." i think that could have a pause function for anybody go to a fresh water, juice or beer. If you go change o game i would like give some suggestions (but just IMHO):

1 - The calls could be authomatic with no necessity in press pause;
2 - If you can add a reset button function i would love. I use the hardware original, so is soooo boring dont have startup acess to menu when game is over. I need everytime push off the system for configure unlimited ammo, for example, but if i regret this possibility, so i need power off the system again. Or at least put a option in game over screen. Button 1 restart game, button 2 jump to main menu and options;
3 - If you can and dont is an hard work add a MD pad compatibility would be perfect. The weapon select could be in A button.
Your game is estupendo.

Thanks for such elaborated comments... My thoughts:

a. Yes, maybe the entrance into the call screen should be automatic, I will change that, it seems a good idea.
b. I will check if the md gamepad custom support is available through smsdevkit. Sverx could know more than me about that question.

... about the game playability.... hey guys, you know I like hard games!!! but yes... I think you are right. Kagesan, believe me if I say the enemies disposition is though and tested. I love to design tricky patterns.

... I found, also, that you guys are right with the shot sponges, I will check the number of shots to kill some kind of enemies (I like the idea of the weak humans) and will release a v75 version, more balanced.

The fact is that my main objetives with this game have been two:

1. A technical one, wanted to do a platformer engine with physics, and with multi directional scroll with dynamic loading of map blocks (these long stages are so big...), and real time loading of 8-16 tiles per frame.

One thing I want to test is to change my own scrolling engine (pure ansi c) for psidium one (which is asm, and way faster, tested). It is not a dificult task, and I know it can be done without too many changes. I believe that some border effects when updating the left col on scrolling could dissapear using GSLib. I expect a more fluid experience.

2. The story. Always loved policenauts, and an story which start in earth and finish outside in space is very appealing to me. Wanted to use a videogame as medium to tell a tale.

Thanks for your comments, will work to fix all these issues, which I found correct.

Regards!

eruiz00 wrote

I will check if the md gamepad custom support is available through smsdevkit. Sverx could know more than me about that question.

Yes, SMSlib supports a (single) MegaDrive 3/6 buttons pad - no longer by default, so you have to recompile the library using

#define MD_PAD_SUPPORT

and read the MD additional keys (A, Start, X, Y, Z, mode) using the

SMS_getMDKeys*

functions.

You could for instance use either A and/or Start to trigger the actions tied to the Pause button.

eruiz00 wrote

One thing I want to test is to change my own scrolling engine (pure ansi c) for psidium one (which is asm, and way faster, tested). It is not a dificult task, and I know it can be done without too many changes. I believe that some border effects when updating the left col on scrolling could dissapear using GSLib. I expect a more fluid experience.

I thought you were using GSLib already. Let me know if you get into troubles with it, I think there were a few bugs left, I might have a fixed version... actually not sure.

No,, all my scrolled games use my own scrolling library, pure ansi c, which I found fast enough, but not optimal.

.... but I have tests with gslib which confirm that it should be a better option. In fact, I have Sunsoft's NES Batman tilemaps (an old project) fully working with gslib and my own library, and I know gslib performs better.

In last months, I had to compile gslib with __sdcccall(0) to work with the library in sdcc 4.3 (due to the new calling schema change in functions)... and it works without issues.

Shame that we don't have the source of the converter tool of gslib, to create a new converter without the javafx requirement. Each day is more difficult to find a java distro with javafx dlls included!

Regards.

Houston, we have a problem.
My hardware: SMS_BR 1 with chinese everdrive;
The game setup: Level: invincible and ammo: normal.

The problem:
After the 1st stage we go to Road Rash. Everything work fine, i fight the boss and finish him, so i got new weapon the end stage music play and ...
Nothing happens. The player still driving the bike only.
PS: teste 2 times.

segarule wrote

Houston, we have a problem.
My hardware: SMS_BR 1 with chinese everdrive;
The game setup: Level: invincible and ammo: normal.

The problem:
After the 1st stage we go to Road Rash. Everything work fine, i fight the boss and finish him, so i got new weapon the end stage music play and ...
Nothing happens. The player still driving the bike only.
PS: teste 2 times.

Yeah, it is a known bug (someone else talked me about this bug)
The solution (for now) is wait to get the weapon icon until it reach the center of the screen. Will fix this as soon as possible.

Note: if you start from a intermediate screen, you will have all the hidden weapons and elements which exists in previous stages.

Don't know if this is helpful but had a crash at the end of stage 2 after defeating the boss while on the bike

Big LOL

NO way a Princo DVD will last that long to be found years later...

nuno14272 wrote

Big LOL

NO way a Princo DVD will last that long to be found years later...

I can prove it, I have hundreds of them but not a dvd reader since several years ago!!!!!

PD. Also have a bunch of VHS tapes!!!!!

(how many time & money wasted) LOL

Well, the invincible mode have some inconvenient. I cannot advance in Toy factory stage because i falled in a scenario with lava. Considering that scroll is locked i dont see solution. Maybe a suicide mode with button combo or free scroll for return to plattforms.

Version 75

- Compiled with sdcc 4.3, so it should be a little faster.
- New option: level, in easy mode the enemies need the half of shoots to be killed.
- New option: reverse buttons, someone from "Gamerah de Noche" asked me to provide this feature (genesis pad needs more work than expected, but i will provide support for this pad)...
- Fixed the level 2 lock error.

journeyv75.zip (283.42 KB)

the new rom

Congratulations and many thanks for this awesome game, eruiz! Had this come out during the SMS commercial lifetime, it would be a solid classic!

v75 feels better than 74, as it has a faster pace with the enemies not taking so many hits to die.

A couple things I noticed:

The bug when dying on the lava or the factory hazards still persist.

Also, when starting the game from any level except the first, it automatically goes to the pause screen. Is it intended?

(tested in Emulicious)

New version, with these fixes:

- Ladders in lava stage, to let player escape from pit.
- Pause fix, proper reset of pause status if player has pushed pause button before enter in game.

Regards

electronic_dreams_v76.zip (283.45 KB)

new rom

The game flows much better now (in Easy mode anyway, haven't tried Hard yet). Thank you for the updates!

mateusbond wrote

The game flows much better now (in Easy mode anyway, haven't tried Hard yet). Thank you for the updates!

Mine your words. With MD pad compatibility i think that will be perfect.

segarule wrote

3 - If you can and dont is an hard work add a MD pad compatibility would be perfect. The weapon select could be in A button.

Let's see... please, Sverx.... I do not understand what I have to do....

Maybe polling the var MDKeysStatus (as I do with KeysStatus) to check the button A in 0x0010 ???

My question is if the rest of buttons of the MD Pad are mapped through the KeysStatus var as if were master system pad buttons.... and I only have to add the check of the MDKeyStatus var (button A) to the master system pause button check.

I had the response already ;)
It works in emulicious, please check the MD pad and confirm it works.
Regards

electronic_dreams_v77.zip (283.47 KB)

v77 - with md gamepad support

At least I can tell you that it works incredibly well in gamegear. I really like the details of the scenarios even if they are from other games, what the mastersystem/gamegear needs most are these kinds of entertaining and advancing games. keep it up!

Quote

It works in emulicious, please check the MD pad and confirm it works.

Working with button A. Members need see how is useful a setup with 3 buttons. The hardware reset not is working but i found that if the player dont press continue button the game will return to title screen. So this solve many things.
Very funny mention the aunt Ripley. I was thinking that i would find her in secret passage but i found Olivia. Congratulations!
PS: If i dont wrong this is first homebrew to use a MD pad option.

Yeah, at least my first game with md support.

In almost All stages there are some hidden passage or weapon or beamrider, although in sirius ones this is not advertised. My favorite is the wonder boy one. Love the cubitorah way to get the wespon. It were a nice idea.

Now that It seems the rom is stable and the Gameplay refined i can continúe with the (new) current project!!!!

Thanks everyone. I make my games for my own pleasute and I do not need nothing more, but All your comments sharing ideas and proposals about this kind of gaming we love It helps definitelly. What a great community we have together!!!!

Im sorry in report a small bug. When player face the middle boss in Toy factory if i fall in lava and the bomb also fall in player, i enter in a loop death. This boos can be seen in 16:55 in your YT video.

segarule wrote

Im sorry in report a small bug. When player face the middle boss in Toy factory if i fall in lava and the bomb also fall in player, i enter in a loop death. This boos can be seen in 16:55 in your YT video.

The company where i work needs testers for its software.... Seriously... What an intrincated bug did you find!!!! Have played the Game a hundred times and did not happened to me (as developer... Only try the "Happy path") I Will check tomorrow for the fix... Lets see if can avoid to get to the v100 versión !!!!!

Hi

I've juste seen a vidéo of your game
Seems to be a great game
Thx for the gift ;)

See you

eruiz00 wrote

segarule wrote

Im sorry in report a small bug. When player face the middle boss in Toy factory if i fall in lava and the bomb also fall in player, i enter in a loop death. This boos can be seen in 16:55 in your YT video.

The company where i work needs testers for its software.... Seriously... What an intrincated bug did you find!!!! Have played the Game a hundred times and did not happened to me (as developer... Only try the "Happy path") I Will check tomorrow for the fix... Lets see if can avoid to get to the v100 versión !!!!!

Im sorry, really. This bug not were intended for me. Even i started with default config (easy + others =normal). I was only for fun and maybe this cannot happen again but i dont got advance from these point and neither use reset, been the last solution power off the console.

Congratulations on your game, eRuiz. I've just played it for 10 minutes, and I really like it. I only played the first level.

Some feedback:

Maybe you could consider adding diagonal shooting while running.
There are some platforms like this:

Now the same in spanish:

Hola eRuiz, solo he podido jugar un poco a tu juego, pero felicidades, me encanta. Me gustaría comentarte un par de cosas de momento:

1- Quizá sería interesante añadir disparo diagonal mientras corres o estando parado.
2- He añadido una foto, hay alguna plataforma en la que puedes seguir caminando aunque no estés encima de ella, y también no te puedes acercar porque chocas con un muro invisible.

IMG_20231015_100418.jpg (3.74 MB)

IMG_20231015_100441.jpg (3.51 MB)

Aranya wrote

1- Quizá sería interesante añadir disparo diagonal mientras corres o estando parado.
2- He añadido una foto, hay alguna plataforma en la que puedes seguir caminando aunque no estés encima de ella, y también no te puedes acercar porque chocas con un muro invisible.

Hi!
Let's see.. at the very beggining of the development... I had to take the decission to not include diagonal shooting. It is not a technical trouble this time, as I am loading the player animation tiles at real time, but a personal one (did not want to give the game a "contra" feeling, focusing more in the story and keeping the silius playability more or less equal).

PD. Nice TV !!!!

Finshed here. Have 2 endings?
I dont understood took almost all weapons. When you say : New title...soon..." Soon will be in weeks? I hoping the new game. LOL.

segarule wrote

Finshed here. Have 2 endings?
I dont understood took almost all weapons. When you say : New title...soon..." Soon will be in weeks? I hoping the new game. LOL.

Yeah, two endings... although you can take one of the path you want in the last scene of the game.

New game??? Oh my god, there are so many things to do!!! this game took me about 6 months (began in august 2022, but have been stopped during several months due to personal issues)...

For a new game, I hope will be ready for the 2024 compo. I am not planning a big thing, I know it will be an 100% original one (have the idea, some graphics, etc.), but, who knows how it can evolve!!!!

Hello, are you the developer of this game?

If so, I would like to congratulate you on the excellent work, I really liked the game and I took the liberty of translating it into my language: Brazilian Portuguese...

During the game, I encountered a bug, when the character dies in fire/lava, the “death” loops and the game over screen does not appear, forcing the player to restart the game/console.

I made a video of the BUG captured from the game running on a console with Flashcard, as I'm new here, I couldn't attach the link.

Thank you very much.

I have found that this game is not included in the homebrew list.

Could be included?

Thanks!!!

I can add it!
Please upload a few 256×192 screenshots (PNGs) and the description you want to see there, and I'll do the rest :)

Page created :)
https://www.smspower.org/Homebrew/ElectronicDreams-SMS

Love It!!!

Such hard work (I refer to smsdevkit) deserve, at least, a page like that!!!

Damn, I'm definitely going to have to pick up a 512KB flash chip now...

UPDATE: Okay, I realised I had a 512KB RAM chip so I switched out my flash ROM and "flashed" the RAM and hey presto! managed to load the game!

Unfortunately, it's not running well for me. I can get through the intro and start the first level "Street of Rage" but it crashes whenever I try to pick up the gun. Reboots to start of the cart.
Starting on the second level "Road Rash" is worse - I see the player on a bike for a fraction of a second and then also reboots to cartridge start.

Obviously if it works on Emulicious and original hardware it's a problem with my hardware implementation somewhere although I've had very few games not work so will be interesting to track down why this is happening!

I've never run a 512KB game before so it might be that.
Anything else that's a little interesting I should know, e.g. any advanced use of mappers, cartridge RAM, etc.?

Looking forward to being able to play the whole thing through properly when I've fixed whatever the issue is!

electronic_dreams.png (2.62 MB)

I can say It runs in FPGA, too.

...and not, there are nothing extraordinary... But' thinking in how were made:

There are many banked Code which runs in the banks 19 or more. I do not use banked Code feature of sdcc. Simply, the banked Code does not need to switch between banks (if needed, calls to a non banked functión to do whatever It has to do).

It was compiled with sdcc 4.3.

Nothing more.

Pd. If needed, I can compile the game in sdcc 4.2 or 4.4.

willbritton wrote

I've never run a 512KB game before so it might be that.
Anything else that's a little interesting I should know, e.g. any advanced use of mappers, cartridge RAM...

Make sure your mapper supports slot 1 and slot 2 mapping and uses at least 5 bits for the page number. Also it should support SRAM, even if I don't think missing this should crash the game...

Author	Message
eruiz00 Joined: 28 Jan 2017 Posts: 556 Location: Málaga, Spain	Electronic Dreams Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2023 7:44 am Last edited by eruiz00 on Sat Oct 14, 2023 1:25 pm; edited 4 times in total
	Enjoy! cover.jpg (2.22 MB) The cover electronic_dreams_v77.zip (283.47 KB) v77

Kagesan Joined: 01 Feb 2014 Posts: 878	Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2023 9:18 am
Kagesan Joined: 01 Feb 2014 Posts: 878	That looks very nice. Love the homages, especially the Contra: Hard Corps boss and the Beamrider screen. However, I ran into a problem, playing on emulators (Emulicious and SMS Plus): At the start of each stage, when the call from HQ comes in, there's no way I can take it. No matter which button I press, the game stays stuck in a loop with the blinking speech bubble. Is there something special I have to do to proceed and I'm just too stupid to find it out?

eruiz00 Joined: 28 Jan 2017 Posts: 556 Location: Málaga, Spain	Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2023 9:26 am
	Kagesan wrote That looks very nice. Love the homages, especially the Contra: Hard Corps boss and the Beamrider screen. However, I ran into a problem, playing on emulators (Emulicious and SMS Plus): At the start of each stage, when the call from HQ comes in, there's no way I can take it. No matter which button I press, the game stays stuck in a loop with the blinking speech bubble. Is there something special I have to do to proceed and I'm just too stupid to find it out? The button to access to the weapon selection and the calls is the pause button from the console. I debug, play, etc. with emulicious and had not a single trouble with that point... maybe it is not a good idea to use that button for such functionality? (I did not enjoyed a master system when child)...

8BitBoy Joined: 15 Aug 2019 Posts: 262 Location: Lancashire UK	Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2023 9:55 am
	Oh wow, look forward to giving this a try later, well done eruiz00. This looks like a cracking game.

segarule Joined: 23 Jan 2010 Posts: 439	Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2023 10:12 am
segarule Joined: 23 Jan 2010 Posts: 439	Excellent! Congratulations. Yet about the pause button i have a question. I tested in 2 emulators. (Fusion and Emulicious). In 1st stage, Street of Rage, and the pause button dont work even that for weapon selection or even for simple pause game. Is something already imagined? Estupendo game!

eruiz00 Joined: 28 Jan 2017 Posts: 556 Location: Málaga, Spain	Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2023 10:39 am
	This definitelly bugs me! I have tested the rom in emulicious and It works withiout trouble. In fact, this has never been a trouble for me.... Maybe someone with deeper knowledge (calindro, sverx, someone else) could explain whats happening, as i do not find a reason.

M.Osorio Joined: 12 Aug 2016 Posts: 92	Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2023 1:41 pm
M.Osorio Joined: 12 Aug 2016 Posts: 92	Thanks for the game. I played in real hardware and works fine, pause button answer calls but after that pause button do not do nothing. Today normal difficult and only first stage, I played with normal pad and the first boss is very difficult, I think I need the rapid fire unit to defeat it. You always use the same difficult curve, very difficult from the beggining to the end ;)

sverx Joined: 05 Sep 2013 Posts: 3828 Location: Stockholm, Sweden	Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2023 1:54 pm
	It also took me a bit too much to figure out how to answer the phone... Button 1 wasn't working, button 2 neither, so I tried pressing UP, then DOWN... mmm... don't tell me I should press PAUSE. Yep, SEGA labelled it PAUSE but a programmer might use it for whatever because that button doesn't pause the hardware in any way. Blame SEGA :P

sverx Joined: 05 Sep 2013 Posts: 3828 Location: Stockholm, Sweden	Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2023 1:58 pm
	eruiz00 wrote Maybe someone with deeper knowledge (calindro, sverx, someone else) could explain whats happening, as i do not find a reason. pressing the PAUSE button would simply raise a flag (a boolean variable) with devkitSMS/SMSlib - then of course you check the status of that flag with SMS_queryPauseRequested() which returns the status of that flag (true if the button has been pressed [at least once] since reset. Then of course at the end of your function that service the PAUSE or whatever you do here, you need to make sure the flag is reset again using SMS_resetPauseRequest() If you do this, I can't imagine this to fail in any way...

eruiz00 Joined: 28 Jan 2017 Posts: 556 Location: Málaga, Spain	Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2023 2:22 pm
	Let's see.... actually, you only need to push the pause button in three scenaries: 1. To enter in the call screen. 2. To enter in the weapon selection screen, if you have some additional weapon. 3. To exit the weapon selection screen. When you enter in the call screen, you have to read all the text into that screen, and then, the game will return to the platforming scene. You do not have to press agaiin the pause button to exit. The function I use to get the pause status is this: // Check for pause unsigned char CheckStagePause() { // Get the pause state from smsdevkit unsigned char a=SMS_queryPauseRequested(); // Reseteamos el estado de pausa SMS_resetPauseRequest(); // Return the value return a; }

eruiz00 Joined: 28 Jan 2017 Posts: 556 Location: Málaga, Spain	Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2023 2:26 pm
	M.Osorio wrote Thanks for the game. I played in real hardware and works fine, pause button answer calls but after that pause button do not do nothing. Today normal difficult and only first stage, I played with normal pad and the first boss is very difficult, I think I need the rapid fire unit to defeat it. You always use the same difficult curve, very difficult from the beggining to the end ;) LOL The fact is I finish the game without trouble at all :D so many years playing classic games!!! You always can play the entire game with some of the options before start the game, to have infinite energy and/or infinite waeapons.

Kagesan Joined: 01 Feb 2014 Posts: 878	Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2023 3:15 pm
Kagesan Joined: 01 Feb 2014 Posts: 878	I think using the pause button to access the inventory is fine, many games do that. Having to use it to answer the calls is unintuitive, though. I think it any button should be allowed here. The game is very (!) difficult, not least because you seem to love to set up "trap" like situations with certain combinations of enemies or environmental hazard any first time player who doesn't know what's coming won't be able to avoid. Also, the controls are not quite as responsive as I'd like. There seems to be a bit of lag between pressing a direction/button and the resulting action on the screen, but that may be intentional. It would be nice to have more "popcorn" enemies that die in one hit. They are all really sturdy, which is especially apparent in the shmup stages. You'd expect at least the small enemy ships and the gun turrets to die in one hit. I found a few (minor) technical issues, too. Once I fell into the lava in stage 3 and it triggered a chain-death loop I could only escape by resetting. I think you should check your timing when updating columns/rows while scrolling. There's often a one pixel edge flashing, because you're updating the tiles while they are partly on screen. I also suggest implementing some sort of flicker routine. There are many scenes where the game exceeds the 8 sprites per line limit and it doesn't look pretty if parts of them just disappear. Enough of the criticism, though. I think it's a great project. I absolutely love the music throughout. The visuals are good, too, even though I think they don't really use everything the SMS has to offer. Often they remind me of the colour-reduced graphics of a certain other console...

mateusbond Joined: 19 Aug 2006 Posts: 102 Location: Brazil	Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2023 4:02 pm
	Great game! I don't think the graphics are too dark, I think the colors are ideal for the kind of story the game tells and the art style the game adheres to. But I do agree with Kagesan about the enemies: some of them feel like bullet sponges and end up slowing down the action. In the first stage, for example, the humans should be much weaker than the robots. Actually, since they're the first kind of enemies the game throws at the player, I think they should die with a single shot. But apart from some difficulty tuning, the rest is very, very good. Thank you so much for this amazing gift, eruiz! I love your games, they're games no SMS fan should go without, and this one is no exception! Thanks a lot!

segarule Joined: 23 Jan 2010 Posts: 439	Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2023 6:17 pm
segarule Joined: 23 Jan 2010 Posts: 439	Well, even that pause button work - "To enter in the weapon selection screen, if you have some additional weapon." i think that could have a pause function for anybody go to a fresh water, juice or beer. If you go change o game i would like give some suggestions (but just IMHO): 1 - The calls could be authomatic with no necessity in press pause; 2 - If you can add a reset button function i would love. I use the hardware original, so is soooo boring dont have startup acess to menu when game is over. I need everytime push off the system for configure unlimited ammo, for example, but if i regret this possibility, so i need power off the system again. Or at least put a option in game over screen. Button 1 restart game, button 2 jump to main menu and options; 3 - If you can and dont is an hard work add a MD pad compatibility would be perfect. The weapon select could be in A button. Your game is estupendo.

eruiz00 Joined: 28 Jan 2017 Posts: 556 Location: Málaga, Spain	Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2023 7:24 pm
	Thanks for such elaborated comments... My thoughts: a. Yes, maybe the entrance into the call screen should be automatic, I will change that, it seems a good idea. b. I will check if the md gamepad custom support is available through smsdevkit. Sverx could know more than me about that question. ... about the game playability.... hey guys, you know I like hard games!!! but yes... I think you are right. Kagesan, believe me if I say the enemies disposition is though and tested. I love to design tricky patterns. ... I found, also, that you guys are right with the shot sponges, I will check the number of shots to kill some kind of enemies (I like the idea of the weak humans) and will release a v75 version, more balanced. The fact is that my main objetives with this game have been two: 1. A technical one, wanted to do a platformer engine with physics, and with multi directional scroll with dynamic loading of map blocks (these long stages are so big...), and real time loading of 8-16 tiles per frame. One thing I want to test is to change my own scrolling engine (pure ansi c) for psidium one (which is asm, and way faster, tested). It is not a dificult task, and I know it can be done without too many changes. I believe that some border effects when updating the left col on scrolling could dissapear using GSLib. I expect a more fluid experience. 2. The story. Always loved policenauts, and an story which start in earth and finish outside in space is very appealing to me. Wanted to use a videogame as medium to tell a tale. Thanks for your comments, will work to fix all these issues, which I found correct. Regards!

sverx Joined: 05 Sep 2013 Posts: 3828 Location: Stockholm, Sweden	Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2023 10:26 am
	eruiz00 wrote I will check if the md gamepad custom support is available through smsdevkit. Sverx could know more than me about that question. Yes, SMSlib supports a (single) MegaDrive 3/6 buttons pad - no longer by default, so you have to recompile the library using #define MD_PAD_SUPPORT and read the MD additional keys (A, Start, X, Y, Z, mode) using the SMS_getMDKeys* functions. You could for instance use either A and/or Start to trigger the actions tied to the Pause button. eruiz00 wrote One thing I want to test is to change my own scrolling engine (pure ansi c) for psidium one (which is asm, and way faster, tested). It is not a dificult task, and I know it can be done without too many changes. I believe that some border effects when updating the left col on scrolling could dissapear using GSLib. I expect a more fluid experience. I thought you were using GSLib already. Let me know if you get into troubles with it, I think there were a few bugs left, I might have a fixed version... actually not sure.

eruiz00 Joined: 28 Jan 2017 Posts: 556 Location: Málaga, Spain	Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2023 10:42 am
	No,, all my scrolled games use my own scrolling library, pure ansi c, which I found fast enough, but not optimal. .... but I have tests with gslib which confirm that it should be a better option. In fact, I have Sunsoft's NES Batman tilemaps (an old project) fully working with gslib and my own library, and I know gslib performs better. In last months, I had to compile gslib with __sdcccall(0) to work with the library in sdcc 4.3 (due to the new calling schema change in functions)... and it works without issues. Shame that we don't have the source of the converter tool of gslib, to create a new converter without the javafx requirement. Each day is more difficult to find a java distro with javafx dlls included! Regards.

segarule Joined: 23 Jan 2010 Posts: 439	Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2023 11:01 am
segarule Joined: 23 Jan 2010 Posts: 439	Houston, we have a problem. My hardware: SMS_BR 1 with chinese everdrive; The game setup: Level: invincible and ammo: normal. The problem: After the 1st stage we go to Road Rash. Everything work fine, i fight the boss and finish him, so i got new weapon the end stage music play and ... Nothing happens. The player still driving the bike only. PS: teste 2 times.

eruiz00 Joined: 28 Jan 2017 Posts: 556 Location: Málaga, Spain	Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2023 11:10 am
	segarule wrote Houston, we have a problem. My hardware: SMS_BR 1 with chinese everdrive; The game setup: Level: invincible and ammo: normal. The problem: After the 1st stage we go to Road Rash. Everything work fine, i fight the boss and finish him, so i got new weapon the end stage music play and ... Nothing happens. The player still driving the bike only. PS: teste 2 times. Yeah, it is a known bug (someone else talked me about this bug) The solution (for now) is wait to get the weapon icon until it reach the center of the screen. Will fix this as soon as possible. Note: if you start from a intermediate screen, you will have all the hidden weapons and elements which exists in previous stages.

8BitBoy Joined: 15 Aug 2019 Posts: 262 Location: Lancashire UK	Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2023 1:00 pm
	Don't know if this is helpful but had a crash at the end of stage 2 after defeating the boss while on the bike

nuno14272 Joined: 10 Aug 2017 Posts: 31	princo dvd Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2023 3:37 pm
nuno14272 Joined: 10 Aug 2017 Posts: 31	Big LOL NO way a Princo DVD will last that long to be found years later...

eruiz00 Joined: 28 Jan 2017 Posts: 556 Location: Málaga, Spain	Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2023 6:05 pm
	nuno14272 wrote Big LOL NO way a Princo DVD will last that long to be found years later... I can prove it, I have hundreds of them but not a dvd reader since several years ago!!!!! PD. Also have a bunch of VHS tapes!!!!! (how many time & money wasted) LOL

segarule Joined: 23 Jan 2010 Posts: 439	Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2023 7:55 pm
segarule Joined: 23 Jan 2010 Posts: 439	Well, the invincible mode have some inconvenient. I cannot advance in Toy factory stage because i falled in a scenario with lava. Considering that scroll is locked i dont see solution. Maybe a suicide mode with button combo or free scroll for return to plattforms.

eruiz00 Joined: 28 Jan 2017 Posts: 556 Location: Málaga, Spain	v75 Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2023 8:30 pm
	Version 75 - Compiled with sdcc 4.3, so it should be a little faster. - New option: level, in easy mode the enemies need the half of shoots to be killed. - New option: reverse buttons, someone from "Gamerah de Noche" asked me to provide this feature (genesis pad needs more work than expected, but i will provide support for this pad)... - Fixed the level 2 lock error. journeyv75.zip (283.42 KB) the new rom

tsp Joined: 04 Oct 2019 Posts: 84 Location: Brazil	Posted: Sat Oct 14, 2023 1:23 am
tsp Joined: 04 Oct 2019 Posts: 84 Location: Brazil	Congratulations and many thanks for this awesome game, eruiz! Had this come out during the SMS commercial lifetime, it would be a solid classic! v75 feels better than 74, as it has a faster pace with the enemies not taking so many hits to die. A couple things I noticed: The bug when dying on the lava or the factory hazards still persist. Also, when starting the game from any level except the first, it automatically goes to the pause screen. Is it intended? (tested in Emulicious)

eruiz00 Joined: 28 Jan 2017 Posts: 556 Location: Málaga, Spain	v76 Posted: Sat Oct 14, 2023 6:41 am
	New version, with these fixes: - Ladders in lava stage, to let player escape from pit. - Pause fix, proper reset of pause status if player has pushed pause button before enter in game. Regards electronic_dreams_v76.zip (283.45 KB) new rom

mateusbond Joined: 19 Aug 2006 Posts: 102 Location: Brazil	Posted: Sat Oct 14, 2023 10:03 am
	The game flows much better now (in Easy mode anyway, haven't tried Hard yet). Thank you for the updates!

segarule Joined: 23 Jan 2010 Posts: 439	Posted: Sat Oct 14, 2023 12:20 pm
segarule Joined: 23 Jan 2010 Posts: 439	mateusbond wrote The game flows much better now (in Easy mode anyway, haven't tried Hard yet). Thank you for the updates! Mine your words. With MD pad compatibility i think that will be perfect.

eruiz00 Joined: 28 Jan 2017 Posts: 556 Location: Málaga, Spain	Posted: Sat Oct 14, 2023 12:56 pm
	segarule wrote 3 - If you can and dont is an hard work add a MD pad compatibility would be perfect. The weapon select could be in A button. Let's see... please, Sverx.... I do not understand what I have to do.... Maybe polling the var MDKeysStatus (as I do with KeysStatus) to check the button A in 0x0010 ??? My question is if the rest of buttons of the MD Pad are mapped through the KeysStatus var as if were master system pad buttons.... and I only have to add the check of the MDKeyStatus var (button A) to the master system pause button check.

eruiz00 Joined: 28 Jan 2017 Posts: 556 Location: Málaga, Spain	v77 Posted: Sat Oct 14, 2023 1:25 pm
	I had the response already ;) It works in emulicious, please check the MD pad and confirm it works. Regards electronic_dreams_v77.zip (283.47 KB) v77 - with md gamepad support

Nekketsu Joined: 19 Jan 2022 Posts: 8 Location: Chile	It looks incredible! Posted: Sat Oct 14, 2023 3:41 pm
Nekketsu Joined: 19 Jan 2022 Posts: 8 Location: Chile	At least I can tell you that it works incredibly well in gamegear. I really like the details of the scenarios even if they are from other games, what the mastersystem/gamegear needs most are these kinds of entertaining and advancing games. keep it up!

segarule Joined: 23 Jan 2010 Posts: 439	Posted: Sat Oct 14, 2023 7:33 pm
segarule Joined: 23 Jan 2010 Posts: 439	Quote It works in emulicious, please check the MD pad and confirm it works. Working with button A. Members need see how is useful a setup with 3 buttons. The hardware reset not is working but i found that if the player dont press continue button the game will return to title screen. So this solve many things. Very funny mention the aunt Ripley. I was thinking that i would find her in secret passage but i found Olivia. Congratulations! PS: If i dont wrong this is first homebrew to use a MD pad option.

eruiz00 Joined: 28 Jan 2017 Posts: 556 Location: Málaga, Spain	Posted: Sat Oct 14, 2023 7:48 pm
	Yeah, at least my first game with md support. In almost All stages there are some hidden passage or weapon or beamrider, although in sirius ones this is not advertised. My favorite is the wonder boy one. Love the cubitorah way to get the wespon. It were a nice idea. Now that It seems the rom is stable and the Gameplay refined i can continúe with the (new) current project!!!! Thanks everyone. I make my games for my own pleasute and I do not need nothing more, but All your comments sharing ideas and proposals about this kind of gaming we love It helps definitelly. What a great community we have together!!!!

segarule Joined: 23 Jan 2010 Posts: 439	Posted: Sat Oct 14, 2023 9:08 pm
segarule Joined: 23 Jan 2010 Posts: 439	Im sorry in report a small bug. When player face the middle boss in Toy factory if i fall in lava and the bomb also fall in player, i enter in a loop death. This boos can be seen in 16:55 in your YT video.

eruiz00 Joined: 28 Jan 2017 Posts: 556 Location: Málaga, Spain	Posted: Sat Oct 14, 2023 9:14 pm
	segarule wrote Im sorry in report a small bug. When player face the middle boss in Toy factory if i fall in lava and the bomb also fall in player, i enter in a loop death. This boos can be seen in 16:55 in your YT video. The company where i work needs testers for its software.... Seriously... What an intrincated bug did you find!!!! Have played the Game a hundred times and did not happened to me (as developer... Only try the "Happy path") I Will check tomorrow for the fix... Lets see if can avoid to get to the v100 versión !!!!!

Ricco59 Joined: 05 Sep 2021 Posts: 57	Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2023 7:32 am
Ricco59 Joined: 05 Sep 2021 Posts: 57	Hi I've juste seen a vidéo of your game Seems to be a great game Thx for the gift ;) See you

segarule Joined: 23 Jan 2010 Posts: 439	Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2023 9:02 am
segarule Joined: 23 Jan 2010 Posts: 439	eruiz00 wrote segarule wrote Im sorry in report a small bug. When player face the middle boss in Toy factory if i fall in lava and the bomb also fall in player, i enter in a loop death. This boos can be seen in 16:55 in your YT video. The company where i work needs testers for its software.... Seriously... What an intrincated bug did you find!!!! Have played the Game a hundred times and did not happened to me (as developer... Only try the "Happy path") I Will check tomorrow for the fix... Lets see if can avoid to get to the v100 versión !!!!! Im sorry, really. This bug not were intended for me. Even i started with default config (easy + others =normal). I was only for fun and maybe this cannot happen again but i dont got advance from these point and neither use reset, been the last solution power off the console.

Aranya Joined: 02 Mar 2011 Posts: 168 Location: Valencia,Spain.	Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2023 9:14 am
	Congratulations on your game, eRuiz. I've just played it for 10 minutes, and I really like it. I only played the first level. Some feedback: Maybe you could consider adding diagonal shooting while running. There are some platforms like this: Now the same in spanish: Hola eRuiz, solo he podido jugar un poco a tu juego, pero felicidades, me encanta. Me gustaría comentarte un par de cosas de momento: 1- Quizá sería interesante añadir disparo diagonal mientras corres o estando parado. 2- He añadido una foto, hay alguna plataforma en la que puedes seguir caminando aunque no estés encima de ella, y también no te puedes acercar porque chocas con un muro invisible. IMG_20231015_100418.jpg (3.74 MB) IMG_20231015_100441.jpg (3.51 MB)

eruiz00 Joined: 28 Jan 2017 Posts: 556 Location: Málaga, Spain	Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2023 10:21 am
	Aranya wrote 1- Quizá sería interesante añadir disparo diagonal mientras corres o estando parado. 2- He añadido una foto, hay alguna plataforma en la que puedes seguir caminando aunque no estés encima de ella, y también no te puedes acercar porque chocas con un muro invisible. Hi! Let's see.. at the very beggining of the development... I had to take the decission to not include diagonal shooting. It is not a technical trouble this time, as I am loading the player animation tiles at real time, but a personal one (did not want to give the game a "contra" feeling, focusing more in the story and keeping the silius playability more or less equal). PD. Nice TV !!!!

segarule Joined: 23 Jan 2010 Posts: 439	Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2023 12:46 pm
segarule Joined: 23 Jan 2010 Posts: 439	Finshed here. Have 2 endings? I dont understood took almost all weapons. When you say : New title...soon..." Soon will be in weeks? I hoping the new game. LOL.

eruiz00 Joined: 28 Jan 2017 Posts: 556 Location: Málaga, Spain	Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2023 2:17 pm
	segarule wrote Finshed here. Have 2 endings? I dont understood took almost all weapons. When you say : New title...soon..." Soon will be in weeks? I hoping the new game. LOL. Yeah, two endings... although you can take one of the path you want in the last scene of the game. New game??? Oh my god, there are so many things to do!!! this game took me about 6 months (began in august 2022, but have been stopped during several months due to personal issues)... For a new game, I hope will be ready for the 2024 compo. I am not planning a big thing, I know it will be an 100% original one (have the idea, some graphics, etc.), but, who knows how it can evolve!!!!

valdoedri Joined: 25 Oct 2023 Posts: 1 Location: Brasil	Bug Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2023 1:01 am
valdoedri Joined: 25 Oct 2023 Posts: 1 Location: Brasil	Hello, are you the developer of this game? If so, I would like to congratulate you on the excellent work, I really liked the game and I took the liberty of translating it into my language: Brazilian Portuguese... During the game, I encountered a bug, when the character dies in fire/lava, the “death” loops and the game over screen does not appear, forcing the player to restart the game/console. I made a video of the BUG captured from the game running on a console with Flashcard, as I'm new here, I couldn't attach the link. Thank you very much.

eruiz00 Joined: 28 Jan 2017 Posts: 556 Location: Málaga, Spain	Homebrew games list Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2024 11:12 am
	I have found that this game is not included in the homebrew list. Could be included? Thanks!!!

sverx Joined: 05 Sep 2013 Posts: 3828 Location: Stockholm, Sweden	Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2024 1:31 pm
	I can add it! Please upload a few 256×192 screenshots (PNGs) and the description you want to see there, and I'll do the rest :)

sverx Joined: 05 Sep 2013 Posts: 3828 Location: Stockholm, Sweden	Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2024 9:29 am
	Page created :) https://www.smspower.org/Homebrew/ElectronicDreams-SMS

eruiz00 Joined: 28 Jan 2017 Posts: 556 Location: Málaga, Spain	Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2024 2:18 pm
	Love It!!! Such hard work (I refer to smsdevkit) deserve, at least, a page like that!!!

willbritton Joined: 06 Mar 2022 Posts: 671 Location: London, UK	Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2024 3:21 pm
	Damn, I'm definitely going to have to pick up a 512KB flash chip now...

willbritton Joined: 06 Mar 2022 Posts: 671 Location: London, UK	Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2024 5:41 pm
	UPDATE: Okay, I realised I had a 512KB RAM chip so I switched out my flash ROM and "flashed" the RAM and hey presto! managed to load the game! Unfortunately, it's not running well for me. I can get through the intro and start the first level "Street of Rage" but it crashes whenever I try to pick up the gun. Reboots to start of the cart. Starting on the second level "Road Rash" is worse - I see the player on a bike for a fraction of a second and then also reboots to cartridge start. Obviously if it works on Emulicious and original hardware it's a problem with my hardware implementation somewhere although I've had very few games not work so will be interesting to track down why this is happening! I've never run a 512KB game before so it might be that. Anything else that's a little interesting I should know, e.g. any advanced use of mappers, cartridge RAM, etc.? Looking forward to being able to play the whole thing through properly when I've fixed whatever the issue is! electronic_dreams.png (2.62 MB)

eruiz00 Joined: 28 Jan 2017 Posts: 556 Location: Málaga, Spain	Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2024 6:24 pm
	I can say It runs in FPGA, too. ...and not, there are nothing extraordinary... But' thinking in how were made: There are many banked Code which runs in the banks 19 or more. I do not use banked Code feature of sdcc. Simply, the banked Code does not need to switch between banks (if needed, calls to a non banked functión to do whatever It has to do). It was compiled with sdcc 4.3. Nothing more. Pd. If needed, I can compile the game in sdcc 4.2 or 4.4.

sverx Joined: 05 Sep 2013 Posts: 3828 Location: Stockholm, Sweden	Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2024 7:16 pm
	willbritton wrote I've never run a 512KB game before so it might be that. Anything else that's a little interesting I should know, e.g. any advanced use of mappers, cartridge RAM... Make sure your mapper supports slot 1 and slot 2 mapping and uses at least 5 bits for the page number. Also it should support SRAM, even if I don't think missing this should crash the game...

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