Joystick Johnny - Demo
Community Forums/Showcase/Joystick Johnny - Demo
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| It's still in beta, but I've just released a demo of my game Joystick Johnny and would appreciate any feedback. =) Synopsis: You're a high score hot-shot from the 80's and the Video Virus has invaded your favorite arcade! Play a bunch of minigame parodies of the classics -- it's like WarioWare meets MAME. Download Link: Free Demo (14 MB) Website: joystickjohnny.com Requirements: Windows, 256 MB RAM, 1 GHz CPU Keyboard or Game Controller  Please enter your initials after you play. This will submit stats that will help me balance the difficulty of the minigames. When it asks you for a scoreboard name, you can use: BLITZ Thanks! =) |
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| Great game, very cool. I remember when you first posted about this WAAAAY back when; I'd completely forgotten about it. SpaceAce |
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| Nice game! Good job [edit] You have left some files in your game (folder data/logs/incbin.bmax...) |
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| Gnarly! Great stuff, no problems encountered, except the online highscore doesn't register the 'perfects'. I'm M in the highscore, and you will never beat my score :P |
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| Yeah, 'tis good. It completely locked when trying to connect to the highscore table, tho. I had to reboot. Maybe it was stopped by my firewall, or something?! |
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| Nice game, my highscore was too low i guess... :( |
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| Thanks, guys. =) fredborg: thanks, I'll fix that in the next build. big10p: how long did you wait before you rebooted? I think Max's ConnectSocket function times out around 10 seconds and I haven't figured out how to alter that. It could've been your firewall, though the game just connects over port 80 -- maybe there's a log you can check. Otherwise, I'd assume it was a hiccup with my webhost. Grisu: practice makes perfect. ;) |
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| I just played in windowed mode and it is my firewall that blocks connection. It can't display the popup in full screen mode, so it just hangs. P.S. Is level 2 of the ET game about avoiding copies of the Atari ET game being dropped into a pit? :) [edit]Gah - how do I get hidden treasure/bonus on lev 2 of the zombie game? I can't seem to get any bonuses - I get B O N U but never manage the final S. I guess I need more practice. I want to beat fredborg's score. :P |
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| Hey thats a cool game! I was going to make a mini-games game like that a while back and never did! Was It inspired by the C-64 classic Lazy Jones by any chance? |
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| @big10p: yes, those are cartridges falling into a landfill. =) You can get a cartridge on Level 1 if you look closely. re the treasure in Zombies: find the square dude who's a bit different from the others. re the firewall: that seems to be a common problem. I will definitely add a timeout there. @Chugs40: I didn't know about Lazy Jones until I started working on JJ, but I wasn't surprised that it had been done before. There was definitely some inspiration from WarioWare, but I mainly wanted an excuse to make a bunch of retro games. =) |
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| teehee, I like that nice one :D Really professional looking job |
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| @big10p: yes, those are cartridges falling into a landfill. =) You can get a cartridge on Level 1 if you look closely. Ah-ha! My crappy monitor, coupled with my failing eyesight meant I completely missed that. :/re the treasure in Zombies: find the square dude who's a bit different from the others. Oh, on the menu screens, I think you should increase the key repeat delay, or even remove it completely. It zips ahead a bit too quickly for my liking, as it is. BTW, I forgot to say this game is great! I hope the simplistic nature of the games doesn't put some people off - it all ties together very well, indeed. It seems to get more fun each time I play it (collecting bonuses, treasures, aiming for the highscore etc.). I've registered on your website and might actually buy this, when it's released. :) [edit] After clearing this game with my firewall, I switched back to play in fullscreen mode, but everything then ran way too fast. However, when I quit and ran the game again, it ran at the correct speed. What timing method are you using? Also, I think it'd be nice to have the option of turning on vsync - the display tearing in places spoils things a tad. :) |
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| Thanks big10p, your feedback has been very helpful! It may not be for everyone, but I think enough people will "get" it and enjoy it as you have. =) Re timing method. The default in fullscreen mode is to have VSync on with the refresh rate set to 60Hz, no WaitTimer. There's some logic at startup that detects if the user has VSync turned off on their video card, and if that's so, it adds a WaitTimer. I suspect the speedup bug is related to that. Windowed mode uses WaitTimer at 60 Hz and VSync off. Hence the tearing, but it would take too much work right now to get everything perfect in this mode. The tearing seems to only be visible in the arcade screen, at least. You can currently change the VSync setting in data/profles/default/options.dat. But it will only take effect on startup. A value of -1 means that the above game logic applies. |
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| Yay, another game. I love all of your games. =] Still play speed thrasher from time to time. O_o [edit]Yay, I was ranked 8th first time through. Lets try it again. =D |
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| I enjoyed this a lot, had to stop playing in oder to do some work. Pimped it here for ya: http://www.binaryjoy.co.uk/games/games-news/joystick-johnny/ I also love your games. Barbarian roller hero was a classic and so was that action hero one. I'm surprised you are using vsync as your timing method but I see that you've put in a backup timer. If you are using BMax, you can avoid tearing in windowed mode by using Flip 1 (since a recent fix) but of course your timing will be screwed. |
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| Damn you 10p, you're beating me by 300. :@ lol |
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| Thanks, Jake. =) I learned a lot from your posts on the timing/vsync stuff. Same with your framework, though I ended up using different pieces of it. I'll look into using vsync in windowed mode, if only for the arcade section where the tearing is apparent. Most of my animations are millisecond-based, not framecount-based, so I'm not too closely tied to a fixed frame rate. (wow, lots of activity on the scoreboard =) @10p, if you grab the latest build, your perfects will register correctly on the detail page. You're still not THE #1 player yet, though: http://www.joystickjohnny.com/scoreboard.php |
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| yeah I doubt the tearing shows up much in the actual arcade games. I got on the scoreboard too (JWB), but probably have been pushed off by now ;-) |
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| Damn you 10p, you're beating me by 300. :@ lol Hmm, what initials are you using? I noticed someone got close to my top score so I put in a better score to try and keep my top slot safer. :) @10p, if you grab the latest build, your perfects will register correctly on the detail page. Can I just get a new game exe for that - if so where from? Or do I have to download and re-install the entire game again? I'd like to keep my current profile, if possible. You're still not THE #1 player yet, though: Yeah, I know. I'm getting closer to GOD all the time, though. :P (BTW, your email address on the support page isn't clickable) I got on the scoreboard too (JWB), but probably have been pushed off by now ;-) Yes, yes you have. :P |
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| Yes, yes you have. :P Noooooo. |
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| I beat GOD! Not often I get to say that. :P |
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| Possible bug: I noticed when I loaded the game that the red dot falls down really slowly, then after it bounces everything is at normal speed. I didn't know if this was a "special retro effect" or not. However, when I loaded it just now and I pressed a button to skip the intro, the square "starfield" blocks on the title screen were ALSO moving really slowly, then after a couple of seconds they sped up to normal speed. weird. PC = P4 3.2GHz, 1GB RAM, Radeon 9800XT, XP, Big fat SATA drives. It's not a slow PC, it's very good for games + BMAX |
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| Yeah, I've noticed a few similar slowdown issues like this too, but assumed it was down to my ageing PC - it's min spec to run the game. The most noticeable thing for me is when I first move the player character around the arcade - he initially moves very slowly, but seems to be OK after that. I thought it might be down to the GFX initially getting uploaded to VRAM? |
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| I've seen that before on my machine, but only the first time I play after a reboot, usually for about 12 seconds. I do "warm up" all of my images: drawing them to the backbuffer as they are loaded. So, I'm really not sure what to look for... it doesn't seem to align with any specific game event. 10p: you can get the latest exe here. (oh and congrats =) Edit: so now that you're better than GOD, can you share the strategy you used? |
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| Thanks. :) so now that you're better than GOD, can you share the strategy you used? Well, the strategy I tried, was working out which games I was better at and could complete the quickest, as time=points. I haven't got this down to a fine art yet, but I generally try and play in order of difficulty (hardest to easiest.)I usually play Hogger either first or second, as I personally find this the 'hardest' (i.e. can take quite a time getting a hog across the road on later levels, and is easier than the other games to bump into things and lose your bonus). Playing first means I only have to play 1 level of it. I try and leave the games I feel it's easier to get the bonuses on until last. This strategy is still WIP though, as, while I may think playing level 2 of Hogger takes me longer than playing level 2 of Shape Invaders, say, this may not actually be true. Experimentation is called for. :) Also, when you find the other guy in the arcade is playing the machine you want to play, that kind of puts a spanner in the works. :P BTW, are the treasures actually used for anything in the full version of the game? I thought it may be a good idea to award some points everytime one is collected (even ones you've collected previously) as an incentive to collect them more than once. You don't get points at the moment for collecting them, right? |
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| A few bugs in the new version: On the intro screen, the flea than drops down doesn't make a sound when it lands or bounces. Well, I hear one bounce sound but it's well delayed and out of sync with the visuals. On the menu screen, the square block starfield is drawn on top of the blue border, around the screen. Pretty sure this didn't happen in the old version. When connecting to the server and you see the firewall message and pressing Alt-tab... pressing alt-tab doesn't have any effect when playing in fullscreen mode, on my machine. As I said in an earlier post, it just hangs there and I can't get back to windows. Even pressing ctrl-alt-del doesn't work. I have to reboot. |
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| re: the guy in the arcade. Are you aware that you can make him move (the next turn) by putting a token on the machine? Some people miss that. re: Treasures. The plan is to unlock a bonus game when you've collected all 40 treasures. I sort of want to avoid giving points, because once you know where they are there usually isn't much skill in collecting them. re: the bugs. Hmm, I think the biggest difference between versions is that before, OpenGL was the default (by accident), and now its Direct3D. You can change the graphics driver to 1 in the options.dat to go back to opengl and compare. I'll see if I can reproduce the starfield thing. re: the firewall thing. I'm not sure how to handle that then. It sounds like even the timeout for ConnectSocket() isn't triggering, as if the firewall is completely taking over. I had one other user with the same problem but they were able to use Alt-Tab. |
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| The slow down issue is weird. You're not using threads to do something else are you? Or you havn't used some weird timing in the intro before the game starts and then leave it running? |
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| Threads? Nope, I didn't think that was even possible in Max. I will step through the code tomorrow. My laptop is minimum spec and exhibits a lot of the problems you guys are referring to, so I'll try to get it working on that. It's just weird that it seems to correct itself at an arbitrary time. |
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| Oh yeah it's not I forgot! haha. |
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| Changing back to the GL driver fixed the starfield problem and the sound delay on the intro screen. Oddly, now when I play using the DX driver, not only does the starfield extend too far up/down the screen, but now all the play fields in the games do, too. I'm sure this wasn't happenening when I played last night.  Also, the firewall warning message seems to have completely disappeared! Is it set to display only on first run? I think I'm going mad. :P |
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| The firewall warning will only appear the first time you make a connection. The viewport issue... that's Twilight Zone stuff. Do you have the latest video drivers? |
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| They stopped doing drivers for my card a long time ago - it's a GeForce2 GTS 32MB. :/ I haven't had any noticeable problems like this running DX apps before, though. |
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| Hmm, maybe you've just played the game so much that you're actually being sucked into an alternate video game universe... ok maybe, not. First, does the problem also occur in Fullscreen mode? Also, on the starfield, you're saying they only "escape" through the top and bottom? Then, here's a code snippet that makes essentially the same viewport actions as in the game. The output should be a red box with a blue border. Please compare with different drivers. I sort of see a spot in the code that could cause this, but there's no reason why it would execute differently under different drivers. Thanks for your help on this. =) EDIT: I'll post another build tonight, so you might want to wait until then.
' Pick your poison...
SetGraphicsDriver D3D7Max2DDriver()
' SetGraphicsDriver GLMax2DDriver()
'------------------------------
Const SCREEN_SIZE_X = 800
Const SCREEN_SIZE_Y = 600
Const MONITOR_POS_X = 150
Const MONITOR_POS_Y = 100
Const MONITOR_SIZE_X = 500
Const MONITOR_SIZE_Y = 400
Graphics SCREEN_SIZE_X, SCREEN_SIZE_Y
While Not KeyHit(KEY_ESCAPE)
Delay(1)
Cls
' border
SetColor 0,0,128
DrawRect MONITOR_POS_X - 4, MONITOR_POS_Y - 4, MONITOR_SIZE_X + 8, MONITOR_SIZE_Y + 8
' monitor contents
SetMonitorViewport()
SetColor 128,0,0
DrawRect 0,0, 1000,1000
Flip True
ResetViewport()
Wend
Function SetMonitorViewport ()
SetOrigin MONITOR_POS_X, MONITOR_POS_Y
SetViewport MONITOR_POS_X, MONITOR_POS_Y, MONITOR_SIZE_X, MONITOR_SIZE_Y
EndFunction
Function ResetViewport ()
SetOrigin 0,0
SetViewport 0,0, SCREEN_SIZE_X, SCREEN_SIZE_Y
EndFunction |
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| First, does the problem also occur in Fullscreen mode? Yeah, it happens in both fullscreen and windowed modes. Also, on the starfield, you're saying they only "escape" through the top and bottom? Yep: Then, here's a code snippet that makes essentially the same viewport actions as in the game. The output should be a red box with a blue border. Please compare with different drivers. Sorry, I don't have BlitzMax so can't test. Can you do me up an exe of it? |
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| I've seen viewport fail on some machines too, bummer. So I basically avoid using it now. I do other things instead (none as easy as using a viewport) |
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| I just uploaded a new installer (same link). You'll have to reinstall, but you can install it over your current setup and it will keep your profile info. The biggest change was switching to OpenAL Streamed Ogg for the music, which really cut down the memory, and should help performance on lower-end machines. There are still some transition-type glitches I need to iron out with that. Re: the viewport. Judging by Grey's comment, it sounds like it's common enough that I should address it. I'm pretty sure I can just write the monitor on top of the contents and it will work. I'll try that this weekend. Until then, I've added a toggle in the Options screen to switch easily between OpenGL and Direct3D. |
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| Just tried it, is enjoyable but I prefer your other games (especially Crosswalk - that was one of yours wasn't it?). Occasionally on shape invaders and some of the other games there would be a kind of 'slow down' effect where I could fire lots of bullets but everything would run much slower for about 1-2 seconds. It seemed to do this sporadically during the arcade game sequences. My system specs if that helps: Asus a4k laptop AMD 3500+ 512MB RAM, Ati Mobility radeon 9700 64MB VRAM, WinXP Pro. |
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| Oh this looks good. A mac (ppc) version? |
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| Just tried the new version... The music plays and stops randomly and the game starts having huge slowdowns every 10 seconds or so... Using the default config... Laptop: Vista home, 1 gig ram, amd dual core... |
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| Matty and Anatoly, thanks for the replies. Would you mind grabbing this new executable and seeing if there's a difference in performance? http://www.joystickjohnny.com/joystick_johnny_nomusic.exe (1.2 MB) The music turned off in this build. Thanks! |
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| big10p, here's the compiled version of that viewport test: http://www.joystickjohnny.com/test_viewport.exe (1 MB) |
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| And a PPC version? :O/ |
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| Sorry, taumel. If I port to Mac, it won't be for another couple of months. |
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| Sad as i like Lazy Jones so much... :O( If you want to and if it's a no brainer, i could offer you to do it. |
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| Hi agent4125 - no problems with new download - no slowdown at all. Played the game a bit more, quite fun still. |
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| sounds like the ogg streaming is messing up the game performance! |
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| Hmm, that viewport test works fine. |
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| No slowdown on the music-disabled build here... Love the game btw! :) |
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| I would love to play the game too... :O( |
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| Thanks, guys. I'll put together one last test build to see if buffer sizes change anything. Otherwise, it looks like I'll need to go with bass.dll or FMOD, or go back to having a much bigger memory footprint. taumel, if you contact me via the link in my sig, I can set up a reminder to contact you when I start working about a mac port. Right now I have to really focus on shipping Version 1. =) 10p, I have updated the test_viewport app, if you don't mind moving and resizing the viewport/origin, to see if there's a magic combination that reproduces the bug. I am using viewports in other places in the game (e.g. the horizontal arcade view and when the virus pops up in another cabinet), which I assume look okay. Thanks! |
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| Okay, I switched to fmod! Just put the exe file and fmod.dll in the base JJ directory. I still need to clean some of the transitions (just don't skip anything for now), but I think this will finally do it for the audio-related problems. Please let me know if there's an improvement. Thanks! |
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| @agent4125 Yep but wouldn't it be possible to get a version just without the sound (if that's one of the reasons which could make some problems)? Still hoping... :O) |
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| I can't seem to reproduce the bug using the test app. It appears to work just fine. |
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| Ok, one last try... I updated the test app to include the scanlines. I think maybe TileImage is the culprit. Press S to toggle them on/off. http://www.joystickjohnny.com/test_viewport.exe |
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| Everything seems to be back to normal on fmod one... |
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| Yeah, it's the scanlines that's the problem with the DX driver. They overlap the top/bottom of the border. Sometimes they only partially overlap the border, depending on where I position the viewport/origin. BTW, for some reason the new test requested the fmod.dll. Luckily I had a copy on my HD, so I was able to run it. |
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| agent4125: How easy was fmod to use as a sound system? Are you going to choose it and pay the license fee? |
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| Thanks Anatoly! Ok, 10p, just one more try. =) There's a new toggle: T for TileImage (NEW | OLD) I think this line in TileImage is the culprit: _max2dDriver.SetTransform 1,0,0,1 ... should probably be _max2dDriver.SetTransform 1,0,0,0 Grey, yes it looks like I'll stick with fmod, if only for the streaming music right now. It only took me an hour to get going. I haven't used all of the functions, but the wrapper is good and there was only one thing that didn't work as expected. I'll update the fmod thread/zip with what I've learned. The standard fmod documentation is pretty good, too. I probably won't use it for sound FX yet unless I get some complaints on that. But the $100 will be worth it to me. As it is, I blew 2 days on the OpenAL thing which is almost the same cost in terms of time. Also, GrubbyGames uses it (fmodex) in Professor Fizzwizzle so I figure if it works for an audience as wide as theirs, there's no reason to waste any more time trying something else. |
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| Still the same, I'm afraid. |
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| So, the scanlines spilled over the border with both OLD and NEW tileimage? And the red zone didn't spill over... just the scanlines? If so, then the last option is that could be it is the SetAlpha on the scanlines. Judging by the main menu screen, SetScale could also be messing with the viewport, so maybe it's any transform? I've updated the test app if you're still willing to test. =) If that doesn't work... well, I guess I'll have to change my rendering routines, but that probably won't happen until after the release. |
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| I haven't read all the posts in here, so these may be duplicates, but I have two issues with sound: When I have the sound turned down or off, it still blares at full volume on the first two screens and during the "shuffling games" phase. If I quit from a game, the music kicks on as it dumps me out at the main menu. When I collect the socks bonus in Electro Zombies, the sounds turns on and keeps going until I finish the level. SpaceAce |
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| Hi, SpaceAce, I just updated the build to fix those issues. =) |
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| agent4125: Yeah I was considering FMOD for the sound effects because all the other drivers (FreeAudio/OpenAL/Direct Sound) seem to have other issues in different OSs/PCs. Loads of professional games use it. |
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| So, the scanlines spilled over the border with both OLD and NEW tileimage? And the red zone didn't spill over... just the scanlines? Correct. The blue border is displayed correctly over the red zone, at all times. It's just the scanlines that misbehave. It's still the same with the latest test app, too.TBH, I'm not sure there's anything you can do to remedy this in your code, as it would seem to be a problem with some combo of my GFX drivers, DX version, OS. Or, maybe bmax has a bug when working with that combo? Has anyone else reported this same problem? |
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| For all those poor osx users out there, here at least is some audio enjoyment... *tiditididum* ;O) http://www.tammura.at/%7esid/sidplay/SIDPLAY-3.4.1.dmg.gz http://www.m-wollnik.de/sid/lazyjones.sid |
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| Oh what a great retro game(s). I love it. Very nice gameplay and i like the style. Cool! |
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| Thanks, Blitzblaster. =) @Grey, I should probably use it for the FX too, but I haven't heard any complaints yet. I looked through the API for playing Samples, and it looked pretty straightforward. @10p, I was hoping there could be a simple workaround, since not all viewports seem to be failing. But I guess for now, at least it's easy to switch to OpenGL in the options. Thanks for your help on this. @taumel, the musician who's doing the music for JJ did a very good Lazy Jones remix: Makke's Album |
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| I just got around to playing this. Very nice and congrats! Looks like you're gonna have a great seller there. |
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| Great job man... Love it! Especially love the name 'Asto Terrestrial' - made me belly-laugh. Gameplay seems well-balanced, the transitions and effects are really nice. |
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| Hi agent4125! I can`t collect the dots on this position. I can`t play the level finish`d. The player is to big for the this. Look!  |
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| I can`t collect the dots on this position. I can`t play the level finish`d. The player is to big for the this. Look! Um, you do know the game plays in a kind of forced perspective 3D, right? This means ET's head can appear to hit the holes, but it's actually not - if you see what I mean. You basically just have to make sure ET's feet don't hit the holes. |
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| so i found it, yes it is a 3D look. Thanks for the info. |
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| @Blitzblaster, I just tested the game myself to ensure big10p was right, you need to appreciate the fact its only the players feet that need to fit between the holes. The top two thirds of his body can touch the holes. Brilliant game agent. |
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| yes, i found it. Many thanks.....great game. Yeah! |
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| Thanks. Yeah, I had to make it *almost* as frustrating as the original. =) |
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| i think....when i buy this game, i have not enough time for my own games productions :).... |
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| OH It's ET, the Atari landfill, aha. I never played the original... |
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| I just updated the Demo. It's got more polish AND... (drumroll) ... Anchovies! Website: joystickjohnny.com Are YOU going to let Big10p's reign go unchallenged?! (yes I'm talking to you) Join the scoreboard: BLITZ ... and end the tyranny! (note: you will need to delete previous versions) |
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I've just added scoreboard badges! Click on my badge below to claim your own, if you have a score in the system. Just scroll to the bottom. (sorry 10p, I removed numbers from the high score system. I can change your initials to BTP or something if you want.) |
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| Aw, I liked my 10p scoreboard name. BTP or BIG will be fine, though. Personally, I prefered the fries to the anchovies. They were easier to see. ;) |
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| whoah.... get out of my head! wow.... this was like dejavu or something. I am (was??) going to code a similar gaming experience, but I'm not so sure anymore! :) lol.. GREAT demo, congrats! |
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| The only thing in this new version that I find somewhat disappointing is that "Axel F" is missing... :) Love that tune... |
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| Axel F? I don't remember hearing that tune in the old version. I thought all the tunes were original?! |
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| All the tunes are original, but I had an Axel F mod in the original prototype that I posted a while back. =) On a related note, the 3rd tune that Makke is working on is currently themed "Ferris Bueller in space"... inspired by the "Oh Yeah" song which was also in the prototype. The middle tune, which is finished now, is sort of in the style of Human League. |
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