Hi all,


Something like a couple of years ago, maybe a bit less, before discovering that Pirates! was ported to the NES, and that Koei kind of games existed on the NES, I was wondering about designing a kind of hybrid gameplay Zelda/Civilization/Pirates! game with a RPG taste and a final goal [and, by the way, while writing algorithms and wondering about how to make it work within the NES limits, I independently thought of some solutions (i.e. using numbers instead of graphically displayed units, leader units with stats, or categories such as gold, food, wood, metal being related to numbers of towns, farms, mines and workshops) which were already adopted in Koei kind of games].


However, later on I opted for S&R, a more FF like (if you want) type of RPG, and then made a SimCity like game, and another simpler to handle TBS game, which both were finished and sold but still unpublished.

While cleaning up some PC folders today, I bumped again in some stuff I designed, which I have nothing interesting to do with, since I definitely lack time and energy to make such game myself now. So, I save you from all the demo roms, spread sheets and algorithms I made, but I think that maybe someone willing to make a NES game could find some of these graphic tiles, icons, and fontsets useful, so here they are in a .zip file, in bmp or png formats.

To download: click on demo.zip in the bottom footer of this post.

Feel free to use them, or just be inspired by them.
If you let me know about it is welcome, but not required.

Enjoy!

Cheers!  

Neat!

For now  . I'd expect at least one of those to change this year. More news in good time.

I got "File Not Found"

So did I, then I switched to Vintage mode and it worked.

Thanks Nathan!

It is just demo stuff, nothing special. Another possible solution would be to use the backgrounds just to make the edge of the map, and use sprites for the towns little flags on the map. Like the crew members on top (you can see a little blue sprite on the map).

ZERO SPRITE CHECK CODE
- When 0 sprite (the ship) hits the shore (sea is background color) then set FLAG_0 to 01.
(I assume that this would work, I never used the sprite zero collision so far)

COLLISION CHECK CODE
- Is FLAG_0 set?
-- YES -> bring back the ship to its previous position, then reset the flag to 00.
In any case, afterwards check ship sprite collision with towns sprites to enter towns.

JOYPAD CODE
- If on sea...
- If in town...

What mostly made this kind of game impossible time wise to do for me, it is the AI, and mostly to test such AI, and also to make it fit given the little RAM space to store data. Well, an AI like Pirates! which just randomly acts, it is way more possible; but an AI like Civ, which "conscientiously" reacts and interacts with what you do in game, needs so much testing and also likely more RAM to store all the info and make it work nicely and coherently, without being easy for the player to set an always working little trap against it strategy and always win the game (with tons of boredom). I remember we discussed this already once, and I think your advice to avoid some complexity is taking out the city micromanagement, it was a good opinion worth consideration. Impossible is nothing, but there are things which are unlikely and unreasonably time consuming to do. Besides from the AI, to code a TBS is pretty easy (if anything can be easy when programming for the NES). Puzzles (think about TETRIS for instance) are so much easier under this point of view, because is you against the rules, and not against another player who must react to your strategy choices and defeat it, so there is not an AI. Testing is still needed to see if it is challenging enough, but that's it.

However, back to the graphics attached, I think that the two fontsets are the most complete thing in there. And maybe the map edge is good enough. All the rest is just testing place holder testing material, to be polished out. Can still be useful, and most icons are maybe usable too in the way they are.

If you want too, I can publish some other screen shots of that demo ROM, the in game pedia with units, wonders and so on was almost complete. Also, yes, as you can see for the graphics, the project changed directions many times, from something more Civ, to something more like Pirates!

Just let me know if you wish to see more screen shoots of what can be done with those few tiles and fonts.



Great News Beau!  

If to be published it is the one I think, ie. the TBS city management game, this is one example of what I was saying above: it is the game that cost me most efforts to finish up, and likely the most complex thing that I will ever code, but it was doable because when playing it is just "you against the game rules", there is not an AI. I am really looking forwards for people reactions to that game once published! I still think about S&R as the game I really mostly cared to make for the sake of showing myself that I could make an RPG, and probably the game which I designed that I mostly would be happy to hear people liking it and playing it, but the feedback on this other game is also very expected, I really wish to know what NES player would think about it. Can't wait to see its release! Thanks for the news!  



Thanks Brad.