Photos for this post are at https://www.facebook.com/retroUSB...

I don't think I can yet coherently code (drugs are good mkay), but here is the general plan.  In January I was looking for something nobody has done and was interested in angled surfaces like Marble Madness, Kirbys Dream Course, Monkey Ball, etc.  Brad Lizard and Orab have also worked on isometric drawing.  A Ski Free type game has always been on my list and previously I had made a proto that was multiplayer, but that didn't work well.  The speed differences between the players was a big problem to where whoever was slow essentially could never catch up.  They just endlessly teleport like RC Pro AM.

Combining the angles with Ski Free turns it more into an exploring or casual trip down.  The problem with those games is they only do flat or 45 degree angles, so it doesn't really look 3d.  There is where the graph paper comes in!  Had to figure out how to draw 3d terrain with tiles instead of lines, how many angles I could get, how to calculate the height or slope at a point on screen, etc.  Once I got to the "yes this will work" point on paper I pretty much put it down until today.  The next step is many hours of programming before seeing anything on screen...

The first ROM is available is from that 2014 effort at Ski Free.  It endlessly scrolls with randomly generated obstacles.  Collisions and speed changes works but that is all.  I don't remember how to get the 2nd player now.  Support the Assembly Line podcast at https://www.patreon.com/nesassemb... to get access to all the ROMs for this project, including the final game!

Do we get to play as Santa? Or how about we play as The Grinch and we're trying to get to the North Pole to take out Santa? So obstacles could be Christmas items. Various scores get you to a certain point in the game. Just spit ballin

if your looking to do 3d here are some games/homebrews that did good on a 3d effect.










personally i would mind seeing 8 bit xmas version snake rattle n roll  

None of those have actual hills tho. Nessenstein is extruded 2d, Days of Thunder is like a prerecorded movie, and World Runner is stretching/compressing a flat terrain. Snake Rattle n Roll is the closest but like the others still only uses 45 degree slopes. The atlas maps of it are awesome! http://vgmaps.com/Atlas/NES/Snake...

Good work as always Brian, look forward to this year as I do every year. I still need to pickup an '17 cart at some point. Missed that one  

Still shows available on their site

Gold to know!!

It is very weird to be dumb but smart enough to know you are dumb   The drugs took away more brain power than I was expecting so I have only been able to focus enough to figure this stuff out in the last few days. I would start writing down how to calculate the terrain but just go in circles for an hour and make no progress. Now I have an excel file that generates the random slopes, and a website (leftover from pinball layouts) that draws the data so I can see if it is correct. You can see the current version at https://retrousb.com/x8/slope/slo... Use - and + to zoom in lots, then rezise the window so you can see 32 x 28 blue squares and that is the size of the NES screen. There are 65000 points so it could take a while... I might need to change the randomizer so there are fewer flat and very steep areas. Next up is writing the NES code to draw the landscape.

You wanna talk problems? I made a great DMC of a donkey but can't get a clean jingle bell sound (official music track listing in 37 days).

Good luck doing the lord's work, Brian!!!

What if you hop tile to tile with other players down an isometric snowy mountain/city/christmas-y place while grabbing power ups, and trying to sabotage each other? Planting traps on squares, sliding attacks that travel across a row of tiles, behind you, or at an angle. Plus you gotta have some snowballs you can throw at each other! Maybe the goal could be collecting stuff on the way down or just first one to the bottom. The collecting stuff along the way could help solve the problem with people getting stuck too far back since everyone would have to stop and move towards the must-have collectibles. It'd be fun trying to collect stuff along the way, but as you all get close to the bottom trying to be first for extra points or something.

If someone was intentionally not moving forward and stuck against the back of the screen the other players could push against the bottom of the screen a few times to damage the lagger against the top/back and knock him up a few squares so he could get his rear in gear. With this you could eventually TKO them this way so they couldn't keep doing it. Plus it'd be funny. =)

Someone should notify Commander Santa! Heck he should be a playable character. Actually it'd be cool if some of the NA members were playable or secret unlockable characters. Can I play as NGD?

Just my thoughts! Looking forward to the next X-Mas game! =)

According to the RetroUSB facebook page this game is coming out mid-late October. Can't wait to play, wooo

There's a nice vid of the process on retrousb's FB page. It seems like a good time to give the track listing:

1. All I want for Christmas
2. Jolly Ol Saint Nicholas
3. Dominic the Christmas Donkey
4. Winter Wonderland

I'm pretty sure those are correct!

I was just thinking about the X-mas carts, and what new you could do. Have you ever considered using the expansion audio? Obviously, you'd want a switch, since many people don't have the expansion audio mod. Also, you'd need to integrate new chips in, since you probably mostly use a new template every year. Was just a thought, since you've been so creative with these in the past.

Will this be available at PRGE?

Any updates on the XMAS dev?

I just posted a (maybe?) final ROM over at the Assembly Line patreon page.

I just tried the latest ROM from Patreon. I enjoyed it; really nice work! Laugh-out-loud too the first time I (ahem) died.

One question: I see it's keeping score and that the score resets after crashing. Is there a highest score display or a high score list? If there is I wasn't able to figure out how to get it to show.

Thanks!

Any word on when they go up for sale this year since the ROM (seems) finished?

8-bit Xmax 2018 is a Ski game (not unlike the free Win3.1 Skifree app) up on the "hidden" page at RetroUSB, so shouldn't be long. Oddly enough, it's November and 8-bit Xmas 2017 is still available. Presumably no pinup posters this year. Was 2016 Pinball the end of an era?  
  Anywho, looking forward to this. Believe it or not, I had fun on thd Win3.1 game bitd. I wonder if the pooping dog and the abominable snowman make a return?

Been busy with my second hobby (ceramics) plus a full time job, so my free time is divided.  

Sale page is up!

Wooo! And the Christmas cards have returned!

I opted out of the poster when ordering because I dont know what it looks like. Anyone have a pic of it?

OMG GET YOUR SHOES OFF THE COUCH!

That's funny. I wish she had on some muddy Rick James boots.