[T-Bone]

Updated: August 3, 2011

- Dragon Warrior - Map is currently being generated to match that of the NES DW1 Overworld Map.
- Mega Man Omega - Bug Fixes.
- Super Mario for MegaZeux - A Demo is currently being packaged together for release. Two stages playable.
- The Legend of Zelda: On Hold.
- Steel Cell - On Hold.
- A Hero's Utopia - Many new improvements.
- Side Draft - Player Controls are currently being rewritten to avoid further crashes.
- Megazeux World - Enemy Battles have been improved. More overworld map work done.
- Eight Shades of Evil - Player controls improved.
- Starcraft for MegaZeux - Discontinued. There were about 7 or 8 ".MZX" project files of many different test runs for this game. Too complex to continue.


For more information on the currently development of my games:

http://teabone.awardspace.com

EDIT:

There may be more discontinuations to come. Most likely will not be completing Steel Cell at all. Not even a demo. Its just taking too long to create animations for each movement. The games that I promise to finish are Side Draft, MZX World, Mega-Man Omega and Dragon Warrior. I will be making a DEMO for Super Mario MZX when the time comes, as well as Eight Shades of Evil and ZZTechris. Right now, (like as in right now 5:04PM EST) I'm working on MZX World.

This post has been edited by T-Bone: 21 June 2013 - 05:37 AM

[ThDPro]

Starcraft for MZX didn't work out? Man I was OBSESSED with the idea of an MZX RTS for a long time and come up with a half decent start on an engine. I'm sure it's possible, but with so many projects, I dunno.

[T-Bone]

ThDPro, on 05 August 2011 - 06:10 AM, said:

Starcraft for MZX didn't work out? Man I was OBSESSED with the idea of an MZX RTS for a long time and come up with a half decent start on an engine. I'm sure it's possible, but with so many projects, I dunno.

I made many different types of engines for it. It was entirely composed with robots. I'm sure these days with sprites it be even easier to pull off... I just don't have the time to work on something that hard to replicate.

Last night i worked on Super Mario for MZX. Added new ways for the enemies to be controlled, in movement and animations. Its getting more complex but the out come is soooo soooo good and smooth

I'll be making a section of my website dedicated to the Super Mario for MZX project alone since I've been working on it for over 10 years solid. As depressing as that sounds. I was doing a radio show recently with some chip-tune artists from Toronto that actually do shows around North America where they play/make 8-bit chip-tune music using some homebrew software on a cartridge in two game boys. I showed them Super Mario for MZX and they don't believe what they are seeing was ANSI at all. That little bit of nerdy shock has encouraged me to continue doing what I have been for over a decade.

[T-Bone]

Updates:

Steel Cell is discontinued.
Blood in Berlin on hold.


Super Mario (for MZX)

I'll be doing some travels starting next week so before then I'd like to get a few things worked on. I plan to start working on a new Super Mario stage for SM4MZX this weekend. This new stage should introduce some types of enemies. Going to be looking at how to make stages more difficult, preventing the playing from doing just a hop and skip across an entire stage.

I've been programming up a storm on many new enemies. On the Super Mario for MZX website I'm working on you will be able to see the class of each enemy to see which is strongest and read a little about each and their weaknesses. You can check out this link to see the current table of enemies:

http://teabone.award...4mzx_enemy.html

Several new bugs have surfaced, such as coins and score being reset back to ZERO when you die or beat a stage. Ducking doesn't do much... since the Mario Sprite is still two spaces tall. So I may have to redesign him into a smaller size when he ducks... more like SMW rather than the SMB3 model I have been using. Stupid shit like that mostly, I hope to fix that all this weekend as well.

There is a strong possibility that the multiplayer option will be in the final game. Right now, you can select either Mario or Luigi as playable characters. In the end, I may just make Luigi just available to just a second player, if the two player mode has been activated. It would not be hard at all to make other player characters. As long as they are the same height and width, graphically, as Mario and Luigi. I even questioned adding Geno from SMRPG for a 3rd player option and Princess Peach for a 4th.

The soundtracks for each level are being finalized. Been editing them so they loop better and are all at appropriate sound levels (-12db peaks).

[T-Bone]

Hey all! Just returned to Ontario, Canada from British Columbia. I have decided NOT to go to Japan in the coming weeks due to a conflict with my studies. As cool as it would be to show one of the media arts centres i was going to visit what I've done with SM4MZX using ANSI; i think its best that i stay in Canada till im done studies.

This also means more time for MegaZeux!

[T-Bone]

Unsure of how many of you are still following the progress of Super Mario for MegaZeux; but regardless here's some updates!

I have fixed dozens upon dozens of bugs. Without getting into too much meaningless detail about it, in short - things are working fantastically.

I have gotten rid of a ton of things to make way for a lot of new things. For starters, I removed Luigi completely. Also removed the multi-player function entirely.

The main menu now consist of a start button, load button and option button.

- The load game screen will allow for you to choose a save slot to load.

- I will soon make it so that whenever you start a game from sketch, you are asked to make a save slot/account and title it. This way you can continue a game later on without using the built in MZX save and load functions. This way you can load a game from the beginning of a stage rather than in the middle of one.

- For the option button on the main menu you will be able to change certain options in the config file for the game. Such things as key configurations and etc.

Some more features include new enemies and new items. Also added new abilities to enemies and Mario himself. Mario can now grab starman and hunt down enemies and kick them out of his way, without getting hurt. This is a new state called starpower. The starpower state is very beneficial to Mario. It lasts for a pretty good period of time before wearing away. Another state for Mario I have added is called frozen. There are some new enemies that can actually freeze Mario. When Mario is frozen he will turn blue and be unable to move. This is a state that lasts only for a few seconds but can be very dangerous if applied while jumping over a dangerous pit or while an enemy is approaching. If Mario is hurt he will become unfrozen, but still sustain damage.

I have added many new enemies and removed a select few. Just letting you all know that this game is still being worked on and has not been forgotten! I generally put in about 8 hours a week on it.

This post has been edited by T-Bone: 27 September 2011 - 10:40 PM

[T-Bone]

In the attachment here is a screen shot of a test screen of some of the new sprites and terrain im testing out. As simple as everything looks it actually takes quite a lot of work per sprite to design and colour correctly so they look proper. I do not use any assisting tools when recreating these sprites. Everything is draw pixel by pixel. Since these are several pixel sizes smaller than the Nintendo and Super Nintendo sprites, I have to think creatively how to make them look simular while capping off about 2 or 3 original rows of pixel information. In the attachement entitled compare you can see the comparison between the Nintendo and Super Nintendo sprites and mine, up close.

Attached thumbnail(s)

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This post has been edited by T-Bone: 29 September 2011 - 11:48 PM

[T-Bone]

Now that most bugs have been finally fixed and I have a big enough rooster of enemies... I think now is the time i finally start crafting out some decent stages. Thinking about making about 8 worlds, with about 5 stages each. There will be airships, secrets and boss stages as well!

[RyanThunder]

T-Bone, on 29 September 2011 - 07:50 PM, said:

Now that most bugs have been finally fixed and I have a big enough rooster of enemies... I think now is the time i finally start crafting out some decent stages. Thinking about making about 8 worlds, with about 5 stages each. There will be airships, secrets and boss stages as well!

This sounds really ambitious. Are you sure you'll be able to see this to its end?

[Lachesis]

T-Bone, on 29 September 2011 - 05:50 PM, said:

Now that most bugs have been finally fixed and I have a big enough rooster of enemies... I think now is the time i finally start crafting out some decent stages. Thinking about making about 8 worlds, with about 5 stages each. There will be airships, secrets and boss stages as well!

I love games with airship engines! When do you think it'll be done?

[T-Bone]

Did a couple tests years ago with stages with moving screens. In MegaZeux (When not using pixel percise movement) it looks very choppy. So I may have to make a stage like an airship scrollable by the player or... have it like super mario 1 where the player can move the screen but he just cant move it back.

[T-Bone]

Got bored last night after playing FALL OUT 3 for the first time. Decided to play around in MegaZeux, using similar systems I've learned about while playing FALL OUT. These little interesting elements I've noticed a lot of MegaZeuxers are leaving out of their games. These elements can really help bring realism to any game you are creating. Here's some of the elements I have played around with:

HEARING

Given enemies hearing ranges. So if a loud noise is made they come to investigate the source, if in range. The player too has a hearing range. I've used this element in many of my games including Super Mario. The player shouldn't hear something that's far away. HOWEVER when I was playing fallout i noticed that when a very loud noise has been generated far away from the player, you can still hear it... just faintly. So I added a couple different sound effects, of different distances to help add depth to any game. If a loud event has occurred, out of the players range of sight and hearing. Enemies will still interactive with the occurrence. For instance if an enemy has been shot from far away and its death is noisy, Enemies may hear the sound of of the impacts not the shots and become alert to a hostile situation. For fun, I played around with environmental noise that the player can hear if in range. A group of crows can be seen and heard "cawing" on top of electric poles and on top of tree tops. If your near a dead body, a distance of about 5 spaces you will hear the sound of flies. This only occurs however if the body has been diseased for a period of time.

When you walk, your footsteps sound effects change depending on what your walking on - grass, dirt, stone, glass, rubble, wood...etc. this is a technique I've been using for many years in my top down games.

SIGHT

I think we've all out done the use of RANDNB and SEEK directional commands when creating an enemy that is chasing the player. I've decided to create an AI, that gives the enemies a sight radius and memory. If the enemy has spotted you within his sight range (all enemies have various sight-range) he will then memorize, breifly the location he saw you at, and he will go an investigate that location - even if you have you moved away from that location.

Enemies can also seek out other foes and attack them, if they spot eachother. Rare occations.

INTERACTION

One of the neat things I've been playing around with is the ability to interactive with everything, even terrain. By pressing against objects, like a fence, will generate a noise with a specific range of sound that can be heard by enemies or startle creatures. Pressing ENTER will hit or grab objects. This is a great way to get the attention of an enemy and distract it. It is also a way to literally "touch" anything even enemies.

When you come across a container, body or box - you have the ability to search it. If you have special skills such as medicine, you get an extra options to examine dead bodies to determine the cause of death. When you search an object, all its contents will be categorized and it will display an amount to the right of each. So you can decide to take a specific number of an item rather than just 1 item that is worth an amount. you also have the option to TAKE ALL. This option will take all items and all of each of those items.

WEIGHT

I've given every item a weight value. So say if you have 6 Pistols and each weight a value of 3. This would mean you are carrying a total weight value of 18 (6 pistols x weight value of 3). You then have the ability to go into your inventory and remove certain items or remove a couple units of one item, to lighten your load. Some items are special and you cannot drop them. I may make all items CUSTOMFLOOR, this why they will forever will remain on the maps and you can re-pick them up again later if needed.

RUNNING

You can run by holding down the LEFT SHIFT key while moving. If your items total a wight value that is greater than your weight carrying limit, you will not be able to run. Running increases your chances of being spotted by a scouting enemy. I may add the ability to even crawl as well to help reduce your chances of being seen by an enemy, even more.

WEAPONS

When you fire a weapon, when the bullet impacts anything, a unique impact should is generated. This adds so much more realism to any MegaZeux game. With eneimes just the sound of a grunt isn't all that great. The combination of various pain sounds and an impact sound depending on what type of weapon hit them... sounds so much greater.

---

I can post a DEMO of this if anyone is interested. It will seriously help your games a lot!

This post has been edited by T-Bone: 17 October 2011 - 11:08 PM

[T-Bone]

Busy with school, won't be around for a while.

[NoahSoft]

Good luck with school T-bone!!

[T-Bone]

I'm back! (did I ever really leave?)

[T-Bone]

Got bored this weekend so I decided to touch every unfinished. Added more stages to some, fixed bugs for others. The game nearest to seeing a full version this month may actually be MZX World. Not really the game i want to represent my work, but its the closest one to seeing its end of production.

[KKairos]

The best MZX game to represent your work is the one that's finished and good and polished. Even if it's not your preferred project.

Also, I personally have that as one of my preferred "if T-Bone releases this I'll play it" projects.

[T-Bone]

Working on the Dragon Warrior maps. Takes a lot of time to get each tile exact. Fixed up the palette some more. Also change up the design of the tiles a bit more to match the NES ones better.






While I work on building the maps, I'm also working on making the teleportations. Making sure the player teleports properly in and out of towns/castles/caves. Lots of coding to go before this game sees its demo. The battle scenes are still a bit buggy so after I get the teleportations completed that will be the next step to fix.

Feedback would be nice. I'm hoping I'm going the right direction with this one. I'm wondering if I should make the story and characters the same as the NES game or make this a continuation or inbetween story.

This post has been edited by T-Bone: 13 January 2012 - 10:52 AM

[Lachesis]

I dunno, if you're going to make a straight out port you should probably save yourself some effort and write something to pull the map data out of a DQ ROM, otherwise I'd suggest making an original world

[T-Bone]

True enough it takes about a weeek to do a town / castle. The overworld has taken many months already and its still not done lol

[T-Bone]

I'd say a quarter of the overworld map is complete. I have now made it so depending where you are on the map, determines what type of enemies you may encounter.

I also made it so when you die now you don't automatically just go to a gameover screen. You are instead transported to the King who gives you another chance on your quest. You level is reduced by 1 for each time you die.

[T-Bone]

MZXWORLD UPDATES

I've been playing a lot of Skyrim lately and I must say it has taught me a lot and inspired me as well. I've added sub-quests onto main quests. Also gave the player the option to conduct to quest in which ever manner he wishes. Nearly all interactive characters in the game will have quest options for the player.

You can sleep in the game now which helps recover health. You can rent out a room for a day in an Inn. I've added the ability to purchase homes as well, so you can freely sleep in your own bed without paying each time you wish to sleep. I'm considering adding more benefits to sleeping. Thinking of adding a stamina gauge. This would affect your performance in battles and perhaps your ability to push forests and swim.

The battle engine has been improved immensely. Added more realistic sounds and more complex equations for dealing with damage and effects. If your character is stronger than the enemy, your chance of blocking is increased; also your chances of running away. I've added a messenger to let you know how much damage is being dealt by the player and the enemy.

The skill of bribery allows you to attempt to bribe your way out of a battle, during battle. This however only works with humanoids. If your level is considerably lower than the enemy, you at a higher risk of getting refused. There is a random counter here however for some enemies that when you attempt a bribe and get denied, the enemy will give you the opportunity to walk away from the battle without charging you. This only occurs if your level is greater than the enemy.

I've added some skills now that the enemies use. These skills do different effects and deal damages with additional points based on what level the enemy is. I may also give the player these same skills as well and possible resistances to them too. Currently you have 3 options of attack "Punch, Shoot, Bomb". I'm thinking of changing this into just the word attack and have the ability to equip a weapon such as punch, shoot and bomb. This will free up some room for me to possibly add a skill use option during battles.

Plan to add various armors for head,body,feet and arms. As well as jewels with effects and resistances. what I really like about Skyrim is the ability to improve on items and enchanting them. I may considering adding such a feature in later versions after I have made a full version.

This post has been edited by T-Bone: 19 August 2015 - 03:52 AM

[T-Bone]

MZXWORLD UPDATES

New Spells and Effects

Some of these were inspired by MegaZeux's Ring Effects

Fighting Spells

Halo - Like ZZT Bullets
Fire - Damaging, Possibility of inflicting Burn
Burn - Enemy will suffer residual damage
Frostbite - Damaging, Possibility of inflicting Freeze
Freeze - Enemy will not be able to attack
Poison - Enemy will loss health each turn
Avalanche - inflicts a range of damage
Blind - Enemy will be more likely to miss
Blast - inflicts a lot of damage
Stay - blocks the ability to run away
Banish - Banish a Dragon, in its replace will be an undead foe
Summon - Summon a Dragon in replace of your enemy
Wind - I haven't yet figured out what wind's effects will do

Power Up Spells

Heal - Restore some health
Restore - Restore 100% of health
Invinco - Increased attack and defence, enemies more likely to flee
Fire Block - Fire resistance is increased
Ice Block - Ice resistance is increased

Skills

Lavawalker - Allows for the Player to walk through lava
Swimming - You can swim in shallows and higher levels you can swim in the deepsea


Some More Additions

Books

Added books you can find. Each book will educate you about various enemies which will unlock your ability to see important information about them, such as their health during battles and even how much experience they may have. Books are also a way of learning new skills such as swimming, trade, bribe and even how to cast spells. Books are kept in your inventory and you can read them at any time and even collect more than one book of the same volume. You can sell them to book collectors to make money after you have read them.

More Enemies...

There is now a total of 62 different kinds of enemies you may encounter. Should be enough variety to keep you in hopes of always finding a new type of creature to slay.

This post has been edited by T-Bone: 27 January 2012 - 04:18 AM

[Maxim]

T-Bone, on 18 January 2012 - 05:41 PM, said:

I've decided NOT to keep the game as simple as I originally had planned.

00:27 27/01/12 HELLSYSTEM: WARNING!!
00:28 27/01/12 HELLSYSTEM: BAD IDEA! SYSTEM CRASH IMMINENT
00:28 27/01/12 HELLSYSTEM: MEGAZEUX WORLD IS UNFINISHABLE NOW!!!

[Old-Sckool]

Maxim, on 27 January 2012 - 12:28 AM, said:

00:27 27/01/12 HELLSYSTEM: WARNING!!
00:28 27/01/12 HELLSYSTEM: BAD IDEA! SYSTEM CRASH IMMINENT
00:28 27/01/12 HELLSYSTEM: MEGAZEUX WORLD IS UNFINISHABLE NOW!!!

don't mind me just doing my job

This.

[vsevolod]

T-Bone, on 17 October 2011 - 03:07 PM, said:

Got bored last night after playing FALL OUT 3 for the first time. Decided to play around in MegaZeux, using similar systems I've learned about while playing FALL OUT. These little interesting elements I've noticed a lot of MegaZeuxers are leaving out of their games. These elements can really help bring realism to any game you are creating. Here's some of the elements I have played around with:

HEARING
SIGHT
INTERACTION
WEIGHT
RUNNING
WEAPONS
---

I can post a DEMO of this if anyone is interested. It will seriously help your games a lot!

I'm interested in this, FWIW. I wish there were more game-format demonstrations of game design concepts and Robotics, especially since it's grown so much since I last used it.

[T-Bone]

They are systems I've created to emulate from real games. When you say more game-format demostrations what are you interested in seeing? Like tutorials?

This post has been edited by T-Bone: 29 January 2012 - 03:28 AM

[vsevolod]

Yeah, I specifically mean, demonstrations [of game design concepts & of Robotics] in the format of a playable world. Seeing an abject lesson of a principle helps for me, can't speak for anyone else though.

[T-Bone]

I used to put comments in all of my games' robots to help describe certain areas of coding, what its for and what it does. I should continue to do that for future projects and maybe add it to some current ones. Could help serve as not only a learning tool but if someone sees a problem they might even be able to locate the problem in the code, themselves.

[T-Bone]

Posted removed.

This post has been edited by T-Bone: 19 August 2015 - 03:52 AM