Iceblox Plus

[KarlH]

I've ported my C64 version of Iceblox Plus to the Atari ST. It runs fine on an emulated 1040 at 60 Hz (Hatari for MacOS), but should hopefully work on other related configurations as well.

snap1.png

snap6.png

[dma]

Woh nice, will try it on a real ST right now.

[EDIT] It works perfectly.
Cool Pengo-like game! Graphics and animation are superb. Audio is nicely fitting, with YM music & sfx along.

Remarks :
- The music (de-)activation function mapped to fire button is a little weird, it would be better to map it on a keyboard key.
- I haven't found any pause key, it would be a nice addition as well.
(also note: the archive is plagued with those Mac OS directories and files )

Congrats, and many thanks for this nice game!

[christos]

I had pengo on the A8. Let's see if i will like it on the ST.

Congrats on the release. This was the year of ST gaming

[junosix]

Just had a quick go. Nicely animated, graphics are well varied and the music is really cute. Great game, nice work!

[Atarieterno]

Excellent job!
Thank you very much.

[dma]

Had a longer play as it was still on (looping on the nice demonstration screen).
Reached level 14, cool variations on the level graphics.
Also that rotating seeking foe animation is mesmerizing.

[dhedberg]

Wow! This looks too cute to be ignored! Will download and try it out! Thanks!

[penguin]

Crashes for me on Hatari 2.1 if the emulated ST has more than 1 MB. I do like the level graphics though

[Eero Tamminen]

Nice game and cute graphics! Works fine with EmuTOS and on STE & TT in addition to normal TOS and ST.

Minor issues with the game:
* Doesn't change resolution to required ST-low on startup, if it's something else
* With 4MB or more ST-RAM, game crashes at startup to bus error at memory end (bus error at 4MB with 4MB of RAM, at 8MB with 8MB of RAM)
* Although game is played with joystick, one needs to start game with mouse button click. Could it be changed to start with joystick fire too?

[KarlH]

Nice game and cute graphics! Works fine with EmuTOS and on STE & TT in addition to normal TOS and ST.

Minor issues with the game:
* Doesn't change resolution to required ST-low on startup, if it's something else
* With 4MB or more ST-RAM, game crashes at startup to bus error at memory end (bus error at 4MB with 4MB of RAM, at 8MB with 8MB of RAM)
* Although game is played with joystick, one needs to start game with mouse button click. Could it be changed to start with joystick fire too?

I'll fix the resolution bug. The bus error sounds strange. Is there a known cause for this?

There is no need to start the game with the mouse. The joystick fire button works, at least on my computer.

[darwinmac]

I liked the game. I do hope the game is fixed to handle 4MB of ST-RAM or more. The graphics were very cute. I enjoyed the game and found it very playable.

I hope Eero's suggestions could be implemented. I noticed the source code appears to be in the Ingredients folder. I extracted the ZIP file with ST-ZIP since Ingredients is more than an 8.3 filename. I was not sure what the game was expecting for the folder name on the ST.

This way, I could extract the game and make sure it played on the ST. Then, I created a new ZIP file that I used to create an ST image file for Hatari.

The biggest thing would be the elimination of the 4MB crash.

Bob C

[Stefan jL]

I like Pengo type of games a lot... thanks for this one Karl
The game crashes unless i use the joystick in the mouse port... thats the only problem i had.

Here is a video capture from a real ST.. 1mb, swedish TOS 1.04 and in 50 hz.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSGUsm06x-A

[Greenious]

Nice game and cute graphics! Works fine with EmuTOS and on STE & TT in addition to normal TOS and ST.

Minor issues with the game:
* Doesn't change resolution to required ST-low on startup, if it's something else
* With 4MB or more ST-RAM, game crashes at startup to bus error at memory end (bus error at 4MB with 4MB of RAM, at 8MB with 8MB of RAM)
* Although game is played with joystick, one needs to start game with mouse button click. Could it be changed to start with joystick fire too?

I'll fix the resolution bug. The bus error sounds strange. Is there a known cause for this?

There is no need to start the game with the mouse. The joystick fire button works, at least on my computer.

Yes, screen is usually placed just below memtop, and if you are not careful, you will write past the screen (when clearing screen for example), and thus beyond available memory, on machines with less than 4mb, it's no problem, but on 4mb machines this will cause a "hard" buserror.

It was very common with early ST games to have this bug, but they are all mostly fixed by now.

[KarlH]

Yes, screen is usually placed just below memtop, and if you are not careful, you will write past the screen (when clearing screen for example), and thus beyond available memory, on machines with less than 4mb, it's no problem, but on 4mb machines this will cause a "hard" buserror.

It was very common with early ST games to have this bug, but they are all mostly fixed by now.

Thanks! That made it a lot easier to find the problem.

Updated zip archive attached.

[Eero Tamminen]

There is no need to start the game with the mouse. The joystick fire button works, at least on my computer.

Oh cr*ap, you're right, sorry about the wrong info.

I use the USB joypad attached to my computer (with Hatari) so infrequently that I always forget its "X" button doesn't act as fire in Hatari, like is the case with the USB joypad attached to the Playstation. :-/

(Tthis definitely is not the first time I make this mistake. If somebody knows off-hand a way to permanently re-bind USB joypad buttons on Linux, I would be interested.)

[darwinmac]

@KarlH,

This version appears to fix both the resolution bug (having to start in ST Low) and crashing on systems with 4 MB of RAM. I also like the fact that it runs directly from a hard drive. Thanks for changing the game so quickly.

Bob C

[junosix]

Only one very small thing I spotted (this was playing the original upload) was when I collected the last coin on a level at the same time that one of the enemies got me. It looked like it started to play the first couple of frames of the death animation then the sprite turned normal again, and it registered the coin being picked up and I completed the level (the best way around for those two events to happen though!). I didn't see whether it had subtracted one of my lives.

[Stefan jL]

Junosix... it happened to me at least two times in the video i posted... i even used that "bug" to complete a level
As long as the iceblock melting animation has started of the last block you can't die... no real problem for the gameplay IMHO

[junosix]

Ah! Didn't watch the video. Yeah, it's no showstopping problem or anything

[CiH]

Damn, this looks good. 2018 was a great year for all sorts of Atari stuff.

[dma]

Ah yes, you don't have to "collect" the coins (as in staying near them when the ice has melted), just "freeing" them, OK.

To prevent the death/win resurrection situation, maybe the enemies could be made disappearing, when the last coin-block starts melting.
[edit2] This behaviour is similar on the also cool C64 version.

[edit] Also congrats to Karl Hörnell for coding on such a wide array of languages and environments: http://www.javaonthebrain.com/java/iceplus/devices.html

[Brume]

Very cool game, thank you for this port

Just a question for Karl Hörnell: who composed the music? Was it done by M.D. Smit or by you?

[Stefan jL]

Brume... check out the Atari Legend entry of Iceblox Plus for the answer
https://www.atarilegend.com/games/games ... me_id=7421

[Brume]

Stefan jL: yes, I've seen what you entered in AL, that's why i asked this question The main title says the music is composed by M.D. Smit, so it's confusing...

So M.D. Smit = Karl Hörnell?

[Stefan jL]

Read the "facts" section