168 replies to this topic

[Shockman]

What is the aspect ratio of your permanently rotated monitor?

 

This is not rotated inside the app. Sorry I did not make that clear. This version needs the system to be rotated for it. The point in this version is to have full scaling, where the already released version sticks to a 1 to 1 aspect ratio regardless of the monitor, and can not be scaled in this manor (16/10 to 10/16 for example)

 

If you want the full bezel to show you will want the version already released, If you want no bezel or the part of the bezel you can get (if you want absolute full screen) then you will want the one I'm working on, which is mainly for the ones that want to use a real (authentic, or custom) bezel.

 

This is what it looks like if your system is not rotated, and what the desktop mode would look like if tried to make a single version have both rotations.

[Shockman]

One new thing I did. Easy mode has larger collision masks for the good holes and smaller ones for the bad holes. So easy mode is easier still. If I knew randers' daughters' name, it would not be called easy mode. I'm just kidding. She played it on hard, and normal now is easier than easy mode was then, and easy would now be called kid's mode if anything else. It will apply better if I can get Zeke's Peak resources. Maybe an Ice Cold Root Beer version if I can't.

[xzotic]

Understand. That's great then. I'll await your new release for my already rotated display. It's a 16:10 (10:16 rotated).
Looking forward to testing it.

I'm enjoying the hard difficulty on the current release! It's very challenging....

I'm still awaiting my ICB control panel to arrive though to make the full ICB experience complete!

[Slydog43]

what do you mean your ICB control panel?  did you order a control panel for a stand up machine (real one?) or are you having one made for this game?

[xzotic]

what do you mean your ICB control panel?  did you order a control panel for a stand up machine (real one?) or are you having one made for this game?

Yes a real one from a real standup machine.

[Shockman]

Version 2.4 is up and there is a beta version of a full screen version for rotated monitors.

 

Of course the first version can be rotated too, and some might prefer it. It will show the whole bezel when it is on, but has a lot of blank space above and below at 10/16

 

- Fixed game over issue.

- Tweak to game over light sequence (not to be confused with the win light sequence). The lights don't start until the music does. The lights all light up the instant the music is over and the pop sounds, and the lights will stay off for a couple of seconds. 

- Changes again to skill level. There was so much friction on easy that the ball would not roll on a shallow slant. Hard is the same. Normal is .02 and Easy .1 These are drastic changes but normal is still noticeably easier than hard, and Easy is still very very easy. Also on easy the ball falls into the lit holes easier, and the unlit holes not as easy.

 

The only difference in the regular and full screen version, besides the display, is the .ini file. ICB.ini and ICB_FS.ini

 

Baring any bugs, this is the game behavior we want. Only the very difficult ball at the ends of a steeper bar issue remain.

Edited by Shockman, 17 April 2015 - 06:00 PM.

[bha19]

I have 2 more questions.

1) Does the game go on forever if you are good? I got 1 star and then a flashing star. I wound up with around 13,000 before I had to quit.

2) Did you say there was an easy and a hard mode and if so how do I enable this?

 

[Shockman]

Well the bonus countdown speeds up by ten every time the bar is reset. So no. I  don't know the formula a real machine uses. The bar will on it's own move at the same accelerating rate. There is no stopper. That reminds me that it needs one, just to stay off zero, but definitely to stay above negative numbers. There will come a point in the game where the bar is moving more on it's own than under your control, and the value of a hole, even if you could get the ball in, would be zero. I assume the high scorers are getting very low scores on the upper holes. So I assume some point in level 4 the timer value will go below zero which means a loop without a delay meaning a 900 point bonus could be gone in 1.3 seconds. But before that, when it is running at 5 you are talking about fraction of a second.

I can do it, so my next test will be to find out where to cut off the timer. I think about 30 points reduced every second and 3 bar movements will keep the game sustainable in playable form, so to have a killer point I would probably limit it to 100 points reduced each second (10 ticks) and a constantly raising bar. You know there are freaks that would go on scoring though.

 

Pressing F5 before ESC would have saved your game and you could continue it at any time by pressing F6. Even after playing more games. Even in the middle of a game.  It might make more sense to do it the way I did some other games I made. Pressing ESC if the game is not over saves it and it's back next run.

 

The options menu is Tab. There are 3 skill levels there, but easy should not count for someone that can score 13,000 on normal. They don't effect the possible extent of the game though. The bonus countdown is the same. The options menu also has settings for controller, balls per game, and clearing high score.

Edited by Shockman, 18 April 2015 - 09:11 PM.

[Shockman]

I have 2 more questions.

1) Does the game go on forever if you are good? I got 1 star and then a flashing star. I wound up with around 13,000 before I had to quit.

2) Did you say there was an easy and a hard mode and if so how do I enable this?

 

 

I want to expand on this.

 

It's an important point that I have thought of but never addressed. I just checked by setting the starting time to 1/2 second. There is not enough time between the game moving the bar up for the player to lower it. It'as in fact about the point that you can drop it only as far as it has risen before it rises again. It becomes like Tetris when the blocks fall faster than you can think. Again, this does not apply to the freaks. This is playable, and still winnable as long as you don't get above the lit hole. 

 

I also found a bug when the bonus was counting down that fast that stopped the bonus from counting down at all because of the auto bump of the bar. I fixed that.

 

The next version will have that fix, and some kind of limit to the speed of the bonus countdown and bar bump. I'm on the fence, but leaning towards a frantic pace, but not a killer event. The high score on a real one, I read, is 350,000 about. That guy might have lost his last ball, but he might have fell asleep, or passed out, or avoided pissing his pants, I don't know, He might have reached a killer event, but it seems like if it had one, it would not be so far in. The next version will have a automatic save state, it will only kick in if you exit a game in progress. 

[bha19]

Thanks for the reply. I know the easy mode is too easy but I don't like the lag time on the other modes. I remember playing a real machine a long time ago and hating the lag then too. This is still one of my favorite recreations so thanks so much.

Edited by bha19, 19 April 2015 - 10:45 AM.

[Shockman]

What do you mean by lag time?

[bha19]

The bar moves slower is what I mean which does make it harder.

[Shockman]

The bar does move a bit slower than a real machine. I find it easier though. If it was easy to put a ball in a lit hole it might be easier with a faster bar, but the absolute center of the ball has to line up with the absolute center of the hole with only a 4 pixel margin and that is a 2 radius. On easy that margin is doubled. I'll see about speeding up the bar for the harder levels. It's not as easy as it sounds though. the ball movement and collision detection is made for this bar speed.

 

I have collected nice music and graphics to do a Root Beer mod. There are a number of mods than I think would work with this game. Some realistic, and some arcade, like bubble and spiked balls, Space ship and asteroids, and even some I can think of that would work with the bar starting on top and guiding something down.

[randr]

Shockman you are doing a great job on this! Thank you!

[Sir Cheddar]

Thank you Shockman. I really like it

 

I've got it running in PinballX - does somebody have an wheel for it?

If not I'll try to do one tomorrow.

[Shockman]

Thanks.

 

Changes I am testing now,

 

- The bonus countdown timer stops reducing at 30 (1/2 second). Playable and very difficult. Around the start of level 4.

- The bonus countdown stops at 1/10 the max value of the hole. For example, the minimum value of hole 3 (max value 300) is 30.

- When the bonus countdown reaches minimum, the heart rate monitor sound changes to a flatline sound and fades after a few seconds. The sound I'm using is not authentic yet.

[Shadowsclassic]

<SNIP>

I have collected nice music and graphics to do a Root Beer mod. There are a number of mods than I think would work with this game. Some realistic, and some arcade, like bubble and spiked balls, Space ship and asteroids, and even some I can think of that would work with the bar starting on top and guiding something down.

This would be great for the dedicated cab.  If we could come up with a menu system to let the players select from different layouts.  With all the different layouts possible, this could become another VP type hit!

[Sir Cheddar]

Wheel. Cut it out from the flyer. Easy job, it's almost like they made it for the purpose.

Attached Files

•  ICB wheel.png   601.31KB   7 downloads

[edizzle]

Thank you very much for your work on this!  Simple but pretty challenging game. Definitely frustrating when the concept seems so simple and yet, I continue to raise/lower the bar the opposite way I wanted to!  I look forward to your continued work on it.

[32assassin]

I cut one from the flyer

 Ice Cold Beer.png   270.56KB   11 downloads

 

 

 

anyone figure out how to rotate the FS version?