"The Legend of Beryl Reichardt" New Vintage CRPG

[Opry99er]

Greetings. My name is Owen, and I'm a game developer for the TI-99/4a home computer. You will notice in my signature that I have a website... feel free to visit if you'd like. =) For now, here's what I'd like to share. I have been working on this game for quite a while.... too long, if you ask me. I should be finished by now, but hey... real life gets in the way. In any case, I have posted below a bit of background a few pictures for you to take a look at. Pleae feel free to criticize, comment, etc. at your leisure.

I do not have a "development team," as it is just myself who is interested in putting so much work into this game concept for this old ass system. I am writing this game in TMS9900 Assembly language.

This is the working "in-game" menu system root. Battle menu system looks a bit different, and only takes half a screen, while the other half keeps the enemies in sight.

This is one small section of the "Forest" world... first playable/explorable world in the game. This will be where you develop your character's battle ability and learn the rough goal of your quest.

A battle sequence mock-up for the "Desert" world. As you can see, your party is near the bottom of the screen and the enemies are near the top. I say "mock-up" because the engine has changed now and the battle sequences will not be taking place in full-screen mode anymore, but in a reduced window in the center-top of the screen. More on that later.

The same battle sequence, only in the "Forest" world--- you are facing three McElwain Monks in this battle scene.

This was an early mockup of several of the different characters I had planned to use... not much has survived since then... I'm now in a totally different realm. I will try to embed a video here, but I'll also put the straight link to it.... This is my first post here to the RPG Codex.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TzyIM1r044[/media]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TzyIM1r044

The second link is in case it won't let you view the media here on this page. This is a short video of the code in action right now. It's nothing more than a map scroller with a mockup PC (top-down... perspective has changed dramatically since I made this video)

If anyone is interested, I have an extensive development document that I have been adding to and working on for a couple months now... I would be happy to email it or even post it here... but I'm afraid people's heads would explode at the boring nature of it. It includes storyline, statistic handling, demonstration, user interface, menu trees, World requirements (per each of the 7 worlds) and a bunch of other stuff... If you've written a CRPG, you understand and know what's in there. Anyway, you can find my Atariage thread at the following link, if you're interested in 550 entries and responses about the game... I'm here to ask for directional help with a few specific elements of the game... and you all seem like the best minds available out there. Thanks for taking a look.

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/15 ... reichardt/

 

[Opry99er]

Here's a more updated shot of a larger section of the Forest World

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Lots of bloom in that last one.

I'm a game developer for the TI-99/4a home computer.

So it works on Vista then?

 

[Opry99er]

It will work on any PC from Windows 98 on through Windows 7. There is a fabulous emulator called Classic99 which will run on virtually any PC, and on Mac running VirtualBox or a newer Mac with Boot Camp. When I have some more progress made, I will post the program and you guys can give it a go-through. If you haven't looked yet, please check out the video link I posted in my first post to this thread.

Anyway, the developer of the emulator is currently working on a way to turn this game into a Windows .exe file once it's done. It should be as simple as creating a "save state" at the beginning of the game... It should, then, be a Windows .exe file. He has done this for one of my previous games, "Lemonade Stand," a graphical "ground-up" re-make of the Video Brain game of the same name from 1977. It was also written on the TI-99 and then transferred to my PC via a serial connection. I will post some updates as they come, but in the meantime, feel free to check out the video I posted, and do a quick Google search for my game. It dominates the search engine results for "Beryl Reichardt." Thanks for your post, and I hope to, soon, have a working demo for you guys. In the meantime, I do have the code for the demo program in the video. If you would like to tour the "Lava World," let me know and I'd be happy to post that program here with instructions on how to run it in Classic99. I can even make a video on how to run it... My YouTube channel is called "Opry99er" as well... I have many instructional programming videos on there, all dealing with different elements of TI-99/4a programming. Mostly the "BASIC" dialect, but since I have moved into Assembly, I've been focusing on coding rather than video making. =)

 

[Opry99er]

Here's a quick shot of the fifth world in the game, the Lava world. The video I linked to is an exploration of this world. For good measure, I added the graphic for one of the enemies, the "Dark Hound." I know, it's been used before, but sometimes RPG convention can be as powerful (if not moreso) as RPG innovation. =) The "small trees" you see are the "saplings" of the Lava world. There are 5, and each must be collected before you can face the boss of the level and collect your quest item, subsequently moving on to the lower dungeons.

 

[Opry99er]

This may look familiar, but this is the "battle" screen in the Lower Dungeons.

The lower dungeons are the most complex mazes in the whole game. They come right before the final World of the game... wait for it.... bet you can't guess..... the "Underworld!!!!" Yes, that's right... I'm not the most original guy in the world... but this game has an interesting plot. I am writing a novella as I progress, to give me continued inspiration as well as keep me on point with my coding. I want to make sure this game is not just a series of "kill rats and goblins to move on" segments. I have chapter 1 and part of chapter 2 in my development document, availanble on request... or, if there's a way to attach it to this thread, I'll do that immediately

 

[Black Bart Charley]

You are a gentleman and scholar, good sir.
Post the map drawing routing on pastebin please. I am curious.

 

[Opry99er]

I will certainly post that when I get home this evening. I have a decision to make here.... I have some code which will randomly generate the dungeon, but I've also designed a hand-made dungeon. Issue is, this is running on an old system with only 16 K of RAM!!!! That's "16" kilobytes! I have to shoehorn code and maps into the VDP memory each world, and any bigger map than about 8-9k will force my exploration code to be tiny--- then I need room for dialogue and item/statistic handling. There are a few ways to overcome this--- the one I'm focusing on is breaking the dungeon up into two parts--- loading each from diskette individually. This adds an element of linear exploration, which sucks--- but it will allow me to have two levels to my dungeon. The final World will be a "Dark Maze." --No maps, and a 5x5 visible window around the PC... All else will be black. Enemies will be more difficult and more numerous, and there will be no Savepoints, save the one at the very beginning of the world. In the menu I posted, that"SAVE" feature is only available in the first couple of worlds to be used "freely." From the Mountain world on, you canonly save at pre-designated save points.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Oh, awesome job!

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

I wish someone would make a Wasteland/Fallout-style game with graphics like these...

 

[Opry99er]

Thanks for the comments--- I am enamored with vintage graphics and have no use for 3d games.... I like the Gold Box RPGs and most of the DOS stuff from the 80s. If you give me some specs and game docs for Wasteland/Fallout, I will look into it--- could be fun to take on a retro-remake.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

http://www.duckandcover.cx/official/gurps/

Most distinctive gameplay stuff:
-stat checks in dialogues.
-multiple quest solutions.
-non-linearity.
-ability to examine objects and read their descriptions.
-aimed shoots in combat.

 

[Opry99er]

Thanks for the info--- I'll look into that when "LoBR" is further along, and I've got some good conventional engines built. This is my first RPG, so I'm learning as I go. I imagine I will learn alot here on this forum. I will post more when I get home this evening. Again, thank you all for your interest in my little project... I know to some, working on an antiquated machine with 8x8 pixel graphic tiles seems like a big waste of time--- but the challenge is paramount--- the journey through creating this monster is more exciting to me than actually playing it. Besides--- I prefer pixilated graphics on games I play--- why not program them? . I guess I'm trying to say that, while this game will not be as massive in scope as, say, Morrowind, it will be made with love and I hope you all have as much fun playing it as I am having developing it.

 

[shihonage]

I just don't understand why you can't do the same exact game for the PC, minus the memory limitations, and minus the requirement to run an emulator. Nothing's stopping you from making it look as retro and pixelated as you want, but there will always be room to expand.

 

[Opry99er]

Agreed--- however my roots in the /4a computer run deep. I learned all my programming knowledge though coding on it, and I am an active member of the Atariage TI programming forum. That is really where this game started to take shape. It has crossed my mind a thousand times "Why not do this in a modern language?". The answer: I will! As soon as this TI version is complete, I intend on porting it immediately to Java or C#, but this will require that I learn one of these languages first. As I stated in a previous post, the developer
of the emulator has a way to make the game a .exe file once it's complete--- he has done so for my first game, "Lemonade Stand." You can play this game on your PC with no emulation. It is a port of an old game from the "Video Brain" computer which I completely re-worked from the ground up. But this RPG... Yes-- you are right... It would make it more accessible and I would have access to virtually unlimited RAM and storage--- I intend on writing ALL following RPGs (a sequel and a prequel to Beryl first) in modern language(s). I am definitely interested in pursuing a re-make of the aforementioned "Fallout," and perhaps a port of "Legends" from the TI-99 library as well.

 

[soggie]

Agreed--- however my roots in the /4a computer run deep. I learned all my programming knowledge though coding on it, and I am an active member of the Atariage TI programming forum. That is really where this game started to take shape. It has crossed my mind a thousand times "Why not do this in a modern language?". The answer: I will! As soon as this TI version is complete, I intend on porting it immediately to Java or C#, but this will require that I learn one of these languages first. As I stated in a previous post, the developer
of the emulator has a way to make the game a .exe file once it's complete--- he has done so for my first game, "Lemonade Stand." You can play this game on your PC with no emulation. It is a port of an old game from the "Video Brain" computer which I completely re-worked from the ground up. But this RPG... Yes-- you are right... It would make it more accessible and I would have access to virtually unlimited RAM and storage--- I intend on writing ALL following RPGs (a sequel and a prequel to Beryl first) in modern language(s). I am definitely interested in pursuing a re-make of the aforementioned "Fallout," and perhaps a port of "Legends" from the TI-99 library as well.

Wanna join forces on a wasteland remake on the PC? I can do C++ and python.

 

[Opry99er]

Here is an exerpt from my original development document... This section is essentially a World by World breakdown of quest items, goals, etc... I am not posting the whole section, but here is a portion, so you can see the makeup of the game.

***Forest World***  Difficulty (Low)
	*First explorable world in the game
	*Goals:
		1) Collect black key (for Obelisk)
		2) Enter Obelisk and defeat enemies to acquire the red key
		3) Clear the world of enemies
		4) Defeat the "Soul Reaver" to receive the Rings of Wooldridge and exit the world through the 		                                          "forest gate"
	*Enemies:
		1) McElwain Monk
		2) Giant Spider
		3) Vectrex
		4) Carrion Fowl
		5) Spectre
		6) Soul Reaver (boss)
	*Quest Items to gather:
		1) Elixir
		2) Golden Tiara (increases DEF for Skylar)
		3) Rings of Wooldridge (ringmail) **CO**

***Desert World*** Difficulty (Low-Med)
	*Second explorable world in the game
	*Goals:
		1) Find black key to open magic chest
		2) Open magic chest and receive Wizard's tunic (increases MP for Reptoslicer)
		3) Defeat the Vectrex to acquire vile of "Life-Water"
		4) Put life water into the dry fountain to gain "Ancient Storm" magic
		5) Defeat Unipanx to receive the "Left Gauntlet of Wooldridge" and exit the world
	*Enemies:
		1) Sand Spider
		2) Berserker
		3) Vectrex (mini-boss)
		4) Sand Sentinel
		5) Whirlwind
		6) Scorpion
		7) Unipanx (boss)
	*Quest Items to gather
		1) Wizard's Tunic
		2) Life Water
		3) Gauntlet of Wooldridge

***Mountain World*** Difficulty (Medium)
	*Third explorable world in the game
	*Goals
		1) Collect the 3 frozen earth crystals
		2) Learn "Lockpick" magic from the hermit
		3) Use "Lockpick to open the gate to the upper pass.                                    
		4) Clear upper pass of enemies
		5) Place earth crystals into the great "crown" at the mountain summit to unfreeze the world
		6) Defeat Succubus to receive the "Breastplate of Wooldridge"
	*Enemies
		1) Berserker
		2) Cave Spider
		3) Noah Troll
		4) Carrion Fowl
		5) Scorpion
		6) Lost Soul
		7) Cave Dweller
		8) Vampire Bat
		9) Succubus (boss)
	*Quest Items to gather
		1) 3 Frozen Earth Crystals
		2) Breastplate of Wooldridge

***Cave World*** Difficulty (Low-Med)
	*Fourth explorable world in the game
	*Goals
		1) Clear entryway enemies to receive Warrior's Shield (increases Markus's HP)
		2) Enter lower caves and clear world of enemies
		3) Defeat Cave Mattox to reveive "Right Gauntlet of Wooldridge"
	*Enemies
		1) Berserker
		2) Cave Spider
		3) Noah Troll
		4) Vampire Bat
		5) Cavedweller
		6) Lost Soul
		7) Dungeon Scorpion
		8) Demagon
		9) Vectrex
		10) Dark Hound
		11) Cave Mattox
	*Quest Items to gather
		1) Warrior's Shield
		2) Right Gauntlet of Wooldridge

Next post will get a bit more in depth with how this is implemented in code. =)

 

[Opry99er]

Here is a semi-detailed description of the exploration mode routines and how I will be implementing the user interface during exploration.

************************EXPLORATION MODE INFORMATION*******************************

*required keys for KSCAN:
	
	-E (move PC up)-- 
	-Joystick 1 "up"
	-S (move PC left)
	-Joystick 1 "left"
	-D (move PC right)
	-Joystick 1 "right"
	-X (move PC down)
	-Joystick 1 "down"
	-M (Menu screen)
	-Space Bar (interaction with items)

In exploration mode, I want the user to feel truly in control of the PC onscreen.  I will implement a 15x15 scroll window which will "move over" the overall world map.  The user will move the PC around the screen, interacting with enemies, items, and unique map locations such as doors, towers, etc.  The scroll routine is in place and can be downloaded from this thread.  There were two incarnations of this scroll routine, one written by me and one by Matthew Hagerty.  His was far more efficient and smooth, but using it will mean using all his unique conventions.  I am happy to do so, but it is taking me some time to understand the hand-rolled VDP routines.  

I intend to keep key-shortcuts to a minimum here, so the only real user input in this mode is the direction of travel, "M" for "Menu," and the space bar for interaction with items and such.  This is discussed in further detail below.

***Interaction with enemies***

    Enemies are visually present onscreen and will also be encountered through random battles, although these will be kept to a minimum.  Any time the user moves the PC so that it comes in contact with an onscreen enemy, the battle sequence will be initiated.  Random enemy encounters will need to be developed so they happen perhaps 3-4 times per world in the early worlds and more frequently (6-7 times) in later worlds (for example the Lava world or the Dungeon world).  The code for generating random enemy encounters is not yet written or mapped out.  It is still, simply, in concept phase.


***Interaction with items and/or unique map positions:***

Items and unique map positions (UMP's) in the game are 1x1 or 2x2, so anytime the 2x2 Beryl character is in contact with a 1x1 item, simply pressing the space bar will allow the user to pick it up or open it.  That is, unless it is locked.  If it is locked, then a key must be applied to the lock to grant access to the item.  If the item is 2x2, then Beryl must be squarely touching the item (2 tiles touching 2 tiles)  for him to be able to take or open the item.  The player must press the "space" bar to examine an item or UMP.  Upon pressing the space bar, a dialog box will appear with a graphic of the item or UMP and a description of it (for example: "Black Key").  The player may then move away, causing the dialog box to disappear and "Exploration Mode" to continue as normal, or the player may press the space bar again to "act" upon the item or UMP.  

--Examples of item and UMP interaction--

*If it is a door, the dialog box will say, "Door: Locked."  If the player presses the space bar again (possessing the key in this case), the dialog box would change to say "Door: Unlocked."  The player would then have to press the space bar a third time to enter the unlocked door.

*If it is a chest, the dialog box will say "Chest: Unlocked."  If the player presses the space bar again, the chest would be opened and the contents would then take the place of the current info in the dialog box.  The player may, at this point, choose to move on by navigating away from the chest, causing the dialog box to disappear.  He may also choose to press the space bar again and collect the contents of the treasure chest.  These items would then be added to the player's inventory.



***Keys and other "condition-oriented" items***
    
    Keys are one example of what I am calling "condition-oriented items" or "CO's".  These are items which must be recovered in order to move forward with the game.  Things such as "saplings" in the Lava world and "Spring Water" in the Forest World also apply.  All CO's cannot necessarily be called "quest items," because this term also encompasses keys and other non-story-essential items that simply must be collected to move forward.  "Quest Items" such as the "Spring Water" are CO's, but not all CO's are "Quest Items."  CO's are essential to this game, as there are several per world which must be recovered before certain other tasks and events can occur.  Each world has its own set of requirements, and I will attempt to outline them all later in this document.

That will be it for now... off to bed. Tomorrow I will discuss how the battle engines and in-game menu system will work. Thanks for taking a look, and I welcome criticism or critique... if it's productive. =) Have a pleasant evening, all!

 

[Opry99er]

Actually, I wanted to show you what my window looks like onscreen. Here is a quick and dirty mockup of my viewport screen with some tacky stats out to the right, just as place fillers.

This picture is actually a screenshot taken from my scrolling demo of the "Lava" world. The character is 100% top down here, but recent incarnations have taken on a 3/4 perspective with 4 distinctive directionalities.

Please enjoy, and have a wonderful evening.

 

[Opry99er]

So--- I have been contemplating posting my first two chapters of my novella for this game... It gives detailed background on each of the characters, the plot, the story, the enemy, everything... but I'm not sure anyone here would find that very interesting. =) I'm of the opinion that nothing is set in stone except the back-story and premise of the game... User Interface and Menu/Battle systems are debatable... Nothing's "hard-coded" per se. I am interested in some opinions here... From reading the UI sections of my development document, do you believe I have over-simplified the commands? Is the UI too simplistic? I know it's a vintage-style RPG, and in that vein, perhaps I am creating a game engine that fits more along the lines of a "Final Fantasy Mystic Quest" or something of the like... I basically want to create my first one in a straight-forward, easy to understand style that will be accessible to just about anyone who'd want to play it... Thoughts?

 

[Opry99er]

Per request, here is the first draft of the "First Floor dungeon map." There are 2 floors or levels. It's a typical, "Get the gold key to open the gold door to get the blue key to open the blue door to get the red key to exit the world.... Whew!!!

No mapping feature in this world for the player.... make it tough. =) This is obviously just the layout, not actual graphics.

 

[Opry99er]

Main battle screen... other stats and such are inside sub menus

 

[Opry99er]

Sorry for the size of that last picture. This one's smaller. The "Beryl" character is moved forward one position because he is the one for whom you are selecting action.

 

[Opry99er]

This is a graphical contribution from a friend of mine. I asked him for some good two color SPRITE offsets and 2x2 tile representations of a great warrior's helm. Here's what he sent to me. Which ones do you like?

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Sorry for the size of that last picture. This one's smaller. The "Beryl" character is moved forward one position because he is the one for whom you are selecting action.

Don't use jpgs for screens of low-colour games. They look horrible.
Use indexed .pngs or other lossless format.