MEGA-Challenge #04 - Montana John and the Templar's Treasure

Congratz guys! Another great game! Of course, next time we'll see a screen 5 production from Infinite!

Marvellous game, only im running on RuMSX (for the moment) but how to use the Key ?

Isn't that in the manual?

As for a physical release, this will only happen when the game is shipped with an SCC-I chip or when someone makes a new chip which acts like a bug-free SCC, a cheap CPLD could be such a chip (which is a small FPGA).

With the 1chipMSX being spread, and thus with ppl learning VHDL, don't you think it'll be a more structured solution when ppl create a cheap SCC-like CPLD?

This is unclear to me: some one stated "it's a msx2 game but runs also on msx1". I've verified on bluemsx and msx1 brasilian machine.
Runs, perfectly. So why the sentence "it's a msx2 game...... ". This is a 100% msx1 game. The only diff i can see is the palette.

The entire game runs on screen 2. It's screen 2 a v9938 mode only? (of course no!)

I tried loading the ROM on my turboR with LOADROM, but without success ........Then I tried loading the ROM on my 1chipMSX and it works GREAT And what a game! Thx Infinite

There was something which made it impossible within the structure we designed, need to check again, but prolly sprite/rotation related.

Wow, what a game!

... have to get back to playing...

Nice game! I specially like the background graphics, and all the small animations in it

The only thing I could point out, would be to set it on screen 4, and use the MSX2 sprite coloring capabilities to improve it even more (one place where it could be used is on stones being pushed... since they change from shape to sprite when pushed, some colors disappear while pushing; with MSX2 sprite mode this could be avoided)

But a very nice game indeed, congratulations

greetings, imho this is one of the very rare examples of msx1/msx2 games
musics are great!!!!!!!!!!!!
the scc is exploited to its limits
congratz!

There is no SCC music for me. I put the game on a MegaFlash cartridge in one slot, then an SCC cartridge in another slot (I have tested with a SD Snatcher and with a Nemesis 2), and I get only PSG sound. Am I doing something wrong? (I have a Turbo-R ST, by the way)

Ivan: no savegames, but the password stores the level, hp, exp, and player level, so you can always restart the level with the current state. After you exit a game, go to the password section in the main menu: there's your password.

Otherwise, BlueMSX has savestates..

Also, cool SCC-instruments! The harpsichords, the piano sounds etc... Outstanding use of the chip's possibilities.

They are quite 1:1 the FM-Pac voices.., just like the clarinet and a couple o' Microcabin voices

*sorry*, I did it again! (wolf) I edited instead of replied ^_^, sorry sir ^2 Canyou edit your msg back? ^_________^

Also, cool SCC-instruments! The harpsichords, the piano sounds etc... Outstanding use of the chip's possibilities.

They are quite 1:1 the FM-Pac voices.., just like the clarinet and a couple o' Microcabin voices

One word, wauw .... impressive and i've just started teh game.
Great use of the scc right from the beginning. Can't wait to hear them all.

cool SCC voices indeed ! there are a lot of different sounds I hadn't heard before, music is very well done.
I must say that second renaissance temple is a bitch

Our SCCPSG player is heavier than the MB-Wave player..

Feature-wise, our player is actually a mod-kinda player..

( specially The Fountain Of Salamcis and The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway )

Who? What?

Isn't John Williams' "Indiana Jones" the more obvious answer here? ^_^

g.efg.c...g.c.g.a.....gfg.......
  ^^^.^

Those who've finished the game, did the transition from demo to credits remind you of "Scherzo for Motorcycles" from IJ: The Last Crusade? ^_^

+ I think the spooky/odd scales/bassruns are actually Danny Elfman style.

Really, if you try to analyze my tunes, your first start should be film music!

1) the game is similar to Goonies. Goonies is so much less CPU intensive that the entire game logic runs on each interrupt. No need to split game logic in more than 1 int.

Except that you can't change the sprite colour in the sprite attribute table in SC4. You need to do that in the 512 byte sprite colour table.

dvik:

The main player has 2 sprites on a row, never 3 or 4, there are creative limits as for how many sprites one can dedicate to something. In a way we were lucky the enemies had simple colors by nature.. saves some colors and thus the need for layered sprites. Think of it, a skeleton is white, so 1 color will do, a ghost is also usually white/transparent'ish, so 1 color will do. A bat is usually dark, and the darkest color on MSX1 is blue (4), A spider doesn't have much colors, but I liked yellow here..

Do keep in mind it's screen 2 all the way eh! If we knew at forehand we were to miss dev7 we may have started things differently, heck, maybe even screen 5 with less moving things. Tho lately I'm quite handy with pattern mode drawing so I wouldn't mind making gfx that way.

@Wolf_ : Who? What?

Isn't John Williams' "Indiana Jones" the more obvious answer here? ^_^

g.efg.c...g.c.g.a.....gfg.......
^^^.^

Those who've finished the game, did the transition from demo to credits remind you of "Scherzo for Motorcycles" from IJ: The Last Crusade? ^_^

+ I think the spooky/odd scales/bassruns are actually Danny Elfman style.

Really, if you try to analyze my tunes, your first start should be film music!

---

Indeed!just finished the game a while ago and have perceived more film references in some melodies - you´re right in "scherzo",reminds quite a bit - but I was focusing my views since harmony point of view.I reccomend you to listen to Genesis records of Peter Gabriel´s and Steve Hackett´s Era on early-mid 70´s and sure you will understand what are my references.Sure you´ve heard those records,but not,do it and listen

Its not really the colors that bothers me, its how the main character looks and moves that I don't like that much.Hmm, the only animation I'm not too fond of is the jump frame. The kicks (high front kick, low side kick) are good, including the arm positions. This is about as good as you can do unless you're a pixel art expert like these guys .

An excellent game anyway!
Fully agree !

I've only made a quick test of the game on blueMSX. In a few days I'll be able to test it on the MegaFlashSCC on a real MSX. These are my first impressions, which I think are similar to those exposed by other people. First... I love platform games, more if they are also adventure games. Thus, good point for Montana John!

About music, I've only listened the intro music, the music of the starting area and the one of the first cave. It sounds good. I am not an expert on this subject, but it also seems to me that, technically, it is a very good job and captures a misterious atmosphere. I like more "clear" melodies, thus, I hope later in the game there will be also these kind of musics. Wolf talks about John Williams, so, that's a good reference . Of course, I'm worried about the problems mentioned about the SCC music when running on a real MSX, but I have not tested it yet.

About graphics, what I have seen seems to be correct. Background graphics are fine. It is not the typical MSX style, it somehow remembers me the graphics of Phantomas Saga Infinity. The background animations are smooth, that's great for sure. The player animation, as well as the enemies animations and even explosions are also smooth. Good!. My main concern is regarding to the player sprite, as somebody else pointed. It seems so simple. Like the Goonies main character is, right. But graphics of Montana John are more detailed than those of Goonies, so, Montana sprite seems to be, in contrast to the background graphics, too simple.

About programming, my first impression is that the game is very polished.

About the playability... I can not say anything now, as I have only tested the game a few minutes.

For short, my first impression is good. Graphics (except for the player) and music are fine, and the game seems polished. I should play a bit more to evaluate the playability, but I think I'll wait until I can test it on my real MSX. Nothing compares to playing an MSX game on an MSX ;-)

When you know where everything is, and you make no mistakes, then you can finish TGH in about 8 minutes!

Without F9 ?

This is about as good as you can do unless you're a pixel art expert like these guys .
Wow, Hap! About the best link I've visited in months, thanx!
(haven't even tried montana yet, I was too darn impressed with those dot-artists.. )

Right, booted the ROM, checked the intro and played until temple one.

> Sound, mkay. cool
> SFX, mmmm, dunno.
> GFX, mkay. So far, nice. The mainsprite; well, I have to agree it's not the best job done. Should work better with an "outline" sprite. That sprite can also be used for more black. Or leave some more space in the sprite. It's too solid. The jump move is hilarious just like the "ladder/climb "move , 'com on Wolf, fix that. I like how the mainchar moves over obstacles (like a bridge etc), good job there Edwin. The bats; same story as the mainchar, too solid. The intro screen is lame... (sorry Wolf, keep making music and let someone else do the gfx.. well atleast one extra person wouldn't hurt.)
The "treasure chest" is a bit poor, I didn't recognize it at first...
> playability, so far excellent.
Hope the game gets more exiting while progressing, so far (I've only played 5 mins) it's pretty boring. Maybe some extra SFX would spice it up (rolling the boulders, jump, fall, etc)

I'd like to see the HP/EXP visually (bars) instead of text, if possible.

But, overall it seems like a winner. Hope there will be some updates to fix those little buggers.
btw, did ye write a new SCC/PSG replayer (using existing tracker?) ? it's kewl. Also nice to 'ave those Konami music FX on board. There's much Nemesis/SD-snatcher-ish sounds.

.. back to playing, hope I'll find some treasures....

(excuse while I was editing some more while you posted your post.)

yeah, screen 2 is hard I know. But, like in MOG, I do like transparent sprites way more than your solid blocks of meat.
I've dun some serious GFX too, indeed, and always enjoyed it (sometimes even more than coding). rarely dun scr2 stuff so hell yeah, I should shut up and try my self. lez boot up photoshop.. (I hate doing pixels in PS)

I notices SFX are mainly SCC, and I don't like it that much. Maybe I should do some SFX for ye, I've dun my share over the last decade... last SFX were for bombaman IIRC.

BTW, that "man" (let's call'm Luke).... Is Luke the same man as the mainchar? In the intro he's wearing a hat.. like Indiana Jones did. Should spice up your mainchar (but you prolly refused to since it's korny , eh)

SFX are sometimes scc+psg ('ouch', bridge blow-up, enemy kills, etc.), sometimes psg-only (kicks, gem-in-door etc.). Didn't want more sfx for e.g. rolling a boulder as they'd eat up music channels. Unlike Konami, the music here is really 5+3 with channel-stealing for sfx (which are btw truly multichannel). In sfx like e.g. that block hitting the floor, there's some low-freq stuff on SCC to make an extra thud impact.

It's basically an MSX1 palette on MSX2.

00: black/transparent
01: custom
02: 2 5 1
03: 3 6 2
04: 2 2 6
05: 3 3 7
06: 6 2 2
07: custom
08: 7 2 2
09: 7 3 3
10: 6 5 2
11: 7 6 3
12: 2 4 1
13: custom
14: 5 5 5
15: white

So, for 24bit RGB: mul with 36 or so.

The custom colors are the extra shades in levels, so they can't be part of any sprite or basic graphics (items). Only in The Dark Forest did I alter some of the standard colors a bit, in order to make it appear dark (after all, it's a dark forest ).

There's only so much one can do with sprites.. I say, show me better ones within the restrictions of the game, while *not* having maps with *less* sprites per screen. Just for the fun of it, make some in photoshop, and make sure the player is 16x24 with max 2 sprites on a row and max 3 sprites for the player, for all poses/phases.

??
I though the chest was fairly well given the screen 2 limits, really. If you feel like it: gimme a 2-tile chest you'd approve on..

Fine, I'll give it a try but I'll send my results to you in private, I don't want to be the know-it-all pixeling dude telling people what to do or not. I just think they could have been better, that's all , and the chest too . But anyway, the game is just great!

You can always open whatever gfx topic in for instance 'general discussion' or 'development'. We're reshaping MRC atm (well not aTm), and there may be quite some more forum sections in the future.. needs to be discussed still, but ..uhm.. I think it'll work out well..

The hat of the main character in this picture is very nice, but totally different by the one he wears in the game.
It would be great to have some close resemblance between this picture and the "in game" main character.

Skeletons synchronised on music! Always these little details that kill me!! And look at their faces!
Thanks for this beautiful product, masterpiece overall. Sound atmosphere is just perfect, still improvable or not, the whole is very well polished.

Nice explanation about the hat of the character

Anyway... I have to say that, after reading the title of the game (Montana John) and seeing the intro graphic I thought the main character was a Cowboy

One little thing... I've just player Montana John for a couple of minutes on blueMSX using the MSX2+ configuration and the SCC+ on slot 2. I reached the first stage where you have to get gems to open the door. I collected the three gems and then, I went to the door. The door opened and... the game hanged there. Any idea about this problem?

A new contest in the contest:

BEST MAIN CHARACTER ANIMATIONS!!!

So euh, only_69... made a map yet?

wolf, I will help you with the animation of the character if you are interested.

Now I'm in level 7 (The Spiders Lair). Awesome game wolf!

Those stars are actually like fireflies or something. I got that inspiration from one of the Planet Earth episodes. In some deep caves insects are usually caught by odd predators as they fly into bio-illuminating lights (like silk webs). Hence, I decided something illuminating should be present in this cave.

Now I'm in level 11 (The Pit). E-x-c-e-l-l-e-n-t game, it deserves a cartridge version!

Btw, does anyone want the password for "The Treasure Chamber"? Just send some money to my PayPal account

Finally got around to playing the game and I really, really, really like it. Extra kudos go to the extraordinary SCC music. Finally homebrew SCC tunes that are on par with Konami quality. Job more than well done, lads 'o Infinite!

Some trivia for triviajunks:
* The idea of using the Templar theme came from reading Don Rosa's "A Letter From Home" early December.. (it's a Scrooge comic)
* Given there was 1 month of time for the dev'07 deadline, the basic game story was made up in 4 minutes, purely to have a story. No reconsidering, no tweaking, just 'ok, fine, go go go!'
* The main music theme ( @ title screen ) is the Indiana Jones theme, reshaped/souped-up into something else, but still remotely related
* The title font is the IJ movie font
* A few returning musical themes:

• The MJ main theme appears in: the title screen, somewhat hidden in Entrance/Red Temple, The Dark Angel, The Treasure Chamber, End Credits
• The secondary (and more sad) theme appears in: the title screen (after the main theme), End Credits, Game Over
• The end credits reprise the waltz from the Dark Angel sequence

* The transition from sad/story to credits in the end demo is more or less based on a similar transition in the end credits of IJ: The Last Crusade
* About 37% of the ROM is music
* The skeleton/face/marching concept was a result of the first two MJTT level tunes (red-temple & renaissance), there just had to be silly visual accents
* The concept of making acts was a result of the Dark Angel's main theme reprise
* The game was 100% made on PC using cross-development and emulating. From us two, only Edwin has occasionally tested the game on a physical MSX.. :-)
* Spiders Lair was based on typical visualizations of hell, which is usually using Gothic architecture
* chao5 has made the (large) dungeons level, minus 2 screens by me
* Edwin made The Tower and The Pit, the upper screens of Temple Entrance, Ancient Prison and the Teleport jungle of The Great Hall
* Sound effects are tracked patterns on the fastest speed (in a way an alternative SEE)

270 (the maximum). I got that value in level 7 (The Spiders Lair). There's a trick to get 270 on that stage: in the most bottom-left room of that stage if you go to the room next to it you can defeat a bat as many times as you want making a quick "screen-change" Actually, that same trick can be used in The Caves [level2], in the exit screen. In the left is a bat which you can jump-kick.

270 (the maximum). I got that value in level 7 (The Spiders Lair). There's a trick to get 270 on that stage: in the most bottom-left room of that stage if you go to the room next to it you can defeat a bat as many times as you want making a quick "screen-change"
Actually, that same trick can be used in The Caves [level2], in the exit screen. In the left is a bat which you can jump-kick.

I didn't spot that one. I was referring to this bat: screenshot 1, screenshot 2.

uh, the game should run on any msx1 with 64k

1

SaebaMSX> Strange. If the game and music are working normally, then everything must be in good order. Funny you should mention both the player and enemy sprites. Because the two are not actually related in code. Storage location and processing code is completely different between player and enemies. Are you sure there's nothing else wrong?

That the bat would only be corrupted when it's flying is normal. It's not a sprite when it is just hanging there. Other enemies, drops, lifts and rocks while pushing are corrupted as well?
I'm really interested to know whether other things look/sound/behave out of the ordinary. Because with just the sprites I can't think of much that could cause this.

At least the first three levels look fine here on my MSX1 (that does have the 4K/16K "feature" ).

ro: got a character yet?

This is not that easy, you have no player but some random skeleton sprites around (appearing and disappearing) if memory serves me well. I cannot check it now since it is not my computer. I just saw that it was not playable so we tested it in turboR!

That has already been discussed here..

(1) no motivation to completely rebuild this thing which includes rebuilding our graphics system. This would for instance completely ruin the timing of the intro, the time it takes to start levels etc. etc. To give you an impression of things: our gfx are a hybrid of pre-designed tiles and generated/modified tiles. The latter of course is done within the context of tiles. We'll prolly do an update prior to the deadline to fix a few issues mentioned, but that's it.

(2) sc5 is too slow for all the screen action unless we'll accept a significant performance drop, which we won't.

(3) It's not that this is our last production, our next one will be an MSX2+ game with Moonsound music, and after that we're prolly going to choose between finishing up our previous Dev entry or do something new. We both want to finally do something with the G9k for a change.. So, we could spend ages on MJTT to port it to all relevant screens -if possible, which isn't-, but we rather move on.

I think the only thing that this game needs is a better main character. To me thats part of the atmosphere which I think suffer from the current main character. I don't see any need for screen 5. The background graphics is already fantastic

gfx9000 even better.... but why?

Or a real life action movie!

Edwin obviously ran out of coffee this morning, this is what you get then..

Game finished!! I enjoy a lot of playing the game.
Thanks Infinite!!

Any info on the fixes?

no new main sprite?

I understand. But when you talked about the 'comments' I just wanted to know for sure.
Its your game..so your choice. No prob.