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Re: Knockabout

Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2017 10:24 pm
by MatGubbins
I've given the new version a blast from levels 16 to 26 and they seem to be working fine. Trying to do them again was fun!!

Level 29 is my limit and stumped me.

Re: Knockabout

Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2018 5:16 pm
by RMartins
I have been playing few levels (up to 15 right now), but I got a crash after using the undo feature.

Loading the game again, and going through without using undo, I reach level 15, fine.
However, by reading the rest of the thread, I noticed 2 more versions, that might have this issue already solved.
It would be nice to update the links, to prevent us getting stumped with old versions.

Very cool game, and reminds me a bit of Sokoban, with some extra twists.
I specialy like the "buddy" feature.

90 levels, that's great to know :)

Just passed to level 27 :)

Re: Knockabout

Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2018 5:52 pm
by bob_fossil
RMartins wrote: Sat Feb 17, 2018 5:16 pm I have been playing few levels (up to 15 right now), but I got a crash after using the undo feature.

Loading the game again, and going through without using undo, I reach level 15, fine.
However, by reading the rest of the thread, I noticed 2 more versions, that might have this issue already solved.
It would be nice to update the links, to prevent us getting stumped with old versions.
There was a memory corruption bug when using the undo. It was fixed in this build. If you still get problems with the undo then please report back. I can't seem to edit the first post (I think there has been a discussion about this) and didn't have the foresight to give the download a generic name, rather than one with a date. :)
RMartins wrote: Sat Feb 17, 2018 5:16 pm
Very cool game, and reminds me a bit of Sokoban, with some extra twists.
I specialy like the "buddy" feature.

90 levels, that's great to know :)
Thank you. Yes, 90 levels currently (only 46 more to add!) - though no-one seems to have made it beyond level 29 yet. <sound of a gauntlet being thrown>

Bob Fossil

Re: Knockabout

Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2018 6:28 pm
by RMartins
bob_fossil wrote: Sat Feb 17, 2018 5:52 pm ...
Thank you. Yes, 90 levels currently (only 46 more to add!) - though no-one seems to have made it beyond level 29 yet. <sound of a gauntlet being thrown>

Bob Fossil
Just reached level 30 :)
But level 29 was not tiny at all.

Re: Knockabout

Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2018 6:47 pm
by RMartins
Now on 31 :)
Level 30 required a more funky solution then level 29, but 28 seemed a lot easier than 27.
there might exist a difficulty balancing issue between these levels.
But you are probably following the original, so that is fine, and it also works as a breather :)

I would like to suggest an improvement in the control.
Keys sometimes do not feel responsive.

It happens several times during play, to press and release a key, and the game does not acknowledge it.
It seems you are not reading the keyboard often enough.
Are you reading the controls only once per frame ?

A quick solution, that works reasonably well, without requiring a keyboard queue, is to read the controls, and keep that info in an input control byte.
Then you can compare the entire control input (a new byte) by comparing the new data with the previous input control byte.

Re: Knockabout

Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2018 6:37 pm
by DanielBzD
Hey! Kudos for porting this one! It's particularly cool how the blue pieces look when they're over holes, you can actually distinguish when that happens. I don't think the original has that feature.

I'm trying build 107, and I found a bug in level 36. The girl can't push down the block that's just below her in the start of the level.

I have some suggestions for improvement:
-Why do you display only 14x10 blocks, instead of 16x12? That, coupled with the fact that the camera only follows the character when it's too close to the border, hurts visibility.
-You could make characters and blocks move 8 pixels at a time, instead of 16. It would not only look better, but probably control better too (if the character would still lock at proper positions, that is).
-Maybe you could animate the blue pieces by making them solid blue, with rounded corners, on a green blackground (or black, when over holes). You'd lose the cyan details, but I think it'd be worth it. And then why not also animate the blocks merging with the holes too? Maybe they could turn green more gradually.

Re: Knockabout

Posted: Sun Sep 23, 2018 9:41 pm
by bob_fossil
Thanks for the nice words and the bug report. Level 36 was working when I added it but it looks like it got broken in build 106 when I added level 71 and changed the block handling code to fix an issue I found on that level. I've re-written the block handling code again and now level 36 works. Hopefully level 71 still works too.

14 x 10 was chosen as it ran at a decent speed and showed the checker board effect on the edge of the screen which helped break the graphics up (and I didn't want the board tiles not being shown after the effort I'd gone to putting them in :) ). 16 x 12 wouldn't give you that much extra visibility as some of the levels are 20 x 18. That's why I added the map option in the break menu to give you an overview of the level as the porthole was always going to be restrictive.

As for your other suggestions, they're unlikely to be implemented, I still need to add and fit in the remaining 46 levels which is my priority when / if I return to this.

You can get the fixed version from:

http://www.thefossilrecord.co.uk/wp-con ... 092318.zip

Re: Knockabout

Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2018 10:04 am
by R-Tape
bob_fossil wrote: Sun Sep 23, 2018 9:41 pm You can get the fixed version from:

http://www.thefossilrecord.co.uk/wp-con ... 092318.zip
Cheers Bob. Is this build 108?

Re: Knockabout

Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2018 10:34 pm
by bob_fossil
R-Tape wrote: Tue Sep 25, 2018 10:04 am Cheers Bob. Is this build 108?
Yes it is. No major changes apart from the bug fix for the issue mentioned with level 36 and some tiny optimisations to the tile drawing code.

Re: Knockabout

Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2018 1:07 am
by DanielBzD
Hey there! I found two other issues in build 108. The first one is that the menu seems to go a bit crazy, the selector moves too fast. Still usable, tho.

And second, there's this level (sorry, I forgot to check the number):
Image
Little Lincoln there can't push that blue thing downwards. It doesn't prevent me from finishing the level, but I thought it should be mentioned.

Re: Knockabout

Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2018 5:07 pm
by DanielBzD
Also, I've been thinking about the visibility issue. When moving in a big level, the character can only see two blocks ahead. I think the visibility would improve dramatically if the camera were to follow her closer. Seeing three blocks ahead would be a major improvement (though I think I would go with four).

Re: Knockabout

Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2018 10:16 pm
by bob_fossil
DanielBzD wrote: Tue Oct 23, 2018 1:07 am Hey there! I found two other issues in build 108. The first one is that the menu seems to go a bit crazy, the selector moves too fast. Still usable, tho.

And second, there's this level (sorry, I forgot to check the number):
Image
Little Lincoln there can't push that blue thing downwards. It doesn't prevent me from finishing the level, but I thought it should be mentioned.
I can't replicate the issue with the break menu - moving left or right through it seem fine here.

That looks like level 50. Is it just a problem with that character or can none of the players push the blue pin tile around?
DanielBzD wrote: Tue Oct 23, 2018 5:07 pm Also, I've been thinking about the visibility issue. When moving in a big level, the character can only see two blocks ahead. I think the visibility would improve dramatically if the camera were to follow her closer. Seeing three blocks ahead would be a major improvement (though I think I would go with four).
Camera is an ambitious term. :) I have a defined scroll margin value which I can increase which may or may not improve things.

Re: Knockabout

Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2018 11:44 pm
by DanielBzD
bob_fossil wrote: Tue Oct 23, 2018 10:16 pmI can't replicate the issue with the break menu - moving left or right through it seem fine here.
So I made some tests and found out two things. One, Kempston behaves differently from other control methods. If you hold the key pressed, the selector keeps moving, while in the other control methods, it moves only once per key press. And Kempston is what I was using.

And when I reloaded the game, the selector suddenly wasn't moving so fast. So it was probably a one-time problem with my emulator.
bob_fossil wrote: Tue Oct 23, 2018 10:16 pmThat looks like level 50. Is it just a problem with that character or can none of the players push the blue pin tile around?
I don't know :o
What's that level's password? Let me try again.
bob_fossil wrote: Tue Oct 23, 2018 10:16 pmCamera is an ambitious term. :) I have a defined scroll margin value which I can increase which may or may not improve things.
No, camera is a simple term. Defined scroll margin value? Now that's fancy. :lol:

Re: Knockabout

Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2018 2:02 am
by DanielBzD
Got yet another bug. And I've managed to reproduce this one. If you finish level 61, it shows the password to level 62 and then crashes. If you reload and type in that password, it works fine.

Re: Knockabout

Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2020 10:50 am
by bob_fossil
Due to unforseen circumstances, there's a new version (1.09) of Knockabout available here.

Changes:
  • Added levels 91 - 100 - all the levels from Quirk and Amazing Tater are now included.
  • Added 10 minute(tm) loading screen.
  • Fixed data typos in levels 61 / 62.
Although it looks pretty much the same as before, there's a load of backend changes - I've rewritten a number of functions in assembly and switched to the sdcc compiler which generates smaller C code. I've also fixed a couple of bugs and probably added some new ones into the mix.

The .zip file contains two files: Knockabout.tap and Knockabout_D.tap. Knockabout.tap was built with sdcc compiler optimisations. I've had issues with the generated optimised code in the past, so I've built a non optimised version - Knockabout_D.tap. Please try Knockabout.tap and if you encounter any funnies or crashes, try the other version to see if the problem exists there too.

Cheers.