Drelbs

[play]

Does anyone have a boxed Drelbs? A scan of the cover and instructions would be much appreciated if you do.

Thanks,
Paul

[prixon]

Hi Paul

Are the scans at Atarimania any help?

http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-drelbs_1737.html

P

[play]

Thanks Paul that is perfect.

Given the weather this weekend I thought I'd try a bit of games programming again. I only want to do a little project so tried to think of a good 8-bit game which hasn't already been done and Drelbs seemed to fit the bill.

Funny thing is, when I look at it now it's just a two screen game, the grid screen and the bonus screen. It also seems quite hard and repetative. Rose tinted glasses (or eyeballs in this case). I do think it was very well programmed though.

I am sure something more can be done with the concept of rotating the gates and forming blocks but I am not sure what exactly. My plan is to get basic Drelbs going and then I'll decide if I want to do something more with it.

Progress so far:

http://www.playsoft.co.uk

You'll need to click on the screen to activate it and then use the arrow keys to wander around.

Regards,
Paul

 

[prixon]

That's looking cool .... !

[play]

I have done a bit more to it but still have a way to go.

On the Atari version the only credit is to Kelly Jones. On the C64 version it additionally says "designed for the C64 by Miriam Nathan and William Madel". So my guess is they helped port it to the C64 (which looks almost identical to the Atari verison).

I also found an Amiga version on youtube (programmed by someone else, not Kelly Jones) but that seems to have lost all the magic of the Atari version.

[prixon]

Wow it looks (and sounds) amazing now!

[play]

Yes I am very pleased with how it's coming along. I've just uploaded the latest version with my first attempt at some playable levels (you can start the game at any level by pressing 1..8 ). All the aspects of the original are there now, except for the game complete screen (the mysterious lady blows kisses at you - I never got that far but someone on youtube has).

The sounds are a bit of a cheat as they are all sampled from the original game and tidied up with an audio editor - I jazzed up the title music by adding a wahwah effect.

[play]

I finally got around to adding the completion screen, keeping it the same as the original. I have added a high score table which is stored on the server and that seems to be working ok. I will probaby try and jazz up the high score table and also make it a little more obvious when you are entering your name (at the moment it just shows a static underline cursor). It's slowly getting there...

[prixon]

Wow's that's great !! I love it ... have you advertised its presence anywhere else yet?

Now I need to try and get on the highscore table......

Incidentally it didn't seem to work on Firefox 4 but was OK with Internet Explorer 9

P

[play]

No I've not advertised it anywhere else yet - when I do I'll put it on a different website as thomasandjames is supposed to be for my nephews.

Thanks for letting me know about Firefox as I'd only tested with Internet Explorer and Opera. The issue seemed to be the wrong kind of slashes in the path to the cover image and it now works in Firefox too.

[play]

Now moved to http://www.playsoft.co.uk/

That is the basic game done, I just need to write up some instructions before publicising it.