A Look At JUNGLE JERRY for Atari 8-bit - Work In Progress

[peteym5]

Jungle Quest For Atari 8-bit Work in Progress For July 31, 2022. Some Progress has been made with the game after many years. Now have the main character running around and climbing ladders. Collision Detection works. You may post your comments here or on Atari.IO for a quick response from myself or Video61. Posting on that other Atari forum will not get a response from me there, but on here or Atari.IO. To respond to an earlier comment, the reason why this game had been put aside for many years is that I had been busy with many other Atari game projects. Also, when I decided to come back here, I decided to revamp the programming with all the techniques I learned after putting this game aside. It did take me some time to port over my player/missile multiplexer and align with the scrolling action. 

[RickR]

This looks really great @peteym5.  Such smooth animation and scrolling.  I'm so impressed by the colors on the main character. 

[Nebpehtira]

Really impressive side scrolling and really impressive colour palette. Sky and treescape on the upper level looks fantastic!

[Jinroh]

This looks great Peter! Smooth scrolling and a nicely animated character. 

Can't wait to see further gameplay. 

[peteym5]

 

Latest Jungle Quest Work-in-Progress video. I have the moving platforms working in the game that is using animated font characters. This is one of the things I am adding to make the game different from Pittfall. I am planning on many more additions and changes. If anyone would like to see something in the game, please comment below.

 

[peteym5]

 

 

"Jungle Quest" Work In Progress Video for August 8, 2022. Have Animated Sprites working and aligning with the scrolling properly. Also, able to jump onto platforms, and you move with the platform. I am posting this here on Facebook and on Atari.IO for feedback as I develop the game. I am working on making this game more different from the Pitfall games. I am already using moving platforms and using different animals. I have more additions that I am developing, but also refining the current game. I started this game around 2007, posted on a popular forum, starting with a thread "looking to make an Atari Game" That was before I was personally contacted to work with Video61 to produce the games on cartridge. I got side tracked and convinced to make some different cartridge games. Jungle Quest was designed to show what can the Atari 8-bit can do. It was my answer to the Commodore 64 vs Atari 8-bit battle that raged on with another Atari forum.

A little word on the history, I accidentally lost a version I was working on about 10 years ago because I accidentally had a parameter incorrect with a program I used to change my hard drive partitions around. I only retrieved a less developed version from a backup. I was using CDRWs at the time. Those were junk. Glad we have USB Flash and SD drives now. Much more reliable.

Edited August 20, 2022 by peteym5

[peteym5]

This is the latest development of Jungle Quest (current working title.) Work In Progress for August 30, 2022. Major improvements and Additions since last posted video upload. Have Moving Platforms, Animated Gems, Lava, Spikes functional inside the game. Shows Keys and other items that will be interacting with. Can climb sideways on the ropes and move on the platforms when you stand on them. Fire Idols that will activate periodically. What you see here is a work in progress, and changes are being made frequently. I really want to make a fun and challenging game for the 8-bit.

 

[Jinroh]

Really great progress Peter! 🙂

Smooth graphics all around! Ace coding! The new gameplay with the moving platform should add a good challenge. 😄

Edited September 15, 2022 by Jinroh

[masteries]

There are a huge amount of sprites at once,

 

As well, its a very promising game for Atari 8 bits computer,

where sadly, most of the commercial games (from 80´s) are pretty simple.

[Jinroh]

On 9/23/2022 at 1:22 AM, masteries said:

There are a huge amount of sprites at once,

 

As well, its a very promising game for Atari 8 bits computer,

where sadly, most of the commercial games (from 80´s) are pretty simple.

Yes Peter has a lot of cool things going on here. 😄

[peteym5]

https://youtu.be/AiiHpYXJvWQ Jungle Quest for Atari 8-bit Work in Progress, October 5, 2022. Been working on this game periodically over the last month. I made some progress with collecting objects and displaying on the scoreboard at the top. It can also collect keys and open doors. You need a specific key to open a matching door.

[peteym5]

https://youtu.be/mUcD4PIin14

This is the latest Work in Progress I have done for Jungle Quest. I have added collision detection, character dying, collecting enough Gems to open up an exit to go to another level.

[peteym5]

 

First time I visited Jungle Quest since December and did some work on the programming. I added Music and Sound. Corrected several bugs. "Jungle Quest" could be renamed before the final release. Video61 and I have a title in mind, and will be making the announcement when the game is more complete.
Jungle Quest, is a game that I started when I returned to Atari in 2007. I resumed work on the game around August 2022. The game was intended to be similar to Pitfall, but would have new worlds to explore. Use big scrolling screens and take advantage of extended RAM. It will have a jumping system similar to what is seen in other side scrolling action type games. It will have moving platforms. Video61 wanted more elements to make it different from Pitfall because David Crane is someone he knows. I looked at another MS-DOS called "Jill of the Jungle" for inspiration. This will be a colorful and action packed challenging game.
Jungle Quest was a game that I started before I met KJMANN (SAL) and many probably do not know who he is. I posted this game on another Atari forum, and several months later, I got contacted by Sal about doing other games, such as Battle Squadron, Tempest, and eventually Venture. Kjmann was separated from our group, and I, Video61, and team achieved better after he left. I learned how to use Raster Music Tracker myself, so I do not need to depend on others to create music files. 

[peteym5]

Looks like the video being reposted on other forums had provoked some interesting comments, and I would like to start with a general response here.

I believe posting on another forum is not self-promotion, as I can go through the main index and see posts by programmers discussing their own game projects. I do wait  between each work-in-progress for a few weeks to avoid over saturating things, and allows me to get work done.

When I mark a game as work-in-progress, everything is subject to change as progress is made. Including graphics, sound, music, and game play. Nothing is final. How good stuff looks is a matter of opinion, and I am aware of what other artists do. Sometimes graphics are temporary to stand in order to write programming that position and move stuff around the screen. It is not unusual for myself when the majority of the programming is done, I edit character set, sprite, sound, and music data to improve the aesthetics and improve the presentation game.

Video61 and I do privately consult with others while games are being developed. If this was about my ego, I would not be making public posts with screenshots and videos before the game is complete. I do like to read about what people like to see with my games. 

 

Edited April 1, 2023 by peteym5

[peteym5]

Jungle Quest Work in Progress update for April 15, 2023. Been working on what is needed to make this a multi-level game and have it look different for each level. I am trying some different graphics to see what looks good and what doesn't. Been trying to iron out the music, and making everything working correctly before preparing the game cartridge.

 

Edited April 16, 2023 by peteym5

[peteym5]

Jungle Quest Work in Progress Video for June 11, 2023. I completed setting up the levels I planned to have in the offical game. They my need further tweaking, because some things may be discovered in the wrong location, or something may be impossible to get past. So, there is going to be further testing. The game is going to be targeted for 64K to 128K Atari 8-bi computer. It will include several mega levels to be played on the 130XE. Does this by combining sections of other levels to make a big level.

I have been busy with other projects, some of them still Atari related. I plan to continue to support the Atari 8-bit, 5200, and 7800 with new games. I hope things do get patched up with myself and Atari community members, however they have their own agenda that makes them difficult. Most of the news I view lately is some hack of a game that already exists. Maybe something new like Prince of Persia being released.

[Justin]

Can you give him an Indiana Jones hat? 

[DegasElite]

That would be interesting. Like a pith helmet or Fedora. Indy wore a Fedora. :O)

[Justin]

Brown pixels in the style of an Indiana Jones hat would be pretty cool. Without actually making him Indiana Jones.

[Justin]

@peteym5 @DegasElite Here's a fine selection of epic adventurous headwear:

 

[peteym5]

I will look into this as the game is still a work in progress. I choose the current color scheme to help avoid making it appear too close to something else. I know it is very unlikely someone will come over to us to do anything. Maybe I can do something with the next build. The game is using the 3 color player/missile overlay mode where the 3rd color is the result of the other two color registers calculated as a binary or, and it is sometimes difficult to control the 3rd color.

 

[peteym5]

 

 

Jungle Quest is now Jungle Jerry. Work in Progress for November 07, 2023. I made several changes were made to the creatures that you need to dodge while playing the game. This makes it more Pete Meyer's Jungle Jerry and less like Pitt Fall. As everyone knows, some of us programmers, we are being more careful about making unlicensed ports. Some of the frogs no longer hop left and right in front of the ladder, and the monkeys are used instead by the ladders. Jerry Looses a life new when contacting a creature, and the game ends when extra lives run out. Some bug corrections. It is still a work in progress.