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[Noyb]

Finally got a chance to play the latest version. Very nice!

It's got quite a difficulty curve, and I'm not entirely sure how many of my deaths are due to lack of planning or being smote by the random number generator gods, but it's very fun and satisfying. Even just at the second level I can see you mixing up the gameplay in great ways. Now I just need to get better at the game.

[Pishtaco]

Thanks!

@Zombahs: Version 1.1 is hidden away in the middle of the thread, here.

@Pencerkoff: That's the sniper attack. I can see that it's annoying in its current form, and will think about changing it. Having a crosshair there for a turn first is a good idea.

I kept it in to keep the player on their toes, since otherwise it felt like you could stash some good items and then stop worrying about being vulnerable. It doesn't happen very often, and hits a random block, so: if you pad out your inventory with junk, useful things are less likely to get hit (okay, this is lame); and when I play the level I try to keep spares of things, so two weapons and two suits, just in case one gets hit. A little bit like in Stalker, where suits could get damaged easily or weapons run out of ammunition.

[cowsinthongs]

I don't quite get how the game works. How do you get objects into your inventory? Am I supposed to only get rows of like color or something? More interesting than tetris but I'd probably enjoy it more if I knew what to do.

[cyber95]

I don't quite get how the game works. How do you get objects into your inventory? Am I supposed to only get rows of like color or something? More interesting than tetris but I'd probably enjoy it more if I knew what to do.

I didn't quite get it at first either, but really, the game board IS your inventory. If you've got a gun or armor in there, you'll have more protection, and if there's say, a glowing artifact in there, you'll get radiated. Bandages and Health Packs work kinda different, in that they are only activated when you clear them, but most items seem to work while they're on the board.


Did I get that right?

[Pishtaco]

I don't quite get how the game works. How do you get objects into your inventory? Am I supposed to only get rows of like color or something? More interesting than tetris but I'd probably enjoy it more if I knew what to do.

What cyber95 said. The basic gameplay - how you move things around and make lines etc. - is just like Tetris, except that you have the ability to flip your stack upside down whenever you want. What's different is the scoring.

The game is a demake of Stalker, focussing on the strategic inventory-management part of the game rather than the shooting part. The inventory screen in Stalker looks like this:

So in Stacker your inventory is the main game panel on the left. For some items you get a bonus/malus to your health/psy/radiation for every turn they are in your inventory, where a turn starts each time a new item turns up. For other items the bonus/malus only happens when you clear lines containing blocks from that item, and the size of the effect depends on the number of blocks. Which kind of item it is is shown at the top of the panel when the item appears, by an icon of a clock or of some blocks and an arrow.

Weapons and armour have extra effects, and some enemy blocks will eventually explode. When you clear lines, you score 100 roubles for each block from an artefact, 10 roubles for each block from an "intact" item, and nothing for grey "junk" blocks. This score is multiplied by the number of lines you clear simultaneously.

[Robotacon]

except that you have the ability to flip your stack upside down whenever you want.

I'm such an idiot! This radically changes the game play. Why do I never RTFM?

[PHeMoX]

By far the best game(play) so far in this compo! (Some others following very close, but still.).

edit: Lol, I just realized that sounds more contradicting than I thought it would.

[idontlikeregistrations]

first of all, i do realize that this topic is from 2008 and the poster might not even be visiting these boards anymore

but, i would really love to play this and i haven't been able to run the latest version. could you please re-host the old version? because i get these glitches in version 1.1

the normal 1.1


the "older cards" 1.1

[Pishtaco]

I've heard of a similar bug (with transparencies around sprites showing as black) in other game maker games, but don't remember how it's been fixed. Do you get it with anything else, e.g. Spelunky? What kind of system are you running, and are the drivers reasonably up-to-date? Is the problem the same when running windowed and fullscreen?

[idontlikeregistrations]

well, tried spelunky and it works
i'm running windows xp and my gpu is geforce 9600m gt, it's this mobile gpu for notebooks

but i tried this on my sister's notebook and it works there, so i can play it there. still can't play it on this one because of the black borders

also, you can't switch to full screen in stacker

[Pishtaco]

F4 should switch to fullscreen.

Somebody suggested a fix in the technical forum: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=11497.0

I've tried to implement it but it's not going well. So far all it's doing is giving me the black backgrounds on my computer. 

[devi ever]

...... NECRO!

Is this game still available to play anywhere?

[Pishtaco]

...... NECRO!

Is this game still available to play anywhere?

The downloads from my website should work, I hope: http://venuspatrol.nfshost.com/#stacker

[devi ever]

...... NECRO!

Is this game still available to play anywhere?

The downloads from my website should work, I hope: http://venuspatrol.nfshost.com/#stacker

Oops... I was clicking on
Original competition version, 1.0

[devi ever]

NICE.  Took me a while to figure it out.  I'm a huge tetris fan, and my girlfriend is obsessed with STALKER, so this was a great mash up to check out.  Great job, and I love the visual effects and interesting minor adjustments to the Tetris gameplay you implemented.