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[increpare]

However this turns out, you're definitely getting honorable mentions for the most theme changes.

Man; there should totally be a 'best waterfall' category.

Glad to hear you're making good progress MG.  I look forward to playing your game

[Moon Goon]

Best waterfall?  Does this screenshot win?

[Melly]

Very much so.

[moi]

Nice!

[Synnah]

Man, Pitfall 2/Super Pitfall was one of the games that defined my childhood! I used to find it kind of depressing, for some reason. Thus, I'm looking forward to this!

[deadeye]

I can't believe you're making a Super Pitfall demake.  The original (which I actually own) is just so it's like a demake already.

I've never beaten it. I've played that game for hours straight before, and I still don't get it.  What the hell is the deal with all the invisible stuff you have to jump to find?  It's maddening

And I hate those damn waterfalls    (yours looks nice though)

[Moon Goon]

Super Pitfall for the NES wasn't the first: S.P. for the Tandy Coco was.  The game looks worse on the original CoCo but I decided to go for Odyssey2 resolution.  I suppose the fact that it was practically a port from the CoCo version explains the lack of quality music.  The sometimes bad controls and collision detection can't really be explained away though.  I'm at least sparing people the background music part of it (in-game).

I personally think Super Pitfall rocks all kinds of planets - even the ones with Natto flavored air.  My de-make spans 252 eye-bursting screens (including level barriers unfortunately).  It's %99 done.  I'm gonna  tweak level design until due date.  I included acceleration and removed some redundant enemies including the smaller spearchucker, lizard man, crawling bone critter and rolling snails.  Some bonus items are out too such as the cross and pentagram-ish, er, thing. 

Link: What is Natto? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natto

Instructions: (Not grammar or smell checked)

Controls
Use arrow keys to move Pitifall Larry.  Z key to jump.  X key to fire if ammo present.  Aim for bottom of vine to swing.  Press UP + JUMP and LEFT or RIGHT to leap off vine or balloon.  Pressing LEFT or RIGHT for an extended duration accelerates Larry and makes him jump higher.  Press UP while standing inside door to warp.  Press UP or DOWN while on ladder to climb.  Use arrow keys to swim while in water.  Gates may be opened by touch once its matching key is in your inventory.  It is highly recommended to toggle full screen mode via F4.  ESC quits.  F1 displays this screen.   If a joystick is attached it will become the primary controller.  To regain keyboard mode detach joystick.  Press button 1 to jump or start game and 2 to fire.  Pause the game by pressing button 3 or ENTER.

Gameplay
Pitifall Larry is on a quest to obtain the Ralf Diamond.  To complicate matters his Nieces Lion was captured and she has been turned to stone!  Find the key and open Kittyclaw the Lions cage.  Obtain the Ralf Diamond.  Retrieve the antidote and cure Larry's Niece.   Once all of these items have been completed visit Larry's Niece to win!

[Derek]

Awesome!  I love Spelunker, Pitfall, any kind of caving/treasure-hunting style game.

[Moon Goon]

DEMO http://www.esnips.com/doc/720b2beb-9001-4172-83d8-d099e4342a29/spdemo

In Game 2 - Pitifall Larry Terrorized by a Cursed Floating Skull


Level tweaking continues.  Had 2 out of 4 gate keys near warp doors - way too obvious.  Playtesting revealed small bugs like losing track of your ammo and collected gate keys when you paused the game.  Oops!  I'm thinking a Friday release is possible if no other bugs surface.

Note that sometimes jumping off ladders requires pressing UP and possibly the direction you want to jump in.  You can actually climb up to the top of the balloon by pressing UP and JUMP.  One really should press F4 to get this sucker in full screen: you just don't get the blurry old TV with and old video game console feel without it.   There have been nasty rumors of getting stuck in solid bricks when running and jumping.  I have exterminated the source of these rumors and they should no longer bother us muahahahaha!  :D

[muku]

One really should press F4 to get this sucker in full screen: you just don't get the blurry old TV with and old video game console feel without it.

I hope this will have gamepad support right?

[Moon Goon]

Yep.  Download the demo with your gamepad plugged in and see.  Also, the betabeta instructions in this thread mention which buttons do what.

DEMO http://www.esnips.com/doc/720b2beb-9001-4172-83d8-d099e4342a29/spdemo

Play, and be AMAZED at what you missed not playing this stunted stepchild of Pitfall!

Instructions: (Not grammar or smell checked)

Controls
Use arrow keys to move Pitifall Larry.  Z key to jump.  X key to fire if ammo present.  Aim for bottom of vine to swing.  Press UP + JUMP and LEFT or RIGHT to leap off vine or balloon.  Pressing LEFT or RIGHT for an extended duration accelerates Larry and makes him jump higher.  Press UP while standing inside door to warp.  Press UP or DOWN while on ladder to climb.  Use arrow keys to swim while in water.  Gates may be opened by touch once its matching key is in your inventory.  It is highly recommended to toggle full screen mode via F4.  ESC quits.  F1 displays this screen.   If a joystick is attached it will become the primary controller.  To regain keyboard mode detach joystick.  Press button 1 to jump or start game and 2 to fire.  Pause the game by pressing button 3 or ENTER.

Gameplay
Pitifall Larry is on a quest to obtain the Ralf Diamond.  To complicate matters his Nieces Lion was captured and she has been turned to stone!  Find the key and open Kittyclaw the Lions cage.  Obtain the Ralf Diamond.  Retrieve the antidote and cure Larry's Niece.   Once all of these items have been completed visit Larry's Niece to win!

I must also admit my programming skillz are not 1337.  When you have the gamepad plugged in the keybaord controls go wonky - thus the sentance: "To regain keyboard mode detach joystick."

[muku]

Ah, sorry, for whatever reason I completely missed the demo...

Haha, you can actually keep moving after dying! :D

It's pretty easy to get stuck at the bottom/top of ladders in tight spots.

Apart from that, very nice, strong retro feel to it. Will have to try again, bit short on time right now.

[Moon Goon]

I *think* I fixed the hard to exit ladders in tight spaces issue.  Thanks for the feedback!  The still moving while dying thing.. I dunno. I'll 'prolly fix it but it IS kinda funny.  Once someone got killed and fell into a balloon.  Floating carcass ahoy!

EDIT:  Okay.. I think I fixed the moving around while still dead thing.  Must.. eat.. brains..

[Moon Goon]

FINAL http://www.esnips.com/doc/7c1b82ed-7f1e-4a42-a25b-85bd0f8e8e7d/pitifall

Okay, after a very brief beta I'm deciding to let this thing loose.  I locked a friend in a room until he beat the darn thing.  I suspect some areas will still produce player-stuck-in-wall situations.  Probably still have random critters finding their way into walls too.  Alas, some bugs must be left alone lest they drive you mad.  'Sides, it happened in the real game anyway!

Some facts I learned from this contest:
* At some point you'll reach a breaking point.  Either change your tools or change your game idea.  Either way, change or risk getting stuck.
* Remaking a favorite game is a great way to retread the steps of the real game programmers and artists.  It sounds obvious but when you experience it - it is quite profound.
* Never count on promising your weekends away.  Life promises to steal your development time.  Put on your name-brand shoes and "Just do it!"

Also note the only credits I gave are TIGSource.  Really, if it weren't for the game ROM CHECK FAIL I'd never have heard of TIGSource.  If it weren't for the procedural game contest I wouldn't have wanted to enter a contest at all.  Finally, if it weren't for the free forum account and genuinely nice/helpful/similarly weird people in this place I wouldn't have kept going.  I wholly blame this unholy resurrection of Super Pitfall on you guys.

Thanks a bunch!

[mildmojo]

Cool.  The game sticks together nicely.  Quite an array of little beasties to kill you.  Including the magic you're-taking-too-long-you-worthless-pile-of-pixels KILLER SKULL that appears after a while.  Whatever happened to that guy?  The smiley of doom used to chase me around Thief (the Apple port of Berserk) like mad.

The first subterranean enemy, the purple bat, is allowed to fly through the ground.  He's close enough to the player's initial spawn point that he sometimes gets a few kills in before I can shoot or dodge.

I can't figure the vines out.  Or, I can't figure out how to jump off them effectively.  Especially in the fire area--the best I could do is manage a little hop off into the lava.  It's nice to be able to stick to them so easily, but maybe it could be less easy to stick to the one you're on?

The first time I hit the bridge, I managed to jump into one of the bridge segments.  They kept animating like I was stepping on them, but I was stuck floating just below the bridge.  Had to restart.  Heh.

If you're standing right up against a wall, there's no minimum firing speed, so you can blast through a very large amount of ammo just by touching the fire key.  Maybe the pistol should be a semi-auto?

A way to doublesize the game window would be great, too. =)

Cool game, great console feel.

[Moon Goon]

  Aim for bottom of vine to swing.  Press UP + JUMP and LEFT or RIGHT to leap off vine or balloon. .. It is highly recommended to toggle full screen mode via F4.

Really need to press F4 to go full screen to get the best effect.  I think I read that the judges don't like full screen or changing resolutions so I opted to make the thing windowed and HIGHLY recommend going full screen.  I made the sprites use 2x2 pixel blocks so that I'd get a slight blurring effect like an old TV when you go full screen.  I thought about pixel stretching the windowed mode but I thought going full screen was enough.  Might have been wrong on that one.

The vines can be tricky.  Couldn't find a balance between loosing grip on the vines and sticking to them too well. The trick really is in the instructions though.  Treat the keyboard like a joystick and press diagonally while hitting the jump button to attempt to leap off the vine.  You may have to do this combo more than once so keep hitting that jump button if you don't leap immediately!

Game Maker is partly to blame for the stuck-in-walls bug.  I don't know why this always happens in GM games in particular.  I avoided the built-in vspeed and hspeed movement to help alleviate this behavior but I think using non-integer x/y values may have goofed it up (i.e. x = 123.5).  Also, if you assign new sprites to an object (instead of just using images within the same sprite) sometimes you can loose proper collision checking.

Anyway, thanks for taking the time to play and thanks for the feedback!  One of the things I plan to do for my next contest is show off prototypes earlier to get feedback like this.

[mildmojo]

Heh, looks like I need to learn to read instructions.  I think I fired it up out of the megapack before I read the thread. =/

I wonder why this Game Maker game worked fine for me (under Wine) when several others didn't?

[increpare]

Loved your waterfall dude 

[Moon Goon]

I intentionally used Game Maker 5 as it has better compatibility especially with WINE.  A good sign is that WINE actually runs the IDE for versions 4-7 properly now except you MUST use an external code editor.  Someone wrote a style plugin for Notepad++ for GML mentioned here: http://gmc.yoyogames.com/lofiversion/index.php/t335737.html   ..but it didn't work for me.

I must admit the waterfalls rock.  Also, Moa heads and the snake are a personal favorite.  You'd think low resolution means easier to create sprites.. WRONG!!!!  If anything it becomes like a chess game - move one pixel and the whole picture changes.  The brown spider things were a challenge but turned out OK.  I might have just plain failed with the vultures: they look like plucked chickens at best.

[mildmojo]

Must be the version; I think the others were using GM 7.

The snake sprite was great.  It scared me a little the first time it stood up.