Gp32 Seuck

[The Wub]

Hi all,

I just wanted to draw attention to my seuck which I am still finding time to work on.
I've had 3 months without the internet and I used this time quite productively
There is a lot of non-game stuff that needs adding before I finish the wave editor and the "compile" options but I'm happy enough with my progress to show how it's going.
You can get the latest version from the gp32 page on wublog for the time being.
It's a bit clumsy to use still but I hope that doesn't put people off!

*update*
I have uploaded an update to the makegame.fxe. This makes viewing a title screen automatic and adds a replay title screen option.
This makes it quicker to check out my R-Type title screen mock up

more soon
wub

 

[Jarska333]

Shoot-Em-Up-Construction-Kit? Woot!

Getting a GP2X?

 

[ralp99]

thats cool, i have always meant to check out seuck, maybe i will give it a spin this weekend. if i can pry my stupid fingers away from #(*@ lumines ARGHHH

 

[fishybawb]

Excellent news

I used to make SEUCK games on my Amiga 500 when I was about 13/14. Ah, good times! I look forward to trying this one out.

 

[junker]

looks great!!!
please consider porting over to gp2x sometime.
keeping eye on this!

 

[K0K0NUT_h3lmut]

Never heard of this before. Excellent news!

 

[The Wub]

Hey again,
Evil Dragon has updated the file archive with a full zip that includes the latest .fxe
Thanks to him for that

Thanks to everyone who tries this out. I'd be glad to get feedback as this will speed up the process of bugfixing and adding the new bits.
There is enough here to make a relatively basic game already and most of what's missing is done, it's just the process of hooking up the functions to the menu system and bugfixing that now. It's been much more work than I expected!

Thanks for the interest

more soon
wub.

 

[digitaljez]

Shoot-Em-Up-Construction-Kit? Woot!

Getting a GP2X?

​

looks great!!!
please consider porting over to gp2x sometime.
keeping eye on this!

​

I hope The Wub won't mind me saying this but I know he does not have the resources to get a GP2X for the moment.

I think this Kit will be a great asset and boon to the forthcoming GP2X community homebrew scene. Imagine what great game ideas we have missed out on because the originator was not a coder. I think most of us have a great idea or two for a game. This will allow those great games to live and enrich the scene for the benefit of everyone.

For this reason I have nominated him in the Dev Update Fund Thread.

If you want to see this on the GP2X you can do the same - NOW.

 

[The Wub]

heh

Thanks for the support Jez, I'm glad you have faith in me

As far as your nomination goes I would imagine there are far more deserving coders and projects for that kind of thing. I'd have no moral objections regarding free hardware though, obviously

I have never really finished a project as big as this so I imagine most folks are waiting to see if I actually complete it!

Thanks again
wub.

 

[idigital]

I haven't got my GP32 in the mail yet, but had a quick go at getting this working in geepee32 (without loads of sucess), but it looks cool

I actually had a game published a very very very long time ago with the original C64 SEUCK (don't tell anyone!), and I'd love to see this GP32 SEUCK maybe fulfill some of the promise that the original never managed to follow through with.

There was actually a sequel to the original SEUCK planned that would allow horizontal scrollers, and I've noticed the demo game here seems to be an R-Type clone...

So, will this SEUCK allow horizontal shooters as well? I know it's a lot to ask, but maybe even multi-directional and even basic functionality to allow platformers etc?

Anyway, great work, it's nice to see someone bringing the name of SEUCK back from infamy (it's not exactly praised these days on c64 due to the enormous number of crap games made with it, heh).

Cheers,

Damian

 

[The Wub]

Hi idigital, thanks for trying it out! Yup, you'll need a real gp because all the gfx are loaded from the smc.

I actually had a game published a very very very long time ago with the original C64 SEUCK (don't tell anyone!)

​

That's very cool!

You can already choose between horizontal and vertical shooters in the seuck and the player editor is complete for both modes. (I'll add a "flip" option so down the screen shooters and horizontal from right to left are also supported).

If you look in the wave editor, page 6 I think, there is a set up screen for scrolling backgrounds- none of it works yet but you'll get the jist of what I'm trying to do.

And as for crap shooters, my speciality, I hope this will be capable of more but it's really up to interested people to start planning what they want to make and telling me what I should add. I'm only really supporting the bare minimum that I need for my plans, leaving probably quite obvious things out.

Hope some of this helps
wub.

 

[Tobriand]

Re: Getting it to run in GeePee, you'll presumably need makesmc from Firfly's webpage or the GP32x file archive, such that you can construct a virtual SMC image. Dunno if you can save to such images though from inside GeePee - or rather, if any changes to them are written when you close or merely kept for the single time its been loaded..

Dunno what other people would like to see in this - or for that matter, tbh, what's already there - but imo what I'd most love to see a creator kit be able to do is create an approximate clone of the full game version of Tyrian. This is not, I suspect a realistic goal, not least because there's not a chance anyone will actually get around to making one, unless the Tyrian 2000 team get GP2xes lol. However, just for the sake of a list of ideal features (and I'm emphasising that I'm not begging for these - they're just what Tyrian has that made it special):

- Capability to shop for weapons and upgrades between levels, in addition to being able to change ships, shields, and possibly generators, although less concerned about them.
- Datacubes for the providing of storyline, or some other similar.
- Secret Level objects that essentially set a global value to decide on the next level (I suspect not too hard, there)
- Sidekicks, at least at the level of additional guns to either side of your craft with ability to be independantly fired, and preferably extending to the "Frontblaster" style where its possible to launch an object that continues to shoot and gradually moves back towards you before re-attaching.
- Options on special weapons that might simply be a big set of explosions, but could also do interesting stuff like freezing oponents (ice cannon) preventing them from shooting, repelling bullets of enemies to a certain degree (repulsor), or attracting favourable bonuses (attractor).
- Multiple fire modes for some weapons, especially the secondary "rear" weapons (obviously the modes themselves would have to be defined by whoever was making the game, but the presence of two fire-patterns would be good).
- Charge weapons - if you don't fire for a while, the weapon gets stronger (incentive not to imply hold down the fire button).
- Ideally, 2-layer backgrounds (if not already) - essentially the same as parralax scrolling, but would mean clouds could be separate from the terrain, or even if you want to have floating islands, they could be separate from the terrain.

Rather tall order, I think, but if you want something to aim for, then that's as mny features as I can think of that I've remembered as cool from Tyrian or missed in other shootemups. Especially the ability to upgrade or change weapons/ships/shields based on using your score as the quantity of money you had.

 

[idigital]

Hi idigital, thanks for trying it out! Yup, you'll need a real gp because all the gfx are loaded from the smc.

Cool, well it should be here any day now, but I'll have another go at getting it to run in geepee32 using the makesmc tool

I actually had a game published a very very very long time ago with the original C64 SEUCK (don't tell anyone!)

​

That's very cool!

Heh, well it was actually pretty embarressing. My parents dobbed me in to the local newspaper and TV news, and the newsreader referred to my brother and I as "whiz-kids". That might have been bearable if I'd actually coded the game and not used SEUCK, even the nerds were laughing at me...

Upside is I made $2000AU in advance sales and bought an Amiga

Downside was that hardly any copies were actually sold, the company demanded that I pay back the money (I was 16). Luckily (for me) the company went bust not long after and I got to keep the cash.

As far as I can tell, it's now one of the rarest ever released SEUCK games, it doesnt show up on any of the archives. Phew.

You can already choose between horizontal and vertical shooters in the seuck and the player editor is complete for both modes. (I'll add a "flip" option so down the screen shooters and horizontal from right to left are also supported).

Excellent. Also the ability to have static screens, change scrolling speed during a level would be good. And I think if you can work out a way to allow a method for the player to be a jumping character, so that shooters like Turrican could be made, this SEUCK will really be the most versatile of it's kind ever.

If it was possible to have different control methods switchable within a game, so you could have a space shooter level, then an on-planet platform shooter for instance, really unique games could be made that are much less likely to fall into the trap that many old SEUCK games did. The original SEUCK really was an excellent tool, but it was somewhat limited and so many many games were very similar.

If you look in the wave editor, page 6 I think, there is a set up screen for scrolling backgrounds- none of it works yet but you'll get the jist of what I'm trying to do.

And as for crap shooters, my speciality, I hope this will be capable of more but it's really up to interested people to start planning what they want to make and telling me what I should add. I'm only really supporting the bare minimum that I need for my plans, leaving probably quite obvious things out.

Hope some of this helps
wub.

​

Well, I'm planning to get into coding my own stuff on the gp32/gp2x, but this SEUCK tool could really open up game dev to so many talented people, game designers and graphic designers who might otherwise never have their talents noticed. That could enrich the homebrew scene and allow people to show off their skills and get involved in non-SEUCK projects.

So I'll definitely have a tinker and contribute what I can, I think you're on to a winner here. A decent SEUCK could even be a selling point for the handheld itself!

OK, so let's all do out best to ensure this doesnt run out of steam and become remnants of promising vapours, hehe

 

[The Wub]

Hi Tobriand
and thanks for all this feedback guys, lots of stuff I would not have thought of.
I'll just pick a couple of things to look at here because theres so much I could ramble on about

Shopping for weapons. I think this can be done with what is already there to some extent, although I'll need to allow for more text within a wave. I'll also need to create a special player type and make all types selectable on a per level basis.

When you finish level 1 you would go to "level 2", which is the shop screen built up with static (or not!) backgrounds using badguys for the menu elements as needed.
You could convert a video to a series of bmp's if you wanted to remake xenon2 with yourself playing Krispin, as a for instance, and make it an animated badguy sprite that just sits in the right place.

I'm adding multiple movement phases for all badguy and title screen elements
which will make everything easier, (the r-type screen uses 3 "badguys" for each letter at the moment for example)
I'm only just starting the power up editor and it won't be in the next few releases but I'll be thinking very carefully about it's "dual use" for making menu items now.

All sorts of weapon types will be supported and more than one can exist at once, set to different buttons. A charge and fire will be present as will "nukes" and homing misiles.

All sorts of "events" will be triggered by bad guys or the player so I think unique events and secrets could be worked in there easily enough.
As for turrican, I can't see it. Refining the system to make a decent enough shooter will be a hard enough task Although I agree, that would be quite a seuck!

wub.

 

[Flexinoodle]

WOW SEUCK for GP32 how cool is that, It sounds like it is going to be better than the ones i remember too, If this makes it to the GP2X i will be all over it like a rash