I noticed you used 2-color sprites for the gorillas, and I initially thought this was a stylistic choice because of the way the original game looked, but reading below I saw that you had originally wanted to use 4-color sprites but ran out of chars, so I looked into it and found a fix if you're interested.
You'd need to replace 2 bits of code to make it work. The first is the sprite decoder, which you could replace with this, which is set to 3 4-color pixels per character and includes a color lookup string:
for i=0,128do v=ord('456',(ord("",i\3+1)-35)\4^(i%3)%4)sset(i%7,i\7,v)sset(12-i%7,i\7,v)end
You only actually need 7 pixels in width for the sprites, but I'm thinking maybe you used 8 to avoid a graphical glitch? Assuming you're using the full range of 221 chars, you could use up to 6 colors for each gorilla sprite if you wanted to, you'd just need to change the 4's there to 6's, and add a couple extra entries in the lookup string.
This would take you to 1026 or 1028 chars, but I noticed you're using binary AND operators for the button controls, and a combo of modulo and floor divide is slightly more compact, so you could replace those with this:
b=btn()z-=(b\2%2-b%2)/800f-=(b\8%2-b\4%2)/8
This saves 8 chars and gets you down to 1018 or 1020. =)
Here's a pic of a little test I made with 5-color sprites and a lighter blue background in 1024 chars.
Thanks for your kind words. I started with the concept of a 2 players game, but I liked the idea of progression and having only one player to simplify game logic. I had expected that after finishing the game logic, the remaining chars would allow me to include a 4 colours gorilla. I had to do the best I could with far less chars left than I had expected. So gorilla graphics are 1bpp symmetrical with no animation. At least the buildings have got a few different colours and there are 2 different colours for windows.
Fantastic! 👏 GORILLA.BAS was a staple of my childhood - we played it for hours (and then started learning QBASIC). You've done a great recreation here - especially considering the limits! 👍
Thanks again! I was wondering what genre could I do next and old good QuickBasic GORILLA.BAS came to my mind. It also brings back nice memories from my childhood.
Thanks! The banana using 2 fill circles was one of the first ideas I had to make the "flying banana time" a bit less boring. But I had to simplify the banana-building collision because I ran out of chars and to allow less step angles in front of high buildings. Anyway, I'm afraid it can get close to impossible when there's a high building in front of the gorilla and wind is very strong. Also the camera was supposed to follow the banana when it goes above top screen, but the few chars I had left were invested in some sfx instead.
← Return to game
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Good job on this, it looks and plays really nice!
I noticed you used 2-color sprites for the gorillas, and I initially thought this was a stylistic choice because of the way the original game looked, but reading below I saw that you had originally wanted to use 4-color sprites but ran out of chars, so I looked into it and found a fix if you're interested.
You'd need to replace 2 bits of code to make it work. The first is the sprite decoder, which you could replace with this, which is set to 3 4-color pixels per character and includes a color lookup string:
for i=0,128do v=ord('456',(ord("",i\3+1)-35)\4^(i%3)%4)sset(i%7,i\7,v)sset(12-i%7,i\7,v)end
You only actually need 7 pixels in width for the sprites, but I'm thinking maybe you used 8 to avoid a graphical glitch? Assuming you're using the full range of 221 chars, you could use up to 6 colors for each gorilla sprite if you wanted to, you'd just need to change the 4's there to 6's, and add a couple extra entries in the lookup string.
This would take you to 1026 or 1028 chars, but I noticed you're using binary AND operators for the button controls, and a combo of modulo and floor divide is slightly more compact, so you could replace those with this:
b=btn()z-=(b\2%2-b%2)/800f-=(b\8%2-b\4%2)/8
This saves 8 chars and gets you down to 1018 or 1020. =)
Here's a pic of a little test I made with 5-color sprites and a lighter blue background in 1024 chars.
Wow! I have to try those magic tricks! I'm starting to realize I've still a lot to learn. Nice gorillas, btw.
Thanks, I've got a lot to learn myself, I'm just used to trying different approaches to a problem long enough to figure out sneaky workarounds.=)
This is so impressive! The controls are really intuitive and well communicated, and the graphical fidelity you've pulled off in 1k is incredible!
Thanks for your kind words. I started with the concept of a 2 players game, but I liked the idea of progression and having only one player to simplify game logic. I had expected that after finishing the game logic, the remaining chars would allow me to include a 4 colours gorilla. I had to do the best I could with far less chars left than I had expected. So gorilla graphics are 1bpp symmetrical with no animation. At least the buildings have got a few different colours and there are 2 different colours for windows.
Fantastic! 👏
GORILLA.BAS was a staple of my childhood - we played it for hours (and then started learning QBASIC).
You've done a great recreation here - especially considering the limits! 👍
Thanks again! I was wondering what genre could I do next and old good QuickBasic GORILLA.BAS came to my mind. It also brings back nice memories from my childhood.
Fun game! I like how smooth the banana flies through the air and how it feels so natural even with the wind.
Thanks! The banana using 2 fill circles was one of the first ideas I had to make the "flying banana time" a bit less boring. But I had to simplify the banana-building collision because I ran out of chars and to allow less step angles in front of high buildings. Anyway, I'm afraid it can get close to impossible when there's a high building in front of the gorilla and wind is very strong. Also the camera was supposed to follow the banana when it goes above top screen, but the few chars I had left were invested in some sfx instead.