The life of Cirkat

by maloy

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.30

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.05

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.23

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.20

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.00

Audio★★★★★★★★★★2.53

Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.56

Mood★★★★★★★★★★2.71

Ludum Dare 44 - Your life is currency
-------------------------------------

Game : The Life of Cirkat

Team size : 1

Platform : NES (original NES from 1983/1985, using emulators for the Jam)

Language : 6502 ASM & C

Personal challenge : First time trying to program a game on NES

You will need a NES emulator to run this game, any good NES emulator should work. If you need one, http://www.fceux.com was the main emulator I used to develop the game.

Libraries used :
- neslib : NES hardware-dependent functions by Shiru (https://shiru.untergrund.net)
- famitone2 : music and SFX player (used to playback SFX)

Tools used :
- NES Screen Tool 2.4 (tile editor and screen editor)
- FamiTracker (NES SFX editor)
- Visual Studio Code
- CC65 & make
- FCEUX (NES emulator and debugger)

References used :
- https://wiki.nesdev.com : Great source of information on NES hardware and programming
- https://cc65.github.io/doc/
- http://anton.maurovic.com/posts/nintendo-nes-gamedev-part-1-setting-up/
- https://shiru.untergrund.net/articles/programming_nes_games_in_c.htm
- https://shiru.untergrund.net/code.shtml
- https://shiru.untergrund.net/software.shtml
- https://github.com/jmk/cc65-nes-examples
- http://www.famitracker.com/
- http://www.fceux.com

Play the game via JS NES Emulator (in-browser) :
http://ld44.weirdfox.com/run/NesTest

Tools: FamiTracker

Comments13

maloyauthor29 Apr 2019, 02:23

Note:
https://jsnes.org can also be used as an in-browser NES emulator, but its performance is not always as good as native emulators.

maloyauthor29 Apr 2019, 14:28

I highly recommend having a gamepad configured for the emulator, the game feels a lot better than with keyboard controls.

VinegarLove30 Apr 2019, 02:11

Hey, that's amazing.
Can't imagine me doing anything of this in 3 days.

Pixel_Error30 Apr 2019, 02:16

The game is simple but perfectly conveys the retro atmosphere of snes.

GaryS30 Apr 2019, 02:30

Daaaaaamn dude... Really impressed that you coded this up for the NES in a weekend.

Trifectuh30 Apr 2019, 03:17

Super impressive. Had a lot of fun once I got used to the jumping. Also what @maloy said. Way better with a pad.

sylvie1 May 2019, 01:46

Cool to see an NES game! I somehow managed to jump over one of the life doors without touching it and got to the next screen....

David Greene1 May 2019, 02:48

I'm impressed! Making me think I want to try NES next jam. Good job!! Only missing piece? Background music/sound.

Lone_Wolf1 May 2019, 02:51

Neat. I wasted a ton of lives trying to get my jumping right lol. +1

dougLima1 May 2019, 07:24

Feels like a NES game. Neat!

Johannimations1 May 2019, 18:39

I like that it is so true to the feeling of playing a nes game. It really looks like one, like the original legend of zelda or something, but unfortunelly i had no sound. I don't know ,if it was intentionally, but i actually found the strange jump mechanic funny and it let the game feel even older. It hitted the theme, but it wasn't really engaging and didn't hold me for long. But over all, the style, mood and graphiics got me to love it

PixScope1 May 2019, 22:08

I love it !

cppchriscpp5 May 2019, 03:36

Yess, another NES game! I love seeing retro games in the compo/jam; I feel like the limitations tend to lead to a very focused and complete game.

The gameplay was simple and effective, and I liked the basic sound effects. (which don't show up in the web-based emulator; more on that in a sec...) The graphics looked pretty fantastic. For a first NES game ever, this is really impressive! You should be proud. I hope you had fun making this, and I hope I'll see more from you some day! I really liked this entry.

To note, JSNes doesn't do a great job with sound - I used it for a pretty long time. One of the folks on the NintendoAge discord made his own js emulator called Nez that does audio right, and I basically swear by it at this point. I made some tweaks to it that make it easier to set it up to host your own game. Here's my version -- no pressure on using it; just wanted to share the option!