Release notes from Rorth:

I’ve always been really fond of 3D mazes, like those found in the Golgo games, Ultima, etc. Well, I finally figured out a decent way to do them, and so far, it’s pretty efficient, I think. I’ve been messing with this for the past… 6 or 7 days, so about a week.

What I was looking to do was take the speed of Golgo 13 – Top Secret Episode mazes, and combine that with the smoothness of the Mafat Conspiracy mazes. I opted to use the same kind of screen layout from Mafat, with the big status bar at the bottom. In this way, I have less tiles to load. My initial build was good, because I got the actual maze loading and you were able to navigate around. The problem was with the screen loading, though. You could move VERY fast, but the screen flashed too much, kinda like Top Secret Episode. I believe this build is that one:

http://robertlbryant.com/temp/maze.nes

What I really wanted to incorporate was how Mafat Conspiracy loaded in one nametable, then switched to the other nametable to have a seemless transition. After alot of time debugging, going through my code, and some folks on #nesdev testing it out via different emus and a powerpak, I believe I’ve finally found the right balance I was looking for. Please note that if you try this in a powerpak, the currently blank status bar may have some garbage data in it, as I don’t do anything to initialize how that area should look; my main focus right now has been the engine itself.

In the NMI right now, I am doing the sprite DMA (OAM, whatever it’s called), loading 40 background tiles vertically, strobing the controller, and running some music. I also had a RAM palette loading with success and no lag, but for one reason or another the palette was getting screwed up when I did it, so I left it out for now. I’ll get to that bit some other time though hehe The music that is in this build is from another game, but I just threw it in here to test for any dragging during background loading in the NMI.

If you download this and test it out, hold the controller like a Wiimote. The reason for this is because I would like to make this a zapper game, where the other hand holds the zapper. Anyway, this means have the left directional button pointed towards the screen. This is the UP button. Pressing backwards turns you around in the maze 180 degrees, and pressing to the sides rotates you in those directions.

http://robertlbryant.com/temp/maze4.nes

Here is a map for anyone that would like to see it:

http://robertlbryant.com/gaming/images/maze1.jpg

With this engine, maps are only allowed to be one page of RAM big, but then again, 3D mazes are a bit of a pain if they are too big, IMO. Also, if anyone wants to see any code snippets, I will paste them. Once I get the game done, the full source will be available. I just wanted to post and get some thoughts on how it runs right now: Speed of loading vs. How it looks while playing.

Thanks for your time!

http://nesdev.parodius.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?t=4968

Kukulcan has updated his game “Search Eye DS”. Find various objects in 70 pictures, with three different game modes!

http://www.neoflash.com/forum/index.php/topic,5516.0.html

Control your starclock and reach the exit of each the level. During the game waves will appear, avoid them at any cost!

http://www.neoflash.com/forum/index.php/topic,5536.0.html

Glubies Planet is an action/reflexion game on Nintendo DS. Glubies are little and cute creatures, but they are so stupid!

You have to guide some Glubies through several levels with the help of a couple of items and solve some of the puzzles needed to reach the goal.

Changes:

– Added menu to keep placed items after retrying a level
– Added stats screen when the player win a level
– Added intro splash screen for NEO Compo Spring 2009
– Enhanced stylus detection when objects and Glubies rotate

http://www.neoflash.com/forum/index.php/topic,5537.0.html

Anime Jo All-Star Kirifuda Taisen (Anime Girls All-Star Trump Battle) is a card game based on Top Trumps. Battle your way through eight opponents to victory in this simple but memory-testing card game. Featuring character art and music from over 12 anime series, including Lucky Star, Code Geass, Gundam, Evangelion and Macross Frontier. Features two game modes and Rumble Pak support.

http://www.neoflash.com/forum/index.php/topic,5539.0.html

This game brings a rather unique twist to platform gaming… Time travel. In this game, you must help future versions of yourself collect all of the objects and return to the phone booth without touching another version of yourself.
You get only two lives, one as Bill the second as Ted.

Note, the buttons on the floor will open a door ONLY while you stand on it, you must wait to become the next version of yourself to pass through it.

http://www.neoflash.com/forum/index.php/topic,5541.0.html

Valhalla Ds is a port of Valhalla classics Episode 1 – The Crypt. It was originally released on the Amiga in ’94 and remade for PC later. It was the first digital speech adventure game to come out, and was ground breaking at the time.

Unfortunately, there is no save system in place, but the episode isn’t too long. As long as you’re careful you should have no problems finishing with no save.

http://www.neoflash.com/forum/index.php/topic,5542.0.html

DSision [di-iszh-uh n] (named by Jayenkai) is a replacment firmware for Nintendo DS flash carts. At the time of creation, most flash cart firmwares presented the user with a fairly simple, menu system, usually just a list of filenames on the screen.

DSision aimed to remedy this, by creating a nice looking, easy to use interface for loading homebrew programs on the DS.

http://www.neoflash.com/forum/index.php/topic,5540.0.html

Codetactics updated their multiplatform, 3D, top down, arcade style helicopter game Apollonia. Apollonia is a tribute to the old Strike series, but with the final goal of adding new elements to make the game play more epic.

Release notes:

Apollonia 0.03N is the same as the 0.03 version released on 16/3, which the exception of the NEO splash screen.

http://www.neoflash.com/forum/index.php/topic,5538.0.html

With PSPConsole you can:

Quickly see battery info.
Delete, cut, copy, rename, create, view properties of file/folder, set them hidden/read-only.
View text files.
Play C snake, Tetris, Pong.
Sort your games and homebreews.
Use calculator.
View calendar.
And all that you can do from XMB menu when you are listening music or watching videos.

http://www.neoflash.com/forum/index.php/topic,5535.0.html