Gameboy Development Forum

Discussion about software development for the old-school Gameboys, ranging from the "Gray brick" to Gameboy Color
(Launched in 2008)

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#1 2016-09-17 17:12:35

Jonas
Member
From: Frankfurt, Germany
Registered: 2016-06-06
Posts: 112
Website

RETROID - A New Game Boy Game

Hi!

Maybe RETROID, a Game Boy project I've just released, is of interest to you.

My goal was to create a Game Boy game that meets the technical standards of (early) commercial Game Boy titles, using only a few very basic development tools. The result is a Breakout clone that can be downloaded here:

https://retroidgameboy.wordpress.com/

RETROID is similar to Alleyway but adds some features from Arkanoid and other games to it (such as bonus items, better graphics, in-game music, boss battle etc.). The game was optimized for the "real" Game Boy hardware but can of course also be played via emulator. If you'd like to emulate, I suggest using BGB. Some other emulators tend to e.g. not play the sound correctly.

Here are some screenshots:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/welawgznvfzem0p/Screenshot%201.jpg     https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/ewuu38icaef9d5q/Screenshot%202.jpg     https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/y68k5synunzu365/Screenshot%203.jpg     https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/70l653txeyxryv4/Screenshot%204.jpg

Have fun and enjoy the show!

Jonas

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#2 2016-09-17 18:04:58

beware
New member
Registered: 2011-12-07
Posts: 4

Re: RETROID - A New Game Boy Game

the game never halts, so it uses full cpu, and wastes battery (etc). on inspection it seems it might be running at undelayed framerate without ever waiting. you should, after every processed frame, use a halt opcode to wait for the next vblank, then you read the joypad and process the next frame. this caps the game to 60 fps and does not waste battery.

also you hit a "16 bits inc/dec in OAM range" exception. this can give problems on real hardware, and you should fix it. (enable the exception in bgb)

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#3 2016-09-17 18:25:47

Jonas
Member
From: Frankfurt, Germany
Registered: 2016-06-06
Posts: 112
Website

Re: RETROID - A New Game Boy Game

Thanks for playing my game. smile

I know it's not written quite efficiently. That may be because I have nothing to do with computers professionally and my coding skills are 100 % self-taught (believe it or not, I'm a lawyer wink). But I've played this game for long hours on the real hardware and glitches have occured only very very rarely and were never severe.

Last edited by Jonas (2016-09-17 18:29:05)

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#4 2016-09-18 06:02:59

Xephyr
Member
From: France
Registered: 2015-02-26
Posts: 59

Re: RETROID - A New Game Boy Game

The game is really well done!
And I also liked the music. How did you implemented it in the game, did you use a specific software?

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#5 2016-09-18 08:49:21

Jonas
Member
From: Frankfurt, Germany
Registered: 2016-06-06
Posts: 112
Website

Re: RETROID - A New Game Boy Game

Xephyr, thanks for your comment. smile

I didn't use any kind of software converter for the music. The sound in the game is generated by a self-written music engine. I used sheet music that is available on the internet and then manually translated it to data that is stored in large arrays. The music engine reads data from these arrays when a timer interrupt occurs and then writes the respective values to the Game Boy's sound registers.

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#6 2016-09-18 09:00:05

beware
New member
Registered: 2011-12-07
Posts: 4

Re: RETROID - A New Game Boy Game

first, i would disagree that just because you're self taught, you can't make great things. as an example, i am self taught, and i made bgb. secondly, the use of halt opcodes isn't really special or difficult. if you made the game like you did it, it's a trivial detail, you just have to know about it.

the halt opcode suspends execution of code until the next interrupt happens, then execution continues at the interrupt vector or if interrupts are disabled, on the next opcode).

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#7 2016-09-18 13:42:38

Jonas
Member
From: Frankfurt, Germany
Registered: 2016-06-06
Posts: 112
Website

Re: RETROID - A New Game Boy Game

@ beware: Well, then thanks for your remark and for creating a great emulator that probably made a lot of other games possible. To be honest, I didn't know it's a disadvantage not to use a halt opcode. Maybe I'll review my code and implement that.

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#8 2016-09-19 19:01:45

Duo
New member
Registered: 2013-02-20
Posts: 3

Re: RETROID - A New Game Boy Game

Fun game. Good work. Post up your source code for the community.

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#9 2016-09-20 01:00:16

DonaldHays
Member
From: Seattle
Registered: 2016-08-01
Posts: 36
Website

Re: RETROID - A New Game Boy Game

49,500 points big_smile

Awesome level of polish and detail.

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#10 2016-09-20 16:06:12

holtkamp
Member
From: Orlando, FL
Registered: 2016-06-23
Posts: 14
Website

Re: RETROID - A New Game Boy Game

Wow, what a great title screen. The whole game is very well polished.  I love it! As you said, it really does look like a professional game that you would buy at the store. Now you gotta make some cartridges and sell them smile That is probably difficult though hmm

And also, @beware thanks for making such an amazing emulator! I am working on sega mega drive development right now and there is no emulator as powerful and fully featured as BGB, which makes life tough :[ BGB was so helpful in debugging.

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#11 2017-03-15 07:10:44

colorful_courier
Member
Registered: 2017-03-12
Posts: 14
Website

Re: RETROID - A New Game Boy Game

wow!
great game and so well done!
playing it from time to time and having fun! still didn't make it to the boss yikes
thanks for it!

+make more games! big_smile

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#12 2017-03-15 10:01:39

Jonas
Member
From: Frankfurt, Germany
Registered: 2016-06-06
Posts: 112
Website

Re: RETROID - A New Game Boy Game

Thanks. smile It's great to hear that some people play and like it.

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#13 2017-03-16 06:44:06

rychan
Member
From: Paignton, Devon, UK
Registered: 2015-12-16
Posts: 103
Website

Re: RETROID - A New Game Boy Game

Will you be making a cartridge of Retroid perchance then Jonas? Just wanderin wink

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#14 2017-03-16 15:47:58

Jonas
Member
From: Frankfurt, Germany
Registered: 2016-06-06
Posts: 112
Website

Re: RETROID - A New Game Boy Game

Rychan, there are plans for a small number of cartridges. smile But I won't produce them myself, so I can't guarantee for anything.

For me personally, putting the game on a cartridge is not that important. I love gaming, but don't care too much about little plastic boxes. wink

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#15 2017-03-17 05:22:35

rychan
Member
From: Paignton, Devon, UK
Registered: 2015-12-16
Posts: 103
Website

Re: RETROID - A New Game Boy Game

Fair does. I've been searching for somewhere to produce them for ages myself smile

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#16 2017-03-17 06:15:24

Imanolea
Member
From: Bilbao, Spain
Registered: 2014-05-17
Posts: 54
Website

Re: RETROID - A New Game Boy Game

Congratulations for the game Jonas! Pretty solid and entertaining game. It is noticeable that you have taken great care of the quality.

Rychan, there are plans for a small number of cartridges. smile But I won't produce them myself, so I can't guarantee for anything.

Fair does. I've been searching for somewhere to produce them for ages myself smile

Seeing the circumstances and the interest, we could well create some thread to investigate this subject together. Documenting different options.

Personally I will try to share the findings I make about the physical distribution of software for Game Boy when the moment comes.

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#17 2017-03-17 08:44:06

Jonas
Member
From: Frankfurt, Germany
Registered: 2016-06-06
Posts: 112
Website

Re: RETROID - A New Game Boy Game

Thanks Imanolea! smile

Imanolea wrote:

Rychan, there are plans for a small number of cartridges. smile But I won't produce them myself, so I can't guarantee for anything.

Fair does. I've been searching for somewhere to produce them for ages myself smile

Seeing the circumstances and the interest, we could well create some thread to investigate this subject together. Documenting different options.

Personally I will try to share the findings I make about the physical distribution of software for Game Boy when the moment comes.

Well, I think the options depend on whether you only want a few copies for yourself or want to publish and sell your game.

If you have a finished game and want to publish it, I guess Retrospiel in Germany or 8 Bit Evolution and Piko Interactive in the US might be people who would be interested.

http://www.retrospiel.com/
https://8bitevolution.com/
https://www.pikointeractive.com/

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#18 2017-03-17 09:10:19

Xephyr
Member
From: France
Registered: 2015-02-26
Posts: 59

Re: RETROID - A New Game Boy Game

Thank you Jonas for the different links, it will be useful later on!

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#19 2017-03-17 12:38:00

rychan
Member
From: Paignton, Devon, UK
Registered: 2015-12-16
Posts: 103
Website

Re: RETROID - A New Game Boy Game

Awesome, I've been chatting to James from 8 bit evolution for a bit myself after they had a chat to me, glad to hear there are others out there too though!

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#20 2017-10-20 07:09:00

tobiasvl
Member
From: Norway
Registered: 2017-10-19
Posts: 26

Re: RETROID - A New Game Boy Game

Awesome game! I love Breakout clones, I played a lot of DX-Ball on PC 20 years ago or so.

The website says there's a cheat code in the game. How secret is it? smile


Discord: tobiasvl#6844 | GitHub: tobiasvl

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#21 2017-10-20 12:31:40

Jonas
Member
From: Frankfurt, Germany
Registered: 2016-06-06
Posts: 112
Website

Re: RETROID - A New Game Boy Game

Thanks a lot. smile

The code is not too secret, but I don't want to publish it in a public forum. Just send me a mail via the contact form on my website and I'll give it to you.

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#22 2018-07-04 07:44:42

Jonas
Member
From: Frankfurt, Germany
Registered: 2016-06-06
Posts: 112
Website

Re: RETROID - A New Game Boy Game

Finally, Retroid has been put on cartridges. There was only a very limited run that is already sold out but there's still a chance that there will be another edition. Just wanted to show you guys some pictures (taken from a German review you can read here: http://www.pixelkitsch.de/retroid-pixel … #more-6066).

http://www.pixelkitsch.de/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/PIXELKITSCH-GB-Retroid1.jpg

http://www.pixelkitsch.de/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/PIXELKITSCH-GB-Retroid2.jpg

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#23 2018-07-29 05:40:47

rychan
Member
From: Paignton, Devon, UK
Registered: 2015-12-16
Posts: 103
Website

Re: RETROID - A New Game Boy Game

Yay! Glad to see it on cart! I'm still waiting for Infintron to appear on cartridge sometime, apparently parts are hard to come by.

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