#tangent programs

[shogikappa]

Just done making this board game tool. Would be neat to play it with people. And yes it’s exactly Tron Light Cycles/Blockade/Surround but it’s a board game. All players choose a move and reveal it simultaneously.

[shogikappa]

Lightbikes (multiplayer board game tool)

Download: MediaFire, Game Jolt

Platform: Windows (XP or above)

I didn’t originally intend to release this program but it seems that a few were interested. Note that it’s just a shared board for 2-4 players to use. It features no AIs to play against.

This is a mini board game adaptation of Tron Light Cycles/Blockade/Surround. The S counts are used to record scores and the T counts are for turbos/jumps/any other powerups.

As detailed before, players are supposed to play this by deciding on a move (a direction, activate turbo, deactivate turbo, or resign) and on say the count of 3, reveal them altogether. This may be achieved online through a coordinated “send your message on the count of 3″, or in real life doing a rock, paper, scissors thing, or a deck of cards. Each player has by default 1 turbo.

The program does not have hard and fast rules, and a number of gameplay variants have been suggested in the instructions (and are supported by the program), so you’re free to enjoy the game using whatever rules the players prefer. I personally quite like the wraparound variant and where with turbo, you can still change directions. Please just have a read of the in-game instructions.

[shogikappa]

Love Letter to the Hidden Princess

Download: MediaFire, Game Jolt (includes soundtrack)

Love Letter to the Hidden Princess is a PC port of the calculator game Love Letter, based on the Seiji Kanai card game of the same name. Due to limitations of the calculator, all actions have been reduced to guessing a card. For original actions such as the baron, guessing a card may be interpreted as “beating a card” instead of literally guessing a card.

The gameplay is straightforward. Each turn, the 2 other players choose a card indicating the possible remaining cards, and the player whose turn it is guesses. If someone’s card was guessed right, they are knocked out. The last remaining player or the player who draws the last card from the draw pile wins.

This is my first ostensible game supporting computer players (I had plans to make something like Pictionary for the NES but with snakes and ladders), although in my unfinished Zombies!!! port there was a computer assistant to the player that the player could pick up, and the Puerto Rico port also featured a passive “computer player” that the player tries to compete against. Nonetheless, this is, unless I’ve misremembered, the first game where you truly play a fully game-playing computer opponent.

This game also marks the release of another game after the 7-month hiatus caused by my computers having broken down earlier. Both music pieces in the game are performed, though not composed, by me.

Disclaimer: This is an unofficial game inspired by the card game Love Letter and is not affiliated with AEG or Z-Man Games.

[shogikappa]

Ever since I played the arcade version of Space Duel I've really liked it. Previously I made the first ever Windows remake of the arcade version of the game in its pseudo vector glory.

Now, a version of Space Duel exists on the Atari Flashback 2, and some Asteroids hacks called Space Duel exist. However I was never fully happy with their rendition of the game. So I decided to make this, a "de-remake" of Space Duel, that used the same source as my previous remake. Essentially this is my vision of what a better version of Space Duel on the 2600 could possibly have been like, using the Flashback 2 version as base inspiration.

Now I know this isn't a ROM for those of you purists out there, but I tried hard to make it seem like an authentic Atari game (I've had a few previous attempts of making authentic style Atari games on Windows before), so I hope you guys could give it a watch. I would release this game as a Windows download probably soon. The player's ship's speed has been slowed down after how everyone seemed to think that in my original remake, you moved too quickly.

In particular, I'd like to address these points:

- The difficulty switches and select switches all affect the game (these are mentioned in the instructions and also demonstrated in the video): The left difficulty switch affects the overall game difficulty (an easier version of of the Intermediate mode from my original remake), the right difficulty selects between the single/dual ship modes ("Fighter" and "Space Station" according to the official terms in Atari promos and manuals), and the Select switch selects the power-up

- At first it seems like there are many objects on the screen, but this kind of thing was seen possible in SpiceWare's Space Rocks, a brilliant homebrew for Asteroids/Asteroids Deluxe. Even if there's still far too many, at least it's not completely off. Note that overlapping sprites turn transparent, which is an imitation of the flickering technique with the "phosphor" effect. This is also seen in Space Rocks.

- The sounds and overall aesthetics are mostly inspired by the Atari Flashback 2 version of Space Duel, with some influences from elsewhere, including Asteroids and Space Rocks on the 2600, and a tiny bit from the brilliant Atari 7800 Space Duel hack from PacmanPlus.

- Certain effects in the original remake have been removed to keep with the 2600 theme, and I've made a few improvements to the game from the original remake.

- The dual ship feature may be explained away by the "sprite cloning" feature that's possible for the Atari 2600, as seen in games like Combat, where up to 3 objects using the same sprite may move in unison.

A 2-player mode is not currently seen here, partially due to difficulty in implementing it (the other reason being I doubt there would be many opportunities for 2 people to be playing this game coop), but I can see it as a potential feature in an actual cartridge.

I'm not an Atari programming expert so I'd expect some of these wouldn't actually work so well on actual hardware, but these are my attempts at making an authentic-looking Atari 2600-styled game. I hope you like it, thanks.

[shogikappa]

Last Days of Atlantis (remake)

I had been working on a remake of Atlantis which is based primarily on the Atari 2600 and Intellivision versions. Yeah it's a mix of the 2 plus some new features added in. I also took inspiration from the Atari 8-bit personal computer system version.

Difficulty options:

Easy: Slowest enemies, Bandits don’t appear during the first night and destroy other ships when shot

Normal: Normal speed enemies, Bandits don’t appear during the first night

Hard: Faster enemies, Bandits appear in the first night

Contest: Fastest enemies, Bandits appear during the first night and destroy other ships when shot. Also different font and scoring.

Download (Windows): MediaFire (v3e), Game Jolt

Unused music: Mystery (remake)

Manual (Strategy Wiki-styled): Google Drive (download ver recommended)

Legacy versions:   MediaFire (v2), MediaFire (v1)

A few words about the game. Atlantis was one of the first games I wanted to remake but I dropped the project due to lack of motivation (it was gonna be in a package with a Missile Command and Exed Exes remake, though that one was solely based on the 2600 version). This one here is completely redone cause I no longer have the files for my old version (other than the screenshot below), graphics or the game, though I tried to imitate the original style I had, with some improvements.

There are things I wasn't terribly happy about but with the direction I'm taking it, I feel I've done the best I could without ruining the game or having to do a completely do-over which would probably cause me to lose motivation for finishing this game entirely (long story on that), so I wanted to do the smaller fixes and push this game along to be released.

Concept art:

[shogikappa]

RNGsus 7800 - Len’en fangame

Download link (version 2.03): https://www.mediafire.com/?64s43u9ornx6t6r

Platform: Windows XP to 10, probably except 8

This is my 4th Len’en fangame and is part of the Touhou/Len’en 2600 series. The main boss in the game is Xeno a, and Tenkai is the mid-boss. I originally had plans for Suzumi, but wasn’t able to fit her in neatly, so she only makes a cameo here.

Change log

v2_3: mistake in title screen fixed, from “press space” to “press X”

v2_2: controls changed to Shift and X, and “Won Jackpot” has been made fair

New feature: Attract power-ups with focus

I’m unsure how enjoyable this game would be to Len’en fans cause the spells aren’t exactly original. I felt like remaking (with small changes) the easiest and most signature spells of Xeno a from BPoHC, and I also started to use more GML here, which I haven’t before. Regardless, this was enjoyable to make, and I find the spells nice to look at. Plus, I think it would serve as an introductory game to get people who aren’t Len’en fans into Len’en.

There’s a type of spell (namely “Won Jackpot”) which I’ve tried to avoid since it’s RNG-based, and before, I made sure that spells like these had some sort of safe zones, like the similar attack by Gretel in Little Red Riding Hood’s Zombie Hunt and its Atari 2600 version. I decided to put it in mostly cause the original spellcard “Jackpot” seems kinda undodgeable too haha. (This has been changed in version 2.02)

I originally had a more ideas for spellcards, such as a Yahtzee where 5 dice get thrown and they all end up having the same number, a dedicated “Dice Appointment” spell where only non-shooting dice are shot and bounce around the screen, a more faithful “Dealer Time”, a non-spell featuring cards that rush down quickly and 1 card disappearing (so you must weave through the gap quickly), and partially “If the World” (and also a Suzumi non-spell). However, I wanted to keep with my 5 card tradition (and also I’m somewhat lazy to change everything to cater for 6 attacks), so I dropped the Xeno a non-spell idea, didn’t put in the Yahtzee one (as it was somewhat similar to my existing dice spell), and essentially combined my original “Dice Appointment” with “Dealer Time” (as I had both ideas for the final attack), and the name “Dice Appointment” became reassigned to my existing dice spell (as the name was a promised in-joke).

The title screen was based off of that of EE, and I always thought the Atari music reminded me of the EE menu theme, so I finally was able to put it in here.

It is also the first game which I named 7800 (as opposed to 2600) as I, after looking into the 7800 relatively recently, found out that the graphical style more resembles the Atari 7800 rather than the Atari 2600, which I originally went for at the start of the Touhou 2600 series but quickly dropped in favour of slightly more aesthetic graphics.

Legacy versions:

Version 2.01

[shogikappa]

The Strongest vs the Detached Head Under the Willows (2020 rerelease)

A Touhou fan minigame for Windows

Download:

Game Jolt (with soundtrack on page): https://gamejolt.com/games/strongestvshead/496894

Itch io: https://tangentg.itch.io/strongest-vs-head-2020

2020 rerelease of my 2013 game, often abbreviated "Strongest vs Head", part of the Touhou 2600 minigame series. No gameplay changes were made, but the deathbomb "seizure screen" has been replaced to have a much slower flash, and the music has been replaced by my own arrangements.

Play as Cirno and challenge Seija as the midboss (with Kokoro as supporting), and Sekibanki. Can you survive all of their attacks?

PLATFORMS:

This is based on the non-Windows 8-compatible version, so please play it on Windows XP/Vista/7/10 (and potentially later platforms).

CONTROLS:

- Press SPACE for your spellcard attack.

- Super-charge your ice attack by holding X, which also slows you down (slightly), shows you your hitbox, and prevents you from firing your normal shots in the meantime.

- Arrow keys to move.

[shogikappa]

Random Mini Trail (game release)

Download

Game Jolt (soundtrack on page) | itch.io

Platform: Windows (XP/above)

Legacy versions:

v1: Google Drive

Description

This is a randomized and short/simplified form of the classic Oregon Trail game, where events happen at random rather than predetermined. It is based on a calculator reimagination of Oregon Trail I made previously.

Your goal is to get to Oregon on your ox-drawn wagon without losing all your health or oxen. Along the way you will pass by 9 other landmarks where you could stock up on supplies.

Dev’s Comments

I beat the classic Oregon Trail the first 2 times I played it and the events seemed like they played out in exactly the same way, so I wanted to make a version with randomized events. To live up to its apparent "difficult" fame, the calculator game I made based on the Oregon Trail was made to be difficult to beat, with the score being based on how far you reached out of the 10 landmarks. This is a PC "port" of the calculator game. In some aspects it is more lenient than the calculator game, but in other aspects it is more difficult. The REMIX mode is closer to the calculator version, but expanded, as the calculator was too limited to put in everything I wanted to. The music in this game is arranged by me. Game made by Tangent. Based on the Oregon Trail for the Apple ][, with minor influences from Taipan, also on the Apple ][.