Loopin' - A C64 action puzzle game by Endurion
For some weird reason, as if decided by a million indies, one or more trolleys are stuck in a loop. To break out you need to manually switch crossings. Collect a crystal on every spawn spot to advance to the next stage.
This is a C64 game, so behold the retro goodness! Control is via Joystick in Port 2. Press fire to start game. Move your cursor over a crossing. When it can be toggled the cursor blinks white. Keep the button pushed for any trolley to change direction when passing by. This affects not only your own trolleys (grey), but also the fiendish ones (red).
If one of your trolleys collides with a fiendish one, it's game over.
All in all there are 10 stages of varying difficulty.
Since this is a C64 game, you will need an emulator (for now).
Update: A web version is online now! Controls are: Cursor keys in numpad for moving, Insert in numpad for fire. Note on Chrome/Brave: Due to stupid browser policies you have to press the button on top ("Toggle Sound") pretty early on, otherwise there is no sound and the game slows to a crawl.
How to use with an emulator: The game binary is in the file LD47EndurionLoopin.prg. Get an emulator like VICE or CCS64, and open them with the file. Be sure to configure the joystick in Port 2.
About the source code: The source code used C64Studio syntax, very similar to ACME. It however uses a few extension for media file inclusion (character sets, tiles, maps). The full project file is included (LD47.s64)
Ratings
| Overall | 328th | 3.397⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 381th | 3.118⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 205th | 3.529⭐ | 37🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 240th | 3.764⭐ | 38🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 267th | 3.528⭐ | 38🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 300th | 3.091⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 342th | 2.375⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 225th | 3.364⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 37🗳️ | 48🗨️ |
Pretty entertaining, and quite challenging as the amount of enemy trolleys increase! I enjoyed the game, and the trip down memory lane!
A few comments:
There is a certain planning element involved (i.e. anticipating collisions with the enemy trolleys), but the slooow c64 cursor combined with the long stretches between "switches", sometimes made the game a bit frustating. Perhaps allowing the switches to be switched in advance, rather than having to hover over the switch for the duration, might have alleviated this somewhat (i.e. similar to the train track mechanic from "Donald Duck's Playground", if you know that old C64 classic)
It was not clear to me from the switch graphic in which direction the trolleys would move, when they hit a switched cross/"+" intersection.
I also tried running it online ( https://virtualconsoles.com/online-emulators/c64/ ) - it starts, but doesn't receive input. Any advice?
Basically, trolleys go straight, if they can. If they can't they turn right.
Overriding the switch changes the direction (going right instead of straight for +, or going left instead of right for T crossings)
Of course I know Donald Duck's Playground, a great game :) I could try to change it to that, interesting idea.
Thanks for the feedback!
### Using with existing VICE Emulator ###
I renamed the .prg to LD47.prg
1. Hit F12 and in the menu set the disk drive to not load a file but read from a directory instead (this is several settings changes)
* Drive -> Drive 8 Settings -> Drive 8 Type -> Directory
* Drive -> Drive 8 Settings -> Drive 8 Dir Settings -> Choose Directory
2. Then setup the joystick (from the F12 settings menu):
* Machine Settings -> Joystick Settings -> Joystick Device 2 -> Keyset 1
* Machine Settings -> Define Keysets -> (then for up down left right and fire assign the arrow keys and x for fire or whatever fire key you want)
2. LOAD "LD47.prg",8,1
3. RUN
Did it have any audio or music? If so my emulator didnt seem to play that.
I have a lot of late 1980s C64 experience and quite a bit with various emulators so that took about 15min to figure out and I'm proud I got it working.
P.S. This was on Mac Catalina
** High Score 464 **
Lovely game. It brought back childhood memories.
The animations are adorable.
@fabdynamic
Thank you for instructions. They helped me.
Controls are:
Cursor keys in numpad for moving, Insert in numpad for fire.
This game is fun! The retro style is really well done!
But sometimes, I press the fire button, but it doesn't work ^^"
Anyway, good job! It's a nice entry
It's no retro style if it's a real C64 game :)
I easier x)
BTW I tried the web version, but it ran pretty bad for me (felt like it started to slow down after a little while) so I just used VICE and was much better.
The game is good but require a bit too patience and precision, which is harder to have with numpad commands.
I liked that the movement of the x is snapped since it helped in going into the right spot, while when it moves, it moves smoothly so it is visually good.
I didn't understand at first you have to keep pressing ins to be honest, but somehow I figured it out. Could be improved to be more clear!
Nice work! Especially being a compo entry =)
Super concept, clear control, and it's easy and hard at the same time. Although I understand that the target platform is C64, but in Windows I had some troubles with *precise* control.
Anyway, this is very very good entry!
Only thing missing was some rad SID music.