Cosmic Ark [raxiss]

Want to talks about games you like, would like to see developed on the Oric, it's here.
User avatar
rax
Flying Officer
Posts: 193
Joined: Tue Jul 24, 2018 3:16 pm

Cosmic Ark [raxiss]

Post by rax »

Hi :),

Cosmic Art was one of the few games I played on the ATARI 2600.
One night I decided to make a mockup of the game, just to see how it would look.
After a few days I already had a working game, of questionable quality.

To my great regret, this game has bugs, bad sound, and too many hacks in the code (further proof that one should think before writing. It took me a few days to make it and a few weeks to clean up any of the bugs :) )

I guess I won't have time to fix it soon, so better to post it like this than nothing.
The game still has bugs. This is probably one of my worst codes.

Keys:
movement and fire - arrows
tractor - space

The game also supports IJK joystick.



Game beta:
cark-beta05.tap
(22.68 KiB) Downloaded 88 times

Bonus: Cosmic Ark BASIC 10 lines
COSMICARK10.tap
(673 Bytes) Downloaded 85 times
User avatar
Dbug
Site Admin
Posts: 4444
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2006 10:00 pm
Location: Oslo, Norway
Contact:

Re: Cosmic Ark [raxiss]

Post by Dbug »

Interesting concept, so I guess you need to avoid asteroids when going from planet to planet, and then "collect specimens" for the ark?
User avatar
rax
Flying Officer
Posts: 193
Joined: Tue Jul 24, 2018 3:16 pm

Re: Cosmic Ark [raxiss]

Post by rax »

Yes, that's basically the idea :) .

Here is a description of the original game:
https://atariage.com/manual_html_page.p ... wareID=945


A little quote:
"The sun of Alpha Ro is fading fast! Soon it will flicker out.
The Cosmic Ark races to save creatures from doomed planets in
that solar system. Meteor showers bombard the Ark, threatening
its Atlantean crew - and planetary defense systems make this
mission of mercy doubly treacherous! Time and energy slip away
- work fast or these defenceless little beasties will
disappear for all time.

The Cosmic Ark has travelled thousands of light years in order
to preserve the many exotic species peculiar to the Alpha Ro
solar system. When that sun novas, life on planets there will
wither and die.

Nothing about this mission is easy. Heavy meteor activity
throughout the system makes travel hazardous. And each planet
has an automatic defense system that cannot be knocked out.
Can the Ark succeed in saving the many helpless creatures of
Alpha Ro? Can the Cosmic Ark survive? How many planets can you
reach?"


Here is a random video:


p.s. Аs far as i know this game is a sequel to "Atlantis" for Atari 2600
Star42
Private
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Jan 16, 2014 1:22 am

Re: Cosmic Ark [raxiss]

Post by Star42 »

It's already good !
I will play :D
User avatar
jbperin
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 480
Joined: Wed Nov 06, 2019 11:00 am
Location: Valence, France

Re: Cosmic Ark [raxiss]

Post by jbperin »

Hey that's a very nice game.

I didn't get how the main ship can carrying on shooting at asteroids while the little ship is chasing the things on ground .. so I couldn't play long (any help is welcome)

Alliens on ground go very very fast and they are not easy to target.
User avatar
Dom
Flying Officer
Posts: 141
Joined: Sun Nov 25, 2012 7:00 pm

Re: Cosmic Ark [raxiss]

Post by Dom »

@jbperin
When you are rescuing the aliens, you are in the shuttle, not on board of the mothership, so you cant fire the asteroids. You have to come back on board when the ship prevents you of imminent danger (blinkering red lights both right and left the ship) Or better you have to go back onbord before if you are fast enough to capture the aliens.
@Rax
Very nice game but the fact is that with only 4 lives this game is very very very difficult :)
That is why I recently spent a part of my Oric time, trying to find a way to get infinite number of lives. This time it has not been so easy :wink:
Here is the result of my search for those who would like to go further with this game:

CLOAD"STOP
CLOAD"CARK
DOKE#166E,#0FA9
DOKE#1670,#7E8D
DOKE#1672,#4C6A
DOKE#1674,#167B
DOKE#1676,#EAEA
CALL#1000

if you do not want to type these modifications each time you play, you can save a modified version by:
SAVE"CARKCHEAT",A#1000,E#6AA3,AUTO
If you do not have the STOP utility, to generate it you just have to type in:

Code: Select all

10 FORI=#221TO#22A
20 READA:POKEI,A:NEXT
30 DOKE#245,#221
40 DATA#48,#A9,0,#8D,#AD,#02,#68,#4C,22,#EE
CSAVE"STOP",AUTO
Using this cheat allowed me to visit 4 different worlds with aliens to rescue but the fith one (and those following) were empty (nobody to rescue). I wonder if that comes from my cheat modification or if it is a limitation due to the non finalisation of the game
Image
image of the four alien populations I encountered.
Post Reply