Joggle (7th May Release)

WRAGGSTER · Post by **WRAGGSTER** » Fri May 06, 2005 7:49 pm

Warmtoe has released a new version of his awesome homebrew game Joggle for the Dreamcast, heres whats new in this release:

"PAL / NTSC switch
more rounds.
better graphics
sound
music
high-score table (no VMU suppot yet)

Because its an SBI, you can start to see some of the internals of the game - like how the rounds are developed - at some point I am considering having details of how people can create their own rounds. It's an SBI file and its 12 megs (mostly because of some amazing music which SeGaFrEaK NL has done for it)."

Download at the Joggle page here --> http://www.dcemu.co.uk/joggle.shtml

Thanks to Ian/Warmtoe for the news/release.

SeGaFrEaK NL · Post by **SeGaFrEaK NL** » Sat May 07, 2005 5:39 am

Gotta get that burner of me fixed

SeGaFrEaK NL · Post by **SeGaFrEaK NL** » Sat May 07, 2005 10:40 am

I'll send you a message about it Warmtoe.

Sweater Fish · Post by **Sweater Fish** » Sat May 07, 2005 2:14 pm

Woo! Excellent timing I was just planning on burning a new compilation with some of the Doom TCs, so now I can put this and the new Alice Dreams demo on, too. Excellent.

Viva homebrew!

...word is bondage...

Smiles · Post by **Smiles** » Mon May 09, 2005 10:26 am

I'm not a fan/user of SBI's and would like to make a selfboot CD just for Joggle. I know I can unzip the SBI and extract the files, but what is the correct directory structure for them.

Do I just need the scrambled joggle.bin with an IP.BIN in the root directory and the three data folders (game, gfx, sound) off the root?

OneThirty8 · Post by **OneThirty8** » Mon May 09, 2005 11:07 am

I'm not sure exactly what your problem is with SBI files, but you can use Selfboot Inducer to do exactly what you are describing very and painlessly. Put the Joggle SBI file in C:\Sbinducr\Sbi, run Sbinducr.exe, select the SBI from the menu on the upper right-hand side of the GUI, and select "Sbi2Boot" from the "Menu Type" list, click a button to create an image, and burn it. It's much easier than extracting the files and building the disc yourself, and will produce the same end result.

Sweater Fish · Post by **Sweater Fish** » Mon May 09, 2005 1:05 pm

Hey, that's cool. I didn't know Selfboot Inducer could make single game discs. Do you just mean that you get a Dream Inducer menu with only one game to choose from or does it actually selfboot that game? It scrambles it and everything? That's handy, though I still prefer to make my own discs because I'm always fooling with the files and stuff (I want to try changing the background image in Joggle for instance). so to answer Smiles' question if he still wants to do it manually: in the root of the CD you would need the whole JOGGLE folder (with GAME, GFX and SOUND as sub-folders), JOGGLE.BIN scrambled and re-named 1ST_READ.BIN and an IP.BIN that points to 1ST_READ.BIN. That should do it.

As for Joggle. Cripes, my brain must be frozen because this demo seems way harder than the last. I was able to pass all four stages in the previous demo easily, but I can barely get to the fourth stage of this one. I just feel like I'm in slow motion when I'm trying to play it.

That's good, though. Challenge is a plus.

There's some buggies in the game, now, though. First of all, after going back to the title screen and starting over four times, the in-game music playback goes wonky (a sort of loud and constant CH-CH-Ch-CH-CH-CH-CH-CH). Also, there's another bug where you can get stuck on the title screen and pressing Start or A makes the menu go away for a split second like it's about to launch the first level, but then it just back. I haven't been able to pin down what causes this since it doesn't always happen, but it seems like it only happens when I press Start at the title screen instead of A, but of course it doesn't always happen when I press Start.

Luckily Joggle is one of the games that allows you to exit out back to the DreamHakker menu, so I can just exit and relaunch it easily. I really wish every homebrew game allowed you to exit out like that.

Excellent work, though. I still definitely think this is one of the best homebrew games out there. And I'm looking forward to the possibility for creating custom levels and I also want to see about changing the background graphics and such.

By the way, are the JogWord and Fish Modes in this demo as later stages or are they not incorporated?

EDIT: Oh, I was also thinking that it would be nice if there was a per-level score or word count shown on the right-hand side underneath your total score, so that you could easily see how close you were to achieving the goal for the level. Also, I think you mentioned once before that you wanted to have the clock start ticking when you're down to like 5 seconds or so, I think that's a very good idea.

...word is bondage...

SeGaFrEaK NL · Post by **SeGaFrEaK NL** » Mon May 09, 2005 2:09 pm

@Sweater fish. I had the same music bug and contacted Warmtoe about it.
Didn't post it here because I wasn't sure it was due to the code. (maybe just a bad burn on my part)

Warmtoe · Post by **Warmtoe** » Mon May 09, 2005 3:46 pm

Hmmm - the music bug is a pain - We (SeGaFrEaK and I) think it could be due to the sample rate in the in-game music - will sort that one out.

The title screen bug you mention - I thought might be the configuration screen which I haven't completed the code for - will look into it.

The JogWord & Sweater Fish modes are in this demo - rounds 10 and 9 respectively - so you're going to have to work at it!.

Warmtoe · Post by **Warmtoe** » Mon May 09, 2005 4:48 pm

Sweater Fish wrote:As for Joggle. Cripes, my brain must be frozen because this demo seems way harder than the last. I was able to pass all four stages in the previous demo easily, but I can barely get to the fourth stage of this one. I just feel like I'm in slow motion when I'm trying to play it.

That's good, though. Challenge is a plus.

Well - yes - it is tougher - but I kind of think a challenge is key!

Sweater Fish wrote:First of all, after going back to the title screen and starting over four times, the in-game music playback goes wonky (a sort of loud and constant CH-CH-Ch-CH-CH-CH-CH-CH).

OK - I am investigating this, as has been said...

Sweater Fish wrote:Also, there's another bug where you can get stuck on the title screen and pressing Start or A makes the menu go away for a split second like it's about to launch the first level, but then it just back.

Right - I'm after that one now too...

Sweater Fish wrote:Excellent work, though. I still definitely think this is one of the best homebrew games out there. And I'm looking forward to the possibility for creating custom levels and I also want to see about changing the background graphics and such.

If you want to incorporate different looks to the rounds I would love for you to contribute - you can change the look of the tiles too, and the 'animation' that gets played when a tile is lost - let your imagination run riot (in 32x32 for the tiles!!) and PM me or whatever with the results - this goes for anyone!

Sweater Fish wrote:EDIT: Oh, I was also thinking that it would be nice if there was a per-level score or word count shown on the right-hand side underneath your total score, so that you could easily see how close you were to achieving the goal for the level. Also, I think you mentioned once before that you wanted to have the clock start ticking when you're down to like 5 seconds or so, I think that's a very good idea.

Done both of these now - a percentage complete count per player is shown and I now have an optional countdown tick for last 10 seconds.

LyingWake · Post by **LyingWake** » Sun May 22, 2005 9:25 pm

I have no idea what version I played or rather if it was the newest version (the SBI was at sbiffy) but from what I played it was pretty neat. I couldn't get the 5 words in 30 seconds on the 2nd round though.

Arqueiro · Post by **Arqueiro** » Mon May 23, 2005 5:54 am

Warmtoe · Post by **Warmtoe** » Tue May 24, 2005 4:12 pm

That was the previous version - the 7th may one has some minor differences graphically - but more levels, highscore (with no VMU saving yet) and a bunch of other stuff.

LyingWake · Post by **LyingWake** » Tue May 24, 2005 8:14 pm

I'll burn the new vesrion today.

Post by **Christuserloeser** » Thu May 26, 2005 1:59 pm

Sweater Fish wrote:Hey, that's cool. I didn't know Selfboot Inducer could make single game discs. Do you just mean that you get a Dream Inducer menu with only one game to choose from or does it actually selfboot that game? It scrambles it and everything?

Yep. Everything. Just do as OneThirty8 described to get a single game disc out of a SBI, but if you put your common plain files (scrambled or unscrambled 1st_read.bin, ip.bin, etc) in your empty /Inducer/ folder and use the SBI2Boot feature, Selfboot Inducer v4 boots up literaly anything.

Post by **Christuserloeser** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 2:18 pm

Great game! - Very fun and I love the new version.

Someone to create a front cover artwork for this game ?

racketboy · Post by **racketboy** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 5:52 pm

Great game -- love to see unique puzzle-type games

Nico0020 · Post by **Nico0020** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 6:21 pm

i love puzzle games! i played ur first version(i think it was) and loved it though i notied something kinda odd. there is no limit to how many letters you can highlight at once. so you could just highlight 1/4th the area and find a whole bunch of words. my friend kinda screwed me over with that while we did it in multiplayer, lol. any way to fix that?

SeGaFrEaK NL · Post by **SeGaFrEaK NL** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 6:26 pm

^Good find.

I daresay the next will rock the house

Warmtoe · Post by **Warmtoe** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 3:41 pm

Nico0020 wrote:i love puzzle games! i played ur first version(i think it was) and loved it though i notied something kinda odd. there is no limit to how many letters you can highlight at once. so you could just highlight 1/4th the area and find a whole bunch of words. my friend kinda screwed me over with that while we did it in multiplayer, lol. any way to fix that?

OK - I get the picture - I've coded up a solution to this - if you try and highlight 10 characters and they don't make a valid word then your selection is cleared - anyone trying to highlight a large portion of the board would find their highlighted selection cleared when they hit that threshold 10th character.

I was actually going to have a 'helper' mode, which told you somehow that the word you currently had selected was not valid (kind of a hint mode) - I haven't done that yet but I can use the same basic logic for this.

Thanks for that - As SeGaFrEaK NL says (and knows) the next release will have several improvements - and this is most definitely one of them!