Canyon Racer (Game Boy, Mega Duck, A.Pocket)

100% of donations go to support the itch.io platform. (details) Canyon Racer

A playable vertical parallax tech demo for the GameBoy (and MegaDuck).

This project started by experimenting with a vertical parallax effect on the original Game Boy, similar to the kind in the "Demotronic" Game Boy Color demo by 1.000.000 Boys. It was inspired by a tweet about a canyon effect in the game Étoile Princess. Could it be done on the Game Boy?

Game Play

A very simple, kinda hard mini game with cool FX and music.

• Guide the racer through canyon walls and over rocks without crashing.
• Create Save States and Rewind to them after crashing (both actions use up a Life).
• Collect +1 items to gain more Lives.

Give your eyes frequent rests. There can be some temporary sensation of visual movement after playing due to the vertical parallax.

Controls

• Jumping and Movement
  • Jump: A button  (Z Keyboard key)
    •  (tap for short or hold for longer)
  • Extra Long Jump: A ( Z + Up Arrow Keyboard keys)
    
    •   (required for some long jumps)
  • Move Ship: D-PAD  (Arrow Keyboard keys)
• Save & Rewind / Lives
  • Add Save State: B ( X Keybaord Key)
    
    • (any time during gameplay, but uses 1 Life)
  • Rewind to Save State: Automatic once crashed (uses 1 Life, also rewinds Score)
  • Lives: There is a limited supply of Lives (top readout in lower-right)
• Pause: Start (Enter Keyboard Key)
• Reset High Score: Hold **Select** + press **Start** on the title screen

USB/Bluetooth/etc Gamepad: The web Game Boy emulator has gamepad support.

• Chrome / Firefox Mapping ( when "standard" gamepad available)
• Default mapping otherwise :
  • A / B (First two buttons)
  • Start and Select (Second two buttons)
  • D-Pad (usually the D-Pad)

Techniques

• Save & Rewind: Creating Save States uses 1 life each time, so add them carefully.
• Short hops: Make a series of short, fast taps with Jump to hop over several close obstacles in a row.
• Longer Jump: Press and hold Jump.
• Extra Long Jump: Press and hold Jump + Up to make extra long jumps. The ship will land farther up on the screen if possible.
• Shortened Jump: While jumping, use Down to reduce jump distance. The ship will land farther down on the screen if possible.
• If the D-Pad is not used during jumps the ship will land in the same location it started in.

Credits, Contributors and Thanks

Code & Gameplay: bbbbbr

Music & SFX: BeatScribe / https://beatscribe.itch.io/

Additional code from:

• SFX Driver: Coffee "Valen" Bat : CBTFX Driver
• Music Driver: SuperDisk : hUGETracker / hUGEDriver
  
• Ferrante Crafts 31k ROM + 1k Flash cart support - toxa

Assets:

• Some canyon tiles are variations on this tileset: sondanielson. CCA License
• Ship tiles are variations on this tileset: Jerom. CC-BY-3 License.
• Title Logo letter shapes are stylized versions of the Vermin Vibes 1989 font. Purchased Business Lite license. Non-transferable to other parties.

Cartridge Compatibility

• Rumble effect on ship land and crash: Inside Gadgets MBC5 Rumble carts (probably other MBC5 rumble carts too)
• Save support:
  • MBC5 carts
  • Ferrante Crafts 31k + 1k save carts
• Mega Duck:
  • Inside Gadgets 32K Mega Duck cart. (no save support)
  • 3D Printable cart shell

FX on MegaDuck

On the MegaDuck the full vertical parallax effect is turned off in one of the builds since it may damage some generations of OEM Mega Duck screens (leaving a permanent vertical band) due to the rapid on/off cycling of pixels. Most likely the effect could be enabled safely for aftermarket screens for the few people who have modded devices.

100% of donations go to support the itch.io platform. (details)