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Old 02-02-2015, 10:57 PM   #1
Nelson
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TMNT: Rescue Palooza

Hello, Technodrome friends. If you are like me and can't get enough of the clasic TMNT titles for the NES, you might be interested in a game I have been been working on. As the title of the thread implies, the game is called TMNT Rescue Palooza, where up to four players go to newly recolored stages from the classic games as well as a couple of new stages (like the Channel 6 building).

As you progress through the game you'll unlock characters from the Fred Wolf Cartoon like April, Splinter, Casey, etc. The list of unlockable characters is quite long so this project will take quite a bit of time to be completed.

The gameplay mimics the one from the NES games so it's basic, please don't expect fancy combos or elements from TMNT in Time or the like.



You can download a demo at http://gamejolt.com/games/arcade/tee...palooza/39658/
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Old 02-03-2015, 06:14 AM   #2
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My goodness, Nelson!

You win the internet for today! Howvlong have you been working on this and why have I just now learned of it?
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Old 02-03-2015, 07:02 AM   #3
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Such attention to detail! Truly a labor of love, from the Tournament Fighters (SNES) health & special gauges, to the Playmates cardback themed character selection screen. The spritework is awesome, both the backgrounds & avatar/cutscene art look beautiful. Your creativity with respect to April's fighting style is on point, whoa! The microphone whip concept is freakin' stellar & I love the camera flash special attack, too. I cannot wait to see what else you have in store for us. I hope this thing gets as much of your attention as real life permits!

If there's anything I can help with (like, say, remixes of the NES songs to go along with your updated visuals) I'd love to be a part of it.
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Old 02-03-2015, 12:03 PM   #4
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I think it's super neat! Makes me wish I'd stuck with my fangame.
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Old 02-03-2015, 12:39 PM   #5
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Usagi's totally a playable character...
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Old 02-03-2015, 01:05 PM   #6
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Such attention to detail! Truly a labor of love, from the Tournament Fighters (SNES) health & special gauges, to the Playmates cardback themed character selection screen. The spritework is awesome, both the backgrounds & avatar/cutscene art look beautiful. Your creativity with respect to April's fighting style is on point, whoa! The microphone whip concept is freakin' stellar & I love the camera flash special attack, too. I cannot wait to see what else you have in store for us. I hope this thing gets as much of your attention as real life permits!
Indeed! Who would have thought the Castlevania franchise would make the perfect base for April O'Neil beat em' up sprites? Considering both games were Konami's doing, it really makes for a perfect amalgamation! The microphone and camera flash attacks are something that would have totally happened in the bit-era of games. Speaking of the sprite-work, they are beautifully done and are very convincing 16-bit upgrades in the same vein as Super Mario All-Stars or Ninja Gaiden Trilogy.

I think Nelson has truly pulled off something amazing here by turning vintage reporter April into an amusing and competent character in the old games. Since the original TMNT2 NES game featured a regular weak standing attack and the 2-button strong attack as a reward for good timing, should we expect any equivalent for April? I noticed it seems to take her about three whips to take out an average Foot Soldier instead of two weak attacks. I'm curious to see if her exceptional attack range will compensate for her lower attack power (and no diagonal jump kicks, I assume) when it comes to the level bosses who presumably have equally long attack ranges (Rocksteady's quick kick was so frustrating to me back in the day).

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I think it's super neat! Makes me wish I'd stuck with my fangame.
So do I!

Say... what's the status of TMNT: Deliverance Reshelled?

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Usagi's totally a playable character...
Oh, man... I am curious as to whether they'll be a forth playable character. I don't know who would be the next logical choice after Casey, Splinter, and April.
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Old 02-03-2015, 02:40 PM   #7
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Love the graphics
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Old 02-03-2015, 05:51 PM   #8
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Has anyone played through the demo? He added audio clips of April, Mikey, Usagi and Ground Chuck when they take damage or do their special attacks. It's gonna be great. Keep up the work.
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Old 02-03-2015, 05:52 PM   #9
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Usagi's totally a playable character...
Aw, dang, I thought you were joking until I saw the screenshot on Nelson's download site!
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Old 02-03-2015, 09:11 PM   #10
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Thank you very much guys for your kind comments.
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Originally Posted by oldmanwinters View Post
My goodness, Nelson!

You win the internet for today! Howvlong have you been working on this and why have I just now learned of it?
Adam, old friend! I was sure you would like it, specially since April is a playable character.
I didn't post about this before because I was waiting to make some more progress and have a meatier download available. But I haven't made any progress in over a month so I said what the hell, let's share what's been done so far.

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Such attention to detail! Truly a labor of love, from the Tournament Fighters (SNES) health & special gauges, to the Playmates cardback themed character selection screen. The spritework is awesome, both the backgrounds & avatar/cutscene art look beautiful. Your creativity with respect to April's fighting style is on point, whoa! The microphone whip concept is freakin' stellar & I love the camera flash special attack, too. I cannot wait to see what else you have in store for us. I hope this thing gets as much of your attention as real life permits!

If there's anything I can help with (like, say, remixes of the NES songs to go along with your updated visuals) I'd love to be a part of it.
Dude you're making me blush, haha. Anyway I am SO GLAD that you're offering to help, because you already made those great recreations of some of the melodies of the cartoon. Now, I don't want to update the existing NES songs as I really like them the way they are. What would be nice to have though is additional songs in the same NES/Konami style. Because one of the new levels involve the Channel 6 building, it would be nice to have the Channel 6 theme "konamizised", you know: looping chiptune, faster tempo, maybe that "heroes in a half shell!" melody thrown in. Would you be interested in making something like that?
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I think it's super neat! Makes me wish I'd stuck with my fangame.
Is it too late now to continue?
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Speaking of the sprite-work, they are beautifully done and are very convincing 16-bit upgrades in the same vein as Super Mario All-Stars or Ninja Gaiden Trilogy.
That is EXACTLY what I set out to do, a TMNT game heavily inspired in what Mario All Stars did. Originally I was going to do a straight update of TMNT2, but then decided that it would be more fun to do a fun amalgamation/homage to those games and the cartoon. BTW two levels are based on TMNT1 but keeping the Z axis (that means no crouching)
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Since the original TMNT2 NES game featured a regular weak standing attack and the 2-button strong attack as a reward for good timing, should we expect any equivalent for April?
Dude, I was hoping I could get away with not giving anyone that 2-button move other than the 4 turtles. Sorry? It's just there's so many characters left to do. Anyway I may reconsider this. In any case April's range is greater than Rocksteady's kick. So it's quite easy to play as her, you just need to be a little more patient due to her not being as strong as the others.
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Has anyone played through the demo? He added audio clips of April, Mikey, Usagi and Ground Chuck when they take damage or do their special attacks. It's gonna be great. Keep up the work.
Thanks for pointing that out, Jester. The video I posted is old and outdated. I still haven't uploaded a newer gameplay video. Thanks for trying out the game and for the nice feedback!
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Old 02-03-2015, 09:50 PM   #11
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What would be nice to have though is additional songs in the same NES/Konami style. Because one of the new levels involve the Channel 6 building, it would be nice to have the Channel 6 theme "konamizised", you know: looping chiptune, faster tempo, maybe that "heroes in a half shell!" melody thrown in. Would you be interested in making something like that?
I would absolutely be into that. The only thing is I can't perfectly replicate them 100%, it'll have a decidedly 8bit sound & be chiptunes, but not created using the same software as Konami. Know what I mean? I'll make a 10-20 second sample for your approval, & if you don't mind the slight difference, I'll be happy to create full songs afterward.
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Old 02-03-2015, 09:59 PM   #12
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Thank you very much guys for your kind comments.

Adam, old friend! I was sure you would like it, specially since April is a playable character.

Dude, I was hoping I could get away with not giving anyone that 2-button move other than the 4 turtles. Sorry? It's just there's so many characters left to do. Anyway I may reconsider this. In any case April's range is greater than Rocksteady's kick. So it's quite easy to play as her, you just need to be a little more patient due to her not being as strong as the others.
Well, after playing through the demo, I have nothing but joy at your hard work!

I do have a few thoughts I might share. I can understand the desire not to want to give the other characters a fierce attack other than their special gauges; I think that's probably wise after playing a bit.

Much to my surprise, April seemed to be near indestructible against average enemies. I had considerably more success with her than Usagi on account of his range has to be so close while it seems April can whip attack a quarter of a screen at once and collect multiple enemies in one swoop. I was expecting that patience would be a big part of her success (and it certainly was with stationary weapons on the watership and the bosses) but she really seems to tear through the levels too quickly despite her low attack power.

In the original NES game, I seem to remember the hit detection was such that it wouldn't be advisable to try and get too greedy spamming the weak attack since an enemy gained a temporary immunity after the first hit to launch a counter attack. April seems to be able to whip the mic ad nauseam without much fear of rebuttal.

Maybe some lessons from Konami's infamous Adventures of Bayou Billy might be applicable regarding mic whip strategy. In that game, the key to success was whipping and then evading counter attacks. If there's any way to implement something like that it may prevent April from being a broken character.

Now to be fair... April may be a borderline broken character, but she's nevertheless quite enjoyable!
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Old 02-03-2015, 10:01 PM   #13
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I would absolutely be into that. The only thing is I can't perfectly replicate them 100%, it'll have a decidedly 8bit sound & be chiptunes, but not created using the same software as Konami. Know what I mean? I'll make a 10-20 second sample for your approval, & if you don't mind the slight difference, I'll be happy to create full songs afterward.
Yes, I think you need specific soundfonts to make it sound like Konami, so don't worry about that. An approximation is fine. Hey you could even cheat and take the beats from a Konami song and just worry about the melody. Anyway I´m glad to hear you're interested. Thanks!
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Old 02-03-2015, 10:12 PM   #14
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Keep on updating us with your game construction. You got me interested too.
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Old 02-03-2015, 10:12 PM   #15
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Well, after playing through the demo, I have nothing but joy at your hard work!
Thanks, buddy!
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In the original NES game, I seem to remember the hit detection was such that it wouldn't be advisable to try and get too greedy spamming the weak attack since an enemy gained a temporary immunity after the first hit to launch a counter attack. April seems to be able to whip the mic ad nauseam without much fear of rebuttal.
This applies to all characters now. You can hit the foot soldiers twice or three times in a row, they don't get that weird temporary invincibility. I honestly believe that that aspect of the original game was a mistake that somehow was overlooked during testing.
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Maybe some lessons from Konami's infamous Adventures of Bayou Billy might be applicable regarding mic whip strategy. In that game, the key to success was whipping and then evading counter attacks. If there's any way to implement something like that it may prevent April from being a broken character.
Did you get to Tora? I feel you have to do that whipping/evading technique against him, otherwise you're toast. Thanks for the feedback, I might have to make further adjustments to make sure all the characters are balanced.
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Old 02-03-2015, 10:22 PM   #16
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Thanks, buddy!


This applies to all characters now. You can hit the foot soldiers twice or three times in a row, they don't get that weird temporary invincibility. I honestly believe that that aspect of the original game was a mistake that somehow was overlooked during testing.


Did you get to Tora? I feel you have to do that whipping/evading technique against him, otherwise you're toast. Thanks for the feedback, I might have to make further adjustments to make sure all the characters are balanced.
Oh, yeah, the bosses are definitely another story with April. Tora was pretty tricky to handle, especially since he doesn't seem to suffer much stun when you hit him as the rock falls on his head like in the original game.
It is surprising to me that April seems to have even more range than Groundchuck when he grabs his pipe (4 star rating vs 3 star rating apparently). And regarding her camera flash special, might it also be a little too powerful in that it tends to kill all the regular enemies on screen in an instant? Perhaps it could just count as one or two hits of damage as opposed to three or more?

I always thought the original game's temporary invincibility was basically a punishment to the player for not executing a fierce attack successfully. But it is interesting to see the game without such a feature. I think if April's whip animation took a few more frames to activate, it might give the enemies a chance to swoop in and attack her. Theoretically, having multiple enemies surrounding her at a close range should put her at a big disadvantage.

I don't think anybody has mentioned it yet, but the cartoon voiceclips really work well in a game like this. I'm really curious as to see how the whole game will come together as characters are unlocked after being rescued. It was kinda strange playing as April in the frozen Central Park level since she's still technically "kidnapped" at that point in the original game.
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Old 02-04-2015, 09:14 PM   #17
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Yes, I think you need specific soundfonts to make it sound like Konami, so don't worry about that. An approximation is fine. Hey you could even cheat and take the beats from a Konami song and just worry about the melody. Anyway I´m glad to hear you're interested. Thanks!
Okay, I managed to gave this a whirl. I basically just made up an original composition (not a whole song, just a chunk) using the sounds from Konami's NES soundchip. Not the best emulation of the TMNT game sound, per se (my forte is Turtle In Time, I made a whole album's worth of stuff mimicking that game's OST a few years ago) but it's just a rough cut to see where I stand with this project of yours. I can change the 'keyboard' sounds, mind you, so if the leads don't quite sound NES enough, I'll play around with it more.

Lemmie know! http://picosong.com/L62Y/
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Old 02-04-2015, 09:57 PM   #18
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Okay, I managed to gave this a whirl. I basically just made up an original composition (not a whole song, just a chunk) using the sounds from Konami's NES soundchip. Not the best emulation of the TMNT game sound, per se (my forte is Turtle In Time, I made a whole album's worth of stuff mimicking that game's OST a few years ago) but it's just a rough cut to see where I stand with this project of yours. I can change the 'keyboard' sounds, mind you, so if the leads don't quite sound NES enough, I'll play around with it more.

Lemmie know! http://picosong.com/L62Y/
Dude that sounds great! I think you were able to pull off the NES sound quite well, and also the tune is pretty catchy - I listened to it four times in a row already! Thanks for being on board. Also I'm not sure but I don't remember hearing about the TMNT4 inspired album before. Have a link?

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Keep on updating us with your game construction. You got me interested too.
Thanks, man.
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And regarding her camera flash special, might it also be a little too powerful in that it tends to kill all the regular enemies on screen in an instant? Perhaps it could just count as one or two hits of damage as opposed to three or more?
That or increasing the time it takes to fill the MP bar.

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I think if April's whip animation took a few more frames to activate, it might give the enemies a chance to swoop in and attack her. Theoretically, having multiple enemies surrounding her at a close range should put her at a big disadvantage.
First I'll try changing the attack box so that her attack doesn't cover her back and thus makes her more vulnerable.

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I don't think anybody has mentioned it yet, but the cartoon voiceclips really work well in a game like this. I'm really curious as to see how the whole game will come together as characters are unlocked after being rescued. It was kinda strange playing as April in the frozen Central Park level since she's still technically "kidnapped" at that point in the original game.
Thank you. At first I was afraid that the voice clips wouldn't merge well with the game but now I wouldn't be able to go back to how it was without them, it adds personality to the characters. I would like to get more voice clips for April and Mike so that they shuffle randomly, in the case of April during her special she would alternate from "is this ever news!" to "what a story" and, if I'm able to find such a line in the show, "smile!"
Regarding the timeline, this happens after TMNT2. It's just a giant coincidence that Central Park is covered in snow AGAIN due to Tora, AGAIN, haha. Let me paste the main basic plot of the game from a post I made in anotherboard I frequent:

Quote:
The reason why Shredder decided to kidnap a bunch of the Turtles' friends is to celebrate the 25+ anniversary of their feud (although in true cartoon fashion no one has aged and everything looks the same). Players will rescue (at least) one character per stage. After that char is rescued, it becomes selectable. Additionally, Donatello is carrying his newest invention, the duplicator (name is a placeholder). With it, he'll be able to create robot duplicate of the bosses. In other words, after each stage, both the rescued characters and the bosses become selectable.
Anyway Shredder at some point will say "try to find your friends", with the turtles replying "we have a pretty good idea of where to look", and go to these locations from previous games.

I will be very busy in the upcoming weeks so I won't be able to work much or any on the game for around 3 weeks. In the meantime here's a couple of sprites of Irma, who transforms briefly into Super Irma for her special.

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Old 02-04-2015, 10:26 PM   #19
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Dude that sounds great! I think you were able to pull off the NES sound quite well, and also the tune is pretty catchy - I listened to it four times in a row already! Thanks for being on board. Also I'm not sure but I don't remember hearing about the TMNT4 inspired album before. Have a link?
Sweet, thanks, glad you like it! I haven't played your demo yet but if any sections of that are ones you'd like to have original music for, let me know. Being familiar with each level will give me a good idea on how to score them. & if that track I was working on fits in anywhere, that too can be used (once completed, that is). As for that other project I mentioned, I never put it out. I didn't use SNES sounds for it (just vaguely similar stuff) which made me sorta self conscious about the overall presentation. I put it aside in the hopes I'd one day be able to match it to the SNES port, but I've yet to. If I could find out what kinda keyboard was used on TiT & Sunset Riders, I'd make soundfonts or VST's out of them & replace what's there now. At any rate, the songs are decent enough to share with you, if nothing else, so I'll shoot you a link to that in a PM, as well as some voice clips I have from the 1987 series.
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Old 02-05-2015, 12:50 AM   #20
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I will be very busy in the upcoming weeks so I won't be able to work much or any on the game for around 3 weeks. In the meantime here's a couple of sprites of Irma, who transforms briefly into Super Irma for her special.
Irma too! And Super Irma? You really do think of everything!
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