IRAGINATION

The moonwalk is off by default. To enable it, got to the options while playing (Samus only). There’ll be two new switches on the right. One to enable Moonwalk, another one to enable Autofire.

Why Autofire? Well, there’s little strategic point to do the Moonwalk if you can’t autofire, since the move is activated when you hold the Shot key. In Super Metroid you had autofire on by default, but in order to not break previous player’s game experiences, like spamming missiles, I prefer to make the autofire optional too. You shouldn’t experience any difference in gameplay if you don’t enable any of the new options.

This was going to be a little maintenance update in order to fix many bugs, with the moonwalk move as a small add on. Although small, it took a considerable amount of time to implement.

Now I’ll focus more on the level editor. I have to be realistic, players make better levels than what I’m able to do, so I better provide them with tools to make their job easier. I would love to make an online version of the level editor, but that would take too much time so it is not an option in the short term. I’ll have to stick with the fla version for a while. The online level editor is not discarded though, just don’t expect it too soon or to have the same richness of the fla version on its first iterations.

Scorpio just submitted a new level called Factor 1-Towers, using new tracks and enemies that even I haven’t used in the main game. To check the latests game features and experiments, remember to check the Custom Level section regularly.

Have fun! I know I am!

Update: You can check a video with the new features here

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Note: Seems like I broke the game with a quick update I did this morning. It’s all fixed. Clear your browser cache and try again.

Let’s enjoy the Bass Abyss levels with new video modes!

Switching to Widescreen

Just access to the venerable Bass Abyss screen as usual. Down there is the combo box were you can select the available video modes. Hit Go and you’re done. A full reload of the page will happen so be sure to not lose any progress mistakenly. For your convenience, you can also switch between the Turbo and Normal speed with the same click.

Switching to Vertical Dual Screen

The process is the same. For a Nintendo DS like experience! If you have a widescreen monitor at 1440×900, I could play at the 2x resolution with Firefox 3. Just hit F11 for fullscreen and the “two vertical screens” will fit in the window.

More crazy video modes

Okay guys I can’t possibly test all the possible video resolutions, that’s why there are listed just a few ‘standard’ ones. Weird stuff might happen, some levels might even break, it’s all part of the fun. Anyway, until I’m done doing some heavy testing and patching, I know you can hack your way easily to try any resolution you want. Just look at the pattern in the address bar, everything is there.

This stuff has been wired in the code base for years, I just didn’t have the time to properly expose it in a friendly interface. You might have seen some demo of the widescreen mode here, but honestly this feature comes from way back. I’d loved to release new levels, but for a quick update to show that I’m alive this will have to do for now. Remeber you saw it here first.

Ugh, the previous update was on July 13 2008. So is this Bass Abyss upgrade the result of 8 months? Of course not. I barely started to work again in this project two weeks ago. As I said to some friends I expected to be free on March 2009 (let’s just not talk about December 2008). Fortunately nothing interrupted me t his time and voilá, the update is here. Enjoy!

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Some levels can get very long and exhausting. While the checkpoints are help, it’s still not fair to have to deal with lots of enemies and no way to restore health. This is no longer a problem since I’ve upgraded the engine so now energy/health power ups will be thrown randomly by defeated enemies, Mega Man style.

Some bug fixes
- The scores can be accessed again both through the game and html.

- There was a horrible bug with the music transitions in boss battles. It is now fixed.

- Destroyable rocks weren’t exploding. My bad, I forgot to update some tiles in a past upload.

The road to version 1.0 has begun. I better get started with the final levels of Bass Abyss.

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In celebration to Mega Man 9, I decided to add Mega Man to the list of the Bass Abyss characters. Freeze Man was going to be the last character for a good while, and if I ever considered using Mega Man like this, it was going to be as a joke or easter egg, kind of like with Classic Fire Man. But considering that even Capcom can go this retro, I don’t think I’ll get too flamed if I feature this 8 bit version. So, I’m not calling him “Classic Mega Man”, neither “8-bit  Mega Man”. Just Mega Man.

Also as maybe you have noted, I updated Bass Abyss one month ago with a revamped Custom Map section. Now every map I’ve been sent is listed and can be downloaded in game. No need of copy/paste xml code. You can still do that in the proper tab in the same section. This is very beta and had lots of polishing to do. In the midst of all the stuff I had to do back then I didn’t have time to make a proper update post. So far it’s been performing very well so I expect to expand its features in the future. I checked the stats and I know it’s a lot easier now to try every single map.

Now I’m hunting down many bugs neglected after so many host jumps. Have fun!

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Hello. I bring what the header says and many other little tweaks that I’ve been having on hold since past December.

Checkpoints

Well, this is one that I gave a lot of thought after playing Kid Scorpion’s level. They’re really challenging, but also very frustrating to die mid level after a bad jump. I’ve added checkpoints on some of my longer levels, and hopefully they won’t be so frustrating anymore.

Bloom effect

I guess many of you have heard the joke about next-gen graphics = bloom. Well, this is more like a tech demo, I put on test some of the flash filters and managed to get the effect, only for the detriment of the performance of the game, so you’ll get prettier graphics but the game will slow down a lot, at least under my tests. It’s disabled by default, but if you want to see it, pause the game, got to the Graphics’ tab and press the Bloom toggle.

But fear not. I got excellent results playing the game at 256 x 244. It’s small, but the bloom effect didn’t slow down my PC at all.

I’m rather impressed considering this is still Flash 8 and AS2. The promise of better performance sure encourages me to port my engine to AS3 in the future.

Also, Kid Scorpio brings us a new level. Get them at the Custom Maps section.

Update:

I forgot to mention this yesterday, but I also updated the Bass Abyss level editor to 1.0.1. It includes the checkpoint tile. Also a new stage enemy that I’ve been having on hold since December too. I think I’ll go this route, adding enemies to the level editor, so authors can give them use sooner than me considering my little free time.

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Nothing like a freezing themed character for the holiday season, uh? Enter Freeze Man. You know him as the final boss from Fire Man Incoming Storm, and now you can play with him as you make your way in the Bass Abyss sprite fest.

His run mode is similar to Samus’ and Doom Guy’s. Just hold down SHIFT to keep running.

His regular shot spreads when hitting walls. Use that to cover you and attack enemies beyond your direct reach.

His buster shot takes longer to load, but it is somewhat stronger and especially devastating with Imps.

As a plus he can also shot downwards. Maybe useful in very few situations, but I tried to keep his moves as true as they were in Incoming Storm.

No new levels from me, but for those craving for new maps, S.C.O.R.P.I.O.N. have just sent a complete new set of 13 levels for your enjoyment. Get them at the Custom Map section as usual. He usually designs his maps for Bass, and maybe Samus, so keep that in mind before getting frustrated with other characters.

Have fun!

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Yes, finally a real update. Ok, he’s not a whole new character, but I’m impressed I managed to put this together given my little free time. I can’t wait for December to enjoy some real free time.

Classic Fireman plays just as Fireman in Incoming Storm, except he has a buster. I find funny to play with him because he’s so small that many enemy projectiles miss him. Use that at your advantage, I suppose.

Also, I’ve got plenty of new levels thanks to S.C.O.R.P.I.O.N. Just copy and paste the code on Bass Abyss’ Custom Level screen to play them. They are a challenge.

I expect to code a new character for the next update. I have already plotted the gameplay so I hope to have a smooth time implementing it.

IRAGINATION is another year old, somewhere this month. I can’t remember how many years, neither the exact date, but I know it happened. Thanks for the support!

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I barely remember half of what I wrote on my previous post, but most likely anything that I offered there didn’t come to fruition. The reason? I’ve been really busy. No, seriously. Ridiculously and insanely busy like never before.

I can be busy for a several weeks, but three months in a row is too much. It’s been years since the last time I didn’t update in three months, and even then, at least I returned with some relevant update, but this time I bring nothing, nada, zero. You get the idea. Yet, I felt the urge to at least write this and say hello. I mean, it’s not like I’ve abandoned this site or something. More »

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This took long enough but to make up for it I bring you my favorite FPS character: Doom Guy.

More »

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Play Bass Abyss
Download Level Editor

So, I’m back from my vacations just to find problems with the server. Valk and I have worked during this week to solve some of them and finally I was able to do this update.

I know it’s been a while since I released a Bass Abyss update, but the first months of this year I was busy with something else, so I can’t really say this update is the result of those months of work, just a regular update that I put together during March. This update may look big nonetheless, but remember, I had vacations and more time to focus.

Custom Levels

Now you’re able to load Custom Levels. What are they? These are levels designed by anyone with the Bass Abyss level editor. Levels or maps are just text files that you can open with Notepad.

Here’s a sample of a quite challenging level. Perhaps.

How do you play it? Just open the file, select all the text and copy it. At the Bass Abyss main menu there’s a new entry called Custom Level. Enter there, paste the text in the provided text input and press play. It’s that simple.

Where can you get more levels? Well, you can actually design your own levels.

Level Editor

Skip my ramble and get the editor NOW.

I didn’t plan to release the level editor this early, but as we get closer to version 1.0, I thought it would be a good idea to let users play with it before the final version of Bass Abyss is released. Currently the game is very stable, so at this point it’s very unlikely that any change I make will make your levels unusable.

Unfortunately the level editor is not a stand alone application. You need Flash 8 to use it, and by Flash 8 I mean the authoring tool, not just the player. There’s no way I’d have the time to code and support such a beast. So, as my level editor was just a fla file, I always considered to release it if I managed to make it usable for anyone with no coding knowledge. I hope you find it friendly enough and if you have any suggestion just let me know. Also let me try your levels, I might create a special section for them in the future.

Bass Abyss 0.9.9

So, what’s new in the main game?

- Revamped pause menu.
- Added the option to set the volume of music and sound effects.

- 2 new levels.

- The saved states of both Normal and Turbo version are now unified. Feel free to switch between versions. Your saved progress will be read for both.

- Many, many little bug fixes.

Yes, I know that currently the HTML scores are down. Don’t worry, the scores are safe, you can still check them by the game’s interface, it’s just a presentation problem, I suppose. I’ll try to figure out what’s going on with them before I take any other decision. I’m back and I need to settle a lot of stuff.

Have fun!

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