Bouncing Babies: a PICO-8 Imagining

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Ok, this is my attempt to port the CGA game "Bouncing Babies" to the PICO-8.

Current status:

- You can bounce babies until they get to the ambulance
- If you fail to bounce the baby I think the game ends.

TODO:
- Well, there should eventually be more than one baby on the screen at a time
- Someone should chuck lit bombs out of the maternity ward. Avoid those!
- There should be "waves"
- I think we should be able to move our firefighters faster
- Lots of additional animations needed
- Ability to restart the game

But whattaya want for one day. This is the most fun I've had programming for a single day in my entire life. Enjoy.

https://joltcountry.com/pico8/babies/babies.html

[bryanb]

New high score: 14 (I quit before I could drop a baby). I'm most familiar with the DOS version of the game and I have to say the Pico-8 version offer a pretty different experience from what I'm used to. For one thing, it appears to be a gusty day in Picoworld which is making the babies move unpredictably in the air. The old game was all about finding the right baby-saving rhythm and sticking to it. The new version disdains rhythm and makes you keep your focus on the baby at hand at all times.

Notes:

1. When a baby bounces on to the top of the ambulance, I'm pretty sure it just died and it feels pretty wrong to get a point for that.

2. When a baby bounces towards the ambulance but seems to disappear in midair, I'm pretty sure it was just seized by the celestial version of Child Protective Services. How the hell do I explain this to the mother and why am I getting a point for this?

3. Perhaps the babies should change color when they are on the verge of SIDS until you find a pills power-up to save them. Come to think of it, Z and X don't do anything in this game yet, right? We needs a pills key, Robb! A pills key!

[Tdarcos]

What is ridiculous is the immediate end of game and a score of -1000 for dropping a baby. The "one hit, game over" philosophy reinds me of either coin-op games or I Wanna Be the Guy.

This makes it impossible to know what your score was. Since the game ends once you drop a baby, there is no reason except spite to change the score to -1000. And it's not score minus 1000, the score is discarded and resets to -1000.

[Flack]

2. When a baby bounces towards the ambulance but seems to disappear in midair, I'm pretty sure it was just seized by the celestial version of Child Protective Services. How the hell do I explain this to the mother and why am I getting a point for this?

Investigator: And when again did you last see the child?
Fireman: It disappeared in mid-air after I bounced it off a trampoline toward the ambulance.
...
Investigator: I'm going to need to talk to you downtown.

[pinback]

But whattaya want for one day. This is the most fun I've had programming for a single day in my entire life. Enjoy.

I know, right!??! It reminds me of being 12 again, staying up late with Doug McDiarmid, typing away on our Apple ][s, the wonder of future at our fingertips.

[Flack]

It appears I am tied with everyone else with a high score of -1000.

Jonsey! Is the goal to make an accurate port, or are you taking some liberties? Either way, so far it's great!

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I am now taking questions. Do any of you ha-- oh!

The old game was all about finding the right baby-saving rhythm and sticking to it. The new version disdains rhythm and makes you keep your focus on the baby at hand at all times.

Version 1.0 will have better routines for the babies in terms of their bouncing.

When a baby bounces on to the top of the ambulance, I'm pretty sure it just died and it feels pretty wrong to get a point for that.

We need to, ah, tighten up the graphics there.

Perhaps the babies should change color when they are on the verge of SIDS until you find a pills power-up to save them.

The update I had tonight does tweak the palette for the second baby / first additional baby.

What is ridiculous is the immediate end of game and a score of -1000 for dropping a baby.

What, do you want POINTS for not catching babies?? I want you to explain to the baby's mother that died that you saved like 10 other babies.

I know, right!??! It reminds me of being 12 again, staying up late with Doug McDiarmid, typing away on our Apple ][s, the wonder of future at our fingertips.

My wife said that I was the happiest I had been in a while the other day when writing the first part.

Jonsey! Is the goal to make an accurate port, or are you taking some liberties? Either way, so far it's great!

Well, I feel that trying to be accurate isn't a good use of all of this because there are some parts that can be improved -- there was only four frames of animation for the babies in the original and it's easy to add more frames to them rotating so I should do that. That sort of thing. Also, like Bryan B. said, it was kind of a pattern thing.

I did make one addition that I have to tweak - while you can move the firemen with left and right, if you are toward the right side of the screen, the Z key will teleport you closer to the building and vice versa with the X key. This feature isn't written down anywhere but here and I sort of want to tweak it so it takes you through stations like Tapper did.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

UPDATE! I added instructions about using Z and X to move quickly and I implemented it so it kicks you left or right a bunch.
And I fixed some other bugs. And the game will restart, I think, after it ends.

[Jizaboz]

Great work, man. I kind of want get into this pico thing but at the same time I like asteroids better on the Vectrex and would rather program for it.

But by all means CARRY ON!

[pinback]

Great work, man. I kind of want get into this pico thing but at the same time I like asteroids better on the Vectrex

That's tough but fair.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

So, I was surprised that the game actually WORKS. Still. Did we do this during the pandemic? Man...

I obviously need to fix the rate in which the babies start dropping. I love the "you get -1000 points if a baby dies" bit. I love that racially diverse babies start appearing. And.....

But whattaya want for one day. This is the most fun I've had programming for a single day in my entire life. Enjoy.
I know, right!??! It reminds me of being 12 again, staying up late with Doug McDiarmid, typing away on our Apple ][s, the wonder of future at our fingertips.

I thought our PICO-8 thing was YEARS ago. It was last year!

And it was the most fun I had programming in my life. That's still true. I love PICO-8.

[bryanb]

I'm glad this is still an active project. We're going to need Flack to refocus on the chicken game as well. From here on out, let's stop giving up on promising ideas. No more abandoning, no more giving up. We're not mere dreamers or dabblers. Nay, let us be known from this point forward as THE FINISHERS!

[AArdvark]

My score is -1000. Is there some gravitational anomaly on this planet where some babies fall much faster than others? A black baby fell much faster than a white baby, causing me to be labelled a racist strecher-bearer by the crowd of onlookers.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Okay while it makes me laugh that the game only ends with a baby dying, and therefore the only score anyone can get is -1000, I may try to properly finish this for 2025.