New graphics are drawn and working in-game. I present the *Combat Anchor.* Gosh it's HEAVY! Drag it behind you to catch foes giving chase, then charge it up and SLAM it down in front of you for massive damage. Tricky to use, but quite powerful in the right hands. #gamedev #nes #pixelart
November 27, 2025 at 12:59 AM
How to summarize this fix... ermh. For "racing the beam" reasons, dialog splits weren't quite finished before the top-of-screen split got drawn. To fix it? Add an extra invisible split that does nothing, but which gives dialog time to finish processing. Bug squashed, yes! #nes #gamedev
November 25, 2025 at 7:08 PM
I'm pleased to report that Xbox, Playstation, and Nintendo controllers (on PC), along with NES, SNES, and PowerPad controllers (on NES) are all ... mostly supported! (xbox+SDL2 on MacOS specifically is misbehaving.) This was so VERY tedious. But it's nearly done! #gamedev #screenshotsaturday #nes
November 23, 2025 at 12:04 AM
I'm pleased to report that Xbox, Playstation, and Nintendo controllers (on PC), along with NES, SNES, and PowerPad controllers (on NES) are all ... mostly supported! (xbox+SDL2 on MacOS specifically is misbehaving.) This was so VERY tedious. But it's nearly done! #gamedev #screenshotsaturday #nes
Currently wrangling the finer points of controller standards. Check it out though: I can detect the controller type and display the appropriate glyphs! It feels... so odd for my #nes game to display #playstation buttons in the interface, but it matches the controller, so... it does. #gamedev
November 16, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Currently wrangling the finer points of controller standards. Check it out though: I can detect the controller type and display the appropriate glyphs! It feels... so odd for my #nes game to display #playstation buttons in the interface, but it matches the controller, so... it does. #gamedev
Here's a fun polish-y detail. When a bomb explodes, I need to scroll the playfield 3 pixels "up" for screen shake. But there isn't any valid data "underneath" the playfield to draw. To avoid glitchy tiles, we use extra scroll splits to repeat the last scanline instead. Problem solved! #nes #gamedev
November 6, 2025 at 12:52 PM
Added a new accessibility feature after getting some feedback from playtesters: high contrast mode! This forces the floor color to always be $0F (black) even in rooms that would otherwise be fully lit. It's also great if you just prefer that classic NES aesthetic. #accessibility #pixelart #nes
October 23, 2025 at 1:18 PM
Added a new accessibility feature after getting some feedback from playtesters: high contrast mode! This forces the floor color to always be $0F (black) even in rooms that would otherwise be fully lit. It's also great if you just prefer that classic NES aesthetic. #accessibility #pixelart #nes
Today in especially cursed input methods, I am pleased to present working Power Pad support for my #nes game Tactus. Like other entries in the rhythm-based roguelike genre, it is **remarkably** difficult to play like this. Ermh... enjoy? #gamedev #screenshotsaturday
October 11, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Today in especially cursed input methods, I am pleased to present working Power Pad support for my #nes game Tactus. Like other entries in the rhythm-based roguelike genre, it is **remarkably** difficult to play like this. Ermh... enjoy? #gamedev #screenshotsaturday
I'm pleased to report that Tactus is working perfectly on real hardware using this mapper. How delightful! I'll include it in the next demo release so folks can finally give it a whirl on their real NES consoles.
September 24, 2025 at 5:10 PM
I'm pleased to report that Tactus is working perfectly on real hardware using this mapper. How delightful! I'll include it in the next demo release so folks can finally give it a whirl on their real NES consoles.
Sometimes it's the little things that take all the time. Today that was adapting these title splash screens for widescreen, so they don't awkwardly cut off at the edge of a 4:3 boundary. SDL2 and set_color_mod got the custom palettes working... hopefully. I need to run tests! #gamedev #sdl
September 21, 2025 at 11:12 PM
Working on the HUD for the PC build, which has to be totally rearranged. Today I got particles working! That's tricker than it sounds since the NES's 256x240 canvas is still mostly running the show. Particles cheat, and are drawn by SDL2 directly to maintain the illusion. #gamedev #nes #rust
September 20, 2025 at 11:53 PM
I spent this entire run bullying One-Armed Bandits for their lunch money. I'm thinking the economy might be just a **bit** unbalanced. :D #nes #gamedev #screenshotsunday
August 17, 2025 at 3:25 PM
I spent this entire run bullying One-Armed Bandits for their lunch money. I'm thinking the economy might be just a **bit** unbalanced. :D #nes #gamedev #screenshotsunday
Tactus v0.8: "Perfectly Normal Chests" is now released to my Patreons. Warp zones, one-armed bandits, evil cultists and loads of items! Also, v0.7 is now public! Check out the full changelog, there's a ton of new features in here. #gamedev #nes #chiptune
zeta0134.itch.io/tactus/devlo...
zeta0134.itch.io/tactus/devlo...
August 3, 2025 at 10:44 PM
Tactus v0.8: "Perfectly Normal Chests" is now released to my Patreons. Warp zones, one-armed bandits, evil cultists and loads of items! Also, v0.7 is now public! Check out the full changelog, there's a ton of new features in here. #gamedev #nes #chiptune
zeta0134.itch.io/tactus/devlo...
zeta0134.itch.io/tactus/devlo...
One nifty feature of my custom sound driver that I gloss over on here is the concept of variants. Each stage has "normal", "cave" and "pause" versions of the music, and I can hop between them at phrase boundaries.
Also shown: a fancy new RTA timer for speedruns :D #nes #gamedev #screenshotsunday
Also shown: a fancy new RTA timer for speedruns :D #nes #gamedev #screenshotsunday
June 30, 2025 at 12:17 AM
One nifty feature of my custom sound driver that I gloss over on here is the concept of variants. Each stage has "normal", "cave" and "pause" versions of the music, and I can hop between them at phrase boundaries.
Also shown: a fancy new RTA timer for speedruns :D #nes #gamedev #screenshotsunday
Also shown: a fancy new RTA timer for speedruns :D #nes #gamedev #screenshotsunday
Check it out! Two new items for Tactus:
"Dingbat": Sound a chime when near a hidden secret
"Interrogation Beam": Preview chest contents
Also, new chest types!
Timed Chest: Defeat all enemies quickly to open
Perfectly Normal Chests: Not suspicious at all!
#gamedev #screenshotsaturday #nes
"Dingbat": Sound a chime when near a hidden secret
"Interrogation Beam": Preview chest contents
Also, new chest types!
Timed Chest: Defeat all enemies quickly to open
Perfectly Normal Chests: Not suspicious at all!
#gamedev #screenshotsaturday #nes
June 28, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Check it out! Two new items for Tactus:
"Dingbat": Sound a chime when near a hidden secret
"Interrogation Beam": Preview chest contents
Also, new chest types!
Timed Chest: Defeat all enemies quickly to open
Perfectly Normal Chests: Not suspicious at all!
#gamedev #screenshotsaturday #nes
"Dingbat": Sound a chime when near a hidden secret
"Interrogation Beam": Preview chest contents
Also, new chest types!
Timed Chest: Defeat all enemies quickly to open
Perfectly Normal Chests: Not suspicious at all!
#gamedev #screenshotsaturday #nes
I present: the newly invented Charge-a-bulb™! This ingenious contraption harvests latent energy from the very monsters giving you trouble. Turn the tables and light your own path!* #nes #gamedev #screenshotsunday
(*The Charge-a-bulb will automatically deactivate when it detects natural light.)
(*The Charge-a-bulb will automatically deactivate when it detects natural light.)
June 15, 2025 at 10:57 PM
I present: the newly invented Charge-a-bulb™! This ingenious contraption harvests latent energy from the very monsters giving you trouble. Turn the tables and light your own path!* #nes #gamedev #screenshotsunday
(*The Charge-a-bulb will automatically deactivate when it detects natural light.)
(*The Charge-a-bulb will automatically deactivate when it detects natural light.)
Am I supposed to do two #screenshotsaturday posts on the same Saturday? Anyway, I was on a roll, so please enjoy this new footware: the Ninja Footwraps! Featuring the all-new player invulnerability, these will reliably dodge incoming attacks, provided you can keep them charged up. #nes #gamedev
June 15, 2025 at 4:00 AM
Am I supposed to do two #screenshotsaturday posts on the same Saturday? Anyway, I was on a roll, so please enjoy this new footware: the Ninja Footwraps! Featuring the all-new player invulnerability, these will reliably dodge incoming attacks, provided you can keep them charged up. #nes #gamedev
Four new accessories in one day. Not too shabby! Finally something other than the Chain Link to go in this slot. #pixelart #screenshotsaturday #indiegame
These all interact with the new elemental affinity system, and the limited equipment slots should hopefully encourage more strategic builds.
These all interact with the new elemental affinity system, and the limited equipment slots should hopefully encourage more strategic builds.
June 14, 2025 at 7:57 PM
Four new accessories in one day. Not too shabby! Finally something other than the Chain Link to go in this slot. #pixelart #screenshotsaturday #indiegame
These all interact with the new elemental affinity system, and the limited equipment slots should hopefully encourage more strategic builds.
These all interact with the new elemental affinity system, and the limited equipment slots should hopefully encourage more strategic builds.
Mind here that we're on an NES which doesn't have any way to perform that squish in hardware. This is all done with baked animation tiles.
Musical tempo on the X axis, jump arc variants on the Y axis. Which specific cels you see depends on the current song and the player's input timing.
Musical tempo on the X axis, jump arc variants on the Y axis. Which specific cels you see depends on the current song and the player's input timing.
June 12, 2025 at 3:06 AM
Mind here that we're on an NES which doesn't have any way to perform that squish in hardware. This is all done with baked animation tiles.
Musical tempo on the X axis, jump arc variants on the Y axis. Which specific cels you see depends on the current song and the player's input timing.
Musical tempo on the X axis, jump arc variants on the Y axis. Which specific cels you see depends on the current song and the player's input timing.
Now that the engine is in good shape, I can focus on adding new enemy types. I present: the one-armed bandit! These have a variety of rewards, including whole-room magic spells if you can line up the symbols. They're also a real pain to fight with the broadsword. :D #gamedev #nes
May 15, 2025 at 1:44 PM