Post subject: On The Ball
Joined: 6/4/2004
Posts: 284
Well, here's another of the more "out there" titles--in this game, you control a marble in constant freefall (except when hitting an object) and you rotate the world around it in order to guide it to the goal. And then you do it again. And again. And again... It's actually quite fun, though, and very, very fast. I'm not sure if I'm going to continue this or not, with school coming up, but here to pique anyone's interest and gather critique, is the first plane of On The Ball, also known as Cameltry. Enjoy. (Warning--those who get motion sickness or suffer vertigo should not enter this ride. This video is rated (U).)
Former player
Joined: 6/27/2004
Posts: 550
Location: New York
I know this game was discussed at some point, but maybe it was just in the IRC channel. To me, this game could either go really well or really badly. There are I think 7 ways to spin the screen- 4 in one direction and 3 in the other(2 of those are using the control pad. The 6th button on the controller is used to bounce the ball off walls). There are so many buttons for a single direction because they all control different speeds- however, the more buttons pushed to go in one direction, the faster you go in that direction. The bouncing would be the most difficult part of making the video, as bouncing in a direction propels you faster than just freefalling. But it's hard to pinpoint the best place to propel from and the best angle to propel at. This all sounds very complicated, but would make for a very fun to watch video. Except one thing. As it was stated, the screen can rotate very fast at times, and to make it through the game as fast as possible, the player will have to rotate extremely quickly. I made a video myself of the level being done very quickly, and it wasn't TOO nauseating, but it was bad enough. I'd try again, but for some stupid reason my keyboard permits me from pressing very few buttons at a time, something this game requires a lot of(I've tried all kinds of key combinations).
Former player
Joined: 3/19/2004
Posts: 710
Location: USA
Sounds interesting. I'll take a look at it.
Joined: 6/4/2004
Posts: 284
Let's go! Second Plane! Alright, so I found something interesting--if you use the Stage Select Code, you can save a lot of time by not having to enter the password for the next area any more. Also, on the boards where you had limited slant, I was able to "crack the whip" and get the ball to fly a little higher sometimes.
Former player
Joined: 8/1/2004
Posts: 2687
Location: Seattle, WA
Wow, that game is confusing... Good run though. I like it. It has potential.
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Former player
Joined: 3/19/2004
Posts: 710
Location: USA
Cool. This is made by my favorite video game company, Taito :) The games does look pretty cool. I'll try a movie this weekend
Player (206)
Joined: 5/29/2004
Posts: 5712
So is it like Kirby's Tilt 'n' Tumble?
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Joined: 6/4/2004
Posts: 284
Mmm...sort of. You have the same top-down view, but what you control in this game is the field around the ball, instead of the ball itself. You jump by pushing a button (and slow down your decent by tapping it), and your only enemy in this game is the clock, which ticks steadily downward (or upward, if it's a speedrun).
Former player
Joined: 6/27/2004
Posts: 550
Location: New York
I don't know anything about tilt n tumble, but if it's the ball itself that moves, what would stop it from being just as good as an on the ball run, only less nauseating?
Former player
Joined: 3/19/2004
Posts: 710
Location: USA
The fact that it's for gameboy and that it is pretty much impossible to emulate (not the gameboy, but this game, since it requires you to tilt the gameboy to get kirby to move)
Former player
Joined: 6/27/2004
Posts: 550
Location: New York
Didn't know it was for gameboy, but wow. I guess it came with some device which detected the alignment of the gameboy?
Former player
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Location: USA
Yes.
Former player
Joined: 6/27/2004
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Location: New York
Anyway, in order to get it back on topic: http://www.thezorz.com/agile/ontheballblechy.smv That's the one I made some time ago. It's not submission quality, I just wanted to see roughly what it would look like. It was on the following level that I realized so much bouncing would need to be done(there's none done in that movie), so I don't even know if bouncing in that level I show would actually speed it up. But the levels get much more fast paced, and it would be rotating at that speed, but constantly, and alternating going left and right.
Joined: 6/4/2004
Posts: 284
Here's the third level; I'm not sure whether I'll do the fourth or not. This game is actually pretty long--although I'm obviously not trying for perfection, my reasonably fast efforts are taking at least 15 minutes or so per stage. I'm glad there are folks out there who like it--now, let's have more nausea-enducing fun as we Go to! Third Plane! ^_^
Joined: 9/30/2007
Posts: 103
I love this game, and as such, I'm going to bump this topic with a testrun: http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1776239608/Ontheballtestrun.smv Goes through the expert course, using a fun little glitch. Highly unoptimized (as easily seen by the rerecord count) and zero-to-none routeplanning outside of "check what way goal is, go towards that place".
Editor, Experienced player (735)
Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
I think that "fun little glitch" just about took away all the fun and potential this game had. Those courses were beat way too fast in my opinion to be any fun, as compared to say what a no glitch runthrough of the stages might have looked like. Oh well.
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Joined: 9/30/2007
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Yeah, I agree with that. Wallhacking doesn't make for very interesting gameplay. There's another use for auto-B though - When using it against a sloped wall, you go pretty damn fast. Use of that together with great angle control would be much more fun to watch.
JXQ
Experienced player (761)
Joined: 5/6/2005
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There have been a few submissions with the (J) version of this game, Cameltry. The first used this same glitch, and it was mostly agreed in that thread as making the run boring to watch. The second and third played normally, but neither was published. I think the game would make an interesting TAS.
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Post subject: request: on the ball
Player (73)
Joined: 12/20/2006
Posts: 154
This game would make an interesting TAS imo. Fast paced, Marble Madness like action and a lot of random elements that make you go very fast, along with hitting walls at precise angles to keep this speed would make this a very very good game to TAS from a visual end product. Anyways, hopefully someone considers it!
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I concur. This is how it looks like. The reason stanski is proposing it is that we're having a tourney featuring its original arcade version, Cameltry, on SDA. :)
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Editor, Experienced player (735)
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There's already a topic, on the front page as well. A glitch was found that lets you go through walls, which definitely ruins the fun since you can glitch your way to the end in 3 seconds or less each course.
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Well, either way, not using that glitch is a must.
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Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
Joined: 2/26/2007
Posts: 1365
Location: Minnesota
that game would make me more sick than bossman's turok. It is a must!
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I very much agree with this post.
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Player (73)
Joined: 12/20/2006
Posts: 154
It is much faster with the "black steel" ball chosen too, and the "go through walls" glitch ruins the game, so not using it would have to be a requirement.
Chamale
He/Him
Player (182)
Joined: 10/20/2006
Posts: 1355
Location: Canada
I made a run of the first level on "expert". http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1626751120/On%20the%20Ball%20%28U%29.smv Basically, I just cut around corners as tightly as I can. Is this the fastest way? How do you select a different ball?