Deathloop 256

Looping Shoot-em-up STG for NES

Written in 6502 assembly for 1982's Nintendo Entertainment System / Family Computer. Mostly I just wanted to try out fake parallax vertical scrolling and bolted a simple game on top of it. There's some bugs with the big laser, but it's already too overpowered so deal with it. Play in a decent emulator or the web version. There's 8 loops (including 0), and then everything repeats with no increase in difficulty.

Voting results

Overall
2nd
10%
7.667
Graphics
2nd
10%
8.333
Audio
2nd
10%
7.167
Gameplay
4th
30%
7.167
Originality
10th
90%
5.667
Theme
5th
40%
6.333

This game entered in the Solo competition (10 entries).

Comments (11)

Aurel300
 • 2 months ago • 

Very satisfying to play! Love the crunchy sound of the blaster, and the movement etc is just right :) I also find it interesting how the design of the HUD with the big digits makes this feel quite different from classic NES games, even though the game itself feels right.

The laser is indeed overpowered, so I made sure to not use it after one wave where I realised I can just stay in one spot in the middle and get all the enemies as they enter the screen and/or loop back in their pattern.

I wished there was more, more challenge, more enemy types, more things to dodge, more everything :)

DiningPhilosopher
 • 2 months ago • 

Really nice, I think I beat the game (loop repeat even if you win?)
One funny thing I noticed is that you can win loop 6 without moving (probably the same thing Aurel300 noticed) - the enemies all fly around you, so even if you do nothing you just repeat the loop.

euske
 • 2 months ago • 

Very polished and feel NES-sy. I avoided using laser but man I miss that turbo controller.

IAmAPancake
 • 2 months ago • 

This game feels very nice, the movement is near-perfect. The parallax effect is great, especially for an NES, and the music is surprisingly nice. The laser is incredibly overpowered, but it stops me from actually having to turn my brain on, so it's a nice-to-have feature. Great game!

thomastc
 • 2 months ago • 

Great entry, very impressive even if you don't consider the tech you used :-O I usually don't like bullet hells, but I really got into the flow on this one and had a lot of fun with it. Everything just feels so satisfying.

I made it to loop 007; the number of zeros is quite suggestive even if you didn't actually make 100+ levels. The core mechanic of just moving a loop up or down, instead of having to start over, is a great way to ensure that you always have the right amount of challenge – assuming that the difficulty actually increases each loop.

I made it quite far on bullets alone, before I discovered the GIANT LASER that I apparently had all along. That thing seems a bit overpowered, even if it does slow your ship down. Would have been better to at least give it a cooldown, or freeze the ship in place entirely.

The sprites are great. The one thing I would change (especially for screenshots) is the background, which is a bit uninteresting.

Sounds are era-appropriate (then again, how could they not be) and really support the action very well, and I didn't even miss music once the bullets really start flying.

mixer
 • 2 months ago • 

Only one thing to add to what others have already said: it would have been nice to have an autofire for the regular gun.

Wan
 • 2 months ago • 

That's quite an impressive chunk of Assembly! This is pretty close to a complete game, with cool guns, solid movements and good variety in enemy patterns. It just needs some game over condition and maybe a couple alternate enemy sprites.

The SFX have a pretty authentic feel and the shots are satisfying, nice job

Looking forward to the 1987 launch!

SoKette
 • 2 months ago • 

Nice, a 6502 assembly game !

Sounds were "era correct" but man do they end up being abbrasive on the ear, like the real deal I guess :D

Graphics were on point, the parallax looked really nice.

Also, other people comment on how the lazer is overpowered, maybe on the first few loops I agree. But once the ennemies started firing too, moving become much more important, and the lazer became very gambly to use. So it balances it nicely :)

Groz1o
 • 2 months ago • 

the game is pretty fun and the movement if pretty smooth

bradur
 • 2 months ago • 

Always happy to see a NES jam game 😎. I managed to get through all the loops before realizing how the laser worked. I kept holding the key thinking it would auto-shoot the normal attack and then stopped holding it before the laser appeared haha. Should have read the instructions more carefully I guess. Laser OP btw!

I really liked the interpretation of the theme. It's like a shmup but instead of going back to the start when you fail you just reset to the previous wave. Would have loved to see some powerups and so on but I understand it's a lot to ask from a NES game made in a jam hehe.

Psychic_Ash
 • 2 months ago • 

really nice job. nastalgic. felt like an original nes game through and through. would have loved to see more patterns from the enemies but short time, excellent job.

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