Pipes by Nick Marentes now available for Dragon and Coco

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lcurtisboyle
Posts: 21
Joined: Thu Nov 05, 2020 9:47 pm

Pipes by Nick Marentes now available for Dragon and Coco

Post by lcurtisboyle »

Nick has just released Pipes, which is based on the popular Pipe Mania game for various other platforms. Only requires 16K and joystick or mouse, and runs on all Coco's (1,2,3) and Dragon 32 and Dragon 64, or emulators. The game runs in a higher semi-graphics mode, so it has up to 9 colors on screen at once, and features 2 voice background music and sound effects. However, due to the way the Dragon 64 handles HSYNC interrupts (if I understand correctly, it shuts HSYNC off during VBlank), so the music won't sound as smooth (unless you do a hardware modification that Pere Serrat has published here on the forums: http://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3 ... hp?p=15719. You can purchase the game via Nick's website (https://nickmarentes.com/ProjectArchive/pipes.html), and it is available as both a digital download for $8 USD, or as a physical CD with bonus content, for $18 USD. The CD version also contains Nick's earlier Coco/Dragon 64 release of Rally-SG, but adds a few things: The original PAL versions of his 1980's games Neutroid II and Donut Dilemma (the latter even did 6 color PAL artifacting, if you have an older PAL CRT still kicking around), as well as a new level editor for Rally-SG to create your own maps. It also includes his Waterfall BASIC/ML hybrid game from last year, which works on all Dragons and Coco's. Both the digital and CD versions includes the games in DSK format, and CAS and WAV formats to make it as easy for you to load them as possible, no matter what hardware you have available.

Here is Nick's "Christmas Ad" for Pipes:
pipes_ad.png
pipes_ad.png (1.44 MiB) Viewed 11669 times
Nick has screenshots, and gameplay video, on the website as well. Help support new software development for the Coco/Dragon community by buying a copy, if games are your thing.

(I plan on revisiting NitrOS-9 Level 1 at some point during 2021, so some free updates should be coming out there as well... likely with some extended 6309 support above what is already there).
drmarkb
Posts: 74
Joined: Fri Mar 28, 2014 4:13 pm

Re: Pipes by Nick Marentes now available for Dragon and Coco

Post by drmarkb »

Well I will bite.
Looking forward to it. Thanks for the heads up. will have to dig out my old PAL crt :D
bluearcus
Posts: 142
Joined: Wed Sep 07, 2016 4:45 pm

Re: Pipes by Nick Marentes now available for Dragon and Coco

Post by bluearcus »

For anyone wanting to run this on a Dragon with a disk system, it's worth mentioning that in a message to Nick when you buy it, as a trivial patch to prevent the disk motor shutoff code from causing problems is required to make the game work under DragonDOS. He will then send you a VDK of the amended version.
tjewell
Posts: 346
Joined: Mon Oct 19, 2009 4:58 pm
Location: Cambridge, England

Re: Pipes by Nick Marentes now available for Dragon and Coco

Post by tjewell »

Does anyone know if you can still buy this? I don't see any links to purchase it on Nick's site.
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rolfmichelsen
Posts: 296
Joined: Wed Apr 08, 2009 8:43 pm
Location: Oslo, Norway
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Re: Pipes by Nick Marentes now available for Dragon and Coco

Post by rolfmichelsen »

You'll find it here: https://nickmarentes.com/
tjewell
Posts: 346
Joined: Mon Oct 19, 2009 4:58 pm
Location: Cambridge, England

Re: Pipes by Nick Marentes now available for Dragon and Coco

Post by tjewell »

Thanks Rolf! I think that proves that my 'looking for things' skills aren't all that they could be :)
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