Buggaroo - a 4k game


This is how it looks like...pretty, isn't it?

Buggaroo is an entry for the Java 4K 2007 Games competition. It's inspired by the C64 game Baccaroo.

The task: The robots on a space freighter have gone mad. You are Buggaroo, the only sane robot remaining. You are small and weak. However, you are equiped with an influence device that allows you to take control over other robots if their power level (shown in HEX on the robots) is below yours. If it's not, you can shoot them until it is or, if you shoot them further, until they explode. To take control over a robot, make sure that it's power level really is below yours and bump into him while in transfer mode. You can enter transfer mode by pressing the right mouse button. A circle will appear around your robot to show that you are in transfer mode. To shoot them, indicate the direction with the mouse and press the left button to fire.
If the transfer succeeds, you'll get the remaining power of your victim added to yours. But Buggaroo can't handle all this additional power very well, so you'll lose power. The more you have, the faster you'll lose it. So prepare for some robot-hopping to ensure a high power level. Once you've cleaned the ship, the level starts again with more enemies. If your power drops below 0x18, you are dead.

Controls: CRSR - move your robot
Mouse: indicate firing direction
LMB: fire
RMB: transfer mode

Play Buggaroo
Download the sources

Tech notes: Buggaroo features smooth scrolling using a BufferStrategy. The enemy robots are the more aggressive the more powerful they are and they are getting even more aggressive if you are getting more powerful. The more aggressive they are, the faster they shoot and the more they are trying to hunt you. The path finding is very basic, i.e. no A*. So is the collision detection. There was no space to implement a proper one, i.e. one that lets the robots slide correctly when colliding with walls or corners. But i did my best to come close to that. Due to the size limitation, there is only one level. I just wasn't able to fit another one into 4k or to write a generator for levels. I simply ran out of space...:-(

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