[HN Gopher] Classic Duck Hunt game made in JavaScript and Kaplay
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       Classic Duck Hunt game made in JavaScript and Kaplay
        
       Author : JSLegendDev
       Score  : 80 points
       Date   : 2025-01-30 00:53 UTC (22 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (jslegend.itch.io)
 (TXT) w3m dump (jslegend.itch.io)
        
       | kxrm wrote:
       | The Score and Round text rendered strangely in Firefox for me,
       | but worked great in Chrome.
        
         | JSLegendDev wrote:
         | That's strange, I developed the game using Firefox as my
         | primary testing browser since it's the one I usually use.
         | 
         | Would you mind describing in more details how the text
         | rendering looks like?
        
           | kxrm wrote:
           | It may be that my privacy settings are just too high.
           | 
           | Here are some screen shots:
           | 
           | https://tacky.dev/others/title_screen.png
           | 
           | https://tacky.dev/others/round_start.png
        
       | vunderba wrote:
       | Love it - I'm sure our old tube TV still has scratches from when
       | I used to get too excited as a kid and pressed the NES zapper
       | directly against the glass.
       | 
       | I'm also a big fan of re-purposing sprite sheets from old video
       | games - years ago I wrote a little edutainment game called
       | "Aladdin's Mathemagical Flying Carpet" to help teach my little
       | brothers the multiplication tables.
       | 
       | https://specularrealms.com/alad
       | 
       | Any retro gamer will instantly recognize the assets.
        
         | jacknews wrote:
         | what a great game idea
        
           | jacknews wrote:
           | dunno who wasn't happy with this, did they think i was being
           | sarcastic?
           | 
           | i really wasn't.
           | 
           | it's great idea, and I'm thinking of making a 2d version
           | where you 'collect' the right answers, etc.
        
         | mock-possum wrote:
         | "Abu, that's taboo!"
         | 
         | Love it.
        
       | jacknews wrote:
       | nice!
       | 
       | kaplay is underrated as a game engine imho, especially for
       | teaching. It's intuitive and quite simple, and the web playground
       | has some assets built in so it's immediately ready to go.
        
       | _nickwhite wrote:
       | Great job, this is kid tested and approved. My 12yo son, who
       | plays a lot of FPS games discovered how bad he is using the
       | trackpad on my MacBook Pro. It was a lot of fun seeing him as
       | frustrated at the laughing dog as I was in 1986 on my NES.
        
         | vunderba wrote:
         | It is amazing how much easier games like this (Missile Command
         | comes to mind as well) are with a full-blown external mouse.
         | 
         | If you really want to up the challenge rating, see if you can
         | find an old IBM Thinkpad and use the nub to control the
         | targeting reticle.
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointing_stick
        
         | JSLegendDev wrote:
         | Nice! This made my day :) Thanks to you and your son for
         | playing my game.
         | 
         | I'm hoping to publish a step by step tutorial soon on how to
         | develop this in JavaScript for anyone interested in learning
         | gamedev.
         | 
         | I usually post my tutorials on my YouTube channel here :
         | https://youtube.com/@jslegenddev (Plenty of tutorials available
         | already for people interested in JS gamedev)
         | 
         | I plan this time on also publishing a written version on my
         | Substack available here : https://jslegenddev.substack.com/
        
       | kylecazar wrote:
       | This is great! Super nostalgia.
       | 
       | Also -- anyone who doesn't know how the original light guns
       | worked, it's worth a read. This crowd will likely appreciate the
       | solution.
        
         | eykanal wrote:
         | Link: https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/how-does-the-duck-
         | hunt... Super low-tech and amazing ingenuity in making
         | something work within the limitations of the tech they had
         | then.
        
         | sandreas wrote:
         | Here is also a brief overview, how to use a "clone" lightgun
         | without the filter to play on modern LCD TVs:
         | 
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCZ-Z-OZFUs
        
         | latexr wrote:
         | It's simple enough to explain in a short HN comment.
         | 
         | Essentially, when you fire the gun the screen briefly turns all
         | black except for a small white square where the target was. If
         | the gun barrel sensor detects this bright white light, it means
         | you hit the target. This is also why you reportedly could aim
         | at a light bulb and never miss.
        
           | lloeki wrote:
           | > This is also why you reportedly could aim at a light bulb
           | and never miss.
           | 
           | Except IIRC you couldn't because it displayed a fully black
           | screen then a square, and detected a signal edge that must
           | happen within those few frames, or some other implementation
           | to that effect.
           | 
           | A lightbulb being constant would not work.
           | 
           | LCDs would work but they introduce latency that CRTs did not
           | have, enough so that the check can fail. Even worse if game
           | is emulated. Also I wonder about LCD backlight.
           | 
           | EDIT: confirmed by eykanal's link nearby.
        
       | ccvannorman wrote:
       | 1. Awesome and well done!
       | 
       | 2. But it doesn't have the classic "win" sound that I remember so
       | fondly :(
       | 
       | 3. Prepare to be destroyed by Nintendo
        
       | mfkp wrote:
       | Awesome game, one of my favorites from my childhood.
       | 
       | I got 9100 points, was going great until level 9 where it all
       | fell apart.
        
       | latexr wrote:
       | It was amusing to realise the duck flight patterns use the same
       | logic as the DVD logo.
        
       | maaaaattttt wrote:
       | I put my mouse against the screen but it didn't make me better at
       | aiming in this version of the game unfortunately ;)
       | 
       | Thank you for letting us relive this moments of childhood!
        
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       (page generated 2025-01-30 23:02 UTC)