Friday 31 October 2014

X-Force is out!

31st October 2014


Over the past few months or so. I have been working hard on my first ever horizontal scrolling futuristic blaster in co-op with Saul Cross. We are very pleased with the overall result. X-Force is finally finished and has been released on the Commodore Format Archive Power Pack tape 63 project. If you want to know where to get it from. Here's the link:

Commodore Format Archive - Power Pack 63

or for the Trance version on Disk or Tape image, please visit this page below:

The New Dimension - Games-X

What is this game all about?. Well basically it is a horizontal scrolling shoot 'em up, in which you have are on planet Darx. You were mining for minerals in which could be used in the future to build a shield to protect Earth from future alien invasion. Unfortunately, after a hard day's work you decide to fall asleep in your X-Force ship. Suddenly a mother ship approaches over the X-Force fighter and beams it up. Assorted aliens carry you out of the X-Force ship and seal you into a large glass cell. After you wake up, you find yourself trapped. Rather than panic, you unzip your jacket, and reach for the inside pocket. You pick up your laser and blast yourself free. Alarms start going off. You find your X-Force fighter ship and flee off to the exit. As you escape the alien HQ, the aliens follow you ... big time.

Talking about the tape loader:

The first version of the game uses the CF Special tape loader, which I created exclusively for the Commodore Format Archive Power Pack project. I also turned this loader system into Thunderload 7, on the latest TND contributors releases. In which uses the TND logo, and a bit extra programming.Darkland used Halloween themed sprites over the scroll text, whereas the game Rabid Robots used animated stars.


The second tape loader for the second version was in fact a rushed done job today. Since there was no loading picture available for the game. I decided on doing a very simple loading presentation. I took a look at Mastertronic's Dynamix tape loader. It used a simple loading screen with a black border with light blue thin loading stripes. So I decided to base the idea on a similar style. The X-Force logo, with credits. I used Martin Piper's usual turbo tape loader source, worked on a quick tune, for loading and then put it all together. Boot loader with black and red thin stripes, and main loader with black and dark blue thin stripes. The loader plays some trance music in the background, quite similar to the Trance Sector loader theme tune.

The front end:

Saul had originally sent me the front end graphics and suggested that I should use raster bars over the text. I always hated coding raster bars, due to the fact that I have to spend a lot of time timing them. Sometimes I can hardly see the flickering of each raster on screen since I used an LED TV for a monitor. The raster bars scroll up through the text giving a nice effect. Luckily the effect turned out pretty smart, but thankfully the raster bars got fixed by NTSC fixer, Dirk Schmitt.

The music:

There are actually two different music versions of the same game. The first version features the music by Feekzoid which was originally written for horizontal scrolling shoot 'em up, Breakthrough by Jon Wells. After playing the game preview, I was really desperate to hear the news about the game becoming a full release. Sadly it never happened. So I asked Jon nicely if I could use the music for this game. Permission was granted. The second version featured music composed by me. It featured thumping trance sound tracks in the game.

Playing the game:

Using a joystick in port 2, you must guide your X-Force ship across 16 different underground zones of the hostile planet Darx. In order to escape, you must cross through each treacherous zone. Each zone is heavily powered by laser gates, which will switch on or off. You won't be alone, as the aliens will be ready to ram into your ship, should you or an alien crash into each other. Or you crash into any power gates or other background, you will lose a ship. If you have more than one ship at your disposal, at losing a ship. You will be able to quickly construct a new ship. Otherwise if the last ship explodes, you will die.

 


During the journey through each zone, there are pods with some form of mineral in which will help you improve or reduce the abilities of the ship. The coloured pods are as follows:

Pink - Single bullet power up/power down
Green - Double bullet power up/power down
Blue - Power up shield for a short period of time
Yellow - Warp distance activated for a short period of time
Grey - Avoid those at all cost, it will cost you a life. It's a deadly mine.

At the end of each stage will be an end of level boss. You can either kill it (requires 30 hits) or let it move past. Should the boss spot you, it will fire lasers to get you out of its way. Each levels boss has a different sequence of firing lasers. If you destroy it, an extra life will be rewarded. Should you let it pass, level will complete, but you won't receive any extra lives.

The worlds:

Saul Cross suggested that for each level each world should have a BEFORE and AFTER theme to it. The first and second worlds contain the mine theme, but then enters the ruins. Level 3 and 4 takes you through the ruins, to a technological world. I do remember asking Saul for some worlds based on crystals and vegetation. Level 7 has a nice crystal world, and levels 10 and 11 has a world of vegetation. The final level is a final mine before the player can escape. The colour schemes for each level were set according Saul's example maps which I received near to the time of the submission deadline for the Power Pack 63 project.

Inspiration:

X-Force was inspired by Hewson's Subterranea, where as the enemy boss stage was inspired a bit by Powerama by The Power House and Hewson. Although Powerama was a vertical scrolling shoot 'em up. Some alien ideas were inspired by Gradius/Nemesis by Konami.




Saturday 11 October 2014

Oh YES, it's Honey Bee!


Saturday 11th October 2014 (Work still in Progress)

Poor old Wayne. He designs a new game, creates loads of graphics for it and then awaits a Commodore 64 programmer to write loads of code and then build a finished production. Suddenly the poor coder, erm, okay, me, ends up cancelling projects for some odd reason or something goes horribly wrong. The main casualties were Wizards and Warlocks, Up in the Air, and of course Crash Course.

Next on the list was Honey Bee. When Prime Suspect was working on Wayne's game. Things started to look quite promising. I saw a few videos of Honey Bee WIP, and I also play tested a few previews of the game myself. Just as I imagined this game was NEARLY up to the stage of completion. Disaster strikes. Due to a fatal computer crash on Prime's system, Honey Bee ended up as the next casualty of cancelled C64 game projects. Sadly there was no backup. All that could be salvaged were a few unfinished test previews, which Genesis Project had the pleasure of releasing into the C64 scene.

Honey Bee was almost a game that wasn't, until I received an email from Kenz about this game project. He asked me whether or not I'd be interested in working on this game with Wayne. Since there was the 16KB game cartridge competition announced spring/summer time. I checked out the preview of Honey Bee and thought. "Poor Wayne, his dream projects never seem to come true" and I took interest over the game, although the game will need a MAJOR make over. I tried designing the game with graphics of my own, but they looked too ugly. (See snapshot below). I did however agree to use Wayne's sprites for this game project.



 I started the programming process of the project by typing in the main game code from my head and following some example routines on codebase. I programmed things such as loops, interrupts, level settings, etc using Endurion's C64Studio with use of the ACME cross-assembler syntax. Which I am pretty much familiar with. Plus ACME is one of my all time favourite cross-assemblers for the Commodore 64, since it was introduced to me.

The post-build settings were edited so that I could run the fully assembled/compiled project through Exomizer for the best data compression rate where possible. The programming phase took me about  a few days before my summer holiday started in late July 2014- mid August 2014. The result turned out quite well. The mockup levels were created using Jon Well's Multi-Screen Construction Kit. Each screen was captured and compacted using Exomizer. The Exomizer decruncher source was also implemented into the source code.

 Before the Summer. I was discussing on facebook with STE86 about this game project, (also met him at Revival 2014 in Wolverhampton, where we talked and laughed about The Last V8). He sent me some mockup screen shots of how the game really should look like. The screen mockups then become actual character sets in Char Pad form. I was struggling to build levels at first using various PC tools. They were just unsuitable. I tried another program (Element Editor). The tool did quite well for building background objects, until "An unexpected exception has occurred in your program. You may choose to continue other wise click close to shut down the program". I clicked on continue, saved the work. Rebooted the program. Tried to load the work which I did so far, and sadly lost the graphics data, due to a corrupt file (even the backup). That same message popped by again. Was there any alternative?

As a last resort I decided to go old school and construct each object manually with the aid of Jon Well's excellent Multi Screen Construction Kit utility. What would have took me too much time building levels with CharPad and single 1x1 characters, had actually increased the speed of building objects and place them on screen as tiles. This took a matter of a few days instead of weeks.16 Levels were ready to be captured and crunched.

After new graphics were finished and designed (although they don't look exactly like the original graphics mockups which Steve sent me. They look quite effective. I worked on the main game code, updating the collision settings. So that characters which represented the deadly background will kill the bee, should it collide. Also the enemies will kill the player, using the $D01E routine. This was of course used to save memory.

Level setup is called through a series of tables, in which will also set up the position, speed, behaviour and animation frame of each enemy that is set in the game. Behavior patterns vary from moving up/down, moving left/right to just floating upwards off screen or dropping downwards from the screen. This takes effect on lava rocks and floating bubbles.

There are eight different enemies in the 16KB version of this game. They vary from worms, to bugs and birds.

Then there was the additional programming concept. I needed to get the panel working. Here's how the game should be played:

The idea of this game is to guide Honey Bee through 16 different stages, picking up pollen from flowers and then drop them (at any height) into the honey well. If he picks up pollen from a flower. 10 points will be given. However he won't be able to pick any more pollen until the honey, which he is carrying gets dropped into the honey well. If he drops the honey into the well, 50 points will be scored. Should he drop the honey elsewhere, then he'll have to start the whole level again. Should all flowers hove no pollen left, and Honey Bee drops the honey into the well.  A bonus set of points will be added to your score accoring to the amount of time that remains. If the bonus counter reaches 0000, you'll simply get no bonus points.

Honey Bee has a clumsy nature, and has to watch where he is going. Should he bump into a wall, rock, falling water, nettles, or moving nature creatures, he'll get hurt and fly away. Should he fly away, a life will be lost. This game is not just about picking up plants and avoiding enemies, but it requires precise timing and planning. A sort of a puzzle game one way or another.


Progress so far reports that Honey Bee is nearly complete. There's currently 12 functional levels so far, and just 4 more to do (putting enemies in place, setting up animation, behavior and getting them to move in the last 4 levels.) Hopefully the other 4 levels will be complete by the end of next week - which will result to just the final phase testing and bug-fixing, before entering this humble bee into the RGCD 16KB Cartridge Compo 2014. WARNING. THIS GAME WILL CONSIST OF BUGS - LOADS OF THEM - NATURALLY :)

Due to the size of the data and the code. The title screen is VERY basic and consists of 2 sprites for the logo. Some credits, with nothing else happening, except for animated bees next to 'Press Fire to Start'. Crediting myself for code, Ste86 and Wayne Womersley for main graphics and sprites, and Joachim (Yogibear) for the excellent music.

Despite that my spare time is going to be cut even more from tomorrow through to Christmas time. I am still happy to announce that Honey Bee WILL get finished in time for the competition deadline. Hope you reach the bee line for 1st December 2014. The bee will be unleashed from its honeywell. Then in 2015, the game will be expanded more with additional bonus levels, a picture by JSL and of course a better presentation, game intro and game ending (Of which I was unable to fit into the 16KB version of this project).


Friday 18 July 2014

X-Force is Coming - OCTOBER 2014

18th July 2014

Over the past few weeks, I have been working on a brand new Commodore 64 space blaster called 'X-Force'. It is a horizontal scrolling shoot 'em up (SURPRISE), which will be featuring stunning graphics and level designs by Saul Cross, and also some great music, which was composed back in the 1990's by Feekzoid from a stunning Sideways SEUCK preview of Breakthrough, whereas the full game never saw the light of day. I have of course asked Jon for his kind permission if I could use Feekzoid's Breakthrough music for this game, and permission was granted by Jon, himself.

So what's this X-Force game all about then? Well, you have been held prisoner, while exploring an alien planet called 'Darx'. The aliens recaptured your X-Force fighter, and has held you prisoner in the underground world. You manage to break out of your cell, and reach for the X-Force fighter. Just as you take off to make your escape, aliens start coming after you.

The mission is to escape from the underground worlds of planet 'Darx'. Simply by using a joystick in port 2, you must guide your X-Force fighter across enemy territory, and shoot down the aliens which to to stop you. One hit at the alien, and they're gone. To be able to escape from the each underground world, you have to face an end of level guardian. It will try and stop you before it gets away. Should the boss be destroyed after enough hits, you will gain bonus points. Should you let it escape, then you get no bonus points.

The X-Force fighter can pick up podules in which will give the space craft upgraded / downgraded lasers. Depending on whether a red or green podule has been picked up. Blue ones will give the space craft a shield and the grey ones will act as mines. Touch a grey one, if not carrying a shield, and the X-Force fighter will explode. Aliens and deadly background, animated lazers will also make the player explode - unless the player's shield has been activated.

The C64 game, 'Subterrenea' by Hewson inspired me to work on this game. 'X-Force' is being produced for the Commodore Format power pack 63, which is planned to be launched some time in October 2014 and will not be release before then (Announced on Commodore Format Archive's blog). As soon as the game is finished, it should feature loads of stunning levels, to blast your way through.The game will also be available on the TND web site a week later :) Of course, the game is going to be FREE. :)

Hope to do more work on this game some time tomorrow.

WATCH THIS SPACE :)

Tuesday 8 July 2014

Darker than Light

3rd-8th July 2014

Back in January 2014. I worked on a SEUCK game co-op with Alf Yngve called "Dark Force". The challenge was originally to get a first release out for new year's day. It failed and got released later on during that month. February/March saw a re-relase of the same game, with a few extra enhancements. Only major drawback was the SEUCK slow-down syndrome... Eurgh!

Now today on 8th July 2014 before I set off to my work place. I am very pleased to reveal the that the final version of Dark Force. It is Dark Force - Redux. The whole game data was imported into the SEUCK Redux frame work, which Martin Piper supplied on github. I also did a lot of additional hard work programming this production the past 4 days. Including re-programming the new front end. Enhancing the background level settings. Here's the overall result.

- Black/Blue loading screen with loading picture and music (Music from the TND intro on the disk version 'Emotions from Heaven')
- New front end with Hi-Score table, as before, but logo had to be carefully downgraded to 3 colour logo mode, due to lack of memory space for bitmaps.
- Slight tweak of an instrument on the front end tune
- Different background colour schemes for each level
- Intelligent enemy fire (Fires bullets in the direction of where the player was last positioned).
- Most important of them all ... No more SEUCK slow-down syndrome

What originally was meant to have been an experiment with SEUCK, turned into a fun 'game inspired by 'Light Force' by FTL.

If you would like to try out the SEUCK Redux engine, then check out:

Martin's C64 Repository on Github

For the C64 game Dark Force, please visit:

The New Dimension - Download games page

Saturday 14 June 2014

Production slowed down, but at least something

14th June 2014

Production on Honey Bee has slowed down, as I don't know where I am in the project now, since new graphics are still being worked on this game. I still have the 1x1 chars to play around with to build various screens for the game, but this will take some time. Slotting 1x1 chars together to form detailed level screens is taxing. Steve has sent me a PM a long while ago and he has come up with a preview snapshot of the new status bar for Honey Bee. It looks very nice. :) I hope you all like it :)


Thursday 8 May 2014

A little bit of extraction (And example code)

8th May 2014

Well, well, well. Not much news on the Honey Bee front, as I am still waiting for some more updated graphics for it. Good news however is that I received some new game graphics for one of the screens. Bad news however - it was done in char pad as 1x1 tiles. However good news is that since the game consists of 1x1 tiles. The map screen size is one screen (40 chars across x 25 down).

I extracted the character set tile data, map data and attributes data and imported it into an ACME cross assembler source. Where single screens can be drawn through a map - then colour attributes get extracted according to the screen. I had some silly results at first, but after a third attempt - the overall result worked out quite nicely.

Now here's the source code which does this job ...

;--------------------------------------------------
;1x1 tile + colour Map extractor
;--------------------------------------------------

                            !to "extractor.prg",cbm
                            *=$2000 ;Import character set
                            !binary "hb_charset_v2.prg",,2
                          
                            *=$3000 ;Import map data (the screen matrix)
                            !binary "hb_map_v2.prg",,2
                            *=$3800 ;Import tiles data
                            !binary "hb_tiles_v2.prg",,2
                            *=$3c00 ;Import attributes (colour data)
                            !binary "hb_attribs_v2.prg",,2
                           
                            *=$c000 ;SYS49152 to execute

                            ldx #$00
loop0                   lda $3000,x ;Read map data from $3000
                            sta $0400,x ;Place on screen RAM $0400 - 256 chars
                            lda $3100,x ;Same again for next segment
                            sta $0500,x
                            lda $3200,x ;and again
                            sta $0600,x
                            lda $32e8,x ;and again
                            sta $06e8,x
                            inx
                            bne loop0
                         
                            ldx #$00
loop1                   ldy $0400,x ;Read the map on screen
                            lda $3c00,y ;Read the tile colour / attributes table
                            sta $d800,x ;Store to the C64 hardware char Colour RAM 256 times
                            ldy $0500,x ;Do the same with the next 256 chars
                            lda $3c00,y
                            sta $d900,x ;Store again ...
                            ldy $0600,x ;and again
                            lda $3c00,y
                            sta $da00,x
                            ldy $06e8,x ;and again
                            lda $3c00,y
                            sta $dae8,x
                                                    
                            inx
                            bne loop1
                          
                            lda #$18
                            sta $d018
                            sta $d016
                            lda #$0e
                            sta $d020
                            sta $d021
                            lda #$08
                            sta $d022
                            lda #$09
                            sta $d023
                            jmp *
                           
                           

                           

Thursday 24 April 2014

Busy bee!

24th April 2014

It has been a bit quiet here on the production front recently due to being extremely busy. I am still awaiting new graphics for the game.  Anyway, some more good news related to Honey Bee. I am back on track with programming of this C64 game.

Today I have been working on an indicator to check whether or not the bee has cleared all the pollen, before it can drop it. The indicator consists of the bee hive in the status bar. I programmed some subroutines which disables the player from using the fire button, if not enough plants were picked up. The fire button is then re-enabled if no pollen are in any of the flowers. The bee hive then flashes - to indicate the screen is clear. The player must then make its way to the hive, and drop the pollen into the entrance of the hive.

Although that is the actual goal. I came up with another idea. Since the player picks up the pollen and has to carry it all the way to the hive (once all flowers are empty). What if the player drops the pollen in the wrong place and loses it. I have a cunning plan. Actually it works. I added a routine, which will check whether or not the pollen is dropped inside the game area. If the player drops it where it should not fall. Then a FAIL message will appear on screen. The player will then have to start the whole level all over again, without losing any lives.

The idea works pretty well, still some more things to do. Although I got the lives counter working. I need to set up routines for the bonus time, and also the scoring counter. This will be done soon, but not today. Of course.

I am also awaiting the finalized versions of Ste's new background/charset graphics. I saw a preview of the ground/rocks graphics, and I really love them. They look stunning. Once the graphics are finished I will then be ready for level designs.

Sunday 9 March 2014

Into the 4th Hive

8th March 2014

After a successful backup and restore process on Thursday, and Friday when moving to Win 8.1 on my desktop PC. I was ready for yet another programming session. Last time, I managed to get 2 levels set up, now another 2 levels were to be built up. 

I setup the position and enemy types for levels 3 and 4. Once they were positioned, and all pointers were setup for them. I decided to work on something completely new. When enemies moved left and right. They were facing exactly the same direction as they were moving. So a major tweak was required. Frames should change if an enemy changes direction. We don't exactly want a game in which an enemy moves forwards and backwards without flipping sprite frames. A solution to this problem was built. I programmed a few subroutines, which checked if a sprite was moving left / right if it is a worm, a bird or a hornet. If the low byte of the chosen frame was stored to the actual low pointer of the frame. The subroutine should point to the correct low / hi bytes of the frame of the enemy. 

After I tested this subroutine routine, enemies moved correctly, and the frames changed correctly. No enemies look as if they are moving forwards or backwards. The all move forwards instead. I also thought about setting tables for the background colour, as I am pretty much sure that Wayne wants a different background colour according to level. Yogibear also did some sub game tunes. So I created a table that switches between two different in game tunes. 

Since I now have 4 levels set for the game, I think it is time for me to tweak the background graphics slightly more. Ste86 has given me some mock screen examples of the graphics that could be used as an update to the game. His idea is to help me as a guideline - I'm not really a GFX person :) The trees look much better than mine. So after my morning walk, and my lunch, some time tomorrow afternoon will see the design process in action.

Stay tuned

Monday 3 March 2014

Buzzing its way to Level 2

3rd March 2014

A little more work today, since I am currently on holiday (away from work) all this week, until next Tuesday, which I return. It has been hard work today working on Honey Bee, and you'll be surprised that I have gone as far as level 2. The work on this project will eventually get easier as each session progresses. :) Before I moved on with level 2, I decided to add one more enemy to the first level. So that there were three instead of two enemies. A pink little worm. Yep, this little fella is now sliding its way back and forth - although the animation which I added is still quite wrong. It looks as if the worm is doing the moon walk :) Hahahaha!

Anyway, after feeling very happy with the layout of level 1. I decided to work on fitting enemies in place for level 2. Unfortunately I had to create some more tables, as I realised I had forgotten to update starting position tables and load / store each position to default starting points, according to the level which the player was on. Good news was that it didn't take me long. After animation, behaviour and sprite start / end positions were set for Level 2. I felt there was still something missing. Background animation. So I looked up the value of the 2 characters that formed the water fall and flowing river, and animated those. The result turned out quite nicely. I was very happy with it :) The only problem I have encountered - which can be fixed later on in the project. All enemies are using one direction animation. Basically, when worms and birds are moving forwards when they should. When they change direction, the animation is still as it was before. Which makes the enemies move backwards. I do have a good trick up my sleeve anyhow later on this week. 
I also came across another strange problem. When the player starts the game on level 2, it died straight away. That was not mean't to have happened. A strange bug. To ensure that didn't make a full impact on level 2. I lowered the player slightly. Problem solved. On to level 3 during my next session on this project. If I get 4 levels working. Then I'll need to design some more stages, then add more enemies to the game. :)

Good news is that unlike Up in the Air. I am enjoying working on this game project. As I had the opportunity to build the levels my own way, although Honey Bee was Wayne's general idea. I shall take a look at some more of his designed levels, to see if they will inspire me to design a similar level using my graphics, as well as his flower heads, spider webs, etc.

The duration of this game will depend on time and motivation with it. So far I have been very motivated :)

Stay tuned for more progress blogging :)

Wednesday 26 February 2014

Let's get buzzin'

26th February 2014

NOT SEUCK THIS TIME :o)

After a few weeks back, I heard bad news about the game Honey Bee by Wayne and Prime, not getting finished. Due to a fatal computer crash. Work was destroyed, and all that remained was a playable demo with a few levels and no limit of lives. Anyway, to cut a long story short - This was almost a game which would never see the light of day after that major issue....  Until now :)

Honey Bee is under development once again, in co-op with Autumnsoft and The New Dimension. I have contacted Wayne and the other C64 people who were involved with the project and I am happy to be programming it. Of course major changes will have to be made. I discussed about this with Wayne, JSL, Wayne and Yogibear and a few others). We all agreed about making changes to the graphics, some of Wayne's sprites and graphics still can stay in the game. I made a load of major changes and created completely new graphics. The other people were happy with the result. I designed 4 stages in MSCK, and then captured the screens (for level packing in the near future). 

A couple or three weeks later, I started programming the game. Erm, hold on. Before I actually started doing the graphics, I did a bit of programming, in C64Studio which had Yogibear's tune playing, and also Wayne's bee moving in a way, similar to Prime's HoneyBee. When I did the new graphics, I created a char group, and noted down the range of chars which would have no effect, collect pollen or are considered to be deadly for the bee. Also sprite animation was put in place. Then after importing the new graphics into the game's source. I displayed the very first level (unpacked). 

I started programming of the main game engine last week on Thursday, during my day off work. Since the bee was moving already, and a test screen was in place. I started work on the sprite / char background collision. Unlike the previous version of Honey Bee, the killer chars were all over the place. See paragraph above regarding the new chars. The collision routine had to be read in 3 areas of the player's sprite. Top central, middle central and bottom central. I wanted to make the sprite/background collision to be much fair. I also added a routine that checks if all pollen chars have been removed from the current screen. If they have then a level complete tune plays. Otherwise nothing. I also added a routine which killed the bee if it touched any of the killer chars (background) which it cannot fly past (Rocks, trees, etc). The result looked quite good.

This week, I have been working on enemy movement for the game engine. I got a couple of enemies in place and they are moving up / down at this moment in time. I also worked on making checks on the behaviour for each enemy sprite. 4 sprites will be used for enemies that mover left / right, up / down (depending on the behaviour table) and 2 sprites are reserved for special hazards, e.g. poisonous bubbles, fireballs, etc.

There is still a lot of work to be done on this game, but all in all, it seems to be turning out quite well. Check this video out on what has been done so far.

Thursday 16 January 2014

Darker than Light

16th January 2014

Back in 1991, when I bought issue 11 of Commodore Format magazine, I loaded in the cover tape and was hooked to a classic game called "Light Force" by Hewson. Anyway, travelling to the future, to the end of the year 2013. I remembered doing some huge enhancements for a SEUCK game by Anthony Burns called "The Huntress of Midgard". I had another idea. I set myself a challenge, in which was to write a new C64 game within one week, using the Shoot Em Up Construction Kit, and a bit of additional programming. So I could have the first ever C64 game launched in 2014. - Mission failed. Eventually I got the game finished 2 weeks LATER :)

 


I was thinking about which sort of game I could work on during the week's project. I decided "Light Force" was a perfect candidate for this challenge. So I used the SEUCK to design the game, graphics, Goat Tracker to write the music, but the result didn't turn out too well. The game was just too short, and the attack waves were pretty naff. I also ran out of units for the enemy sprites. Fortunately, when I showed the work to Alf Yngve, he stepped in to tweak and improve the game, which took about a week or so. The overall result last Friday was stunning. All I had to do were add the final touches to the game, including the front end and hi-score routines, a certain amount of generators detected (As the game has 2 endings, as you will see). This took about 2 or 3 days or so. The result turned out pretty well, and finally the game is finished and released:


You can check the game out for yourself at http://tnd64.unikat.sk 

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