Cruiser X-79 - Update #10

19th August 2017

More action has been taking place today. First of all, Saul suggested that I should reduce the animation speed for the aliens and also the explosion. Basically double the delay of the animation. Also I had a go at setting up level pointers, where after each level advances, the game sets up the next level settings. For example, pick out the chosen alien type, formation, level colour scheme, etc. I tried compressing a test level map, using Exomizer, then imported it into the source code 16 times, to set each level. Sadly this trick didn't work and caused a memory overflow.

In order to solve this issue. I have decided to make this game multi-load based. This means that after 1 level is complete, the disk or tape image should load the next game file.There is just not enough memory for me to place even 8 level compressed versions of test maps that exceed $0300 bytes (Compressed). I will make sure disk loading will also be SDIEC compatible as well. Tape version is intended to be mastered using Freeload or the Thunderload Multi-Load companion tool.

You will notice a slight difference in the game during this test video of cheat mode below.  :)

Cruiser X-79 Update #9

13th - 18th August 2017

Not much happened on the game programming front, but at least I made an effort to do something for the production. While I was away from this project for a few weeks or so, I recently received some new graphics for the game. It wasn't more levels, but graphics for a new front end. Saul Cross designed a great new logo for the title screen. So what happened this week? I programmed a front end and bolted it to the game, itself. Hope you like the result.

While I am waiting for the new level maps, I will be working on the order of alien attack patterns according to levels, and of course re-use the test level's map and setup different colour schemes for each level. Each alien attack pattern consists of 26 bytes, so hopefully I should have enough memory to store compressed levels of each map, then extract each level to address $4800-$5800 (since $5800 is the start address of the game's code). Each level should not exceed 320 4x4 blocks in height, as at the end of the 320th block row a level complete is automatically detected. :)

For now, here's the result of the title screen - although it is not official at the moment :) Enjoy the video.