A day to remember - Revival 2013

Saturday 18th May 2013

(No photos of the event unfortunately. Here's some screen shots of some stuff I was talking about)

Weekends, I am usually slaving away programming or composing music for either my amusement of having fun. On Sundays-Fridays, I just work, work, work at a high pressured order picking/packing job at a local DC. Whereas on a Thursday I chill, and drink up the local pub. As the stressful week reached its end, it was time for a little break from all that today. I got up at 6:50am in the morning. Showered and got myself ready to go off from my local home town to Birmingham New Street station. Then bought myself a ticket and caught the 9:15am train to Wolverhampton (Not far from where my uncle lives). After I got on to the train. I relaxed for 25 minutes. Well, wasn't really relaxing - I was quite nervous. Worried about getting myself lost.

I got to the train station in Wolverhampton, and I started to make my way to the venue in Gorsebrook Road. I was relieved to discover that the venue wasn't all that difficult to find. It was just down the road from the Wolverhampton city centre. I got to the venue, and queued up. There were so many colourful and cheerful characters and children looking forward to enter Revival 2013. Although there was quite a longish queue. We didn't have to wait too long for entry. After getting my hand stamped. I saw the first part of the venue. At the main entrance were 9 big TV/Monitor screens - featuring 9 different classic games. The games were from the classic consoles, such as: The NES (Mario), SEGA Megadrive (Sonic), Atari (Asteroids) and a few other colourful games.

As I entered the complex  even further, I was very amazed to see my milestone of 2008, "Sub Hunter" on one of the displays. It was the Psytronik Amstrad CPC version. I had a go at playing the game on a real Amstrad. The computer brings me memories of visiting my uncle (during my childhood, and teenage years). I always wanted to see my uncle - for the sake of playing his games he bought on the Amstrad. Unfortunately because he was footy mad, there were a load football simulators - He did have other things, such as R-Type and a few other titles.

As well as the Amstrad CPC, I spotted "Flimbo's Quest" on the screen. I thought to myself - That must be the "Commodore 64" version of the game. Can it? It was ... but not on a C64 computer, but on a C64 Game System. There was a Commodore 64C in the venue which had Endurion's arcade adventure game called "Wonderland". A pretty nice game. The stand where the C64 was monitored by Jason. Not too far from the distance was an SX 64. A portable computer, with built in screen - that ran on Commodore 64 disks. On display was the stunning RGCD 16KB Cartridge Compo 2011 game, "C64Anabalt". A very amazing remake of the classic flash game Canabalt.

There were more things to see and explore. When I entered the main hall. It was full of colourful consoles and characters. A load of classic computers were ones I never even heard of. Other machines were quite familiar. I wouldn't forget the BBC ACORN Microcomputer. Back in the eighties when I was in infant/junior school. I checked out the back end of the room. There was an old style Commodore 64 there, with a true classic gem of a game. Loaded from real tape. "Thrust" by Firebird Software. An absolutely fantastic original game.  I gave the game a go before I walked back to the entrance.

I got to the entrance to the big room where Kenz was standing and we had a friendly chat about "Cops". I also talked about one of my scrapped projects. He was happy to hear about the project being scrapped. I decided to get myself a drink. As I felt very thirsty. I got to the bar, and bought a drink. Tried to order some food, for lunch a bacon bap. Unfortunately the food I requested had ran out. Alternatively, I just had 2 packets of ready salted crisps. I am a fussy eater you know :)

After having a drink and two packets of crisps. I went back into the main hall again, to check out more of the machines. Played games - and did rubbish in them. I then visited a stall and looked at the Commodore 64 tapes that were for sale at the event. WOW, Commodore 64 tapes being sold at an expo. AWESOME. Well, not quite. As the majority of games which were on sale were games which I already had (and still have). Anyway, I bought 4 tapes for £5.00. The games of which were SDI (Hit Squad), APB (Hit Squad), Noterraqueous (Mastertronic) and Raster Runner (Mastertronic Plus). Then I went to play more fun classic games (And more Commodore 64 of course).

I went back to Kenz's stall and C64 legend, Steve Day was the (STE'86). We had discussions about loading screens and had loads of laughs about one picture in particular, which was released on CSDB. I won't reveal what the picture was, or who was responsible, but that was a barrel of laughs.Yet again I disappeared and bought myself a pint of Fosters' then watch the Ocean Experience interview. Yes, the guys formly from Ocean Software were at the event. The guys all talked about what their experience was like back in the 1980's at Ocean. How it was relaxing - compared to how people have to work in the UK today. They also mentioned about the equipment and software they programmed the games with. Also a bit about "Total Recall", "Operation Wolf" and how they didn't like movie crossovers. Although I was standing at the back of the queue for 45 minutes or so. I was desperate to have a sit down. After the seminar had finished, I walked back to the bar and bought myself a cup of tea. Paul Drury from Retro Gamer came to the venue and said "It's the C64 programmer, who still makes games today". He asked if I have brought any of my made games to the show this time?. I sad "No, not this time, sorry!".

I went back to Jason's stand, played a few games and left a few surprises. Yep, RICHARD TND was entered on the high score table of ... Woolly Jumper. I was indeed playing my own C64 game on his C64. I bet he still didn't know it was me. I went back to Kenz's stand and said. I've been leaving a few surprises on Jason's stand. We both laughed. We then started talking about future projects, and Alf Yngve and how amazing he adds new ideas into SEUCK. Then I program some of the ideas. I also mentioned that I learned this stuff by helpful SEUCK tips by Jon Wells. I also talked about the latest game, which was released on my web site about a week ago called "Bank Run". (A game of West Bank, using SEUCK).

I took a walk around the venue again and saw something funny but very amazing. It was huge screen full of LED lights. Each light formed  two objects, and one formed the ball. It was "LED PONG". I think you may have remembered the classic arcade game don't you :) No? If not, where the heck have you been? I went round the arcade machines and played on some of those. Then back to the C64 (The 1541 Ultimate was plugged in this time). It was a bigger session this time. I had some time to play 3 or 4 games, until someone wanted to play something on the machine. I played "Terra Cresta", "R-Type" and "Alleykat". Three classic games. I also noticed my old games were on the SD card, but didn't bother to load those in. Someone wanted to load in "Thrust" from the tape deck. So they did that. While the tape was loading, I talked about the tape loader which was used in the game. I watched how "Thrust" was played. The way that guy was playing "Thrust", I learned something new. To gain bonus points, constantly shoot the nuclear power station and escape before time runs out :)

I went back to Jason's stall, where Kenz and Steve Day were here. After all those little surprises. The big surprise was revealed. The real Richard Bayliss meet Jason for the first time :). We all laughed, and then the serious talking started. It was about projects. Jason showed me some WIP stuff and we all agree that incomplete projects equals lack of time or motivation. Mainly due to real life/work, etc. Steve was then discussing about one particular controversial picture that was uploaded on CSDB. We all discussed bizarre things about picture. Then afterwards talked about Art Packages on the C64. Paint Magic, OCP Art Studio (If I'm right). Then I mentioned about when I first had my C64, it came with "The Image System". I mentioned how difficult it was. We all agreed - Image System was rubbish.  There were other discussions and some very funny ones as well :) I was amused at the fact that one of my all time favourite shoot 'em up games, was technically not one of the BEST shoot 'em ups for the C64. We could have discussed more, but I decided to go for a walk round again to see if there was anything I missed.

After my walk and I went for a final drink, I walked back and saw someone else from the C64 world was with Kenz. It was one of the workers of Ocean Software. We talked and had a bit of a laugh. I mentioned about how I first got involved with the C64. The number of C64s I had, and why I always been using the C64 since 1990. It was because it was part of my inner youth. I loved the C64 from day 1 and very happy to keep using it today. Sadly my day had finished a Revival 2013. It was time for me to set off, get some tea then catch the train and bus home. Then face a daay of sheer depression - Work!

For me, Revival was a big event to have remembered. Also the best thing that happened to me so far this year. If the event occurs in Wolverhampton next year. I will most definitely come. This time for 2 days - and hopefully - bring a new game this time.

The Cops Strike Back

9th May 2013

If you remember buying Commodore Force, and ZZap 64. You may have remembered Alf Yngve's Public Domain SEUCK games called Cops and Holiday Cops. Well, you'll be surprised to hear that planned over the past 2 or 3 years, was the "Ultimate Cops" series. In which was to feature enhanced versions of all of the COPS games, which Alf wrote back in time. Well, good news is that the overall project will be seeing the light of day soon with thanks to myself, Alf and Psytronik Software.

I have been very busy the past few weeks (or months) working on this compilation - which should have been produced a very long time ago. Anyway, what did I do for the games? Cops, Holiday Cops have brand new front ends and in game enhancements with music. All 3 games here will be featured on side 1 of the disk. Where as on side 2 is the last ever episode of the Cops series, "Cops the Final Chapter". The story sees Mike 'Mad Dog' McTavish, and Singh 'Big Bang' Kapoor about to be facing retirement. Bad news was that a criminal gang blew up a high security prison, and set one of the most evil criminals 'Maledict I' on the loose.  The commissioner called on Mike and Singh to recapture 'Maledict' in one of the biggest arcade adventures (Split into 3 parts). The game also features additional enhancements such as game options, in game music and also power ups, and background char animation. The overall result gives the game a commercial appeal.

A tape version for Psytronik is finished now. (I think), with a huge thank you to Mase for his awesome loading picture. I did a loading tune specially for this series. Which I feel suits the tape loader pretty nicely. Since the second part of  "Cops the Final Chapter". Although the mastering was complete. I felt that the disadvantage was that I tried to make the tape mastering system *much easier* so that after mastering one main file, it automatically loads the next file. Sadly this method failed as it interfered with the tape mastering code. So rather than just messing about with the code for the tape mastering. I created separate tape masters - which must be loaded straight after the tape mastering was complete (Sorry Kenz). A disk menu for the disk version is still under development, but should be ready in time for the end of this weekend. Mainly due to no major plans this coming weekend. So fingers crossed, the compilation should be ready. Then on to Shoot Em Up Destruction Set #3 (Another 5 new unseen Alf Yngve games compilation).

Stand by your Llamas - The Alpacalypse is coming

4th February 2013

Stand by your Llamas. Engage defences as an Alpacalypse is coming - well, near your Commodore 64 and WinVice of course. I have been very busy the past few weeks (despite problems on get graphics in place) bringing yet a sequel to the Jeff Minter tribute "Sheepoid". It's called "Sheepoid DX". It is a fun cute game inspired by the classic Laser Zone, which Jeff wrote back in the early 1980's. Compared to Laser Zone, Sheepoid DX is somehow different. Especially when on later levels, the aliens start moving diagonal directions. One sheep would have to defend the other.

Sheepoid DX consists of 24 levels, in which the world is under threat of an alien invasion - or to put it another way an Alpacalypse. Two sheep have been transported into a incoming mother ship. A funny discovery was made, that there are 24 different neon vortexes, which give a strange vision for the sheep. One sheep is placed at the bottom of the screen, and another is placed on the far right. They have to defend themselves from ongoing invaders of each zone, simply by bleating pulse waves at them - so the aliens get destroyed. The player can also rescue sheep to gain smart bombs, those get activated with the space bar. The player's sheep has to try and avoid shooting the incoming sheep. If those poor little blighters get shot, 1000 points gets deducted from your score. No matter how far you get, it can be possible to end up with a very low score if you keep shooting the sheep.

Unlike the original Sheepoid. This game is more polished, with amazing graphics by Trevor Storey. The front end presentation looks similar to the original title screen from the first Sheepoid. The game has some better features installed. I still added the scrolling void in each neon vortex, but Trevor did amazing level graphics, which I am sure you would love a lot in this version of the game. I also removed the witty captions to make way for a better effect. The lazer beams. These are to make it look as if each invader is entering the vortex.

There are still some old Yak style favourites such as the camels (They still roam level 2 of this game), the Ancipital goat type of creature, but the majority of the enemies are completely different compared to the original Sheepoid.

I had a laugh with some of the ideas I wanted to implement into Sheepoid DX. I thought it would be quite funny to add a funny phrase for engaging a hidden cheat into the game (That was yesterday). I also had some fun playing around making music and sound effects using a music editor I had never used before. SidWizard in fact. SidWizard's awesome. So if you want to be a C64 composer, I recommend that you try it.

Well, the main game of Sheepoid DX is finished (I hope) and it is just the final mastering to finish off. I'm releasing this along with Woolly Jumper, hopefully via Psytronik Software and RGCD in a month's time or possibly over that period. It will be worth the wait I can promise you.


There are

Sheep VS Aliens

17th January 2013

I have been mighty busy today with a project for RGCD. Not much will need programming. The changes are more on a graphics front. Back in 2011 I released a game called "Sheepoid". Also I did Sheepoid 2 - Woolly Jumper. Well, since we are in the subject of sheep. I was asked if I could make a much nicer version of Sheepoid last year. Well, good news is that Sheepoid will be updated. RGCD's Woolly Jumper was originally planned for a release on cartridge, but I decided to work on Sheepoid DX as an extra for it. Of course I'll be launching Woolly Jumper (with the new jump) on disk / tape for Psytronik Software along with this game.

So then, what changes are going to be made? For a start off, all existing graphics will be replaced with brand new ones. Smila has provided me with some mockups of levels and new graphics for sprites and text charsets. This really impressed me. The major drawback during last week was that. I have been banging my head trying to build tiles out of the existing character sets converted. I never have been good with jigsaws :). Good news is that I have managed to build elements/tiles and I have started building the new level screens today. I managed to get 5 level screens built using Endurion's Element editor. A tool, which was originally created for him to build and develop elements for his game Soulless. The tool eventually got released, and can be useful for anyone wanting to design levels using additional sized tiles/elements. Basically a PC style Multi Screen Construction Kit :)

As you may know like all other projects, this project is going to be a very slow process - due to that I am always losing free time due to the 12-8 work pattern. Hopefully when Sheepoid DX is finished, it should look neat. Anyway, here's a little mockup I have made to show you what the game is intending to look like :)

This is only a mockup. No actual screen in place of source or altered code yet.

Bet you got square eyes :)

9th January 2013

Back in 2010 I wrote my first ever tape loader game for the C64 (Cool). That game was called "Moo-Tilation". It was a funny shoot 'em up game, in which you had to defend your hapless cows from being abducted by aliens. In the late 2011 I wrote yet another C64 loader game, called "Happy Blocks", inspired by one of the games I played on FB. HB was a game in which you shift your block, having to avoid getting smashed by the falling blocks. The game required a lot of action.

So then. If you remember those two games quite well. There's a new kid in town. Back in 2007 I wrote a game for a demo group, Civitas called "Square Pit 64" now it's back once again, resurrected as a tape loader game with a slightly new look and a different Euro-disco style tune. I originally planned to rip the original Square Pit 64 game source and implement it into the loader. Unfortunately, I had some problems doing exactly that, so I decided to quickly program the game from scratch, with the aid of the existing resources. I originally was going to go for a techno/trance style theme for the game. Where every time the drum kick came on screen, the screen flashed. I decided not to bother at the end, as the result turned out quite bad.

Instead, I added some pulsating flash routines on to all of the sprites, apart from the small square (Which will stay as white). I also added a fitting track into the source, and tested the game inside an IRQ interrupt. Seemed to have worked quite nicely, but there appeared to have been something wrong. I noticed the scores were placed in the wrong place after a new game was started. I soon fixed that problem. Finally the game was working. So now it was time to remove the IRQ interrupts, and link the game to the Thunderload tape loader.

The biggest mistake I noticed in 2012 was that Thunderload Series Six loader never was compressed, because I had to keep on changing the scroll text and tunes for it. Well, this time round, I decided to compress Square Pit, using Exomizer's level compression mode. Then assemble a decruncher source from the Exomizer, itself. I had to use DASM for this. After assembly and compression and linking the decruncher to the compressed source, I linked the final build to the tape loader source. I altered the LoaderGame init address to call the decruncher routine (Which I placed at $5000) and the set the play address at where the main loops in the game occurred. I altered the batch file to build the .tap using SQUAREPIT.PRG instead. I picked a program to be loaded after the loader game, as a test guinea pig, which was of course "Trance Sector". I tested the tape loader system and it worked a treat :)

Here's a video of the tape loader in action.

Back on track again ...

25th November 2012 (Some good news about Amazon Tales)

Yesterday I was stuck on the enemy shooting and felt that there was no way I would be able to get out of the mess. I also thought that I could end up withdrawing my entry for the 2012 16KB Cartridge Competition. Later on before I went out. I came across an idea ... Why have a huge list of tables where you can easily get yourself lost - and simplify programming the shooting routine - To check whether or not the enemy object is a Pygmy, Monkey or anything else that was supposed to shoot.

Well, I put my theory to the test, and tried programming a small routine for each enemy (Can easily be expanded) to check whether the enemy sprites are the objects hoping to be placed in the game, and I also set the firing direction of the chosen enemies. Guess what happened then? It worked :). I was over the moon that the tasks I made were successful today. Now that part of the shooting phase was out of the way, I worked on a few more in game routines. The first one of which will display Get Ready and Game Over sprites for the levels. When I played the game with the enemies shooting - it was hard to play. So it was time for me to simplify things a little.

I programmed a little routine in which allowed the player to have protection for a short period of time. This occurs at the start of a level - or after a life has been lost. It was also to minimize the chance of a multiple loss of lives after one enemy or bullet kills the player and the player gets re-spawned in exactly the same position it died.

Now that was a good result :) Here's a video (with a crappy temporary title screen) of the game in action with the new features.

Since things are now looking quite positive. A submission of Amazon Tales is highly likely for RGCD's 16KB cartridge game compo, this Thursday.

A week of disaster

20th - 24th November 2012

Over the week or so. The enemy movement patterns were being worked on. I thought that things were looking pretty good for this part of the project. Unfortunately I ended up getting myself completely lost with the enemy tables, and their behavior. I programmed a routine to allow certain enemies to shoot, according to their behavior table. The shooting turned into a big disaster. Wrong enemies were shooting, and on level 3 the enemy tables didn't work right. Perhaps I missed entering one or two of the values of the element for one of the enemies. Because of this fault the entire enemy table turned into a complete disaster.

I was hoping to get a 16KB cartridge version of the game finished this week in time for RGCD's 16KB cartridge competition. Unfortunately the overall result turned sour. Therefore, due to lack of time - because of work. I have made a decision that I shall withdraw my entry from the competition I am aware that it is very easy to fix, but it unfortunately takes a long time to process. The enemy tables will have to be restarted from scratch. That will probably take another 2 weeks. I am still determined to get this game finished, but sadly not in time for the RGCD cartridge compo.

Update 25/11/2012
After the success of fixing the problem with the enemy shooting, and nearly past the half way mark with this project. There is a positive side that there could actually be an RGCD 2012 entry of this game. I think it is possible that some of the elements will have to be ignored for the game, until after the competition entry has been submitted. Additional elements such as a high score table, a decent ending, etc. will have to wait longer. 

You Cheeky Monkey

15th-19th November 2012

Despite having less free time last week, I've gained more free time this week in the mornings, before my 12-8 shifts (Friday 10-6). I still have Thursday and Saturday free. Last week through to today I have been working really hard on setting the enemy movement pattern for the game.Mainly by creating byte tables to represent the enemy object type, start position (X and Y), movement speed, direction and their proposed behavior patterns. 

So far I have gone as far as the beginning of level 2 - but other levels seem to be somewhat shorter to play - but those will be a lot harder. Especially when I add the mean deadly spiders into that stage. So hopefully as soon as all enemies are in place, I can start getting them to shoot and have more of a proper game by next week.

Today, I added a new enemy to the second level. Take a guess what that one is? ... That's right it's a cheeky monkey. My target is to get all enemies in place by Friday, (I have all day Thursday and Saturday this week). I can work on the shooting tactics for the enemies, and also add some additional game play and a quick front end. Sadly it looks as if the game will not be 100% finished for the RGCD game compo, but who knows what could happen next week?

ATTACK!

10th - 11th November 2012

With the deadline coming closer, and closer. A lot of work is required to be done for Amazon Tales. I'm not too sure whether or not I will meet the deadline for the 16KB cart compo, due to extended hours at work - through to Christmas (Reducing my free time even more). I will try my best to get Amazon Tales ready in time for 30th November, but cannot really promise anything spectacular.

Yesterday I have been working on some additional routines and also behaviour tables for each of the enemies. Each byte in the behaviour table has a different type of behaviour for the enemies. They vary from moving up and down at the bottom part of the screen, or the top part of the screen. Or shoot a bullet at a certain direction. I didn't get round to getting the enemies to shoot yet, as I wanted to concentrate more on the attack movement speed, and position. I got myself lost with this attack wave thing yesterday, so I had to rewrite the position and speed tables to how they were beforehand.

Today I have been working on getting level 1's enemies positioned. At the start of the game we originally had four enemies moving across the screen (Two going a different direction). To make things easier for the first level, I updated the tables, where at the start, you have 2 enemies to attack, then the number gradually increases it. I also got the great big tigers to move up and down via the behaviour patterns. This worked quite nicely :)

On Wednesday/Thursday, I shall be working on adding enemies to level 2 (The dark forest), which will include the monkeys at a certain height. Introduce another new enemy, then as the week progresses, work on the remaining four levels. 

The Player Dies at the End

6th November 2012

Don't mistake yourself with Alf Yngve's latest Sideways SEUCK masterpiece, which I released on the TND web site on Wednesday last week. Nope. This is basically a blog update about what I have been doing this morning. Well, yesterday, I got the enemies to die when the player throws an object at them. Now today I did the opposite.

The Player Dies at the End by Alf Yngve

A few days ago, I got the collision registers programmed in (The usual box collision register). Yesterday was the bullet/enemy sprite. Today was the enemy/player sprite. I first added subroutines to check whether or not each enemy hits the player and test flash the player - if a collision was spotted. The routine sort of worked, but I thought about making a loop for all deadly objects to collide in any area to the player's sprite's X-Y axis. :) That was much shorter, compared to repetitive comparing values for each sprite. It worked quite nicely as well.

Now that I got the player's sprite to change colour when an enemy collides into it. I worked on building a routine that will check for the player, to see if it was already dead. Followed by adding a routine to do the actual death animation. All worked fine, and the player can die.

The player lies dead, after being bitten by a jungle snake

There were just two more things to be added to the shooting and death routines. Which were to add points to an enemy killed, and also a lives subtraction counter. I got those to work fine. Next came playing the GAME OVER jingle after a life has been lost. I was going to get the player to have a short term protection (flash) but I with the short amount of time I had, I didn't get round to it. So Thursday is a possibility. I might be taking a little break from programming tomorrow. We'll have to wait and see.



The game's engine seems to quite positive, but I can be sure that things WILL eventually turn much better when this Thursday or Saturday, I will be adding some more extra routines to enable some of the enemies to shoot - according to what object they are. Followed by additional behaviour of enemies. Some will walk across the screen in a straight line. Some will move up and down while slowly moving across. Some will shoot, and some will have interesting and quite impressive features.) More about it when I get round to doing exactly that.

Give it some POW

5th November 2012

As I said yesterday, from now through to the deadline. I am going to committing my free time available in the mornings (before work) to get this project finished. Mainly because the deadline for the 16KB cartridge compo is getting closer and closer.

Yesterday, I got the player to shoot at the enemies, and kill the enemies. Now today, I did some more to the shooting routine. The player shoots bullets but the enemies had no death animation whatsoever. Alf also didn't supply me with a proper death animation for the enemies. So I drew a POW style explosion sprite, consisting of 2 frames. Then I created a subroutine which will animate the explosion sprite on the player bullet, if an enemy is killed.

Well, that routine was quite effective. However, I noticed a small bug in which turned the player's bullet pink an displayed that for a short time while flashing the explosion. To resolve this problem, I altered the sprite settings so that the bullet sprite is NOT available until after the explosion has finished and the bullet sprite has been homed.

Wammo - Take that you dangerous creature!

The last thing I did today (since time was pressing on) was correct the settings for the sprites. (Big tigers) so that they are linked together correctly, and also the player can only shoot if the fire button is pressed, and not held.

My next task will be to get the scoring to work, enable the enemy/player collision and then get the player to die and lose lives.But that can wait until tomorrow morning. As I have to get ready and go and work 12pm-8pm soon.

Hopefully on Thursday, during my day off work  I can get the enemies ready for all of the levels. Then work on enemy shooting (As I want monkeys throwing stuff at the player, the pygmy's firing darts and spear throwing guards as well.

I think although the free time I have is too short (due to 12-8 shifts in a busy warehouse) I am feeling quite positive that I can reach the deadline for this a 16KB version of this game project.

Let me at 'em!

4th November 2012

It's been a small session on Amazon Tales today, but the game engine's getting around quite well although pretty slowly. I feel I should commit a lot of free time on this during the upcoming 3 weeks or so, due to the deadline for the RGCD 16KB cartridge game competition, which is looming closer, and closer. Since last week's major problems. 

So then what was done today? You may ask. Well, for a start off, now that I am aware of the correct table settings I decided to do two things today. Well, actually 3 things. First of all, I wanted to make the game feel pretty fair - regarding the enemies, when they are on screen. I wanted to check to see whether or not a sprite had left the screen. If it did then it is classed as an offset. I created a few pointers to check whether any enemies are not offset. If not all enemies are offset, then they can move. However, if all enemies are offset, the next group of enemies come on screen. Basically, I check to see if the X position (even when enemies are inside the border) equal the end area - they are classed as being offset. I also had to update the enemy movement routine by stripping out the small loop, and expanding the code. Mainly for setting the offset values per enemy's X-position.

Purple rainforest - Getting darker as your progress

Finally, we wanted to get more of a game feeling to this project, so I worked on the sprite/sprite collision settings. For now, I used the usual box collision routine (as I don't know the pixel perfect collision very well). I typed in the collision routine for each enemy (as this will be expanded later on for scoring points). Where if a bullet hits an enemy object, that enemy will be off the screen. Also for now, I repositioned the bullet as well. So nothing special is happening at the moment. Hopefully when the death animation is set some time later on this week. We'll have more of a game. :)

Table of Errors!

1st November 2012

What a day! A stupid one in fact for Amazon Tales. Last week I spent hours setting up the low byte and high byte pointers of the data tables. Unfortunately when I was doing more programming to get the routines to work. It was just a plain waste of time. After completing the routines to set the low and high byte of the level table to read. The enemy sprites were all over the place, and enemies had their mind of their own. I tried different methods, and was totally fed up and decided to have my lunch. Looks like I'm really going to be stuck on this problem. 

After fuelling myself with some ham sarnies and a cup of tea, I was still concerned about the problem in the program. I went back upstairs to find out if I could solve this issue. I looked at the code, and thought carefully to myself. THIS IS BOGUS - THIS CODE DOESN'T WORK AND THERE IS NO NEED FOR THAT ROUTINE. DOH!. There has to be a more simpler way to get the sprites working according to level. Well, a solution came up. I should have done that in the first place. How embarrassing ;o). I solved the problem, simply by removing the low byte/hi byte tables for each level, and just reproduced the same level table for level 1 - it also saved a bit of memory as well. I also set the enemy pointer values to read 126 bytes from each table. It is now up to me to put new sprite pointers/objects into different tables. (21 bytes x 6 levels per table).

When I progress further adding more varied enemies to the game this Saturday, I might be able to snip the table down even more. Hopefully next week I should be ready to add sprite/sprite collision, and also a small routine that will not cycle through the the next batch of enemies. Until all enemy sprites are offset. :)

Enter the tiger

18th October 2012

Today's session on Amazon Tales took a while to work on - especially for the first level. But things are starting to shape up quite nicely. I worked on creating more enemy tables for varying the different types of enemies on screen. Although the result still doesn't look correct and the movements are too plain, I have a few tricks up my sleeve this coming Saturday. I also added a new enemy (which consists of sprites), which are the big tigers. :)

It took me a few hours to think about and work on the new extended tables for the sprite animations, start position, movement, etc but so far a not bad result. Check out our latest video showing the progress of the game so far :)