Let the INVASION Commence [PART 2]

8th-12th July 2016

Last time when I was working on this little game project I was working on the main game framework. Well, now, a little more work has been done over the previous 2 or 3 days during my spare time. Unfortunately things will go pretty much quiet for just over 2 weeks or so (That cannot really be helped!). Anyway, here's what has happened this time round.

After testing the main game engine, and felt much more happier with it. I decided to do a spot of music and SFX composing. So in order to do this. I used Goat Tracker. As the music editor can also support sound effects with music. Considering that when I produce the title screen in the near future. I will want 3 different options, the player can choose for sound (and music). They are: Music, Music + SFX, or SFX Only. It took me a couple of hours or so to think and compose a tune I wanted to make for the game. I decided to stick to the melodic trance type of theme, and ended up with a pretty stunning result. Sound effects were created and converted to source code. Then I generated the byte tables for each sound effect in order to implement into the game's code.
The next job was to sort out the scoring system. So I implemented the score in a multiple of 10 points. Aliens of a certain type will score 10 points, some 20, and also some 30 points. I also been working on subroutines, in which will fade alien colours to a darker RGB, before it can be killed. This will be taking effect on later levels. Earlier levels will start with the basics, from having less aliens, to having them all on screen. The idea for each level is to eventually have alien colours lighter on some aliens - Making the player have to shoot more than just one shot at the alien. I am also considering to so something like a 'Special Power Up' alien. In which an alien appears in an unusual colour. Should it get shot, the player could have faster firepower, or even faster movement. This idea is currently on the drawing board, but should it happen. Then it would probably make things a whole lot better. Levels should have varied alien speed - where later levels are much more faster. I will also need to vary the bullet speed.

Finally, graphics ... A background has been designed and created, although it isn't really a final background design. There are still some minor issues, but yet again, it is still just for testing. The score charset also has some minor pixel bugs, which will be fixed at the end of the main game. Here is a preview snapshot of the game's progress.

Things to do next:

Probably in about just over 2 weeks time, I intend to tidy up the code, and get those aliens moving the full screen, rather than part screen (Although sprites are being used for this). The trick will be to check if an alien at each end is alive or not. If an alien on the very left or right on all 5 rows dead, then the next alien sprite should be able to reach the edge of the screen before moving downwards.

Also there is the front end with game options to work on. The idea for the new front end will be to do something pretty much spectacular. Also give out the scoring system for each alien shot.

Then there are also the levels to setup as well. In which the invaders will appear on different lines, and perhaps as different colours as well. This idea is to give some variety into this game.

I might even do an option where the player can choose between a solid sprites, or checkered sprites. 

Let the INVASION commence [PART 1]

4th July 2016 - 9th July 2016

This week, has been quite an active week. Especially after wondering what to do for a small future game project. During my childhood, through to now. I always enjoyed Retro Games, and 'Space Invaders' was one of my all time favourite games in the arcades. Well, that's it. I'll code my own 'Space Invaders' type of game. ... BUT WITH A DIFFERENCE. :).

Many C64 Space invaders games used either 1X2 or 2X2 char sets.  There were some great classic remakes of this game. Take for example 'Invaders 64' by LiveWire, for example. It used 1x2 char sets for the invaders, but the game was pretty much slow and too easy. There was also Firebird Software's "Arcade Classics". Another stunning collection of simple arcade classics, by Ubik. The Space Invaders game was great. It used 3x2 charsets (if I worked that out right). What about my Space Invaders? ... I always hated coding charset movements and got into loads of scrapes with it. So, as an alternative. I decided to go with SPRITES.

Behold the beginning of a new C64 project called:

LET'S INVADE

First steps: Sprites

For the first part of the little project, I booted up Sprite Pad. I drew some sprites for the player ship, the player's bullet, 2 frames for the aliens and also the player and alien explosion sprites. I also created the GAME OVER text using sprites as well. I generated .PRG files for the game project.

Next step: Charsets

For the main game, I want to be able to use a 2x2 charset for the text and scoring panel. So, I loaded up Cuneiform, and designed a hires-character set.




Big leap: Coding

The next step was to program the game. For this little project, I decided to use Notepad++ with KickAssembler and Exomizer plugins. This would make my game development a whole lot easier. The user of MACRO commands inside KickAssembler, also makes my C64 coding life a whole lot better as well. I programmed the game by generating multiple interrupts that can display 1 sprite for the player, bullet and alien bullets. As you know the Commodore 64 can limit itself to 8 sprites by default. If I had just 8 sprites in this game, it would have been too boring :). I wanted 25 sprites for the aliens. In order to do this, I had to use multiple rasters through an interrupt. Basically the so-called 'Fake-Multiplexor'.

After getting all of the sprites to display, the next task was to get the aliens moving. In order to get the aliens moving, I created a timer in which controls a delay of the alien movement. Then after the delay timer has reached a set interval, a subroutine is called to flip the alien sprite animation. Once an alien reaches the end of the screen area, a raster position moves down 8 pixels, forcing the aliens to move down. Then alien movement swaps direction.

Now aliens were able to move left/right and drop down a row, etc. The next step was to have an active player and bullet moving. The player gets controlled using a joystick plugged into port 2. Eventually, I might also add a keyboard control for player controls. Pressing fire tests the player's bullet. If the player bullet is still active, then another bullet cannot be shot until after the bullet has left the screen.

The tricky bit was setting up the collision for aliens to player bullet. I needed to set the sprite/alien collision, according to the sprite position, raster position, and check whether or not the alien is dead or not. I didn't want to type in the same code for collision checks 25 times (1 listing per object). So in order to solve this problem, I generated a macro command. After assembling, and running the collision code, it did sort of work, but for some strange reason I had two rows of aliens hit at the same time. It turned out to be a problem with the raster position, and wrong rows set. This problem eventually got solved and the bullets hit the aliens respectively.

The next step was to set the alien bullet drop. For the aliens to be able to drop the bullets, we don't want the aliens to be dead. That would be silly. To solve this problem a small routine was generated in order to check whether or not the alien on a certain raster line is dead. If it is, then keep on randomizing the timer until an active alien is available to drop a bullet.

Nearly getting the main engine of the game sorted out. The aliens need to be able to hit the player ship. Should the aliens hit the player, a life should be lost. At the moment, I just set an infinite loop to completely flash the border while destroying the aliens. There's a bit more work to be done, but here's the first video of the work done so far on this little summer game project.

Note: This version of the game test has player/alien collision disabled. The music featured in this game isn't the final tune either. Since I originally wrote it for the ending of a previous game. The game will have music of the the same style. As well as a charset background behind the aliens in the near future. I think a shadowed city background might be quite nice. Or perhaps a 2x2 tiled style animation? ... Since the game is using 2x2 charsets for text. There should be enough space for some additional characters not needed.

Other things intended for the game and ideas how it could be implemented?

-The player death sequence needs to be implemented into the code.

-Alien death (Remove visible alien sprite). Use bullet sprite for the SPLAT animation, to destroy the alien

- Active scoring and lives system. Aliens should give out different scores, according to the type. (Ranging from 100 - 500 points). Lives should be lost per player hit by alien or bullet

- Levels and variety. Each level will use the standard alien formations, but each level should differ. The concept will be quite different to a standard Space Invaders game. I intend to have aliens use colours in order from LIGHT (Strong aliens) to DARK (Weak Aliens). If an alien turns into a darker colour, it will get destroyed.

- A nice backdrop or animation. It would be nice to add some in game graphics, which could represent a city or maybe some cool effects behind the aliens (2x2 moving tile background animation).


- New music and SFX. Could be trance music. Who knows?

Watch this space for more progress updates and videos.

When is the final game intended to be release?

Since KickAssembler really helps me well with a lot of the code (Generating macros, etc) then it could be possible that this game could be finished BEFORE the end of August. It will be available FREE from the TND web site as soon as the program is finished.

2016, into The future of THE NEW DIMENSION and C64 productions

22nd January 2016

Over the past 25 years or so. I have been a very keen Commodore 64 user. I liked to play many Commodore 64 games,  played quite well in some as a teen. I also enjoyed watching C64 demos, and checking out the classic C64 utilities. I also ended up composing music for myself - then did tunes for other people in the C64 community as well as for just myself. In the past you saw many games from my C64 label 'THE NEW DIMENSION'. Many of my worthy titles were:

* Sub Hunter
* Bionik Granny Returns
* Sheepoid DX
* X-Force
* Blap 'n Bash
* Invert
* Woolly Jumper
* Tape Master Pro V1.0
* Tape Master Pro V2.0
* Loadergame Tape Master Kit
* Loadergame Tape Master Kit 2

Also was involved with SEUCK enhancements to many SEUCK Compo winners of the past.

2015 saw the launch of a new special feature on the TND web site called "SEUCK School", in which gives the BASICS on how to enhance your own SEUCK games, by giving it some features of your own. There are some explanations on how to do certain features. A framework for use with ACME cross assembler has also been provided.

http://tnd64.unikat.sk/Seuck_School.html


Are there any more C64 releases coming in to the future?

YES


Although my motivation was quite low during the busy productive era in my job. Now things have gone quiet, and some more holidays have been booked. (Currently one the last day of one right now) motivation has been pretty strong to get projects out the way. There will be some more new Commodore 64 games coming in the future. There is to be the launch of the long awaited Honey Bee (Full game), soon to be available on the TND web site for you to download. The game is finished and has been fixed to work on NTSC versions of the C64 as well as PAL.


Commodore 64 Utilities

Soon to be released will be a TAPE MASTER PRO 3.  A fun tape mastering tool. A tool which will allow you to create loading scroll text with picture and music and run programs that use a BASIC SYS start address. The loader system's turbo was made by Martin Piper. However it features additional programming, which I implemented into the loader. So it is a mixture of both Martin and my own piece of work.

I cannot get it to work on BASIC programs on the fly, but it seems to work great on programs that use BASIC SYS addresses (without having to type in any hex addresses), and not screw up zeropages, with thanks to Martin's zeropage, INIT and stack destroyer routine (Will clear the tape loader from memory after loading).

Due to the extra features implemented into the loader system size is slightly bigger, compared to the previous TMP builds.Other new features implemented in the latest loader (NEW: Loading stripes cycle table feature), a choice to whether or not draw the picture like the old ocean loader, or wait until the full picture has loaded.  There is also the all new Loading 1-liner bar. The Press SPACEBAR to exit loader (So you can listen to music featured in the loader). In V2.1 The LOAD ERROR feature didn't display a red border in the IRQ tape loader, prompting the user to REWIND tape, any time an error occurs. Maybe some other things in the future as well :)

 Another plan is that It should still feature the loading stripes selector, featured from V2.1, should the cycle table option not be selected.. . No editor has been made yet, but I will be working on this soon. This version was tested on Retro Reto Pan :)

A brand new TND loader tune has also been composed. You'll be hearing this tune in ALL 3 of the enhanced Sideways SEUCK compo entries of yesteryear. A really powerful tune it is as well :)

Commodore 64 Games

In February 2016 will be the launch of the Sideways SEUCK Compo 2015 prizes (New front ends and enhancements) of Retro Reto Pan, Eidothea, and Edge of Time. Here's a preview snapshot of one of the 3 compo entries new front ends to look forward to. :)

Also in April 2016, you should hopefully see two 16KB cartridge compo entries from me. Vortex Crystals and Blap 'n Bash Revisted.

Vortex Crystals 
 
Vortex Crystals is a fun platform game, in which was inspired by some of the classic single screen platform shoot 'em ups. I also liked 'Impossible Mission', but this is NOT another Impossible Mission style game. You play the role of a hero, who must collect all of the crystals from each storage facility. Shoot aliens, pick up the exit card and get out of each zone alive. The 16KB is missing features, such as warp gate animation (Where aliens appear on to the screen). Also some other additional features I would have loved to have added, but due to the 16KB limitation for the compo. I couldn't add these ideas. Good news however is that AFTER the cartridge compo. I will be implementing more features into the game. Including a new front end, an intro sequence, hi-score table, warp gates, maybe smoother animations for some of the aliens.

Blap 'n Bash - Revisited

Blap 'n Bash Revisited is a (and will only be) special 16KB cartridge version of the original 'Blap 'n Bash'. It features 16 brand new re-designed levels. Smart graphics and brand new music. The power up features are exactly the same as they were before, including the 'Trance Feature'. There is a new feature implemented 'today' into the barrier power up. Should the ball hit it once. The barrier will disappear straight away. Like with Vortex Crystals, this game is currently getting NTSC fixed by probably one of the best C64 NTSC fixers around today, Dirk :)

Shoot Em Up Destruction Set 4 - The final edition

Alf Yngve has been making many great SEUCK games in the past, and he is still going strong with those today, with fresh new ideas. He's been sending me some demos of some of the games.  There is a 4th SEUDS still under development, for Psytronik which features some great new games. Tau Zero Reloaded, a stunning vertical scrolling futuristic blaster. Spy Rider 2, a SEUCK Overlander style game, with a bit of Operation Wolf . Big Gun No. 1 (One of my favorites in this compilation), a colossal robot style game, featuring HUGE GAME GRAPHICS. Two games (Streets of Fury and Operation Metal Storm) had to be replaced, due to problematic issues. So as an alternative, Edge of Time (Final non compo version - which is under development) and a really nice commando style game called  'Unexpanded Army', a game which wears the shades of cops. 3 games will be SEUCK  redux titles. The other two won't be able to fit into this category.

... that's a taster of games... Now ...

Music and the demo scene.

I also have some music projects in the pipeline. Quite recently I composed a brand new TND loader tune. This will be featured on many TND productions / contributors releases, which consist of a taape loading picture. I also intend to restart the in game music for Aviator arcade from scratch. So that the music would suit the game. Not too sure when that will be.

The end is near - Can we me make it? ...

18th + 19th December 2015

Wow. Some more free time at last. Well, more work on Vortex Crystals then. Before any more programming had taken place in the game project. I asked Alf if he'd like flashing lights animation added to the background. After he suggested that it was a great idea. I worked on mapping the values of the char colours for the flashing lights. After compiling the code, the animation turned out quite nice. I sent the new build to Alf and he liked it.

The next step was to work on the end screen (since the whole game engine is finished right now) . A couple of months back, I designed the end screen using the example background, and crunched it - but didn't actually test it until yesterday. The result turned out pretty well. So I worked on the animation scenes. It involves the player attempting to make an escape from the V-Tex complex (After completing room 16). What happens next, I will not tell you, but the ending turned out GREAT. I even had ENOUGH memory to fit the ending into the code and compile a 16KB cartridge.

After finishing the end screen, I worked on doing a phase of bug fixing. I felt the player was jumping too high in the game, so I halved the jump duration on the player. Unfortunately that didn't work out that well. The jumping height was too little. It made things more impossible for the player to be able to jump high enough on to some platforms and conveyor belts. So I increased the jump height by a quarter. It looked and felt much better.

I wanted to add some bonus scoring to the game code, so that the player gains a bonus number of points, according to the number of bullets the player carries. Of course if the player dies - default bullet amount will be 40. Only at the start of each level, the player starts with 50 bullets. I also had enough space to add a flashing text routine. After finishing with the project (for today) and email Alf the latest build. I ported the game on to my USB dongle, and play tested it on my C64, via the 1541Ultimate 2. Really happy with the result so far. ... but is the game finished yet? ...

Not quite. Although I can say it is probably  99% finished, it needs a little bit more bug fixing, a pause+quit game function, and then pass it over to one of my C64 scene buddies to NTSC fix it before the final compiling and submission. :)

After the compo - I intend to extend the code a bit more, to give out more frames for the in game animation. Add additional in game options, a better looking front end presentation, hi-score table, etc. Apart from those - the main game stays the same.

Alien Invasion

13th November 2015

Just to let you know that progress for Vortex Crystals is still under development. However, on Friday 13th November. Disaster struck on my HDD. When I tried to load the assembly source file of the Vortex Crystals, I ended up with a blank file as the main file. This happened after an update was installed, and the PC HDD was undergoing repairs by the Op System boot up. I tried copying the file from the backup drive, and sadly it was the older source file and incorrect. Damn, all is lost ... Well not exactly, here's what happened.

When I'm working physically, and feel tired, I can get myself lost in places, and the same with file organisation. I spent most of my time searching for the correct backup source of the missing code on that day. Thankfully, it got found, and I was able to continue doing more levels for the game. (grin). 7 levels were already complete, so I worked on levels 8 and 9. Level 9 introduces 'I-Droid', the eye type of alien.

16th November 2015

More progress with the level setup, but I came across a small problem with level 10. Alf forgot to add a door on to the stage. So in order to resolve this problem. I decided to disguise one of the alien spawn gates as an exit. Therefore making this level more challenging. Then I started on doing level 11. This level introduces two new and harder aliens, which are the Squidroid (10 hits to kill) and Robot (8 hits to kill). These later levels are planned to frustrate the player more, as the player only has a limited amount of ammo to fire. Shooting 3 aliens will give the player 10 extra ammo, if the power up box is picked up straight away. Later levels are also intending to get even more frustrating, when the simple aliens (from levels 1 - 10) will not be appearing on the later levels. :)


The deadline is about 2 months and a half away for this game to be entered to the compo, and I'm quite confident that it will be finished in time. :)

Stay tuned ...

Level it up

25th - 31st October 2015

Another week has flown past, and yet more progress on the project 'Vortex Crystals' has risen. Alf Yngve has mailed me seven brand new levels, and another 3 aliens for me to play around with. Most of the hard work was done today (Since I have been doing more SEUDS 4 work in between).  Last time I got the player to be able to pick up objects that was spawned from aliens. What now? Well, a bit on level setup and some sprite/character collision.

Last night I captured each level screen from the SEUCK workfile in VICE, and compressed each level separately using Exomizer V2.09. I also imported Alf's new sprites into the game sprite data as well (These will start to appear on levels 5-16, but I have 7 levels at the moment and Alf hopes to finish those over the weekend.).

First of all today, I imported the new game sprites into the source, and also setup some more subroutines to form three new enemies, which I have called:

Squidroid: The Squidroid is a robotic squid like alien, which will be able to move left/right, up/down at a 2x the original enemy speed. It will also be a hard alien to battle, since it will have 10 lives. The airborne enemy will appear in later levels.

I-Droid: An alien droid, which is armed with an eye camera. This alien will be moving at 2x the original enemy speed, but will have 5 lives to kill it.

Robot: The robot is ground based, and will walk left/right at 2x the enemy speed. It will have 8 lives to kill it. The enemy will appear in later levels.

I was very happy with the result of the first level and the framework, in general, so now it is time to setup some more levels. Before I did that, I added a Level Complete tune and well done text on to the central panel. Then called for the next level to increment one byte and jump straight back to the main game loop code (Which sets up the level data and decompresses the next screen).

Most of today I have been working on some byte tables to setup each sprite type, sprite position, colour, background colour settings and low + high bytes of addresses where to de-compress the level data. Then I programmed a simple timer loop, which will setup the current table position, and setup the actual level. Unfortunately not all levels displayed correctly. I was scratching my head to find out what may have caused this. Each screen did de-crunch, but the display for each EVEN level was exactly the same as the previous ODD level. I carried out a little investigation to find out why this happened when running the game maps workfile, saved as Sideways SEUCK 'Finished Game State'. It turned out that double-buffering was used. So I recaptured each screen in VICE, exported the colour + screen data and then compressed the level screen data again. Then I imported the data into the game's source code folder. Assembled, compiled, and executed the game project again ... It worked much better.

Now the level screens were correct it was time for me to add a little more code to the conveyor belt chars. If the player moves (or jumps) on to a conveyor belt. It should travel. So I added a subroutine which pulled the player backwards or forwards on the belt. ROR + ROL charset animation was also added to the conveyor-belt chars to give the same sort of effect, pushing/pulling the player as it tries to move.

Finally, I played around with the level tables, for levels 1 - 3, I setup the enemy sprite type, re-spawn position, background+multicolour and a few other things. Now I have 3 working levels, and the result is quite pleasing :)

I still have other levels to setup, but that can be done from Monday - next week. Stay tuned to hear more progress with this platform Shoot 'Em Up.

Blast those aliens

22nd October 2015

After yesterday's infestation of aliens. I have been working on more of Vortex Crystals this morning, and later in the afternoon. Well, I am still on my holiday leave until this weekend - so what should you expect? ... Yesterday, I worked on positioning the aliens and getting them to move around. Today is a completely different task.

Since the game allowed the player to shoot bullets, let the aliens walk about and the player move around the game area. I thought I was done with this stage. Not yet ... I received an email from Alf Yngve, indicating that the last WIP preview I showed him had a major restriction with the player's jumping on the very top platform. So I decided to alter the interrupts routine and open the top and bottom borders - but NOT allow any sprites to display at the very bottom or the very top of the border. The trick worked.

Now came the fun part of the game's framework. We have already had the running and jumping phase, so now it is the 'shooting' phase. The player can shoot already, but there was no specific collision set where a bullet hits an alien. A few routines were programmed so that according to each alien, a collision detection routine gets called. The first test was to allow the player to fire the bullet and detect the collision. Simply by flashing the border (inc $d020). After I tested the bullet on each alien, it was time to make an alien explosion.

To make the alien explosion, I could choose two different methods. The longest method is to create a morph alien sprite to explosion animation for each alien sprite. Or the alternative method is to stop the bullet sprite from moving, offset the alien sprite and then morph it into an explosion. I took the second option, as it saved me time - and since there's under 3 months to get the compo entry finished, it probably is a brave move.

After testing the alien explosion routine, to see how well it works. I was very happy with the result, and decided to add lives to each alien. This will give the aliens a certain number of hits from the player's bullet, before they explode. After generating the code, and having a little play around with the source to get things right. The program worked a treat - but there is still one more thing before I close down the project for the day.

The next was to get the aliens to re-spawn after a period of time. This should occur after a few seconds the alien last died. When the timer had reached its position per alien, the alien sprite re-appeared on the platform and it was able to move its usual movement afterwards.

My final task before I closed the project down for the day (and backup my work) was to add a score to the player. I made it that only 100 points are scored for draining an amount of lives for the aliens, and 500 points for destroying one. I am pretty pleased with the result of the game's framework so far, and look forward to finishing it in the near future as well :)

The next task will be to add power ups, which might be some time this weekend.

A room infested with aliens

21st October 2015

There's been a whole lot of work being put into my C64 16KB Game Cartridge compo entry. ... and that is just only the beginning, and progress is looking pretty good.... or is it? ...

Alf Yngve has got back to me with a couple of test levels he which built using SEUCK's background editor. A slight alteration was needed to the ladders, as the shadows underneath the ladders were too big. I only wanted 1 row of the bottom ladder to be shadowed - but on a temporary basis. This is because the shadow will be replaced with a duplicate ladder char, later on. I want levels put in place first :)

After the ladders got fixed. It was time for me to re-capture the screen and colour data using a M/C monitor in VICE. Then save each screen separately, and compress both screens with the Exomizer. I imported the new level data into the source code, and tested both screens. They work quite nicely. The player's behavior was a whole lot better. This is definitely turning into a decent platform game already :) ... Fantastic!!!

After several attempts at playing around with the platform game framework, I built. My next task was to get the alien robots, and walkers on to the screen. So a new set of pointers were required. Basically I'm asking the program, which direction should each alien move, has it reached its limit to where it should change direction? Is the alien dead? What animation should the alien be. I also set pointers to setup the starting position of aliens, for the start of the level. I set up the alien speed, so that for the first level, aliens can only move left/right, up/down at the slowest speed. Although there are 5 aliens on screen. This was only done to test the alien movement. The game shouldn't have too many aliens. After putting aliens in place. I re-enabled the player's Sprite/Sprite collision pointers, where aliens can kill the player if it touches them.

The next task later on this week, will be 'shooting', 'destroying' and re-spawning the aliens after the death sequence for them is complete.

Dare you enter the Vortex

18th October 2015

After the success of Blap 'n Bash. Another new C64 game is in the works. This time, by the way of 'Vortex Crystals' or for short 'V-Tex'. I actually started working on this project back in August 2015. Now this game is going to become a co-op with Alf Yngve, who is using the Sideways Shoot Em Up Construction Kit for designing each level screen. I'll be doing the hard work to capture each screen, and then level pack each screen using the level cruncher method in Exomizer.

So then, what is Vortex Crystals going to be all about?. Well, it is going to be a non-commercial platform game, which I hope to enter for this year's 16KB Cartridge Game Compo, run by RGCD. Each level is a static screen, which will contain mechanical aliens, such as walkers and floaters.

You have been assigned to enter a the Vortex Complex, in which you are required to pick up all of the crystals. In order to pick up the crystals, the use of UP via the joystick, will need to be read. After all of the crystals have been picked up. A key card will need to be picked up to open the exit. Unfortunately you won't be all alone in each complex. A series of aliens will be guarding the premises, by moving up/down or back and forth. The aliens can be shot dead with a number of hits- if you have enough ammo. If all crystals have been taken from each room of the complex, an alien will need to be killed, in order to retain a pass to open the security doors.

At the moment the aliens are in 3 different forms, which are as follows:




Rotora - Only moves in the air




Zorbot - A satelite robot which will move on ground




Walker - These mech aliens move on ground via bionic legs.

After destroying an alien,  after a short period of time, it will re-spawn.

Capturing the levels

I first started on the level design to build a simple template for Alf Yngve to tidy up and design more. Different background objects should use different a form of behavior. Most of it of course is static background/decoration, but there are some obstacle chars set in the background. We chosen the Shoot Em Up Construction Kit for designing the each level. Alf constructed 3 test levels. Graphics were much more improved and the obstacles looked even better. Obstacles planned for the game are as follows:

Upper platform - Player can walk or jump from this
Lower platform - If player is jumping and hits this , it should fall
Ladder - Jump should be disabled, when the player is climbing up/down a ladder
Spikes - If the player hits this, the spikes should kill it.
Conveyor belt - These will move either left or right, and move the player along
Crystals - Stored in a storage base on the wall, these should disappear after the player touches them when jumping up to grab them.

The actual game is planned to NOT be a SEUCK creation. So I used VICE M/C monitor to capture the screen and colour RAM data, and transferred it to another screen area, and then I saved each capture of the screen separately. The original background charset also got saved from SEUCK for use in the game code as well. Once I finished capturing 3 screens. I level packed each screen and colour data, using Exomizer V2.09. Then I got into programming the main game framework and composing the music.

Composing the Music

Composing the music was quite easy - and the most fun task. Last week I loaded up an old tune, in Goat Tracker V2.7 which I started to compose. It was originally called "Gilmore", as the tune was inspired by Gizmo's tunes from the Zzeppelin Games era (Psi Droid, Ninja Commando, you name it). I worked quite hard on composing music using a similar style for the game. However, I wanted to try something more uptempo and quite bassy, with drums, but not trance (You'll be pleased to hear about). Then I composed some jingles. The tunes turned out quite well, and Alf Yngve seems to like the in game music, which I did for the game.

Coding the game

Programming the main part of this game was quite simple. I created routines which can move aliens about, and also the player when controlled with Joystick port 2. However I came across a snag in the game's code. I needed to create a logic for a different  effect on the player. If the player was in air and not jumping, I had to set the logic where the player will fall. If on a platform, but not on a ladder. The player can jump. However when the player reaches the top of the ladder. It cannot advance on to the next platform. I did a little experiment to search for a solution to this problem. If that wasn't bad, then when the player descends down the ladder, it stops and ducks down at the wrong platform char.   The  good news is that I found a solution to this problem.

I froze the framework with Action Replay and played around with the screen editor. It seems that an extra char above the ladder solves the problem of not being able to walk on to a platform. Also removal of the 3 ladder chars in the bottom row also stopped the player from going to the wrong chars at the very bottom of the platform. So now each block which Alf created, will need to be re-designed adding 1 row of chars for the top of the ladder, and the bottom row with a fake ladder, or something else. So that the code can allow the player sprite walk across the platform.

The deadline for the game entry is 31st January, which gives me about 3 months to finish this game. Although I have a very busy 2 months real life ahead of me. I feel pretty confident to get this project finished in time for the compo deadline. More about my progress of this game in the near future.

... TO BE CONTINUED

More code blapped and bashed. It's another Breakout!

10th October 2015

I love breakout games, and I always wanted to try and make a new one most of the breakout games failed miserably and were too bugged. First came ACME Bricks, followed by Sheep Out. After all the hard work from Summer 2015 - October 2016, another Breakout game pops by ... and success - it worked out extremely well.'Blap 'n Bash' is born.

Imagine what it would be like to control two bats with one joystick. One at the top of the screen and another at the bottom. Well, "Blap 'n Bash" is the answer to this, a funny breakout game with a unique twist (I think ... maybe I'm wrong).

The game concept is simple, hit a ball with your bat, smash the bricks, and avoid the ball from hitting the danger zone. Well, it sounds easy enough - but when you have to control two bats with one mind. Things will really do go crazy. Collect the power ups to enhance the game play. These will either speed your ball up, slow the ball down, turn it red and burn through the bricks, place a temporary barrier across the red lazers, give an extra life. An additional two power ups are quite unique. There's the 'TREMOR MODE', where the whole screen shakes during play - sending you dizzy. Finally there is the 'TRANCE MODE', a crazy strobe effect which plays to the trance music. A loss of life or level completion will disable this.

My game also consists of in game animation, 16 fun levels, aliens galore, and also a nice party-themed ending. Also to give the game sort of a classic 'OCEAN' feeling. A loading picture, with a the TND Premiere loading tune is used.

If you would like to try Blap 'n Bash out ... Download it from The New Dimension

TRANCE SECTOR RETURNS!

27th March 2015


Back in 2012, Trance Sector was born, and released at The New Dimension. Now 3 years later the game has STRUCK BACK and will be shown at GubbData 2015 some time TOMORROW then you can check the game out afterwards :) Here's a glimpse of what the first Trance Sector was like :)

So what is Trance Sector Ultimate then? Trance Sector Ultimate (or TSU as some of us like to call it) is a very SPECIAL production, which features BOTH the original and competition levels of the game, which I wrote some time in 2012, and 2013. Although it was originally planned in 2014, but major delays were made due to various circumstances beyond control. A brand new version of this game is finally complete and ready for release some time TOMORROW!

TSU consists of 64 levels. (32 levels from the standard and competition versions of the game). In which you can select from the main menu. The graphics are completely different with huge thanks to Akira/Genesis Project and Saul Cross. Music has also been changed, although it is a thumping trance tracks. There's also a brand new presentation and a specially exclusive intro for the RGCD release. Now I'm about to talk more about this project.

HeavyStylus originally contacted me, about giving details about the original Trance Sector to become a 64KB cartridge production. It sort of motivated me, until I realised more work needed to be done for this game. The game required a new presentation, intro/loading screen, and some additional graphics. Little did I expect, was that Trance Sector was to become A NEW GAME WITH A NEW NAME. Since I was up for it, I decided to do exactly that.

Akira, at first got involved with the graphics (Or should I have said the Splash Screen). He sent me his idea for the splash screen, which was to present the game with an interlaced kind of intro. It looked really nice, but the speed of the interlace caused quite a lot of flickering and the raster lines were badly timed. Later on in the game project, I reworked the intro and tried one of my own versions of the intro. Unfortunately due to personal reasons beyond control. Nothing else could be done with the project until earlier on this year. When HeavyStylus announced on the Lemon64 forums, looking for a new graphican for this project. GFXer Saul Cross (Rocket Smash EX) joined in the fun and send me his examples. After I saw those new graphics mockups. I fell in love with those, and jumped straight back to the TSU project.

HeavyStylus got in contact with me and suggest I should give this retro style game, a modern day C64 look and emailed me some screen shots of a suggested idea for the game's front end. It was inspired by a GMI intro, which GMI used to link to their demos. Such as Viva Revo-Lucion, but with an additional implementation and of course, inspiration. So, I ditched the old Trance Sector title screen and programmed the new front end. I also added a horizontal text scrolling message, with rainbow colours scrolling vertically through it. The background colour setup was a shade of grey (50 shades of it? Nah, only 3 shades of grey are used on a Commodore 64). I also programmed a sub-routine which would flip between pages 1 and 2. The first page was the credits screen, followed by the high score table. The options screen allow the player to select whether or not to have in game music or sound effects.When fire or space bar is pressed on the front end, the title screen is then presented with the game options. You can select whether or not the game is using standard or the competition levels mode. Then the game will start afterwards.

It wasn't just the new front end I worked on. Saul and I also worked on the brand new look help screen. This takes effect if either the scroll text finishes or UP on the joystick is pushed. Unlike the original Trance Sector, where pages flipped automatically to display the help page. I made it where it can be exited with just the fire button. Since there are some secrets stored somewhere in the project, which gamers have to find for themselves.

 

What about the main game? Well, things were pretty much easy as not much needed to be done there. all I had to do was program some routines that swapped from the title screen character set, to the game character set. This was due to memory issues and should the front end graphics still have been used in the game, it would look completely odd :-). Thankfully, not much game code needed to be altered, since the main game code is already there. I didn't even have to touch the pre-packed level data. Which was more on a plus side of things for me. The concept was simple:

You are part of a squadron who has been transported on to an unnamed planet. Your mission is to enter a giant warehouse, which consists of highly toxic radioactive nuclear pods inside the TRANCE SECTOR. You must guide a ship through all 32 floors of the factory disposing all of the nuclear pods. Once each sector has been cleaned, a time bomb is primed and the floor will be destroyed. Then you'll transport on to the next level. Only one thing that stops in your way. The Cygma Elite's highly intelligent seeker security system. The rockets will move back and forth, unless spots you in sight. Once you are spotted. The missiles will go for you.

There are different obstacles, as you progress into the game, such as security stun rays, which can hold your ship for a short period of time. There's also magnetic conveyor belts, and also other obstacles, which can either be useful to your ship or make life more tougher. The most deadliest of all obstacles are the BLOCKERS. :-)

During each level a ball will appear, which is guaranteed to give you EXTRA points or abilities to gain bonus life or destroy all seekers visible before new seekers are re-spawned.

Okay, back to the main game ... Not much had to be altered with the game. The only things that I needed to alter in the game, were some slight bug fixes, which involved the power up (scoring points) as one of the power-ups didn't work originally. Also the music was given an overhaul. More about this in the next paragraph. The game play is really challenging. Being a bad gamer, which I am, it is pretty tough, although it is POSSIBLE to complete all levels in the game. I tried it before in cheat mode... :-D

Anyway, what about the music? The title screen music used to be the original TAPE LOADER / DISK MENU tune of Trance Sector, released back in 2012. (You can find this at http://tnd64.unikat.sk/t.html). The other tunes we re-done to scratch. In game music is a remix of the original Trance Sector in game music, but even more powerful and upbeat. The LEVEL COMPLETE, GAME OVER, HI-SCORE TABLE Name entry and GAME COMPLETE music are completely fresh new tunes. All of which are still hard-thumping sound tracks. In game SFX has not been changed. I felt there was no need for that :)

Okay, back to the intro ... Well, Akira originally programmed a routine to display his hires logo, with some flickering raster lines, but there were some major timing problems. I could see why. I tried to play some music in the intro, but everything was running TOO SLOW. An idea was glued to my head. "What if I re-programmed the intro, and improved it slightly with new music? ". I gave it a try by programming it into C64Studio, and results turned out much better than expected. Raster beams were flickering like mad,  so they needed to be moved across off screen slightly. So with a few timing pointers, the tiny flickers had gone. After I was very happy with the intro, I linked the game together.

The game project was near to completion. All I needed to do now was get it NTSC fixed.. Since I had no experience to get this game project to work on NTSC machines properly, it was up to Didi/LXT to fix this issue. Once that was done, Georg Rottensteiner built the final 64KB cartridge (As I was really struggling with this part of the job). Finally TSU was finished, and ready for released in time for GUBBDATA 2015 in Sweden for the big screen.

Yesterday, for a bit of fun, I created a little tape loader for the game for a later release on the TND web site. The tape loader was built using a bit of additional programming using TapeToolBuild by Martin Piper. The loading screen was inspired by the URIDIUM tape loader which I first saw on thee Megatape 27 of ZZAP64 magazine. Here's a video of the overall result ... Just to tease you :-D

Buzzing for a bonus

10th March 2015

My week's HOLIDAY started Sunday this week. It's going to end soon, but I have not only been out and about places this week, but I have also been plodding away on Honey Bee. For me, the project is shaping up quite nicely and it has been making me happy. I have been thinking that I am very near to completion with the project. .... Well not quite. As more crazy ideas have popped in my head for this project. Find out more in this blog.

Okay, so what has been happening the past 2 days or so?. Honey Bee felt as if there was something missing in general, and that was a bonus round for every level completed. I had two ideas, one of which was similar to a Shark Attack type of stage in Sub Hunter, and another which was one of Kenz's ideas. A flappy bird style bonus stage. Months ago, I was trying to create something by the way of SEUCK WITH GRAVITY. In January I attempted to make a FLAPPY BIRD style game, using the sideways scrolling SEUCK, and the aid of the TASM/CODENET plugin on my 1541Ultimate2. Although the use of gravity was simple enough, I failed to get the jump physics correct and it made the game harder to play. So, I went for the easier option, which was the Sub Hunter style bonus stage. Since I'm no fan of the Flappy Bird phenomena.

I created the bonus stage by manually designing the cave graphics, using Steve's existing graphics, that formed the ground, and rocks, etc. I manually typed these into the source code and created quick and dirty code that built the screen the simplest kind of way. Next I programmed the interrupts and got the scroller in action. I also added it an extra effect for the cave wall background. I added a ROL char routine, so visually during the scrolling operation, you could see a two layer scroll instead of one.

Once I was happy with the scrolling background, I decided to fill the cave with bats, and also get a crystal moving across the screen. Then I linked the main game code, which controlled the player. No use of gravity was being used for this stage, as it would have been hard enough as it is. The next thing I added to the bonus game was a set amount of time, which the player must survive for so that he/she can earn an extra life, by completing that stage. The purpose of the gems is to allow the player to give big points as a reward. For 1 gem, the player gets 500 points added to his/her score. Finally after setting up the set times. I linked the bonus stage to the main game code.

Okay, so I got all those working. Now about the ideas in my head. I was browsing at the sprite data, and discovered that I can simply add some MORE sprites into the game. I moved the text data to a different memory location, to be able to preserve more sprites. I notice that some of the levels, which I mistaken bats for birds, could actually have some birds added to the source. The eagle might be a good option I noticed some of Wayne's sprites, which could be useful for the game. Also, some worms could actually be SNAILS.I think  Some sprites could be used for bouncy 'GET READY' 'GAME OVER' 'BONUS' sprites, before actual things commence in the game.

As well as the game sprites ideas. I feel that I could do with removing the fade in / fade out transition effect every time a life has been lost. As it could possibly annoy the player who just wants to get into the game.The transition effect can be used for after every level is complete and a new level starts.

Admire the screen shots and see you soon with another progress update about Honey Bee - The Full Version.

Back with a STING!

7th March 2015

Okay, so last time, Honey Bee was left alone for a bit in order to get the main Trance Sector Ultimate finished in time for GubbData. Since I have nothing else to do for Trance Sector. I decided to move back on to finishing off the final version of Honey Bee. Would you like to know what has been happening so far this month? Well, fear not, here it comes.

Last time when I was working on the final version of Honey Bee. I imported Steve Day's status panel into the game code, and worked on the new front end, made amendments to it and flipped the screen, added the game sprites. The style of the front end is pretty similar to what I did for Woolly Jumper, except for it is on a light blue background, with a static colourful effect on the scroll text chars.

After I was happy with the new front end, I wanted to add an intro sequence to the game. So I designed the intro background (as well as the end background) using Jon Well's Multi Screen Construction Kit. Then captured the screen to import into the source code. The background was basically the outside world. Similar to the in game graphics. Honey Bee comes on to the screen and introduces himself, and asks for help from the player to do a job for him. He also declares himself to be a very clumsy bee.

After completing the intro sequence, I decided to work on the end sequence. Where Honey Bee meets queen bee. After successfully completing his task. He gets a big surprise. Which I won't tell you what it is. You'd have to wait until the game is completely finished. ;)

Finally the End Screen was complete. I decided to work on the high score table name entry. Once again, it is the same type of joystick controlled name entry. The screen looked rather boring at first, as I did that many times. I decided to add a bit of fun animation. Where you have 8 Honey Bee sprites whizzing across the screen, while wrapping downwards. This made the name entry screen look more attractive.

Since the Hi-Score routine is now finished. My next job this week will be to create a BONUS game, in which involves a horizontal background scrolling trick, some random rocks, and some gems. This is so that Honey Bee can collect objects in order to score points, increasing the possibility of gaining extra lives.

After that, if there's still enough memory. I'll be making sound sound effects and add an option for in game sound effects as well as music. Followed by the final testing and disk + tape mastering. Hopefully by the end of this month Honey Bee should be finished, and released.

Keep watching my blog to find out what happens next.

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.