C64 :: still copying bloks

i've almost got what amounts to a complete game going! It plays all the way through from titles to completion screen and back (i've got it dialled down to only play two stages during testing), all the cosmetics have been rewritten from the PET code so that they work in their new environment and i spent some of the night before last and most of yesterday morning drawing presentation graphics. There are some cosmetic glitches still, although i'm pretty sure i know where they're coming from and plan to flatten them over the next couple of days. The game won't be released just yet because there are a few variations on the theme to complete first (and the music isn't settled on) and yes, i know that's needlessly cryptic, but i'll post some screenshots or a video when i get the flickers repaired.

C64 :: Blok Copy

i've spent a couple of days beavering away at Blok Copy (since i've finally got myself into a state of mind where coding is possible now) and the game itself is functioning perfectly. A little too well in fact, in the way that i start expecting it to crash and burn hideously at any moment! The presentation is still assuming there's a PETSCII font and isn't doing what it's supposed to but i'll get around to that next.

Thinking about it a bit more, i want to try converting it to the BBC Micro as well; that could put up a bit more of a fight to be honest, there's only 32K of RAM on a stock BBC and the best bitmap mode to use needs 20K just for the display (and a character set in memory will need 4K as well) but there are other options and i need to read up on the hardware a bit more before i make a decision as to which mode to go for. It might end up in four colours if things get desperate! All told, the various versions will need at least four different graphics sets (all laid out in a similar way) and somehow i've got to find a musician willing to do tunes for at least five platforms...!

C64 :: Mayhem 15th intros

After Kenz spotted a couple of small cosmetic bugs and i went delving around, the final menus for Mayhem In Monsterland 15th Anniversary with their loaders in place have (hopefully at least) been sent off for mastering; here's a video of the code written for the B side, which contains the two MC Mayhem music demos:

C64 :: Utter Mayhem

Over the last couple of days i've been quiet because i was coding a new disk menu for the 15th anniversary edition of Mayhem In Monsterland... i was asked to an' stuff, i didn't just decide i was going to do it out of the blue or anything! It's been a while since i thought about presentation programming like this to be honest, it's closer to demo coding than games so takes a little getting my head around. Still, i think it works pretty well and the client [ahem =-] is happy with it. Anyway, here's a video of the thing actually moving (i've just noticed a problem but it'll be fixed before the final release)...

C64 :: Sidetracked... again!

i'm rather good at sidetracking myself these days... i spent most of the day working on graphics but not for Ax 2189... and, after a little late night wandering around i returned invigorated (well, partially awake at least and that's better going than most days) and for reasons i might never be able to explain decided to convert the code for my first PET game Blok Copy to run on the C64. Actually, i can explain the reasoning... i think. i wanted to strip the code back to it's absolute basics (there were a lot of PET-specific hardware detections and work-arounds for frame sync or control in there because it runs on just about any 40 column machine) with the intention being to then convert it over to a number of other 6502-based platforms.

This has been on the cards for a while to be honest (and one day i'll retrofit the new title into the Atari 2600 version of the code and perhaps the music driver too) but there were issues that had previously prevented things from progressing from the theoretical stages (in particular the number of colours per line on some of the potential targets) which have now been pretty much sussed during that walk to Asda and back... i haven't decided yet if Blok Copy - C64 ROM Font Edition (snappy title... but accurate since it uses all the PET screen data) will "escape" yet, it depends on if the design work-arounds i came up with can be applied to a full-blown C64 version or not really.

C64 :: Some progress at last!

Things have been a little quiet of late because, despite my "best" efforts, i've been utterly unable to get a fourth level for Co-Axis 2189 started; finally that deadlock was broken today and i seem to have the beginnings of a tile set for it although if i'm honest i've deviated a little from what i originally intended - but that's fine because the various attempts at what i had in mind to begin with were stalling the bloody project! So now i've got that going there will hopefully be some screenshots of the new level to look at in the (relatively) near future [Crosses fingers and looks hopeful!

C64 :: Armour Storm video

Since i'm going to try breaking the "block" and start working on Co-Axis 2189 again, my thoughts have of course drifted to the next project; ironically, it's going to see me restarting work on a previous project, a sci-fi themed platformer called Armour Storm. What makes it rather special is the graphics, the majority are taken from Cyberdyne Systems' unreleased game Deadlock with full permission from Robin Levy and Dan Phillips themselves - what is far more exciting (well, for me at least) is that Robin also drew the player sprite especially for Armour Storm!



What has been holding it up (for several years in fact, the last build was in 2005 according to the change log i kept at the start of the source code) was the issue of guns; i had always planned to allow Martin (the player's walker droid... Martin Walker, get it? Please y'selves...) but at the same time it does have some quite complex issues such as what happens to shot nasties, do they respawn and how or just frozen or how often should there be guns in operation. That needs a fair bit of thought, discussion and indeed experimentation before its worked out and hopefully i'll be able to find a little more time now.

But anyway, enjoy the video because those graphics are pretty friggin' stunning...