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...