SyntaxBomb - Indie Coders

I've got a game only a week or so off finishing, for THEC64 its going to be a prg file until I figure something else out but the prg files seem quite common now anyway but if anyone knows how i make a normal c64 disk image let me know?,, its not a remake of a particular game, but there were plenty of games like this in the 80s, I don't want to give the info yet, but stay tuned . I like it so far , I have done it in Assembly so the screen is smooth.

As a clue its got fruit in it

Congrats, look forward to giving it a whirl. Did you code it on the C64 or via a PC using emulation?

Quoteif anyone knows how i make a normal c64 disk image let me know?

DirMaster is at hand https://csdb.dk/release/?id=98710

QuoteAs a clue its got fruit in it

Pac-Man type game?

Wow Thanks! THat looks like the thing i need, yes i did it on a PC with CBN prg studio, and tested on my THEC64

PS its nothing like pac man

https://manyone88.itch.io/c64-fruitmachine-coded-2021

Ok here is the game link. its free and coded in 2021, its a fruit Machine, with feature hold , gamble features and flashing lights

Hi Mark,

so it works fine in Vice, as you'd expect. I don't know what you're meant to do when it comes up with a gamble as pressing the gamble button just made it spin again.

Nice to see someone else tinkering with retro computers development. Maybe try and redo this game with bigger graphics and looking like a proper fruit machine. A few jingles, a proper gamble (double/quit) system, and put it at 10p a play with a £3.00 budget to make it more interesting. Playing a penny at a time was just, meh.

Also, look at TRSE. Make your development time even quicker, and it'll probably compress your game a lot better.

it does spin again when you gamble, its just added to your coins, or press spin to collect but that will spin again too.  its a penny so as to be ethical.

I can see your points, thanks for your opinions, its nice to be part of the 80s revival, it took me four full days to program. I liked to dev on the C64, I did not need all the books i bought it was pretty easy to pickup the asmembly as it was only about 50 opcodes on the c64. I did some z80 in the 80s but this was my first proper Asm outing.

is there many new games around being programed on the C64, I shall have to look around

I

Xerra, have you done a C64 game, I could give them a try , I like the C64 so much and finding modern coders doing it great.

i shall try TRSE , thx

Not yet. I've held off looking at anything but the Vic 20 deliberately with TRSE at the moment. I get distracted too easy, and I know damn well I'd want to start with sprites and Sid stuff as soon as I even looked at what can be done with TRSE on a C64, let alone having an Amiga to play with as well.

ok I fixed a coin count bug, & expanded the graphics, but i ran out of memory while trying to draw it with better graphics

https://manyone88.itch.io/c64-fruit-machine-coded-2021-c64

Congrats on writing a machine code game!    

thanks,  Its so much fun,

I learned so much, you really need to be carful with space with your code.

Running out of memory seems pretty odd considering your game doesn't seem to be that big. I haven't seen the source code but I'm going to suggest that you need to learn a bit about optimisation when you're writing for these 8 bit machines. The screenshot of your source code, for example, suggests you've written basically the same routine for generating a random number for each real 3 times. Use that function properly and call it within a branching routine to get the end result on each reel, for starters.

You're using single colour char graphics so that's probably only 2k of your memory in total. A C64 has around 54k available to machine code so you shouldn't be having this problem at this early stage. If you are then don't ever try to write a game for an unexpanded Vic 20 :-)

Well Your correct, but my problem was jumping in without looking, I found a way to add a new charset, but only got enough info to put it at 2000, then I wrote my code at 0801, then when I got so far it filled in between at started writting over the charset, I have never used asm before still learning, but your right the rand could of been better and to be honest everything will be better next time as I am really never done this before , and to be honest I have a working game after just 5 days and never before done asm programing so im proud of myself, and if you think about it after 5 days im on my way to being the best, I can claim that because nobody programs the c64 now but they may start

Your efforts are admirable. I could never put together an assembly language game in 5 days. The current one I've been tinkering with on the Vic is probably around 8 hours work over all my sessions in total, and that's because I haven't been motivated enough for any solid coding since I moved house. It's summer, the euro's are on and I'll get back to doing it again when there's less distractions around in a month or so

You're incorrect when you say nobody is developing for the C64 these days. That's wildly incorrect. The system is actually getting loads of new games released every year these days. Do a bit of googling, and check out fan magazines like Freeze 64. You won't be disappointed.

Hey great news its going on the PCUAE Carousel version 1.5.0 edition soon to be released