Rockman - September to October Maze game competition entry

Started by Xerra, September 18, 2018, 23:56:06

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northernlites

Excellent Xerra  :D

with a slight tear in my eye I wish I could go back to the 80's  :))

there is a cheat in the game , when you paused it, if you pressed a few keys it would unlock the exit's. I'm not sure what keys you pressed  I'd have to find my folder with the scribbled bits of 6502 assy code on it.

amazing what you could do in 3.5k, i think from memory the graphics took over .5k, then the 20 screens ( i think there might have been 24, title screen,when you got died *2 and the game over screen ) i  used  simple compression for the screens, each byte was split into 4 2bit values and if the 2 bit value was 00 it would put a space on the screen, if it was a 01 it would poke a wall char, if it was 10 it would be a ground char and if it was 11 a diamond would be stored on the screen. that's how i managed to get 20 screens in the game.

the game was not a rip off of just blouderdash,  its was influenced by one of my all time favs arcade games and Mr.Do !  with a bit of blounderdash  ;D

thanks for the memories  :D


Xerra

Quote from: northernlites on January 20, 2019, 18:30:42
Excellent Xerra  :D

with a slight tear in my eye I wish I could go back to the 80's  :))

there is a cheat in the game , when you paused it, if you pressed a few keys it would unlock the exit's. I'm not sure what keys you pressed  I'd have to find my folder with the scribbled bits of 6502 assy code on it.

amazing what you could do in 3.5k, i think from memory the graphics took over .5k, then the 20 screens ( i think there might have been 24, title screen,when you got died *2 and the game over screen ) i  used  simple compression for the screens, each byte was split into 4 2bit values and if the 2 bit value was 00 it would put a space on the screen, if it was a 01 it would poke a wall char, if it was 10 it would be a ground char and if it was 11 a diamond would be stored on the screen. that's how i managed to get 20 screens in the game.

the game was not a rip off of just blouderdash,  its was influenced by one of my all time favs arcade games and Mr.Do !  with a bit of blounderdash  ;D

thanks for the memories  :D

Wait, what? Are you Mark - the chap who wrote the Vic 20 original game?

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northernlites

yes  :D

for Mastertronic I did a few games for them, R.I.P , Rockman for the Vic20 and then for the C16/+4

bit of history here, The Darling Brothers AKA Codemasters , their first company was called Galactic software ( I sold them a game called Phantom Attack) they then joined Mastertronic and after a few years went their own way and formed Codemasters which made them many,many millions when they sold the company.


Qube

Cor blimey! A proper real Vic-20 game coder :o, damn I loved that little beast of a machine. I've still fond memories of dashing down to WH Smiths on the weekend with my pocket money to buy Mastertronic games for a bargain price of £1.99. Ahhh, them were the days ;D

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Until the next time.

northernlites

hahaha, your showing your age  :D.

as for coder, I thought I'd  written a program not code, and I thought coder was a modern  word, but then you had codemasters. so what do I know  ;D

the thing with Mastertronic was their distribution contacts, before Mastertronic the only real  places you could buy computer games was from computer shops or mail order.

but with Mastertronic they could get games into your local news agents etc. . I still remember the day when I went to the local news agents and there was R.I.P in side the shop  :o :D

I think i got about 10p a cassette in royalties and I think the artist who did the cover got the same  :o





Qube

Quotehahaha, your showing your age  :D.
God was still in nappies when I discovered computers :P

Quoteas for coder, I thought I'd  written a program not code, and I thought coder was a modern  word, but then you had codemasters. so what do I know  ;D
Computer programmer. Game coder ;D - Game programmer doesn't sound as cool.

Quotethe thing with Mastertronic was their distribution contacts, before Mastertronic the only real  places you could buy computer games was from computer shops or mail order.
Mastertronic was a brilliant platform in the 80's. Some really cool games at kids pocket money prices. What more could a kid want?. Sad that those days of excitement are long gone and more of a shame that the young whipper snappers of today missed it.

QuoteI think i got about 10p a cassette in royalties and I think the artist who did the cover got the same  :o
So you're a multi millionaire then? ;D - Mind you I'd say it was more pride in making a game back then than the dream of making tonnes of cash.
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Until the next time.

northernlites

err  I was just , only just a teen still  ;D

well i was young and stupid  I could have made a decent amount of money, If you could turn back the hands of time.. hey  ::)

talking about the old days, I bought my son a Rift for Xmas, and what did i see that's out for it  Gridrunner  :o its unbelievable in VR. Jeff Minter is a legend he  inspired me and still going   :D

hope its ok to post a link below !



I came across your site because i searched for Rockman, you know the really scary thing is , its 35 years ago but I could still now write a game for the vic20   :))

maybe its a mid life crisis but I thought about programming again just for a laugh, or maybe even come up with the next flappy birds  ;D

what is the main purpose of your site, it seems to be helping people program video games, sorry if I'am  wrong  :-[

Xerra

I'm a bit in awe here. Rockman was a huge part of my early teenage years. I played it for around 2 years trying to finish the game - which I eventually did. No cheating in those days and the games were a lot harder, that's for sure. I remember buying Rockman in the local Debenhams computer department thinking it looked like it could be a good game but I'd just got a 16k ram pack for Xmas so I really was looking for games that would take advantage of the extra memory.

Still boggles me how you got that game into the around 5k of memory even though I dabbled with assembler on the Vic and later C64 so do understand the binary system you used to get two bits of information in one byte.

I remember the C16 Rockman but I wasn't a fan of that at all compared to the Vic version.

Few questions for you - if you don't mind answering.

I remember Phantom attack and R.I.P - did you write any other Vic 20 games?

Can you remember how much you made for the games as a down payment or was it just a royalty per unit?

When did you stop writing games and what prompted you to move on? Do you still actually program today?

I've been going through a bit of Vic nostalgia recently as my other half has been picking up old tapes for me as birthday and Xmas presents so I've been tinkering with a Vic 20 framework project that I intend to use to remake as many of them as I get around to. I've got it to a level now where I've started my first one - Destroyer. If you're ever tempted to have a play with game making again then you could use an emulator and write for the original machine or just make your life easier and use game maker or similar.

I'm really glad you liked my remake of Rockman - I did credit you but never thought you'd actually see it :-)
M2 Pro Mac mini - 16GB 512 SSD
ACER Nitro 5 15.6" Gaming Laptop - Intel® Core™ i7, RTX 3050, 1 TB SSD
Vic 20 - 3.5k 1mhz 6502

Latest game - https://xerra.itch.io/Gridrunner
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Itch.IO: https://xerra.itch.io/

Qube

Quotewell i was young and stupid  I could have made a decent amount of money, If you could turn back the hands of time.. hey  ::)
Hindsight is a great thing. At least you can wear the badge of honour labeled "I coded a Mastertronic game in the 80's". A title many of us old farts would love to wave ;D

Quotetalking about the old days, I bought my son a Rift for Xmas, and what did i see that's out for it  Gridrunner  :o its unbelievable in VR. Jeff Minter is a legend he  inspired me and still going   :D
I love VR and it's an area this year to make a game in. I was planning on doing it with the Oculus Go but I think I'll wait for the Oculus Quest. Cool to see such a classic still being enjoyed today.

Quotehope its ok to post a link below !
Sure, fire away. Threads often wander here :P

QuoteI came across your site because i searched for Rockman, you know the really scary thing is , its 35 years ago but I could still now write a game for the vic20   :))
With advanced mathematical algorithms applied, I'm guessing you're early 50's?. So still a big kid then, welcome ;D - Perhaps you should enter one of our comps and do it in assembler on a vic-20 emulator just for laughs.

Quotewhat is the main purpose of your site, it seems to be helping people program video games, sorry if I'am  wrong  :-[
This site did exist years ago but was closed down due to some naughty users ( I've learned from that ). When the blitzbasic forum was announced it was closing I thought I'd relaunch the old gal as a place for members to go.

The main purpose for this site is for game coders to hang out, help each other, have a laugh, day dream, share thoughts and go with the flow. We're a pretty decent bunch with a lot of talent and willingness to help where we can.

EDIT - I'm sure Xerra doesn't mind a thread wander here ;D
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Beelink SER7 Mini Gaming PC, Ryzen 7 7840HS 8-Core 16-Thread 5.1GHz Processor, 32G DDR5 RAM 1T PCIe 4.0 SSD
MSI MEG 342C 34" QD-OLED Monitor

Until the next time.

Steve Elliott

#24
Quote
with a slight tear in my eye I wish I could go back to the 80's  :))

Loving this thread, and me too.  Respect to people like yourself who wrote those games in the 80's, rather than just played them.

Quote
as for coder, I thought I'd  written a program not code, and I thought coder was a modern  word, but then you had codemasters. so what do I know  ;D

Yeah, my programs are stored in my 'Programming' folder.  But Qube is down with the kids haha  ;D

Quote
the game was not a rip off of just blouderdash,  its was influenced by one of my all time favs arcade games and Mr.Do !  with a bit of blounderdash  ;D

Back in the day I never got into Mr Do, but I've been playing it a lot under emulation using my Raspberry pi 3 - fun tricky game!

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Qube

QuoteYeah, my programs are stored in my 'Programming' folder.  But Qube is down with the kids haha  ;D
Hmm, so lets have "program a game competition"? nah, doesn't sound right :o

You write a program with code. A program is the result of coding. You share code snippets with others, not program snippets. code is wrapped in {code} blocks on forums, not {program}. There, glad we cleared that one up ;D
Mac Studio M1 Max ( 10 core CPU - 24 core GPU ), 32GB LPDDR5, 512GB SSD,
Beelink SER7 Mini Gaming PC, Ryzen 7 7840HS 8-Core 16-Thread 5.1GHz Processor, 32G DDR5 RAM 1T PCIe 4.0 SSD
MSI MEG 342C 34" QD-OLED Monitor

Until the next time.

Holzchopf

IMHO writing a program compares to programming a program as writing a book compares to typing a book - one involves the creative process, the other one nothing but bleeding fingers :P

Pakz

I was playing Minecraft a while ago and I had the idea that I was playing 3d boulderdash or 3d rockman.

Xerra

Quote from: Pakz on January 21, 2019, 15:14:58
I was playing Minecraft a while ago and I had the idea that I was playing 3d boulderdash or 3d rockman.

Trying to imagine how a 3d Rockman would actually play. Very difficult, I would imagine. Dig up and a boulder suddenly smacks you in the face because you had no way of knowing it was there. Some games are best in 2D, methinks :)
M2 Pro Mac mini - 16GB 512 SSD
ACER Nitro 5 15.6" Gaming Laptop - Intel® Core™ i7, RTX 3050, 1 TB SSD
Vic 20 - 3.5k 1mhz 6502

Latest game - https://xerra.itch.io/Gridrunner
Blog: http://xerra.co.uk
Itch.IO: https://xerra.itch.io/

northernlites

Quote from: Xerra on January 21, 2019, 01:13:10
I'm a bit in awe here. Rockman was a huge part of my early teenage years. I played it for around 2 years trying to finish the game - which I eventually did. No cheating in those days and the games were a lot harder, that's for sure. I remember buying Rockman in the local Debenhams computer department thinking it looked like it could be a good game but I'd just got a 16k ram pack for Xmas so I really was looking for games that would take advantage of the extra memory.

Still boggles me how you got that game into the around 5k of memory even though I dabbled with assembler on the Vic and later C64 so do understand the binary system you used to get two bits of information in one byte.

I remember the C16 Rockman but I wasn't a fan of that at all compared to the Vic version.

Few questions for you - if you don't mind answering.

I remember Phantom attack and R.I.P - did you write any other Vic 20 games?

Can you remember how much you made for the games as a down payment or was it just a royalty per unit?

When did you stop writing games and what prompted you to move on? Do you still actually program today?

I've been going through a bit of Vic nostalgia recently as my other half has been picking up old tapes for me as birthday and Xmas presents so I've been tinkering with a Vic 20 framework project that I intend to use to remake as many of them as I get around to. I've got it to a level now where I've started my first one - Destroyer. If you're ever tempted to have a play with game making again then you could use an emulator and write for the original machine or just make your life easier and use game maker or similar.

I'm really glad you liked my remake of Rockman - I did credit you but never thought you'd actually see it :-)

2 years  :o you must have turned the sound down , i think most people did, but that annoying noise didn't take many bytes up.

they paid an advance, I think from £1,000+ which they took out of your royalties

I don't know why I stopped. the Vic-20 was in decline, I could have upgraded to the C64, but heck I cant design decent graphics never-mind a simple tune  :D

I think one reason was, I was offered a good job at a computer brokers and worked my way to be engineering manager.

No i don't program at all now, I haven't done anything in many years. I spent a year I think it was in the late 90's learning to program in COBOL  :o hahaha.  and about 12 years ago I did 1/3 of a OU degree in computer studies, learn't some SQL, Java, but I stopped the degree because I got married and had little time with work and kids.

I have thought about learning Java and doing stuff for Android phones, but I'm more interested in Python now because of the Nintendo Switch scene.

but I've just decided to study for some Cisco Certs, so programming will have to wait again  :(

how long did it take you to program your game ?

I've seen a good Vic 20 emulator where some one ripped alot of Vic20 games including Rockman

I'm glad you liked the game, I remember I use to calculate how many clock cycles  a routine would take , yes with routines that scroll the screen 1Mhz doesn't go far  :D

do you work as a Programmer ?