3071 - 8bit-wars comp entry

[iWasAdam]

VST - good lordy no.  It's completely stand-alone and realtime.

I've been a busy little bunny...

Here's a pic of the original 1981 version:
 

[Qube]

VST - good lordy no.  It's completely stand-alone and realtime.

Oo, nice one, you've written your own music maker Are you planning on releasing it or keeping it for internal usage?

I wrote a music app in C64 BASIC which if I remember involved a lot of poke commands. As you can imagine it was very slow and had no real timing beyond the speed at which BASIC ran at. I remember being all impressed as that was the first app that I gave a multi coloured sprite as a logo

[iWasAdam]

Yep it will be released, but it's not a simple thing to get your head around as it does things it's own way - but it's super flexible.
The original was a multiprocessor design with individual outputs and I've tried as faithfully as I can to replicate the way it operated. I've been in touch with the original designers and also with the current people who repair them to make sure everything should be familiar to the current (hardware) users.

It's a very different way of coding. The original was light-pen driven with text commands. and I've needed to create a real-time system that replicates the commands.
It is cool that sequences play in the background while you are browsing for new sounds - so you can test stuff as it's playing as it's auto loading, edit on the fly, etc.

Gawd - Adding app icons is a pain in the Butt. 

[iWasAdam]

Heres the main index page:


It can be completely mouse operated, but also has command input. and can use either, in any order at any time!

I've also added some extensive sound support features so you can load almost any sounds from the Amiga onwards along with Roland, Yamaha, EMU, PPG, Akai, Korg, etc

[iWasAdam]

Back to the game itself.
I've got a working HUD:


Shows score, keycards and health

[iWasAdam]

First attempt:

[MrmediamanX]

Very cool ... kinda reminds me of digiloi.

[Qube]

First attempt:

Are all the foreground graphic done with the charset alone?

[iWasAdam]

unfortunately... yes!

It's a variation of the IBM/commodore font:


So in theory, I could drop the colors and just have mono graphics.

the font is 8x8pixels per character, so fits with the spectrum perfectly

[Qube]

unfortunately... yes!

Thats so cool and very clever

[iWasAdam]

  ooo, thank you for that...
It sort makes things easy in one way and difficult in others.
Graphics are chunky, but have a nice feel to them

[iWasAdam]

Just had a brilliant thought. Whats 3071? It's a counter. It starts at 3071 and ticks down...

Maybe it's a bomb?

Maybe the screen is parallax too?

[Qube]

Just had a brilliant thought. Whats 3071? It's a counter. It starts at 3071 and ticks down...

Maybe it's a bomb?

3071 seconds to complete the game - I look forward to an action packed 51 minutes and 18 seconds of gameplay

Maybe the screen is parallax too?

Ya gotta have parallax scrolling in a shooter, it's the golden rule of 8-bit - Nice dithering work on the background.

[Xerra]

I can't believe you're actually building your main char out of built-in character blocks. Very clever - and even harder to do back then than it is now. You had to store whatever character block was behind each of the objects own characters so you could write them back again after it moved. That's why C64 owners loved sprites.

[Derron]

Why not start at 3071 ... and the parallax background has 4 layers. Movement does adjust the 4 numbers at different speed (according to the parallax layer depth).
So first number is slowest and once it reached all numbers the first time, the last (4th) number already reached theirs 4 times (or more).

In a level you need to first find the "code" and fight "securty mechanisms" (enemies). Once you have the code you have to go back in the level until you reach the right position. There you can use your item and open the "safe" or stop a bomb or whatever.


bye
Ron