XeO3: Almost there!

I've made pretty good progress this evening and have managed to get all the player controls in and working; along with the player ship of course! This means you can now play the C64 version almost fully, shooting things and picking up coins etc. This now also now includes the shooting of turrets and mines, and they even explode correctly. I took a little while to get the player ship on as I had a bug in the Plus4 to C64 sprite conversion routine (all graphics are converted at startup so I can use the same data files), but once that was solved, I was able to move the ship around and start blasting away!

This leaves a few things left before its on par with the Plus4 version; Panel - power bar (shield and weapons), score, lives and coins, and testing ship to background collision. Once thats all done, it'll be at the same level as the Plus4 version. Its a pitty I dont have the old demo level still as I could make a video of it playing. Oh well...

I'd set myself 4 days to update and complete the port, and still expect to finish on time (for a change!) - although its probably because I've got a couple of days off which is making it easier...

However... don't get too excited, the Plus4 version will still be the only one released for now, but I might release the C64 version a few weeks after if theres enough demand.

XeO3: Things move a' pace!

I've been making pretty good progress last couple of days... As it was my Birthday on Friday I took the day off and did quite a bit of retro coding, and I've managed to progress even further today! The C64 version now runs through the whole demo level with aliens and bullets flying around just like the Plus/4 version, and while the C64 version is smoother, they are very similar when you watch them side-by-side.

I've been busy tracking down a bug in the multiplexor, but it turns out I simply wasn't clipping the sprites once they went below the panel. This was causing a new interrupt to be generated in the middle of the panel causing some nasty flicker. That solved, there does still seem to be an issue somewhere, but I'll leave it for now as its not that important.

I also found a bug in the Alien Bullets where they were being clipped too early, so fixed this in both the C64 and Plus4 versions.

I did hope to be able to make a single source set that would compile for both, but theres many very small changes all over the place, so this now looks unlikely - but I'll wait and see nearer the time.

I'm also wondering if doing this demo is the right thing... it actually looks pretty good, and would be a valid "level1", but I guess the whole point was to release a level I could tweak then start again so that people would get a full proper game to play without having seen/played small sections so I'll carry on for now as planned.

The extra sprites on the C64 version are proving a boon as I can extend wave's a little and make them link a little better with the next wave coming, losing some dead space while I go - all in all, its progressing pretty well now.

And just a reminder when you look at the C64 screen shots; these are all using 16x16 sprites (or 8x16 if your a puirest!), so the final C64 game will look fuller as the sprites will simply be bigger! The player ship will probably reamain 16x16 so that we can keep the smaller gaps and passageways.

XeO3: C64 stars!

I've just spent an hour playing with the C64's starfield. I've never been terribly happy with it as it shimered a lot due to the 1 pixel smooth scroll. So I've finally gotten round to making them HIRES rather than MCM stars. This involves doing the stars in the VBlank and setting/clearing the colour depending on whats already in that location.

It also takes a good few scanlines to run, but I can't see anyway of making it faster! It simply has lots to do so I'm probably stuck with it! I'll have to be careful though, because if the multiplexor gets busy then it's probably going to need the time the stars are eating up. Theres probably a couple of places I can stick the stars routine, but due to the colour writes it has to be in the FLIP vblank!

Oh well, its okay just now as the multiplexor isn't getting taxed very much - in fact it hardly every gets used! This is because the Plus/4 version keeps sprites free so that if coins are falling, I can still bring on new baddies without having to worry about the coins eating up slots. Still, it looks reasonably busy and I can always add more I guess.

I'm wondering if I should upload a video of the C64 version playing... but I dont really want to spoil the demo by letting people see it play through. So I'll probably wait until the Plus4 version is out for a little, then release a video afterwards.....

So stars done.... Panel next!

XeO3: C64 progression

I've managed to get the bullets working on the C64 now, in much the same way as the Plus/4 version. So while its masked onto the screen, its no smoother really. However, because of this though it means I have to double buffer the character set as well now - pooh. Im not sure if its worth it though...I could do 8 proper masked sprites (8, 8x8 pixel sprites) which would allows bullets to move better... but I'd rather spend the CPU time elsewhere.

On the plus side though, its much smoother than the Plus/4 version thanks to its hardware sprites and theres plenty of CPU time AND memory left!

I need to get the player working next so that I can actually play it, then it would be only missing the front end. In the end, the C64 version will be better but thats to be expected... but I do hope that they are so different that you'll enjoy playing them both!

XeO3: C64 version lives again!

I've spent an hour or so porting the current code base over to the C64, and it IS running the demo, but there are lots of issues to solve. The scrolling works, but tile drawing has serious issues and is rendering corrupted tiles. All the firing and player movement/collision etc. is commented out (although the code compiles). Background animations work (so turrets rotate etc.) and the multiplexor is working properly.

All in all for an hours work not too bad.... I am tempted to now try and keep both in sync; not so that I do a dual release, but so when the plsu4 version is finished, Im, only really waiting on graphics for the C64 version. Most of the code is now written, so keeping it up to date shouldn't be too hard - but of course I still have lots of work to do to get it running properly in the 1st place....

IF I get it running okay, then I'll probably release the demo on the C64 as well (although at a later date).

XeO3: Busy night!!

Well, I've gotten on well tonight and no mistake! I've added a heap of new paths which means I only have to do the BOSS!! How cool is that!! I've also just added the FIRE flag to the baddies so I can now selectively pick which baddies I want to shoot. But what this means is that I'm actually almost done!!

I need to add a boss (kind of... SOMETHING at the end...).
Scripting Documentation.
Cleaning out the sprites(its a demo after all!)

And..errr... thats it I think... So almost there!!! Remember we are releasing a test suit not JUST a demo level! You will be able to play with paths and make your own level if you want to!

What I really hope is that we'll fine someone really good at making levels, and they can help on the actual game! (I HATE making levels... I may have mentioned this before...)

XeO3: A pleasant surprise!

I suddenly realised that the bug Luca discover and I subsequently fixed might have been the reason for level Fast-Forward not working, after all it would alter the cycle count things would be active for. So I resurrected it and gave it a few tests and hay presto! It works perfectly!! This means I no longer have to fast forward through the whole level to check a path, the level will just fade on at the correct spot! Very cool! And a great surprise at that!

Who knows...I might actually get more paths done tonight....maybe... if the TV isn't too good. :)

XeO3: Enemy fire....

I've been finishing off the firing of baddies and was playing with the actual bullet direction stuff. I short-cut most of the work by not using a line draw, but a best guess. That is if we're 200 pixels away on X then I give it a steep angle, if Im zero pixels away on X then it fire directly up or down. Now this works pretty well but now that baddies shoot I've been extending it to be a little more prescise. However, with each tweak, I'm making the code bigger and more complex, and its all just a fudge anyway.... so I'm wondering if I should rip it all out and just use a line draw.

The thing about a line draw is its nice and prescise, but the good thing about mine is that it isn't! I know that sounds a bit strange so let me explain. If someone shoots at you're position, you simply move out the way. If 5 baddies shoot at your position, then again... its a little harder, but move and your probably safe. If 5 people shoot in your general direction then moving out of the way of one bullet, will probably throw you into the path of another! This makes it harder to avoid bullets which is the idea.

So... should I just leave the spaghetti code and think "well, it does what its supposed to, even if it is a bit unreadable..." or should I have a nice neat bit of code (that might take longer to run) but may also make the game easier.... Mmmmm.

The only way really is to try and see, but its a fair amount of work, so I'm not sure....

XeO3: Action!

I've just spend they past hour or so adding in baddie shooting, and it makes a real difference! It's now tough! And in places; REALLY TOUGH! I've still some tuning to do before I can call it V1.0 but its looking pretty good.

This means you can no longer line up a whole row of baddies and blast them while automatically following in to pick up coins, as one or more of them may be shooting at you and you'll run right over the bullets! I plan to make this optional in baddies so that at the start of levels I can ease players in then make it tough later on.

It also means that I can make the end of level baddies even harder if I need to, as I can bet them to shoot at you without using sprites! So while I can use a sprite to fire a large rocket or something, I can fire out up to 8 bullets at a time forcing you to dodge all over the place! That could be fun! (or a nightmare!)

Oh, and on a side note... I've also allowed turrents(and baddies) to shoot horizontally. This means again you cant fly directly at a turret/baddie worry free anymore!

XeO3: Weapons!

I have just finished adding in the new weapons system! So now what happens is theres a GREEN and RED section to the RIGHT hand power bar. This is your weapons power.

IF you get enough coins (fill your coin bar) while the weapons bar is in the green - you power up!!
IF you fill your coin bar when the power bar is in the RED you only recharge.
IF you DONT get enough coins to do either, you drop a power level.
IF you are on level 1 and the bar drops to 0 - it STAYS zero until the coins bar is full and then recharges.

This should mean that you HAVE to kill baddies and dive in to collect coins making you dice with death! Otherwise, you could just sit back and shoot which would be too easy.
It'll be interesting to get feedback once the demo is released....