Spectrum Computing

Well, perhaps we can compete or collaborate in the future, who knows :) You're right about the Arctic version, it was very well done for the time. Someone made a Galaxian clone quite recently which was on par with it, but I can't help thinking that a more arcade accurate version is doable. https://s...

This is a screen capture of the experiment I did about four years ago. It was possible to draw all the aliens in a single cycle, with 2 pixel colour banding, and have them animate and be shot. It pushed the whole thing to the limit though, and in the end I decided it was an interesting tech demo but...

regarding Pacman, yes, all sprites are preshifted and also stored in pages so that shifting is done by simply reading the X offset and adding it to the source. Overall this uses about 2k. I have a full screen buffer at $C000 to allow quick testing, so that's another 7k. Pacman sprite is handled indi...

Just wanted to take the opportunity to thank you for all the work you have put into this over the years, the community really appreciates it.

re the wipe, I first used it in Lunar Rescue, since both games are supposed to be on a vertical monitor I wrote a wipe routine that just gives it that extra arcade feel. Always makes me happy when someone notices it.

Let's say I'm cooking it on a Spectrum with an arcade recipe, adjusting wherever appropriate for optimal results really. It's running at 50hz which means it is a bit slower than the arcade, though the way the maze is built might make up for that a bit. There's a full set of dev videos with commentar...

yes, the judder is almost entirely due to the way the video is recorded. I don't allow any of the unholy trinity of jerk, flicker or tear

There are three cutscenes in total, all of which I will include.

I might be wrong but I don't believe that Platform Game Designer does anything that AGDx or MPAGD can't do. One thing that they both support is inline assembly code though, so you can put your own assembly routines in there. If I were you though, I would suggest starting with something like Jonathan...

If you're happy to develop a game on an emulated machine, then you can still have some fun with AGDx, but MPAGD has PC tools which you might find suit you better. The engines in them are very similar, as can be seen from the games that have been made on them. I wouldn't necessarily reccommend them f...

As remarkable as something like Starstrike 2 is, it's just about possible because it's in space, there are no backgrounds. As has been said above, as soon as you want to have backgrounds and fast moving foreground sprites, all done in software, you are going to end up running under 10 frames per sec...

Pac-Land is a fun game, the PC-Engine version is great, but on the Spectrum I really prefer the golden age single screen games because I know it's possible to really do them justice. You can certainly expect more of them from me!

it's funny you should mention Galaxian - it's certainly something I've considered, because even though the official conversion is pretty good, it could be a bit smoother and faster, especially if it has AY sound effects. That being said, I have a pretty long 'to do' list, so it probably won't be for...

Thanks for the feedback, always appreciated. The option to redefine the start key is there because it's actually the joystick fire button as well and is used in game for pausing the game too. The idea being that people play these games on emulators in a number of ways and you can be on the couch or ...

I guess it could clash if you chose 'R' to as the 'start' key, I guess I could disallow that. Seems an unlikely choice though!

Well, nothing, you can use R if you want, because in the menu you aren't moving Pacman so it won't clash.

just to add, one alternative would be to use something like Shiru's AYFX player, and to create simple tunes which are sound effects, and play them using some kind of a timer.

Another update

Incredible, this is so good! After all these decades of (great) Spectrum Pac-man games, it finally feels like the definitive version has arrived. Makes me wonder if you might tackle some other classic titles. Thanks! This is actually my fifth 'golden age' arcade conversion after converting Turtles,...

some more updates

thanks guys I certainly wouldn't be working on accuracy to this degree and not be aware of the ghost delay. First you get things working, then you add the embellishments. You'll note that the ghost score is not added to the score too - that's because all of that will be coded together. Obviously the...

hey guys I realise that probably the last thing the Spectrum world needs is another clone of Pacman but I've been trying to make one I can be proud of for most of my adult life so I'm not about to give up now! It does feature a very close recreation of the arcade maze, including the correct number o...

Was aiming just to pip Lee's score, and ended up with... 195600 ... Your turn, Andre :mrgreen: Wow, well played Sir. Andre was helping me to work on the difficulty curve and I thought I'd set the maximum level to 'almost impossible'. Looks like I will have to look at that hardcore mode I was planni...

oh, and a little bit of tech stuff. The pills and maze walls are laid out in such a way that facilitates fast drawing and by shifting everything down a little, allows the fruit to be multicoloured. I had originally planned for this game to use a multicolour trick to give the ghosts white eyes but in...