Old BASIC games that deserve a Machine Code remake

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Nick
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Old BASIC games that deserve a Machine Code remake

Post by Nick »

One of my favourite games from the early years of Spectrum history is 20 Tons, a part BASIC, part Machine Code Boulderdash type game which, as far as I'm aware, hasn't been updated/remade.

Are there any other old school BASIC or part BASIC/part MC games that anyone here thinks would be great if they were given an update?
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Turtle_Quality
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Re: Old BASIC games that deserve a Machine Code remake

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A compiler is the middle way, I compiled a few basic games back in the day with M Coder (the first version), the biggest effort was compiling Kevin Tom's Football Manager. Of course it won't add any polish or class to the game, it just means you don't have such long waits for the next screen to appear
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Ralf
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Re: Old BASIC games that deserve a Machine Code remake

Post by Ralf »

I'd like to see a remake of Dictator (https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=1388). With graphics, music and extended gameplay. Even some arcade minigames could be included (something like Defender of the Crown).
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Juan F. Ramirez
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Re: Old BASIC games that deserve a Machine Code remake

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Re: Old BASIC games that deserve a Machine Code remake

Post by SteveSmith »

With the aim of just speeding them up, or generally improving the game?
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stupidget
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Re: Old BASIC games that deserve a Machine Code remake

Post by stupidget »

I'd love to see a m/c version of Forest of Long Shadows https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=24421

This was a BASIC type-in that would be great with enhanced graphics, bit of sound and an increase in speed.
Hank Scorpio
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Re: Old BASIC games that deserve a Machine Code remake

Post by Hank Scorpio »

The Valley springs to mind. There are also quite a few text adventures which have good ideas and could be expanded and improved on with PAW, GAC or The Quill.
Nick
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Re: Old BASIC games that deserve a Machine Code remake

Post by Nick »

SteveSmith wrote: Mon Oct 28, 2019 1:05 pm With the aim of just speeding them up, or generally improving the game?
Generally improving. Some of the old BASIC games have really good ideas that potentially could be expanded upon or re-imagined.
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Fahnn
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Re: Old BASIC games that deserve a Machine Code remake

Post by Fahnn »

Turtle_Quality wrote: Sat Oct 26, 2019 7:40 pm A compiler is the middle way, I compiled a few basic games back in the day with M Coder (the first version), the biggest effort was compiling Kevin Tom's Football Manager. Of course it won't add any polish or class to the game, it just means you don't have such long waits for the next screen to appear
One of the things I found frustrating about BASIC compilers was that you could pretty much only use half the memory (as the generated machine code usually took up as much space as the BASIC) so I'm quite surprised that Football Manager could be compiled at all. Was it really small enough or did you have to make optimisations to the original program to get it to work?
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Re: Old BASIC games that deserve a Machine Code remake

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Turtle_Quality
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Re: Old BASIC games that deserve a Machine Code remake

Post by Turtle_Quality »

Fahnn wrote: Mon Oct 28, 2019 4:42 pm
One of the things I found frustrating about BASIC compilers was that you could pretty much only use half the memory (as the generated machine code usually took up as much space as the BASIC) so I'm quite surprised that Football Manager could be compiled at all. Was it really small enough or did you have to make optimisations to the original program to get it to work?
Ooh now you're asking, it was 35 years ago... . there was little or no array support in the compiler, so data needed to be setup where possible with structured peek and poke instead. But that also meant I could save the data as a code file and remove the basic lines that setup the data, which needs half the space data statements in Basic reading into arrays. I also remember poking many of the strings in big print statements (like the picture of the FA Cup) to memory. Having a Microdrive helped given I had to reload the data every time I screwed up
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DouglasReynholm
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Re: Old BASIC games that deserve a Machine Code remake

Post by DouglasReynholm »

Mined Out, my second ever Speccy game after Kong, was coded in Sinclair BASIC. Essentially an earlier version of Windows Minesweeper, at least as far as I recall - I haven't played it in the last 35 years... Might make quite a nice upgrade from UDGs to sprites and maybe 'arcade' it up a little.

I remember it being my first successful use of the 'BREAK' key....
... could you imagine any modern tech coming out with a button marked 'BREAK' on it?

:lol:
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