Spectrum Computing

I received an email earlier today from Carlos Pérezgrín about his new game called 'Being left is not right'

The link below will take you to a Google Drive link with all the files including instructions in English and Spanish.

Carlos does ask me to request that you read the instructions before trying to play the game.

We will get this included in ZXDB in the next few weeks.




https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

Very nice multi-tasking game!

Is this a first on the speccy? We have games like Ratul and Zeki in which you have to consider two different sprites, but this is different. I remember people suggesting that Bean Brothers used a simultaneous control like this, but I opted for flipping.

We will get this included in ZXDB in the next few weeks.

Hopefully I'll have all my stuff collated and validated this weekend.

Definitely a fresh idea in Spectrum gaming!

Let me do some explanation:

As you can see on the screenshot, the screen is divided to 2 areas. There is a ship in one area and
an astronaut in another one. You control... both of them.

You must move the astronaut on the platform to turn on some switch (an maybe do other stuff in later levels), At the same
time you must control the ship to destroy nasties and not get destroyed yourself.

Eventually you open a passage beweeen the areas and you have to walk your man to the ship to fly away to next level.
Or fly your ship to the man, they must "unite", whatever way.

My opinion? The gameplay may be at moments confusing and the graphics are a bit simplistic but it has this something special

Ralf wrote: ↑Thu Jun 13, 2019 10:04 pm Definitely a fresh idea in Spectrum gaming!

Let me do some explanation:

As you can see on the screenshot, the screen is divided to 2 areas. There is a ship in one area and
an astronaut in another one. You control... both of them.

You must move the astronaut on the platform to turn on some switch (an maybe do other stuff in later levels), At the same
time you must control the ship to destroy nasties and not get destroyed yourself.

Eventually you open a passage beweeen the areas and you have to walk your man to the ship to fly away to next level.
Or fly your ship to the man, they must "unite", whatever way.

My opinion? The gameplay may be at moments confusing and the graphics are a bit simplistic but it has this something special

I haven't come up with many game concepts in my time, but a couple of years ago I came up with something that sounds like it would have been quite similar, if only my lazy arse would do anything about it.

In true Alan Partridge style, the title came first with the gameplay second. Anyway, it was to be known as 'Evil Robot Twin(stick)', ie, was to use some sort of modern dual thumb controller. Split screen each stick would control one of a pair of robots, one on each screen, needing to perform tasks to allow the other robot to progress, with a time based mcguffin to give it some urgency.

Someone is welcome to take this premise and run with it!

R-Tape wrote: ↑Thu Jun 13, 2019 10:02 pm Is this a first on the speccy? We have games like Ratul and Zeki in which you have to consider two different sprites, but this is different.

Did you already forget Coincidentia Oppositorum in Lost In My Spectrum, Dave?

In the fifth and final level of Cousin Horace you also control both Horaces at the same time. And they move in opposite directions

About the game: The idea is interesting, and I like the variety of tasks required for each screen, but there are some nags. Sometimes it happens that the pilot dies without apparent reason (edit: I found the "dying" fall distance to be really short). In the second level the door does not open although I repeatedly touch the switch in the top right corner of the screen (edit: you must keep staying there for a couple of seconds).

Also, the music is a typical example of that pseudo-techno stuff that I find extremely painful to my ears (and unfortunately seems to be so popular in the Russian Spectrum scene). Luckily if you load the game under 48K emulation mode or on a genuine 48K/+ you won't hear it.

Interesting game, but quite difficult. I've only managed to get up to about level 6 so far.

Alessandro wrote: ↑Thu Jun 13, 2019 10:37 pm About the game: The idea is interesting, but sometimes it happens that the pilot dies without apparent reason.

Could this be because of the fall damage? I agree that the safe falling distance is a bit too short. Also some walls seem to instantly kill you.

Alessandro wrote: ↑Thu Jun 13, 2019 10:37 pm Also the music is a typical example of that pseudo-techno stuff that I find extremely painful to my ears (and unfortunately seems to be so popular in the Russian Spectrum scene). Luckily if you load the game under 48K emulation mode or on a genuine 48K/+ you won't hear it.

Cool game!

djnzx48 wrote: ↑Thu Jun 13, 2019 11:23 pm
Also some walls seem to instantly kill you.

[mention]PeterJ[/mention]
I think this is a common problem with AGD game. Could you let the author know about this way of avoiding unfair collisions? I remember R-Tape's solution seemed to work quite well.
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=202&p=4083#p4098
By the way, Allan Turvey shows another way on his youtube channel to achieve precise collisions.

Alessandro wrote: ↑Thu Jun 13, 2019 10:37 pm

R-Tape wrote: ↑Thu Jun 13, 2019 10:02 pm Is this a first on the speccy? We have games like Ratul and Zeki in which you have to consider two different sprites, but this is different.

Did you already forget Coincidentia Oppositorum in Lost In My Spectrum, Dave?

No, I nearly quoted that as well...

In the fifth and final level of Cousin Horace you also control both Horaces at the same time. And they move in opposite directions :mrgreen

...but I did forget this one!

hikoki wrote: ↑Fri Jun 14, 2019 2:09 am Cool game!

djnzx48 wrote: ↑Thu Jun 13, 2019 11:23 pm
Also some walls seem to instantly kill you.

@PeterJ
I think this is a common problem with AGD game. Could you let the author know about this way of avoiding unfair collisions? I remember R-Tape's solution seemed to work quite well.
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=202&p=4083#p4098
By the way, Allan Turvey shows another way on his youtube channel to achieve precise collisions.

I think the collision distance has been thinned a bit in the AGD settings (can't check on mobile), but that doesn't solve the height collision. I'll drop the author an email.

Update from Carlos;

And yes, the collision detection has been reduced to its minimum, width 10. The main sprites are around 10x16 while the enemies are designed to fill the 16x16 grid. One of the worst things about AGD is collision detection because of the lack of masks, so I did this workaround to be more kind with the players.


I also have some updates to the instructions which I will post tonight.

Nice idea, but It's hard to me controlling the man with a hand and controlling the ship with the other hand at the same time!

R-Tape wrote: ↑Fri Jun 14, 2019 6:56 am

hikoki wrote: ↑Fri Jun 14, 2019 2:09 am Cool game!
@PeterJ
I think this is a common problem with AGD game. Could you let the author know about this way of avoiding unfair collisions? I remember R-Tape's solution seemed to work quite well.
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=202&p=4083#p4098
By the way, Allan Turvey shows another way on his youtube channel to achieve precise collisions.

I think the collision distance has been thinned a bit in the AGD settings (can't check on mobile), but that doesn't solve the height collision. I'll drop the author an email.

It was as simple as killing the hero after two collisions. On that post you shared a demo using gameloop variables: http://stonechatproductions.co.uk/zxgam ... checks.z80
On second thoughts better to change IF D > 3 to if D > 1 in the main player events in your opinion.

Allan Turvey published also this video about getting precise collisions on AGDx
https://youtu.be/imR2jK4Y1FM

hikoki wrote: ↑Fri Jun 14, 2019 11:57 am It was as simple as killing the hero after two collisions. On that post you shared a demo using gameloop variables:

I remember it, we'd need the game embedded in AGD to implement that.

The main problem is that AGD allows you to change the width of the hit-box, but not the height. I'm not sure why this is because it should be easy to implement. Maybe it has unforseen consequences.

You can POKE the AGD code to change the vertical distance, and I think it solves the problem. Here's a snapshot with the collision detection patched. Does this solve it?

POKE 36091,11
POKE 36093,28

presumably something similar to Allan's proximity patch?

R-Tape wrote: ↑Fri Jun 14, 2019 12:51 pm
You can POKE the AGD code to change the vertical distance, and I think it solves the problem. Here's a snapshot with the collision detection patched. Does this solve it?

POKE 36091,11
POKE 36093,28

presumably something similar to Allan's proximity patch?

What happened to the AY music?
As for collisions, I'm not sure if the patch works. For example I notice the same problems with the red walls from level 3.
I liked the analog approach of your demo. Besides, I think AGD has a command to detect which sprite caused a collision so you could assign different D values. For example D would be greater for the smallest sprites and lower for sprites of similar size to the hero.

hikoki wrote: ↑Fri Jun 14, 2019 2:21 pm What happened to the AY music?

My snapshot must be 48k. You have the POKEs though, it's the same thing.

As for collisions, I'm not sure if the patch works. For example I notice the same problems with the red walls from level 3.
I liked the analog approach of your demo. Besides, I think AGD has a command to detect which sprite caused a collision so you could assign different D values. For example D would be greater for the smallest sprites and lower for sprites of similar size to the hero.

These POKEs are for sprite collision only. The block detection is a different bit of code, but I think strict enforcement of background collison is fine. I find the red wall level hard because I'm not used to WASD, nothing to do with collision!

R-Tape wrote: ↑Fri Jun 14, 2019 2:29 pm These POKEs are for sprite collision only. The block detection is a different bit of code, but I think strict enforcement of background collison is fine. I find the red wall level hard because I'm not used to WASD, nothing to do with collision!

These POKEs don't seem to work if you fall on baddies from above. Vertical distance fails when falling on yellow squares.

I know about WASD if you are not lefty but if you get very close to the corners, there is a point where you get stuck to them before touching them. A typical "magnet" issue with AGD games, see Rescue Lander for example. You can avoid it by playing far from baddies and scenery.

hikoki wrote: ↑Fri Jun 14, 2019 3:22 pm These POKEs don't seem to work if you fall on baddies from above. Vertical distance fails when falling on yellow squares.

Please see this rzx video : https://www.dropbox.com/s/euaiuhft61nym ... l.rzx?dl=1

Back from holydays, time to review the new games, starting with this one...

https://planetasinclair.blogspot.com/20 ... right.html