Spectrum Computing

Extruder, my remake of Magical Drop II, is now available for download.

https://cld.pt/dl/download/2a938561-f9d ... EV2018.zip

Enjoy.

P.S.
Still plan to make further improvements on it, to make it more like the Arcade.

I'm not very familiar with the original game but does this have a lot of work still to do? I would have expected scoring and a difficulty level setting (it seems very hard from the beginning).

RMartins wrote: ↑Wed Jan 31, 2018 11:58 am P.S.
Still plan to make further improvements on it, to make it more like the Arcade.

Don't include the distracting and exhausting manga wibble that goes on in the background!

R-Tape wrote: ↑Wed Jan 31, 2018 8:14 pm I'm not very familiar with the original game but does this have a lot of work still to do? I would have expected scoring and a difficulty level setting (it seems very hard from the beginning).

Actually, I incremented the difficulty (drop speed) at the last minute, because I found it to be too easy.
I'm probably biased since I'm a frequent player

But with all the PowerUps I'm sure you can manage.

The original difficulty is based on the Arcade Board (NEO-GEO) BIOS setting, not from a game option.

R-Tape wrote: ↑Wed Jan 31, 2018 8:14 pm

RMartins wrote: ↑Wed Jan 31, 2018 11:58 am P.S.
Still plan to make further improvements on it, to make it more like the Arcade.

Don't include the distracting and exhausting manga wibble that goes on in the background!

In a near future, the Manga like characters will appear before the game starts, but will not be on the game board, once game play starts.

You can check the game development thread on ZX-DEV, which has some screenshots from the Arcade, for comparison
http://zx-dev-conversions.proboards.com ... 0/extruder

I believe that the kind of "fake" 3D lettering effect that I present on the tittle screen, is most probably a first on the ZX.

At least I have never seen it before, and I come up with it a few months ago, using an image editor.
I tried to implement it first in BASIC, but stopped mid way, because it was getting complex to implement.

I then decided to implement it in Assembly and I made it work in about a day, with some hicups along the way, since some letters, were not working correctly due to Z ordering, being incorrect.

I have another concept game, that I'm designing, base on this idea.
I'll show something when I have a minimum working setup for it. (it's a few months away).

RMartins wrote: ↑Thu Feb 01, 2018 2:17 pm I believe that the kind of "fake" 3D lettering effect that I present on the tittle screen, is most probably a first on the ZX.

It's a nice effect! I have to say I didn't notice it was 3D until you pointed it out :/ Would it be more noticeable if you slowed it down slightly?

Very cool effect I thought. Does the code work on a regular font or is it a font with special info in it to decide which bits to shade etc?

R-Tape wrote: ↑Thu Feb 01, 2018 2:58 pm Very cool effect I thought. Does the code work on a regular font or is it a font with special info in it to decide which bits to shade etc?

It works on any 5x5 pixel font, but the current implementation,requires a timing setup for each letter, since they are rendered as stand alone letters and not as a text string.

This allowed me to play with the spacing between letters while testing Z-order dependencies.

But in the future, I'll probably make something more generic, that can work with a text string directly.

Seven.FFF wrote: ↑Thu Feb 01, 2018 2:51 pm

RMartins wrote: ↑Thu Feb 01, 2018 2:17 pm I believe that the kind of "fake" 3D lettering effect that I present on the tittle screen, is most probably a first on the ZX.

It's a nice effect! I have to say I didn't notice it was 3D until you pointed it out :/ Would it be more noticeable if you slowed it down slightly?

You just need to increase your monitor Contrast, to make it more noticeable

NOTE: Currently, the scroll animation step is done once every 4 frames.
Which means it's 80ms per step, or 50/4 = 12.5 frames/seconds

It's an interesting psycho-perception thing, actually. Originally, all I saw was bad flickering that was unpleasant to look at. Now I know what the effect is, I can see it perfectly.

I may not be neuro-typical

Ah, the flickering is worse on +2A/+3, that partially explains it.

I timed it on a 48K, to never flicker.

I did not try it on any 128K.
I can check that, and see if I can make it go away on a 128K

Could it be an issue with the emulator ?
Have you tried it on a real ZX ?

I don't have a real +2A or +3 I'm afraid. It's possible, but the flicker is the same on SpecEmu, Spin and Spectaculator.

I'm sure it will be just a tiny timing adjustment. 128K and +2 grey is also perfect.

Thank you for the feedback.

Very impressive - especially the graphics, did you use a special library to give you better colours?

Nomad wrote: ↑Fri Feb 02, 2018 4:20 am Very impressive - especially the graphics, did you use a special library to give you better colours?

Nope, all standard ZX colors with typical color clash in 8x8 blocks.

You can see a bit of color clash in the the Stone Jokers background, when starting 2 player mode, if you look for it.
During the game it's just "mind tricks", to use color clash to our advantage.

RMartins wrote: ↑Fri Feb 02, 2018 10:14 pm During the game it's just "mind tricks", to use color clash to our advantage.

Yes it's nice. Reminds me of the way attributes are ued in Cybernoid.

Here is an update to solve a few minor gameplay issues:
Extruder.TAP

The Ball color being grabbed is now shown.

Also reviewed instructions
Instructions

Cheers Rui,

These will be in the next site update (at the weekend).

Love this game and i am currently sorting out a review for it.
Will post it here once its done.

I intend to do a video session, of me playing the arcade with a friend, so that you guys, can understand what this game really is about.
Speed !!!

Most videos available online, do not make it justice.

It's great to see videos made with phone or tablet. They prove that new games are not just for emulators but also for the real thing. I think Alessandro Grussu made one really nice for his game Sophia.

I found a video, by someone that plays well enough to show the true colors of this game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4Arqn2q32M

But 2 humans battling each other, is a lot more fun to watch/play.

RMartins wrote: ↑Wed Jan 31, 2018 11:58 am Extruder, my remake of Magical Drop II, is now available for download.

https://cld.pt/dl/download/2a938561-f9d ... EV2018.zip

Enjoy.

P.S.
Still plan to make further improvements on it, to make it more like the Arcade.

Would you mind if I include this and any other games you have into the DivMMC Start Pack. Its free to the public via .zip file I am making at the moment.

Morcar wrote: ↑Sun Feb 25, 2018 4:13 pm Would you mind if I include this and any other games you have into the DivMMC Start Pack. Its free to the public via .zip file I am making at the moment.

Sure, feel free to include it.

hikoki wrote: ↑Mon Feb 19, 2018 5:33 pm I think Alessandro Grussu made one really nice for his game Sophia.

Ahem... The trailer video for Sophia was made with RealSpectrum for DOS, actually I made another video with my cell phone, demonstrating the new Apulija-13 loading on a +2A, SetoLOAD turbo version.

However I am absolutely convinced that games should be made for real hardware first. I always test my games on real hardware before releasing them.