My new game - CSSCGC 2018 entry

People are still making stuff for the Sinclair related machines. Tell us about new games and other software that runs on the Spectrum, ZX80/ZX81, Pentagon and Next.
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R-Tape
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Re: My new game - CSSCGC 2018 entry

Post by R-Tape »

This is actually very cool. You should be careful submitting something like this to the CGC, you'll end up hosting it next year.

What's your Hi-Score? At first I thought there will a lot of impossible scenarios, but once I got used to it there always seemed to be a way out, even if I didn't take it. Best so far is a bit over 150.
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PeterJ
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Re: My new game - CSSCGC 2018 entry

Post by PeterJ »

[mention]MonkZy[/mention] Thank you for sharing the source code too.
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Kweepa
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Re: My new game - CSSCGC 2018 entry

Post by Kweepa »

Yes, this is awesome!
I poked around the source but it wasn't obvious (to me anyway) - is there a difference between game A and game B?
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Re: My new game - CSSCGC 2018 entry

Post by MonkZy »

I have just fixed this so it works on real hardware, following the advice from @[mention]Ast A. Moore[/mention]. I, foolishly it seems, used an emulator to give me a result for each single key-press and used the results in my code. I thought it would be OK, because I was only looking for a single key. The best practice seems to be stripping bits for each key on a row, which would not have produced this error. I also fixed a small bug with the speed routine not resetting.

I could post up the new version now, but that may be hasty. Currently I am play testing on my rubbery friend..Yay! I will re-upload a .zip with all the files a little later on.

I just scored 215 on the real hardware :) I have spotted a couple of new 'glitches' and weirdness, but not had it crash yet. On the emulators I can get top speed on Game A which is 350 points and above. The rubbery keys seem to bounce a little maybe ;P

[mention]Kweepa[/mention] yes Game A starts at a slower speed , accelerates slower and has a slower top speed. Fuel runs out after 120 points on both games, the road and fuel stop randomness is identical on both games
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Ast A. Moore
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Re: My new game - CSSCGC 2018 entry

Post by Ast A. Moore »

MonkZy wrote: Wed Mar 07, 2018 8:33 pm The best practice seems to be stripping bits for each key on a row, which would not have produced this error.
You’re right, it’s generally better to test each bit individually, however, your original approach would work, too, on most Spectrums. Just not some Issue 2 and Issue 3 ones. ;)
Every man should plant a tree, build a house, and write a ZX Spectrum game.

Author of A Yankee in Iraq, a 50 fps shoot-’em-up—the first game to utilize the floating bus on the +2A/+3,
and zasm Z80 Assembler syntax highlighter.
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Re: My new game - CSSCGC 2018 entry

Post by Nomad »

You did a great job. I was downloading the file thinking 'bet this is going to be another pong clone' hahhaa. Slap my face I was all kinds of wrong.

The guys first 100% machine code program.. he has vertical scrolling, custom fonts, a load screen, in game sound effects its not slow/unresponsive and it all works :lol: and its not pong! I would say that is a all round success.

In game action:

Image

The load screen:

Image

The custom font:

Image

In addition to this there are some nice attention to detail. I especially like the game and watch style initialization of the sprites to screen at the start of the game.
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Re: My new game - CSSCGC 2018 entry

Post by Morkin »

Haha, this is pretty good.... Rookie mistake submitting it to CSSGCG, like R-Tape said, hope your web dev skills are up to scratch..! :lol:

My high score is 120-ish. I should easily be able to beat it (it's not that fast) but my fingers seem to go all spannery.
My Speccy site: thirdharmoniser.com
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Ast A. Moore
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Re: My new game - CSSCGC 2018 entry

Post by Ast A. Moore »

Rename it to Gorace Goes Racing. :D
Every man should plant a tree, build a house, and write a ZX Spectrum game.

Author of A Yankee in Iraq, a 50 fps shoot-’em-up—the first game to utilize the floating bus on the +2A/+3,
and zasm Z80 Assembler syntax highlighter.
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Re: My new game - CSSCGC 2018 entry

Post by Ralf »

Looks really nice :) Maybe a minigame but definitely not a crap game!

Congratulations to the author. I hope that you won't stop here and we'll see more stuff from you.
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Re: My new game - CSSCGC 2018 entry

Post by Nomad »

Just a hint...

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se3-CuHCjgg[/media]

There are tons of games in the game & watch range that are just waiting to be ported :lol:
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Re: My new game - CSSCGC 2018 entry

Post by Ralf »

Yes, lot's of these games. You can check them here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_G ... atch_games

Or you can do something your own but in the style of these games

Like this :) (actually a picture joke, not a real game)
Image
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Re: My new game - CSSCGC 2018 entry

Post by MonkZy »

I went with an LCD game to keep things simple, I was originally going to write this game in BASIC. My thought was, how hard can it be simply turning attributes on and off. Anyhow, things galloped on and it ended up in assembly. In fact, I never even started a BASIC version. The internet is a wonderful thing. I have learned a lot and I am pleased you all liked it.

I will spend a week tidying up this game, iron out some bugs and I will re-upload it. I do have a distraction tho', a pair of disheveled Grey +2's have come into my possession, one seems usable and the other seems a little dead :?

I got the assembly bug, and I got some more things I want to do :)

[mention]Ralf[/mention] That LCD game looks like it should be real :D

I did find a couple of LCD games on the spectrum, way way more polished than my own:

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS0td5BU6o8[/media]

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrfPkifXqeo[/media]
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Re: My new game - CSSCGC 2018 entry

Post by Joefish »

Those are more sophisticated than just turning attributes on and off. Though a full-screen game might give more scope for attributes.
I did think of writing a generic game engine for Game-and-Watch type games. You could design a screen, then design (maybe in an editor) your patches of attributes and number each one. Then have a scripted logic for which to activate / deactivate.
Though I imagined it would take ages to explain how to translate a game into the necessary logic so it would never get used!

For example, the player would not have an X/Y position exactly. There would be logic attached to each cell where the player can appear that says "if you press left, de-activate this cell and activate the other cell. Or die if the nasty-cell-in-between is active".

Then there would be a list of events that occur on a clock tick for each game object cell, that lets them de-activate and activate their neighbour (thus appearing to move), and again kill the player if the player cell in-between those two positions is active. And then randomly inject new objects.

It would be down to this logic to ensure that, for example, no two player cells are ever active at the same time, or else you end up with multiple ghost players, any one of which could get you killed.
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Re: My new game - CSSCGC 2018 entry

Post by hikoki »

This explanation https://www.worldofspectrum.org/forums/ ... ent_563380 asks for a game&watch editor? Maybe some program that parses a slideshow comparing every picture with the template which contains all the sprites. The parser would take into account the title of every frame/picture of such irfanview slideshow. Titles would contain ingame keystrokes. Perhaps it'd be better to take one of those opensource mindmap programs to make the gui designer.
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Re: My new game - CSSCGC 2018 entry

Post by Joefish »

The pain is writing a comprehensive editor - you'd probably want things PC-based these days.
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Re: My new game - CSSCGC 2018 entry

Post by R-Tape »

I see this game "won" the CSS CGC 2018!

Congrats [mention]MonkZy[/mention], will you be hosting?

Does anyone know what's happening with this year's CGC?
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Re: My new game - CSSCGC 2018 entry

Post by Kweepa »

Hey, congrats!
Thermal Ski was a worthy actual winner, and this a worthy loser!
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Re: My new game - CSSCGC 2018 entry

Post by MonkZy »

I am the official loser of the CSSCGG! Thanks for the heads-up [mention]R-Tape[/mention]. The email account I used when I entered this compo is now dormant, it was an old ISP account I no longer use, meaning I missed the announcement by a month it would seem :oops: I will contact Shaun immediately. I am not sure whether the loser is the host for the following year (this year).

This mighty fine forum was the reason I entered the compo, I had zero knowledge of machine code programming when I joined. Thanks to you all.
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R-Tape
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Re: My new game - CSSCGC 2018 entry

Post by R-Tape »

MonkZy wrote: Sun Mar 03, 2019 8:27 pm I am not sure whether the loser is the host for the following year (this year).
Unless Shaun found someone else (the main site and the spam-infested CSS user group don't suggest so), it looks very much like you're this year's host I'm afraid! :mrgreen:
Well, we have a a couple of big announcements... our winner is the fantastic Thermal Ski entered by UNSATISFACTORY SOFTWARE. What a hit that was. And as for the loser, well that was the rather drab GO RACE! entered by Simon Pitter.
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Re: My new game - CSSCGC 2018 entry

Post by R-Tape »

MonkZy wrote: Sun Mar 03, 2019 8:27 pm The email account I used when I entered this compo is now dormant, it was an old ISP account I no longer use, meaning I missed the announcement by a month it would seem
This guy's going to be a perfect CGC host!
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Re: My new game - CSSCGC 2018 entry

Post by Lee P »

Afternoon. W'happen with the CSSCGC2019 then? Anybody know?
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Re: My new game - CSSCGC 2018 entry

Post by Joefish »

R-Tape wrote: Sun Mar 03, 2019 8:46 pmThis guy's going to be a perfect CGC host!
Seems to me the whole winner/loser thing was the wrong way round anyway.

If I had time I'd build an admin framework for hosting these on my webspace. But so far, nope. I don't even know how to do scripted uploads, never mind all this 'tweeting' b*ll*x... :roll:
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Re: My new game - CSSCGC 2018 entry

Post by R-Tape »

Joefish wrote: Tue Jun 18, 2019 1:44 pm Seems to me the whole winner/loser thing was the wrong way round anyway.
Seems okay to me! That's part of the gag anyway innit? Either way, these days it seems to be a case of finding a willing volunteer!

I've emailed MonkZY. If he's not up for it shall we see if we can find a volunteer here or at CSS? Worst case scenario is that I could host the game downloads on my webspace and have a thread here and at CSS, it'd be a slimmed down affair though.

And I forget what the record is, but have we broke the record yet for latest CGC start?

Edit - better wording
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Re: My new game - CSSCGC 2018 entry

Post by PeterJ »

Hi,

Im happy to host a simple webpage here if anyone does HTML and CSS.
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Re: My new game - CSSCGC 2018 entry

Post by Joefish »

CSS? Ooh, get you, with your fancy standardised protocols! :lol:
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