Nothing

[Andre Leao]

Released...





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

[cmal]

Very smooth game...but difficult!! It's a good thing there are unlimited lives
It's one of those games I couldn't pull myself away from until I got to the next section, only to be sucked into playing further to see what's around the corner.

Fantastic piece of work!

[stupidget]

yep, i agree with you there [mention]cmal[/mention] , it really is a tough game. It's reminds me of a sort of Super Meat Boy game where you just keep trying and trying again and again and again to get past the bit you're stuck at.

The graphics are so smooth that it actually looks like a PC based de-make of a speccy game. Great tune as well.

[Jbizzel]

Superb work. Worth £2.60 of my money any day. Hard to believe this is possible on the spectrum!

I find it very hard but rewarding.

[mention]patters[/mention] mentioned this was the guy that did the mario bros 50hz demo a few years ago. Another great achievement.

Apparently he spent a year optimising the code for this title.

[TMD2003]

Has anyone managed to get past the first boss yet? I've got an idea what to do but the timing is damn near impossible to pull off. Unless I'm barking up the wrong tree.

[Ralf]

I agree with everything said above. It's very smooth but very hard as well.

[Jbizzel]

Has anyone managed to get past the first boss yet? I've got an idea what to do but the timing is damn near impossible to pull off. Unless I'm barking up the wrong tree.

What the first boss? The eyeball creature?

[TMD2003]

That's the one. It's always floating at the wrong height.

[Ast A. Moore]

Has anyone managed to get past the first boss yet? I've got an idea what to do but the timing is damn near impossible to pull off. Unless I'm barking up the wrong tree.

Spoiler

Move right while the creature is asleep (don’t run, though); it’ll hover in front of you. When it wakes up—stand still until it falls asleep again. Do it a few times and drive it all the way to the spikes.

[Jbizzel]

What [mention]Ast A. Moore[/mention] said.

[Bubu]

What is the "small ball floating friend" who says "LISTEN" for?

[TMD2003]

What is the "small ball floating friend" who says "LISTEN" for?

HEY! LISTEN!

That gets very irritating after the first dungeon.

[Ast A. Moore]

That gets very irritating after the first dungeon.

Oh, that’s the least irritating aspect of the game.

[ssmirnov]

Hey!
Thanks for posting "Nothing" here.
Yes, as it was already posted above, the development of the game took ~1 year.
Moreover, the development of the engine took about 9 months.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask! I am happy to answer all your questions!

With kind regards,
Sergei Smirnov, developer.

[stupidget]

I finished the demo yesterday and will definitely be buying the full game. It is one of the best looking and smoothest Speccy games I've ever played and it's amazing to think that this is all crammed into 128k!!!

[Lee Bee]

One year later…

I just had to bump this thread… I discovered this game today for the first time and I'm blown away! It's simply AMAZING! This speed is groundbreaking! I've never seen anything like it. Hard to believe it's running on a Spectrum!



I have two questions to the developer, @ssmirnov:

1. Would this engine be much slower if the background used variable colours? (I don't mind if the colours and graphics come out of alignment during scrolling, as long as they're aligned when the screen is static.)

2. This is the first time I've seriously believed that Sonic the Hedgehog could be brought to the Spectrum. Have you considered making a Sonic demo? (I love your Super Mario Bros demo by the way!) A Sonic game would be fantastic, even if it had a monochrome background. You would be free to use my Sonic music (short preview).

[TMD2003]

I never got past the second stage. It was more a case of "flailing around int he dark, hoping to find a clue as to where to go next".

Spoiler

For we brought Nothing into the world, and we can take Nothing out of it. - 1 Timothy 6:7

Except an extra eye, so it seems, Timmy old boy.

[ssmirnov]

1. Would this engine be much slower if the background used variable colours? (I don't mind if the colours and graphics come out of alignment during scrolling, as long as they're aligned when the screen is static.)

2. This is the first time I've seriously believed that Sonic the Hedgehog could be brought to the Spectrum. Have you considered making a Sonic demo? (I love your Super Mario Bros demo by the way!) A Sonic game would be fantastic, even if it had a monochrome background. You would be free to use my Sonic music

Hi!

1.If you add color to the background, of course the performance will be lower. It will drop by about 15-20% (this can be measured directly in the engine). But I think there is a way to implement color update algorithm in such a way to reduce the drawdown.

2. About Sonic - you're not the first one to ask me about it No, I'm not planning on making a Sonic game yet. Although yes, in monochrome and with minimal backgrounds - it's quite possible!

I'm making another engine now, for another game. It's still in the experimentation stage, but if it works, it will look more spectacular than "Nothing".

[Ralf]

Nothing is in many ways impressive game but it went a bit unnoticed.
The problem is with its difficulty. Tt's really hard and can put many people off playing it.
Repeating the same section again and again may be frustrating.

The engine it uses isn't a magic bullet though, it' not a sudden discovery after 35 years how to run
Spectrum games 300% faster.

Please notice that there is a lot of empty space on the screen all the time. I'm pretty sure that the engine
just doesn't touch it at all. If it had more complicated background and had to redraw all screen each frame it would be
much, much slower.

It's tricks all the time. Like partisans fighting against much bigger and stronger army On Spectrum you cannot just
have it fast, smooth and detailed at once. You have to choose.

[Lee Bee]

Maybe it is just a "trick" but the end result is stunning, like nothing I've seen before on the Spectrum. A very impressive game!

[ssmirnov]

Please notice that there is a lot of empty space on the screen all the time. I'm pretty sure that the engine
just doesn't touch it at all. If it had more complicated background and had to redraw all screen each frame it would be
much, much slower.

The engine completely redraws every frame. The entire screen is cleared using the stack, and then the next frame is rendered. Completely, all of it.
Two screenbuffers of 128K machine are used.