Sorry, don't know what I did there, here is a zip with source and data for gfx.Sorry again, I am having blood pressure problems and can't stand the heat - maybe when the weather and I cool down.

Tricky...Sorry to hear you're not feeling it! It's looking great and it seems (to me) if you carried on you could have it very near completion in another month or so. You've had some enthusiastic feedback from guys on Stardot and here - it'd be great if you can pick it up again.

You've achieved so much with the game as it stands and i think you should be proud; few could push the h/w to the limits like you have.

I hope your health improves soon. Perhaps the enthusiasm from those here and at Stardot will give you a bit of a boost to give the game a final push.

I'll eagerly take a look at your code - I've just about managed to get 6 sprites moving at 50fps on a mode 5 screen and only managed that from following your advice at Christmas time.

I like the finisher idea that sweh mentions but don't think I've got the skillz to further your in game stuff. I could do the window dressing like high score table, loading screen if that would help.


All the best,
jbnbeeb

Thanks jbnbeeb,
I like the idea of a finisher too, but mine (Gil from the 80s) went to Canada.
If you look closely, you will see a bug with the player scrolling on, and if you look at the code, you will see it isn't good or fast - I'm not sure where I am going with this - too hot!
The trick (one of them) with drawing things fast is to pick something that is character aligned and can just be copied - preferably self erasing like the walking birds, so you only have to draw them and not mask them or clear them. If you look closely, you will see the stars popping back after the self clearing bit has passed.

The slightly cunning bit about the walking birds, is that they are all identical, so you can lda (src),y : sta (bird0),y : sta (bird1),y :...: sta (bird15),y : dey : bpl.

For clearing (can't remember if I left the code in) something like:

lda #0 : ldy #bytes : jsr clear_birds
...

FOR b,15,0,-1
sta (bird+2*b),y
NEXT
.clear_birds
dey : bpl self_modded_offset

I then do something like: dec clear_birds+2 : dec clear_birds+2 and move the highest bird to the dead bird slot, giving a slightly higher cost when a bird dies, but minimising the every frame case by running the absolute minimum code. (If the birds needed redrawing often, but moved rarely, I might even use sta bird0,y saving 1 cycle per bird per byte, 512 in this case or 4 scan lines.
This isn't the sort of thing that makes code readable, or maintainable, but is how my brain works!

tricky

Some very impressive stuff here, and really cool that you had the patience to keep updating this thread with work in progress videos. I'm thinking of trying some 6502 coding on the Beeb, I've only done 68K in the past. Will have fun looking at and stepping through some of the examples you uploaded- thanks!

Thanks, I went from 6502 to 68k.
I am feeling a little better, so I might try and do something in a few weeks - I'm not up to phoenix, but maybe something else.
There are plenty of helpful people around if you have questions.

It's the hardest thing finishing off a project.

I was working on Mountain Panic for about 5 years, but there were periods of 6-8 months where I didn't even look at it.

You've achieved so much in such a short space of time it seems a bit early to pack up. Just shelve it for a few years and come back when you fancy, because I bet you the urge will take you again

Funny you should mention that, I wasn't going to say anything because I didn't want to get anyone's hopes up, but I have been toying with the idea of trying AstroBlaster while I get better enough to go back to Phoenix. "What, where did that come from" - I'm sure one of you said it There were a few bits of my version of Phoenix that seemed more in line with Space Invaders (I've done a version of that for nearly every machine/language that I have ever used) or Astro Blaster and I couldn't face just ripping them out and starting those bits again, so I ripped out everything else and with some help from PacManPlus from the AtariAge forum (see post "Fighter pilots needed in sector wars ..." - I didn't think anyone had ever done Astro Blaster) has given me a hand and saved me years getting the attack pattern movement data sorted. Watch for a new thread when I have enough together to check that it is feasible
PS DaveF, I could never come up with anything like Mountain Panic, it is brilliant.

I had a bit of time tonight, so I thought I would have a go at adding a few sound effects, the player shooting is ok, and I'm very happy with the big explosion, but the normal birds dying/exploding is proving very hard to get close - anyone have any ideas?

Yippee! New Phoenix! Gonna try it now!

It's only a few sound effects

Hi Tricky,

Thanks for adding sound - it really brings it's alive.

Your fire sound is spot on - quite different from the standard frequency zap.
I think the alien die sound doesn't give you that satisfying 'splat' feel however - yours is more like a bell, the bird split sound is better.

From watching the arcade it sounds like a short sequence of notes going higher?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FCFVdDmV8U

Arcadians has a pretty good die (and intro tune).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOTy5A1QrLw

One trick I use is to save the VGM output from an emulator then I can see the notes and enevlopes that a sound effect uses.

I also really like it when these sorts of game have a short intro and outro tune
(Zalaga's great that way)

Thanks

PJ

Good timing, I'll have a look at those videos, but was just about to post some possible versions of the tunes in Phoenix over at stardot to hopefully get an idea of what people think sounds best.

I assume everyone here reads the STH forums at stardot, but just in case you don't (like I didn't for ages), here is Phoenix with improved walking bird death cries and the two tunes added.
Z,X, RETURN to fire and SHIFT skip level (will be shield).

Added the swaying birds background noise and mothership alarm.
Still mono tunes and the occasional invisible bullets.

just played this on a actual beeb, plays and sounds splendid!

Do you know about Eagle Empire - Alligata 1983, it only plays on a real machine, not on emulators. Here is a video for you to compare:
http://youtu.be/sfUxeufO728
Yours is much smoother, nicer background 'starts' and plays fine on all emulators

They do have a player explosion and the birds do a sort of walkabout thing, which is what I am adding right now, but it is quite a big job and may involve re-writing/moving my AstroBlaster code over to avoid flicker.
If I am feeling very authentic, I may simulate the original arcade machines flicker with my own
I've never seen that far through EagleEmpire, do they have an end of level boss/mothership?
I did pick Carnival and Phoenix because I liked them and because I thought that we got short changed on the beeb (with Carousel and EagleEmpire). I picked AstroBlaster because I had a cunning idea for doing the rendering and I didn't think at the time that anyone had done an 8bit version (had't seen PacManPlus's 7800 version then).
I guess some might say I am playing it safe making games that we don't have a good (EDIT: more acurate) version of to compare to.
Richard
PS Sorry if the authors of Carousel or EagleEmpire are around, I guess there were good business reasons for making those games as they were.

after the blue birds (end of my vid), then there is the pink ones (but can fire quicker at them), then there is indeed the mothership.
Seen it a few months ago, but was not fast enough with camera, as got shot quickly and ....Game over