Hi all,

I've joined here because I'd like to have a go at writing some games on the beeb, something that I've never tried before.

To ease myself in gently I've decided to start with a conversion of an old Commodore Plus/4 game called Treasure Island. It's a fairly simple maze game played on an 8x8 grid of screens. The aim is to explore the island to find the treasure, collect certain items, and deal with any pirates that get in your way. Once you've found the treasure you have to run back to the ship through the maze with Long John Silver in hot pursuit. There's a Wikipedia page with a bit more info here.

So far I've mapped all the game screens, enemies, collectibles and point allocations. The next task is drawing the graphics and writing the code to display them. I'll post screen shots when this is up and running since I'd rather show actual game-rendered graphics than mock-up screens.

Cheers,
Paul.

Hi, Paul.

That looks like a fab game to port, judging from the description and the screenshots. It looks good on the +4!

When you reach a point where you'd like some Retro Software resources i.e. a wiki page to host screenshots, information, downloads, videos, diary, etc. like many of the other projects then feel free to shout out, and we'll be happy sort you out ...

Having a wiki page, for example, can save things getting lost in the forums ...

Sam.

Interesting choice of game, never heard of it before!

Good luck with it, looking forward to seeing some shots

Cool - a new project! How exciting!

I'll confess that I haven't heard of Treasure Island (but that's mainly due to the fact I know diddly-squat about games that didn't appear on the Acorns) but I'm off to hunt down a C16 Emu and "Rom" (sic) now ...

This news has actually made me very happy, as I'd always hoped to see some simple/early titles converted from the likes of the Dragon/2600/Vic/Speccy/C16 (even though we might not be able to do anything with them in terms of supplying "packaged" copies, due to copyright etc).

Should be a good game, look forward to seeing some BBC screens
Has the look of Sabre Wulf to me, with the side panel from Atic Atac?

Nice one Paul!

Looks like the kind of game even a ham-fisted clot like me will be able to play

Martin

That's just what I was thinking... if anyone fancies a crack at Jack Attack (available on cartridge only on the C64... it was a pretty simple early arcade type game that I used to play on my friend's 64), I'd throw in a request for that! I was very excited to see Jack Attack was released on the Electron then disappointed when it turned out to be a SLOW Bug Byte beanstalk adventure! Another one would be Yar's Revenge for the 2600 but I do have that on one of those TV game things...

Oh and the game looks great... would it be too predictable for me to ask if there's a chance of an Electron version?!

This looks very exciting indeed - I can't wait to play it! Out of interest, have you written games for other 8-bit platforms before or will this be your first 8-bit game? I'm interested to see how you think the Beeb compares to other computers.

Looks great and you've aready made a good start.Can't wait to see some beeb screens.

Looks interesting. Another game to look forward to!

Kind regards,

Francis

Yes, I think if I was going to do a conversion, something off the 2600 is what I'd go for too. Nice and simple and you have a certain amount of flexibility in what you can do since there's a bit more to play with.

That said though when I eventually finish Mountain Panic I probably will do another original title, but who knows!

I remember this game well, played it on a friends C16 plus4 back in the 1980s, a BBC version would be superb. Good luck with this, look forward to seeing this .

Talking of C16 games on the BBC, I Don't suppose anyone fancies making a BBC version of Exorcist ? a brilliant game, simple but very addictive, just a maze game where you have to light up all the walls on each screen, great music too.

Cheers
Matthew

Hello Paul, glad to have you aboard! Sounds like a good project although like Dave I haven't heard of the game. Looking forward to some screenshots!

--Greg

Thanks to everyone for the encouragement and support.


Thanks, Sam. A wiki page would be great. I'm hoping to get a chance over the next couple of days to finish writing the code that displays the game map. With any luck, by the end of the weekend I should have the first screen shots. It would be good to have somewhere to host them, and a diary sounds like a good idea too.


I agree it's unlikely that conversions could be sold and this game was only ever intended to be a freebie download. I'm just using it as a quick way to learn how to write games on the beeb without having to worry about creating original ideas and content too. If people like the game we could always do an original sequel or prequel based on the book's back story.


It's really easy to get into and play. There are a few areas where quick reflexes are required and there's a strategic element to it that creates some level of difficulty. Most people could probably get to the treasure after a few attempts, but the final chase sequence is the real killer. Getting a score of 100% is also quite difficult, everything has to be done in exactly the right order.


There's some mode 7 stuff that would have to go but otherwise I can't see a problem with doing an Electron version.


This is my first ever game on any platform which is why I'm keeping it simple I've helped out other people in the past with their projects on the C64 providing routines for raster effects and scrolling etc. but never a complete game.

It's definitely a bigger challenge coding for the beeb. Trying to cram this 64K game into a 32K machine running in mode 2 is like hammering a big square peg into a tiny round hole but it's getting there!

Cheers,
Paul.

Funny you should mention this. I was thinking of doing a conversion of Exorcist and Fire Ant if people like Treasure Island and wanted to see other Plus/4 games.

Now I REALLY like the sound of that!

And a novel game (based on the "backstory" for Treasure Island) also sounds like a mighty fine idea!

Pleased to know that you're going to be bearing the Elk in mind, too

Btw, are you using any Dev-Tools to write the game e.g. SWIFT, BeebASM etc?

It looks like I underestimated just how difficult an Electron version is going to be. Colour plays an important part in the game so this pretty much dictates the use of mode 2. I wasn't aware that on the Elk, modes 0-3 slow down the processor so much.

Anyway, I've tried running the code in Elkulator and, so far, it all works okay. It's not the end of the world if the background graphics take a bit longer to redraw. I'll concentrate on optimising the player and enemy sprite rendering. Hopefully, the game should still be playable even at the slower speed.

The dev tools I'm using are a professional editor called CodeWright along with a 6502 assembler that I wrote years ago for Commodore cross development. The assembler has features that help with the way I'm compressing the graphics in this game. Swift does look cool though, I'll probably have a go with that for a different project.

Excellent news, a BBC version of Exorcist would be superb, but it has to have that in-game tune, or it just wouldn't be the same !

One other C16 game I used to play alot was Icicle Works, bit like Repton, would be good to see that on the BBC too.

Cheers
Matthew

The 'in-game tune' wouldn't happen to be Tubular Bells would it? (which was the signature track on the movie by the same name)

If so, there's an existing BBC music demo which you could probably pinch the sound data from.