I've uploaded an archive containing a UEF file to the development diary page to show the current state of the game. The control keys are Z, X and Return.

At some point, I'll try to do another test on a real Electron. If I do that, I'll upload a video of it running.

Hi,
Nice looking demo and enjoyed reading your dev diary. Couldn't get it to work well in Beeb-em and crashed B-em. D'you plan on doing a Beeb version too or sticking to Elk?

With the double buffering technique .. I take it you arrange the next (rightmost?) column in memory and then move it in to screen memory?

Anyway, nice one and keep up the good work

jbnbeeb

I hope it will eventually work on the BBC but it's not a priority at the moment.

The scrolling and double buffering is a bit more involved than it would be on the BBC, I believe. The Electron only supports vertical hardware scrolling, so the mechanics of drawing new scenery doesn't have anything to do with hardware scrolling. The illusion of horizontal scrolling is created by drawing only the parts of the scene that would change when scrolling occurs, and this includes scenery in many places on the screen.

Hardware scrolling is used to scroll the entire screen up and down by a screen height in order to perform bank switching. In one bank, I have an existing scene; in the other, I have the same scene offset by 2 pixels to the left. Switching between the two screen banks gives the impression of scrolling horizontally by 2 pixels. However, when scrolling in the same direction again, the real work of drawing changes to the scenery in the first bank needs to be performed.

I hope that makes sense. I wrote a little about it in the diary, but it really needs some illustrations and a longer description there. I'll try to go back and write some more at a later date.

Thanks for the feedback and the encouragement!

I downloaded the repository today - blimey, I've got a lot to learn

It's chock full of stuff - both in 6502 and in Python. The PyQT level editor is wonderful. I think I'm going to have to soak all this up for a few days!

This is an incredibly impressive suite of stuff - well done, and thanks for GPL-ing it all.

Thank you for the kind words.

I'm quite surprised it more-or-less works out of the repository, although I did try to ensure that everything was included. I wanted to put Ophis in a Debian package for use on my current computer and ended up getting the version from GitHub. The way it is run has changed a bit, so I might have to change my build script.

I haven't been very focused on the game in a while. I'm thinking of backing away from a puzzle/exploration game and going for more of a run-and-jump type of thing. I'll probably create a branch for that so I can change my mind again later if I need to.

Anyway, I'm glad the tools are helping a little with the development of your game.

Sorry - I forgot to reply here. I downloaded and locally installed Ophis (python setup.py install --user) and the Castle Raider snapshot I downloaded compiled and built a UEF perfectly - no problems at all.

It's a fantastic game so far - it would be an excellent for a BBC game, let alone an Electron one.

Thanks. I'm suffering a bit from inertia at the moment with the game. There's at least one scrolling bug I need to fix, which means staring at that code again, and I really need to redo the monster plotting and movement. None of those are particularly motivating so it will have to wait for a while longer. I also need to have a working Elkulator on my desktop, so that's another roadblock at the moment.

I should probably aim to have something done by the time of the 30th anniversary of the Electron's release. If I miss that then I can aim for the anniversary of the date when it was actually available for most people to buy.

just had a go of this on Elkulator1, and....

it's fab

well done on a nice wee game

Thanks! I'll try to get a bit more of it done after the Easter break.

LIKE