Hard Hat Harry
From Retrosoftware
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Revision as of 16:16, 23 January 2011
Hard Hat Harry by Tom Walker
Licence
Software licence TBC
Introduction
"Hard Hat Harry" is a platform game. Unlike my other games, this is a 'quickie' - the planned finishing date is the 26th January 2011, the day uni starts again. In order to do this, the design is deliberately limited - it's intended to resemble a release from 1983, complete with terrible programmer graphics.
Downloads
Hard Hat Harry - BBC Disc version
Hard Hat Harry - BBC Tape version
Hard Hat Harry - Electron Tape version
Hard Hat Harry - Electron DFS version
Hard Hat Harry - Electron ADFS version
Design document
(modified 20th January 2011)
HARD HAT HARRY
From Really-up-to-date Software in Autumn 1983
An action filled arcade game for the BBC Micro model B
Edwards & Co is in charge of building the RS Tower. 20 stories high, it will dominate the sky of the Midlands. Only problem is, they built it next to the zoo. Which has had a breakout and all the animals have escaped. Naturally, seeing a big object right next to where they were, they've occupied the RS Tower.
Now, the construction workers won't stand for this sort of thing. They're ready to take action - once they've had lunch, that is. Which as ever, involves tea. Unfortunately the animals have stolen all their tea and they'll have to get them back. Even more unfortunately, it looks like they'll have to get it back themselves...
Wait! What about the work experience kid?
Entering HARD HAT HARRY.
15 years old, and working towards a B in O-level French, Harry is the ideal candidate for this deadly mission. But the stakes couldn't be higher. Succeed, and he'll get a good reference and become a banker or something. Fail, and the workers (including foreman Mr. Moore) will rivet gun him to the tower and sod off down the pub.
Enemies he'll encounter :
Monkeys - these mischevious creatures have stolen all the tools and are throwing them around. No-one knows why they're so violent. Maybe it's because of the kid who broke in the other day when they were sleeping and painted them all purple.
Birds - half of these aren't even from the zoo, they're just opportunists. Rats of the sky.
Big Kong - Big Kong dreams of climbing the Empire State building and being shot at by planes. Harry would prefer that - at least then Kong wouldn't be his problem.
Peter the Panda - A rare attraction at the zoo, Peter the Panda sits around eating bamboo all day. Not much has changed now he's on the tower. No wonder them pandas are nearly extinct.
Items he'll encounter :
Mugs - Harry needs to collect all the mugs of tea on each floor
Conveyers - The height of technology, the conveyor belts move objects and Harry around. Sometimes they even work.
Stripey Paint - This elusive object grants Harry invincibility and impressive skills with the opposite sex. Or at least that's what the workers tell him.
Sample Screenshots
 'Hard Hat Harry title screen Posted: Jan 10, 2011 |  In game Posted: Jan 10, 2011 |
Development Diary
23 December 2010
Made a start! Got a title screen... and that's about it.
27 December 2010
After a break due to the primary gifting season, some sprites are done! Harry looks okay, but some of the animals are really pathetic. Also got a start on the level drawing code.
28 December 2010
Now draws the level correctly. Harry is now drawn on screen, but he doesn't do anything yet.
30 December 2010
Harry now runs and bounces round the screen correctly.
31 December 2010
Ladders and conveyor belts now work correctly.
3 January 2011
Game now keeps track of lives, time, and is linked into the title screen properly now.
10 January 2011
Lunches are now implemented - though as my attempts at drawing lunchboxes looked more like handbags (and it's not that kind of building site!), they're mugs instead. Score now works.
12 January 2011
First enemy implemented - Big Kong. He's sort of recurring throughout the game and he lobs barrels at you. The speed at which he does this means this is probably a later level...
13 January 2011
More enemies added, plus you can die now. Kong's level is definitely being put back, it's _lethal_! Only have 294 bytes left at the moment, so some crunching will have to happen tomorrow.
14 January 2011
Levels now compressed, plus code size reduced a little - 655 bytes left now, with 4 levels in. 16 more to go!
15 January 2011
4 more levels, 206 bytes left.
16 January 2011
Playtesting has shown that the controls are quite frustrating, so I've done some work to improve that. Also added another 2 levels, though now there's under 70 bytes left so more crunching is needed!
17 January 2011
Two more levels, plus working hi-score table and sound effects. Unfortunately some stripping back has been necessary in the light of memory limits, hence there's now 16 levels instead of 20, and the lion is gone (though the Peter The Panda has finally been implemented).
18 January 2011
Added final two levels, fixed some sprite flickering. Added joystick support. HHH is now feature complete, and just awaits some possible fine tuning.
22 January 2011
Tweaked sound, and released!
23 January 2011
Electron version completed in a matter of hours - also released.