From Retrosoftware

Revision as of 23:01, 8 June 2011

MazezaM by Kian Vincent

Licence

Software licence TBC

Introduction

In November of 2010 I came across this block sliding puzzle game, by Malcolm Tyrrell, on World Of Spectrum and very quickly became hooked.

The notes from the author positively encouraged conversion to other platforms and after finishing the many other projects which I had on the go at the time - and a few which cropped up in-between - the Easter holidays of 2011 finally gave me the opportunity to have a go.

During this time I wrote a version for the PC, closely followed by one for the TI-83/84 Plus calculators. The following half term I succumbed to the urge to convert it to the BBC. Un-daunted by the very odd way that the Beeb stores its Mode 2 graphics - well, all modes really - and while 6502 asm was never my language of choice, I ploughed on and produced the version found here. This is despite not having used it since I was at school about 25 years ago (how many times should one person have to write a machine code bubble sort ???), when the best I managed was the somewhat ubiquitous 'Snake' program, so the code isn't the neatest in the world, but it works :). I managed to squeeze the program under a Mode 2 graphics screen with 3 bytes to spare, and with plenty of levels and oodles of delicious 8-bit colour.

The game uses the original 'MazezaMs' provided with the Spectrum version, along with the extended set of 'MazezaMs' provided with Malcolm's quite frankly mind-boggling 1k ZX81 version of the game, all of which Mr. Tyrrell kindly made available to me and for which he still retains the copyright.

There are also 7 levels of my own design, taken from my PC remake. They're easy to spot because they are the ones with the distinctly amateur edge to them - although I'm quite proud of 'Duck Commander' and 'The Wumpus Room'. This version contains a total of 38 different levels.

Any thoughts or comments are always welcome - any feedback would be greatly appreciated. I hope you enjoy this game as much as I have.

Kian

Discuss MazezaM

Read more about the original 2002 ZX Spectrum release of MazezaM at World of Spectrum, or Kian's other ports to Windows and TI-83/84+ calculators at his own developer site, Glass Fractal Software: MazezaM.

TODO list

• For now I intend to drop the game by 1 page in memory to squeeze in my missing 'Wumpus Room' level - (only a couple of dozen bytes) - and allow room for any little tweeks, so I should be on safe ground.

• Regarding other machines, the Electron version is under way, but it will need a good bit of work to get it up to speed. I now have the movement keys working and I've taken out almost all the delay loops but I will have to rewrite the scrolling code, as some of the larger levels look like they're crawling through treacle. It is at least functional (keys remapped, bit shift doubled for a bit more speed, & lack of Mode 7 catered for). It flickers like mad and there's still some slowdown on the wider levels. I shall try to give it a bit more oomph but may have to consider a 4 colour mode. I've mucked about a bit with scrolling routine to make it jump 4 pixels at a time instead of the 2 in the Beeb version, but it is getting a little tortuous trying to find my way around the bowl of spaghetti that is my source code. With this in mind I may rewrite that bit from scratch.

• As for the Master, it seems that the problem is with the routine which checks which block is where, so I shall have to do a spot of reading to solve that little conundrum.

• Feature requested: a Level Editor. In order to implement a level designer I will probably end up loading in levels from the disc, so the memory wriggle room will be a bit bigger.

Instructions

You must escape from the MazezaMs by navigating through each maze.
From the title screen, press any key to start.

Use the 'Z','X','*' and '?' keys to move.

Blocks may only be moved by pushing, not pulling.

If you should become trapped, then pressing the 'Esc' key will restart the current level, but lose you 1 of your lives.

To quit to the title screen press the 'Q' key.

Should you be completely defeated by a particular level, then pressing 'f1' will skip to the next one.

Sample Screenshots

Original ZX Spectrum Title Screen Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2011 23:05	BBC Micro Loading Screen Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2011 23:58
BBC Micro Title Screen Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2011 23:59	BBC Micro In-Game Screenshot Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2011 21:54

Sample Video

Downloads

The disc image will autoboot or can be run using ' CH."LOADER" '.

MazezaM v1.2
MazezaM v1.1 - Thanks to Pitfall and Dave M, the 'Up' and 'Down' keys have now been remapped to make them more Beeb-like, as has the 'Restart' function which is now via the 'Esc' key. Added spanky new 'Retro Software' loading screen. Saved a few bytes. Added a few more. Now have 15 bytes free.
MazezaM v1.0