ProjectsInDevelopment

From Retrosoftware

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Revision as of 09:44, 18 August 2013

1 Retro Software Works In Progress

Retro Software Works In Progress

Volunteers Wanted

The partial projects below are not currently in development, but each one comprises a non-trivial amount of coding and/or graphical resources. If you are interested in contributing to any of the projects in this section, please get in touch.

Cyroid-X by Paras Sidapara

http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/cyroidx
Target Systems: BBC Microcomputer
Licence: TBC
Developed in: BBC BASIC 6502 assembler
Volunteer skills required: Level-set designer, 8-bit graphic designer/artist (both using the game's built-in editor)
A BBC Micro puzzler which, although there are significant changes in gameplay, is actually a derivative of Paras' original Repton 4 game engine from 1988, which was itself eventually re-built from scratch by Retro Software and finally released as Repton: The Lost Realms. The game itself is pretty much complete, but only has a handful of levels, many of which are derived from (and therefore very similar to) the original Repton 4 set of levels which were eventually published as the first set of Repton: The Lost Realms. To complete this title, one or more volunteers are needed to create four levelsets of six screens using the built-in level editor, preferably with a modified graphics set for each of the levelsets.
Discuss Cyroid-X

Jeltron by Richard Broadhurst and Gil Jaysmith

http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/jeltron
Target Systems: BBC Microcomputer
Licence: GNU GPLv3 license
Developed in: Originally BBC BASIC 6502 assembler, converted to BeebAsm 6502 assembler
Volunteer skills required: Experienced 6502 assembly language programmer

Jeltron was written in the early 80s by Richard 'tricky' Broadhurst and Gil Jaysmith, the author of Spectrum Repton 1 & 2, with graphics from one of Gil's friends. From the same vein as Irem's R-Type (1987), Jelton is a super-smooth simultaneous two player shoot-'em'up without flicker and a neat MODE split, that was developed as far as a preliminary demo version that was sent to a publisher for consideration. With Gil's permission, Richard has offered the game resources to Retro Software and has also offered to support anyone who might be willing to continue the project.

Discuss Jeltron

Uropa by Stephen Smith

http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/uropa
Target Systems: BBC Microcomputer
Licence: TBC
Developed in: BBC BASIC 6502 assembler
Volunteer skills required: Experienced 6502 assembly language programmer

The second game for the BBC Micro worked on by Stephen, author of The Krystal Connection, was developed around 1988 and is a 2D/3D game with split screen modes inspired by Battlezone and titles from Ultimate: Play The Game. The basic idea of the game is to complete missions which are played out on the surface of Uropa (ex-Europa), the re-built moon of Jupiter and within the colonist base stations (isometric). The game is not complete - there are a number of things Stephen has described that would be worth changing and he estimates it still requires quite a bit of work to complete, if anyone would like to take on the challenge?

Discuss Uropa

White Light by Tom Walker

http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/whitelight
Target Systems: BBC Microcomputer
Licence: TBC
Developed in: Ophis 6502 assembler
Volunteer skills required: 8-bit graphic designer/artist, Experienced 6502 assembly language programmer (possibly)
White Light is an unofficial sequel to FireTrack, publisher Electric Dream's 1987 vertically scrolling shoot-'em-up classic by Orlando. Supports the BeebSID add-on. Tom has abandoned this project due to a lack of high quality graphical resources which are required to take it further, in favour of his many other commitments and projects now on the go. If an artist can be found, then another experienced programmer may eventually be required to complete the title.
Discuss White Light

Commercial

The RS production team is committed to physically releasing all of our commercial products on project completion. All purchasers of our physical releases can be provided with an emulator image, on request.

Blurp by Rich Talbot-Watkins

http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/blurp
Target Systems: BBC Microcomputer, Electron
Licence: Non-Profit Commercial
Developed in: BeebAsm 6502 assembler
Titled after the main protagonist, this is a modern revision of an abandoned platformer which was originally inspired by the simple and addictive gameplay of Sega's Teddy Boy on the Master System. An early version, working title Onslaught, was rejected by Superior Software as it was too late in the BBC Micro's commercial life, despite the authors' belief that the game was genuinely fun to play and felt a little bit different in style and gameplay from anything else they'd played on the Beeb, with lots of moving characters, dot explosions, and plenty of action. A promising tie-in with Acorn User magazine also failed to materialise due to the chaotic nature of development, and the inevitable dropping of 8-bit support from the magazine. For five years, the game languished in an unfinished state in the Lost & Found archives of stairwaytohell.com but the author has now returned to it, with the hopes of polishing it off and finally giving it the release it deserves.
Discuss Blurp

Bomber Blaster by Tom Walker

http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/bomberblaster
Target Systems: BBC Micro, Electron, Archimedes, RiscPC
Licence: Non-Profit Commercial
Developed in: Ophis 6502 assembler, ARM assembler
Bomber Blaster is a re-imagining of Hudson Soft's multi-player classic Bomberman franchise on both the 8-bit BBC Micro and 32-bit Archimedes / RiscPC platforms and supports four and five players, respectively, using a combination of the keyboard and joysticks. The player must strategically place bombs to destroy opponents and remove obstacles. Exploding bombs can set off other bombs, destroy or injure opponents and blow up obstacles. However, they can also kill or injure your own character and destroy powerups. Powerups are plentiful amongst the maze-based levels and the player's goal is to be the last man standing, who is the winner. The current graphics have been temporarily extracted and modified from the game Dynablaster, on either the Amiga or Atari ST. They are intended to be replaced by wholly original resources before release.
Discuss Bomber Blaster

Mountain Panic by Dave Footitt

http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/mountainpanic
Target Systems: BBC Microcomputer
Licence: Non-Profit Commercial
Developed in: BeebAsm 6502 assembler

An original arcade adventure based on At the Mountains of Madness, a novella by H.P. Lovecraft.

Discuss Mountain Panic

Repton: The Lost Realms by Paras Sidapara and Tom Walker

http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/reptontlr
Target Systems: Electron, Archimedes, RiscPC, Commodore 64
Licence: Non-Profit Commercial
Developed in: Ophis 6502 assembler, ARM assembler, 6510 assembler
New ports of the long-lost BBC Micro sequel to Repton 3 that was originally shelved after the launch of Repton Infinity. The game code and level design were completed and the game was released for the BBC Micro by the Retro Software team last year.
N.B. The REPTON name is used with the kind permission of Superior Interactive.
Discuss Repton: The Lost Realms

Freeware

All of our freeware releases are available for free download, many including source code and a printable inlay cover design which can be used to make up your own physical copy, when the project is completed and released.

Adventurescape V by Paul Aslin

http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/adventurescapev
Target Systems: BBC Microcomputer
Licence: TBC
Developed in: BBC BASIC and 6502 assembler
An improved version of the Adventurescape interactive fiction engine.
Discuss Adventurescape V

Bandit Kings for Ancient Acorns by Patrick Schoenmakers

http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/banditkings
Target Systems: BBC Microcomputer Master 128
Licence: TBC
Developed in: 6502 assembler
A classic 8-bit Lothlorien-style hex war game for the BBC Micro Master 128.
Discuss Bandit Kings for Ancient Acorns

Beeb Jack by Rob Coleman

http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/beebjack
Target Systems: BBC Microcomputer
Licence: TBC
Developed in: Ophis 6502 assembler, using SWIFT

A BBC Micro conversion based on the the Amstrad CPC port of Tehkan's 1984 popular arcade platform game Bomb Jack, where you must control Jack, a superhero who can leap and glide, to help him defuse bombs at famous tourist sites from around the world.

Discuss Beeb Jack

Castle Raider by David Boddie

http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/castleraider
Target Systems: Electron
Licence: GNU GPLv3 license
Developed in: 6502 assembler

A side-on castle storming platformer using similar scrolling techniques to Micro Power's Moon Raider for the Electron and inspired by Program Power's Castle Quest for the BBC Micro, which never reached the Electron.

Discuss Castle Raider

Cavern Racer by Jools Henn

http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/cavernracer
Target Systems: BBC Microcomputer
Licence: TBC
Developed in: Ophis 6502 assembler, using SWIFT

A Spy Hunter-style BBC Micro MODE 4 software scrolling vertical racing game inspired by a simple BASIC listing, Death Valley, from the Usborne book Computer Spacegames, where the object is to escape the forces of the evil Dissectitrons by flying your single-seater Speed Dart along a jagged, bottomless ravine.

Discuss Cavern Racer

ClapTraps by Dave Jeffery

http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/claptraps
Target Systems: BBC Microcomputer
Licence: GNU GPLv3 license
Developed in: BeebAsm 6502 assembler
A MODE 4 8-bit conversion of Richard Barnard's PyGame puzzle game ClapTraps, for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X 10. Help Dave Dunce rescue the frogs from the perilous ClapTraps!
Discuss ClapTraps

Atomic Elite by David Braben, Ian Bell & Kees van Oss

http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/atomicelite
Target Systems: Atom
Licence: Freeware (source code included)
Developed in: cc65 C compiler for 6502 based systems
A modern Atom conversion of Acornsoft's 1985 seminal 3D space-trading game by David Braben and Ian Bell. Yet another classic game ported to the only Acorn home computer that never received an official release.
N.B. Elite for the BBC Micro, along with much of the Acornsoft back catalogue, was re-released by Superior Software, now Superior Interactive. Both Ian Bell and David Braben at Frontier Developments games development studio maintain Elite web pages.
Discuss Atomic Elite

Eventureland by Jonathan Cauldwell, Jason Kelk, Mark Ball and Kian Vincent

http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/eventureland
Target Systems: ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Atari 8-bit, BBC Microcomputer
Licence: Various
Developed in: Various

At the homebrew coding weekend which was part of the In Da 80s event in Manchester (16th - 17th July 2011), visitors were invited to submit ideas for an 8-bit game which was to have four levels, each themed around a specific event in the retro gaming calendar from 2009-2010, Byte Back, Console Combat, Retro Reunited and Replay. Attendees were asked to come up with level designs based on their favourite show memories to feed into a game which is hoped will be developed by a team of volunteers in time to be initially showcased at Replay 2011.

180px-EventurelandLevel4Replay-AtticBugSameGameInGame2.png

Level 1 - Byte Back: Byte Me [ZX Spectrum, Jonathan Cauldwell] - Status: RELEASED 05/11/2011
Level 2 - Console Combat [Commodore 64, Jason Kelk] - Status: WORK IN PROGRESS
Level 3 - Retro Reunited [Atari 8-bit, GroovyBee aka Mark Ball] - Status: WORK IN PROGRESS
Level 4 - Replay: The Attic Bug in SameGame [BBC Microcomputer, Kian Vincent] - Status: RELEASED 06/11/2011
Discuss Eventureland

Flood-It! by Michael Firth

http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/floodit
Target Systems: BBC Microcomputer, Electron, Archimedes, RiscPC, PC (BBC BASIC for Windows)
Licence: GNU GPLv3 license
Developed in: BBC BASIC

This port is the result of spending a frustrating period playing the fun colour puzzle game Flood-It! (play online) from Google's LabPixies on PC and iPod iOS. Also available on iGoogle and Android. It's a simple yet addictive strategy game in which you have to flood the whole game board with one colour in less than 21 steps. Try to flood-it in the least amount of steps!

Discuss Flood-It!

Hyper Viper by Kenton Price, Kees van Oss and Phill Harvey-Smith

http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/hyperviper#Dragon_32.2F64_.2F_TRS-80_Color_Computer
Target Systems: Dragon 32/64, TRS-80 Color Computer
Licence: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
Developed in: MC6809E assembler
A new port to the Dragon / CoCo of this challenging reworking of the classic snake game - a descendant of the first arcade game in the genre, UPL's Blockade (1976). Based on the Atom port by Kees van Oss, which was in turn derived from the original source code for the BBC Micro and Electron released earlier in January 2011 by original author Kenton Price, with contributions from Paul Davis and Pitfall Jones.
Discuss Hyper Viper

JSnake by jbnbeeb

http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/jsnake
Target Systems: BBC Microcomputer
Licence: TBC
Developed in: 6502 assembler
A simple implementation of the classic Snake game, this project is the author's first foray into assembly language games programming on the Beeb.
Discuss JSnake

Repton by Tim Tyler & Kees van Oss

http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/repton
Target Systems: Atom
Licence: Freeware (source code included)
Developed in: cc65 C compiler for 6502 based systems
Number of Players: 1
Joystick Support?: Yes (AtoMMC, 1 player, digital)
Faithful new port of Superior Software's classic 1985 Acorn puzzle game by 15-year-old Tim Tyler to the only Acorn home computer that has never before seen a Repton release.
N.B. The modern Repton series continues to be developed by Superior Interactive for Windows and iOS platforms.
Discuss Repton

SAGA Adventure Engine Graphical Rework by tautology

http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/SAGArework
Target Systems: BBC Microcomputer
Licence: GNU GPLv3 license
Developed in: 6502 assembler

This project is a re-implementation of the engine for the Scott Adams and Mysterious Adventures games, with the addition of the location graphics that were included with ports on other platforms.

Discuss SAGA Adventure Engine Graphical Rework

BBC Micro Z-Machine Interpreter by Jon Welch

and the Inform / Z-Machine v1.1 (Infocom v3) Development Environment

http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/z-machine & http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/informz3
Target Systems: BBC Microcomputer
Licence: GNU GPLv3 license
Developed in: BBC BASIC (prototype), BeebAsm 6502 assembler

Interactive fiction / text adventure interpreter for running Z-Code / Inform games.

Distributed with Inform 6.15 for use as a complete Z-Machine v1.1 (Infocom v3) development environment to create new IF works / text adventures for use with the BBC Micro and other Z-Machine interpreters, especially those platforms with limited resources like the C64, Spectrum +3 and Game Boy.
Discuss BBC Micro Z-Machine Interpreter

The Search For The Lost Football by Francis G. Loch

http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/lostfootball
Target Systems: BBC Microcomputer
Licence: TBC
Developed in: BBC BASIC incl. 6502 assembler

Basic 'MODE 7' text adventure.

Play The Search For The Lost Football Pre-Release #4 Online
Discuss The Search For The Lost Football

Treasure Island by Paul Davis

http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/treasureisland
Target Systems: BBC Microcomputer, Electron
Licence: TBC
Developed in: 6502 assembler; using CodeWright editor, author's own custom assembler, Paint Shop Pro
A BBC micro conversion of Treasure Island, a fairly simple maze game from 1985 by Greg Duddle originally supplied with the Commodore Plus/4, and based on the classic 1883 novel by Robert Louis Stevenson. Played over an 8x8 grid of flip-screens, the aim is to explore the island, as Jim Hawkins, to find the treasure, collect certain items, and deal with any pirates that get in your way. Once you've found the treasure you must race back to the Hispaniola before Long John Silver catches up with you.
Discuss Treasure Island

XTHOPAC STUARC (working title) by Xavier Tardy

http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/xthopacstuarc
Target Systems: Archimedes
Licence: TBC
Developed in: ARM assembler

Xavier Tardy's Highly Optimized Pure Arm Code Shoot'Them Up for the Archimedes Range of Computers is a vertical shoot-'em-up. It works perfectly on an A3010, 50 frames per second with huge sprites, as if the machine was a Neo Geo. The plotting and unplotting routines are just perfect in terms of CPU usage. The intention is to demonstrate the great possibilities of the Acorn Archimedes range and to show how many 2D games have been poorly programmed for these fantastic machines. The game should fit on a minimal number of floppy discs, and work on a 2 MB machine. A demo available for download shows off some of the tricks used in the development of the game.

Projects On Hold / Abandoned

Rich Tech 2 by Rich Talbot-Watkins

The Fisherman's Quest by Paul Dryden

Rocket Attack and The Two Towers by James Watson

Retrieved from "http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/wiki/index.php/ProjectsInDevelopment"

@@ Line 173: / Line 173: @@
 A MODE 4 8-bit conversion of Richard Barnard's PyGame puzzle game [https://sites.google.com/site/testpilotmonkeyproductions/ ClapTraps, for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X 10].  Help Dave Dunce rescue the frogs from the perilous ClapTraps!<br>
 [http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/forum/viewforum.php?f=92 Discuss ClapTraps]
+<br style="clear:right;"/>
+===[[Atomic Elite]] by David Braben, Ian Bell & Kees van Oss===
+<div class="floatright"><span class="plainlinks">[http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/atomicelite http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/wiki/images/thumb/e/e7/AtomicElite1.png/180px-AtomicElite1.png]</span></div>
+'''http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/atomicelite'''<br />
+''Target Systems:'' '''Atom'''<br/>
+''Licence:'' Freeware (source code included)<br/>
+''Developed in:'' [http://www.cc65.org/ cc65 C compiler for 6502 based systems]<br/>
+A modern Atom conversion of Acornsoft's 1985 seminal 3D space-trading game by David Braben and Ian Bell.  Yet another classic game ported to the only Acorn home computer that never received an official release.<br/>
+N.B. ''Elite'' for the BBC Micro, along with much of the Acornsoft back catalogue, was re-released by ''[http://www.superiorsoftware.co.uk/ Superior Software]'', now ''[http://www.superiorinteractive.com/ Superior Interactive]''.  Both [http://www.iancgbell.clara.net/elite Ian Bell] and [http://www.frontier.co.uk/games/elite/ David Braben at Frontier Developments games development studio] maintain ''Elite'' web pages.<br/>
+[http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/forum/viewforum.php?f=97 Discuss Atomic Elite]
 <br style="clear:right;"/>

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