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11/03/2010
Spectrum Games : Spectrum Games - Programmer Interview - Dave Rogers [source]
Dave Rogers
Dave Rogers (sometime credited as J Dave Rogers) developed arcade games such as Flatman and Money Grabber for the ZX81 before moving into ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC development.
With his musical background he went on to create many excellent and well known theme tunes (featuring some of the best AY Music) for arcade style games from companies such as Hewson and Firebird.
We were lucky enough to catch up with Dave who was more than happy to reminisce with us about his coding days...
1: What was the first computer you ever programmed on, and how old were you at the time?
The ZX81, and I was in my mid 20's.
2: How did you get into the games development scene? Did you have an interest in programming as well as music?
During the 1970's I was designing audio processing circuits and writing articles for electronics magazines. It was all analogue stuff, so I knew nothing about digital. I would occasionally see adverts in the magazines for early home-build computer kits, but I remember thinking "what would I want one of those for?"
Then a guy who happened to be working across the road, name of Colin Hogg, heard that I was into electronics, and he asked me if I could fix up a graphics extension board for his ZX81. I didn't have a clue about it, but he left the machine here for a while, so I gave it a try, and was instantly hooked on programming. I bought a ZX81 and put it into a larger case with (gasp) real keys!
3: Can you tell me a little about your musical background and knowledge?
My dad played guitar in various bands, playing the clubs, I joined in on Bass. Then I was in a few local bands, on Bass and Keyboards, playing mostly in Liverpool.
4: How was it working with the single channel Spectrum Beeper?
What can I say? Incredibly limiting would be an understatement. I always did the best I could with the 128k sound, trying to overcome it's limitations, but the beeper just felt like a waste of effort. The only time I did anything specifically for the beeper was for Cybernoid - a three channel tune for the 128k and a completely different one for the 48k.
The rest of the time I took the lazy way out and just squashed the three channel AY-chip data down into one channel for the beeper.
5: What other machines did you work on besides the Spectrum?
Mostly the Amstrad CPC series, and the Atari ST, then later with the Code Monkeys various consoles, Sega Megadrive, Gameboy, etc.
6: How good was it when the AY chip was utilised within the Spectrum 128?
Well anything was better than the monobeep.
7: I see you developed some games on the ZX81. How did you go from games programming to also creating game music?
Colin and myself started off writing games for the ZX81, as "type-ins" for magazines such as ZX Computing, My Computer, etc. Then we wrote a few games for the Amstrad CPC. Then Colin moved to Leeds, where he started up The Code Monkeys software house (which is still going strong). The prospect of doing a complete game by myself seemed a bit daunting, especially since Colin had written the graphics engines, so I sent a music demo to Hewson, and went on from there.
8: Which title (on any machine) are you most proud of?
Cybernoid, Netherworld, and Bear-a-Grudge. The latter was a free cassette on the cover of Sinclair User magazine, written by Chris Wood who was working at Hewson.
The rest of my games music I was never really happy with, apart from a few odd sections.
One thing I was quite pleased with was my driver, which filled as many sound channels as possible at any given time from the Speccy's available three. There were levels of priority, but no sound effect was ever completely overridden, and some would spread out to more channels if they became free. Some parts of the music would duck out, but then come back in at whole-bar divisions, so as not to sound too fragmented.
One channel of the Cybernoid music was actually just randomised notes, but timed and enveloped to sound like a percussion track, which made it sound a bit different every time it was played.
9: Which programmers or musicians impressed you most at the time?
There were so many great programmers pushing the limits of those early computers, I particularly remember being amazed at Sandy White's game Ant Attack. It looks simple now but at the time it was brilliant.
My favourite from all the music by other musicians that I converted across platforms was Universal Soldier. And speaking of which, I'd like to take this opportunity to set the record straight.
Some people have said that this game was "a rip off of Turrican 2". In fact, what happened was the game and the music were being developed AS Turrican 2, but when it was almost completed the title was changed to take advantage of an available movie tie-in. So it actually WAS Turrican 2 all along, not a rip off "of" it.
10: How was life at Hewson during the 1980's?
I worked entirely from home, so I had little contact with them. It was just phone calls, and video tapes arriving by post so I could watch the games and see where the sound would fit in. Then I'd post tapes back to them with the drivers and music.
There wasn't much discussion of the music and sound, most of it was just used without change. I only met Hewson once in person, and none of the programmers. I didn't make much money from it. I heard via one of his staff, that Hewson once said of me "he's very cheap for what he does!".
11: Finally - are you still active in the games industry today?
No, not at all. But I'm very happy to have been involved in it. It was a very interesting time. A unique period in technological history. I look back on the time I spent in speccy land with great pleasure. And it's great to see so much continuing interest in it.
I recently found a guy on YouTube who has re-made some of my music with better sounds. I love what he's done with Stormlord. If you go to YouTube and search for;- "Cybernoid 2 chip music" by CoolDudeClem "My Renditions of retro game music Part 2" by CoolDudeClem.
I'd like to thank "retrogamer" Keith Ainsworth for putting me in contact with Martin.
Cheers,Dave Rogers, Liverpool, March 2010.
Many thanks to Dave for taking the time to do this
Arcade Games and Classic Games[To full view in original source]
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08/03/2010
8-Bit City : Pixel Art: Your World of Text RPG Town [source]
An RPG-style Town drawn on the main page (X:6, Y:6) of yourworldoftext.com. You can edit it if you want, expand it, or mutate it. If anything interesting happens to the town, I will update this post. Chances are the town will not last long.[To full view in original source]
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04/03/2010
re-64 : Nothing to see here… [source]
Sorry I’ve been a bit busy holidaying, no new posts. Couple of new developments for the future though. In the meantime – some static project pages for the sports edition and mini-breadbin edition.[To full view in original source]
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04/03/2010
8-Bit City : COMPUTER [source]
COMPUTER is an ANSII ZZT game. You are the INTRUDER.EXE and your mission is to hack through a giant bio-computer. You begin your quest in the system's BIOS, and you break through the system defenses and disable the Motherboard and CPU. Prepare for surreal computer-themed action adventure!
ZZT is a 1991 game designed by by Tim Sweeney. However, the game also comes with a built-in game creation engine, allowing users the ability to make games and quests easily. COMPUTER represents my first attempt at a ZZT game, but I hope that people enjoy it.
If you already have ZZT on your computer, then you can simply download the .ZZT file.
Otherwise, I have created a ZZT package, which you can download here. This .zip includes all the usual ZZT release, plus my game, computer.zzt. Make sure you select COMPUTER, under worlds, to play the game. After you're done, enjoy the other classic original ZZT adventures!
[To full view in original source]
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01/03/2010
8-Bit City : MEGA MAN 10 REVIEW [source]
No doubt a Mega Man 10 rom has already leaked its way on to the Internet, but perhaps not. Meanwhile, I'm waiting for the release of Mega Man 10 tomorrow. Well, actually I'm not really waiting I'm just blogging. Right now it is Sunday night. I wanted to post about the game soon after release, so I started the entry early in order to save myself time in the morning.
Mega Man 9 generated a lot of traffic on 8-Bit City, and no doubt a few of you readers first discovered this place while searching for that game. That's the reason I started this post with an anecdote about the Mega Man 10 rom download. To generate hits on google. Don't be cynical, it's very exciting.
Because let's be honest, we all know that Mega Man 10 is going to be a fun game. It will also be a cheap game. I can only imagine that young readers would be experiencing Mega Man for the first time, although many people might not be aware of its release. The Mega Man series has always been a favorite of mine, and with full faith I can say that Mega Man 10 is a good game. If, by chance, Mega Man 10 is terrible, I can always edit this post tomorrow night.
Besides, Capcom has already released the bosses, some stages, the weapons, etc. etc. What's left to review? Should we go through the motions of describing things? Of pretending to care? Maybe if I waited until the game was released to review it, then there would be actual content in the review. You might be expecting nothing at this points, and that's the conclusion I've come to as well, which only proves that we are so far on the same page and can move on to the conclusion.
In the world of Internet journalism, hits represent something more important than money; they represent the power of your information. I've looked into the future to write this review! So what if I didn't play the game, I declare it almost perfect. Intelligent, inspiring, and shining slightly less brightly than Mega Man 9. Is this description not accurate? Is it not accurate enough? Nothing could top the excitement of MM9, because it pioneered the 8- and 16-Bit re-release chains of the last two years. The review is logic and accurate!
[To full view in original source]
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28/02/2010
Richard's C64 blog! : Granny gets some real action now. [source]
28th February 2010
Today I have been working on the tweaking of the IRQ routine. Seems that I was using one that runs on the BASIC kernal, so I decided to switch that off and use the standard non-Kernal interrupt vectors $FFFE & $FFFF and also switch to NMI Lock using $FFFA & $FFFB. Works fine, now what I want to do is get those enemies stopping at a certain Y position, then move an X position, then walk the rest of the way downwards off screen. To get this working, I need to create some loops and some data tables. I will also need to create some triggers to make the characters stop moving Y if they are moving X. Also depending on which X direction each character should move, I should create a table with switches to show whether the characters have to go left or right. In theory this method should hopefully work.
I tested the movement for the first character with the random stopping position movements for just one character and it worked a dream. Next I implemented the same routine to all of the characters (except for the store assistant) to get them moving. This wasn't working properly at first, but after a few tweaks or rewriting of the code, I got all the characters moving through a random basis, to make game play slightly more interesting.
Now was the time to work on the sprite to sprite collision. I used the same collision method as usual as it makes programming much easier for me. I know I have used this collision routine time and time again, but it is something that could be remembered really well, without having to do so much research. I created separate routines corresponding to each character and linked all of the collision routines to the player's fire button press routine. Unfortunately there seems to be a silly error in the code, in which all but one character stops if Granny hits that character with her cane. I found where the problem lies. It seems that I RTS the movement command which causes all enemies to stop. So I made some multiple JMP to next routine commands to make things work correctly. Well, it seems to work now. I also got the coin routines to work nicely as well.
After all the collision routines worked correctly, I worked on some sub routines that will show the death animation sequences for the player, and also for the enemies that have been hit as well. Seems to be working fine. Now to add the scoring and lives counter, then I shall call it a day for today and do some other time.[To full view in original source]
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28/02/2010
Spectrum Games : Spectrum Games - Ping Pong - ZX Spectrum classic game [source]
ZX Spectrum Ping Pong
Ping Pong was a conversion of the classic arcade game by Konami. It was released by Imagine Software in April of 1986 and was developed by Doug Burns (or Bernie Duggs) who would go on to create the excellent Hypaball.
Anyway, this classic game was a simulation of table tennis - and was the best version of the sport on the ZX Spectrum by far.
The game followed the rules of table tennis - so the winner was the first to score eleven points. If the game was tied at ten points each (deuce) then the first person to go two points clear of the other was the winner.
The game took a viewpoint of just behind your end of the table, with the table and net viewed in front of you. Player one always took this viewpoint - so the computer or human player two controlled the bat at the 'far end' of the table. The perspective viewpoint on the table was pretty good.
In a nice touch there were onlookers on each side of the table, with the folks on the left cheering every point you won. The 'crowd' reminded me of the spectators that featured in Daley Thompsons Decathlon with the round of applause they gave you on winning a point.
Your bat was displayed 'floating' on the screen and the computer controlled it's movement (as in left and right movement). You had to time your shots and choose to go forehand or backhand. You could also slice or drive your shots back - a good variety of shots could be produced once you got the hang of the game.
If a ball bounced up high towards you it was also possible to smash a return back - which could be satisfying as you walloped away another winner.There were five skill levels to play against (1 to 5) and level five was played at warp speed with your opponent very difficult to beat. I never managed to beat level 5 anyway.
It should be noted that this arcade game featured excellent synthesised two channel menu music (probably the first of it's kind on the ZX Spectrum) which is now down in the history of great Spectrum music.
On Release:
Well the original arcade game by Konami had not been very popular in the UK (I don't know why) so the game did not generate a lot of excitement at first. However, word soon spread about the music and then the gameplay. This game was a superb arcade conversion that was playable and addictive both in single player mode and two player mode. Crash magazine awarded it a Crash Smash rating and rightly so. This game went on to be a big hit on the Spectrum, and another for Imagine Software.The test of time:
Well after playing this once more I still really like it. It's still playable and once you get the hang of it (all over again!) you realise that a good game is in there. The graphics were never the best, but they serve their purpose and work well within the game. The shots you can make sort of remind me of Wii tennis - in fact a version of this on the Wii would be superb!This classic arcade game for the ZX Spectrum is definately worth another look after all these years.
We recommend getting hold of the real hardware - but if not then download a ZX Spectrum emulator and get Ping Pong. Alternatively you could try and play it online.
GENRE: Arcade game
RELEASE DATE: 1986
RELEASED BY: Imagine Software
DEVELOPER(S): Doug Burns
PRICE: £7.95 - UKI put up a brave fight in this classic arcade game. Note the excellent (and ground breaking) theme tune too:
Arcade Games and Classic Games
[To full view in original source]
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26/02/2010
8-Bit City : Mega Man 10 Launch on Monday [source]
As you go about your weekend, remember vividly what the world was like because in 4 days the universe will be completely changed.
We shall later recall both the past and the next few days as slightly-less vibrant than our future world in which Mega Man 10 assumes its rightful place on our Wii Channel screens.[To full view in original source]
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24/02/2010
Psytronik Software : One Man & His NEW Mic [source]
Greetings once again Retro Chums!
Now that Armalyte is almost ready to be released for the PC I've been spending time working on some extra bonus goodies that will be included on the Armalyte CD-ROM. As I will soon be doing a second series of One Man & His Mic retro music podcasts I decided to make a special show devoted to Psytronik Software that will be included on the CD-ROM.
It has been over a year since I last did a podcast so my first job was to set up all my recording gear once again. One of the reasons that I haven't actually done a podcast in a while is because my old mic broke! This gave me the chance to try out my shiny new gold Behringer mic that I received as a Chrimbo prezzie (thanks Nan!) After a bit of crawling around under my desk to plug in various leads I was ready to rock and roll. But straight away a strange problem reared its head. I couldn't record any sounds internally on my PC! For some reason any internal recordings were really, REALLY faint and for a while I couldn't figure out why. But then I found the problem. My new mic is actually a USB device and when it's plugged in it takes over ALL the recording settings on my PC. Not really a problem - I only actually need the Mic when I'm recording my talky bits for the show so I unplugged it and I could then record stuff internally. Sorted!
Here's where the magic happens - in the recently re-painted Psytronik HQ!
My next task was decide what tracks to feature in the show. As the show is going to be about the history of Psytronik software I arranged the Psytronik releases chronologically and then chose two tracks from each game - one for the main track and one to use as a sound bed behind my talky bits. Once I had selected the tracks for the show I then recorded any of the tunes that I hadn't already recorded previously. I then dropped the tracks onto the multi-track editor in Cool Edit leaving a 30 second gap between each one for my talky bits. Each One Man & His Mic show is 1 hour long and luckily enough the tracks I had chosen from all the Psytronik games perfectly fitted into 1 hour! Here's the tracklist for the show:-
One Man & His Mic - Psytronik Software Special!
01. Sceptre of Baghdad Intro (DJ Skitz)
02. The Sceptre of Nu Baghdad (Kate Z).
03. Archetype - FZ vs JMJ Remix (FeekZoid).
04. Nukenin & The Ronin Title (TMR) [C64].
05. PsykoZone Intro (FeekZoid) [C64].
06. Sub Hunter Title (Maniacs of Noise) [C64]
07. Escape from Arth Title (FeekZoid) [C64].
08. Mayhem in Monsterland Title (Tonka) [PC]
09. Creatures Remix (Infamous)
10. Creatures 2 Redux (Infamous)
11. Joe Gunn in-game (Laxity) [C64]
12. Armalyte Loader (Martin Walker) [C64]
13. The Path Of Destiny - Knight 'n' Grail Subtune #2 (Project N.A.)
14. Knight 'n' Grail - Good Ending Orchestral Arrangement (Hans Axellson)
15. The Last Amazon Title Tune (Richard Bayliss) [C64]
16. The Wild Bunch (Jon Wells) [C64]
17. Star Sabre in-game tune (Targhan) [Amstrad CPC]
18. Armalyte Title Tune (Infamous) [PC]
The next step was to jot down any notes and bits of trivia that I want to mention about each game and then record my links. I plugged in my new Mic and set to work waffling about each Psytronik game in turn. The sound quality of the mic was excellent - much better than my old mic - nice one Behringer! I always try to keep my talky-bits to around 30 seconds so you never have to wait for too long for the next tune to play when you listen to the show. I also try to record each link in one pass to give the show a kind of "live" feel - although some links took a few attempts when my tongue got tied in knots or when I remembered something else I wanted to mention. The links are then normalized and hard-limited to make them nice and clear and are then dropped into the editor between each main track. The soundbeds are then tweaked and arranged in the editor to play behind my talky-bits at a low volume.
My shiny new mic with the OMAHM show on the screen in the background.
Now the show is really taking shape! DJ Skitz delivered a very cool Sceptre of Baghdad intro jingle (complete with a loud mother-hubbard of a breakbeat) which I slotted into place at the start of the show. When I'm using the multi-track editor I can usually edit a complete One Man & His Mic episode using just four separate tracks. One for the main tracks, one for the sound beds, one for my talky bits and a spare track for any twiddly stuff or crossfades. The picture below shows how the edited show looks in Cool Edit.
With everything in place I then created a mixdown of the show which I test out in my mp3 player while I'm travelling to work. While I'm listening to the show I make mental notes of any sound levels I need to change or if I have any ideas for gags or extra audio snippets I can sneak into each show. The show is then finished off with me adding or changing any bits that I thought about when I tested the show. A final mixdown is then created along with a high-quality mp3 which will be included on the Armalyte CD-ROM.
I'm really pleased with how this show has turned out. It's nice and varied as it contains some cool remixes of music from Psytronik games (there's some real treats on there for Knight 'n' Grail fans!), a nice selection of Commodore 64 tunes (recorded from a REAL Commodore 64 of course) and I'm also happy that there's an Amstrad CPC tune included in the show which adds to the variety. As well as being included on the Armalyte CD-ROM the show will also be released online later this year as part of series 2 of One Man & His Mic - so keep an eye on www.binaryzone.org/podcast for details about series 2!
And that's it for now. Thanks for reading and I'll see you ... IN THE FUTURE
Kenz / www.psytronik.com.[To full view in original source]
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22/02/2010
Richard's C64 blog! : Granny waits outside the Supermarket [source]
Monday 22nd February 2010 On Saturday I got Bionik Granny to move around and worked on the whacking animation. Today, I did some more programming on this comical game. First of all, before I get the main characters on screen. I decided to program an animation routine, and test each animation on one sprite. Unfortunately the animation never worked. I wonder what went wrong? I did create timers and pointers for the animation and increment those the way I usually do. Apparently there was some strange bug inside the animation routine, which did not allow to cycle. So I decided to reprogram the animation sub routine and was lucky this time round. Unfortunately the animation for each character was a bit of a mess. It seems that I made a few typing errors in the byte tables that represents the animation frame for each character. After correcting those (by testing sprite frames one by one) , I got a better result. Animation's fine.
Now the animation has been updated and the correct animation has been added to each sprite. I programmed some subroutines that will give the bad charac
ter some bad behaviour. The supermarket assistant, that hangs around outside doesn't like Granny hanging outside Tezco, so he moves around left and right and throws a supermarket trolley at a random place. I made the supermarket trolleys move downwards. I also got all the other characters to move downwards, but next time I program on this game. I will make random X/Y stopping positions for each shopper character, so that we get more variety and unpredictable X/Y positions for the shoppers. Making it more enjoyable compared to the original Bionic Granny. :o)[To full view in original source]
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22/02/2010
8-Bit City : Ascending NetHack [source]
After playing NetHack the entire weekend, I have finally ascended. My Dwarven Valkyrie joins the ranks of demi-gods and -goddesses. The road was long, and, in a way my journey actually began two years ago when I first discovered NetHack and became completely captivated with its ASCII graphics and technical superiority.
The quest was difficult, the monsters were brutal, and the instant death hazards were abundant. For two years I knew I had to beat this game, but for two years I only managed to kill off dozens of noble would-be heroes. This morning I was on level 46 of Gehennom, and a Master Mind Flayer wiped my memory. I lost all hope of ascending. However, after a few minutes I realized that I would push on, despite the odds. I returned to the first level of the game, remapping all of the levels, and carving a direct path down to the Inner Sanctum. When I returned to scene of my memory loss, I was more powerful and better prepared for future dangers.
The second major obstacle manifested on the elemental planes. I had no means of detecting the portals. Haphazardly, I stumbled about and easily found 3 of the portals.
Finally, I was on the Astral Plane, the legendary final level. Using wands of teleportion, I carved a path through the monsters to the first altar. It was unaligned. Using the remaining teleport charges, I reached the second altar, and my fears were once again realized: the altar was unaligned. However, my hit points never dropped to a dangerous level and my confidence was increasing. Adrenaline flooded my nervous system. I had no more wands of teleport, so my only option was to cut a bloody swath the to the final altar.
The amulet sacrificed, the game was over. I had ascended.
Check out the dumplog of my ascension, complete with ending stats, items, and screenshot.[To full view in original source]
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20/02/2010
Richard's C64 blog! : Granny is on the loose [source]
20th February 2010
I done some more work on Bionik Granny Returns today. First of all, I drew some more sprites for this game. I created some shoppers, store man, trolley, ghetto blaster, etc. I shall not tell you everything as that would spoil the surprise.
After dealing with the sprites, I went back to do some more game code. I created some data/byte tables to represent frames and colours of the characters, which Bionik Granny will want to whack during her day out. Also I created some frames for the various hazards that hang around during the game. As soon as I got the byte tables sorted out, I programmed routines to initialise all the sprites, positions.
After the initialising of the character sprites I got started working on the game loop, which will expand the sprite position limitations and also I got the player moving, and animating. Now it is time for me to prepare some logic to this game, so that granny is using her cane to whack anything that comes along. Well, after a bit of logic I successfully got granny's cane moving. Whenever the player presses the fire button. She can use her cane. Now my next task will be to get some characters come into the game, but I'll work on this probably some time tomorrow or Monday afternoon. I do also have the Up in the Air project to work on as well. So I might do UITA tomorrow instead.[To full view in original source]
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20/02/2010
Spectrum Games : Spectrum Games - Kokotoni Wilf - ZX Spectrum classic game [source]
ZX Spectrum Kokotoni Wilf
Ahhh now this is a slightly lesser known gem. Kokotoni Wilf was a slightly unusual arcade game from Elite software (who had just changed their name from Richard Wilcox software). It was released for the ZX Spectrum in October of 1984.
Anyway, in Wilf you played the winged hero in this 63 flick screen 'platform game'.
Apparently several hundred years ago in a province of Northern Europe there lived a 'Great Magician' (Derren Brown?) who discovered that there had once existed a Dragon Amulet. Fragments of this amulet had been scattered throughout time.
The Great Magician wanted to recover all of the fragments but by the time he had discovered it's existence he was too old to undertake the mission himself - a bit of a downer. So he summoned his athletic protege, (Kokotoni Wilf - you), gave him a pair of wings and sent him off in search of the fragments. Let the wing-flapping adventure commence!
You began the game more than 500 million years ago (when Dinosaurs roamed the earth).
The object of the game was to search for the various pieces of the amulet, which resembled glowing Stars of David (63 pieces in total - one on each screen) and when all the pieces had been collected from one time zone, the Magician had enough magical power to create a flashing timegate which you could enter to travel to the next time zone.
There were six periods in history to visit - each having roughly ten screens to fly through. The periods were: 965BC, 1066, 1467, 1784, 1984 and 2001
As Kokotoni Wilf you could fly around the levels which were populated by scenery and creatures from the era you were in. You had to avoid dinosaurs, poisonous plants, warriors with longbows etc etc.
What is quite funny now is when you get the 'future' of 2001 the screens are filled with space shuttles, satellites and so on. How far and distant the year 2001 seemed back in 1984. Well unfortunately we're still in petrol cars and no-one has invented anti-grav boots yet!
The amulet pieces were located in tricky to reach places (well as the game progressed they were) and sometimes you had to make Wilf 'hover' before making a quick move to make your way past a nasty. When you didn't press the 'fly' key Wilf would descend downwards until he hit solid ground - so you had to tap the fly key to keep him airborne and level. A similar method would be used later on in the arcade game Airwolf.
The game was over when you gathered all 63 pieces (not easy!) - and Elite actually offered the first 100 gamers to finish it a copy of their next release which was 'The Fall Guy'. I think that game turned out to be a bit of dud actually.
On Release:
Well this game was set to take on the mighty Jet Set Willy - a flick screen arcade game with roughly the same amount of screens. The fact that you could fly added a different slant to the platform genre. It wasn't quite as playable as Matthew Smith's classic game - but it was a good game in it's own right. Kokotoni Wilf was a fairly big hit and put the name 'Elite' into the minds of ZX Spectrum gamers.
The test of time:
Well Kokotoni is a bit of a cult classic game in the realm of Spectrum Games. It's quite easy to get into but get's really difficult as you progress. Not bad and a testament to the time it was created.
We recommend getting hold of the real Sinclair hardware but if not then download Kokotoni Wilf for a ZX Spectrum emulator. Alternatively you could try and play it online.
Be Wilf-ful and play it!
Please see our other ZX Spectrum retro game reviews and programmer interviews - all links are listed in alphabetical order. Cheers guys.
GENRE: Arcade game
RELEASE DATE: October 1984
RELEASED BY: Elite
DEVELOPER(S): Elite
PRICE: £5.95 - UK
Flap away with Kokotoni Wilf - a neat twist on the platform arcade game genre:
Wilf goes further and further in this classic arcade game:
Classic Games and Arcade Games[To full view in original source]
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20/02/2010
8-Bit City : The Atomic Knight Beta 4.0 [source]
I've made some small changes to The Atomic Knight, the viral (not really), free, open-source, ASCII, DOS, arcade adventure game!
Here's what you'll be downloading!
- Now it's a DOS application! Hurrah! It should run a little better and be much easier to emulated in Linux. DOSBox should now work with The Atomic Knight.
- Changed the 8Laser, it is now much more powerful.
- Changed the default settings to improve game balance.
- I've included the source code, so go crazy.
- Added an ending for those who can master the game!
Enjoy, and let me know what you think!
Head over to the download page to download The Atomic Knight Beta 4.0.
If you run a DOS game download site, or something similar, feel free to host The Atomic Knight. The only thing I ask is that you check back for updates to the game and host the latest version!
I also changed the URL for all the Postmodern Software downloads.[To full view in original source]
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19/02/2010
Richard's C64 blog! : Bionic Granny travels to the future [source]
19th February 2010
Bionic Granny. Either you would have loved this game, or you would have hated it. Well, I played this Mastertronic classic yesterday for a laugh and decided to create a remix of the original Bionic Granny tune using DMC V4.0. I even did a rubbish SEUCK game based on Granny's antics yesterday as well. Am I terrible or what?
How did I come up with this silly SEUCK made after 1 - 2 hours? Well, basically, I was on an Instant Messenger client and mentioned that BMX NINJA was one of worse games to ever have hit the Commodore 64. But, little did I realise was that there were C64 games worse than that. That was of course Bionic Granny by Mastertonic in 1984. I tested the original Bionic Granny game for myself. It was complete and utter pants. It was one of those games you would have seen made with the Games Creator or Creations game maker tools. (The best game I ever saw made with this probably was Golden Head, an Indiana Jones style game).
As I was discussing with a friend on MSN messenger, I came to a very daft decision to bring back the infamous granny and create a tribute game. That's right fans, Bionic Granny is going to have the Crapcade Games makeover.
For any of you who wants to know what Crapcade Games is: Crapcade Games is a fun label where we give existing game titles a makeover just for fun. And try to make them better, unlike their crap counterparts.
However, although this game is going to be taking a makeover. The concept of the game will be simple, but more fun. For example, we will want some real action involved with this silly game, so the player shall have the opportunity to move Granny left/right (like in the original), but instead of running into the people she wants to whack with her cane. Pressing fire will activate the cane. There will also be a hidden quota. As soon as enough people have been hit by the cantankerous old lady, a coin will move downwards. If the player collects enough coins (by whacking enough people with the cane), they will move on to the next level. Also the speed for each character will depend on the level which you are on. Also planned is a front end with a different piece of music, with flip pages. First showing the credits, then the game instructions, then the high score table.
Anyway, today I got started on working on some in game graphics for this game. I used the Multi Screen Construction Kit utility to design my own screens for the game. It took a while for me to design those screens as I wanted to add some quite nice detail to the actual game's graphics. The result for outside the Mini Mart turned out quite nicely (See pic below).
Other level screens I designed using MSCK were the Park, School and Public Toilets. (I might do a boating port or pub if I get round to designing some more screens. It depends how well the first 4 levels will turn out. There could also be a possibility of some more screens later on if I can think of any more levels for the game. (Huge grin). Then I used the WinVice Monitor to capture all colour and screen data of this game and stored it to the .d64 using:
s "name of file" 8 (source add) (destination add) and that worked out well.
My next step was to make the game sprites. So I dug out the Sprite Editor V1.0 by demo group Faces and drew the characters (sprites) for the game, starting with the Bionic Granny frames (Look much better than the original Bionic Granny), then I drew the kids and lollipop lady and the spinning lollipops. The sprites part is still unfinished, but this will be ongoing for a short period of time. Finally after that, I decided to improve slightly with the Bionic Granny remix, by adding a touch of extra melodies. As soon as the piece of music was finished, I decided to work on the game code. As well as the school stage, I am hoping to add some other characters like, dogs, angry shoppers, drunks, ghetto blasters (blaring notes at you) and some other interesting things.
Unfortunately not much time was spent on the game code for this game, as it was time for tea. So I only programmed in the game screen, IRQ player, etc. But hopefully I should work on the actual game and have something in action some time soon.
As soon as the game is finished and has been tested. It will be released on my web site as a free download and I'll make an authentic tape loader based on the Mastertronic Visiload loader (blue screen and flashing multicolour border) but of course, with loading music.[To full view in original source]
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18/02/2010
8-Bit City : Play Rogue Online Now! [source]
The original UNIX Rogue is now available for play online, free. Rogue is the game that started the cascade of number-driven ASCII worlds over the past 30 years. Michael Toy and Glenn Wichman programmed the game in C, using the then-new curses.h library. They were university students at the time, and Rogue was distributed across university and public networks over the next 30 years as free, open-source software. The creators retain copyright despite open-sourcing their creation.
A new website has appeared: rlgallery.org, the Roguelike Gallery. Currently the site hosts 2 versions of Rogue, with plans to expand. The website hosts the scores of all the players, including online leaderboards and game replays. You can watch others in real-time as they explore the Dungeons of Doom.
Simply SSH to rlgallery.org. You probably need to use a terminal emulator, and I recommend PuTTY, a free Telnet/SSH client. The username is "rodney" and the password is "yendor".
If you have no idea what I'm talking about, Telnet and SHH are text-based internet protocols. They are Pre-Web technology, but are still very fun and easy to use.
I encourage all readers to give Rogue a try and set some high scores on rlgallery.org!
[To full view in original source]
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15/02/2010
Spectrum Games : Spectrum Games - Chronos - ZX Spectrum retro game - arcade game [source]
Chronos ZX Spectrum
This game was a budget £1.99 release for the ZX Spectrum byMastertronic in 1987.
In this solid enough scrolling arcade game you had to resuce poor old Chronos (the lord of time no less) who had been imprisoned in another dimension by the Dimension Weavers.
You had to fly you craft (which looked like the craft from Ultimate's Cyberun!) across the left to right scrolling landscape blasting away at plenty of nasties, many of which were not the sharpest of bad guys. Watch them blindly fly into varying parts of the landscape - saving you the bother of shooting them.
Your ship could move up, down, left, right and of course was equipped with a forward firing lazer.
There were six levels in total (signified by the changing colour of the graphics as you progressed) and in true classic arcade fashion the game became more difficult the further you progressed.
The game went for the monochromatic look (which was probably a good choice) and had two layers of scrolling, which was smooth enough to make the game playable.
There were plenty of different enemies to avoid or destroy such as fighters, ying-yang type floating things, orbs and so on.
There were also laser barriers which had to be destroyed (by shooting the top or bottom part of them) and blastable blocks which had to be cleared away with trusty trigger finger action.
This game does sort of remind me of the classic arcade game Scramble with the maze like levels and constant scrolling.
The game was 'completed' once you breached level 6 and Chronos was rescued - no doubt just in the nick of time.
On release:
Well Chronos was a decent enough arcade game and for £1.99 was value for money. It picked up a bit of a cult status due to the impressive synthesiser style menu music and humorous high score table which would answer you with witty responses should you enter 'naughty words' instead of your name. There were also numerous cheats which could be activated through the high score table too - try typing Peter Gough for starters.
The test of erm... time
Well it's a simle shooter that is still fairly playable - there are plenty of worse arcade games for the ZX Spectrum. Easy to pick up and play - give it a go to remember that Spectrum budget games could be decent.
Jing it baby!
Tim Follin's impressive menu music:
GENRE: Arcade game
RELEASE DATE: 1987
RELEASED BY: Mastertronic
DEVELOPER(S): Steven Tatlock, John Tatloc, Tim Follin
PRICE: £1.99 - UK
Onto level 2 in Chronos - classic arcade game action...
Arcade Games and Classic Games[To full view in original source]
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14/02/2010
DATASTORM 2010 : More releases up! [source]
A packdisk from Ant/3LE has been uploaded. An out of compo release from Candle called Wank Games has been uploaded.[To full view in original source]
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14/02/2010
8-Bit City : Postmodern Software Download Page [source]
Filedropper was not a reliable way to host The Atomic Knight. I created a free Google Site to host public downloads. This page should host future downloads (Star Quest? That's my next project to finish).
http://sites.google.com/site/postmodernsoftware/
Everyone should be able to download The Atomic Knight Beta 3.0. I've included the source code, feel free to read it or improve it.[To full view in original source]
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11/02/2010
Spectrum Games : Welcome to Spectrum Games - Retro Games - Arcade Games [source]
Spectrum Games
Hello and welcome to Spectrum Games
Site Updates:
Last classic game review: 07/02/2010 Hyperactive
Quiz updated 07/02/2010
This site is our little tribute to one of our favourite retro computers - the fantastic 8-bit Sinclair ZX Spectrum.
Here you will find lighthearted reviews of classic games, (including classic arcade games and text adventures), images, videos, a quiz (which we will update regularly) and interviews with Spectrum programming legends.
Find out which classic games are worth revisiting again - and which ones that weren't even worth visiting the first time around!
We hope you enjoy our little dedication to a fantasic retro gaming machine and the classic arcade games that many of us played.
All game reviews are listed alphabetically - see the links over on the right.
With emulation very much at the forefront of retro gaming and classic games (ZX Spectrum Games being very popular) - you can easily emulate the good old ZX Spectrum on a modern PC.
Almost all of the most popular classic games are readily available for free - you will even be able to play many online.
Last classic game reviewed: Hyper Active
Last ZX Spectrum programmer interviewed: Dave Hawkins
So join us here at ZX Spectrum Games and help to keep the arcade gaming, classic games and retro computing spirit alive.
Thanks all,
Mart and Bri.
Arcade Games, Classic Games and ZX Spectrum Games[To full view in original source]
