Homebrew game for C64 part 6

Homebrew game for C64 part 6 - hiatus

rogress with this project ground to a halt for two reasons; I found that I really enjoyed writing the music and have been doing a lot of that, and because when I got to the point where my characters were moving around, I realised that my original concept was rubbish.

At first I'd seen a cross between Lemmings and Pacman - where the sheep would flock and also follow the character that you control. The idea was to try and lead them around obstacles and solve puzzles.
After a break I had the idea of being able to switch character. Each has a name and a 'special skill' and you work out how to use the characters to solve the puzzle.

The mechanics of that are kinda working, as you can see. It needs more characters, the ones that are there need more work. But most of all it needs some time spending designing some devious puzzles for this scenario.

I'll probably take a break and write more music, and let this stew for a bit.

Comments

ZX81 reversible internal 16k upgrade

T his post is an upvote for Tynemouth Software's ZX81 reversible Internal 16K RAM upgrade . Their instructions are easy enough for even me to follow and don't involve cutting tracks. This is the ZX81 I've had out on display and used whenever I wanted to. It's an issue 1 and was probably a kit judging by some very untidy assembly. It has a ZX8-CCB composite video mod and an external keyboard fitted. On board it has two 1k x 4-bit chips. The ZX81 originally came with 1k on board. Thanks to a trick with compressing the display in ram, that was enough to type and run a small program but you soon felt the limitations. Back in the early 80s, the solution was a 16k ram pack which plugged into the back[1] and this is the way I've been using this particular machine. These ram packs are notorious for 'ram pack wobble'. Even if fastened into place, you can still randomly find your work disappearing. This is a very reliable solution using a more modern 32k chip (half

Driving NeoPixels with Z80

I 've long been thinking about a version two RC2014 LED matrix module . I've had a matrix with a MAX 7219 on a module. It's a nice enhancement. But there's only so much you can do with a single-colour LED array right? Wouldn't it be cool to have RGB LEDs? At Liverpool MakeFest I saw a wall-sized ping-pong ball NeoPixel display and picked up some NeoPixels with the intention of making one. Possibly driven by my RC2014. I enjoy learning about protocols and have had some SPI devices working with the RC2014 - bit-banging SPI works really well because it doesn't care about timing. NeoPixels really do care about timing though. From Adafruit's web page about their 8x8 NeoPixel matrix: If there's one thing I want to get across in this blog post, it's don't just accept what you're told . Question everything. Learn about what's going on and find out why you're being told something isn't possible. Get creative with workarounds. I'

Making new ROMs for the Vic20 / Vicky Twenty

M y Vicky Twenty is very nearly complete. As things stand, the board and every single component is new*. The processor and VIAs are newly-manufactured (W65C02 and W65C22). Obviously the Vic1 chip isn't manufactured today, but there is 'new old' stock about. I have been able to buy a Vic 1, date code 1987 (which seems very late). It obviously hasn't been in a computer before, passes the acetone test and works. The same goes for two of the ROMs - character and BASIC. But I haven't been able to buy a new-old Kernal ROM (901486-07). I am able to borrow one - all of the boards I have, have this particular ROM socketed. I don't know whether all of this indicates that the Kernal has proved less reliable than the other two. I recently bought a TL866 for another project. Of all the retro-computing hardware things I've had to learn to do, making ROMs has been one of the simplest. So far, everything has been very easy and worked first time. I'm not sure that it&

New Stuff For Old Stuff :: Blog

Search This Blog