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LOGAN
Account closed
Registered: Aug 2003
Posts: 71 |
Help request: MOTAS64
I have a dream of porting the first one or two levels of MOTAS to the C64. But although I have an very early non-interactive preview I might run into my own assembly limitations.
I have converted some graphics to the C64 format, but these might need to be improved. I tried to convert the original music but I gave up for now as that wasn't going anywhere.
Maybe some people are willing to help me realize this small game as I personally think it is possible to at least port level 1 to the C64. I hope some programmer / musician and graphician is able to help me out. I can always use one of my old musics for the music but it's nicer to have a real conversion of the original soundtrack. The graphics might need some tweaks and improvements although I think they are pretty true to the original already. Programming seems to be the biggest problem atm.
You can view some screen shots and very early preview here:
http://members.home.nl/c64/motas/info/
Cheers,
LOGAN |
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LOGAN
Account closed
Registered: Aug 2003
Posts: 71 |
Well i spend all night trying to make the example exomizer depacker work but it keeps generating a CPU jam right before the 6 variables. I read some of the comments about exomizer and to me it seems most talk about loading using an IRQ. I sortof wondered if there wasn't a plain repack call.
Anyway I wasted 5 hours+ trying to get an exomized file in memory decrunched without any success.
I might change compiler from ACME to DASM as the example was written for DASM. I just hope I eventually find a solution because the few graphics need to be packed in memory..
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Krill
Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 2940 |
I just completed the original flash game, was very much fun with some really nice puzzles. :)
Anyways, if you want to load and uncompress stuff from disk, i have a pretty fast irq loader which just serves this purpose, and Exomizer is one of the supported compressors. There's also an API to uncompress files in memory. Just tell me where i can send the source package to.
Apart from that, i could help you with the code, but only as some kind of adviser at the moment.
Keep up the great work! :) |
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LOGAN
Account closed
Registered: Aug 2003
Posts: 71 |
Thanks krill, help will be usefull!
I made a simple menu preview:
http://members.home.nl/c64/motas/info/
(You can press space to see the introduction, nothing spectacular except for myself having be able to code it :) |
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JackAsser
Registered: Jun 2002
Posts: 2014 |
@LOGAN: Keep up the good work! And as I always say to game projects like this; skip the menu stuff and focus on the game engine directly. Figure out how to animate the gfx and how to handle the area maps (may I suggest each screen uses a 40x25 char grid, each char assigned to an action, 0 means nothing, 1-255 means whatever action on that particular place, like f.e. open door). When you execute an action, as input, you have what you have on the mouse pointer, like the disk box on level 3. Also, if you want 1351 mouse support you can have my code from my Eye of the Beholder preview. And as Krill said, I can also assist you in the coding as some kind of adviser, and when Krill isn't around I can help you with his loader since I'm quite familiar with it nowadays.
But once again, drop the easy coding now like menu routines etc. and even loading. Focus on making one level work and try to find a structure that will allow you to make the other levels quickly. I do think each level will require it's own special source on top of the general engine, like f.e. how to animate certain stuff.
/Andreas
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LOGAN
Account closed
Registered: Aug 2003
Posts: 71 |
Thanks for the reply JackAsser, I started with the menu because I'm actually quite a noob at assembler. Doing some work on it will give me a a chance to learn a bit about the basic things. (Yeh, I could cry when I got the menu parts together, hehe)
I already thought about using 40x25 grid of chars to use as hotspots and 'animation' blocks. I'm still not totally sure if I want to do smooth animation on doors etc due to the work of animating involved. My first target is the 2 states (ie open and closed door) working.
I do want to add mouse support, fast loader and decrunch from memory. I'm sure this might be basic stuff for seasoned coders but I haven't done much assembler way back.
So the 'easy' coding isn't easy for me, hehe. If I have, say, be able to use the game menu hotspots I then also have the basic code for the levels as they are generally the same technique.
My first target for the game is simply to convert level 1 and the end room (with guestbook) and then see if I can do another one and take it from there. Each room will need its custom code I think.
At this time I feel it's very hard to convert all current (20) levels of the original game due to time and complexity of the levels. Indeed having one working level would be great, but I see the menu as part of the engine for basic stuff I need. Thats why I started with the menu after the quick and dirty moving pointer preview :)
All help and advise is appriciated, thanks. |
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LOGAN
Account closed
Registered: Aug 2003
Posts: 71 |
very very early preview op MOTAS has been updated to an very early preview. "clicky-click"
http://members.home.nl/c64/motas/info/motasmenu_v0.prg |
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bugjam
Registered: Apr 2003
Posts: 2556 |
WOW, looks like a great project! Good luck with it! If I wasn´t involved in, like, a million projects already, I would consider volunteering for some graphical work... :/ |
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Dane
Account closed
Registered: May 2002
Posts: 421 |
Tried some MOTAS and loved it. PM me in the future if this project needs some quirky music (one tune per level?) |
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JackAsser
Registered: Jun 2002
Posts: 2014 |
Quote: very very early preview op MOTAS has been updated to an very early preview. "clicky-click"
http://members.home.nl/c64/motas/info/motasmenu_v0.prg
See! I told you, that you would easily be able to implement this! Listening to you, you made it sound like it would take ages to implement. I think you underestimate your skills by a factor 10 or so. :)
Good work!!!
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WVL
Registered: Mar 2002
Posts: 889 |
Looks good :)
Before you go any further, I'd advise to optimize the code you have now, and make it more general at the same time.
F.e. now is the time to add a loader system, a mouse driver, a good packer/depacker system and maybe a buffer system to store rooms/areas that are next to the one the player is in now.
Oh, and most importantly : to make it easy to maintain and add extra rooms/levels. |
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Mace
Registered: May 2002
Posts: 1799 |
Ooh, this is nice, a point-&-click adventure!
If you ever need a beta-tester... PM me :-)
As a matter of fact...
The routine to display the text at the bottom line needs some improvement, as is flickers. |
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Martin Piper
Registered: Nov 2007
Posts: 699 |
Keep up the good work! A bit of advice is to now consolidate, document and tidy all of the code you have so far so it is easier and quicker in the long run to add extra assets. It is also easier to spot and fix bugs if you have more common code rather than lots of copy-paste code everywhere. |
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Frantic
Registered: Mar 2003
Posts: 1641 |
Martin Piper: Sounds quite boring to me. ;) |
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SIDWAVE
Account closed
Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 2238 |
I'm sure Logan has a grip on it :)
From he moaned about the impossibility to have hotspots (click zones), till he had made it work, only took 1 hour..
I'm now nearly done with the 3rd tune.. (there are 6)
It fall in a nearly empty space in HVSC: it's jazz! |
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Martin Piper
Registered: Nov 2007
Posts: 699 |
Quote: Martin Piper: Sounds quite boring to me. ;)
Yup :) But not as boring and frustrating as hacking badly documented and copy-paste code later on. :)
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