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Well I'm hooked !

Tried BBC and Elk versions, couldn't tell the difference (as per Elementum). Love the interplay between zones and the different characteristics of the robots.

No bugs found !..... yet

Insanely Excellent Kelvin !!

Have to keep reminding myself this is running on an Electron ! (think I said the same thing for Elementum !)

Thanks Tricky

Slowly but surely, getting there......

Next, after the rising balloons........ really want the wolves climbing and prowling on the ladders.......

Latest SSD image below..... Finally got round to introducing the Ham Hock - the trajectory is a bit rough, and the collision detection needs enlarging somewhat - but it's there ! Just (!) need to get the balloons rising up after a wolf gets whacked with the Ham..... :-k Yet more alterations to sprit...

So, a gentle immersion back into the Pooyan code :? , after a 'little break' I've revisited the Mode 2 title screen, as wasn't happy with the 6 bit (25%) compression I used originally. Got it down to just under 50% using bit 7 as a 'repeater flag', the next byte then holds the repeat length. Anyway,...

Not sure my head's in the right place for that at the moment (must be Christmas ! ) Maybe this topic will re-emerge in another 18 months

Yes, good luck on the Robot game - looks great, or course !

Hmmmm...... I think there's just going to be too many OSWRCH calls and memory transfers (for example) for the Elk to handle it in Mode1 :( As in Kees' source descriptions (topic link above), there's a lot of VDU31,x,y and then *fx135 to see what's there. Quite odd, but works fine on a Mode1 Beeb I g...

Yes, it's surprising a Mode4 version wasn't done back in the day, considering its popularity. Might be easier to rip some of the JSW code and create the 20 rooms to turn it into Manic Miner ! :shock: I'll see what I can gather together regarding the BBC version..... trying to get a compilable disass...

Hmmmm..... Blast from the past ! :D Can't remember why I didn't continue with this. Must have got distracted with something else........ :shock: Looking at some old notes, I did start a full disassembly - some of the code is vaguely encrypted (simple EORs), some isn't. Also there's a lot of memory s...

Alas, I can't make this one

All have a good session !

Finally found some time between chaos to progress this a little ! :D I've updated the first post with version 0.2 of the SSD - this now includes load/save game feature ! Just use it similarly to the official release..... In game, press Shift-F9 to relocate the data ready for saving. Press Ctrl-Break...

Thanks sbadger It's an interesting challenge this one !

Work and other issues have slowed progress but hope to get the load/save feature up soon !

That confused me as well..... I'm currently using a somewhat adapted version of this in Pooyan. I've changed it so that I can poke different values into 'playspeed' to vary the music speed, depending on which track I'm playing (ie it's not always a value of 8 ) DEC &09 BNE noplay LDA playspeed: ...

Thanks David

Already had a brief look at how the data to be saved/loaded is moved around (and un/encrypted !) in the game and menu programs. Thinking of doing something in the loader to deal with loading/saving games

Another unbeliever ! :lol: Only kidding, thanks David. Only recently read your topic from 4 years ago - https://stardot.org.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=12158 Excellent stuff ! :D [Edit] - My 'memory issue of the day' - this topic clearly mentions the Elk version having crew members in it !! Ye...

Thanks for that, never seen that part of the game before !

I guess one of the main game differences is lack of water colour on the Elk version, just the surface line is displayed. A bit confusing at times !

Not sure at present..... Lets says the BBC version uses memory from &0000-&6000. Electron version uses memory from &0000-&6200, but has about 2 pages of software scrolling. So the memory utilisation should be around the same. Not sure if you get all the end of game stuff on the Elk v...

Thanks VectorEyes :D I had to remind myself how much the standard BBC version (no SWRAM) reduced the playing area. 8k of Mode2 screen memory (&6000-&7FFF) ! Everything below that is definitely in use ! I did chuckle remembering all the write-ups back in the day saying how Exile uses every la...

Thanks trixster :D This was briefly discussed last night. Not sure offhand if the BBC version uses any CRTC screen width restrictions to regain some memory. If it does, then you wouldn't be able to display the helper alongside the gameplay area. Would have to do something similar to Repton2 - Electr...

Ooops,
Just realised there was a couple of collectables displaying the wrong icons !!

All fixed now, have adjusted ssd/uef attachments in first post !

'Must test more. Must test more.'

That had crossed my mind already !

Maybe run through all the cheat options before the game loads, store the values in that 'hidden' Mode6 area, then copy them in after the game loads........

Not sure I'll have enough memory left to use toggles.....
I'll ponder that some more......

Hmmmm......

BiTD I got as far as the lower water caves and messing about with the large block and coronium rocks, but that was it ! Saving/loading the game was too much of a pain !

A vague amount of cheating may be needed if I were going to attempt to complete it now !

Of course not ! :D Now you're just making me paranoid. The random-ish number generator is called all over the place in the game, so I guess there was no thought to reference the already generated values in the wallpaper ! I've been pretty much all over the map and haven't noticed anything out of pla...

That's exactly what I would be thinking if I had seen this topic !

Even if you just disable the wallpaper and have black edges it makes things better as far as I'm concerned (looks as Electron Citadel does, with just the top and bottom code !)

That's what I thought ! Saw this as part of the setup, thinking it was transferring code/data, but no ! :shock: ; 625A - Page Transferred to 6860-6959 .T6860 LDA #&00: STA &02 LDA #&62 LDX #&02 .T6868 STA &03 LDY #&1F .T686C JSR &2671 ; Generate a number for wallpaper CPY...

As Demo'd in Weeknight Virtual Dev Session ! Finally got round to doing a compilable disassembly of Electron Exile, and was astonished to find the vertical stripes of code/data down the sides are no such thing ! They're just 'randomish' generated values. EE0.gif Getting rid of them suddenly gives up...

No worries ! 30 minutes to cover both would be great.
Cheers

Thanks Dave, I PM'd you, but could I have a bit longer, as I'd like to go through a bit of new Pooyan stuff, plus what I've done with the Electron Exile sidebars

Looking forward to it

Thanks both :D One of the pains with the intro was adjusting the text printing procedure to deal with the punctuation !! Numbers and Letters fitted quite nicely into a page of memory, but I suddenly needed full stops, commas, exclamations marks etc. Any way, all done and ready for other stuff, and j...

Here's a little update, and SSD below ! Had a family emergency, so progress has been a bit erratic. Decided to have a small break from the main code, so I've done the intro, together with another tune from the original arcade (which all worked out a lot quicker and easier than the previous one ! :D ...