[finished] Cento (simple board game)

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pallas
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[finished] Cento (simple board game)

Post by pallas »

Hello!

I finally made my first game and program for the vic-20 after almost 30 years!
It's all basic and petscii for the unexpanded vic.

Image
Image

I'd really appreciate any programming advice you can give: there are probably many optimizations which can be done on my basic listing.

prg here: http://www.opbyte.it/vic20/cento.prg

Thanks for having a look :-)

EDIT: I started a vic-20 page here: http://www.opbyte.it/vic20/, hoping to have time to write some other programs soon!
Last edited by pallas on Thu Mar 07, 2013 5:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
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vicist
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Post by vicist »

Nice game. A bit like Knight's Move. I love these simple puzzlers.

With such a small amount of code I wouldn't bother trying to optimise anything. The game works as it should so why worry? :wink:
pallas
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Post by pallas »

Thanks!
There is a good thing about programming on the VIC. It's that the programs get finished :-)
On todays environments, there is always something new to be fixed!
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orion70
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Post by orion70 »

Congratulations on this Pallas, nice game :) . Also, I see from your website you are a programmer, so we expect more games from you!
pallas
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Post by pallas »

Thanks and yes, the plan is to make some more in the future: I really enjoyed making "cento" so it will be fun making other games or little programs like that. If time permits, of course :-)

As many said before, the limited resources makes you concentrate on playability instead of appearance. And it's nice to finish a program instead of keeping it "under development" forever ;-)

BTW one of my ideas was to write a "chain reaction" game, I think it would be fun.
pallas
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Post by pallas »

I wasn't satisfied with the time it took to do the "game over" check, so I did a bit of optimization and uploaded the new .prg file.
Now it feels quicker when doing fast moves.
Every single instruction and FOR cycle matters! ;-)
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Ghislain
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Post by Ghislain »

pallas wrote:Thanks!
There is a good thing about programming on the VIC. It's that the programs get finished :-)
On todays environments, there is always something new to be fixed!
I generally prefer working on a canvas of 3.5K -- it forces me to be efficient with code and not delve into too much feature creep.

But, I'm constantly adjusting and modifying my old stuff to make improvements. At least for me, a VIC-20 game is never really finished.
"A slave is one who waits for someone to come and free him." -- Ezra Pound
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Jeff-20
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Post by Jeff-20 »

Ghislain wrote:I generally prefer working on a canvas of 3.5K -- it forces me to be efficient with code and not delve into too much feature creep.
yes
High Scores, Links, and Jeff's Basic Games page.
pallas
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Post by pallas »

Just wanted to add some info on the solving strategies (without losing all the fun!).

By playing "normally", i.e. jumping around without a specific pattern, I was able to reach 99, but never fill the full board.

There is a known pattern which gets to 100, and is based on "divide et impera". But it assumes the starting point is at the top-left, that's why I've set the initial point randomly (also to add some variation to the game).

There are probably multiple patterns like this one and it probably works with other initial positions as well, but I dind't have time or wish to prove it :-)
matsondawson
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Post by matsondawson »

pallas
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Post by pallas »

matsondawson wrote:Obligatory emulator link :)
http://www.mdawson.net/vic20chrome/vic2 ... neType=pal
Thanks! Can I put this link in my vic-20 page?
matsondawson
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Post by matsondawson »

pallas wrote:
matsondawson wrote:Obligatory emulator link :)
http://www.mdawson.net/vic20chrome/vic2 ... neType=pal
Thanks! Can I put this link in my vic-20 page?
Sure, anyone can put those links on thier pages as the source of the .prg is your original URL.
KingTrode
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Post by KingTrode »

Just had a quick play on this whilst testing GB20.

Nice little puzzle game you have put together here, great job for your first VIC game.


KingTrode / Jim
pallas
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Post by pallas »

KingTrode wrote:Just had a quick play on this whilst testing GB20.

Nice little puzzle game you have put together here, great job for your first VIC game.


KingTrode / Jim
Thanks :-)

On a side note, I'd like to know if anybody get it to 100 :)
Dodges
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Re:

Post by Dodges »

pallas wrote:
KingTrode wrote:Just had to get Surfshark VPN asap a quick play on this whilst testing GB20.

Nice little puzzle game you have put together here, great job for your first VIC game.

KingTrode / Jim
Thanks :-)

On a side note, I'd like to know if anybody get it to 100 :)
Fun little game and my max is 77 lol.
Last edited by Dodges on Mon May 09, 2022 4:05 am, edited 5 times in total.
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