New Release: Get the Cat

[Peter]

Name: Get the Cat
Author: Peter van der Woude
Released: April 12, 2014
Requirements: Unexpanded VIC-20 (joystick required)
Description: A simple game: Step on the bricks to save your cat.


download link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6lVWB ... sp=sharing

The last thing I wrote for the Vic was in 1984. So I wrote this to get into the basic(s) again. While writing the game ideas popped up and I included them in the game. The result: spaghetti!

In the 80’s I moved from the Vic to MSX and learned Z80 assembly language (even published in some magazines). Today I downloaded and printed “Vic20 Machine Code” by Bruce Smith. Any other recommendations?

As for the game: move left and right with the joystick. Press fire to place a brick under your character, provided you have bricks left. Your character can step up one brick only. You can let him fall from any height. The bricks seem to fall randomly, but there is a pattern to make the game easier. If you reach level 5,10,15,... you gain an extra live. Maximum extra lives is only 1.

Sorry, if my English isn't good.

[Misfit]

Nice little game. Very easy to play but hard to beat.

When I need information about asm, I surf to this site. http://skilldrick.github.io/easy6502/
Very easy to test small routines.

[Peter]

Thanks Misfit. It gets easier when you know every fifth block falls directly above you. Very useful for building stairs to the cat.

Great link! Very practical and perfect for creating and testing small routines.

[orion70]

Very nice! In the true spirit of VIC
Please, duplicate your initial post in the Releases of 2014.

[joshuadenmark]

Super game and very playable. Thanks

[Peter]

I hope you are all having a nice summer so far. I'm enjoying this summer vacation, which is already half way through, in a forest with my family.

Thanks to input from my kids, I'm working on a better version of Get the Cat.

[Tepic]

Great little game. Do you mind if I steal the idea for my Raspberry Pi Fuze setup?

[Peter]

I don't mind. Googled Raspberry Pi Fuze, cool project!

[Tepic]

I don't mind. Googled Raspberry Pi Fuze, cool project!

It's lovely. Comes with a decent BASIC as well.

[Peter]

Here is the new beta version of Get the Cat. I didn’t have time to fully test it.



Remember: every fifth block falls above you. Use that to your advantage.

Changes:

Normal and endless option. With endless you don’t lose lives, but no highscore is set.

It’s faster.

ML joystick routine.

Little animation for the cat (the higher the blocks the faster it moves).

Heart above cat when you save it.

F7 returns to title screen, mainly to end the endless option.

Lives are no longer limited to 1.

And some other little things.

[Peter]

Made some last changes and now Get the Cat is finished (I hope). Works fine on my real VIC20.

Downloadlink in original post.

Now I can start working on my next project.

I hope you enjoy the game. If you find a bug while playing please let me know.

[orion70]

Hey Peter, thank you for this tiny funny game! I took no notice of the improved release before, but now I tried Get the Cat again, and must say it's addictive, and very well done on the technical side. I like the "VIC look", it looks basic... but not so BASIC

[Peter]

Thanks Orion! I meant to make it look basic. At this point I’m trying to figure out what games to make and how to make them. I can’t do magic with Basic like Jeff and I find it difficult adjusting to 6502 machine language (I’m learning little by little). So for now it will be some hybrid of machine language and Basic. My next game will be a kind of puzzle game with elements of Get the Cat, it probably will take 8 or 16 kb of ram.

Get the Cat was me trying to program again. Strange to see some people review it, I never meant it to be a serious release. But for the people who wrote about Get the Cat, please mention the new release.

It motivates when people react to something I made and enjoying it (or not).

[Misfit]

New K&A Plus Issue 2 includes a nice review: https://www.dropbox.com/s/bt47hmndzekur ... _02_EN.pdf