WIP - Blazer for unexpanded Vic (PAL & NTSC)

[Victragic]

Here is a version of Trailblazer for Vic20. It is based on the C16 single-player version of the game.




Trailblazer was a 'flagship' game on the 264-series Commodores written by Shaun Southern - it looked and sounded impressive, anyway. It wasn't the best game for longevity of interest, but it was one of the few I didn't mind showing my C64-owning friends when they saw my strange Plus/4. It was genuinely fun to play, and I've long thought the Vic should have a version of it.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BypQg ... authuser=0

From the disk image, load and run 'blazer'.

I've added an NTSC file to the disk. This will work on any Vic regardless of memory configuration thanks to Tokra's enhancement to the loader.


The game is complete, however there are some bugs with sound, and I want to fix the screen / perspective of the track to be more accurate, when I can think of a way to achieve that!

I've enjoyed the challenge of working within the unexpanded machine, resisting my tendency to just add more memory to the problem to make things easier.

-Glen

8/6/15 Update .. Added NTSC version.
11/6/15 Update .. Added more advanced loader
23/6/15 Update .. Added stars in the background
.. Sound effects better
.. Fixed restarting problem
.. Fixed 'double' falling down hole problem
.. Rasters no longer stable (tradeoff)
.. Now only 15 levels, not 16

[Mayhem]

but it was one of the few I didn't mind showing my C64-owning friends when they saw my strange Plus/4.

I presume you mean before the C64 version came out?

I played this to death back in the day, so next time I have the laptop running, I'll give this a whirl and see how it plays

[darkatx]

That was a lot of fun - wow!

[Misfit]

Amazing and very smooth gameplay. If you add cars, we have Buggy Boy for VIC.

[Victragic]

I presume you mean before the C64 version came out?

I played this to death back in the day, so next time I have the laptop running, I'll give this a whirl and see how it plays

Yeah, the C64 version was much enhanced, and multiplayer too - but the C16 version was still 'good enough' for some credit..

I didn't hide it away, like certain other tapes I'd wasted money on
(Way of the Exploding Fist, Fighting Warrior, Winter Olympics by Tynesoft, and Commando by Elite to name a few..)

If you add cars, we have Buggy Boy for VIC.

I played Buggy Boy quite a bit on the C64. Loads of fun.

[orion70]

One word only:

[Boray]

Impressive!

[beamrider]

Excellent, very fluid movement even if a bit too hard for me did you use raster tricks for this?

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[Victragic]

Excellent, very fluid movement even if a bit too hard for me did you use raster tricks for this?

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

The effect is fairly simple - the screen is made up of 5 solid 'columns' - alternating between screen colour and auxiliary colour (because they are the only options that allow the full 16-colour palette). Some timing is required to change the setting of these two colours at the right point.

As for it being too hard - for me it's now too easy It's a limitation of the game, once you learn the track there's not much challenge to it. Until that point, you spend a lot of time falling down holes..

[malcontent]

Trailblazer is great! And this is a great version!

I seemed to run into a bug, when I restarted a new game after dying, I "fell" directly after starting. Every other time you start you get a little forward momentum, except for the first time restarting

[Victragic]

I seemed to run into a bug, when I restarted a new game after dying, I "fell" directly after starting. Every other time you start you get a little forward momentum, except for the first time restarting

Thanks for that. I've noticed there are a few problems with resetting variables at the end of the game / end of levels which I'll attend to when I get some more free time.

[corpsicle]

Oh wow i need to try this.
Hopefully ill have time tonight. =)

*edit*

I tried it and its great!
Now both my son and i are quite frustrated because its as evil as i remember the original. =D

*edit 2*

Btw i tried playing it from Princess sd2iec and that didnt work.
Then i ran it from the uk1541 and that crashed the first time, but worked the second time. Just FYI.

[tokra]

Great little game! You're on fire. Each game you do has a technical "WOW" of some kind. Love that.

Regarding NTSC-detection you should use the ROM-value in 60900 ($ede4) - this is 5 for NTSC and 12 for PAL inside the setup-table the VIC-20 itself uses. As such you can rely on that value unless someone hacks a PAL-VIC into an NTSC-machine or vice versa...

I've taken a look at the loader and hacked it a little:

Code: Select all

0 d=peek(186):ifpeek(44)=16then3
1 poke648,30:sys58648:print"{clr}{wht}pO44,16:pO4096,0:new":print"{2 down}load"chr$(34)"blazer"chr$(34)","d
2 poke56,30:poke631,19:poke632,13:poke633,131:poke198,3:end
3 a=peek(60900):n=57809:l=65493:p=780:b$="a.out":ifa=5thenb$="b.out"
4 sysn"graphics",d,1:pokep,0:sysl
[... unchanged ...]
150 forx=0to4000:geta$:ifa$=" "thenx=4000
151 next
160 sysn"colour",d,1:pokep,0:sysl
170 loadb$,d,1

Enhancements:
- works with any RAM-expansion (3K as well as 8K or up) (it does so by checking peek(44) and if it differs it reconfigures memory and video and reloads the loader itself)
- detects NTSC with ROM-value
- possible to press space instead of waiting for loading-screen
- loads from last used device (nice if you use another device number than 8, may even work with tape)
- uses inline-loading of files (SYS57809"filename",devicenumber,1:poke780,0:sys65493)

Zipped .d64-file attached

[Victragic]

Thanks Tokra,

I did have the thought there was a better way of doing this - you saved me some trouble!

Really cool to reconfigure the memory like that . In fact it occurs to me I might do a 3k-enhanced version with music, better effects and other elements that are missing from this version . So the loader could then be modified again to detect the memory present and load in the correct version I think .

Will upload your version of the loader as my link when I get access to more than just my phone .

Cheers
Glen

[Victragic]

Oh wow i need to try this.
Hopefully ill have time tonight. =)

*edit*

I tried it and its great!
Now both my son and i are quite frustrated because its as evil as i remember the original. =D

*edit 2*

Btw i tried playing it from Princess sd2iec and that didnt work.
Then i ran it from the uk1541 and that crashed the first time, but worked the second time. Just FYI.

Oh good to know , I will try mine out on real hardware again soon and see what happens.