WIP: Manic Miner port

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beamrider
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Re: WIP: Manic Miner port

Post by beamrider »

Just asking for completeness sake, but any reason you haven't done a bit more with the title screen like the speccy version?

Would be easy to knock up with my screen designer for instance.
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Kweepa
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Re: WIP: Manic Miner port

Post by Kweepa »

Bug-Byte vs Software Projects:
- it's the version I remember playing on my friend's Spectrum back in the day
- I kind of prefer the enemies, where they are different
- it's the version analysed at skoolkit.ca, which I used to rip the graphics and for screen layout reference

Title screen:
- I just didn't feel the urge :)
- not sure I have the space
merman
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Re: WIP: Manic Miner port

Post by merman »

I like the title screen, gives it a very early 80s feel.

There's only a couple of enemy changes (e.g the Penrose triangles - Software Projects' logo)
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Mayhem
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Re: WIP: Manic Miner port

Post by Mayhem »

  • 1. In the Processing Plant, the enemy at the end of the conveyor belt is a bush in the BB version, whereas the SP version resembles a PacMan ghost.
    2. In Amoebatrons' Revenge, the original BB amoebatrons look like alien octopuses with tentacles hanging down, whereas the SP amoebatrons resemble the Bug-Byte logo.
    3. In The Warehouse, the original game has threshers travelling up and down the vertical slots. The SP version has 'impossible triangle' sprites (the logo) instead.
    4. The Bug-Byte cheat code was the numerical sequence "6031769" - based on Matthew Smith's driving licence. In the SP version this was changed to "typewriter". (not that it matters here... or does it?!)
Lie with passion and be forever damned...
aeb
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Re: WIP: Manic Miner port

Post by aeb »

Very nice! Better than original.

Maybe try call the voice frequency adjust routine 2-16 times more often (set up a timer interrupt) to make the tones stable - it would steal only a few dozen cycles :) (If you need stable raster waits, you can always 1) wait for the previous line 2) then temporarily turn off the interrupt 3) then wait for the exact line you need 4) then restore interrupts and the pending tone interrupt will happen - I'm doing this in Dragonwing 2)
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Tramor
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Re: WIP: Manic Miner port

Post by Tramor »

wow, much Kudos to you Kweepa, this is a fantastic port, I never thought I would see a flawless version of Manic Miner on the Vic-20

I recall how excited I was as a kid when The Perils of Willy came out and whilst I really enjoyed that game at the time, I did lament the fact that it didn't feature the original Manic Miner screens.

I played through all 20 screens of your port (with the aid of snapshots of course) and loved every minute of it, thank you so much for your efforts, much appreciated.

Now all that's left to do is for someone to port Atic Atac and the Vic-20's conquest of the Spectrum will be complete :P
English Invader
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Re: WIP: Manic Miner port

Post by English Invader »

Tramor wrote: Now all that's left to do is for someone to port Atic Atac and the Vic-20's conquest of the Spectrum will be complete :P
I'm still holding out for 3D Deathchase :wink: .
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beamrider
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Re: WIP: Manic Miner port

Post by beamrider »

Tramor wrote:
Now all that's left to do is for someone to port Atic Atac and the Vic-20's conquest of the Spectrum will be complete :P

.... apart from Sabre Wolf that is :)
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Kweepa
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Re: WIP: Manic Miner port

Post by Kweepa »

aeb: I'll probably leave the game as-is, unless you don't want your code associated with it in this state...
Tramor: thanks for the kind words and for finishing the game! Good to know it's possible (I did it myself but you never know what can happen during release).
English Invader, beamrider: the list of classic Spectrum titles without VIC ports is much larger than that! Atic Atac, Back to Skool, Chuckie Egg, Dandy, Everyone's A Wally... the list goes on!
Snarko
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Re: WIP: Manic Miner port

Post by Snarko »

I haven't tried it yet, but it looks absolutely amazing! Back in the days I wouldn't imagine this was possible on the vic20. Thank you Kweepa.
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mrr19121970
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Re: WIP: Manic Miner port

Post by mrr19121970 »

This is great. Thanks kweepa.

I second CHUCKIE EGG too.
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Kweepa
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Re: WIP: Manic Miner port

Post by Kweepa »

Chuckie Egg would be relatively easy as we could just use the maps from the CPC version which has a 20x25 character screen. I think it would fit in an unexpanded VIC:
movement code: 768 bytes
map data: 8 x 64 = 512 bytes
map draw code: 256 bytes
graphics: 512 bytes
sprite drawing: 384 bytes
chicken logic: 256 bytes
duck logic: 256 bytes
misc: 512 bytes

DeathChase would also be relatively easy as the Spectrum effectively used character graphics without having a character mapped screen, so the rendering would be much faster on the VIC.

Jet Set Willy might be tough to squeeze into the VIC, but the movement and sprite code is mostly done (just need to handle slopes and ropes). Maybe using exomizer to compress the rooms and sprites it could fit in 16k.
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pixel
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Re: WIP: Manic Miner port

Post by pixel »

You could also make use of the spare colour RAM by swapping 256 bytes. Last time I couldn't make use of it. *sigh*

Code: Select all

color_ram_swap:                                                                                       
    ldx #0
l:  lda $9400,x
    asl
    asl
    asl
    asl
    sta tmp
    lda $9500,x
    and #$0f
    ora tmp
    tay
    lda mem,x
    sta $9500,x
    lsr
    lsr
    lsr
    lsr
    sta $9400,x
    sty mem,x
    dex
    bne -l
    rts
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Kweepa
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Re: WIP: Manic Miner port

Post by Kweepa »

Yep... I like to use the spare color RAM for data that is naturally 4 bit, for example map data (see the Keep or the Manic Miner unexpanded demo).
Snarko
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Re: WIP: Manic Miner port

Post by Snarko »

Kweepa wrote:Chuckie Egg

DeathChase

Jet Set Willy
:shock: :shock: :shock:
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