Unpublished Italian game: SATURN CAVES arcade adventure

[necronom]

If I knew which data statements were the ring and the crashed ship I could have a go at reading them and see if I get different numbers. Since the graphics are already loaded in memory and we don't run the loader I can't see the listing for it.
Is the listing available so we can check the data statements? The crashed ship looks like it might be corrupt, though I'm guessing it is a destroyed ship, so maybe that's how it should look.

I think the ring may be wrong as Ian said, and the crashed ship definitely looks like a 5 on the map and I think the odd behaviour is at least partly planned. The arm movement does look a bit odd. I don't think it's working exactly right.

[Vic20-Ian]

I have the source files and will check through the data statements.

[Vic20-Ian]

I think the final room graphic problem is possibly lines 136 and 137 in program 2

136 Data 8,30,40,28,10,60,8,0
137 Data 0,98,100,8,16,38,70,0

Need to take a look at the scan and see if we can figure out what it should look like

it could equally be

136 Data 0,30,40,20,10,60,8,0
137 Data 0,90,100,8,16,30,70,0

hard to read

[vicist]

I'm taking a look at the graphics, but without knowing what they should look like, it's a bit of a grind.

One thing I can rule out are lines 136 and 137 of listing 2.
These represent the characters % and $ and are correct.

[Vic20-Ian]

Do you know which lines are for 5 and S ?

I am not sure what is supposed to be on the house in the last room but it is currently 5.

I will take another look.

[vicist]

There was only 7 bits of data in line 204 which caused all the graphics after this line to be corrupted.
I fixed this and tried the game and it looks OK now (fingers crossed).

saturn caves (final).zip

(6.93 KiB) Downloaded 69 times

[Vic20-Ian]

I'm taking a look at the graphics, but without knowing what they should look like, it's a bit of a grind.

One thing I can rule out are lines 136 and 137 of listing 2.
These represent the characters % and $ and are correct.

If you break in to the running game on screen 1 and type

Full stop . you get the laser pistol - this has a line at the bottom that could be 60 or 62 in code and should be zero.

Comma , you get the MAP symbol - this has an error at the bottom of the P the pixels are either side of the stem of the P so maybe a 170 should replaced by a 164 somewhere if I understand the coding.

Need to locate the code lines for the double height data used when 5 is on the screen to see if this is open to re-interpretation.

[Vic20-Ian]

There was only 7 bits of data in line 204 which caused all the graphics after this line to be corrupted.
I fixed this and tried the game and it looks OK now (fingers crossed).


saturn caves (final).zip

Just found a superfluous comma in original Saturn 2 file I had in line 266 as you posted this.

Map and Pistol are now fixed!

Still not sure if 5 is supposed to be the last broken ship

[Vic20-Ian]

The graphics are fixed for Ring, Laser, Map but I still think something is amiss with this game somewhere.

I collected 10 rings, the door opens to the last room but you die when you try and collect the last object and it reports 8 rings not 10.

I will give another look at the code on PC rather than on the Vic.

[necronom]

Looking better

I think there are extra pixels at the top left/right of the main 'block' graphic (arrow left). The bottom corners have curved corners, but at the top it's flat.

The end of game character definitely looks like a 5 to me on the scan, but the graphic doesn't look like anything. I don't think it's supposed to look like a mangled character.

And saying you have 8 rings when you get 10 is definitely odd. So is having 11 rings in the game, but maybe one is to make it easier, or having 2 on screen 7 is wrong (seems more likely), as it makes more sense for 1 to be on each screen.

[Vic20-Ian]

Yes the top line of the block seems to be 255 and maybe it should be 126?

It is an interesting game. Nice dynamic.

As long as you scan with the torch before grabbing or moving it is relatively easy to finish but occasional slips of the fingers on cursor right vs down can end the game.

I am not sure if there is supposed to be a positive end to the game or if the slightly weird ending stands regardless of 10 or 8 rings collected?

It still feels a little buggy yet.

[necronom]

Have you managed to see the laser actually do anything? I thought it was to save you from attack if you shine a torch at one and it runs at you, but I've just been getting killed the same.

[Vic20-Ian]

I think the potion works ok not really tried the laser.

I think I figured out why the scoring is screwed up.

It uses 828-837 to store 10 flags at the start and wipes out the printed rings with a space if this flag is zero.

837 and 831 never get set to zero.

I think there were lines missing in the original listing for 2 rooms.

Working on it.

[Vic20-Ian]

The laser is working

I tried the laser in room 10 on the guy nearby. If you get the laser, stand next to him and shine the torch he does not attack (stunned by laser). If you shine the torch again he will attack so the laser is a one shot device.

The Elixir seems to work the similarly and protects against one bump into something.

The scoring in the game is a bit messed up:

415 poke 827+v,peek(827+v)-1:s%=s%+1 - this seems to increase your score by 1 and remove the flag for the room item collected.

480 for T=1to9:if peek(828+T)=0 then P=P+1 - this seems to skip 828

With 2 rings in room 7 the score can increase to 11 and the door closes - it opens at 10 and closes at 11.

If you collect 10 rings with 2 rings in room 7 and miss e.g. room 10 then you can have score of 8 as 828 and 837 registers will not be set to 0.

Room 7 bug or trap? I think it is intentional to have 2 rings in the room judging by the code to poke a space (32) at both locations in the listing if the flag is cleared. You can collect both rings but if you collect 1 and leave the room then both will be missing on return not just one.

Bug in room 10:

There seems to be code missing to remove the ring in room 10 as per other rooms.

Suggested line 3697 if peek(837)=0 then poke xxxx,32 - I have not tested the location of the ring yet but it does reappear if you leave room 10 and return.


Apart from that I am still not convinced by the graphic for the crashed ship - I will look into it more later.

[necronom]

This should do it:
3697 if peek(837)=0 then poke 4291,32

And it looks like we need to change line 480 to be from "0 to 10"

We need to find Fabio Siana, or get an Italian to read the Italian text with the listing to see if there are any clues to the extra ring, end graphic, or other things that seem odd.