New Release: KWEEPOUT

Discussion, Reviews & High-scores

Moderator: Moderators

User avatar
Kweepa
Vic 20 Scientist
Posts: 1314
Joined: Fri Jan 04, 2008 5:11 pm
Location: Austin, Texas
Occupation: Game maker

New Release: KWEEPOUT

Post by Kweepa »

Image
Image

http://www.kweepa.org/step/vic20/kweepout.prg

A version of Breakout (oops!) written in BASIC for the unexpanded VIC.
This was an experiment to see how much I could fit into a BASIC program.
Loosely inspired by this presentation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy0aCDmgnxg
Let me know what you think!
Last edited by Kweepa on Sat Mar 16, 2019 9:43 am, edited 5 times in total.
TBCVIC
Vic 20 Hobbyist
Posts: 127
Joined: Thu Mar 05, 2009 3:38 am

Post by TBCVIC »

Very nice! Though that's not Pong, that's Breakout.
Ola Andersson
Image
User avatar
Kweepa
Vic 20 Scientist
Posts: 1314
Joined: Fri Jan 04, 2008 5:11 pm
Location: Austin, Texas
Occupation: Game maker

Post by Kweepa »

TBCVIC wrote:Though that's not Pong, that's Breakout.
DOH!
User avatar
Mayhem
High Bidder
Posts: 3026
Joined: Mon May 24, 2004 7:03 am
Website: http://www.mayhem64.co.uk
Location: London

Post by Mayhem »

Kweepout sounds a bit wrong though ;)
Lie with passion and be forever damned...
User avatar
Jeff-20
Denial Founder
Posts: 5759
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 1969 6:00 pm

Post by Jeff-20 »

Mayhem wrote:Kweepout sounds a bit wrong though ;)
HAHAHA! That would get my attention a bit faster though!

I look forward to playing this!
High Scores, Links, and Jeff's Basic Games page.
User avatar
tokra
Vic 20 Scientist
Posts: 1120
Joined: Tue Apr 27, 2010 5:32 pm
Location: Scheessel, Germany

Post by tokra »

Nice one! Always pleasantly surprised by your versatility! Action (Doom), Text Adventure (Cometfall), Jump & Run (Blue Star) and now you even rival the Jeff's BASIC skills!

I managed to finish level one but in level two the screen started going crazy. The blanks in the background were replaced with another char, and after a few minutes even the ball was gone. Probably string-variables creeping into the character definitions (since those are written from the top down). Looks like you did not protect your character-definition by something like

Code: Select all

POKE56,28:CLR
like most programs do.
User avatar
Kweepa
Vic 20 Scientist
Posts: 1314
Joined: Fri Jan 04, 2008 5:11 pm
Location: Austin, Texas
Occupation: Game maker

Post by Kweepa »

Gah!
I deliberately didn't do that, because I needed all the space below for the program and variables.
I'm only using one string variable, A$, and during gameplay it's only used to hold the score, so I'm not sure how it keeps growing... Any ideas? There should be 248 bytes free between the space character and the screen.
User avatar
GreyGhost
Vic 20 Nerd
Posts: 525
Joined: Wed Oct 05, 2005 11:10 pm

Post by GreyGhost »

Could you use some of that free space to save the score there. Then read it like you would a low byte - high byte. I haven't played the game yet so I'm not sure how high the score can go, but 3 bytes can hold a number over 15 million.

score = peek(byte 1)+peek(byte 2)*256+peek(byte 3)*65536

Of course it will take a bit of memory to calculate.

if byte 1>256 then byte 2 = byte 2 + 1
if byte 2 >256 then byte 3 = byte 3 + 1
Rob
User avatar
Ghislain
Realms of Quest
Posts: 1279
Joined: Sun Aug 08, 2004 12:54 am

Post by Ghislain »

I really should get an sd2iec device so I can try these new games that are coming out. A couple of years ago I made it a point to transfer all of the 'New Releases' via USB to 1541 cable. Emulation is fine, but when you have a real hardware setup, you tend to just want to actually play the games on real hardware.

So I'm going to order an sd2iec device right now. Maybe a second one for my C64 as well. I'm sort of tired of always trying to keep track of what game or program is on which disk, etc.
"A slave is one who waits for someone to come and free him." -- Ezra Pound
matsondawson
The Most Noble Order of Denial
Posts: 343
Joined: Fri May 01, 2009 4:44 pm

Post by matsondawson »

tokra wrote: I managed to finish level one but in level two the screen started going crazy. The blanks in the background were replaced with another char, and after a few minutes even the ball was gone.
Ah, on my emulator it's immediately broken. Must be because I launch the program by loading it into ram, then sys'ing it.

http://www.mdawson.net/vic20chrome/vic2 ... neType=pal
User avatar
tokra
Vic 20 Scientist
Posts: 1120
Joined: Tue Apr 27, 2010 5:32 pm
Location: Scheessel, Germany

Post by tokra »

Kweepa wrote:I'm only using one string variable, A$, and during gameplay it's only used to hold the score, so I'm not sure how it keeps growing... Any ideas?
Yes, I see the problem. You use:

Code: Select all

A$=STR$(K)
However, this will always reserve new space in memory for A$, until the memory is full and the garbage collection kicks in. To avoid this you can force a garbage collection by caling the FRE(0) function:

Code: Select all

F=FRE(0)
I also noticed you poke the new character set into RAM with your program. You may just include the character set with the file and start with

Code: Select all

POKE45,x:POKE46,y:CLR
where x and y are the true ending of the program. However this might go against your "pure" BASIC agenda
User avatar
GreyGhost
Vic 20 Nerd
Posts: 525
Joined: Wed Oct 05, 2005 11:10 pm

Post by GreyGhost »

Also, if you change:

Code: Select all

1 v=36874:fori=.to5:readx:pokev+i,x:next
76 data0,0,0,0,15,14
to:

Code: Select all

1 v=36874:pokev,0:pokev+1,0:pokev+2,0:pokev+3,0:pokev+4,15:pokev+5,14
You will save 10 bytes. Unless their is another reason you did it like that.

You can also put the new character data starting at location 7424.

Then:

Code: Select all

poke52,29:poke56,29:clr
Your first character defined would have to be a space character, and your custom characters will start with the value 32(space), but it will save 256 bytes. And you still have the regular set when reversed.

Hope that is explained ok.

EDIT:
2 more bytes, you have "thengoto" in lines 63 & 64.
Last edited by GreyGhost on Tue Jun 19, 2012 1:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Rob
User avatar
Kweepa
Vic 20 Scientist
Posts: 1314
Joined: Fri Jan 04, 2008 5:11 pm
Location: Austin, Texas
Occupation: Game maker

Post by Kweepa »

Thanks for the detailed analysis!
I had no idea there was lazy garbage collection! You (I) live and learn!
Including the character set definitely goes against my "true" agenda which is a single, type-in-able, file.
For setting the sound and border, unless I'm miscounting, using a loop and data statement (which I combined with existing data) takes 4 bytes less than 6 pokes.
I tried moving the character set further up in memory but without the FRE(0) the definitions got massacred instantly. I know how to fix it now though :)
THENGOTO? Oops! Amateur hour!
I'll knock up a new version soon.

Oh, and for the emulated version, I realize now that I'm using the space character undefined, so it's liable to end up garbage. In VICE it seemed to be ok.
User avatar
Jeff-20
Denial Founder
Posts: 5759
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 1969 6:00 pm

Post by Jeff-20 »

Ghislain wrote:I really should get an sd2iec device so I can try these new games that are coming out.
You should! For me, everything is straight to a real Vic now. It's great!
High Scores, Links, and Jeff's Basic Games page.
User avatar
GreyGhost
Vic 20 Nerd
Posts: 525
Joined: Wed Oct 05, 2005 11:10 pm

Post by GreyGhost »

Kweepa wrote:For setting the sound and border, unless I'm miscounting, using a loop and data statement (which I combined with existing data) takes 4 bytes less than 6 pokes.
Opps. guess early morning hours must be to blame. I am getting a different result than I did last night.

Anyway, gratz on getting it working correctly.
Rob
Post Reply