Denial

Mike wrote:If you're really concerned about that, you shouldn't have published the game in downloadable form at all. In 2011 I reverse-engineered the source code of a cartridge with 4K ROM within 3 hours, see here: http://sleepingelephant.com/ipw-web/bul ... php?t=5238, so that's about what I'd expect for your game as well, if I'd take the time to launch myselves at it.

No doubt about it being dissected in no time. I'd rather expect people to buy it to support me and to get their hands on original artwork. But when it comes to real life business issues in Germany all hopes simply go down the drain. I'm not playing in the right league with the financial background and spare time to dare such experiments.

Mike wrote:

I hate to make promises but I had some idea about how to put even more in. It'd require writing yet another 6502 assembler with some special features.

I'd very intrigued to know, what features you deem missing in the assembler of your current development setup. Maybe the inline-assembler of BBC BASIC might be of some interest to you.

I use "xa" at the moment. I'd go for automatic optmizations and memory layouts. A disassembler is already in place – I banged my head on 6502 opcodes before I gravitated towards making this game. I love building things from the ground up anyway, so that assembler will probably happen.

Personally, I think the amount of money you're going to make from a Vic-20 game wouldn't justify the expense of producing artwork and making the tapes (if you factor in time and effort costs).

If money is your motive you should be writing for the iPhone

Mike wrote:If you're really concerned about that, you shouldn't have published the game in downloadable form at all. In 2011 I reverse-engineered the source code of a cartridge with 4K ROM within 3 hours, see here: http://sleepingelephant.com/ipw-web/bul ... php?t=5238, so that's about what I'd expect for your game as well, if I'd take the time to launch myselves at it.

That's interesting.

I tried diasassembling Pooyan. It looked incomprehensible to me and I wrote it

beamrider wrote:If money is you're motive you should be writing for the iPhone

My concern is about breaking even and to not get f***** over in the process. That's even worse. I hope we don't end up discussing politics here.

pixel wrote:My concern is about breaking even and to not get f***** over in the process. That's even worse. I hope we don't end up discussing politics here.

No worries.

For me, programming for the VIC-20 is a spare time activity. From time to time, I might publish some nice works, but neither do I accept 'orders' nor do I expect to get any money out of this. Part of my job involves programming for PLCs. If I do anything wrong there, it doesn't just crash a computer, it can result in serious damage. That's an entirely different ball park! To keep some fun in programming as hobby, I need to differentiate well between these two worlds.

@beamrider: would you care getting the quote right? At the moment, I looks as if pixel had written it ... and yes, dissecting a program is mainly a matter of using the right tools. For RTC V-Link, I included the source code in the *.zip archive linked to further down the thread.

There's now an intro that comes up with some story tailored for the target audience. *snigger*

And one fix for the gameplay: the ship is now _always_ red if it's invincible and can touch anything.

Mike wrote:To keep some fun in programming as hobby, I need to differentiate well between these two worlds.

You're so not alone. As I said: I got to comb the idea out of somebody else's hair. Programming "pulse" has been a mental holiday so well worth it. O.K. I had to recover from the incredible feedback then. Playing around like the kid one was makes the wrinkles go away! Seriously! But now I want the real hardware. And as soon as I get it I'll sure as hell wrap some tapes up for fun. They'll find their way.

pixel wrote:Anyone who would make a video of it on the real thing?

If all goes well, I'll make a short video of pulse running on my VIC-20 by Friday.

Mike wrote: @beamrider: would you care getting the quote right? At the moment, I looks as if pixel had written it ... and yes, dissecting a program is mainly a matter of using the right tools. For RTC V-Link, I included the source code in the *.zip archive linked to further down the thread.

done!

Mike wrote:If all goes well, I'll make a short video of pulse running on my VIC-20 by Friday.

My desk will go vintage until then! *scratch!*

pixel wrote:Also, I'd love to break out the source, but first, I have to convince somebody here that there's no money to be made out of it.

I'm not sure what you mean by that. I've never heard of any Vic-20 coder taking over someone else's current project without his permission.

Boray wrote:

pixel wrote:Also, I'd love to break out the source, but first, I have to convince somebody here that there's no money to be made out of it.

I'm not sure what you mean by that. I've never heard of any Vic-20 coder taking over someone else's current project without his permission.

Nah. Just a personal life issue.

It definitely runs really well

Any chance of some basic instructions so anyone can understand how the pickups etc work?

Mayhem wrote:Any chance of some basic instructions so anyone can understand how the pickups etc work?

The intro story could be replaced if that's what you mean. After you get the accelerated laser which also shoots sideways, you get randomly either invincibility (red ship) where you can touch everything and even draw bonuses out of riserbombs, or an even faster laser (but which tends to overheat even worse ). The last two only for a couple of seconds. I figured one would notice that the ship is invincible when red pretty soon after dying a couple of times.

It's really turned out to be a great little game. Thanks for this.