New Release : BLUE STAR

Mayhem · Post by **Mayhem** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 5:30 pm

Downloaded the newest version you just put up. Bug fixed! Now I need to try and find those codes for the blue door... more playing needed

GreyGhost · Post by **GreyGhost** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 6:57 pm

Sweet dude. Very nice.

ral-clan · Post by **ral-clan** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 8:55 pm

Just played this game. As has been stated by others, the smooth motion is great! This game certainly beats some that were professionally released on cartridge back in the 1980s.

Victragic · Post by **Victragic** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 11:14 pm

Very nice game,

I particularly like the clever use of multicolour and smooth animation.. visually it's terrific.

In some ways reminds me of Blagger for the C64 or Big Mac for the C16.. for the unexpanded Vic it's brilliant.

Tricky to play too... I'm crap at it.

I note each screen uses 256 characters - I'm assuming you used a type of compression to maximise the number of screens possible? Any idea how many screens are in the game? Or is that a spoiler too

-Glen

Kweepa · Post by **Kweepa** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 1:14 am

Victragic wrote:I note each screen uses 256 characters - I'm assuming you used a type of compression to maximise the number of screens possible?

Yup, simple Jet Set Willy style compression - draw character x y times in direction z starting at location, err, Q. Although that was a side benefit of keeping the sprite rendering, which I wrote first, as simple as possible.

Any idea how many screens are in the game? Or is that a spoiler too

Spoiler:
There are (only) 10 unique layouts over 62 map locations.

nbla000 · Post by **nbla000** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 5:10 am

Mayhem wrote:Downloaded the newest version you just put up. Bug fixed!

I think it was a video memory problem, now that the file is pucrunched the user may not corrupt this area anymore on start (RUN).

I will add Blue Start to the Mega-Cart, for testing purpose only of course

i will report you feedback.

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 7:50 am

Gosh! I just realized since I'm mostly browsing with a text-only browser these days, I yet haven't seen a single screen shot of this game, much less downloaded it to play.

Another embarassing confession to make is that I can't remember having played Glen's Frogger 2007 neither, despite being considered the best new VIC-20 game of last year.

I'm sliding behind on news. I even prepared a floppy full of the very latest VIC games and demos, but alas never got an opportunity to load more than a handful of those.

Kweepa · Post by **Kweepa** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 11:28 am

Well, what are you waiting for? Boot up that VIC!

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 4:35 pm

Better up, I re-organised my floppy disks of recent (1996 and newer) VIC-20 stuff to fit all new releases that I could find. Roughly counting, the VIC community as a whole has produced more than 1 MB of new quality software in the past 10-12 years, of which 64 kB brand new games only in 2006-07, not counting the demo scene releases. Each floppy side has 0-3 blocks free!

In the process, I had to move (upgrade?) Robin's "Splatform 20" from new games to a disk otherwise full of cartridge ROM dumps.

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 4:56 pm

Oh yes, on the topic: Blue Star is a wonderful new game! I'm particularly impressed by the choice of colour combinations and smooth animated graphics.

Kweepa · Post by **Kweepa** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 5:57 pm

Thanks!

Off topic again: is there a comprehensive list of those new VIC releases somewhere? I've only seen a dozen or so games.

nbla000 · Post by **nbla000** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 4:39 am

carlsson wrote:Better up, I re-organised my floppy disks of recent (1996 and newer) VIC-20 stuff to fit all new releases that I could find.

Hi Anders, may you share with us these floppies as d64/d81 image ?

Maybe someone miss some recent release, thank you.

Ivanhoe76 · Post by **Ivanhoe76** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 11:22 am

kweepa, I want to say just one thing: GREAT JOB... Never seen such a clever use of multicolor graphic and really smooth "sprite" (can we finally define them sprite, guys?) moves... Unbelievable if we consider it's stored in just 3,5 kb. Your new game can really compete with some software produced in the 80's for the vic and (now I know I'm saying something outrageous...) even some Atari 2600 game...Go on like this!!!!!

orion70 · Post by **orion70** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 2:07 am

Ivanhoe76 wrote:Your new game can really compete with some software produced in the 80's for the vic and (now I know I'm saying something outrageous...) even some Atari 2600 game

Hey, Atari 2600 is the EVIL!

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 7:26 am

Apart from the big palette and I believe some hardware sprites, I always found VIC graphics superior to the 2600. Due to the much different architecture, you can get so much more detailed graphics without losing gameplay on the VIC. Many games that might look boring or ugly on the VIC-20 are considered totally impossible to implement on the 2600, as I have seen in discussions on AtariAge. But yes, the 2600 was released some 3-4 years ahead of the VIC even if an earlier version of the VIC-I chip might've been available around when the Atari 2600 was released.