Demon Star

ravenxau · Post by **ravenxau** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 12:52 am

Has any one else played Demon Star. It is a little gem of a game, it is in the thread on italian type-ins.

http://sleepingelephant.com/ipw-web/bul ... c&start=30

It is a good example of an all BASIC Arcade style game on an unexpanded VIC. It utilizes a minimal amount of moving objects, but the "tension" is built with the use of the ten second timer to shoot the quazars. It is full joystick control and has that "give it one more try when you die" feel.

Jeff - it's right up your alley

Post by **Jeff-20** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 1:18 am

80 points on level 1. Love it! The first time I played it, I dismissed it because I couldn't figure out how to shoot. I thought I was meant to drive into the target. Language barrier kept me from fully exploring it. Now I love it! Good game.

I never really understood the "Play Again?" prompt in most unexpanded games. That's what the Run/Stop key is for. The memory could be better used with a title screen.

nbla000 · Post by **nbla000** » Thu Aug 27, 2009 11:11 am

I played it for testing since i've re-typed it for the PaperSoft project, it's a good basic game btw it's a Compute! original work but I don't know if it was re-typed in english.

Mayhem · Post by **Mayhem** » Thu Aug 27, 2009 11:34 am

I've got it listed in GB20 but no English program for it, so it needs typing up.

ravenxau · Post by **ravenxau** » Sat Aug 29, 2009 11:57 pm

Mayhem wrote:I've got it listed in GB20 but no English program for it, so it needs typing up.

to convert it to english, just make the following changes to the text in the quotes on the following lines:-

line 1 "WAIT..."

line 7 "LEVEL (1-10)"

line 56 "ENERGY LOST"

line 57 "SHIP DESTROYED. ENERGY TRANSMITTED"

line 58 "PLAY AGAIN? (Y/N)"

then run the game to play in english.

thanks to babelfish in helping with the italian-to-english translations

Mayhem · Post by **Mayhem** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 7:33 am

I suppose I hadn't really considered that. However the Italian version (or NBLA) has made other programatic changes to the listings; my job is to keep things as 100% as they were originally published you see. Unless there's a game-breaking bug in there to fix.

ravenxau · Post by **ravenxau** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 5:53 pm

Mayhem wrote:I suppose I hadn't really considered that. However the Italian version (or NBLA) has made other programatic changes to the listings; my job is to keep things as 100% as they were originally published you see. Unless there's a game-breaking bug in there to fix.

if there is a copy of the original english listing, I would be happy to compare the two and produce a .prg of the english version.

nbla000 · Post by **nbla000** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 4:50 am

It was originally published on COMPUTE!'s Gazette September 1983 - Issue 3, Vol. 1, No. 3

You may get the full COMPUTE!'s Gazette scans here:
http://www.bombjack.org/commodore/magazines.htm

I'm downloading just the Issue 3 to check differences.

nbla000 · Post by **nbla000** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 5:51 am

OK, here are the differences:

Program 1

Italian version + my Tape-Disk fix:

Code: Select all

1 POKE36879,253:PRINT"{CLR}ATTENDI"
4 DN=PEEK(186):OPEN1,DN,0,"DF"
5 INPUT#1,X:IFX=999THENCLOSE1:GOTO7
7 PT=0:BB=1000:INPUT"{CLR}LIVELLO (1-10)";SK:IFSK<1ORSK>10THEN7
16 FORT=128TOPEEK(60901)STEP-1:POKEV+3,T:FORD=1TO10:NEXTD,T:FORH=1TO1000:NEXT
48 IFL=46THENPT=PT+10:FL=0
56 POKEVN,0:POKEV-9,240:POKEV+1,170:IFPT<0THENPRINT"{CLR}{BLK}{DOWN}{DOWN}{DOWN}{DOWN}{DOWN}{DOWN}{DOWN}{DOWN}{DOWN}ENERGIA PERSA:";PT:GOTO58
57 PRINT"{CLR}{BLK}{DOWN}{DOWN}{DOWN}{DOWN}{DOWN}{DOWN}{DOWN}{DOWN}{DOWN}NAVE DISTRUTTA.       ENERGIA TRASMESSA:";PT
58 INPUT"{DOWN}GIOCHI ANCORA (S/N)";A$:IFA$="N"THENPOKE36879,27:PRINT"{CLR}{BLU}":END
59 GOTO7

English Original:

Code: Select all

1 POKE36879,253:PRINT"{CLR}WAIT"
4 OPEN1,1,0,"DF"
5 INPUT#1,X:IFX=999THEN7
7 CLOSE1:PT=0:BB=1000:INPUT "LEVEL (1-10)";SK:IFSK<1ORSK>10THEN7
16 FORT=128TO24STEP-1:POKEV+3,T:FORD=1TO10:NEXTD,T:FORH=1TO1000:NEXT
48 IFL=46THENPT=PT+100:FL=0
56 POKEVN,0:POKEV-9,240:POKEV+1,170:IFPT<0THENPRINT"{CLR}{BLK}ENERGY LOSS: ";PT:GOTO58
57 PRINT"{CLR}{BLK}SHIP DESTROYED. ENERGYTRASMITTED: ";PT
58 INPUT"ANOTHER GAME{SHIFT+SPACE}(Y/N)";A$:IFA$="Y"THEN7
59 END

Program 2

Italian version + my Tape-Disk fix:

Code: Select all

10 DN=PEEK(186):OPEN1,DN,1,"DF"

English Original:

Code: Select all

10 OPEN1,1,1,"DF"

Mayhem · Post by **Mayhem** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 9:18 am

NBLA in there before me... the second program btw writes a data file called DF out to tape that the main program reads in.

nbla000 · Post by **nbla000** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 11:10 am

If you want I may supply you a d64 (modified version for tape/disk) or a tap/t64 version, which do you prefer ? all ?

Pedro Lambrini · Post by **Pedro Lambrini** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 11:13 am

I know it's cheeky (I would do it myself if I knew how!) but is it possible for someone to produce an English version of the optimised game? I have messed around with the Italian version but I feel like I'm missing something!

nbla000 · Post by **nbla000** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 11:20 am

Pedro Lambrini wrote:I know it's cheeky (I would do it myself if I knew how!)

Just download the italian version from the PaperSoft thread run it from Vice, change basic lines like said above then save it.

That's all

PS: My vic20.it site is down for maintenance at the moment so you need to wait a bit.

Pedro Lambrini · Post by **Pedro Lambrini** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 11:38 am

Cool! Thanks for the tip. Sometimes, I look at all the stuff that all you guys do and I get overwhelmed! It turns out that in this instance the solution is easier than I feared!