Does anyone know of a working version of this game? The copy I have and the one in Gamebase stores values at $a000 and $a001 and then falls into an endless loop at $1a2e. I'm sure this is some sort of copy protection but I can't seem to follow the code to see a work around.
Actually, there's nothing dubious about the code. The game just thwarts soft-loaded (monitor?) cartridges by redirecting the reset vector of their auto-boot signature to its own init code. This init code sets up an interrupt for the whole game main loop, which first waits for [f1] and then runs the game. The foreground process then idles in $1a2e.
So, nothing's to fix here.
P.S. the game is effectively PAL only as it uses an overscan screen that wouldn't fit on NTSC.
As far as I remember this is the most playable Defender clone for Vic. I am partial to Jeff Minter's Defenda (aka Agressor) as I got it for Christmas, but Star Defence is better. I especially like the scaling of the small player ship and the big enemies (the opposite of Defenda) and as you say, the explosions are very satisfying.
The ground/mountains could look better and smoother scrolling would obviously also be an improvement.
It's been ages since I played it but it does sound very attractive from your description of the levels. I will fire it up on emulator when I have the time - hopefully soon.
hasseapa wrote: ↑Mon Feb 11, 2019 4:38 pm
It's been ages since I played it but it does sound very attractive from your description of the levels. I will fire it up on emulator when I have the time - hopefully soon.
There is a trained version now and you can see extra levels named every 5 waves.
Vic20-Ian
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