Denial

A quick survey: What VIC project are you currently working on? Last worked on? Or planning to work on soon?


For me:
I am working on a military-themed strategy game. It is currently set up as a real-time strategy game, but I think it may end as a turn-based game. My current problem is a pathetic pseudo-artificial intelligence. It's not even an AI, it's mostly random choices. I could have computer choices follow a "script", but that would make the game too predictable. The only way I can make the game challenging is to give the enemy superior numbers and strength. A cheap solution that could annoy the player.
As you know, my goal is always to make a pure basic, unexpanded 3.5k type-in game. So, I the project is a little ambitious for my personal limitations.

Your game sounds interesting. Do you have a target release date? Your self-imposed limitations do make things tough but I respect that you want to ensure that sure your games will run on every VIC-20 ever made.

The only VIC project I'm working on is getting my VIC working properly again. A VIC with a dead cartridge port isn't as much fun especially with the all the new goodies that can be plugged in there.

I can empathize. My video problem is really annoying. I can't play any carts that go into double character mode (almost 90% of them do this for bit-mapped mode). I really want a perfectly working VIC.
Release date? Not really. I just finished two games for the mini game comp. This one should be done before winter. Depending on how satisfied I am with the results.

Jeff, I've been looking for such a game even for the Commodore 64. Something like Command and Conquer, right? I've thought about such a game myself. At a very basic level, a turn-based game based on similar rules that govern games such as chess would be doable on an unexpanded Vic; but consider some of the strategy games in the 8 bit world, and I think it'd be difficult even with 32k of RAM. You and I should put our heads together on this; but I think the place to start is with a set of rules the computer opponent ought to follow after checking conditions. Even in C&C, the computer's intelligence seems to consist of: 1) Build base, 2) collect ore, 3) Build army, 4) Attack foe when army reaches strength, 5) Repeat steps 2, 3 and 4. Well, okay, there's a little more to it than that; it will put in defenses after an unsuccessful attack on its base and stuff like that, but I think even those are simply subsets of a script it runs through.

As for me, I just updated Sudoku and Tower of Hanoi for the megacart, adding in improvements as suggested by Denial members to make these two truly a product of our community. I'm not entirely sure what's going to be next; perhaps I'll learn ML on the Vic.

We really need more turn based military games on the VIC. There were not many made.

As for my own VIC projects: I am updating a game for my 4 year old daughter. This is a game where a rabbit sneaks into a farmer's field to eat carrots.

Also, I need to align my disc drives. None of my 1541 / 1541 drives are in tip top working order.

the closest i came to making a military game for the vic, was making the sound effects and the prog. characters, and even then, Carlsson helped me with half of the sound effects

i was trying to make a game similar to Steve Jackson's GEV game, a sequel to OGRE, which coincidentally was ported to the C64 and maybe others too perhaps.

doing OGRE for the vic would be easier to do than a version of GEV, as in OGRE there is little terrain and one of the sides consists of just one (although HUGE) unit, and if the computer controlled the OGRE and the human player controlled the more conventional units (like tanks, infantry, etc..) doing the AI for that game would be not too bad.

lately i have been playing around with prog. characters, as well as making looping demo's of pretend computer output for a mock computer console/workstation you might find in an old Doctor Who episode. i have always wished to have one of those props., and with all the spare computer parts and pieces of wood etc.. i have at home, why not give it a shot.

I was planning to use a Vic-20 to control my gas furance.

My plan is to monitor plenium temperature via ADC conversion, control fan speed, gas supply, and furmace cycling duration.

The idea is to also replace programmable thermostat function and add data logging as well an export to CSV format so I could track energy consumption and temperatures.

I'm going to use same 32K NVRAM static ram chip type (with real time clock) as Schema used for his PET freezer food inventory application.

I haven't got to this project yet since I am focusing on wrapping up megacart.

I haven't got to this project yet since I am focusing on wrapping up megacart.

and let the orders pour in!

I've really enjoyed watching the Mega cart come together. I had hoped that more of us could talk through some of our projects.

My military game is now almost sure to be a turn based strategy game. Making it a real time game would increase the difficulty level (it's now much too easy when the force numbers are equal). Still, I cannot deny that the turn based system is just more fun.

I've also just started working on a machine language game that I will dedicate to Robin (MacbthPSW). ML seems to zap my creativity at the moment. My working ideas are all very simple. Shoot 'em ups and such. I may end up with an Osiris clone.

Jeff-20 wrote:I've really enjoyed watching the Mega cart come together. I had hoped that more of us could talk through some of our projects.

Even if many of us don't have anything in the works at the moment, please know that we love hearing anything from people who are working on stuff. I find it very motivating!

I've also just started working on a machine language game that I will dedicate to Robin (MacbthPSW). ML seems to zap my creativity at the moment. My working ideas are all very simple. Shoot 'em ups and such. I may end up with an Osiris clone.

Wow, I'm honoured Do you know why ML zaps your creativity? Is it because you're not sure how to implement a particular idea? I'd be happy to make examples if there's something you're stuck on, or even contribute directly if I know exactly what you need.

As for machine language, I have found it is quite possible to translate a Basic program line by line to machine code. Some routines will require a bit of rethinking, but both the AI in my Othello game and the whole core of VIQ*Bert were lifted straight from Basic. I think that could be a good way to get started. In a perfect world, you could also mix the languages. Personally I have almost never done that, because once I get into machine code, I tend to stay there for practical reasons.

Jeff-20 wrote:A quick survey: What VIC project are you currently working on? Last worked on? Or planning to work on soon?

At the moment i'm working on a V2 Enhanced version of the COMPUTE!'s tape drive accelerator based on the fixed Turbo Tape v1.2 version

My version use the same turbo-tape core but auto-start from BLK5 and use a menu to:

- install turbo tape routine in BLK0 if you want turbosave Rom image on BLK5

- start turbo tape routine from BLK5 for turbosave any other vic program or rom image on BLK1/2/3

- start without Turbo

- to change the memory config unexp/3k/8k before starting with or without turbo

I think to add it on Mega-Cart final release it use just 2K.


Mega-Cart already has Cassette Turbo but turbosaved program with Cassette Turbo or with Rabbit (not included on Mega-Cart) requires that you have these cartridge to load them while COMPUTE!'s Turbo Tape doesn't need Turbo Tape installed to load a turbo-saved program.
This is much more useful but since the original version start from the top of free RAM memory you cannot turbo tape 15blk files.
Switching with the Eslapion expander you may save 15blk files using the COMPUTE!'s Turbo Tape but after some tests i found that my V2 version is much more practical using the Eslapion expander but using any 32k expander or a simple 8K CBM expansion switched for BLK5 and Mega-Cart of course.

Okay, seeing the need for some kind of strategy game, I decided to write Minesweeper for the Vic 20. I'm about 75% done at present. I have the puzzle generated with a dozen mines, hints generated, a 10x10 grid with cursor movements (IJKL); I just need to finish up the routine that clears out empty cells when you select a blank one (almost half done; just need to debug), and implement the "Flagging" which will come last, as I still need to be able to see what's in every cell without ending the game just yet.

A scientific calculator:

My particular interest/problem is recursive functions like factorials and I am quite stuck on how to do complex algebra in a way that works all the time. I might have gotten in over my head on this one.

But I am also finishing up a revised version of my old financial calculator which calculates present and future values, mortgages, annuities etc. The one I made was personalised to my own use and I want to make it into a more all-purpose program for a wide variety of users.

I realise that this does not sound as much fun as some of your other projects, but I am interested in keeping the VIC a serious functional computer as well as an entertaining game machine.

SmashMyVIC.com!