Denial

R'zo wrote:Indeed... and to do anything like this with your current game would require tearing the current code apart and rebuilding it. That would be ridiculous for how beautifully it is coming along.

I was just ranting off of a daydream.
I would like to undertake such a project but I have to learn a little more about programing in ml as well as hardware first. I also have a few other projects going that I need to wrap up before I can think about trying to cram anything else into my schedule. I would also like to produce it in cart form designed based on the idea of how you ultimem functions. Assuming I could produce a game worth the price of the cart.
It would also be a project that I would not be able to undertake alone unless I wanted it to take years to complete.

A cartridge certainly provides the means to distribute a game without having to worry what storage devices that the VIC-20 user has, of course. While it's great to make a game for the VIC-20 that pushes even beyond the RAM limits of the machine (even at full expansion), one has to produce content for it. Making the 128*128 map (16384 tiles, compressed into 8192 bytes of memory) was a bit of an ordeal and I decided that was enough overland space to explore in. Another reason why I really liked making games for the unexpanded VIC-20 is that I could just make a tight game engine and a bit of graphics content that all fits into 3.5KB of RAM

Pic of the day!

With over 5300 views since Feb, believe me, there is interest in this cool game . I know I cant wait to play it! A lot of people are following this but don't post. It's talented programmers like you that keep the Vic-20 alive and I for one appreciate it very much! Please keep up the effort.

norm8332 wrote:With over 5300 views since Feb, believe me, there is interest in this cool game . I know I cant wait to play it! A lot of people are following this but don't post. It's talented programmers like you that keep the Vic-20 alive and I for one appreciate it very much! Please keep up the effort.

Thanks! I hope the game will get attention and a following. I should probably make a demo video once the combat engine is completed.

Pic of the day:

Ghislain wrote:The game loads pretty fast right now with a uIEC SD card reader and SoftJiffy enabled. I'm designing the game with VIC-20 + disk drive support in mind, which will be the last thing I work on once the SD card version (which will really be put in a D81 file because there should be less than 288 files overall) is finished.

It will be nice to have 2 physical floppy disks with printed labels included with the game packaging, instruction manual and printed map.

I coukd eschew disk support altogether and make the game bigger than 650K--but I don't have the time to make any content greater than that. The game's total filesize stands right now at 165K -- so I am 25% finished.

No chance ever this game could be ported to a modified Behr-Bonz cart ?

The EPROM can carry up to 2MBytes or 2048k.

The mummy just went on my current top 10

eslapion wrote:No chance ever this game could be ported to a modified Behr-Bonz cart ?

The EPROM can carry up to 2MBytes or 2048k.

A cartridge version does intrigue me. But my concern is creating the packaging that would fit a cartridge when it is released in physical format. I know that Mega-Cart was published in a box with a cartridge case (because I also bought one), but getting my previous/current publisher to do the same would be difficult.

My previous publisher (Psytronik) has committed to publishing this game once it is completed and they're able to produce jewel cases, disk labels, printed manuals and maps. It's much easier to officially publish this in floppy disk format with digital copies being sent to customers so they can play the game on SD card or emulators as they see fit. This is a matter of presentation, scale and delivering the product to market.

How difficult would it be to port the game to cartridge format?

R'zo wrote:The mummy just went on my current top 10

Thank you! I think I'm getting a little bit better at making these as I go along.

Pic of the day:

Wonderful contrast on that one.

I like the current packaging plans. I'mean still the type to like a physical copy. Flipping through the booklet looking at the artwork is part of the full experience of a good game. The with the digital format I can keep the same set of disk images save file included on a single micro sd with SD adapter and switch it between my vic, laptop and android. I plan on giving this a good deal of play and this maximizes playability.

R'zo wrote:I like the current packaging plans. I'mean still the type to like a physical copy. Flipping through the booklet looking at the artwork is part of the full experience of a good game. The with the digital format I can keep the same set of disk images save file included on a single micro sd with SD adapter and switch it between my vic, laptop and android. I plan on giving this a good deal of play and this maximizes playability.

When I was making Ultimate Quest for the C64 back in 1988-89, I had repurposed a floppy disk drive box for a the packaging by making my own artwork on the front and typewritten marketing hype on the back -- imagining how the published game would look like.

Pic of the day:

If you decide you need an artist I can recommend someone who is great at this sort of thing but i am sure would love to do it as well.

Ghislain wrote:How difficult would it be to port the game to cartridge format?

Do you mean altering the software so it complies with the requirements of the hardware or taking the adapted software and putting it on the cart?

If the software is already adapted then it really takes a few minutes to make the cart.

The Behr-Bonz presents itself in the form of 128 "windows" of 16KBytes each. At power up, window no. 0 is active and IO3 awaits a poke. Once a specific windows is selected by poking a number to IO3, the window is locked (IO3 becomes 'deaf' to any subsequent pokes) and the VIC-20 is reset to start the selected game. The window stays locked until a 'reset to menu' button is pressed is the VIC is powered off.

Windows are presented to the VIC-20 by having the lower half (first 8k) visible in BLK2 and mirrored in BLK5. The upper half of the window is visible in BLK3 and mirrored in BLK1.

If a Behr-Bonz was to be altered to carry a large game then I assume the cart would still present windows 0 at power-up but the 'locking' system would be removed so the software can freely choose whatever window it wants access to at any time. Also, the mirroring of visible halves of the window would become unnecessary. Each window would therefore become visible in BLK2 and BLK3, just like Scott Adams games are presently organised.

Added edit: The resetting of the VIC-20 at each change of the window would obviously also be removed.

The question is, do you also need extra RAM or does having instant access to any part of the game code relieves the need for the 32K of RAM ? I suppose it is still possible to have 8k of RAM in BLK1 or even in the 3K expansion area.

Is it even feasible to organise the game in a number of 16k sized windows ?

eslapion wrote:

Ghislain wrote:How difficult would it be to port the game to cartridge format?

Do you mean altering the software so it complies with the requirements of the hardware or taking the adapted software and putting it on the cart?

If the software is already adapted then it really takes a few minutes to make the cart.

The Behr-Bonz presents itself in the form of 128 "windows" of 16KBytes each. At power up, window no. 0 is active and IO3 awaits a poke. Once a specific windows is selected by poking a number to IO3, the window is locked (IO3 becomes 'deaf' to any subsequent pokes) and the VIC-20 is reset to start the selected game. The window stays locked until a 'reset to menu' button is pressed is the VIC is powered off.

Windows are presented to the VIC-20 by having the lower half (first 8k) visible in BLK2 and mirrored in BLK5. The upper half of the window is visible in BLK3 and mirrored in BLK1.

If a Behr-Bonz was to be altered to carry a large game then I assume the cart would still present windows 0 at power-up but the 'locking' system would be removed so the software can freely choose whatever window it wants access to at any time. Also, the mirroring of visible halves of the window would become unnecessary. Each window would therefore become visible in BLK2 and BLK3, just like Scott Adams games are presently organised.

The question is, do you also need extra RAM or does having instant access to any part of the game code relieves the need for the 32K of RAM ? I suppose it is still possible to have 8k of RAM in BLK1 or even in the 3K expansion area.

Is it even feasible to organise the game in a number of 16k sized windows ?

I may be interested in this I may start up anot her post later for asking questions.

R'zo wrote:I like the current packaging plans. I'mean still the type to like a physical copy. Flipping through the booklet looking at the artwork is part of the full experience of a good game. The with the digital format I can keep the same set of disk images save file included on a single micro sd with SD adapter and switch it between my vic, laptop and android. I plan on giving this a good deal of play and this maximizes playability.

I second that. BTW, it would come handy if the digital copy will be organized in a single D81 or a SD(2IEC) directory, avoiding disk swapping, autoswap.lst, etcetera.
As for cart vs disk, I feel the former would be effectively used to play the game, whereas disks in a jewel case are more for collectible objects only (e.g., I play Theatre of War via SD2IEC and read a A4 print of the manual, but keep the disk in my showcase ). Also, I guess a cartridge would be far more expensive.

orion70 wrote:... Also, I guess a cartridge would be far more expensive.

I sell the Behr-Bonz 36$US when purchased one at a time. However, if I had to make a large batch in one specific order then the cost would go down considerably.

I already offer a 25% discount on orders of 5 or more.

Also, the cartridge removes the need for additional hardware. No drive or expansion is required.

eslapion wrote:Also, the cartridge removes the need for additional hardware. No drive or expansion is required.

Does B-B have flash for saving the game progress?