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SoCoder -> Showcase Home -> Retro

 
AndyH
Created : 24 August 2019
Edited : 15 July 2020
System : Commodore Vic20 + 8K
Language : TRSE / 6502

Blockman Gets Twenty

Blockman Gets Twenty
Screenshots
Hey everyone. Following on from Vic Nibbler, I was looking for the next game to make that would be suitable for the Commodore Vic 20. James has kindly given his blessing for me to make a version of Blockman Gets which would be ideal for the humble 8-bit machine.

I'm tentatively titling it Blockman Gets Twenty and this time I'm targeting a Vic with an 8k (or greater) RAM expansion so I have some room to fit more in.

The core game play will be present although I have some ideas on the direction to take. I'll keep updated of progress, at the moment I am working through the ideas and the initial graphical look - the Vic has a limited palette of 8 colours (and another 8 in limited scenarios).

Latest Update

A version of Blockman Gets for the Commodore Vic 20.

 

Comments
Saturday, 24 August 2019, 07:50
Jayenkai
 		\o/yeay\o/
Wednesday, 28 August 2019, 06:22
spinal
 		Thought it was going to be an anniversary edition for a second! Is blockman anywhere near 20 yet?
Wednesday, 28 August 2019, 07:37
Jayenkai
 		Not even halfway!
https://agameaweek.com/?Game=154

(Although Blockman's first outing is a year and a half before that... https://agameaweek.com/?Game=70 )
Tuesday, 03 September 2019, 14:11
AndyH
 		I've been fixing bugs and adding stuff to TRSE (the dev tool I use) so I've not made a lot of progress on the game yet, but I have found the graphic style I want...
Tuesday, 03 September 2019, 14:49
Jayenkai
 		Ooh! Looks interesting.
A locked door???
Tuesday, 03 September 2019, 15:26
AndyH
 		If memory allows - I have some things to hopefully make each level a little different
Tuesday, 03 September 2019, 15:49
Jayenkai
 		Sounds like fun!
One thing I've found is that anything "real-time" seems to break the game's pace.
Leaving any and all elements up to the player's movement speed, keeps things much more easy to plan ahead.

But .. yeah, interested to see what you come up with!!
Tuesday, 03 September 2019, 16:34
AndyH
 		I've not decided if I will have anything real time yet. I have ghosts, which may only move when you move.

BTW, the twenty in the title is a little more than just associate with the Vic. The target is going to be multiples of 20. I'll have 20 slots to fill up, and later 'buckets' for multiples of 20 (fill one bucket at a time).
Tuesday, 03 September 2019, 16:55
Jayenkai
 		I expected no less
Friday, 11 October 2019, 09:05
AndyH
 		Just a quick update, I’ve not abandoned this but with Halloween approaching I have become temporarily distracted. Normal blockman activity will resume after 31st.
Saturday, 25 April 2020, 05:59
AndyH
 		So what have I been up to since that Halloween game? I'm so easily distracted!

Along with Leuat, I added a load of stuff to Turbo Rascal (the tool I use to make 8 bit games). My main contributions were a Vic Bitmap Mode (VBM) and improvements to the image/char and level editors but there were loads more things too.

Vic Bitmap Mode provides a full screen bitmap for the Vic by using double height characters and a resolution up to 160x192 pixels. Loads of bitmap commands to help, such as sprites and text amongst others. If you've played games such as Omega Race or Jetpac on the Vic then this allows you to make games like that.

A downside to this is that double height characters means the colour map is also double height. This makes colourful games a bit trickier - you can generally go with monochrome bitmaps, carefully laid out colour areas or multi-colour mode.

My next challenge is I want to get back to Blockman gets twenty and implement a 'Local Bitmap Mode' or LBM. This is a common technique that instead of creating a full screen bitmap out of double sized characters, reserves a pool of the 256 chars available to make little 'local' bitmaps for drawing sprites that appear to go over regular characters. It's a bit of a trick and not overly complex but there are a couple of advantages with this approach. 1) colour maps remain as single characters so more flexibility for colour and 2) it is possible to create a double buffer for flicker free screen updates. It all comes at a cost of some memory usage, and there is less flexibility in some other ways compared to VBM but this should give the developer a couple of choices when they make a game.

So, intention is to get back to Blockman Gets Twenty as way to demonstrate this the new mode. Lots of work ahead of me. I'll try to be better at updating here as I get something interesting to talk about or show.
Monday, 08 June 2020, 12:47
AndyH
 		Nearly finished the level editor - going with a simple draw list to keep them small.

(note sure if this picture will work...if not try this: 1drv.ms/u/s!ApqRco2ITYYwjcETuQEZ_m44AmruIA?e=bk082Y)


If anyone is interested in making a level or two you are more than welcome.
Monday, 08 June 2020, 14:02
Jayenkai
 		There's ... a .. Level Editor!?! !! How bizarre!!!
Tuesday, 09 June 2020, 02:28
AndyH
 		hehe - I would normally just hand code in Excel, or worse directly in the code via an array or other data block but this time I thought it would be a good time to (re)learn Visual Basic 6 and use that to show / build the levels.
Tuesday, 09 June 2020, 02:50
Jayenkai
 		Awesome
Tuesday, 09 June 2020, 06:38
cyangames
 		As a fellow 8-bit game maker, I bloody loves this