Richard's
C64 game projects:
Prepare to be a movie stuntman in this action packed game:
Ultimate Speed Boat Challenge
The Ultimate Stunt Boat Challenge Team: Richard
Bayliss - Programming, compiling, disk/tape mastering)
Richard Bayliss - Music
Frank Gasking - Graphics
PROJECT STATUS: CANCELLED
I have been
leaving Ultimate Stunt Boat Challenge for too long, and have decided at
the end. This game shall be cancelled. This is mainly due to lack of
motivation, loss of source code since a major PC fault (Which was
unrecoverable). The game project had been held back for too long. What
could have become a fun stunt boat shoot 'em up has sadly drifted away.
SUMMER 2010
- Exclusive playable demo of USBC: Click on disk to download preview.
Wow,
another main C64 game project as well as Up in the Air? The answer is
YES. If you remember some of the classic games from different software
publishers that involved jumping over ramps and avoid crashing into
things like that, then this game will probably be right for you (If you
are a fan of those kind of games of course). I saw many amazing classic
stunt style games, like LED Storm,
Mean Machine, Power Boat Simulator,
etc. and I thought to myself. Since I have existing graphics from one
of
my old game projects which got scrapped (Real Speed We Need), I should
try a stunt boat style of game, that involves shooting enemies to bits
and jumping over ramps :o)
The Concept/Story line
You play the role of an action movie stuntman, and you have been
hired to participate in a new action spy thriller. You are hired to get
your stunts performed correctly and blast a load of things that get by
you. While you are being filmed, you have to get you job right. There
are spies in helicopters out to shoot you down (If the enemy touches
you, you will lose a boat), also there are enemy boats and air craft,
to make this move a real big action packed stunt movie. You have been
paid £1,000,000 to take part in the movie, but if you waste all you
stunt boats you will lose everything.
The game
diary:
Friday 10th
April 2009 - Ultimate Stunt Boat Challenge
What a boring day today
was so far. So I decided to make a new C64 game.Well,
I got started on it really. Earlier on in the week I asked Frank if he
could send me the Real Speed We Need graphics data for this game
project. As I thought there may have been some boats and other action
movie style enemies and obstacles. I sure was right.
Most of this morning I worked
on the map graphics using Charpad V1.0to build the level map and then
later on I dug out the old Real Speed We
Need source code and
modified it a little, and got the new map working nicely with the scroller. One major problem for me was that
the map scrolling was just too fast. So I slowed it down a touch and it
looked fine.
My next task was to sort out some sprites. So I copied some of the old RSWN
sprites which Frank had done before, and I paste them. For this game I
wanted enemy air craft, boats and also some ramps, that the player
could jump over to try and get over the bridges on later levels. I also
grabbed some other sprites that I thought would suit the game.
Here is a video of the scroller in action
Although
in its early stages yet, and more work to be done. I was dead chuffed
with the work done so far. I added some routines to get the player's
sprite on to the screen, and also get the player moving as well.
Hopefully
tomorrow or Sunday, I should be ready to add some additional routines
to get the player shooting and also the enemies starting to take
action.
Saturday
11th
April 2009 - Enter the Choppers
Yesterday
I mentioned about the Ultimate Stunt Boat Challenge game. Well, today I
have been doing a little bit more on the project. Before I could do any
more to the project I converted the test run file on to a C64 tape
using the WAV/PRG program and loaded the test file
in to my Commodore 64. Damn, there was a major problem. The player's
boat (when expanded MSB
for the sprites) screwed up the scrolling engine. So now I have to work
out what was causing the problem. Fortunately I figured out what was
causing such a disturbance to the scrolling engine. It appeared that I
used an insufficient area for the artificial sprite positions. So I
altered the OBJPOS label to a different memory
location. Crunched it all with the Exomizer and tested it on my real C64. RESULT!
Now
that I was happy with everything, It was time for me to add some data
tables and program some additional routines. I created some data tables
for the sprites, and programmed a sprite animation routine. After that
I worked on a small, but very easy routine, where the player can now
shoot bullets. Then I started working on getting the enemies to move.
At the moment they are the same enemies moving across the screen in the
same place. However I can work more on making better movements and
behaviour of the enemies next time I go on to this project. Which
probably might be tomorrow morning.
OH
DEAR - BACK TO THE START AGAIN Unfortunately disaster had struck,
and code graphics was lost. Thankfully in November 2009, I asked Frank
for the RSWN graphics and project source files. The good news is that
it was found. So I have the RSWN source and graphics, made major
adjustments to choose appropriate sprites.
Tuesday 1st December 2009 - Map making
Well, I got back to
this project, and I want to do a special 4 level full game of this
production. So I opened Sprite Pad on the PC and loaded up the RSWN
sprites. I removed the sprites that I did not need and flipped the
sprites, so that we have them going two different directions. The
sprites facing left and also sprites facing right. After I finished
with the sprites, I worked on the level maps, using Char Pad for
all 4 levels. Yes, I had time to do all 4 of the level maps. I was
happy with the work done here. Wednesday 2nd December 2009 - Programming - phase 1 I dug out the Real Speed We
Need source code, and copied it into the Stunt Boat folder. This game
of course is going to be programmed with the DASM cross assembler. I
loaded up the source code and created a new assembly file, which was
called "StuntBoat.ASM". This is the file which will link the
old/modified RSWN source code (Map scroller) and include binary files
into the source. Those of which are the music, character set for the in
game graphics, the block data, map data and colour data and also
sprites. I assembled the file, but needed to update the code, so that
the old RSWN enemy attack waves, and other bits are disabled.
Saturday 5th December 2009 - Programming - phase 2
Not much (a lot more like) has been
done today. I have been doing some tidying up, where I can remove all
of the RSWN game attack waves code, and add new routines. After
successfully removing the RSWN code I got the player sprite to show up
on screen. Unfortunately when the player sprite was in the code, it was
flashing. Oops, I have forgotten that this map scrolling routine uses
double buffering. So to fix the problem, I fixed the sprite type at
$47F8 and $53F8, where $47F8 is the front buffer for the sprite,
and $53F8 is the back buffer for the sprite. I can use $47F8-$47FF and
$53F8-$53FF as both buffers for all of the sprites. As soon as I was
happy with this, I added a routine which moves the player around the
screen. Then I added a routine for giving the player the ability to
shoot. I also created test tables and got enemy sprites to move
depending on which direction they are to move.
Saturday 5th December 2009 - Programming - phase
3 - Enemy Movements and animation
Now is the time to get those
sprites moving and positioned in different forms. I created yet more
tables, to set up the enemy position values, the direction triggers
(per enemy) and also animation tables. I tested the enemy movement for
the first level and noted down what the enemies could be when they are
moving across the screen. There are only three types of enemies I am
using for this level. Those of which are helicopters, enemy boats and
also enemy jets. After testing the enemy movements and starting
positions (for the next bit of the enemy movement phase). I added
subroutines to create the correct type of animation for the enemies.
Then I added the RSWN text char set and made my own status bar. After
successfully assembling and using PuCrunch for fast compression of the
source. I got a nice result. Looks like level 1's attack waves are now
finished - but I need to add collision next so that the player can fry
those baddies. I will also need to add ramps for making the player take
off into the air for a short time, then land back down again.
Here's a video of the latest test run. The music is by Fanta/Plush
Tuesday 8th December 2009 - Explosions
I programmed the sprite
to sprite collision and also the explosion animation routine. I had to
create some variables, so that logically during the process of a
collision. If an enemy is alive, the enemy is normal. Otherwise if a
collision has been made, the enemy will die. I also added a routine
where an enemy/bullet collision is disabled if the enemy is dead and
still exploding. I also added a routine that disables the UP/DOWN
control of the enemy after it has been shot by the player. This took
some time to create and ammend, but I got it to work at the end.
Sunday 6th
June 2010 - Preview time
Aren't I kind to you eh? A sort of playable preview of the first level
of USBC has been uploaded on to this page. There is no proper
sprite/background collision or properly playable game, but I thought I
share the work that has been done so far with this project. Enjoy!