Meteors++ (Enhanced Acornsoft Meteors for Acorn Electron)

[0xC0DE]

Work in progress.
I am having fun improving the classic Acornsoft Meteors game for the Acorn Electron.
So far I have optimised countless things and introduced a second screen buffer to achieve smooth & consistent movement with no sprite flicker at all.

Video comparing the original with my current enhanced version:
https://youtu.be/t6NOxR-rqPg
https://twitter.com/0xC0DE6502/status/1 ... 3994035233
https://bsky.app/profile/0xc0de.bsky.so ... hc4drz3c2w
https://mastodon.online/@0xC0DE6502/111935205464803459

[davidb]

Good stuff. Quicker and smoother.

[Arcadian]

Video looks great, an extremely worthwhile project! Can't wait to try the finished version, I'd definitely put this out at some of the big events I do!

[daveejhitchins]

Brilliant, as always

Dave H.

[0xC0DE]

Thanks for the kind words, David, Dave and Dave!

[nicolagiacobbe]

very well done. Before watching it I could not believe there could be such a difference.
How much memory have the dual screen left you to play?

[oss003]

No flickering ... great job .....
Did you rewrite the sprite routine?

Greetings
Kees

[0xC0DE]

very well done. Before watching it I could not believe there could be such a difference.
How much memory have the dual screen left you to play?

Thank you! The 2 full screen buffers take a total of 20K, leaving less than 12K for the code+data, but I'm used to that

[0xC0DE]

No flickering ... great job .....
Did you rewrite the sprite routine?

Thanks Kees! Yes, the "shape plotter" was already pretty clever, but I managed to make it slightly faster. But I also added a few custom non-clipping pre-shifted sprite plotting routines to speed things up for the small and medium-sized meteors, when they are not overlapping the edges of the screen. But the double screen buffer is crucial for eliminating sprite flicker.

[tricky]

Excellent, but I would expect nothing less

I was going to add a shape plotter, well compiled sprites for the big rocks in my Asteroids, but then decided compiled sprites weren't much good if they moved especially in MODE 4

[Multiwizard]

Indeed very very nicely done...

[0xC0DE]

Indeed very very nicely done...

Thank you very much!

Excellent, but I would expect nothing less

Cheers, tricky! No pressure then

I was going to add a shape plotter, well compiled sprites for the big rocks in my Asteroids, but then decided compiled sprites weren't much good if they moved especially in MODE 4

I really like the shape plotter in Meteors and it is very convenient when wrapping around the screen edges. However, it is certainly not the fastest way to plot sprites. I wish I had space left to add pre-shifted sprites for the large meteor as well.

[mogwaay]

I saw this on my YT feed, looks amazing, massive well done!

[jms2]

That looks great! The funny thing is, I don't have much recollection of it being that bad. The main thing that stood out to me about Electron Meteors was the way it wasn't in colour (like the BBC version) or with a blue background (like on the box)!

[rmbrowngr]

That looks great! The funny thing is, I don't have much recollection of it being that bad. The main thing that stood out to me about Electron Meteors was the way it wasn't in colour (like the BBC version) or with a blue background (like on the box)!

I was going to mention the colour difference between the BBC and Electron versions. I vaguely remember running the BBC version on the Electron. Again thanks to my friend who had a Beeb. I had several games from him.

[0xC0DE]

I saw this on my YT feed, looks amazing, massive well done!

Thanks!

That looks great! The funny thing is, I don't have much recollection of it being that bad. The main thing that stood out to me about Electron Meteors was the way it wasn't in colour (like the BBC version) or with a blue background (like on the box)!

Cheers! Same here. It was fun to play and that was it. Now, looking at it with a technical eye, I see room for improvement

I may add a choice for different colour schemes...

I was going to mention the colour difference between the BBC and Electron versions. I vaguely remember running the BBC version on the Electron. Again thanks to my friend who had a Beeb. I had several games from him.

I may very well attempt to create a MODE 5 version to have a little colour in the game, even though I rather like the monochrome look. A MODE 1 version will be excruciatingly slow on the Elk, not to mention nearly impossible to get it sprite flicker free...

[jms2]

A MODE 1 version will be excruciatingly slow on the Elk, not to mention nearly impossible to get it sprite flicker free...

I agree it's not really essential, but just a thought: could it perhaps be done by relocating all the code to sideways ram and executing it from there, at 2 MHz?

[0xC0DE]

I agree it's not really essential, but just a thought: could it perhaps be done by relocating all the code to sideways ram and executing it from there, at 2 MHz?

It can be done, and there are some other speed tricks, but at the end of the day you still need to write to slow screen RAM

[0xC0DE]

Initial release of Meteors++
Disk/tape images: https://github.com/0xC0DE6502/meteors-enhanced-releases
Video on Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/0xC0DE6502/status/1 ... 0224355401

[Arcadian]

Always thought Meteors was a solid conversion for the Elk but your update takes it to another level - it's so much smoother and more playable now.

Incredible achievement, thanks and well done!

I can't wait to take this version on the road with me to events (in fact, I've got a big one in a couple of weeks, are any more updates due over the next few days? Otherwise I'll ask Dave H to burn it to an Eprom for me)

[0xC0DE]

Always thought Meteors was a solid conversion for the Elk but your update takes it to another level - it's so much smoother and more playable now.

Incredible achievement, thanks and well done!

Thanks Dave! It was a nice technical challenge and I now have a full understanding of how the game works.

I can't wait to take this version on the road with me to events (in fact, I've got a big one in a couple of weeks, are any more updates due over the next few days? Otherwise I'll ask Dave H to burn it to an Eprom for me)

That would be great! I hope this version is pretty solid, but you never know! I do intend to release a version with optional cheats included, but not sure when exactly.

[jms2]

Awesome work! I still can't get past Sheet 4 though.

[0xC0DE]

v0.2 released - bugs fixed and cheats/options menu added

Hold ESCAPE and tap SPACE to enter the Cheats and Options page, while on the initial screen (showing the controls). Then type the first letter of each cheat/option to change it.

https://github.com/0xC0DE6502/meteors-enhanced-releases

[mogwaay]

v0.2 released - bugs fixed and cheats/options menu added

Hold ESCAPE and tap SPACE to enter the Cheats and Options page, while on the initial screen (showing the controls). Then type the first letter of each cheat/option to change it.

https://github.com/0xC0DE6502/meteors-enhanced-releases


screenshot1.png
screenshot2.png

Very cool, must find some time to have a play with it - I'm going to try some green or yellow on black for some old CRT vibes