New Release: Retro Software's WHITE LIGHT by Sarah Walker

[Arcadian]

After being in development since 2008, space-based 2D shooter White Light - an unofficial sequel to Firetrack - was launched at For The Love of Sci-Fi over the weekend.

And it is now available to download free of charge via the Retro Software website:
http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/whitelight

A limited quantity of physical copies, which have been packaged in authentic black vinyl disc wallets, are also currently available to buy on floppy, from eBay (on 5.25" 80T DFS disc for the BBC B/B+Master and 3.5" ADFS disc for the Master Compact/BBC Master).

Alternatively, StarDot members can buy them at a discounted price via the forum.

At the time of writing, more than half of the 125 copies that have been made available for sale have already been snapped up.

Props to Sarah for perservering and seeing the game through to completion and also John Blythe, who designed some fantastic in-game graphics and adapted the art for the inlays. Grateful to the beta testers especially Jools, Lance and Chris who replayed (and replayed) the last few builds of the game over and over again.

So, do grab the SSD download and please leave some feedback for the game in this thread!

[leenew]

Absolutely fantastic!
Many thanks to all involved

Lee.

[davidb]

I saw the disk image land on the Retro Software site yesterday but held off playing it until this thread appeared.

I'm very impressed by the game. I love the way it takes recognisable elements from Firetrack and adds new features to make a worthy sequel. It's quite an achievement! It's a real challenge to get those power-ups so that you have a chance later on in the game, and I'm enjoying the different music on each of the levels I've encountered so far.

Congratulations to Sarah and the rest of the crew!

Now about that Electron version...

[Pernod]

Thanks, just had a quick blast and it's awesome. As Star Force was one of my most played arcade games this is my type of game.

I thought it was intending to use BeebSID if available, does it? There's no mention on the cover. Any chance of an ADF image for the Compact?

I guess the disc image wasn't actually created on real hardware, the sector count after the title in sector 1 is 0x000 should be 0x320 for 80t. I use this in MAME to determine the geometry of the image as a 200K SSD could also be 40t double sided. MAME takes no notice of the file extension and always determines the format from the image contents and so fails to recognise this. Disc Doctors *DZAP also fails due to the invalid sector count. The game actually locks up in MAME so I have some work to do!

Thanks again to all involved, I may even join a future HiScore challenge with this.

[Arcadian]

Hi Nigel, if you're able to create me a 'bona fide' 200k ssd (with the access counter reset to 00) I'll gladly replace the image on the site.

[Pernod]

Hi Nigel, if you're able to create me a 'bona fide' 200k ssd (with the access counter reset to 00) I'll gladly replace the image on the site.

A Watford DFS also reports '28 files of 31 on 00 tracks'. Attached image has sector count set to 800, ie. 80 tracks.

[lurkio]

Only had a quick go but it's very impressive so far! Well done, everyone!

The game actually locks up in MAME

It seems to fail in Win BeebEm and Mac BeebEm too -- but it works in B-em, although it seems a bit slow. Or is it just me?

[jubber]

This looks absolutely tremendous - well done! The scrolling is nice and smooth, especially for the beeb. I like the fact you have music running while the game plays, and that you've chosen a multi coloured screen mode. You haven't made things easy for yourself by choosing those options. Visually the game looks great, with scrolling and plenty of moving sprites and collision detection - the hardware is certainly being given a heck of a workout. There are also many nice touches to appreciate, such as the multi coloured font, the fade routine that uses the palette and the parallax stars. It must have been a herculean bit of 6502 to make everything work.

Really well done - damn fine job!

Cheers,

Robin Jubber

[jms2]

I'm very keen to try it... but I've bought a real copy which someone can give to me as a Christmas present, so it seems a bit wrong to shortcut that process by playing the .ssd version.

I guess after waiting for 9 years I can wait a few more days...!

[dakidski]

I too dumb to add disk images to my BBC MMC device. Would a tape version be possible?

[Pernod]

I too dumb to add disk images to my BBC MMC device. Would a tape version be possible?

No, unless you want to wait 5 mins loading between levels and endlessly FF/RW tape finding files and corrupting the display. It's a disc only game.

[CMcDougall]

^tape.... maybe a blank TDK D90 is needed, but as said, would take eternity

I too dumb to add disk images to my BBC MMC device. Would a tape version be possible?

here it is on a BEEB.MMB file, it will work, until you loose all lives,
then it will crash, as stomps all over DFS area... (unless now fixed, or if new high score ends up in the 'HI' file..)

beeb.zip

MMC

(198.27 KiB) Downloaded 123 times

super game , and even the packaging looks... ace

[Arcadian]

Hi, yeah as per the Compatibility info on the Retro Software site, only loading from floppy is officially supported, though we've had it loading from USB stick with Datacentre on a BBC B/Master.

We've had it running on a BBC Master with CF Flash ADFS and possibly an MMC device on a BBC Master too, but it does seem to fall down after the high score table entry on model Bs.

[CMcDougall]

^Evening, seems to be fine now on an emulator, of course with >Write Protect 'unticked' (so can save 'HI' file)
not had time to play on my actual beebs yet, as tree boxes /junk everywhere

here is a better 80T version, so the files are in order as best can be, being !BOOT, WL, W1, W2, HI, ..etc...
this will load much faster and less drive head movement with actual 51/4" or 31/2" floppy discs
I take it the .ADL /M128 /Compact versions are just same as DFS?

[dakidski]

^tape.... maybe a blank TDK D90 is needed, but as said, would take eternity

I too dumb to add disk images to my BBC MMC device. Would a tape version be possible?

here it is on a BEEB.MMB file, it will work, until you loose all lives,
then it will crash, as stomps all over DFS area... (unless now fixed, or if new high score ends up in the 'HI' file..)
beeb.zip
super game , and even the packaging looks... ace

Thank you!

[Arcadian]

Thanks Nigel and Colin, the site's currently hosting Nigel's version.

Colin does the image you produced have quicker loading than the one that's currently up there? If so could you expand it to make it a full 200k?

[Arcadian]

Also Colin if you could produce a 320k .adf version - with files in the correct order and a title of "White Light v1.0" I'd happily upload an ADF copy (please ensure all files are locked except HI as per the DFS ver). Also do you know if it's possible to set the access counter to 00 on ADFS? As I found that it sticks on 99?!? Ta.

[CMcDougall]

Evening Dave,
the DFS version was easy, and you probably know ADFS ain't my cup of tea
tried, but does not even have *COPY 0 1 *.*
so, here it is, but backwards, so will run from back of disc to middle,
also I edited the '28' access count to 00, and it said broken dir, so I put it back
so don't know where the 28 is 'hidding' , still works though!

[danielj]

Bonus present - a version in HFE format that will work on the HxC floppy emulator, HxC flashed GoTEK, and FlashFloppy (Free!) flashed GoTEK. The adf image will also work on the FlashFloppy flashed GoTEK if renamed to .adm

[jms2]

I've not managed the self-control necessary to avoid playing the emulated version..!

It's absolutely brilliant and a credit to everyone involved in its creation. I'm really impressed by the graphics, the music, and the absolutely flawless scrolling. But what is even more impressive is the way the whole thing feels like a much deeper and more complex game than Firetrack - the latter is almost like a demo by comparison. In fact I've just played the two games back to back and I've noticed the playfield is much bigger on White Light as well.

I did manage to find a few not-immediately-obvious areas where Firetrack manages to still look good:

- Firetrack's intro sequence is pretty cool.
- The scrolling is faster, or at least appears to be - maybe its the letterboxed screen.
- The ships have shadows, whereas they don't in White Light.
- The explosions last a lot longer in Firetrack. I can't quite decide if this is a good thing or not.

That's about it though! The loss of one or two graphical details is easily made up for by the much better graphic design generally and the far better gameplay. And I've only got to level 3.

Thanks very much Sarah and the RS team.

[lurkio]

I've not managed the self-control necessary to avoid playing the emulated version

Which emulator are you using and on what platform?

I can get it to run in Windows B-em (under WINE on a Mac) and JSBeeb, but not in Win BeebEm or Mac BeebEm.

[Arcadian]

Bonus present - a version in HFE format that will work on the HxC floppy emulator, HxC flashed GoTEK, and FlashFloppy (Free!) flashed GoTEK. The adf image will also work on the FlashFloppy flashed GoTEK if renamed to .adm

Thanks Daniel - are you able to try the game on a BBC B and check that you are able to restart a new game after losing all of your lives and passing through the high score table (as this seems to be the problem affecting Model B's loading the game from MMC-type devices).

If you can confirm I'll upload the HFE file to the White Light homepage.

[Arcadian]

I've not managed the self-control necessary to avoid playing the emulated version

Which emulator are you using and on what platform?

I can get it to run in Windows B-em (under WINE on a Mac) and JSBeeb, but not in Win BeebEm or Mac BeebEm.

Make sure you've grabbed the latest zip file from the homepage - that's working fine on BeebEm here (though the music is poorly emulated so I'd stick to B-em!).

[danielj]

Thanks Daniel - are you able to try the game on a BBC B and check that you are able to restart a new game after losing all of your lives and passing through the high score table (as this seems to be the problem affecting Model B's loading the game from MMC-type devices).

If you can confirm I'll upload the HFE file to the White Light homepage.

It's not an MMC-type device, it is basically just a normal floppy drive so far as the beeb or master is concerned, it uses normal Acorn DFS, so if the software works with a normal floppy drive it'll work with this.

d.

[jms2]

I've not managed the self-control necessary to avoid playing the emulated version

Which emulator are you using and on what platform?

I can get it to run in Windows B-em (under WINE on a Mac) and JSBeeb, but not in Win BeebEm or Mac BeebEm.

I am using BeebEm, on Windows. It seems to work OK but I will try B-Em out.

[lurkio]

I am using BeebEm, on Windows. It seems to work OK but I will try B-Em out.

Yes, I just tried the game in BeebEm in a virtual instance of Windows 7 in VirtualBox on my Mac. That worked.

But the game doesn't seem to work in BeebEm under WINE. Nor does it work in the native Mac version of BeebEm.

But it does work in B-em under WINE.

I can't explain any of this.

[mygrandmawheels]

Incredible game!! Very balanced, very nice to see, every byte of the beeb is exploited!
I'll buy a copy on ebay, it's worth that money more than any other software1

Can you satisfy my curiosity?
Is Sarah Walker a real person or is it a fictitious name that identifies a development group?

[daveejhitchins]

Is Sarah Walker a real person or is it a fictitious name that identifies a development group?

She's very real and we, the Forum, are very lucky to have her as a member . . .

Dave H

[Rich Talbot-Watkins]

Just had a quick go in B-Em - fantastic work as ever! Going to give it a proper blast this evening!

One thing worth mentioning - it breaks in an absolutely crazy way if you have the Disc Doctor ROM installed (as I do in all my emulator configs). Can't really imagine why, but Disc Doctor was fairly well-known as causing problems with games back in the day. Anyone know what the hell this ROM does that seems to cause so many problems? I just use it for its disassembler!

[SarahWalker]

Can you satisfy my curiosity?
Is Sarah Walker a real person or is it a fictitious name that identifies a development group?

I think I'm a real person, at least...