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

[Michael Brown]

I too have Disc Doctor on when using BeebEm and I too have noticed it breaks certain games.

One reason for this is that Disc Doctor stores the variable 0D at &130 so any code that is loaded from &100 to &1A0 will end up with a 0D over what was stored at &130.

You could write a little basic program in the loader saying IF &130=&0D then PRINT"TURN OFF DISC DOCTOR"

Mick.

[billcarr2005]

Anyone know what the hell this ROM does that seems to cause so many problems? I just use it for its disassembler!

Enigma Disc Imager's *DISS and *MEDIT are probably useful substitutes

You could write a little basic program in the loader saying IF &130=&0D then PRINT"TURN OFF DISC DOCTOR"

Or just turn off any non essential ROMs when loading up any games

[Rich Talbot-Watkins]

One reason for this is that Disc Doctor stores the variable 0D at &130 so any code that is loaded from &100 to &1A0 will end up with a 0D over what was stored at &130.

Really?!! That's terrible! No wonder certain games used to have problems. It was pretty common to use the bottom of the stack as extra workspace, even before the game had finally finished loading!

Enigma Disc Imager's *DISS and *MEDIT are probably useful substitutes

Yeah I might just go for that! For shame, Disc Doctor!

[lurkio]

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).

Yes, it was Disc Doctor that was stopping the game from running for me in Mac BeebEm and Win BeebEm (WINE).

Disc Doctor's notorious for breaking games, isn't it? That should have been the first thing I checked.

[Arcadian]

I can get it to run in Windows B-em (under WINE on a Mac) and JSBeeb

It does work well in JSBeeb doesn't it

Feel free to add it to bbcmicro.co.uk whenever you're ready

[crj]

Having sworn at Disc Doctor for years, I then switched to swearing by ADT. A far more solid and accomplished offering!

[lurkio]

Feel free to add it to bbcmicro.co.uk whenever you're ready

It's up:

• http://bbcmicro.co.uk/game.php?id=2712

Is it okay?

If someone can grab me a better screenshot, I'll replace the current one.

[dominicbeesley]

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...

Really? I suspect you must have some super-powers! This is a most impressive accomplishment. I almost feel like giving up! You must have spent an absolute age getting this so polished.

D

[Arcadian]

Feel free to add it to bbcmicro.co.uk whenever you're ready

It's up:

• http://bbcmicro.co.uk/game.php?id=2712

Is it okay?

If someone can grab me a better screenshot, I'll replace the current one.

Ta! For screenshots please take your pick from those available on the White Light wiki page.

[sa_scott]

I've just tried White Light using jsBeeb on my iMac. My goodness, it's good!

I wish there was a * key mapped to Mac keyboards though. It's a major poke in the eye for retrogaming Beeb games on the Mac

Nevertheless, I managed to reach level 2.

Congrats Sarah Walker and Retro Software on this major labour of love

Kind Regards

Steve

[lurkio]

I wish there was a * key mapped to Mac keyboards though. It's a major poke in the eye for retrogaming Beeb games on the Mac

Please see my reply in your other thread:

• http://www.stardot.org.uk/forums/viewto ... 40#p188840

[jms2]

I noticed a puzzling thing last night while playing WL. At first, the power ups behaved normally, giving me a wide angle double shot, then adding a third etc. However after playing a few attempts I found that I only ever got a narrow angle double shot, no matter how many additional power ups I collected.

This was on BeebEm. Are the power ups random and so was I just unlucky?

[ThomasHarte]

Just briefly checked it out on jsBeeb, being in the office. Is that regular 76489 music? If so then it's the best I've heard outside of a Master System, and I always figured the advantage there is that even the smallest game is 128kb. So it's very impressive!

[SarahWalker]

I noticed a puzzling thing last night while playing WL. At first, the power ups behaved normally, giving me a wide angle double shot, then adding a third etc. However after playing a few attempts I found that I only ever got a narrow angle double shot, no matter how many additional power ups I collected.

This was on BeebEm. Are the power ups random and so was I just unlucky?

Yep. Red powerups are spread, yellow are narrow.

Just briefly checked it out on jsBeeb, being in the office. Is that regular 76489 music? If so then it's the best I've heard outside of a Master System, and I always figured the advantage there is that even the smallest game is 128kb. So it's very impressive!

Yes, well, regular 76489 + some timer magic. The bassline & the PWM voice on the hiscore music are basically very low rate sample playback.

[Arcadian]

Feel free to add it to bbcmicro.co.uk whenever you're ready

It's up:

• http://bbcmicro.co.uk/game.php?id=2712

Is it okay?

I've been testing it out and have noticed that if I'm holding down Fire (Return) then upwards diagonal movements don't work - does this happen to anyone else? I'm not sure if it's the keyboard I have with me at the moment (a mini A4 Tech model, without numeric keypad etc).

[CMcDougall]

noticed that if I'm holding down Fire (Return) then upwards diagonal movements don't work

it goes to left/up (Return & Z & ') OK but not right/up (Return & X & ') not Ok
also goes down left & right on lappy OK, will try real beeb later.....

[Arcadian]

noticed that if I'm holding down Fire (Return) then upwards diagonal movements don't work

it goes to left/up (Return & Z & ') OK but not right/up (Return & X & ') not Ok
also goes down left & right on lappy OK, will try real beeb later.....

Hi Col, thanks for testing, yeah no problem with the downwards diagonal movements here either.

I was getting the problem with Chrome but have just tried Firefox and IE and no control issues with either of those browsers so it seems like a Chrome issue.

Oh and it's fine on a real Beeb (and on the emulators such as B-Em, BeebEm etc) too ...

[CMcDougall]

fine on a real Beeb (and on the emulators such as B-Em, BeebEm etc)

Evening Dave,
weird, might be a Win10 (updated version Fall Creators) fault as I was only using
the emulators BeebEm414 & bEm22, not 'through' a .NetSite, & it still not doing Fire/Up/Right
just tried the older Beta previous verions, same.

EDIT; just tried on actual faithful beeb, all is well! (useless M$ slow junk )

[streaks]

Holy crap..

[lurkio]

White Light game review:

• https://timvickerstaff.wordpress.com/20 ... bbc-micro/

[kieranhj]

Has anyone contacted Darren the editor at Retro Gamer yet BTW? They need to review and feature this awesome game!

[Arcadian]

Thanks for sharing the link, Chet!

And Kieran - I've been in contact with Jason who writes the homebrew column for Retro Gamer - he wants to do a 'Making Of' feature on White Light in an upcoming issue, and has already provided some interview questions which I've forwarded to Sarah; so hopefully we'll see the game getting the coverage it deserves in an upcoming RG near you soon!

[hicks]

Congratulations on the release

Now about that Electron port...

[pixelblip]

This game is staggering.....the graphics in it are so awesome and you can see your bullets really well.
When you think of games like Nevryon on the beeb and R-type on the Speccy .....this blows them out of the water.

The music is really great as well.......very dark - is it a SID chip going on there......

I think this surely must be the most technically amazing game on the BBC to date.........I say it even beats Exile!

Well done to you. Let's hope we see some more games from you all.

[jms2]

I wouldn't call this a bug report as such, it's more of an incompatibility with non-standard hardware/firmware: White Light doesn't get past Level 2 on my Beeb. It also doesn't go to the high score screen when you die (on either Level 1 or 2), so I suspect that basically disc access isn't working properly.

With this particular machine there are various reasons why this might be the case:

1) GXR is fitted, however I have turned it off (*NOGXR)
2) The WE 32k RAM board is fitted. Again I've turned it off (*RAMOFF)
the above two steps leave PAGE at &1900 and White Light will load. However:
3) I have Watford DFS version 1.54.

My best guess is that the two-catalogue system used by the WE DFS means that it is less tolerant of games stealing part of its workspace. Or is it something else in the machine (there are quite a few other ROMS but they are all languages).

Just thought this might be a useful piece of information for other people with the Watford DFS - assuming that is the cause.

[Arcadian]

Sorry I've been meaning to reply to this - thanks for reporting the issue. Hopefully I'll have a chance to test out the game on a real Beeb (or Beebs) with the Watford DFS at the ABug meetup next weekend - will let you know how we fare.

[Commie_User]

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

Is that your picture in the gallery? How does somebody so young come to program the BBC Micro - and be so darn good at it?

[BigEd]

Difficult to judge the age of an elf: Galadriel is 7000 years old, for example.
But Sarah has volunteered her age over in What is the average age on here??

[SarahWalker]

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

Is that your picture in the gallery?

If only!

[Commie_User]

If only!

Oh, OK! Carry on!

Though it seems to me you're still a young woman if you left school around a decade ago. And I'm surprised how computers so long in the tooth by the late 90s were still being used, if only to the side.

I was at college around that time and the 486-based RM Nimbus (and normal PCs) were still in great network service then.