VEXED

[Iggypop]

UPDATE

Game progress can be saved (Q)uit and more little things..

[Iggypop]

I need to access more memory if i want to add more code to my game. !!

Can't i draw sprites in shadow memory ?

[tricky]

You can store the sprites in shadow memory, but I've not done that myself.

[ChrisB]

OK - Page is set to &1600 - presumably for file access.

If you only use one file (using OPENIN/OPENOUT) at a time you can probably lower this to &1300, or two files to &1400.

However - you could use *LOAD/*SAVE (via OSCLI) and lower that to &1100. You might need a buffer to load/save into - for the level data - but this could be the screen.

One last thing I notice that you're poking into RAM to preserve values between programs. The capital integer variables (A% to Z%) are preserved when you load another program so you can use these as storage for this kind of thing.

[jms2]

Not the easiest solution, but it would give you quite a lot of additional memory - you could store code or data in the two (or three?) blank lines between the "VEXED" logo and the rest of the screen. You would need an interrupt-driven routine to switch the palette to black (and then back again) to hide it. A further advantage of this would be that you could have the bottom half of the screen featuring a different 4 colours to the top half.

There are definitely examples on here somewhere explaining how to do this.

[ChrisB]

If you're looking at the blank lines you could make the screen 2 lines shorter (although this stops being Electron compatible) That would still leave a blank line between the logo and the game. You'd probably have to define a text window to allow clear screen to work but would give you 1.25K of space. Fairly drastic approach though.

[Iggypop]

Thank you for all the advice..

I think i'll first drop PAGE further down when needed. (low hanging fruit) I have only one file open at a time..
I have not programmed an interrupt driven assembly routine before.. but will look into it..
I need to anyway if i want smooth moving sprites in a future game.

I want to clean up my sprite routine. but programming on the beep is a bit cumbersome..
I'll try to get the beep assembler running on the pc with microsoft visual studio.

[Cybershark]

This is feeling really polished now

One problem that I occasionally have is that when I restart a level the controls no longer work (and the cursor remains stuck in its initial position).

add more level packs.

I see from this site that there is no shortage of level packs for you to add!

[tricky]

I use visual studio + beebasm for everything, but vscode can do the same thing and has syntax highlighting packs for BBC basic and 6502 assembler.

[Iggypop]

RELAESE CANDIDATE 1

4 LEVEL PACK'S classic levers 1 & 2, Panic Pack & confusion Pack

[tricky]

Nice version, you can tell it is an older game as the first level isn't move one block one space to complete it - took me 32 moves the first time I completed it!

PS I think the slightly slow game play makes you think a little, rather than just keep trying and getting frustrated, but on an emulator is it easy to 2X the speed to test. If it is all basic and legal, it could also be played on a co-pro at 1.5 or 2X for testing to see if you prefer a different speed.

[TobyLobster]

It looks like the menu isn't quite right - choosing A loads the confusion pack when it should be the classic levels I pack?

[tricky]

Is that why the first level seemed so hard for a first level

[Iggypop]

It looks like the menu isn't quite right - choosing A loads the confusion pack when it should be the classic levels I pack?

Hmm. strange. looking into it

[Iggypop]

The level data files got mixed up.. A held the same data as C...fixed the disk image

[Cybershark]

This very much feels like a professional product now. Absolutely love the new screen wipe effect that you added!
An issue that continues to be present remains though:

One problem that I occasionally have is that when I restart a level the controls no longer work (and the cursor remains stuck in its initial position).

The only way I can then get anywhere is to let the game run the solution, taking me to the next level where the problem has gone

[Iggypop]

This very much feels like a professional product now. Absolutely love the new screen wipe effect that you added!
An issue that continues to be present remains though:

One problem that I occasionally have is that when I restart a level the controls no longer work (and the cursor remains stuck in its initial position).

The only way I can then get anywhere is to let the game run the solution, taking me to the next level where the problem has gone

I can't reproduce your bug..... After a reset the cursor is positioned in the top left corner.. Does the cursor repaint / "flicker" if you hold
down a "direction" key or return ? Did the status of the caps or shift-lock change??

[Cybershark]

Was having trouble reproducing the bug myself just now. I knew it always happened after after a level reset but I just couldn't get it to happen.
But then I had a thought about what might be causing it and, bingo, I was able to trigger it
The problem only happens when you hit reset while you have a block selected. So I imagine it's still trying to drag the old shape, but finds that impossible from its new position. Should be as simple as clearing a couple of variables when the level is reset, I guess?

And yes, the cursor does flicker even though it does not move.

[Iggypop]

Was having trouble reproducing the bug myself just now. I knew it always happened after after a level reset but I just couldn't get it to happen.
But then I had a thought about what might be causing it and, bingo, I was able to trigger it
The problem only happens when you hit reset while you have a block selected. So I imagine it's still trying to drag the old shape, but finds that impossible from its new position. Should be as simple as clearing a couple of variables when the level is reset, I guess?

And yes, the cursor does flicker even though it does not move.

Thanx
for your bug hunting. Will fix it very soon.

[Iggypop]

Release candidate 2

minor bug fix. placed the logo bit lower..

The hunt is on. Go fetch the bugs.

[ChrisB]

Well done - this is a nice implementation of the game. Some very minor points - feel free to ignore...

You've not disabled the cursor keys in the introduction (unlike the main game) - might be good to do.
If you press solve then the top left square is coloured before the screen is cleared.
At the end of a horizontal movement the piece flashes black (looks like a re-plot of the piece) - This doesn't happen after the vertical movement.
It might be good to speed up the between level "clear" routine (use small triangles instead of lines?). Given the game then needs to load the next set of levels this seems to be dead time. And/or it might look/feel better to load the next level before you clear the screen on the current level.
I'm undecided as to whether it would help if the cursor "flashed" whilst idle. Might help when there are a lot of blocks on the screen.

[Iggypop]

Release candidate 3, final ??

changed the in between level animation...
drawing triangles rather than lines was actually slower so i changed to a simpeler "animation"
shuffled some code in animating a move to the left or richt.. but you still see some "flickering".. it's not
synchronised to the vertical sync.. simple draw, wipe, draw. wipe.
loads a level before you see the animation
disabled cursor keys in the intro..

[Iggypop]

Relaese candidate 4

added some "vector" graphics effect to the intro

[Iggypop]

update

I managed to setup visual studio code with beebem en beebasm.. I published the source code to my game on github https://github.com/IgorWoll/Vexed..
It's not easy to migrate all files to VS.. I think i will stick to my master128 for the development of this game.
For future games / programs i'll use VS.