Spurred on by comments in this thread (see below), I've released a new version of musical Elite that implements some of the most popular suggestions and squashes a few bugs.
Download links can be found in the
first post in this thread. Instructions on the new features can be found on the download page.
The BBC Master 128 and BBC Master Compact versions both have these new features:
- The game's volume setting now controls the music as well as the sound effects (pause the game with COPY and use < and > to change the volume)
- Sound effects are now disabled while music is playing (as otherwise they corrupt the music)
- The starting volume honours the Quiet/Loud configuration option, with the game starting at half volume when the *CONFIGURE state is set to Quiet
- I've fixed the random noise that was playing on real hardware when accessing the disc
- I've fixed a bug where filing system errors (like "file not found") would crash the game
The BBC Micro and 6502 Second Processor versions have these new features:
- I've backported the BBC Master's volume controls to the Beeb version, so you can pause the game with COPY and then use < and > to change the volume of the music and the sound effects
- Sound effects are now disabled while music is playing (as otherwise they corrupt the music)
The BBC Micro volume control is a game-changer for those of us who have to stuff a sock into the loudspeaker grille when playing Elite in the wee hours!
I have tested these on real hardware (now that I finally have a real BBC Master) and on both MOS 3.20 and 3.50 on the Master, but if you do find any bugs, please let me know.
I hope you like it!
To answer specific points raised in this thread:
kieranhj wrote: ↑Thu Mar 09, 2023 3:16 pm
If you're interested, I have some
volume code in
Prince of Persia you might be able to reuse...
EDIT: I say 'I' but actually the code was all written by simondotm.
Thanks Kieran - that did the job nicely! I had to write my own hacks for the sound effects, but without your volume code I wouldn't even have tried...
tricky wrote: ↑Tue Dec 12, 2023 11:13 am
Master should have a quiet mode in *CONFIGURE, but I don't know if elite respects it, I don't!
Thanks tricky, I wouldn't have thought about Quiet mode without you mentioning it, but the title music for Elite is so loud on full volume that I just had to add support for a quieter start. Thanks for the suggestion.
bob147 wrote: ↑Mon Dec 11, 2023 6:55 pm
The only thing I noticed was that loading a commander (in this case the Max cheat commander included on the disk) triggered the music after putting in the drive number. The commander still loads and the game still works, so it's not a big deal.
Fixed! Thanks for reporting this, it was down to me storing the music variables in the zero page block that gets swapped out during disc operations, so when the disc filing system wrote to those same locations, it could randomly trigger the music routines. All fixed now, I hope!
Yrrah2 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 15, 2023 2:25 pm
Strange, my master doesn't give that chord.
Using a ram FS from retroclinic.
I assume that RAM FS doesn't write to the same locations in zero page as DFS, so it didn't trigger the music? Hopefully RAM FS still works fine.
Yrrah2 wrote: ↑Mon Dec 25, 2023 12:37 pm
Would it be possible not only to combine the music and flicker free Elite, but also add Elite A into the game?
I've now started work on combining the music and flicker-free mods into the BBC Master version. I'll open a new thread when I have something to show...
Mark