LaserZone

[fizgog]

New release build of LaserZone

I've taken the best bits from the VIC20, C64 and Dragon32 versions and hopefully improved upon for the BBC Micro and Master

Controls
Z and X for left and right, * and / for up and down and Return to fire missiles and SPACE to fire electro bomb

Pressing Escape will exit current playing game and then Escape again will exit the game

T - Training mode (to get used to diagonal firing)
1/2 for 1 or 2 players

P to toggle pause on or off
S to toggle Sound on or off

*Update 1.1 to fix clean break on loader
*Update 1.2 small fix to loader - fixed uppercase letter and stopped flashing SPACEBAR (no changes to actual game)

LaserZone.ssd

(21.75 KiB) Downloaded 29 times

[Rob_hawk]

It’s awesome Shaun and as you know I think it’s the best version of the lot so well done for getting this excellent Jeff Minter game to the BBC!

[SteveF]

This is a really nice piece of work! I've only had a very quick go so far, the alternating fire takes a bit of getting used to! And the start of turn "pulsing alarm" sound is just perfect, it makes me smíle for no obvious reason, it's just so, err, "gamey".

What's going on when the vertical axis ship turns to point 45 degree downwards instead of straight across the screen? (This is obviously deliberate, given there's a sprite for it and everything, but I don't yet understand why it happens.) Edit: I see you mention diagonal firing in the bit about the training mode above. It's still not obvious to me how diagonal firing is engaged, I seem to trigger it unintentionally sometimes and can't at other times.

If you don't mind some really nitpicky comments:

• Should the first page of the instructions say "are the Devilish" not "are The devilish"? (I appreciate this may be a literal copy of something in the original(s).)
• I find the flashing "Press SPACE BAR to continue" in the instructions a tiny bit distracting; not a big deal, but I'd prefer it not to flash.
• If you press BREAK while the loading screen is displayed, some junk appears at the BASIC prompt - it would be nice if it didn't.

[fizgog]

If you don't mind some really nitpicky comments:

• Should the first page of the instructions say "are the Devilish" not "are The devilish"? (I appreciate this may be a literal copy of something in the original(s).)
• I find the flashing "Press SPACE BAR to continue" in the instructions a tiny bit distracting; not a big deal, but I'd prefer it not to flash.
• If you press BREAK while the loading screen is displayed, some junk appears at the BASIC prompt - it would be nice if it didn't.

Thanks

I found the instructions on an old Dragon 32 cassette sleeve, don't think VIC20 or C64 had anything much. I might of copied them across wrong but will double check and fix.

Pressing BREAK on the loading screen and getting corruption might be caused by me using a 6 colour mode 1 screen, but will investigate to try and fix it.

Tips on diagonal firing - blame Llamasoft if you still struggle with it, after this

Best to use the Test Mode to get the hang of them (I still find it weird)

Basically you have to
1. Hold fire button, right and up which then tilts the bottom gun to fire diagonal right up
2. Hold fire button, left and down which then tilts the right gun to fire diagonal down and left

Diagonal firing is required to kill the aliens attached to the rails

[fizgog]

Managed to find Dragon32 instructions, also explains about diagonal firing

[fizgog]

Just pushed out a change to the first post to fix clean BREAK on loading screen

[SteveF]

Thanks Shaun! Looks like that text on the loading screen should be "the devilish Warfiends" with neither of the first two words capitalised, based on the Dragon 32 instructions.

This clears up the diagonal fire mystery quite a bit, but I can't (bearing in mind a) I'm hardly dextrous b) am playing on an emulator) seem to get the behaviour where I can move the non-diagonal cannon while the fire button is held down. I haven't spent ages trying this though.

Edit: FWIW (and this is clearly right, given the Dragon instructions) I think I was accidentally invoking diagonal fire because I was trying to play by a) holding down fire b) moving both cannons around "simultaneously", so sometimes I'd just happen to hit the diagonal fire conditions. I suspect this isn't a good play strategy anyway, since you can fire more rapidly by hammering Return than by just holding it down.

Just in case it matters (e.g. for the BREAK junk I reported), I am running the game on an emulated B+. Edit: I see you've fixed this now, let me download that... Yes, works a treat, thanks!

[fizgog]

I've made a small cosmetic change to the loader, fixing uppercase letter and stopped flashing SPACEBAR

There is no change to the actual game

See first post for new ssd

No more changes are planned and it's considered finished.

[SteveF]

Brilliant, thanks!