Commander X16

Here are the sorts of programs I worked on (a long time ago) and would want to write for the X16.

I like to balance "strategy" and "twitch".  Twitch games should have some strategy.  Strategy games should have some sensorimotor bits.

 

1. A basic "lunar lander" game using sprites.

2. A high-level exploration+strategy game, where you travel around a persistent world map, establishing (and eventually losing) tiny empires.  The goal is to do the best you can with what you're given, rather than "conquer the world".

3. A multi-player "arena" fighting game with simplistic 2D graphics but interesting terrain and options. 

4. A space trader game.

5. A monster-slayer game.

6. An aerial "creatures" fighting game between critters with different abilities.

6a. An aerial "creatures" survival game.

6b. A "gas giant creature" vertical scrolling game.

7. Catacomb-like exploration and survival ("Moria").

 

I would say number two and six. It’s all about games in assembly language for me. And arcade games should be smooth scrolling. [emoji4]

Just looking at my /git folder, I see these projects started.

x16-bankmaster - a banked-data hex editor

x16-cluster - a "multitasking" (green) script "cluster" framework proof-of-concept.

x16-help - a banked "help menu" program for BASIC commands.

x16-lox - a (failed) attempt to implement a Lox interpreter with cc65 for the X16.  (https://craftinginterpreters.com/the-lox-language.html)

x16-sheep - my biochem/AI simulation game.

x16-trader - my Traveller Space Trader game.

x16-vm1 - my VM proof-of-concept with ideas stolen from http://c-jump.com/CIS77/CPU/IsaDesign/lecture.html

And these are actually done:

x16-banner - my "PETSCII large font" printer

x16-furball-space-program - currently just a Lunar Lander, but with delusions of grandeur.

x16-hex - assembly that converts one digit to hexadecimal (with thanks to Woz).

x16-memorymap - a program that calculates and spits out a simple memory map.

x16-panel - a program that manages drawn PETSCII "panels" on the screen.

x16-rogue-forest - my rogue-lite that uses VERA layers for Fog of War effects.



A couple of these might form a syzygy, such as building the script language on the VM as a kind of p-code.

Wow, I have just been working on my one game, that is all. Now it feels like I have to make another. One reason is that I can use my first as a template. Much of the code can be reused. I am just hoping that there really will be a real computer relatively soon. Games that take advantage of VERA’s capabilities and the relatively high CPU frequency can not easily be ported to another 8-bit system.

Don't feel that you need to change the way you work/play.  That's comparing... and it doesn't work that way.

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  I jump from project to project.
  


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  I don't finish half (or more) of what I start.
  


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  I write mostly in BASIC, for now.
  


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  I've shied away from sound and sprites, so far.
  

Code reuse is super valuable.  But, so is doing something well.

Much of my BASIC is not very reusable, mainly because BASIC isn't very reusable. 

 

 

Quote

 a cross between Dwarven Fortress and Seven Cities of Gold.

This is the game I keep thinking about.  Think 7 Cities, but where you inhabit a region, and thrive while you can, as best you can.  Remember Dwarven Fortress, or even Hammurabi.

You interact with your neighbors.   Nature helps and harms (think random events in MULE).  And if you don’t like where you are, you pick up and move... rebuild elsewhere, leaving behind ruins which slowly decay.  In fact, this is the way I see the game working: you develop an area, then a confluence of events drive you to leave some or all of it behind.  Civil wars, defections, famines, drought, floods, freezes... 

I want to set it up so that it’s easy to bootstrap your culture, but also not difficult to lose it... without completely frustrating players.  I think that means I’m aiming for Exploration, networking, conquest, where it’s easy to get something started, but where Empire is impossible to hold together.

 It predates the Age of Sail.  It might max out at the Bronze Age. 

It’s not about micromanagement.  In fact I’d like the citizens to build the cities themselves.  So cities are resources, not fortresses or factories.  I think this means that units are FAR less differentiated than in Empire games.

So it’s not 7 Cities, and it’s not Anno 1602, SimCity, Civilization, or Age of Empires.  I don’t know what it is, but I’ve wanted it for a long time.

 

I think the way I approach it is to start with 7 Cities and change it.

* instead of one unit type (warrior), there are four types.

* instead of one building representing an entire settlement and its nature (fort, mission, complex city, city, nomadic camp etc), there could be multiple buildings which could together help define that settlement in a more granular fashion.  I think.

* instead of arriving from across the ocean, your people have always been here.

* Your supply lines extend from your settlement, rather than your transoceanic ships.

* your technology has to be nurtured and developed, rather than being given by fiat.

 

On 11/9/2020 at 5:33 PM, rje said:

Code reuse is super valuable.  But, so is doing something well.

Spoken like an old COBOL coder.

I wish someone would do something like Elite. ?

On 12/27/2020 at 1:29 AM, rje said:

* your technology has to be nurtured and developed, rather than being given by fiat.

If you engage in trade, your economy grows faster and technology develops faster, but you are also more prone to epidemics.

@Falken you can play the text only version of the travel-and-trade mechanic from Elite: 


 

It's fun for a while if you set a goal for yourself I guess, but gets old quick.

Maybe I should at least add a graphical star-map to it....