I have done almost 2 decades of work on some of these games (I know pretty lame), but it is mostly on and off. Mostly off really. Any way I have a renewed interest and have started yet again to complete a project. As far as I know most of this stuff has sat dormant for at least 4 years, some closer to 8...

2012 and earlier
Current

2013
I have just finished Exploria and shortly before that Parapet. I felt the Vlog document was getting too long (about 3 years of baloney), so you can read about the old stuff here or continue with my new continued ramblings below. At any rate I decided I should continue to document my progress ...
 
 

10 Jan 2013

I have just finished Exploria and shortly before that Parapet. It turns out that I have one long night ahead of me before my holidays and I would like to see if I can complete a simple project, as it would help to keep me awake. I think that is unlikely but we'll see. I will start with the next ten list and see if anything piques my interest. Except Boogieman, that is a project that will take alot of time. Oh and so would Dynasty. So would Realm of Evil. Oh yeah and Sol: Survivor would too. I will see if there is anything left. There are 2 possibilities, Bush Pilot or Utaq. Niether is really striking a chord with me. Maybe I will just end up looking through the titles all night.

I played around with Utaq for a while then I worked on some covers, then I loaded up Adez and All the Kings Gold and started to change it into the Keys of Dengar when it sorta crashed. It wouldn't let me save to any disk. I saved a snapshot, but I think that is the end of whatever that was. Yeah I kinda knew I wouldn't do anything tonight. Oh well maybe I'll pick something up when I get back from holidays. Ha Ha Ha.
 

11 Jan 2013

I find myself clinging to my vic programming in the final hours before I leave. Not sure why. So I have been puttering around with Adez & All the Kings Gold. Which now reads Adez and the Keys of Dengar. I've added about 15 more graphics, some old tried and true, and 5 new ones to represent Skaak the octopus. Boom-boom will also be appearing in the castles. Plus some skeletons and ghosts and stuff. There are also swamps and one cave, plus a whole bunch of keys. I should randomize the places they appear (at least for the first ones) to make the game playable later. Hmm. I almost feel like I am on a roll, but I will be gone in less than 6 hours. Maybe when I return, I may pick it up to finish (it wouldn't take too long, mostly basic with a few ML routines for the enemy movemnt), or I may not. At any rate I think I am done, so adieu until I return.
 

20 Jan 2013

I don't think I am actually going to do anything today but I am looking at stuff and thought I would record a blurb about the current list of games, which is from 1 to 128, with only a few that I have already decided I won't pursue (like #108 a pinball game that has been done to death and probably better than I could do anyway). When I first started this list, I was about 13, and had ideas that (I had no idea) exceded all limitations of the Vic. About game 19 (I actually had a working version of Adez I in 1986) I started to be alot more realistic in what could be done. Although there were games that were easily possible before this it was only by chance. Plus I did cut out many ideas, for example Bopper had 2 other screens planned, one where you chased the gophers around or something, obviously beyond my skill to impliment at that time (1984). As my skill grew, and I completed my first ML game in 1993, all new ideas were trying to push the bounderies of my skill and perhaps of the computer itself. When I found you could "chain" programs as long as there was tape, I created Cauldron, which is simply 56 or so programs that load one another as one is completed. In the disk version there is an option that allows you to load the levels randomly. Now using a Disk drive I started to really dream big, as I knew I could swap out chunks of memory as I needed them, creating new maps, graphics, even ML routines to be simply loaded as one needed them (just as early Windows machines were doing, and still do). So many of the game ideas from about there (66 or so) would need this technique to allow the large universes that I wished to create. The pinnicle of this would be games 124 and 128, Distractions and Distractions 2. Both would be a disk based, graphic menu driven system that would load about 20 games, 10 bits of art, 10 songs, Text documents, and about 15 Distractions (screen savers with some being interactive), probably totalling near or over 100 programs on a disk. Obviously this kind of thing could NOT be done with cassette. (Like many of the game ideas both disks are in a semi-completed state. #124 being at the approximate 75% mark). But recently I have decided to "pull back", seeing as we are working with a "classic" system, most people NEVER bought the disk drive as it usually cost more than the computer. Thusly I decided (AND I CAN!) that all games must work (at least in a limited version) on cassette. So (I know you don't and won't see the whole list until I am done) there may be a few casualties. It will mostly be a scaling back of some ideas, but that has happened in almost every grand game, right up to the latest, Exploria, gone from 512 rooms to 256 rooms. So both Distractions cassettes will have one side of "distractions" and one side of games. It will be a cut down version, but it will still include a pile of interesting games. I will have to change the opening screen a bit, but overall, I am just going to include the games that are finished and a few more. The disk version will only differ in that you can return to the opening screen and choose a new game. (This is the similar design I will follow for most stuff now. For example there is a secret to load any map (1,2,3 or 4) from the opening screen (not available on cassette) of Exploria. Some other games I just increased the memory allotment. Dynasty 2 would allow you to control several solar systems and again I may have to decrease the scope, but I have also upped the memory requirement from 8K to 16K. I do have a symbol for 24K, but because commodore never created an actual 24K cartridge, I am hesitant to use it. Like these examples I should be able to create games for all the ideas on my list. The only REAL loser may be Galaxy. It was to be a Graphic Adventure. It would load the pictures as needed, similar in game play to Myst, but with a much different story to explore. Without being able to randomly load the pictures I don't think this game is possible. I mean I could try to cram one section with as many pictures as I can stick in memory, but that leaves alot less room for the actual game engine. Plus after working on the mundane parts of games like the maps and the title screens, I honestly don't relish the idea of creating hundreds of pictures. Galaxy will stay as # 82 for now, but I may have it play in a different manner. That is of course if I get to it. All these games take a huge amount of time to program, especially now that I have sort of raised the bar, and will NEVER release another game like Etheopia. I definately I still feel that is my biggest failure. But I DO want to make good and fun games, it's just now, I almost HAVE to include SOME ML and that takes alot of time. But even the basic stuff is still time consuming. Parapet took 10 days of hard programming. I think the days of making games like Planetoid and Quiggly are long gone (both took 2 days). There are 2 games that I would like to make that are unexplanded, but require a large universe. I guess both of them Adez's World #127 and Andromeda #109 will have to be chained progrmas. But ultimately there are 2 games (and one sequel) that will require a skill that I haven't aquired yet. I need to learn how to create sprites in ML and then division with a remainder in ML. The only way is to keep at it and start with smaller projects. So when I start to nibble away at the next ten list (which has 13 games in it Exploria was # 14) I will add something that moves the main character by pixels instead of blocks.(( I will quickly interject about the next 10 list. At some point I realized I was just jumping around from game to game and not getting anything finished, so I created the next 10 list, which was supposed to put priority on the games on the list. This worked for the most part and NM156, Betelguese, and Kerratias were crossed off the list. I was still working with real vics at this time and knew I had a limited amount of switching in the 3K cartridge, so I quickkly tacked all the 3K games onto the end. Which included Utaq, Axts and Exploria, because Tau Ceti was already at #9 on the list. For some reason I no longer remember I also included Cygnis. Which is why the next 10 list is actually (now) 13 games. Now that I have switched to writing on the Xvic, none of that matters and I may add a few more 3K games (or switch current games) to 3K expansion. )) When I am ambitious I will start to see what is done and what needs to be done for Boogieman or Utaq or Dynasty or maybe even Adez and the Keys of Dengar. But not today.

Working on Boogieman
 

21 Jan 2013

I almost did something today. I kinda looked through the files for Boogieman, I have a very vauge idea of what needs to be done. I tried to load screen 2 but that and another program named csrc are no longer loadable. Luckily the ML program (Boo.21) and a small basic program to jump to the ML subs are both working. I wrote out some generic ML subs that I know I will need, like stop all sounds, a delay, and a sound effect. but I didn't type them in. I guess I have to figure out if the so called "speed up" mentioned in the notes is still needed. If it is there is quite abit of ML to go. If it isn't needed (which is what I suspect) then I don't think there is alot to do. The most difficult will be a good "smart move" routine. Then basically the Boogie detectors will use the other enemy main with a few changes. Add some sound effects, a main routine, 3 more screens and done. But I have to know about the speed up thing, if it's needed it will ruin everything.
 

22 Jan 2013

After work there were many thing I had to do so I didn't get to my Vic stuff till quite late. I kinda felt I should really check and see what I am working with. So there is this cool handy little program called "Looker" on this disk that pokes the value of the next 255 memory locations on the screen and as you cursor through them it displys the memory location and the value. I think I will have to expand this far later use. The only other command is 'N' for New memory location. You input it, and it starts again. Anyway I thought I should reverse engineer some of the ML to see what the heck is going on. I don't think I have to do much with the Player or Grandpa routines, so for now I will leave them be. I did want to see the "Print Screen" routine and the "Set Run Flag" routine. So it turns out the Print Screen was the way it was written out, it was just on 2 different pages. The Set Run Flag was also the same as the written ML, and it unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) it wouldn't work, so I can reclaim 6680-6672. I am surprized at how unorganized the ML is but I guess I was still fretty fresh when I wote this. My BASIC was always written like I suffered from ADD, so I guess my old ML wouldn't be much better. So the point of all this seems to be that I think I know where I stand, and how to continue. This seems to be what I have to work with except the Set Run Flag which will be recycled now.

5632 – 5736 Print Screen
5737 – 5751 Color Screen
5888 – 5951 Screen 1
5952 – 6015 Screen 2
6016 – 6079 Screen 3
6080 – 6143 Screen 4
6144 – 6191 LRUD
6192 – 6222 Dir Sort
6223 – 6229 Erase
6230 – 6269 Print
6270 – 6363 RND Dir
6400 – 6438 Start
6680 – 6772 Set Run Flag
6773 – 6802 Eval
6805 – 6815 Can’t Go There
6816 – 6846 Keep on Screen
6847 – 6963 Grandpa Main
6987 – 7061 JSTK
7062 – 7102 PLR Main
7168 – 7679 Graphics and Var

I had kinda hoped I would take a run at this tonight. I typed in a delay and a sound and to be honest I think I am almost empty. I guess I should start to think about the smart move routine and how I plan to do it. Really though I have an idea it would be similar to my old Smart Move routine, I should probably take a look at that. See if I can make any improvements. Yeah I'm done.
 

25 Jan 2013

After so many days absence I had kinda hoped I would attempt something today. But I have a terrible headache and I'm not sure if I want to jump into this. It looks like I lost screen 2. I had used the save@0: and now I pay the price. Screen 2 was a separate program with a bunch of prints to create tha maze and some ML. At one point I had wanted to load the screens from disk, so that's probably what that did, was a ML save. I have also lost a program called CRSR, I don't even remember what this program did. I guess at this point I am sort of half in and half out on this project, because like all projects they take a huge block of time. I kinda have to get back to some RL things, but I like it here in Vicland. Maybe some fresh air will do me good, and I will decide where I want to start. With the screens, a routine to take out dead enemies, or a smart move routine. Oh and make sure the stuff I've been punching in is still working. Checked and fixed the sound effects and added a quick fix to the Grandpa routine, so now they die when you touch them. I set up some stuff to trigger the end of level, and update the score. I guess I will have to dig out the old smart move routine and see if i can improve on it. So I guess I'm in. Lazy Me!! I just used the old Smart move routine as is, and cobbled together a new routine for the Detectors. The Smart Move doesn't work too well in a maze, and just for reference this routine was the same one used for Kerratias written in 1994. I thought it might go back to Korque, but that one is slightly different. Anyway so most of that stuff is written and working. Hmmm, my mistake the Dead fix for the Grandpa thing isn't killing off the right Grandpa. I think the index must be off or something. I hope this won't take too much to fix (again). Well that just made things worse. I thought if I just made a branch a little shorter it would update the index properly. I suppose it does but something wonky happens and there is a constant companion for the boogieman, and sometimes they come back. Not sure what's going on, I may have to take break. Even if this is all I do today, I think I accomplished alot.
 

26 Jan 2013

I spent most of the day de-bugging the grandpa routine. After thoroughly mangling the original code with about 3 patches, and nearly 5 hours later, the code finally works, and I have the basic format for the game. The Player, the Grandpa, and the Boogie Detector routines are all in place and I think they work. Now it will just be a case of making a main loop, a start, a next level(s), and a finish. Easy right? I quickly made a title page for the game which also initializes a few general variables. I will have to make a routine to set up the 4 screens, the 3 screens, a main routine, a dead routine, and a game over routine. Still a fair amount of work to do, but mostly straight ahead stuff. Well with the last of my energy I typed in the save crunched screen and made a new screen 2. Looks pretty good, but I am out of steam, till tomorrow.
 

27 Jan 2013

Today I started coding the bits I need to start the game. I typed them in but haven't tested them yet, because I started thinking. Screen 1 variables takes up almost 100 bytes, maybe I should see if I can make it compatable with the other screens too. So I did a bit of testing and screen 2 wasn't really working very well, so I adjusted it several times till everyone started moving around better. I now realize that using the variables for screen 1 won't work, that's OK I guess I still have lots of space, but I found a REAL flaw. The smart move never worked very well in a maze, and the stupid detectors just sit there until you are in range. This is no good, and I'm not sure how I want to fix it. If I could, I would like to make a smaller smart move to see if the player is in range, and if he isn't just go to the random movement. I'm not sure how difficult this will be to implement. This is what I mean, I could just leave it and say "oh well", but I can't and this will probably take a few days to straighten out. So Instead of finishing in a few more days, it will be another week at least. OK so I bit the bullet and made a new Smart Move routine, but it looks like something isn't working with the BD main for some reason. What a Mess!! So I'm still a bit perplexed about what is happening in BD main, I made a huge fix, but it's still not right. Smart Move seems to work until it comes to an outside border. That doesn't make any sence. Yeah something is definately wrong with the smart move, because I can get the rnd direction move to work fine forever. Perhaps a fresh perspective will help. I'll try again tomorrow.
 

28 Jan 2013

The focus of today will be trying to get BD's smart move to work properly. If I can get that to work everything else should be fairly simple. Hmmm. So I think I found out what is happening. The smart routine is "seeing" character 0, which is the player, outside of the maze. Eg. the number of lives left is trapping a BD in the top right corner. Also #1 BD has never moved because it sees one just off the screen which is a varaible, and just happens to be a zero. It tries to move up but is on the edge of the maze. So there are 2 possible solutions. 1 I could change the Smart move routine (I could either limit where the BD "looks" from 7722 to 8185 (this would be byte consuming) or rather than look for character 0 (which is what it is doing now) I could make it check against where the player is (memory locations 7678 & 7679) OR 2. I could add a counter that Increments when it is stuck and make it go back to random movement. I think the second solution will be a bit shorter and will also fix them from getting stuck which they occasionally did. YES! it works! So I literally shredded both the grandpa and the boogie detector routines with patches, but everything seems to work now. A bit more testing is in order. Well that was fun. I set up the title to jump to the screen 1 routine, so everything (hopefully) is ready to go for the Main loop. Well that was fairly easy. I had the little Basic thingy to steal from though. I should add something so the delay will be less at higher levels, but I am very near the end. I now need my delay fix, dead, game over, level up and screen 3 and screen 4. I would like to attempt a bit more but I think I am too tired to continue.
 

29 Jan 2013

I'm not sure what happened to the time, but I sure didn't have much today. I fixed the delay at the end of the main loop, and there was something wrong with the score. So I hunted that down a fixed it as well. I then coded a dead routine, and I hope I can type this in tonight. Typed it in, and also added the Game Over routine. There was one strange thing that happened. One of the Grandpas appeared above teh maze and really screwed things up. It hasn't happened again yet, but I'm sure something isn't being reset after the Game Over. I will have to test some more. So down to screen 3 and 4 the variables for screen 2 (and 3 and 4) and the Finished level part. And I think I will be finished! I tried to put in the code for the Level Up routine but it was 5 bytes to long and overwrote the Print screen routine. I guess this is where I stop for tonight.
 

30 Jan 2013

Only because it was bugging the piss out of me, I started searching for the ONE variable that was not being reset. After a ridiculous search I found it. The variable for the LSB for grandpa 1 was being loaded into a wrong location. I didn't notice anything because where it was being stored was quickly written over, and I guess what ever number was in there to start would work 90% of the time! WOW! So I found a place for the Level Up code and quickly pieced together the variables for screen 2. HOLY CRAP it is HARD! But there must be another variable that is not being reset. I am not sure I want to hunt it down right now. But really all I have left to do is Screen 3 and 4, the variables will be a bit easier (especially when I hunt down my mistake). I think I found it, but more testing is nessessary. If I am right it was the same mistake as before. DOH. Hmmm there is something funny going on but I can't put my finger on it. I quickly did up screen 3, but again needs more testing. Level 2 is very hard.
 

3 Feb 2013

I was away for the weekend, and I wasn't going to dig into this because I am tired, but ... I opened the cassette cover and decided to finish it, then I thought I would just see if I could quickly find out what was happening by playing a bit. Have some fun and figure out what's going on. After playing for about 20 seconds I realized the only way to solve the problem is to go through the code. Because I was lazy I didn't really code this I just "borrowed" some of screen 1's variables and added the 8 new ones and changed 2. It took about an hour to translate exactly what was there, and then I printed out my handy page that said what variables were at what locations. I crossed them off the list as they were assigned, and the second last number was already crossed off! So I found my problem and should be able to move on for level 3 and 4 when I have time. I did test the maze for level 3 it seems fine, I just have to add more enemies. I just played the game awhile, so far I can't seem to beat level 2. At least not yet.
 

4 Feb 2013

I really wasn't going to do much today. I was tired and just didn't feel like it. But I think I finished it. I made a few changes to screen 3. Added 2 more Grandpas and 1 Boogie Detector. Then I thought I would start screen 4. I ended up doing that and the variables for that screen as well. So really, the game is done! I should do more testing for screen 4, just to make sure it is the way I want it. But even if I make some minor changes to screen 4 I think I can call this one finished! It's so wierd, it always seems anti-climatic. I still have lots to do though, make a disk and a tape version. I think I will save that stuff for tomorrow. OK I updated most of teh web pages to relect my newest creation. I still have a few things to update though. The greatest feeling is crossing off the title with marker in the old book. But it was pretty satisfying reducing the next ten list as well. Oh I am tired, goodnight.
 

5 Feb 2013

Well today i was going to do all the boring crap, of making a Disk and a Cassette, but I needed to save a few things first. So I wanted to print out the contents of memory and I had a program somehwere on the Exploria Disk, but I just couldn't find it. So I ended up coding a quick thing to print a formatted version of memory. I thought I would print out Exploria as well, so I did only to find out I had already done that. I then printed out Boogieman. I then saved a program called Looker that was a small program to display the contents of one page of memory at a time. I then started getting rid of all the extra programs of the Boogieman disk because I already had the loaders and a title screen finished long ago. All I would have to do was add the main ML program and the programs Instructions, About and Catalogue. So as I am Scratching programs from the disk I get alot of errors as many of these programs were saved @0: . So I get it down tothe loaders and figure I should just try a quick trial load to make sure everything is still there, and no ... the title screen has been corrupted! I am not sure that I have a back up of this. I will have to look. So disappointing. I guess I could still update the multitude of web pages I have generated, we'll see. I don't feel like doing much now. I checked my laptop and sure enough I had an older version of the disk, but it was corrupted too. I think the best idea would be to go back to the source, which is the original physical disk. But I would have to find then drag my 1541 drive into the house, hoook it up to the OLD computer downstairs, try and find the right software, and pray the original disk isn't corrupted as well. I do have the drawing for the title page I guess I could make a new loader program. I guess that would be the best thing to do. I guess. Well that was quite the ordeal. I managed to get a portion of the loader to load. So I printed it out and then listed as many lines as I could typed new and re-entered what was on the screen. I did have to re-type most of the data statement but at least I had the print out for most of that. There were 4 lines that I had to generate from my drawing I located of the title screen. The I changed a couple of things and the loader was working again. I saved it and just started another disk. It took a bit but the main progrmas are on there. They just need the About Instructions and Catalogue programs. With any luck I should be able to complete this tomorrow.
 

6 Feb 2013

I finished the Instructions, About, and Catalogue programs and quickly finished the disk. The cassette is always a little more difficult. I couldn't seem to get the Instructions program to load and I actually gave up on it. It's not like me to let something go so easily, but it is loading a bunch of garbage for a file name then when I load it separately it's fine. That sounds like something I don't even want to bother figuring out. The Instructions are on the back of the cassette o card anyway. So I guess I am done. I should update the webpages now. I guess there wasn't a whole lot to update. So I am looking at the next ten list and at first I was wondering what I was thinking, the next 3 games are quite long and will be fairly hard to complete. But now I remember. I knew the completed list had only 2 8K games in it, and both were Vycryle. So I wanted to add a few other 8K games to the completed list, and these were the games that had my interest at the time. Dynasty will be tough to finish. I think the most difficult part is ahead. Making the computer move and automated player moves. Setting up the terrain and the screen is already finished, although I wonder if I might be able to do it better now. In a certain way Dynasty is just slightly behind where I had to start with boogieman, it's just that what I have yet to do is much more complex, and simply longer. Realm of Evil is a simpler game but with a scope that probably outstrips the bounderies of the Vic. I guess we'll see. I think the only thing that is done is to print a portion of the map on the screen. Sol:Survivor has very little done. I sort of would like to do Adez and the keys of Dengar, because it would be relatively easy, but again we'll see. For some reason if I continue working on games in the next while I think I would like to concentrate on Utaq or Bush Pilot. Because they should be easier to finish (maybe). The only problem with that of course is that just leaves more hard games to finish. We'll see where I stand in a few days.
 

7 Feb 2013

Going to enjoy my break, but I think I should make up a Boogieman poster and probably an Exploria poster. They are both programs that deserve some recogition. Especially if Blondie does. Exploria is my first 3K all ML game, and Boogieman is the first game idea I came up with. I'm sure I was around 13 when I had the idea (I didn't even have acomputer yet!). Well actually that wasn't much fun. Maybe I should just play Boogieman for a while. I transferred the 2 utaq programs from one of the work disks to it's own disk, and went through the multitude of notes to dig out the 1 page of notes that I have for the game. Again I am not really sure if I will pursue this or not, but if I do I guess everything is in place. I want to print out the cassette O card for Boogieman, but I think my printer is low on ink. I guess I should try anyway. I maybe tomorrow or saturday.
 

9 Feb 2013

Look at me, just pissing around. Yeah just been looking at stuff for the last couple of days. I finally printed out the Boogieman cover. Just for kicks I was checking prices on C-0's. There is a bright red case I have my eye on but it looks like it is only available as a c-10 or a c-20. I would prefer a C-12 or C-14 or even a c-15. Anyway there is no real point to going any further for this. Looking is fun though. I even found some vinyl booklets that I could use for Vycryle 2. Or plastic houses that adhear to whatever so I could possible make my own books (although I would have to use thiker card stock). If I had extra money I think I would get a few of the red cassettes just so I would have some. Anyway after taking pictures of the Boogieman O card I thought I should take a picture of all of the O cards, then I thought I should take pictures of all the covers that are done. And because I am a huge nerd I turned it into an ad. Something the one might have seen gracing the insides of COMPUTE's Gazzette. Ah the good ol' days! I will point out (I'm sure you noticed) that very few of the finished games have a physical copy in the picture. Yes I actually only have the physical copies of 12 games. That is a far cry from the 29 games finished, so I will explain. Again going back to the 90's I actually have Disk versions of all the games up to Quiggly, so really just the 3 I have completed in the last few months are the only hold outs. At that time I didn't think it was troo important to have cassette versions of any of these games. I mean DISKS were the way of the FUTURE! So only recently have I felt I should go back and make these available on Cassette. In fact MOST should be available ONLY on cassette, but I only have DISK verions. I am slowly (as you may have read) transferring them to cassette. The one that I have stopped at (for the time being) is Vycryle 2. Just because I will have to change alot of things to make it work for cassette. I will (I hope) eventually finish it. ALSO I have onlt recently been able to create a cassette autoloader, and lastly I have decided that all the regular 0K games will slip into an O card and most of these covers will have to be converted from the old regular covers. Again I hope that eventually I will have everything available the way it should be. As it stands even some games do not have an Xvic Cassette version. Like I say I hope to rectify this. Right now there are only a few cassette versions, mosly the lower numbered games, and the brand new ones. Boogieman, Bopper, Blondie, Betelguese (like the alliteration! just a coincidence), Tyrant I, Adez and all the Kings Gold, Vycryle, Korque, Parapet, Kerratias, and Exploria. Which ones have final Cassette covers? Mostly the same, but missing Kerratias. So why are Gem Warrior and Cauldron in the picture? Well those covers won't change much, basically a few things on the spine. Someday I would hope to have completed the circle and have actual physical working copies of the games, maybe on red cassettes. Seeing that I don't think I am likely to work on anything, I may try to get out some more covers. I May possibly transfer one or two to .tap and then .wav. Many of these will be easy a simple changing the load"xxx",8 to load"xxx",1. and dropping the programs on in order. Obviously there will be exceptions Vycryle 2 will be a pain in the ass, NM 156 will probably be difficult and Cauldron will be long (over 55 separate programs! OY VEY!). After talking about all the games that are done, I should drop a list of what I HAVE done. So It will be name, number, memory expansion, tape version yes or no. OK
The List so far

Adez & all the Kings Gold 38 3K yes
Adez & Mr. What 57 0K no
Betelguese 31 3K yes
Blondie 25 0K yes
Boogieman 1 0K yes
Bopper 13 0K yes
Boxa 51 0K no
Cauldron 67 0K no
Etheopia 55 0K no
Exploria 107 3K yes
Gem Warrior 54 3K no
Kerratias 80 0K yes
Kevin's Run 59 0K no
Korque 43 0K yes
Martain Raid 53 0K no
NM 156 56 0K no
Peg Leg John 52 0K no
Parapet 76 0K yes
Planetoid 78 0K no
Speedboat 49 0K no
Springer 50 0K no
Springer 2 60 0K no
Springer 3 73 0K no
Turnabout 58 0K no
Tyrant I 33 0K yes
Vycryle 40 8K yes
Vycryle 2 45 8K no
Warrior 61 0K no
Quiggly 114 0K no

and there is it. Should be 29 games. If I had mountains of time (or if I spent less time typing this crap) I would probably have alot more finished. Also after pondering I would like to make some alterations to the next 10 list. I would like to add Adez & the Keys of Dengar at number 11. Moving Axts and Cygis back one and at number 14 I would like to add Distractions. I beleive that now that I have downsized that project it is near complete. I just have to get a working version of Space Nation (I hope there is one as the version I have is corrupted!) and finish a few like Adez and the Pirates of Ud, Thought Engine, Cowboys and maybe a few more. Then I simply have to change the title screen for either side. The Distraction side is complete (maybe). Maybe that is where I should put the secrets. Hmmm. Anyway I would guess this is about the 75% mark, so I will tack it onto the list. If I should actually get my ass in gear on the next project, it will be Utaq. And I think the project after that should be Bush Pilot, and then Adez and the Keys of Dengar. This seems like alot of work and it proabably is, but they are mostly BASIC and should be easier thatn trying to tackle Dynasty. I think that one I will leave for next year. I guess ultimately it depends on how ambitious I get, if I keep going with the momentum I have, or if I run out of steam I may get nothing done. So my next 10 list has ballooned to 14 again, but I have high hopes that I can get it down to 10 fairly quickly. I also made 2 small changes to the master list. I changed number 24's name yet again. It originally was a game called Space Quest, but there was no questing just killing so I changed it to Terran Defence, but I actually hated that title. I have finally settled on Panic or Panik. I had long ago removed number 89 and hadn't decided on a suitable replacement, until recently. I will take 2 of the original games Brie 1 & 2 that would have been in this anyway and put it will 1 or 2 other games under the name Dungeons. Brie 1 & 2 will now be graphic adventures though. I also decided I wanted to add another Adez adventure and the next empty slot was 108 which was a stupid pinball game. Like I said it's been done many times before, probably better thatn I could do it, and I simply have no interest in making it anymore. So Now there is Adez and the Dragon of Uth. So now there are only 2 empty slots up to game 128, which is where I will stop or I will never finish this list. EVER! I have a hard time beleiving I will finish it as it is. So I tried to print out covers for quiggly and Kerratias but I am out of ink. At least the art is done. I also made a page for Exploria, because the old master book only has an entry under the old name and I should have a nice page for it. Looks like that's about as ambitious as I am getting today.

Working on Utaq
 

11 Feb 2013

I think this years theme will be 'working hard at nothing'. I had some snow removal to do today and a few other errands, but really I have been putting off delving into this program for several days now. So I printed it out and started a plan, sort of what things do what. Mostly for the controls. I know there will have to be a bit of automation as well, random encounters, ect. I still don't feel too invested in it, but I think I just need to start working on it a bit and I will come around, that is the way it usually happens. It is interesting to note that in ML I tend to start with little subroutines and work my way towards a main loop. In BASIC I start with a main loop and work towards all the little subroutines. I have an idea that I may have to make a few subroutines in ML, as it seems to me that there just won't be near enough memory to do what I want to do. Anyway I accidentally got drunk, so piss off.
 

14 Feb 2013

Been working at my job more than ever, and lots of other things happening. I am just too tired to do anything for the last several days. I hope I can get back into this soon.
 

15 Feb 2013

I need to do some planning, as there isn't a whole lot of direction yet. Generally I have a good enough idea to carry through without too many notes. I can sorta make it up as I go along but this one may differ. Or maybe I am starting to program a bit different. At any rate I don't feel comfortable going much farther with out making some notes and outlines for what should happen. I am also concerned that as usual this game is larger than then memory I have alotted for it. I am just getting a feel for this, and I wrote down a few ideas. I started setting up the plot course in BASIC as this is sort of the foundation of the game. For some reason I feel more intrigued with making new covers (converting the old J cards to O cards). And I did 50,51,52, & 53 or Springer, Boxa, Peg Leg John, & Martain Raid. The next one is Gem Warrior which will stay the same although it needs the instructions for the inside. So 55 (Etheopia), 57 (Adez & Mr What) 58 (Turnabout) 59 (Kevin's Run) 60 (Springer 2) 61 (Warriors) 73 (Springer 3) and 78 (Planetoid) are left. Then someday I will save the WAVs on red cassettes.
 

16 Feb 2013

Before doing the multitude of RL things that need to be done I had hoped to do 1 or 2 covers. I was about to do teh absolutely horrid Etheopia when I thought I should actually finish a couple of others. I fixed teh instructions for Adez and all the Kings Gold and then I was going to fix Gem warrior. I was surprized that I actually had a graphic for the inside jacket, but it was farly minimal so I thought I would add some screen shots. I also needed the Instructions for the inside of the J card. WHile collecting screen shots for the game I found a glaring error!! If you are at the end of a cave and just about to get the gem, if you wait and another warrior comes along he will erase the gem and you cannot finish the cave!! I guess I will have to make a fix for this. So I finished the covers for Gem warrior and Etheopia. And it looks like that is about all I will be able to do. So after a long day I returned to converting covers and now every cover is finished except the instructions for Cauldron. This may be difficult because the instructions are more graphical. Anyway almost done. I hope I don't chnage my stupid mind again, because I have had to change these way too many times. Now I just have to get some ink so I can print them out.
 

17 Feb 2013

Got ink today. Kinda disappointing but I didn't get anything done today. I printed out the covers and started gluing them. Only got 5 done, still abunch to go. Came within a keystroke of ordering red cassettes, but didn't pull the trigger. Maybe another day.
 

18 Feb 2013

Finished all the O cards, and pulled the trigger on the red cassettes. Having a bit of buyers remorse, hopefully that will pass. I may work on getting a few of these games converted to WAVs before the cassettes arrive. Now I just have to source some cassette stickers that I can run through the printer. Because I would have to make 29 new (actually more than that) graphics for the cassette lables all at the same time I was thinking they should be relatively simple. But then that's boring. I guess I have some time to make up my mind. Anyway here's a pic of the new covers, all 21. I will have to print off new versions of the other ones as well and post a pic of the works (all 29 games). 
 

19 Feb 2013

I am apologizing to myself. I'm just not interested or motivated to do anything today. I guess that's OK, I have been fairly productive the last several months. I mean 3 games in about 3 months! The last time I did something like that was 1992. I guess 1998 was close but one game was completed in feb and the other 2 were done in the fall. Also the games I finished in 1992 were not even close to the complexity to the 3 I just finished. I did work on some of the covers. I re-did the cover 89 which I have changed to Dungeons, it will have 3 (or maybe 4) dungeon games on it. And 108 which was the horrible pinball idea and is now Adez and the Dragon of Uth. Took awile to get my hand drawings onto the computer. My scanner doesn't work with windows 7. I could have went downstairs and scanned it on the old computer then transferred it with a USB stick but I thought this would be easier. I was SO wrong. I still have to print out a couple of covers, but I am not in a hurry. I printed out everything except Vycryle, Vycryle2 and Cauldron. Cauldron doesn't have instructions yet, and Vycryle 2 will use alot of paper. Vycryle I printed out cassette one, but not cassette 2. I just remebered I have to make sure Vycryle works, I'm pretty sure there is a problem with it. So I have a couple of fixes, Gem warrior and Vycryle. I have to start making the cassette version of Vycryle 2 as well. With lazy days like these it will take a long time.
 

20 Feb 2013

I did just a tiny little bit, but at least I did something. It will be hard to do much on this as then next several weeks are quite busy. I'm sure I will find time, but it won't be much. Anyway I quickly finished the plot course routine. I should do more but I am tired and thinking not so good. I also added the tiny warp routine, so technically you are able to move. I think the 2 things that I will have to add that might be a bit difficult are the repair and random occurance things. Anyway I think I am done for the time being. If I get really ambitious I might cut out the new J cards.
 

21 Feb 2013

I cut out the old J cards, and printed out all the remaining ones except Cauldron. I finally made the instructions inside it, maybe I will print it out tomorrow, and then all the covers will be done for now. I looked at Utaq, I don't think it will take too much to finish this, I just need some time, and some determination.
 

22 Feb 2013

Today I had some time after destroying my back. So I now added 'change power settings' and I think I am done the 'Dock' bit. I am slowly running out of room, as always, and I hope I can fit all the elements I had wanted. I don't know why it is so hard to get into this, maybe because I know it won't be much of a challenge. Anyway maybe I will work on some more cover stuff for a bit. Like a sucker I went back for more punishment. I tried to finish the 'Attack' routine, but I am down to the last 800 bytes or so. I don't think what's left is complex, but I just wonder if I can do it. I also need to make a rocket graphic. Sorry just a random thought. Hmm I think I may have left thsi game too openended. I don't really see how the game would end, except for just getting bored and shutting it off. Maybe that's not so bad. I have Life support, Maintenance and random occurance to finish. Then some major testing. OK did life support, but I think that is where I will finish for tonight. I have an idea some ML is in my future for this game. Did a little work on the covers but I need to know what level will be the last one on side one of the cassette. I guess that is something I need to get busy on. I doubt that doing Cauldron on cassette would be much fun, but I have to get it done. I have an idea that once I got the disk version that I really had no intention of ever doing a cassette version. Made a cute inside cover for Utaq, used the graphics of the bridge and made little lines indicating the device eg. T-790 Science console with asymetric analytic algarithm. Looks pretty cool, I think if I was still a little kid I would cream my pants over stuff like that. I guess I still do a bit.
 

23 Feb 2013

I was a lazy asshole today, and finished playing with my J cards. I worked on new web pages, I may at some point put them up for public consumption, but I only have a few completed. But I did absolutley no work on Utaq. I just get the feeling that this will be another good idea with a dumb end result. I have many of them at this point. I guess I should put some time into this and try to get it finished. I added about 6 lines and then looked to see how much memory was left. 183 bytes, I guess now is the point where I will look for parts to convert to ML. I printed out the program and this stuff does not translate to ML very well. Lots of printing and string manipulating. I will look it over more tomorrow. I have to finish the fix and quick fix options and the random occurance which I think will be a surprize alien attack and a meteor strike. Oh yeah I would like to make a title page as well if there is room. I am just running through the code and I see a few things I can get rid of. Redundant things and an actual REM! Aside from large DATA chunks I NEVER use them. Yeah this might be tough without making huge chunks ML, just because it will be hard to share variables between the two. Goodbey nice title screen.
 

24 Feb 2013

I converted the viewscreen graphics into ML, it won't fit into the area above the graphics so I will have to stick some of it into the cassette buffer. I have already worked on a little program to shuffle it from the screen to there. Even though the ML is simple I find I am much more interested already. I guess my days coding in BASIC are numbered. Although doing some of the string stuff for this game in ML would be tedious. Becasue of a ton of interruptions I really haven't gotten far today, I hope I can finish the ML stuff later tonight after work. Oh and I finally made the little rocket graphic. Well I had to cheap out on a couple of controls, and I am still not 100% sure there is enough memory, but I think I have completed this game. I took out all the extra lines and added in the ML but there are a ton of variables. Oh yes I also printed out the last cover, the one for Cauldron. I guess I will test Utaq tomorrow I am way too tired to do anymore tonight.
 

25 Feb 2013

Well what can I say? last night as I drifted off to not sleep, I realized one of the problems (in my view) was that there was no goal. I guess you could just randomly wander around space till you died. There are goalless games such as Simcity, but I strongly think I need one for this game. In fact I think I will make one of the loaders give you a choice of wandering around or finding (it!). But here's the bad news, because I haven't been testing it as I went along (or at least not as much as I should have) there are a ton of problems, right from not being able to read the text to funny messages popping up (You destroyed the aliens? I didn't know there were aliens here!) and just some other buggy stuff. Also I guess I didn't set the Top Of Memeory right and it is ovewrighting by graphics and also the one ML program I had there so guess what happened. CRASH! I will have a poop and think about this. I have been playing/testing and everything is starting to work better, I still have a few things I would like to get runnig a bit better. there are right now 3 things on my list. The random meteor is still a bit too often and is annoying. Also it displays and runs the aliens destroyed/absorbed attack, so that needs to be fixed. And I have to add the goal which will be two more lines at 304 and 109.But I have, as always, run out of time. I hope I can get this into shape later tonight. It is starting to be almost fun. I wish I had memory for 1. a nice title screen 2. some sounds. But the bottom line is I really don't. OK I finished the 3 things anyway and they SEEM to work. I just need to test to make sure there are no wierd errors or that I run out of memory! More testing later tonight, then title screens and loaders. After Exhaustive testing (sure whatever!) I beleive this game is done. I made a title screen for it and started the loader but I think I want to change it. So tomorrow will be making tape and disk versions and then I will update all the web pages and stuff.
 

26 Feb 2013

Although I finished last night it was technically the 26th so that is the date that was written down. Today I make the cassette version and most of the Disk version. I still have to do the Instructions Catalogue and About for the Disk. Also today my red cassettes came! I want to check to see if they are C-15s or C-10s but I don't think there will be enough time. So this is Game 30 for AJ & KJ! I wish it was a bit more fun to play, I had to cheap out on alot of things near the end. I still have all the web pages to update, but if I don't get finished I can do that later after work. It doesn't take much brain power for that. I will report back when there is more to say. I still have to finish the Disk stuff and a few web pages, but I wanted to finish this entry. I thought I would wax at length about how wonderful this is, but truthfully I am too tired. I was even too tired to listen to the Voivod CD I got in the mail today. I know! Unbeleiveable! But I did update the majority of the web pages and I printed out the cassette cover. Pretty neat eh?
 

27 Feb 2013

I pissed around with next years catalogue, sort of making my dream list of things I hope are finished. I have 3 smallish projects (Bush Pilot, Distractions, and Adez and the Keys of Dengar), and one very large project (Dynasty). My plan is to complete the 3 smaller one first and then maybe by fall or next winter tackle the big one. I doubt that I will do much programming during the summer. So if I can get Dynasty done anything after that is good. Dynasty will be the lynch pin, simply because I know it will take whatever ML tricks I can squeeze out of it to make it happen. Probably shortchanged the memory requirements yet again, but I will worry about that later. Now I just have to pick a new project, Bush Pilot or Adez and the Keys of Dengar.I will tackle Distractions as soon as it drops onto the next 10 list. Sort of a little cheat I have devised. The next 10 list sort of unofficially swelled back in 14 temporarily. I decided that anything over 10 was not written in stone (although I do hope to have the list back to ten as some point). So I inserted Adez, and Distractions at 11 and 12 respectively. If I can finish these 3 game, which I think is possible, my list will be back to 10 and Axts and Cygnis will be in the 9 and 10 spots respectively. I think I can (and should) finish Distractions because it is nearly done. I would only have to make a few more games and just link the whole thing together. So here is my next ten list now.
 
 

1 Dynasty
2 Realm of Evil
3 Sol: Survivor
4 Heart Attack
5 Pickle
6 Downunder
7 Adez I
8 Tau Ceti
9 Bush Pilot
10 Adez & the Keys of Dengar
11 Distractions
12 Axts
13 Cygnis

I think the Adez one will be more fun, I will think on it a bit. Oh I also took time to make a new poster with all the games on it.

 

2 March 2013

I am still enjoying a bit of a break. I am actually away from home, but decided to make an entry anyway, because I can. I think I sort have decided I will do the Adez game for a few reasons. When I start Bush Pilot I will have to force myself through it, I think, and that's the only reason I have to do it right away. I will have to do it at some point. Adez on the other hand has a few things going for it. Number one: I always love an adventure. I love creating adventures, which is why there are so many sweeping epic story-lines to some of the games. I don't think I will have to work too hard at it, and for a lazy guy like me that is always a plus. I know I will insert a bit of ML for either the player movement or more likely just the enemy movement. I am really enjoying ML and after working on a BASIC program for a little bit, I think it is making me a better programmer. Not amazingly better, but better. The big difference between the two, for me, is if there is a mistake in BASIC I know right away, and can correct it right away, heck the program may even work with the mistke in it. ML is always a long process, I write out the code, then I translate it to numbers, then I make a BASIC progam with data statements, then I test it, then I try to de-bug it (sometimes this takes a day or two!), then I re-write the code, then I translate it, then I enter it with DATA statements, then I test it again, and if it doesn't work, go back 5 steps. But I digress. Adez will also be a good 8K entry that isn't Vycryle. I remember that is why I put Dynasty, Realm of Evil and Sol: Survivor on the list, BUT they will all be large long projects that may be a bit too much for me to do. I almost gave up on Exploria! And Adez is definately a favorite character of mine. I look forward to sometime in the somewhat near future working on the Adez I game. I can almost see how I will do that one. Again I digress, it is probably because I am very hung over. But I am either finished blabbing about this subject or I am tired of it, so I will end it here for now.
 

3 March 2013

This is me not doing anything again today. I have returned and am home, but very tired. I did want to mention something I thought of. I want to include some extras to the games, and I also have posters for some of the games. So I think I will make the posters cassette sized and include them with the games. I think it will be good. That is all.

Working on Adez & the Keys of Dengar
 

6 March 2013

It has been a busy couple of days. I have really hoped to return to programming last weekend, but I guess I didn't feel like it. I kinda feel, that I shouldn't force myself too much. That I should just 'feel' like doing it, and I think I do. Just like Utaq, it took a while to warm up to doing that game. When I did it didn't take too long. Perhaps a bad example because it was about 1/3 done and in BASIC so it really was about 3 days work and alot of fumbling around. It's always a bit more difficult when there is a portion started and you have to figure out whats done and how you did it. Plus I was quite pressed for memory. Adez will be mostly from scratch, and the mem requirement is 8K so I should have enough memory to do a fair amount of adventure. Plus I will do enemy movement in ML, just so the game isn't painfully slow. I know Adez will grab me at some point and I will jump back into it, maybe even later today. Maybe. I think I am also a bit pressured to get my next 10 list back to 10, for the first time in probably 13 years, before I shut down for the summer. Crap just realized I have some cleaning up to do. I still haven't made the Instructions or About programs for Utaq and then I also have to try and fix Gem Warrior. Well now that has been taken care of. The Utaq Disk is done and I made the small fix to Gem Warrior. I just made the instructions a verbatim of the instructions on the inside of the cassette (which is a first!) and then loaded up and old about file and changed the info to reflect Utaq. Then it took a while to hunt through the old code to see what was happening, and how to solve it. My first try I made sure the enemy warrior replaced what it erased, but should you move down when this is happening it would mess things up. So I found the counter for the gem and there is a switch (EN) then when the gem is visible it is on, so I just made it not do the enemy routine while the switch is on. Simple but it took a while to find. So I think I am caught up that way for now. I still have 18 games to transfer to tape but I can do that as I get to it. Some will definately be more difficult than others, Vycryle 2 will be a pain in the ass, and I have been putting it off. I still have to check to see if Vycryle is saving the character right (how many times have I typed that?). For some reason I can't scratch the original file (GW) for Gem warrior, so I can't save the new version. I will try later. Actually did a bit of work on Dengar. I was just going to load it up and realized I had been using either 3k or 0K expansion, so I changed a few things to make it sort of work. I raised the Lo-Mem and changed all the poke36869 to the proper settings, and also fixed it or the new screen memory. I guess I'll get a printout so I can see what is where. I quickly jotted down the 11 places to enter. That loop is done I think, except for maybe setting up the end. It will be the other game loop I am more concerned with. It has all ther inter-action the enemy movement and the music, some of which I would like to convert to ML. I think I fixed Gem warrior, let me check. Yep looks right to me. I think I am done for the night, but I guess I am making some progress, as opposed to what I was not doing before.
 

7 March 2013

I am not really feeling it ATM. I printed out Dengar and went through the program, denoting what parts did what. I almost feel I should just erase most of it and start fresh, although I don't relish that process either, it would probably be easier. Because I am losing so much memory to the graphics, I am thinking I may do more ML. Of course it is more time consuming, but I have the 3585 bytes (minus graphics) I would normally have for programming. Seems to me I should be able to do quite a bit with that space! For some reason the transplanted Adez and Kings (with modifications) takes up almost 6 of the 8K remaining, so there isn't the tons of room I though I would have. Mind you Boom-Boom movement and enemy movement will be in ML, and that should save about 8 long BASIC lines. Player movement is still quite slow. So I got the first castle to work just like it would have in Adez and Kings, and I think that is about as far as I can go before abit of planning and some ML. I want to move the main loop up (it starts at line 27) so I can add the other 10 locations. Actually maybe I will just move that to about line 250 or so. But I do want to get Boom-Boom going in ML, plus some other creatures. I will need a dirt graphic and some other stuff anyway. 
 

8 March 2013

Story of my life, didn't have much time today. but I did open the program and see where I left off. I realized before I went any further I had to at least make a ML sub to run Boom-Boom. I figured I would quickly make up the one graphics character I needed and then do some ML. After I made the graphic I did up a quick bit of ML and went to test it and something was wrong it over wrote my program! sigh. After I moved memory up (now I need another loader to do this!) I re-typed everything tested it, and immediately realized I forgot to erase the old characters. So I bashed out about 30 bytes of code to fix this. I was about to type in the code when I realized it would also have to replace the character that were originally there. I was just about to make a small modification when I remembered it would also have to change the colors. This will not be a simple 30 byte code as it will now also have to read the old characters before they replace them. There was another problem, but it was just an incorrect BEQ. This is looking more like a 100 byte fix. Probably almost 200 bytes altogether. Yeah I was right the fix seems to be almost as long as the original code. sigh. Well it's a small thing but it's working. I will make a couple more for other creatures maybe tomorrow.
 

9 March 2013

I think work just sucked the life out of me. I set up the first castle to work with the ML boom-boom and it works great, but I don't have energy to do anything else. I almost wish I had this for Adez and all the Kings gold, that would ROCK! Anyway it doesn't always catch when you touch boom-boom. Plus I want to re-do the castle and add a locked door and some other creatures and stuff. I left it for a bit, but came back and played with it a little more. Yeah after setting up some of the other castles I guess I have to make the new screens for the castles. And After going back and forth on this I do think I will do the screen setup in ML. It will be a bit tedious, but it will be less memory. I think I am just going to do a ML print, but I will be able to reclaim some of the 3.5 K that is no longer accessible to BASIC. I guess I will proabably leave that till tomorrow. So those 2 screens above are now cyan.
 

10 March 2013

I was dreaming about some of the details last night. Maybe I was just thinking about it before I fell asleep. Anyway I know at first I was talking about dispersing the keys randomly about the adventure, but really I want the character to enter every area, so I though I should have it similar to All the Kings Gold and have Adez collect 10 keys, 5 from the castles and 5 from the swamps then they can enter the cave and try to get to Bira. This would be easier and work with very few changes to the existing game. Today though I will start to work on the ML to print screens. I hope I have enough room to do 10 of them! I also want to get the door graphic from Cauldron for the exits. Couldn't find the door graphic so I made a new one, then I started the ML. The print to screen ML I think is very clever, but then I made a bit for each castle and swamp and that is not so clever. The 10 routines will take up a humungous 550 bytes. I only did the first one. Then I made another separate loader or Castle One. This took a while and it eats up bytes very quickly. I knew it would but I had hoped I might be able to get all 10 screens in here without some fancy cruncher. I mean really it's too late for that, so I might have to cheap out on a screen or two. I was also thinking if I had to I could double up a few of the swamp screens. Anyway I didn't get too far. I just made Castle One for now. It took alot more time than I thought it would. Oh crap I forgot I wanted to do some ML for other creatures movement and I still have to animate Skaak at the end. I really don't want to be stuffing ML in the Cassette buffer yet again! It sort of seems like the last resort. I'll cross my fingers or what ever, I guess. HA! Every time I save the main program it is getting smaller and smaller. On the disk it went from 27 sectors to 21 sectors. Slow going but castle 2 is done. I also did some tweaking to the main program, it's getting closer to the final prduct. What will take some time, it looks like, is making the castles and the swamps. I think I will have to do a level or 2 in BASIC, now that the main program is dwindling. Looks like I have about 3200 bytes of BASIC free, so maybe time to switch some of this back to BASIC. No pun intended. It's kinda funny, I always think these project will be easy and quick, but as I have recently said I just don't want to make shitty programs anymore. I had hoped the timeline for this would be relatively short, and I guess compared Exploria it will, but it will still be about 14 days or so. Again I hope to complete at least these 3 games as quickly as possible, because I feel the end of this burst is coming. It is almost time for other things, so I must hurry. Just added a little bit to pick up treasure and add it to your score. I would like to try one more castle, but maybe not tonight. I guess we'll see.
 

11 March 2013

Back at it early, but all I have done is move Castle 2's data to the Castle 1 program, it just seemed too dumb to have them separate. I would have to load 12 separate programs by the time I was done. So I finished castle 3 and I am worried about the size of these screens. I am up to 6145 and have 2 castles, 5 swamps and 1 cave left to go! I think I will make a quick BASIC sub that does the edges of the screen, that will save alot of time and memory. So the main program is now 18 sectors from 27! I guess it's almost time to invest back into some BASIC, but first I want to finish the last 2 castles. Then I will make 1 or 2 ML subs for creatures. But first I must shovel some snow, yes it's snowing, alot. Stupid snow. Now all 5 castles are done, but I guess I need to do the swamps next. That is kinda unfortunate I really want to do the ML for the creatures, but I have to finish the screens, so I know how much memory I have left. So just tweaking things a bit more. Printing the score, and keys and stuff was in the main loop I removed it and everything sped up alot. I wish I could Lucas All the Kings Gold, I still may, but I would have to find a place to hide 200 bytes of ML. But this game is shaping up quite nicely. Making the screens is tedious, but nessessary and is slowly coming along. Although the game is only 18 sectors big, I imagine it will go up from now till it's done. So the count down begins, 6 screens (5 keys) 2 or 3 small ML bits and new music and some final tweaking and this one will be complete as well. I think 4 or 5 big days of coding might do it. It really depends on how ambitious or lazy I am. I feel my Vic Power wanning, I must hurry. I really want to have the next 10 list down to 10 actual games for whenever I return to this. I hope it will be the fall, but one never knows. So the plan is this: do the swamps and maybe the last cave which will be 2 screens. if you have less than 10 keys you will go to a door that is barred to you. If you have all 10 keys you will enter and fight Skaak. Did I say fight? I mean you will avoid him and save Bira. The I will try to add ghosts, skeletons and snakes to these levels. Then I will have to redo the music. But for now ... dreams.
 

12 March 2013

So lazy today. Then had to go to another funeral, the second this week. What makes it worse is they were both really young people. I consolidated my notes, changed one of the graphics from a wizard to a crab. Now I have to take a shit. If I do anything to day, I will work on the ML creatures because that HAS to be ML. The screens can be in BASIC and there is a fair amount of room.
 

13 March 2013

Things to do, then had to work. I am feeling a bit guilty so I wrote out the code for creature 1. Creature 2 will be the same with different variables. Looks like about 100 bytes each. I should probably code Skaaks movement as well before I get too far. Maybe tomorrow, if I feel it.
 

14 March 2013

I inserted the 2 creature ML subs without too much trouble. Now it will be a case of modifying the BASIC program so that they work properly. I have it working for the white castle, but that's as far as I got right now. I had to modify the screen so you could get past the skeleton. So all the Castles are done now. I guess I will start doing the swamps. First swamp done, looks pretty cool. Simple but cool. Made Swamp 2, started swamp3 and THE CAVE but I will have to stop here for now. Good progress today. Just have the Skaak ML, the 4 screens, and the music left. I had a bit more time so I finished the 3 swamps. The main program is back up to 28 sectors, that didn't take long, to fill up the BASIC part of the game. So I just have to do the cave screen, Skaak ML and the music. I also took a cute picture of the AJ & KJ library.

15 March 2013
 
 

Bashed out the code for Skaak move. It was about 200 bytes, didn't take too long to debug. Mostly typing mistakes, but 2 little logic problems. Anyway it seems to be working now. I kinda want to finish the last screen, but I should take a bit of a break. Also I am unsure wheather I want to do the screen in ML or BASIC. I will think about this for a while. OK so I got lazy and did the cave in BASIC. I am almost done, I just have to change then ending and change the music. It didn't take too long to change the ending. I went downstairs to write a little ditty and came up with more than I needed. I just finished loading the data in, it is sitting in regular screen memory (7681-80??). There are a couple of bad notes but I am too tired and it is too late to start tracking them down. So close. Just a few touch ups tomorrow and I will be done. I had hoped the ML would bring the speed up, but it looks like I needed to do the player movement in ML as well. It's still fun, very playable, quite hard. But I do wish it was a bit faster. I don't know if I could get all 10 keys with the 4 lives you are allotted. As usual I bit off more than I could chew. I mean 11 screens in one game. 2 modes of playing (the landscape with the castles and such and then inside each object). I managed to squeeze it all in there, but not with out skimping on a few things as usual. At any rate, it's bed time.

 

16 March 2013

I listened to the music and fixed it as best as I could. Music is never perfect on the vic. I also consolidated all the stuff from 4608 to 8191. So I guess I am done. I wish there was a way to check to make sure that you can finish the game, but I kinda suck so its hard to know for sure. Well I took some time to do some testing and found a couple of flaws. I fixed them and I hope everything is ready to go. Next I have to make a title screen. Not really looking forward to this but I have to do it. I guess at some point I have to make a ML drawing program (maybe with multi-color??) Actually I know there are some up at denial, but I haven't been able to get them to work. I would like to get the cassette finished today but that might be too much even for me ( especially for me?). So much for an easy project, about 10 days and definately 4 days of serious work. Alot more data than I thought, most of the chunk from 4608 to 8191 is screen data and music data. Only about 800 bytes of that is ML. But what a productive time! I am on friggin fire! But as I said earlier, I feel this surge is coming to a close. Not sure what will get done (if anything) after this. Wonderful! I decided to try a paint program to speed up my drawing of the title screen and now I have a drawing I really like. But it is saved in a format incompatible with the bit-map. After fighting with trying to get it to work for several hours, I guess I will have to try something else, that sucks! I got stuck on making it work and I finally almost did. The problem is they use some sort of magic that I don't understand. The graphics use 3840 bytes, the screen uses 506 which is 4346 bytes. Both have to be in the built in ram from 4096 - 8192, but this is almost 300 bytes over. How do they do it? there is some form of trickery involved, and now I have to find out. I have taken hours just trying to get some of the graphics to show up. Now I have, but the last column and a half are overwritten by the screen. Trickery.
 

17 March 2013

I sat down this morning and dissembled the ML that creates the picture. And after reviewing it and understanding it, I would have to say there is no point re-inventing the wheel. The code is better than I could create, and it's not like I could/would do much different (I would code it different, but definately not better). So what I have decided to do is use the picture and the code and make a little addendum on the end for it to mesh with my programs. I will have to (grudgingly) have to give credit. If I am not too lazy I will create my own graphics program for next time. Then I can create a splash screen the way I want, but I doubt that I will get to that today. Well the day has wound down and I'm still plauged with an unfinished splash screen. I spent a bit of time working on the ML for the end of the splash page, but it still needs some work. I need to reset the multi-color graphics stuff. I think I am too tired to do it now. I think I will do something similar to what the author of the program did. A cute little trick grabs the default values from ROM. Trickery! I think I will make a real push to get the cassette done tomorrow, because it should be done.
 

18 March 2013

I carefully poked in each one of the 60 bytes for the fix for the splash screen, and saved it then realized something wasn't right. Then I got called into work and any plans I had were dashed to hell. When I got home I retyped in the 60 bytes and this time it worked! I was ready to make the cassette. I saved the autoloader and then ... Hmm. Should I move the screen and memory just for the AJ & KJ logo? Only to move it back down for the splash page and then back up again for the game? It didn't seem like a good idea, so I thought I should check it out. I started making the disk because it would be easier to change if things didn't work out. So that is exactly what I did. I moved the memory up and started the AJ & KJ splash page, then I moved it back down for the game splash page, then I moved it back up for the game. It took alot of pissing around to finish, I'm glad I didn't have to do this on a cassette. The disk is nearly complete, I just need to add the instructions and the about file. I was testing the main game when I found a disturbing syntax error! Then when I listed it I saw the obsolete music data was still in the program! I may have to do a lot more testing before I know this is working. I think I am ready to put this on cassette, but not tonight, I guess this will have to wait till tomorrow. Quickly in other news, I went looking for my disk drive in the shed, it is not where I thought it was. It must be buried much, much deeper underneath stuff. This is not good news, I had hoped I could use it to retrieve a couple files, I may have to wait till spring for that.
 

19 March 2013

FUCK! I made a few quick fixes on the disk and saved the cassette, but when I went to try it, it crashed on the 2nd boot. This one raises the memeory to page 32. I get an out of memory error and it repeats. Not sure why this is happening, when I load the loader without the autoboot it works fine. So I tried the stupidest thing ever. I made a program that is a loader only inbetween the autoboot and the raise LOMEM program and it worked! So I finished teh cassette and also the disk by quickly making the instruction and about files. I went to change the t64 into a wav , but there is a problem for some wierd reason I will try again later. Big dummy I was using the wrong program. So the cassette is 8m 00s long and I finally feel this one is really finished. I started updating the web pages, but I did a real half-assesd job. Oh I also finally got a picture of the splash page, all multi-color and all that. I guess that's all for now.
 
 

I finished the cover, printed it out, and now I think I am done. Here are 2 pics one of the finished cover and one of the current library. While trying to find a solution to the great minipaint mystery. I started reading the Denial forums and found alot of GREAT stuff there. There is a routine that will print till it reaches a zero. How handy would that have been for me, like a ga-zillion times! Especially on this game. Any way it got me to thinking, I have to experiment more, otherwise I will never learn the great secrets that will allow me to create the uber game! I am learning some new and interesting things I just have to play with these things more. And read Denial more.

Oh yeah I forgot this is my 3rd 8K game, and the first 8K game that isn't a RPG. It doesn't seem like an 8K game. I guess it's because I have made lots of platform games in 0K with tons of levels (see cauldron). But the huge difference here is all 11 levels are in memory, there is no chaining, no loading (at least once the whole thing loads!). So now to see if I continue this streak or if the whole thing disipates. Even if it does this is a pretty good run, 5 games, the best so far. Ok enough yapping for now.
 

20 March 2013

My goal for today is ... I don't have a goal. Because the new catalogue is a work in progress I rustled up an old version to inculde (this is how old it is) the 5 new games. I may or may not fix up the web pages properly. I may or may not try to dig out my disk drive from the shed. I may or may not do some work on the transferring of d64 files to t64 files. I don't have a lot of time before work so I imagine that none of these things will transpire. I will now get my second coffee and enjoy the morning. One thing I am still on the fence about though is: the posters. I will definately include them (if they are ever available for public consumption) because I know the more things that come with your game the better. It just makes it cooler (you like that? I just made that word up for you). What I am unsure about is the size and the paper. The size will probably dictate the paper to a certain extent. I mean posters SHOULD be glossy, but glossy paper tends to be fairly thinck and not foldable. And what kind of poster is two and a half cm by three and three quarters cm? I was thinking I could double the poster size fold it twice and then it would be a perfect fit. But then it couldn't be glossy. Will these things fit into my O cards anyway? Many questions, for now few answers.

So I pissed awway the rest of the evening updating all the web pages, so everything should be current now. It is a lot of little statistics that noone should even care about but I feel wrong unless I update it all. I also worked on the public catalogue page, I think it is good enough for now. Now I have to finish updating about 15 game pages. It won't take too long, it's just kind of tedious. I made a quick fix to the cassette cover. I wish I had caught it before I printed it out last night. Oh well. I also tidied up the program folders by moving most of my work disks and pictures and stuff to a backup folder. I also ... put Distractions into my unfinished folder which is where I work on current stuff. Not saying I'm going to do anything with it, but it is there if I want to do anything with it. I will have to see if I can find the game Treminator as this will be going on this disk as well. It was going on a screen 40 collection but I have decided that I won't be doing that. It shouldn't be too difficult to make back into 22 columns. To be honest I'm not sure how far I got with that game.If I do start working on this project, I will have to see how many games need to be finished. There are also a few that will need to be changed. A trivia game called test pattern loaded questions off of the disk, I will have to put them in memory somehow. Plus I will have to change the opening screens a bit. The biggest question will be if I can save Space Nation. It is corrupted on this disk. Alright all this stuff can be figured out another time. Goodnight.
 

21 March 2013

Made notes on the Distractions disk, there is a lot of unfinished stuff here. And a lot of stuff that I am probably going to trash. At this point I can't see how I could make Test Pattern work without the disk drive. There are some pretty crappy games here as well.
 

22 March 2013

I stayed up way too late checking the old disk. I am not overly happy with the verdict. Test Pattern on the disk has 16 sets of questions, there is NO POSSIBLE WAY I could inculude all of them on a tape version. I mean there is a possible way it would just be really stupid. The only way I could see this working is with a much more limited question set and a shorter game (4 sets of questions instead of 8). Because each question set is about 255 bytes. I might be able to fit 4 in, but definately not 16. Major re-write as well, because instead of looking for the questions in the same spot (7479) they would be 4 different spots. Plus I would still want some variety so I would have to make some kinda funky loader. Also some would HAVE to go in the cassette buffer. If it was a bit smaller, I might be able to sneak it into the stack. Anyway tough choice. The next game Broken Bones just plain sucks, I'm not sure what I could do to make this game not suck. The distractions are all OK for what they are. I think I should increase the functionality of Color though, I should add change shapes and a save/load function. Thought Engine is the next on my list and it is unfinished, has the makings of a good game, but don't they all. ICS is an insult Construction Set I may have to change a couple of words but as dumb as it is, it is done. Angels is a picture, I MAY steal a page from Herr Mike. I might try to make this as a BASIC loader with some ML to disply the pic. Witches Contract easy card game, finished. Extra is a board game (bored?) that is extremely unfun to play. It needs some cards or something to jazz it up. Annoy is a fairly playable game where your controls are wonky (basicly a RND determines which way left actually sends you ect.), that's done. Artis is done, but I can't remember the rules, it is a game similar in play to Archon, where you are a wizard that can draw apon the elements to help you cover the power points for you to win. I will study it when I have time to get the rules. Tenets is a typical virtual text game, where you own several rooms and rent them out to try and make a profit. Illogic chess is a chess game with no rules, except you can take the king as your first move, so I guess I have to fix that. 1001 is an intersting game where you can control one of 4 droids to get the radio-active mmterial. The timer seems a bit cruel and I guess I should make it a bit longer. Space Nation was a space trading game that was finished, but is corrupted on this disk (an dI am so afrid it is corrupted on the original).Then 'The lands of Uth', 'Eleot's Chase', 'Cowboys','Adez and the pirates of Ud', 'Neverous', and 'Styger' are all unfinished ideas, some I would like to keep, others it might be better to just forget for now. The remaining programs are all screens saves meant for the Text file, which I have no intention of keeping, but it is a shame, as envelope was a cute idea to unlock the secret. I also want to inculde a version of Treminator which is still only on the physical disks, so I may have to go hunting for my disk drive soon. So the list looks like this so far.
DISTRACTIONS
============

Widgets
Widget2
Snakits
Snakit2
Lice!
Bit Break
This
Tapets
Wormy
Shipit
Houset
Color - which may get an upgrade

GAMES
======

Test Pattern - major re-work
Broken Bones - on the verge of not be included
ICS - fix a couple of insults NSFW
Angels - needs ML loader
Witches Contract
Extra - needs upgrade
Annoy
1001 - fix timer
Artis
Tenents
Illogic Chess - make sure game doesn't end after first move!
Thought Engine - unfinished
Lands of Uth - unfinished
Eleot's chase - Unfinished, probably won't include it
Cowboys - unfinished
Adez & the Pirates of Ud - Unfinished
Neverous - Unfinished
Styger Unfinished, probably won't include
Treminator - Unfinished will have to get from physical disk
Space Nation - Will have to find on physical disk to know if it is finished or not

So that leaves 4 actual finished games, and 14 in different stages of completeness. And 11 finished Distractions and one mostly finished. I have a lot of work ahead of me if i decide to take this mission. I pulled my disks out of thier dusty hideaway, and looked into the first box. C64 disks, I almost have a hankering to play some of those games again, but focus! So I opened the next box and there looking back at me was the AJ & KJ boot and utilities disk. So I looked through them, finding a couple of obsolete disks (#76 is now Parapet not _____) just shuffling through them I didn't even notice I was missing the Screen 40 Disk. But the second to last disk was the strangely placed screen 40 set. I guess I must have abandoned that project longer ago than I had thought. There was also, where it was supposed to be, the Distractions Disk. I hope I can save Space Nation. Well there is good news and bad news. The good news is I have been able to save space Nation, but it needs some work. The Bad news is I totally erased Treminator, and I am pretty sure that it is totally gone. FFS!!!! It was on work disk 2 all along. I just started looking through every disk to see if I backed it up somewhere, just because it doesn't seem like me to totally erase ANYTHING! I changed a few things to make it start to work with 22 columns (still much more work to do!) and saved it. So I have shells for all 14 unfinished games. No problem! Still just playing with this. I think I have figured out which games I want to be secret. They will be Artis, Adez, Lands of Uth and Neverous. I am also wondering if this may benefit from being on 2 cassettes. I will let it jangle in my head for a while. Eventually I will make the 2 cassette O card, for Vycryle and I may have to use it here as well. Because it will be fairly long, I have also started working on the instruction booklet. I will have to re-design the opening splash page, one for each side (or maybe 4!). Oh I will just explain why there are 2 that I will not included here. First because I don't want too many games to work on, plus I think 18 games on 1 cassette (or 2) is a pretty good deal even if some of them are a bit flat. Second these 2 have very little finished, just an opening screen and some graphics. Thirdly these 2 have absolutely no concept. Eleot's Chase is based on a story I am writing, so you will be a boy called Eleot, then what? The story has him meet several characters along the way to fight an evil demi-god. This would not fit in a short game. Styger is just a bunch of grid graphics that look really cool. What happens? I don't know. I could come up with a simple concept, but I will leave these 2 in the vault for now. They may pop up somewhere else, even as thier own stand alone game! As it is I am almost thinking I should cut the number of games down a bit, but we'll see. Any other ideas I had for this (Disk) are just that ideas, I will leave them for now. They may not ever materialize into anything. Had to play artis for a while to figure out the moves for all the creatures. I still think I am missing something. There was a way to directly attack you opponent, but I can't for the life of me remember how. I printed out the program and it simply looks like a pile of gobbeldy-gook. Not sure if I want to sift through code right now.
 

23 March 2013

Spent the day pissing around. I made an instruction booklet for Distractions, although I think I may have to expand apon it as somethings are explained only in a very general way. Made a fix to the Vycryle 2 case (it was missing the gnjn logo and also the serial number). And finally made the 2 cassette O card for Vycryle. A also puttered with the 2014 catalogue. Yeah I guess that's all. I was on here almost the whole day, I obviously didn't really DO anything. Oh and I found out I wrecked the html page for Vycryle, shouldn't be too hard to fix, but I won't be doing that tonight. I also thought I will have to insert a quick ML program for each game to make sure the Distraction main was loaded. On a real different note, while getting vic programs from my 1541, I grabbed all of the relevant C-64 disks. (there was no reason to get fast hack em ) all but one seemed to transfer. Pretty good considering they are at least 15 years old, and the disk drive is older. Not sure if the disk failed or it just had a bunch of errors on it that couldn't be transfered. Anyway for now I don't have Jumpman or Hunchback. So I played Castles of Dr. Creep and almost think I want to port a version to the vic. We'll see. I doubt it.

Working on Distractions
 

24 March 2013

Printed and glue the Vycryle O card today. Not sure what I want to do today. I have the option of working on transferring d64s to t64s. Or working on one of the 14 games slated for Distractions. Or I could start Bush Pilot. Or I could just do nothing. Here's some pics of the finished Vycryle O card. Having a lazy day. So I consolidated the notes for Distractions and learned the names of the creatures in Artis and how they move. I started making a list of the games and what they need to be complete. Some just say finish. I will also have to work on the Distraction main program, so I can make it load all the programs properly. I was thinking I would have different graphics for the different loaders (one for the Distractions and one for the Games), but that won't work for the disk. But I like the idea, I still may try to incorperate it. I am just worried about the load time for the games at the end of the cassette. After mostly farting around today, I did make the small fixes to 2 games so they are done. Artis which I thought was done, has a problem. More testing is required. So I have 6 games completed of 19. 2 are pictures, maybe they should go on the Distractions side. I just saved what I have for 17 Pirates on the temp disk 2, with a BASIC loader. This almost works except it wants to store variables in the graphics. I will have to go with an ML loader. It shouldn't be too bad. So I have been debating wheather I was working on this stuff or just pissing with it. I guess I am working on it. The First thing I guess I have to do is try to fix Test Pattern so it will work with the cassette. Or actually Artis is on my list first, I guess I will have to figure out a fix for the move problem. I am feeling a bit guilty here, Distractions is sort of like a Pandora's Box, because once it is finished, it will be hard to justify a BASIC game all by itself. Mind you, many of these games would not get a release of thier own. Anyway tomorrow.
 

25 March 2013

Like a fool I opened and started to discipher the mess of variables and stuff that makes up the game Artis. I will say there is some clever programming at work here, but there is a lot of my usual sloppiness as well. I also knew this game was within a few bytes of being out of memory. So I thought I figured out the problem, but kept running out of memory. So I managed to tighten it enough to run and saved it. But the movement problem remains. I think I understand how this is not working, but the solution seems out of reach as I only have 11 bytes left and something tells me I need that for the variables of the game. <sigh> not really sure what I can do. I guess I will have to start converting some of this to ML. The game board I guess will be the first thing. Wow that was a lot of work! I stole the quick screen print thing I made for Adez and just started translating the data. About 350 bytes worth! In the end I couldn't fit it all in there, I changed 6 of the 8 BASIC lines. It saved about 400 bytes though. Hopefully enough to make the fix I need. But that exhausted me. Back at it tomorrow. Seems like all I've done is a whole bunch of pissing around.
 

26 March 2013

Well today I fixed Artis. It was actually a simple fix, that might have been fixed without all the ML. But I did learn something. I was searching for a place to put the 10 byte code that will set up the screen color and graphics mode, when I found the program indirects area. WOW! Almost 100 bytes that is used for ?? So I plopped my code in and after a whole lot of fooling around, found out this is where BASIC looks after a program is loaded. And so I can't use the first 2 (maybe one) bytes or else it tried to do something else. For example it tried to record something when the final program loaded. I knew this fix would take a while, but it seems to be working now. So now I have another excellent place to ML code. I know you can use the bottom part of the stack as well but I haven't tested this, yet. Just a matter of time. So for now, I will rely on my typical game bomb. I may try to do something more elaborate later, but there just isn't the space for Artis. I think for the tape version there will be no rewind option, again there just isn't the space. I have a dentists appointment right away, but later, while I am waiting for the freezing to come out, I will start moving the finished games to a new disk. Artis is already there. OK jaw is sore and 7 games are on the new disk. I am looking at Test Pattern, and it's not really that big so this is my plan. I will make a loader that loads 1 of 4 games TP1, TP2, TP3 , TP4. I will lower HIMEM to page 26 and load each page with 1 topics questions. Then only one that may be a bit tough is page 28 because I lose 40 bytes to graphics. I just hope that all topics are 255 bytes or less. With the four games I can load 4 topics in each game and have all 16 questions included. It won't be as random as the disk version, but that is the best I can do. Used the -quiz.tp program to enter all 16 question sets. I have saved them as bin files from page 26 to 30 as tp1 ect. Now just to make the main program grab the data. Not as tricky as I thought so now the only thing left to do is the end to re-load. I guess I have to do that for all the prgrams so far. Oh and a bomb check. Although I won't check this one off the list yet, all the heavy lifting is done. I just have to combine the data with the main and save 4 times. Then make a loader for the works. I will just have to make sure I get an actual random number, so it loads different programs (questions) each time you play it. Next game to fix is broken bones. I want to add joystick control and a better check to see if your alive. I will be making a short ML bit I think. Made a fancy table to show whats done. and now I am.
 

27 March 2013

Decided the first thing I wanted to do was get the games that are finished ready for cassette, plus add the bombs in there as well. So I added the cassette message to almost all of them before realizing I hadn't included the bomb. The only one that was a bit difficult was Artis because it loads a bin file and needs to re-set the 'end of BASIC' pointers. So everytime I added to the program I had to remember to change the pointers. What a pain. But after about 2 hours I had all 7 ready. So then I started working on Test Pattern, I had saved them all then realized that one thing I added to the machine languge (a JSR) I had reversed the MSB and LSB. So I had to fix it and re-save all 4 versions. I started a bit of testing and also found there were a couple of things I needed to fix as well. Quiz 2 for some reason was missing the first letter of one of the answers. Also the topic doesn't diplay long enough. I have some errands to run before I can fix this stuff. I think it is done. I decided the topic displays long enough, I just didn't want to have to re-save all 4 games again. So I have 8 games of 19. Next on my list is the rotten Broken Bones. I quickly updated the cassette thingy, but making this game more fun will be difficult. So I quickly changed the controls from keyboard to joystick, but it is the printing the character to the screen that is wonky. So I guess I will change this to ML. I think what I will do becasue the player is made up of several characters, is make 2 tables. One will hold the value of Y which will be the offset, and the other the value of A the actual number to poke to the screen. At first it seemed like 3 short routines, but as usual I forgot about the color which added a hefty 28 bytes to my short program. So the ML all seems to be working but there is something screwy happening here and I'm just too tired to figure it out. I also changed the color of the screen, it was black but it seemed like too many games were black. Before I got too tired I coded a quick little thing to display the hires graphics for the picture Angels. hopefully I can figure out what is wrong with broken bones tomorrow and I should be able to get that and Angels done.
 

28 March 2013

Even though I didn't have much time I was able to get Broken Bones working. It's not great but it works. I quickly typed in the code for Angels, and although it's almost working, I see I need a few more things (like clearing most, but not all of the screen). Later. Ah I cleared the whole screen. Had a couple typing errors I had to track down, but Angels is now done. Got the print out for Extra, hoping it won't be too hard to add cards to the game. I have some ideas about the game board as well so it doesn't look so boring. I saved a png of what it should look like. Too tired for more.
 

29 March 2013

I opened and looked at Extra, this may be very difficult. It appears I use the charset from page 26 up, meaning that when I drop the top of mem, there is only about 120 bytes left. Not nearly enough to fix the board and add in the fancy cards. So that menas I have to do this in mostly in ML. Luckily the char set is from 6656 to 7167, so I can use from 7168 up. That leaves a very sizable 512 bytes for ML, plus if I have to I can use the cassette bufffer and that area at 673. I think I will just use my print routine to fix the board. It might be expensive in bytes, but it will be quick to impliment. For the cards, I will have to set up a table, and I get to check out the, new to me, kernal printing routine! Just to really simplify things no player will move backwards. For a negative card it will move one of your opponents forward. I also want to try to emphisize the newspaper theme for this. Also after a good deal of thought on this I think I will go with two cassettes. It just makes more sence. For the loaders, I will just make the things that are included on that cassette work and hopefully I can fit them all in for the disk version. I have to quit typing this stuff in by hand, but there it is the board is done. I have an idea how to do the card stuff, but it might be quite long. I probably won't start it till after work tonight.
I figured out the screen locations of the places that you will get cards, and then I did about 10 lines of code and decided to stop. It was busy at work and I am not doing my best thinking. This is probably best left till tomorrow. So two pics of the last 2 things a game and a picture. Because of the white screens I put a border around them.
 

30 March 2013

I made the code to see if your on a card space. It appears to work. Then I wrote out some ASCII stuff for the card data. I started translating the letters to ASCII, one by one. Then I thought 'Why am I doing this?' So I quickly wrote a program to translate the letters to ASCII and poke them into memory. I originally had 16 cards, but the data alone was overwriting the screen, so I removed 4, then 6, then 8. The data is now from 7398 to 7593, I hope I have enough room to finish the ML. That's only 100 bytes, but maybe I don't have to do as much as I think. Because some of this will have to be handled in BASIC. So my routine overwrites the screen by 5 bytes. 5 BYTES!!! I will test it and if it works I'm just leaving it. I will move the title over 5 bytes and that's it. After fighting with it all afternoon I finally have it working. Seems I forgot to add the number to denote the end of printing, so that added 8 bytes. I just hope I can finish this in BASIC now. What I have left to do is, move the players, set up the cursor to print and erase. I think there are about 100 bytes I hope that's enough. It was alot of work for not a whole lot of gain, but it should be better. If I can finish it. MAN!! I am spending WAY too much time on this game. Because both parts have to be loaded I haven't been able to do mcuh testing. So I try the game and I run out of memory! CRAP! SO I try and tighten up the BASIC as mcuh as I can, but aside from a few print statements, there really isn't much I can do. SO I change most of the arrays to Integers instead of Floating point, and it saves some memory but not enough. So I figure I can do a good portion of the board in ML and I dont use the last bunch of graphics so I can stick it in there (after figuring it out about the last 11 characters), so I do. This of course takes time. I finally get the 2 parts together again (the BASIC and the ML& Graphics basically page 24 to page 30) and ta-da it works, sorta. It's not moving the right amount of spaces. After testing I realize the y offset needs to be increased once before being read, so I put one more ML instruction on the screen. So that starts working and other things start to work, but there are other problems. For some reason the card check routine isn't working for player 3 and 4 very well. And on the BASIC side of things after a while I get a 'RETURN WITHOUT GOSUB'. IT's been a while since I got a BASIC error that I couldn't track down fairly quickly! I hope I'm not jumping out of a loop or something stupid like that. It has happened before. So this one is still being tinkered with. Although I do think I am near the final stages. If I can solve these problems without using too much more memory, this will be finished. With any luck maybe tomorrow. I couldn't resist when I went to get a print out I thought I would puruse the program again. I thought of something and initialized a variable and I haven't have the problem since. I hope it gone for good now. So the only remaining problem is with my ML checking the correct spaces. I will look into it tomorrow.

31 March 2013

The ML was not doing what I wanted but I was sure the solution wasn't going to be to crazy. Or at least I hoped. So I changed the routine to STA(xx),y rather than LDA(xx),y, and the problem became apparent. I had forgot to subtract 1 from the player number, so the y offset would work better. I mean it worked fine for player 1 and 2 where the offset didn't need to be adjusted, but for 3 and 4 that needed 22 and 23 added to it, well I'm not sure what it was doing but it wasn't what I had wanted. So I changed the 2 numbers and tested it and everything was now working. I now saved it in 2 parts the BASIC and the BIN from page 24 to page 30. And realized I forgot the cassette thing. I added that and now ran out of memory again. It kinda of reminded me of that far off time I was programming NM 156 and I would run out of memory and try to turn another chunk of BASIC in ML. Except I was much slower and the task was much bigger and more difficult back then. Any way I managed to squeeze enough bytes out of the program to make it run. I saved the 2 parts again and created a loader. This is the most work I have done for a program that hasn't gotten it's own title. Next on the list is Illogic Chess. My first guess is that this shouldn't be too difficult to fix, but as always, we'll see how it goes. I spoke too soon! I played the game and at then end I got an 'OUT OF MEMORY' error. So I will turn the cassette thing into ML and store it @ 675. It seemed to work fine before I added that. Finally DONE! At least that one. Well at first glance it seemed like it would be easy to fix Illogic chess, because it actually does see if you are in check. The problem will be sending you back to where you came from, it seems like there are very few cases of this. Nope there is more to it thatn that. Once you are in check the program has to see if you are still in check and see when you are not. Also each player must have his own variable. I guess I should fix the thing to see if you are killing your own pieces as well. A Ton of work. Not really feeling it right now. I think I will watch some TV.
 

1 April 2013

Not sure that I am going to do anything today. I am SO tired. It would be good to work on something, as it looks like I have a deadline for this project as well. I must be finished by April 16, because I am leaving again. I'm not sure but I don't think memory is as much of an issue for Illogic Chess. Well that wasn't much fun. I think that game isn't much fun, maybe with another devious player it might be. It's kinda of a funny thing I still am a bit scared of doing a project in ML. I don't understand why, I mean I have never had to quit a project. I have had to take some time away from a project, but never quit. Even Dynasty which looms and is daunting, I have not quit nor do I have any intention of quitting. Anyway Thought Engine is next on my list. It looks like I was going to make it similar to Kevin's Run, but I won't pull out all the stops, I will save that for Kevin's Run 2 (yes it's on the list). I'm just playing with a few ideas, I think I can give this game a good look. The question is, can I fit all the cool things I want to put in there? Well I guess that's where I stop for tonight. 12 of 19. Sweet freams.
 

2 April 2013

After work I was feeling pretty crappy so I crawled into bed. No programming today, kinda scary because the deadline looms. 14 days. Not sure I can make it.
 

3 April 2013

Still feeling pretty crappy, but I forced myself to start working on Thought Engine. I think I have the bones of a game here. I have to add speed, and other cars, and the custom options. I don't know if there's room or time to make your customizable brain actually perform better.
 

5 April 2013

Puttered with Thought Engine. I think I have finished the main part of the game, I am just working on the custom options. I think the game is OK, but I am worried I will run out of memory. I don't think I can hit my deadline now, there are 6 games and 1 art project to complete. And all of these 6 games are at the 10% or less stage. And there about 10 days left. I just hope I can find the interest to finish this and maybe one more before I stop for the spring. I started to work on the mods section but ran out of energy. I think I will translate the screen printing stuff to ML, but that's all for tonight.
 

6 April 2013

Super lazy day. All I did was change a little bit to ML and try to finish the mod section, when I ran out of memory. I am quite tired, and don' thave the energy to figure out what needs to go/getchanged/turnintoML. All I know is each one of these is a disaster. They are supposed to be SIMPLE EASY games, that are SIMPLE and EASY to program, but it seems like each one won't work without a tonne of fixing or turning it into ML. All 6 games left are going to require a fair amount of work. It will almost be like making six complete finished titles for teh catalogue, except that they are all combined into one! I will do my best. I just quickly thought about shortening the amount of games for this title, but no, this is near the way I envisioned it, and really it would be hard to cut any games from this.
 

8 April 2013

I printed out Thought Engine and it occurs to me that the best solution would be to get rid of all the DATA statements. I think it would give me enough memory to finish the game. There really isn't any parts that would be better or take up less room in ML (I was thinking about doing the road or the custom options in ML, but it is mostly printing). So the things I have left for this game are finishing the custom options and adding a loader. If I separate the DATA statements today I can't see why I couldn't finish this. I think I will just make 2 programs rather than fool around with a bin file. I kinda think missing the deadline is making me procrastinate. This game should not have taken 8 days to complete. So it is done. It's OK. Moving on. I want Lands of Uth to be good so I may have to do a bit of planning. It might be difficult to fit 4 lands into an unexpanded game but I am going to try. So 5 games and 1 art project. OK I'll fess up, seeing as I won't make the deadline anyway. I added another game. I liked the widget graphics so much I 'm goint to try and make a game with them. So 6 games and 1 art project. Unfortunately I left the hardest stuff for last. Each of these games will take quite a while to construct and finish. Started Lands of Uth. I am organizing some ideas to help construct this game. I also outlined what areas I could tuck away maps/ML. I am almost positive I will have a few ML subs. I am starting to have a real dillema here. I don't want Lands of Uth to suck, in fact I want it to be great, but if it's great why would it be part of a collection? Why wouldn't it have it's own title? I did kinda feel the secret folder was a bit big. Maybe I should split this into something separte. I haven't felt very good about Neverous as well, I think I would have to sit down and really work out the mechanics of this game (it will be a MULE-like thing). I think I should boot them both and when I come back to the Lands of Uth I can make a kick-ass version. I have done a horrible thing. I have separated Lands of Uth into it's own title. I replaced #86 with Lands of Uth, the game there I never had a good idea for. I have continued with this game and now have the man working inside an 8x8 grid inside an 8x8 grid. So I just have to populate a map. This will be where a bit of ML comes in. I have also thought of something else. Hyperion (#70) was just a name to replace another bad idea, but now I knwo what this game will be. It will be a space RPG sort of. A space adventure anyway. So again I am running in about 4 different directions. I guess I will continue to putter with stuff until I leave. When I return I will hopefully finish something, so I don't leave this as a big mess. So I now have Distractions semi- complete (4 games 1 art), the Lands of Uth, and Bush Pilot. I almost wonder if I should convert the little bit of BASIC I have for the Lands of Uth to ML. It will be something to think about, it is a big project, so it will benefit from the tighter code. More thought.
 

14 April 2013

Have been really busy with work. But this weekend I found something. Exploria's tape version doesn't work. It was looking for the Logo grphics on the disk drive not the cassette. There may be other problems as well. I will have to look into this. Maybe I have to spend some time runing through the cassettes, just to make sure everything is working. I am a bit worried about Vycryle. I really have to get on making the cassette version for Vycryle 2 as well. I was thinking maybe I could put the character data at 675 or maybe at 256. At any rate I am leaving on vacation in 2 days so I doubt anything will get done until I get back.
 

22 April 2013

Didn't get anything done. Just got back from our trip and I'm pretty tired. I played abit with the web pages that are gracing the internet at the moment. There is no link to them, so I'm not really concerned. I built 4 paypal buttons and a few games are (theoretically) available. I don't have any cassette lables so I really couldn't make any thing yet, but it wouldn't take much to make at least some of the games in the physical world. So after playing with that, I finally fixed the cover picture for game #24. I finally settled with the title Panik, and it now reflects that. I updated the webdatabase. I also looked through the printouts I had of Vycryle 2 (one for Dras and one for the wilderness) and looked for the areas that would have to be fixed. I think I have decided to use 678-702 to mirror 828-852. Hopefully this works, it will still take a while because I will have to fix 10 programs! I hope to get back to the Distractions programming as well, eventually, I guess we'll see.
 

24 April 2013

Well I started the long and ardrous process of making the Vycryle 2 cassette. I found out the area between 673 and 767 is safe. I wish I knew that before, and both Disk and cassette versions would have used this area to save the character. Next time I guess (there is a Vycryle 3 in the list). Any way I got the Character program and Dras done but I have to test and check everything. I just started to wonder if I should check to see if the right program is being loaded, but a true check would take alot of extra programming. Plus it would be difficult for the wrong program to load because the names are all unique. And loading with out the first tape will crash becasue of all the bombs I put in there. Not that it would be difficult to crack, but it is a hinderance. So it seems the 2 programs save everything OK. I just a have a little quibble with VC loading the Dras tape. I'm not sure I want to add an extra line to tell someone to press play on the tape. Not sure if its working, maybe I should just leave it out and hope people know to press play on the cassette. Well this did have my attention for a bit but the moment has passed.
 

25 April 2013

Before work I changed V mod and added it to the Dras tape. It took a while because for some reason the disk drive stuff wasn't working for Xvic and I don't know why. I finally got it to work but I imagine that's all I got tonight.
 

26 April 2013

So I modified the Wilderness, the Pyramid, the Ocean, and the Atera. Although it is a bit slow, it could be worse. Because I basically used the same program for all of them, the changes are all in the same places. Lines 50-60 load variables from memory, lines 76-78 check if a magician, lines 175-184 save character, line 207 check if a magician, line 267 check if a magician, 300-304 load next game(s), 305-310 save variables to memory, and sometimes there is one more load game area. The biggest thing will be making sure I change everything that needs to be changed, so I guess I will have to list the programs and play the game a bit. But now right now. On another front I am torn on a huge decision. After raiding the Denial forum for info, I see everyone has thier games for free. With the exception of Realms of Quest III, which you can download for free or buy if you wish. I would feel stupid if I asked for money for stuff like Etheopia when you can get Kweepa's Doom for free (I'm sure a huge amount of time was put into this! HUGE!). So I am leaning to the formula of paying if you want a physical copy and have a free download. I obviously have some big projects ahead of me if I go this route. Well they were there anyway, but I will have to finish all the cassettes before posting my website. Vycryle 2 would have been one of them. Cauldron will be the other. Most of the others won't be too bad. NM-156 will be a chore, but I will figure it out.Then I will have to get cassette lables, cases, and also c-45s. I will also have to make paypal buttons for the 27 games. So I have a ways to go before I go public. Although there are games waiting to be finished, I think I will concentrate on this project first. AJ & KJ games going live, sometime in 2013.

Thinking is a bad thing, because it seems to just add up to more lofty plans and more work. It seems I have decided to expand the Lands of Uth. The original game would have the 4 lands, but I have dreamed up some expansion packs as well. Each new one would be the original game with 2 new maps, and maybe some new monsters and/or goals. Kinda the same idea as Realm of evil and Realm 2 Izor, and Realm 3 Dykor, Except that these would not get thier own game number, they would be 86a, 86b, and 86c. Which is what I SHOULD have done for Springer and Realm of Evil but that is done. And also there are very few and precious slots left for new game ideas. I have the Master list now up to 128 and I don't plan on going any farther until all 128 games are finished. Like I said there is a slot or 2 open, but not many. I did have a thought for the future though. Should I ever complete the first 128 games, I may change the philosophy for any after that. So I could use the disk drive for multiple loads or use special memory or hardware requirements. But that is SO far in the future all I will do is think about it. Oh yeah, thinking is bad.

I figured I would finally check out some of the games at denial. I want to try more. So I played Kweepa's Doom. Holy crap! It's really amazing! I also really suck at it. I also played spidey vs doc. oc. That was alot of fun. It's pretty crazy what you can do with the keybaord graphics and some imagination. I loved the splash screen. So I fixed 2 more programs and saved them to tape. I now have the final 2 crypts to convert and loads of checking and testing. I should be able to get the last 2 programs done tomorrow. All in all not as bad as I thought it would be. Hopefully I can finish this and move on. As I said the only onther really long one will be Cauldron. Well I have an early morning off to bed.
 

27 April 2013

I have finished the last 2 programs, and started testing, but hit a snag. I can't cross the ocean without a boat or a flying carpet, and my character isn't high enough level to purchase either of these. At least the first ones all work (Vc, Dras, wilderness, and pyramid). I went to the pyramid and back. It's not too bad with the warp function, without it, this might be cumbersome. I have one small printing fix to make. I would like to do more but I am too tired. Stupid work. I played a little more and noticed something else. My hits weren't being saved by the Wilderness program. So I decided I should fix the 2 small things. I then loaded Dras and noticed another line that checks for the magician class. I checked the Ocean and found I forgot to remove the disk error check in the save. So each one of these had to be resaved. I think this is where I will stop for tonight. I will check the other 5 later. But I am almost done.
 

28 April 2013

Quickly I checked the last 5 programs. They all seemed fine, but I decided to play for a while. I managed to go across the ocean, but I couldn't get to the crypts. It seems to me that you have to be a fairly high level before you can goto or see any of those things. I think I am done testing for now. So now, what project? Should I continue to convert tapes? If so, which ones?
 

29 April 2013

My question was answered easily. I just continued from where I left off. So Speedboat, Springer, Boxa, Peg Leg John, Martain Raid and Gem Warrior are all on cassette now. It's a good thing I had to check stuff as I was going along. Peg Leg Johns's disk has some problems and Martian Raids logo loader wasn't working. I also used the Peg Leg John game with sound (not a big deal, a little deal). I notice how silent many of these games are! 6 more games done, 11 games to go. Only 2 of these will be a pain. I have to work soon so there is no reason to even look at anything right now, but I do hope to get back to programming soon. Also did Etheopia, I had hoped I could see where the enemies damage was, to increase it, but I couldn't find it, so just saved it the way it is. I also did NM 156 but there is some kind of problem, when the last program loads it crashes. I have been trying to figure it out but I have ran out of time.

While I was at work my phone died so I had nothing to do on my breaks. So I thought why won't my program work? After mulling over some of the facts (that my little ML program on the screen worked fine) I started looking at it from other angles. I suddenly realized that I lowered the memory in one of the loaders to page 22. Did my ML start at 5632 and not at 7168 as I had thought? When I got home I used my sector editor to check to see where N5 is supposed to load. Sure enough it was at page 22. So I resaved N5 (and N6) and it works fine. I have one small issue with the loader N3 but everything works now. OK NM 156 is done now. 9 games to go now. Also did Adez and Mr What and Turnabout. So 7 games left. Funny that Vycryle2 was such a roadblock. Once it was done I transferred 10 games in 1 day! As I have said many times Cauldron will be difficult, but only because it is long. Anyway that's enough for today.
 

30 April 2013

The next 3 games were transferred quickly and without any problems. But this brings me to Cauldron. So cautiously I added the first few programs when I noticed the last line tries to load the intro again. Doh so I will have to redo the first 5 puzzles. I also see another difficulty. Part of the Danger ML is in the cassette buffer. Also Puz.0 is having difficulty loading the graphics and I can't figure out why. What a can of worms this morning. I will leave it for a bit and hopefully some answers will come to me. On the up side this means there are only 4 programs left to convert including Cauldron. Well I fixed the problem with the graphics loading, and just started transferring programs I just did puz.10. I want to see how long it is, so I can guess how long a side should be and try to figure out how many programs on a side. So it is about 13 minutes for the first 10 levels. I hope this will fit on a c-45. I took a break and then started the difficult task of getting the ML into the next puzzles. It took 2 hours but puzzle 11 and 12 are done, tested and seem to work. Goodness these ML levels are tough. I've only managed to save 4 more levels and one was a non-ML level. I think there are only a few more then most of the rest are without ML. I think. Had a few without so just saved puzzle 20. Soon I will flip the tape. Although I didn't test it I also did puz.21. So most of the ML levels are saved. Unfortunately the running time of the cassette is already 27.49 so it is looking like a custom c-60 tape. That kinda sucks but it is what it is. Looks like I made a mistake at level 15. I saved danger2.ml instead of danger1.ml. I hope I can fix that tomorrow without having to do all the work after it again. Fixed the level and saved puz.22. Will start the other side of the tape tomorrow.

1 May 2013

First I checked some of the last programs I did last night. And it's a good thing I did because one of them was still looking for stuff on the disk drive. So I fixed a few things on side one. I wasn't planning in doing the whole side in one sitting but I just kept going. The whole thing isn't tested, but most of it is. Unfortunatley side 2 is 31.28 minutes long. This means a custom tape a C-64. What a pain. I could put puz.23 and maybe puz.24 on side one, and then I would have to do side 2 all over again. I would also have to fix/change puz.22 and what ever was the last program on that side of the tape. (I made a cute little thing to see if the play button is pressed.). I will think about this. I'm kinda leaning to leaving it but we'll see. So the other huge game is checked off of the list (well maybe). So hopefully only 3 more games to convert. I will take a bit of a break and finish the others later. Well that's it then. Sound the anti-climatic horn, another huge thing done on my checklist. All the games are available in .tap and .wav format now. As far as the progress list goes, I just have to make a few posters. It won't take much to start making physical versions of these. I will hold off for a bit, just because I have no where to set up my vic 20. Heck I don't even know If I have one that works anymore! I am getting spoiled by the warp function on xvic, if I set up a real vic I will actually have to WAIT until the program loads! But when that day comes it will be a good one. The full circle baby! I am very close. It will be cool to see the last 5 games on a real vic. I am pretty sure that I still played Quiggly on a real vic back in 2002 or 2003. Now maybe, hopefully I will get back to programming. I guess what was getting to me was the project was taking too long, but if I want quality, I will have to spend more time on it. Plus Distractions is like a bunch of projects all put together. I am getting to the end though, 4 more programs and one art project. Back to Cauldron, maybe I could split it onto 2 tapes (4 sides) this is a possible option because I could use 2 c-40s. I would prefer to only have 2 tape sizes: c-14s and c40s. I will think about this a bit. I looked at cowboys and knew I had to add some more graphics, so I went looking for my character editor. I ended up spending hours delving into the mysteries of the work disks. I erased a bunch of useless and finished programs, and looked at a bunch of stuff. It was fun but I didn't really get anything accomplished. Now I am too tired to do anything.
 

2 May 2013

Last night I did find the character generator, but was toot ired to use it. Today I loaded the cowboy graphics and then loaded the character generator. Although missing a few features I would add now, it is a pretty cool set of programs. I wonder if it is finished? Something I will have to look at later. Anyway I made a few more characters for Cowboys and I think I am ready to attempt a start at this. I want to start looking at moving characters less than one character at a time, but I'm not quite ready to start making sprites. So my plan will be to move vertically half a charcater at a time. Horizontally will be the same old crap. So I am thinking of using relative positioning, but wasn't sure how I would know when I would need 2 characters. How do you check if a number is even? It came to me as I was sitting here. Check bit 2. I have an idea I may be implimenting a good deal of ML for movement and gunfire. So I don't forget oddchar=y/2+1 evenchar=y/2 and y/2+1. Had a hard time getting motivated. Made a short ML routine that reads the joystick, but then strangely I couldn't find my papers to translate the mnemonics to numbers. So I started going through my notes. Binders and binders of information only interesting to me, and of course I got side tracked again. I found an old one, but I will have to print out a new one tomorrow. So I got the numbers and I don't think I am getting much more done tonight.
 

3 May 2013

OMG. Just struggling tonight. I couldn't make my tiny routine work. Not sure if I want to attempt much more. It's just too difficult tonight. Also forgot to make wagon graphics!
 

4 May 2013

only had a few couple hours, and just wasn't interested in what I was doing yesterday. I ,over that last few days, have been thinking about converting my logo program into ML. So I wrote out all the data I would need, typed it in and that's as far as that got.
 

5 May 2013

Didn't spend much time on the computer today. Feeling really blah. I did finish the Logo program, I didn't do much testing but I think it works OK. I want to get the ML rolling for Cowboys but just keep putting it off. I loaded up the main Distraction graphics and fixed them. Then I started working on the main program. I'm not done but I think most of the hard work is done. Hopefully it will fit in the 1.5 K or so that I have. Tried to code some ML, but doing more scribbling than coding.
 

6 May 2013

Did a bit of work to the web pages, still need to make some .zip files. But have ,in alphabetical order, up to but not including Gem Warrior set up with both download and buy button. Actually I guess I have to fix both Cauldron and Exploria buttons so you can choose disk or tape. I have alos decided I should go ahead with the Xtra-vic line. Anything above 128 will be for example ajvx-129d and will use xteneded vic ideas. Like multi-load disk games, using extra RAM, VFLI graphics ect. 512K anyone?
 

7 May 2013

Spent a little time writing some ML. I was a bit dubious of some of the code, but it all works well. I typed it in a there was only 2 typos. Everything worked well and quickly. So I have a write routine and a erase routine. I need a routine to check for objects and the player should be done. I will do the bullets and enemies in ML as well I think, so this may take some time. I will also have to lower the mem as it is at 7168 and is full now plus I am using 38 bytes in the 677 area. I wonder if I lower it 2 pages if that would be enough? Probably not. At any rate I inserted the ML into the basic frame I have so far. Pretty neat. I have taken the first step into smoother graphics. Definately not sprites or anything but more than I have done before. cool.
 

8 May 2013

Made .zip files for the web site. Not sure if I am going to get any actual programming done today.
 

10 May 2013

Today I tried to check if the player tried to move onto soemthing. I started to make it as a separate routine, but realized it had to be part of the main. I made (I thought) a clever little 7 bytes check and that's where the problems started. First this added to my program and went 11 bytes onto the screen. DOH. So I moved part of it down to 6144. Then I was just having problems making it through the routine. I found A HUGE logic flaw. I was checking a space twice and the second time there was ALWAYS something there. A few mistakes (an extra comma that put a BRK where it didn't belong). Then I finally got the display part to work again. I tried the erase and it crashed. GRRR. I soon realized the problem with self modifying code. I had to recalculate the addresses being changed. Then finally I understood I needed to negate the RTS from the check to see if the spot is blank. So the whole thing works BUT if you push continually against an obsticle it won't print your man. I think I have an idea how to fix this but it will be a jump and more bytes. Hmmm tried my idea and the erase routine stopped working. I will take a break. Too tired to finish now.
 

11 May 2013

Had to drive most of the day so feeling kinda burnt. I opted to update the Internet pages. It took most of the evening, but all completed games have thier own pay pal button and updated page. I'm not overly crazy about the look but I'm not ready to update all 31 pages anytime soon. So all I have to do is set up a link at Denial and it will be done. I am a bit afraid to do it, as some of these games are not up to snuff. And compared to a game like Blue Star or Doom not even close! But I do feel most of them are worthy of at least one play through by any retro gamer. So link! When I get brave.
 

12 May 2013

Although I had many things to do around the house. I played with the cowboys ML on and off all day. After tinkering with it, bit by bit I slowly got it to work better. until just now the routine works the way I want it to. So I will write a routine for the player 2, and a smart move and the bullet handling. Then Basic, which will add a wagon and take care of the rest.
 

13 May 2013

Don't feel very energetic. Didn't sleep very well last night. I did find out the joy 2 location is 37136. Unfortunatley it looks like different people used differnt pins and thusly different bits in that single location. The one would like to use is the COmputes Gazzette one, which I think I have found on the emulator. I think. I am also thinking about how these routines will work. Player2 and enemy smar move will probably use chunks of the code for player 1. I don't think they will be too difficult. The bullet stuff is a bit different. Not overly hard, but I will have to start it at some point. Coded a very little bit, but I am just too tired to do this.
 

16 May 2013

I broke my fucking computer. So I am typing this on my laptop. The big problem is that ALL of my new files are on the computer! I knew I needed to check the website so I did that last night and fixed the 2 files that weren't quite right. Then I spent some time converting my last ML to numbers, I may type it in at some point, because It doesn't really need anything else to work or test. I also did up 5 posters for Vycryle 2. I will just have to include it in the zip file. I will have to see if any other games need posters. I guess now would be a good time to make them. I also dug out most of my real vic 20 stuff. I have 3 vics. One is for parts. One is a 2 prong and the other is the 5 pin or whatever. I no longer have a 2 prong power supply so I tried the other one. and plugged it into the 1901 monitor I have. Nothing. I wasn't even suer the light was on for the Vic. But I didn't hear that crt hum either, so I was pretty sure the monitor wasn't working. After a good look I don't have the right cord for it anyway. So I dragged out the little TV and looked for a RF modulator. I found one (and just one) but there was no interface. So all I had was the RCA end. I tried it in the video jack, nothing. Using a few different toys I still couldn't get anything. I finally just held the RCA end up to the Coax cable and poof!!! there it was 3585 bytes free!!! So I may have to make a cord. Not a big deal. So some of the stuff I brought in and some I left in the shed. I brought the monitor in to see if I could fix it. I brought 2 vics in (the 5 pin and the parts one) that were in a box with a MPS-801 and my MSD SD-2 disk drive. I brought in a shabby looking 1541 and I have a 1571 downstairs (that I was using to transferr disks). I found that I had 3 other 1541's as well but they went back in the shed. I have 3 cn-2s I hope at least one of them works and a black one for the C-16 with the adapter. A whole crapload of joysticks and cords. And also in the box I have my 3 memory carts (3k + superexpander, 8K and 16K). I also have 4 c-64's I think this is something I should downsize as I know I will never use more than one. I should have a modem in there somewhere but I haven't located it yet. There is alot of crap in my shed! So if I have time cleaning and testing will be the order of the day. This is the first time in probably 10 years I have set the vic 20 stuf up! I will have to see if I can find a 13V transformer somewhere ...

19 May 2013

The last few days have been strange. So I sent my computer in to get fixed, but it will be monday maybe even tuesday before it is ready. I really hope he can save all the data. I was just thinking about what I would lose. After checking the internet and the files here it looks like I would lose the disk version of Parapet. All the viclog entries for 2012, and march & april 2013. Most of the updated webpages. Of these the biggest loss would be the viclog entries, because unlike most of the other stuff this cannot be re-generated. The biggest loss would be all the new work on Distractions. All the ML for Artis, Extra GONE! Broken bones GONE! The new AJ Logo GONE! everything GONE!

I made the cord for the vic and although it is still pretty fuzzy it is the clearest it's been. There seems to be some problem with the video section as it switches to black and white often. I tried all 4 CN-2 drives and only the black C-16 one works. My original does nothing. The other 2 will try to load but get load errors. So I will try to get them cleaned up and align the heads as best as I can, when I have time. I haven't tried anything else. I loaded Galaxia and Quadrant and played both for a while. Seems to me I sold the Vic cartridges. No big deal I never was a fan of carts, they just gum up the connecters. The only 2 or 3 carts I would miss would be Choplifter, Rat Hotel and Loderunner. But Loderunner is LONG GONE! I do still have my expander carts. the 3K, 8K and 16K! I also have those 64's but I really can't see m e doing much with them. I have one 1541 inside but I haven't tested it. I also Have the MSD SD-2 in there but haven't tested it either. I have the 1571 hooked up to my old computer and it seems to work fine. The other 3 or 4 are still in the shed.

In other news I started redoing the web pages. I have about 12 done so far. I think they look way better. Less jumbled and a bit more organized. Soon I will put up the link. My only problem is that I will be short a few things. Cassette cases, cassette lables, C-45s and a few C-62s, 5 1/4 Disks, and Disk Lables (although for the moment I'm sure I could rig up some kind of sticker). The big thing is, I don't know how likely it would be that someone would actually want to BUY anything, I am unsure if I should worry about it too much. For now I think this is what I will continue to do. Make the new web pages and when they are all complete I guess I will upload them. Again I just don't know if I need the supplies first. You know now that I think about it, there is a considerable wait for the Megacart, I'm sure if I let a customer know I could tell them there might be a bit of a wait. But No I should have the cases, lables and at least the c-45s here waiting. I think I have a few Disks. I guess then next time I have a bit of money I will have to order this stuff.

I did another 8 web pages, leaving 10 left to do. So time consuming. And now it's time for work. Sigh ...

20 May 2013

Spent the rest of the day finishing the new web pages, seeing as that is pretty much all I can do for now. Did some before work and the last 5 after. Just have to be uploaded to the web. Prolly do that tomorrow. Maybe.

21 May 2013

I did the painful upload this morning. I guess it could have been worse. I uploaded the 31 webpages and about 64 pictures. Then I quickly checked them and had to upload about 5 gifs. Everything seems to be OK. So I guess I need to order a few things and then I can publish the link. I would like to do something, in the meantime. My computer is still off being repaired. If I get ambitious tomorrow I MAY look at entering a bit of ML to test. But I have a huge pile of yard work to do, so I guess we'll see what happens.

22 May 2013

Did alot of screen gazing today. I guess the most important thing I did today was check prices for my tapes cases and lables. I should jump on this, but I hesitate. I guess I know I don' have many $$$ and I'm not sure I really need this stuff. There is a bit of a sale on c-35s and I looked at some of the games (I had to download audiotap and convert a few taps) aside from Cauldron (with is 28 mins on one side and 31.30 on the other, the longest one is Betelguese @ 17.01. So c-35s would work perfectly. Still I hesitate. I guess I will type in some ML and see where that takes me. Well that's not working as I expected. I may have to re-think this. I am also finding it a bit difficult because I can't load the old part of the program. I almost want to just put it aside for now, but I still want to keep my goal of finishing this and Bush Pilot before dropping this. But it may not work out, I am running out of time, as summer approaches I will have less time for Vic projects till at least the fall. Another project does come to mind. I still have not tried the ultimate experiment: from xvic to real vic. Well I sort of have. I know years ago I saved some demos and stuff, and it worked, but never my own games. I have yet to have the real world copy of any of the games. I have a few that are very close but without the tape autoboot. Plus there are now quite a few games that have never been played on a real Vic. I have to think, but Quiggly was the last game played on a Vic, but I was using the disk drive, I seem to recall none of the tape units worked anymore. So Parapet, Exploria, Boogieman, Utaq, & Adez & the Keys of Dengar are all virgin real Vic games (and hopefully soon Distractions). Anyway I would like to try to get at least one of these games on a tape and try it SOON! I was so excited about this idea that I finally put it to the test. Unfortunately the whole experience was a bit disappointing. Number one I forgot how boring it was waiting for things to save (record) in REAL TIME. That 6 minutes (3 for each side) was forever. So I record it and put the tape in and try to load it on the vic. One side I got nothing. Absolutely nothing!! So I flip the tape and it starts to load, but there is an error with the title screen. I load the main program manually because I am pretty sure the only bomb is already in place. It loads and I run it so there is the grainy picture of Boogieman on my REAL vic. But the picture is so grainy (and I don't know why) it is hard to play. Not really much fun, and the load errors and one side doesn't load. I'm not sure what I should do. Damn it this was supposed to be easy.I guess I will try the other dattasets and see if I get better or worse results. I still have to try and clean and align 3 of them. I will have to see if there is any information online about how and what to do. Well that was quite informative. I might have to see if i can get the alignment program to fix my datatsettes. Now the video problem didn't seem to have any good answers. Maybe I will have to see if I can rig up a composite line from the DIN plug, to see if I get a clearer picture or not. If not then it will the next step will be checking components on the video section. I will also have to see if the heads are aligned on my tape deck. They should be but who knows for sure. I'm sure they could use a good cleaning as well. I wonder if I still have a de-magnitizer somewhere. Although I would like to finish programming for the summer, it seems this is what I would like to concentrate on. Maybe I can get a bit of both in there.

23 May 2013

As I was drifting off to sleep I thought of a solution for my ML. The problem was converting my x to x*2+2. When I broke it down in my head the second equation popped in my head. So that is what I will do and it SHOULD work. Something is still not right. I don't have my notes here right now so I will have to look at it later. From what I can see I don't think I am halving x just y. When I get unlazy I will look at my notes to see. Yeah that was exactly the problem. I guess because I thought X would always start at the same location (playerx+1) that I wouldn't have to do any recalculating. Wrong. Hopefully I can use some of this code for the rest of the bullet routine. OK it seems to be working. Next I need to mash out some of the code for the bullet. I guess this is where I will have to do the 1000 ifs for if the bullet hits something. OH and by the way the Exploria .tap is still broken!!!

So after a quick phone call to the computer guy, it looks like my computer is toast. I'm not sure what to do. I guess the HD and memory and stuff is all OK but the motherboard or the main chip is fucked. I guess I may have to build a computer from tiger direct if I still have all this stuff that works fine... The only problem will be to get windows, but NOT WINDOWS 8!!

Also found out the links to download stuff from the aj & kj page are WRONG!! For some reason I put a42.zip instead of aj42.zip. More fixing.

24 May 2013

Not sure if anything is going to get done today. I did fix the internet catalogue.I keep trying to align the one datasette but to no avail. Nothing fucking works, nothing gets fixed. Fuck it!

27 May 2013

I have been kinda waiting for the old hard drive to come home. I haven't really felt I should continue until I had some of the current work with me. It still isn't here and it probably won't be till the 30th or later. So I have been just playing with the web pages and stuff. Although I don't know if this will ever come to pass, I have entered 3 games under the new "Xpanded series" that will take advantage of the VLFI graphics and extra memory and stuff. They start at 129 hex which is $81. I thought the first game should be something like AE where there is a cool background and the action is in a relatively small part of the screen, although I don't think I want to do a shooter, so I will have to work of some mechanics there. The other 2 are no brainers. Galaxy 2 would definately benefit from the better graphics. Theoretically I could use photos (some altered) and translate them. This would hopefully be faster than painting a whole bunch of pictures. The next would be Conspiracy, although I'm not sure the computer would be fast enough to generate hi-res 3d graphics, I guess we'll see. The biggest component of all of this would be building the VLFI mod (and hopefully attaining the Gcart 8K int expansion, as this would be easier to install, and hopefully more widespread). Because there could be NO emulating anyof this. Anyway flights of fancy. I would liketo try the VLFI mod but not sure if I can sacrifice a computer. If I could find one for really cheap maybe. I should make the time to download one of the software solutions just to see what it looks like. I guess I have to hook up a 64 and try the head alignment program. Not sure if I'll be able to do that today or not. It certainly won't be tomorrow (12 hour day).

29 May 2013

On the road to aligning my tape drives I have had to unearth my c64s. I didn't know this, but I have 4 of them. The first one the keyboard is pretty messed up. The second one the power supply jack is broken (maybe more as I can't get a picture from it). The third one (that looks in the roughest shape) actually works ok except the return key. That might be a bit important. There is one more to try in a box, but not tonight. In other news I get my broken computer back tomorrow for 130$. ;(

30 May 2013

Today was a bit too busy to do much. But I did check the last 64 and it works fine! I transferred then head checking disk (this is a file from STA. Tons of really good utility programs!) onto an actual 1541 disk (my old fast hack em 3 won't need that anymore!) loaded it up and ran it. I actually had to leave right at that moment so maybe tomorrow if there is time I will bring a cassette to try. On the other Vic related stuff, I got my broken computer back (and it cost more than I was told ... surprize!) and my hard drive is in a caddy. Unfortunately my laptop won't recognize it, I tried it at Todd's and it worked fine. I looked online and after alot of searching found out the laptop may not be able to supply enough power. <sigh> I'll see if I can get it running on the old computer downstairs at least then I will be able to get my Vic files, even though I will have to transfer them with a USB stick. Today was just a big almost.

31 May 2013

I tried to get the hard drive caddy to work with the old computer downstairs to no avail. I will have to try to get ahold of my computer guy tomorrow or it will have to wait till monday. I did manage to get the head aligner program to work on the 64. The last 64 in the box is in excellent shape! So I tried to align the heads on the tape units. The C-16 (black) datasette was already working but I needed to use something to try and figure out how it worked. Not sure the heads are perfect but they seem to read the cassettes OK. So I tried the last one I used (has a broken plastic tape housing) and it only seemed to work better whne I held it a certain way. I will test the cord to make sure that is not it. Then my original had no signal at all. Again I will have to check the cord. The last one though I managed to get it working. I think I aligned it. It seemed to load stuff OK. AND it loaded Boogieman!! So I transferred Parapet, Utaq, Quiggly and Korque. I played Boogieman again for a while, but this is the first time Parapet has EVER been played on a real Vic. Also Utaq, and I found a real work problem (nothing major). The autoboot loader gets rid of the inturrupt super expander functions, but because I never thought I had to reset it, TOP of  MEM (location 55) is set to 120. So variables start over writing the graphics. Took a couple of tries to get the 3K to work. Quiggly was fun. And Korque was fun. Can't wait to put more games on tape!!

1 June 2013

I put Kerratias, Kevin's Run, Planetoid, & Nm 156 on tapes. I attempted to put Adez & the Keys of Dengar, but it wouldn't load. I also attempted Cauldron but realized the tape wasn't even close to being long enough. I should fix Exploria, because that is the one I REALLY want to try on a real Vic. Also quickly checked out a couple of tapes, one had a finished version of Quiggly on it. The other had an extremely early version of Exploria (some graphics in BASIC). On the other side it had a Demo I think by Viznut. Just saw the spelling mistake in Parapet! I can't wait to check more games. I guess I will have to order those tapes and lables. I will have to see if Cauldron will fit on a C-60, I hope I don't have to change a bunch of stuff on that TAP.

3 June 2013

Yesterday I put Adez and the keys of Dengar and Cauldron on tapes. I managed to check Adez after a couple of bad loads but by the time I tried Cauldron I got the title screen once then that was it. I think the azimuth screw has moved again. It was quite loose. I will have to get the 64 hooked up again and go through this process again. This time I will try to put some glue or something on the screw to keep it from moving. The other datasette doesn't seem to work either. I did order the other tapes and lables and decided if I have to do Cauldron I would try a C-60 or C-90 from the dollar store. I don't think I will try to make another long tape like that again. I was thinking I should try to put Adez on Disk but remembered that all those files are on the inaccessable hard drive. So I phoned the guy this morning about the drive caddy and the problem is that all my OLD computers won't recognize it because it is too big (1TB). So I don't really have too many alternatives. I tried re-adjusting the azimuth screws and the one loaded everything fine, the grey one did not. When I have time I wil have to see if I can ressurrect one of the other 2 units. So I managed to load Cauldron and finally (when I used a normal tape not a metal one) Exploria. I only got to play for about 20 seconds before having to shut it off for the day, but it was enough. The funny thing to me is I am used to the wider screen on my computer, so the width to height ratio looks funny, even though this is the way it should be. When I have the cassettes later this week I will post my site for good or bad. I am bracing myself for the worst. I thought in the meantime I could work on some disk covers or something, but alas all that is on the other drive. I could try and dig out the archived CD somewhere in the pile of CD's but oh yeah the CD burner is toast on the laptop. Crap

6 June 2013

So I bought a new computer today, but I wonder if I really didn't need it. I guess it's just that horrible feeling of having to upgrade everything for the new operation system. I already hate windohs 8. I wonder how many of my old programs won't work with it. At any rate I transferred all the aj & kj stuff to the laptop, but I'm not sure that is the best idea, but it is what I did. I have to say, I have been using Netscapes Composer to update the webpages, and it is SO much more convienent than just typing this stuff in manually. I miss not being able to use composer on my old computer and I'm sure on the new one as well. I tried page breeze wasn't crazy about it, although I did make up the new internet catalogue on it. So I manually added all the entries from May 16 on. I will have to update the main AJ page as well. Because I was without any notes or current programs anything I was looking at maybe just starting something new. So I started doing a (very) little bit of work on Tau Ceti. I tried to load Cygnis I knew I also had done a bit of stuff there, but the disk wouldn't load. I should have it backed up on the other disk. And if I have to, I can go back to the source: the actual physical 1541 disk! Anyway I got about as far as making some blocks on a paper and starting to lable them before I started getting bored. I quickly looked at the notes for Betelguese and figured 12 rooms should be 'safe' for 3K expansion. I really don't want to run out of memory on this project. I also looked at the ML for the last program and realized I could improve it a bit more. I was thinking I could use the Kernal print routine, but maybe I will stick with something made for my own purposes. It also had a PLOT read and write routines. I'm not sure if I used that or not. I have roughly plotted out 5 programs. Mirinda (a), Mirinda(b), Cheta, Xin Te (a), Xin Te (b). After seeing a few text games at Denial and playing a few 64 text games I feel pretty good about most of the upcoming text adventures. When I looked at the petascii opening screen in Tau Ceti I was actually excited to start the game. Although it was fairly short lived. So I hope I can continue to program now, although I don't have Adobe Photoshop on here anymore, and Paintshop won't read psp files. ;(. If I try to get another disk drive for the laptop MAYBE I can continue using this, but then I wonder what I needed the new computer for. I may try a few things on it later tonight.

7 June 2013

As usual I just pissed around today. I cleaned up the 3K cart and one of the working CN2s. I made a list of what electronic parts I need. 1 Cap for the 16K cart and the stuff for the VFLI mod. I almost thought I found a computer on ebay to do it on, but the shipping on all of these is ridiculous. I found the stash of tapes I was looking for and just quickly loaded them to see what was on them. There are some pretty cool games. I wish I could get hunchback to work though. Made some more scribbles on the papers that will belong to the Tau Ceti notes. I looked through the listing of Dryton from Betelguese to see what I had done, and if I should use it verbatim or write something new. I think in the end it will be a bit inbetween. I also looked at the new logo and of course I found something wrong with it. Everything is all JMPs so I will just make a patch to fix the problem. BUT I was looking at the tape autoboot and there is another problem. I will have to rewrite the end so that it uses the kernal load and then JMPs to the new program. As it is it drops back to BASIC, and that is no good. This means I will have to re-calculate where the LOAD message is. Still waiting for my new cassettes. If it rains tomorrow maybe I will have the incentive to do some programming. Oh by the way despite not knowing how to shut the damn thing off, the new computer is working fine. Windohs 8 isn't sucking as much as I thought it would. It's running Xvic and my old version of Photoshop, so for now I am happy. Oh still have to fix the taps for Exploria and Utaq (maybe other 3K games as well).

Working on Tau Ceti

8 June 2013

Well it's not much but wrote a small program that examines a bunch of text for the first program of Tau Ceti. I needed to know how much room the text would take. I wanted to try and be fairly descriptive to make the game more fun. Of course this takes more memory, so what I have takes 3649 bytes. I hope I can finish the rest of the program in 3000 bytes. I will put my print routines in the cassette buffer again. And if I need them I can put ML rouintes @ 675 and 256. Not sure what else I want to switch to ML. I would prefer to do very little, but I think with the tight memory constrians I may have to do at least some. I'm not really sure if I will continue with Tau Ceti, but for some reason it looks like I have to take a break from Cowboys. I just can't motivate myself to finish that game. I think that the game became much more involved than I had wanted. When it is done it will be more ML than BASIC I think. Of the remaining 5 programs for Distractions, I hope that the others will be less ML. Or maybe it's just that I am trying something new and having a hard time wrapping my brain around it. I will have to get past this, as I hope to do much more complex graphics operations. But for now I have Tau Ceti or even Lands of Uth that I could work on till I feel ready to take on Cowboys. I made the Tau Ceti program enter the data @ 3840 and have about 120 bytes for more data or a bit of ML. I entered the ML I would put in the cassette buffer via the screen, and saved a BASIC version (if I need to alter it) and a BIN. I also made a quick program to printout the entire data with adresses for the start of each. Almost 4k. I hope I can still finish the program with this. Well crap! I typed in the a program that sets up and prints the descriptions for the first page and then checking something I erased it all. [sigh]. I think I am in trouble. I just started thing about how to program Tau Ceti and I keep thinking about turning more stuff into ML. I was thinking about INPUT and really hate the fact that if you hit the home key instead of delete you get wierd input. So I thought about doing that in ML so I could filter the input and get rid of anything other than letters and the delete key. Then to save a bit of space I was thinking maybe I could to the room directions in ML, but if I do that then I will have to do more room handling in ML, and it becomes a ML cycle. So I will stop thinking about it for now. I tried to do a bit more, but I thinkn I ended up doing more screen gazing than anything else. I started the ML for a start, then realized I wanted to have the opening thing with the planets. I will have to do that another time.

9 June 2013

Back to the grind. Before work I made my planet page and modified my ML to print it out wait for a key press then print the games first bit. Actually I will have to make a sub to print the valid directions and one to check to see what objects are available and print stuff out for that. ONLY 2K! I don't know where I can cut back on this one if it doesn't fit. OH denial will be down for a few days so I copied the VFLI article. Like I'll get to that before the web sites back up.

14 June 2013

I am surprized that I haven't made an entry for the last week! AJ & KJ games web page went live Tuesday June 11!! So far people seem interested and positive about it. I have one custumer form Denmark already, and I am a bit worried, I hope everything will work out fine. It has been raining alot for the last several days. It would have been a good time to do some programming, but yesterday I was too hung over. And today I got called into work. I guess there is always tomorrow as it is supposed to continue raining until sunday! Today is only friday. I did try to get Tau Ceti to reproduce the opening again but it is crashing after the key press and I have no idea why. Grrr. I will work on it for about an hour, then I have to go to work. OK big dummy was using an old version of the DATA so some of the data that it was looking for wasn't there. Works fine now. So I want to make 2 bits of code : a generic thing that checks for the rooms exits and prints them (I will have to allocate 12 spaces or so for rooms). Then the second thing will be a generic thing that checks for objects in the room. I'm not entirely sure but I don't think either one will be very long but I haven't coded either one yet. Also Denial is down today ;( .

15 June 2013

Denial was back later in the day! So today I got the shipping price for here to Denmark. $9.10 for small packet air. $44 for tracking!!! It is the same for 1 or 2 cassettes! Crap! If anyone IS interested I am going to lose money, big time! So I got back to programming. I did the objects and NSEW routines, plus I set up the varaibles I will need (I hope I got them all!). I just started coding and was surprized when I finished that I had done all 3 routines. They didn't need much for debugging. I had accidentally used an INSERT instead of a DELETE. I did have to add several bits like character returns and color changes, but in an hour or so it was mostly complete. Next I need a routine to get words. I have started to tally the number of bytes left. I am using from 3840 (pg15) right to 7648 for data. 7660 to 7679 are variables. From 1024 to 1385 is my main ML so far. I have some stuff from 828 to 960. So I have from 861-1023, from 1386-3839, from 675-767, and hopefully from 260~500. Which is 64 bytes + 2455 + 92 +~ 240 (I'm just not sure how much of the stack I need for all of my JSRs and cassette stuff). Which equals 2851. Hope fully that's enough to make this game work. It sure isn't alot! Here is a look at what it SHOULD look like (sample run so far.) I have to add, I had no intention of doing this all in ML, but after I entered the data, I knew this would only fit if I did it in ML! In fact I'm still not sure it's going to fit. Another aside was the cassette lables. The day I got the tape I tried to print out the lables (without even testing) and it messed the first batch up by being about 400% too big. A second attempt was the same. A thrid attempt got them the right size but not even close to the right place on the lables. I finally could see that I didn't even have the right template! So I get the right one and make a couple of tests. Everything seems to fit right, then I print it out and I wrecke another one, this time it is way too wide. God I hate shitty templates. So I try another setting, this one looks like it works remember 8.5 x 11 borderless printing + borderless auto fit !!!!

16 June 2013

I have two possible projects today (after spending most of the morning dealing with other things). I can start making the longer tapes (Exploria, Betelguese, Adez & Dengar, Tyrant I) and/or make the code for the input routine. Looking at some of the KERNAL routines it shouldn't be too bad. OK so I sorta got some of both done. I started the ML but I hit a point where I'm not sure if I should make my own buffer to read the input or what. I will think about it for a moment. I then went downstairs and created final working versions of Adez & the Keys of Dengar, and Exploria. I think I should fix all the other 3K games before doing anything else with them, but I couldn't get Tyrant I done for the time being (I got kicked out of the basement). I decided I should check the 3K games to see if the memory location 55 was being reset. Thank goodness when I was fairly ignorant of shortcuts and was fairly thorough. So Adez & all the Kings Gold is fine, so is Betelguese. Yep even Gem Warrior is fine. Just Utaq needs some fixing. OK the basement is free I should continue to make tapes. I think. AAARRGGG! The first loader on Betelguese crashes, Tyrant never loads the title screen, Adez & all the Kings Gold the last program is missing over half of the lines, and Utaq crashes before it shows the splash screen. This sucks.

24 June 2013

I did a very tiny bit this afternoon after attending to other things. I completed the code for the input routine. I also drew up some notes to help me figure out what happens where. There are only two rooms that have much going on. I think alot will be handled in the general parse routine vs the room routine. I will also have to draw up a table for the rooms. I think I have a pretty good handle on this now, it depends on how much room the verbs take. I was thinking, the next one I can double the data by using the first 31 bits and the last 31 bits. OK yeah thats not going to work. I thought I could double up the data, but my charset could only be 15 chars (including space and period!) I guess I just didn't think it through very well. Crap I thought this is what might save me for the Cygnis adventure. Hmm I just thought what if I DID make a 16 charset, so I quickly counted the letters on the first page. Yeah there is no way to drop 10 letters and still save memory, or at least the way I'm thinking about it. There are only 6 letters not used on the first page and I'm sure that 2 of them are common just not on my first page (I'm looking at you letter B and J). Anyway I guess it wasn't a very little bit. Hopefully I have time to put in the code and debug it tomorrow. On the AJ & KJ front noone is interested in buying, so I guess that's OK. Sorry I'm still thinking about the 16 charset. So if I take the first 14 most common characters, zero is end, and 15 will use the next number for another charset. Set up 2 tables, 14 for first number and however many I need for the next. While it wouldn't half my data, it would be close, if the decoding routine wasn't too big. Just a thought.

25 June 2013

All I did today was play with Minigrafik. I used the importer to do a bunch of pictures. Some turned out better than others, but it was really neat. I also converted my Tau Ceti picture. Oh yeah I guess I missed that. One day I spent converting a picture into poxels. It actually looks not bad. Now I have the Minipaint version as well. It was an afternoon well wasted.

27 June 2013

I probably shouldn't have, but I spent most of yesterday and today converting pictures. Most of them turned out pretty good, there were a few that needed some fixing and one that just won't work (too much small detail). I am thinking about making a graphic adventure with the minipaint pics. Not sure if I will or not, but I have the first 20 pictures or so, if I do. It will start at 4 doors and behind one of them is a snow planet. Might be a lot of work for nothing because it won't be a AJ & KJ release and I just don't know if I will sustain enough interest to finish it (ie. do more than play with a bunch of pictures).

2 Dec 2013

I thought I should re-visit my old vic files. Although there are lots of entries it looks like I really didn't do much after April. At least not programming-wise. I sort-of understand why I started working on Tau Ceti, but when I finally do get back to programming I will try and get back to Distractions. Just a note, over the summer I did finish a VFLI computer, but that is where everything totally stopped. Once that was done I didn't even look or think about any vic stuff till a few days ago. I got 2 emails from Denial members. It turns out that Todd and I had let our domain name expire for the Softbox web site. I was going to turn it into a site for Ruf Noiz as I am still paying for hosting, but I was in no hurry. When I read the letters I realized the AJ & KJ web site was now gone, and people (at least a couple) wanted it back. So I guess I will have to make a point of doing this this week. Also AJ & KJ games were mentioned in the issue 74 of the Commodore Free Magazine! Cool! Except I guess I better get that website up!

12 Dec 2013

Alright new web site went up Dec 4. Long Live rufnoiz.com!!! In the last entry when I said I was looking at my vic files I just meant the web entires and stuff. Today I actually looked at the some of my programming notes. Not good. OK this really sucks! The notes for Distractions were done with word 97 and this computer won't read any of them properly. Not really a big deal the notes were mostly a chart as to what's done, that I believe is duplicated in my paper notes. And a cover page that I can quickly replace. The notes for Tau Ceti however are ... well it looks like there are only paper notes. The biggest thing that is missing is a master sheet showing the ML blocks. I could make one going through the paper notes, except I am not a good record keeper and things are not always updated on paper, such as when code moves (which is often because of my haphazard style) or sometimes I will add a short needed block of code and not write anything down. Which is where I am a bit stuck. This is the toughest part. Starting. I know the long hard road ahead of me and need to find the impetus and resolve to start. A quick look at the notes leads me to beleive that for Distractions I was last working on Cowboys and was somewhere in the bullet routine. Which would leave 5 programs left (including Cowboys) and then tidying up (making loaders for the tapes and stuff). Tau Ceti was waiting for a input routine, it seems to me I had to decide between a few different options. Once that would be done this project could be concluded fairly soon after that. Even before I looked at the notes I was starting to lean towards Tau Ceti. I think because of the pandora's box idea I had talked about before (Why put out single games instead of a collection?). Oh Wait that would be the first of 4 programs although really all I would have to change was the data for the other three programs (I think). Anyway I may or may not jump in here ...
Man it was difficult to get anything to work. I loaded up the last (newest) program for Tau Ceti, but quickly I found out that it was missing stuff. Then I found the Data chunk and loaded it. Still missing something as the ML was crashing. Then I found the ML that would be transferred from the screen to 820. There was an error, but at least I got the opening page and stuff. Plus it looks like it's missing alot of ML. This would require more inspection than I want to do right now. I also found notes for Lands of Uth.

13 Dec 2013

I finally took a good look at the ML for Tau Ceti. Wow my notes are even more terrible than usual. I think I have most of it sorted out now. I did think I had more done though, it feels like the newest bits are missing. I was sure I had tested and had mostly working, an input routine, but it is nowhere to be found. I mean I have some code scribbled out on paper, but there is nothing on the computer. Anyway I figured out what programs to load to get the title screen and the first screen, and I guess that's all I have. I was hoping I might be ambitious enough to try something, but mornings kill me and I have 3 to go. So I am done for now.

 

14 Dec 2013

I typed in the Input routine verbatim. And it worked!!! Well the cursor is a bit wonky but no crashing. I am sure that I worked on this before, because there are a few changes scribbled in the notes and it doesn't end where it says i should. Anyway I kinda remember my problem from here was trying to figure out how to parse the words. In Basic I had a general routine that would handle alot of general things and then room specific things, which is the way I want to do it. But unlike the BASIC version when I remember a new thing or have to change something it will painful to insert code. I really don't have much choice though, I guess I will have to put it somewhere where it will have room to grow should it need to. Well I'm just about to shut everything down for the night and I was thinking one page down from the data is page 14 which is 3584, is that a sign? I would hope that 256 bytes would be enough, but I don't know for sure. Anyway it's bedtime, 6am is early! Oh and I added the picture thing as game $85 The island of Agnikoft so if I finish it it WILL be an aj & kj game. I just feel why waste an idea right?

 

17 Dec 2013

Haven't done a thing, been working early mornings and my body hates that. I'm not entirely sure but I think if I started to apply myself to the task of Tau Ceti's ML I could have it done fairly quickly. But I have not. Instead I have been purusing the web pages and dreaming. I guess that's OK though, I don't think I would have produced anything too good the last few days anyway. At some point today I hope to take a stab at this. Oh plus I was thinking I should take a new screen shot of the current next 10 list as it has changed and will hopefully be changing again. I think I will also start a new Vlog page in Jan which is only a couple weeks away. These are important decisions, HA! OK so I sort of cheated and I typed in the ML scrap that I had already worked out which were a room JMP routine with a table, and the start of Room 1, just so I can see something. Of course none of this stuff worked right away and it took about an hour of debugging before I got the expected results. But I now have the platform for almost everything except all the IF THEN stuff for the words. That is going to take a fair amount of work. I imagine I will try to code some of it later this evening. As I am almost finished the little bits of household chores that have been neglected the last few days.Oh heres the next 10 list. I had to make it pretty small to fit all 10 (12) games in there. So:
1 Dynasty
2 Realm of Evil
3 Sol: Survivor
4 Heart Attack
5 Pickle
6 Down Under
7 Adez I
8 Tau Ceti
9 Bush Pilot
10 Distractions
11 Axts
12 Cygnis

I just wanted to talk about the list a bit. The first 3 games are 8K and Dynasty and Sol: survivor will be quite difficult to finish. Realm of Evil will be a bit more straight forward. Most of the next ones are OLD games near the start of the master list. Except for the 3K games near the end of the list and Distractions that I added when I realized it was mostly complete. So my long term plan (well till summer of 2014 which is long term for me!) is: Looks like I'm going to start work of Tau Ceti so I will finish that, and hopefully I won't be too tired of text adventures and quickly make Cygnis which I SHOULD be able to use the same routines. I will just have to move most of them. I am wondering if it is possible to make fun adventures in 3K, I guess we will see. At this point I will finally be back to 10! Then I will try to finish Distractions, I think there are only 5 games left then just the loaders and stuff to do. I am pretty sure I will add 86 the Lands of Uth @ number 10. Then hopefully I am still in programming mode and I will take on the monster that is Dynasty. I think it is about half way or so. I just know it is going to be a tough one. I only hope I can finish it this phase. It is quite daunting, I'm not sure how much will actually get done but that is the plan. Oh I finally scanned and finished the cover for tape 2 of Distractions. I have been puzzling over the flow of the routine for parsing. I have written down all (I think) of the verbs and nouns I will be using for this adventure. So far I am thinking of comparing the input to a list of words, but I want to make sure that it is the end of the word, and yet not destroy the rest of the phrase. OK I think I am formulating a plan. Didn't spend much time on this, and unfortunately I am very tired now. I think I have code for the verb. I will test it tommorow.

 

18 Dec 2013

I entered the verbs nouns and commands (183 bytes) and the Collect Words ML (about 60 bytes so far,there will be more, much more!). Of course it doesn't work, but I am too tired to try and debug it. Weird dreams last night. I think I am on the right path, Im sure I just need to iron out a few flaws in my ML or logic. I already found 2 small things some STA zero's were translated as 165 which is LDA zero. DOH. There were some typos and a couple of small mistakes. So it will make it through but not recognize the last verb. It will see the first one though. Getting closer. Well still at it, but still not quite right. It is difficult to see what is happening, and thusly why it isn't working. But my back is killing me, so I think I am going to something else for the night. I guess I am just glad I don't really have a deadline looming. I guess I sort of do but it is almost a month away. Travelling again, but not till January.

 

19 Dec 2013

I opened the current mess that is my parser. I checked it and of course it didn't work. So I took a look. It appears I may not have saved the last incarnation. So I started changing things that I remembered I changed for example a check to see if we are at the end of the buffer. In this particular case not necessary. I added a few codes to show what was happening on the screen. And after some testing I was puzzled as to why it wasn't working. It seemed to be working. All of the sudden I realized it WAS working. So I redid the code (because there were a bunch of NOPs and crap in there) and typed in in. I found it not working again and realized I missed a TYA. Very important! I guess I only saved 6 bytes. I tried testing it a different way and just made it crash, I guess BASIC doesn't like you mucking about in the Input buffer. So I went back to the old and tedious way and everything was fine. Routine is 49 bytes long. So now I have the verb, I have a good idea how to get the noun (if there is one) and the command should be fairly easy. I kinda see the game taking shape in my head. I was very worried that this would be a cumbersome routine and eat alot of memory, but all in all (including the data for the words) it shouldn't be too much bigger than a page, maybe 300 bytes. This is a big step forward! I quickly coded a bit for the commands portion, but it is getting close to when I have to leave for work. If I am not too tire I may revisit this a bit later. OH I almost forgot I will have to make a small change to the input routine as a carriage return looks like the letter 'M' and that is no good. OH and I want to change the location of the buffer from 267 to 512. I may need that space later for ML. Well maybe. Crap! I have 24 bytes between my code and the data and the Command code is 27 bytes long! Isn't that always the way.Back from work. Not sure if I am actually going to attempt anything. But I did quickly figure out how much ML I have so far. The Basic and setup stuff up to room #1 is about 430 bytes and I'm going to guess the word handling stuff will be about 300 bytes for a total of 730 bytes. The reason I am checking this is to answer the question can I make the game Cygnis? So 3583-730=2854. Just under 3K. I would have to make the rooms and put the data in this! Seems pretty tight. I guess it isn't a definitive answer. Could be tough making it fit. Well alright, I guess back to work. OK I typed in my command check routine, and it didn't work right off the hop. I was puzzled because there is very little that could go wrong, it is a very short routine. So I was just about to give up on it for tonight when I figured I would double check my typing. I found a mistake but not my typing, I had the wrong number for the MSB. It was looking on the wrong page! So I fixed that and now it works. I also lowered the Collect Words routine 3 bytes so the command routine would fit. But I think that is it for me today. A good day though. Next: a routine that ties it all together and will collect the noun as well. Then I will have to fix my Input routine and start building rooms.
 

20 Dec 2013

This morning I was supposed to go Christmas shopping. I did not. I should still attempt a journey, but I am feeling the procrastination starting to take hold. It IS very cold out. I coded a Main word extraction routine, but I am not exactly sure where X will be when it exits the Collect Verb the first time, so I may have to do some tinkering before it works properly. I guess I should type this stuff in and start that. It looks like I may be off the mark a bit byte-wise. A casual look makes me think this routine is about 75 bytes long. But I think once done, the handling of the string will be quite easy. I'll explain: First it will jump to see if it is a command, if it is (2 bytes long, the command and a return) it will return a corresponding verb number and exit. The first 9 verbs correspond with the 9 commands. It will then try and match it to the 15 verbs, if there is a match it will store the verb. At this point it will see if we are at the end of the buffer. If so exit. This will apply for verbs like Clear, North ect. If not re-adjust the Collect Verb routine to match nouns and execute. If a noun is matched it will return a Noun number and exit. After this the verb will be in location 6 and the noun in location 7. If 1 or neither matched then a 0 will be returned. Numbers will be easier to do ML CMPs, that will basically be all the rooms consist of. I just realized that typing 'GO NORTH' will result in the NORTH not being understood as it will not match any of the nouns. I am OK with that, hopefully people will realize that 'NORTH' or 'N' is the acceptable input. The routine is 65 bytes long, so the puts it at 321 bytes total. So I am over a little. Now for testing. Hmm I am running into the same problem I had when testing before. I was POKEing the letters into the input buffer @ 512 and everything was working fine. But this was cumbersome and I wanted to speed things up so I added a bit that calculated the numbers for a string and put them in the buffer. I thought my problem was changing the buffer while using it (for A$), so I poked it into the cassette buffer and then transferred it to the input buffer when I was done with a$. This worked but now my ML goes into an endless loop or something. I am running out of time. A half hour before work. GAAAHHH! Stupid me it was an error in my BASIC. So now it works getting the command or verb. But this is the REAL test, will it get the noun? I think X is where I want it to be, I think. Now nothing is working, not sure what I did, but I have to leave.
 

21 Dec 2013

Got up really late with a humungous headache. So no problem solving today. I have been thinking about though, I'm wondering if I should just move the buffer back to the 267 area and see if that makes any difference. The 512 location may be the problem. Last night I pissed around with my 2014 catalogue. I had many games in there that I know I won't get to this year, so the only new entries will be Tau Ceti, Distractions, and Dynasty. Which to be honest I don't think I'll be able to finish the last one. Crap I forgot to put Cygnis in there, but that may not happen either...
 

22 Dec 2013

Even though I really don't have time today I tried testing a bit. So far it seems the Command portion is working, but the collect verb is not? I may have tested this improperly. It seems to find the verb if there is a match. I never even thought to give it something that doesn't match, and this seems to be the problem? Oh my it seems I added a mnemonic in the wrong place. I needed to TYA but I added it inbetween a CPX and a BNE! This may be part of the problem. More checking. OK the verb portion is now working, although is it returning # 34 for a noun. This SHOULD be 0. Hmm I guess the computer is still using that location for something. OK using 63 and 64 for for Verb and Noun, and it's matching the verb, but not the noun yet. Well as usual I have ran out of time. Oh at the 11th hour I fixed it I think. I don't have enough time to test it fully, but it looks like my X value was one less than I needed. OK I'm off! OK I'm back. I hope to do some fairly rigorous playing - I mean testing. Well I tested for every match and quite a few that are not. SHIP is the only hold out, I will have to see if I can figure out why. FIXD. It was jumping in one memory location too high and was only trying to compare 'HIP'. Cool. I will have to fix a couple of other little things. I was pretending the screen was the input buffer because then I could kinda see what was going on. So I will have to decide where I want to put the buffer and change it and I may have to change the input routine for that as well. OK saved a BIN file of everything from 3512 to 7840 (the stuff on the screen is the stuff that will go in the cassette buffer) and loaded the input routine to see if they would actually work together. They don't. The input routine saves letters in ASCII (a=64) and the collect words data is in screen codes (a=1) SO after converting that it still wasn't working. I quickly look at the input buffer and realized it was starting at 268 not 267. SO another quick fix and we're off to the races. When I have time tomorrow I will start building rooms. I don't think it will be too difficult.
 

23 Dec 2013

I have to attend to some things, but I hope to code a bit when I have time later in the day. I did want to comment on the Collect verb routine as it was updated a bit. The buffer is now at 267 not 512 an the TYA instruction has moved up 2 spots so the CPX, BNE will work properly. I thought there was more, but there are 2 other routines: Check for Command and Collect Words. Check for command had the buffer moved as well from 512 to 267 and Collect Words (which is the main routine, JSRs to Check for Command and Collect Verb, modifies a few things JSRs to Collect Verb a second time for the noun, resets everything and finishes) had some small errors corrected. I thought I should point out the picture does not show the completed error free routine, this is the way I work. Oh it also starts at 3581 I must have had to add one more instruction, but I can't think of what it is. No wonder it takes forever. Also because I will have to fix the verb, command, noun data everytime, I think I will just save the whole block from 1024 to 7840 so it will be easier to load. Wow just a little over 60 bytes of code and room 1 is almost done. I have yet to do a loop for general replies, but it should go fairly smoothly, it will just be fairly big. I really didn't do much but it seems like alot because I can actually see stuff. Remember the picture from jun 15? I am now to that point and a bit beyond!! Hmm I was going to handle the directions in the general thingy, but if I don't want to make rectangular maps (which I don't) that isn't going to work. I don't think it will take much to add in the direction handling. I'm kinda feeling lazy and want to relax and enjoy the holiday stuff (unlike last year where I didn't really give a crap) maybe have a few wobblypops. I guess I should I only have a few days off of work before going straight back again. I can't help it, things are going well so I want to continue. I think I finished rm1 and I started rm2 but I think I will eave it there for now.Well FFS!!! I had room 2 working now it's not. If you type 'LOOK' it crashes. The command 'L' works fine. Oh I found a couple of mistakes. I think it works now. OK I built room 3 but there is something not quite right. I am too tired to figure it out, but you can travel between the 3 rooms now. I guess I am making good progress now, it's not hard, just kinda slow because of the way I do it. Code, Translate, Type data, Debug. For some reason I thought it would go a bit faster, I don't know why. I guess I thought all the hard stuff was done (which I think it is), so the easy stuff should go faster. It is but not fast enough, because there is alot ahead of me. 9 rooms in this game alone then another 5 games! I kinda wish I could keep going but I just can't.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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