Category: FASE

NOTES

This is our second lesson, part 3 of programming the 128k ZX Spectrum. I have split up this lesson into several parts as I have greatly expanded the source code. In my last part, I covered the C code that brings together the 3 parts of contended, uncontended, and RAM0. Here we are going to cover some detailed notes before we start moving to lesson 3.

Continue reading “128k Programming basics using Z88DK and the SCCZ80 compiler Lesson 2 part 3”

This is a small revisit back to the operation of firing bullets.

One of the problems that I have seen during the testing of the game is how the bullets are fired. Initially, bullets fire to the right (west) before the player moves. If the player is moving, the bullets will fire in the direction of the player, but on stopping, they will fire again on heading west. The problem with this is when the player sets up a shot and stays in one place, the bullet will not go in the last direction the player is in, but always go right.

Continue reading “Tweaking the bullet operation”

At this point in my development, I had only really been testing and developing the 48k portion of the FASE game engine. However, FASE works in 3 different ways, 48k only machines, 128k Machines and Clone machine. If you run on a 48k machine, the 48k engine code is different from the 128k machine code. If you take code developed for 48k machines, it may not be compatible with a 128k machine, and vice versa.

Continue reading “Rewriting the End Game”

BeepFX is the most popular and most visible sound engine widely available, however, it’s not the only engine available.

While researching sound engines, I came across the Steve Turner sound engine. This is the same engine used within Quazatron, Ranarama, Ironman among other games written by Steve Turner. Jerri from the WOS forums disassembled and recreated the source code which he published. His post along with the editor can be found on the WOS forums here.

Continue reading “Using an Alternate Sound Engine. Steve Turner’s sound engine.”

As much as a great menu is important to your game, so are in-game sound effects. Audio feedback of firing your gun is much more appealing to the player than a silent bullet being fired. It allows for more immersion into the game you are playing.

Continue reading “Sound effects in your game”

The music engine Phaser developed by Shiru, has two tone channel engine with one channel supporting a sweeping phasing effect and the other channel has a square tone with a further channel of interrupting drums. Phaser is an awesome sounding sound engine that has to be listened to. It can really make the mono speaker bang out some awesome tunes, this all comes at a cost though, it takes a lot of precious memory.
Continue reading “Integrating Phaser into Z88dk”

The music engine Tritone developed by Shiru, has three tone channels with a further channel of interrupting drums. Tritone is a popular sound engine for a number of reasons, it sounds great, supports drums and multiple channels and has an XM converter. So far the only downside is that the music engine is larger and takes up precious memory, but you certainly could do worse for size.
Continue reading “Integrating Tritone into Z88dk”

As a special free Christmas gift, here is a Z88dk Memory visualizer.

https://1drv.ms/f/s!Atc34t6eCvqj1F2CpsoCxKC_PU6r

Note this only works with an older version of Z88dk Version 1.10

Anything newer, it probably won’t work as the Z88dk team changed the map output.
Continue reading “Z88dk Memory Visualizer”

The music engine Squeeker developed by Zilogat0r is a 4 channel engine (engine with no data takes 210 bytes. This engine offers 4 tone channel, however does not support Drums. Continue reading “Integrating Squeeker into Z88dk”

The music engine Anteater is a bit of a different beast, it’s about twice the size of Nanobeep somewhere around 280-300 bytes, but it packs a punch with louder volumes and a better bass.

In fact, I like this sound engine so much, I am using it for all of my beta test at the moment and that will probably carry over to the real game.
Continue reading “Integrating Anteater into Z88dk”