Posted By
Dunric
on 2004-04-21
18:55:25
|  Wizard Castle demo for the C64, 128 and Plus/4...now available!
I am happy to report that I am putting the finishing touches on an adventure game that will work on the following Commodore computers: C64, 128 (40 columns) and Plus/4.
Currently, the demo only functions on the C-128 in 128 mode (40 column mode). However, once I split the DATA statements into a separate loader program, then program
size will be reduced to a mere 102-105 blocks for the main program.
Objects described in the room descriptions are loaded from disk, a la "Merlin's Quest" (one of my other C16/Plus 4 adventures). They are divided into rooms, i.e. 1.dat for room 1, 2.dat for room 2, 3.dat for room 3, etc.
I am also attempting to slightly pare down the size of each .dat file, so that the 127 character limit for each INPUT# statement is avoided. I did receive a ?STRING TOO LONG ERROR when attempting to load some of the data descriptions from disk. I believe the Commodore 128 allows descriptions to much longer than 127 characters when read via INPUT#. INPUT# appears to be much faster than GET#, although I have simulated the speed of INPUT# by using GET#2,A$,B$,C$,D$.
You may download the demo here:
http://www.geocities.com/dunric/pauladv.html
(Scroll all the way down to "Wizard Castle" to download). Works on Vice, MeSS and most others)
Only 53 of the 73 rooms may currently be examined for objects described in the room (example: a bridge, or a tree, or the forest, etc). All rooms, however, allow the player to examine monsters or items on the ground, or within inventory of the player (including worn and wielded items, too). I will, of course, add the remaining 20 rooms to the disk in a few days.
Please let me know what you think at: dunric@yahoo.com
Also:
I am also attempting to simulate a sprite title for "Wizard Castle". Presently, the game does not have a simulated sprite while ran in Plus/4 mode. I was thinking of simply emulating the sprite using custom characters, but I am not certain how to write custom characters on the Plus/4...some of the POKE and PEEK locations differ. From memory, doesn't the Plus/4's custom character set begin at 7168 or so? But I am not certain of what POKE 52,48 to use, if at all, and if CLR is also needed.
A short example to redefine one character and display it on screen would be awesome!
Thanks in advance for any help provided.
Sincerely,
Paul Panks (a.k.a "Dunric")
dunric@yahoo.com
Phoenix, Arizona (USA)
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Posted By
JamesC
on 2004-04-21
20:51:27
| Re: Wizard Castle demo for the C64, 128 and Plus/4...now available!
Paul,
If I were programming it, I would copy the character set from ROM to RAM but keep it at the same memory location.... then drop the top of BASIC down to protect it. (Or drop BASIC down and then move the characters, actually this would be wiser.)
10 POKE 55,208 : POKE 56,0 : CLR :REM DROP BASIC DOWN TO 53247
20 POKE 1177,62 : REM ALLOW PEEK TO SEE CHARACTER ROM
30 FOR I = 53248 TO 55295 : POKE I, PEEK(I) : NEXT : REM COPY CHARACTERS TO RAM
40 POKE 1177,63 : REM RESTORE PEEK'S NORMAL FUNCTION
50 POKE 65298, PEEK(65298) AND 251 : REM TED SEES RAM-BASED CHARSET
60 ** REDEFINE YOUR CHARACTERS, ETC**
...
190 POKE65298, PEEK(65298) OR 4 : REM TED SEES ROM-BASED CHARSET
By doing this, yes we do lose 11.25k of RAM, however if you need to store additional data like rooms visited, money on hand, items, etc you have the RAM from 55296 to 64767 available to POKE and PEEK your data to and from.
WARNING The 264 series will go nuts if you do any string manipulation while POKE 1177,62 is in effect! This is why I recommend that you turn it "on" and "off" only as it is needed.
James C, www.cbm264.com
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Posted By
Dunric
on 2004-04-22
01:28:27
| Re: Wizard Castle demo for the C64, 128 and Plus/4...now available!
James,
I tried out the example given above, but line 10 gives an ?out of memory error.
Are the POKEs dropping the end of BASIC too high?
Paul
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Posted By
Lavina
on 2004-04-22
03:37:14
 | Re: Wizard Castle demo for the C64, 128 and Plus/4...now available!
Yeah, a new adventure! Gimme, gimme!!! 
I also plan to write a nwe advenure game but slightly different from the usual ones... 
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Posted By
Ulysses777
on 2004-04-22
13:49:00
| Re: Wizard Castle demo for the C64, 128 and Plus/4...now available!
Dunric, line 10 of James C's program does have an error, it should read as follows:
10 POKE 55,207 : POKE 56,255 : CLR : REM DROP BASIC DOWN TO 53247
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Posted By
Ulysses777
on 2004-04-22
14:01:47
| Re: Wizard Castle demo for the C64, 128 and Plus/4...now available!
Ah crap, now I've got it wrong too 
Let's try again...
10 POKE 55,255 : POKE 56,207 : CLR : REM DROP BASIC DOWN TO 53247
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Posted By
Dunric
on 2004-04-22
19:46:57
| Re: Wizard Castle demo for the C64, 128 and Plus/4...now available!
I believe I've got it working now.
See below:
10 POKE 55,255 : POKE 56,207 : CLR :REM DROP BASIC DOWN TO 53247
20 POKE 1177,62 : REM ALLOW PEEK TO SEE CHARACTER ROM
30 FOR I = 53248 TO 55295 : POKE I, PEEK(I) : NEXT : REM COPY CHARACTERS TO RAM
40 POKE 1177,63 : REM RESTORE PEEK'S NORMAL FUNCTION
50 POKE 65298, PEEK(65298) AND 251 : REM TED SEES RAM-BASED CHARSET
60 REM ** REDEFINE YOUR CHARACTERS, ETC **
70 FOR I=0 TO 7
80 READ B OKE 53248+I,B
90 NEXT I
100 PRINT"@"
110 DATA 60,66,165,129,153,165,66,60
190 REM POKE65298, PEEK(65298) OR 4 : REM TED SEES ROM-BASED CHARSET
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Posted By
JamesC
on 2004-04-22
21:43:44
| Re: Wizard Castle demo for the C64, 128 and Plus/4...now available!
Sorry Paul, I didn't have an emulator on the computer I was using this morning. 
I am glad to see that you and Ulysses have figured it out.
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Posted By
Dunric
on 2004-04-22
23:26:47
| Re: Wizard Castle demo for the C64, 128 and Plus/4...now available!
Now I can use Ultrafont+ to create an Elvish script for the game.
Paul
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