Homebrew Coding Weekend #2

[GroovyBee]

If you are in Manchester (UK) this weekend. Why not make your way to the "Homebrew Coding Weekend #2" held at the Lass O'Gowrie pub. I'll be there demoing upcoming 7800 XM games and tech demos (some unannounced ). I might even get some coding done too .

[GroovyBee]

Not long back from the first day. It was good to see a room chock full of British and Dutch homebrewers including coders and artists. There were coders for the BBC micro, Acorn Atom, Spectrum, C64, Jaguar and the 7800 amongst others. There were also some veteran game coders from back in the day in attendance. Upcoming games and WIPs were demoed on several platforms.

 

There was an interesting live interview with Andy Walker of Taskset fame. His CV includes many titles including The Pit (an arcade game precursor to Dig Dug) and Digger T Rock for the NES.

 

It was also good to meet some of the UK AA regulars including TMR, Gaztee and LinkoVitch.

 

There were offers of source code for several games being made available to other platforms for porting as well as games that need completing. Hopefully, I'll be discussing the possibility of bringing some titles across to the 7800 XM tomorrow.

 

On the 7800 front, both Fruitarian and Monster! were demoed (which must be a shock to some people on here because they think the images I posted have been photoshopped ). Worm!, Wasp!, Apple Snaffle, the Halloween themed game and Harry's Hen House were also demoed. The prototype GB-XC1 PSX to 7800 interface controller got a good workout. It was interesting to see people just accepting a PSX controller to play the games on. I guess thats a sign of the times .

 

Roll on Sunday!

[thursday83]

Great to hear. Looking forward to tomorrow's report. Thanks for posting this, especially exciting to hear about the PSX > 7800 controller, hope that makes it into production soon - if there is one thing the 7800 could use, it's a solid controller like that.

[GroovyBee]

Great to hear. Looking forward to tomorrow's report. Thanks for posting this, especially exciting to hear about the PSX > 7800 controller, hope that makes it into production soon - if there is one thing the 7800 could use, it's a solid controller like that.

 

The next revision of the PCB for the PSX interface will make it more universal so you can use it on A8, C64 and so on.

[GroovyBee]

There wasn't really a structure to today's event. I was asked yesterday to be part of a multi-platform team doing something that will be available to play at the Replay Expo in November this year. Unfortunately its not something for the 7800 but for the A8s. Today I was briefed on what my part of the project is. I've been looking for a "dive in" project for the 800XL and this fits the bill nicely.

 

I was particularly interested in the source code to Chuckie Egg (my game Harry's Hen House is based on the first two levels of that game). If I go down the route of doing a 7800 conversion then part of the deal is not making a cart (nothing can be sold... ever!) so it would be a binary only release. With CC2s and the upcoming H2 I don't have a problem with that.

 

I also spoke to Dave Footitt about doing a version of Mountain Panic on the 7800. The game isn't scheduled for release on the BBC micro until next year, so I'll have to see where that one goes. Dave was quite interested in the 7800, even more so after a quick demonstration of what it can do.

 

There was also talk with the event organiser's about accessing several other BBC micro game sources. Hopefully, something will catch my eye as a "must have" port for the 7800.

 

TMR and I had a technical discussion about a 7800 isometric engine tech demo I've been working on. I was lamenting that the main character should be a money eating chicken, if only I could draw it and that I had no idea what the enemies would be (pretty much it was just going to be a dead tech demo - its nothing special). After Linkovitch and Gaztee joined the conversation ideas were banded about and the tech demo inspired a full game concept involving Colonel Sanders look-a-like heads (as enemies), a kitten (as the player) and a deep fat frier and to be titled "Unlucky Fried Kitten". I'm not sure where the idea will go but if I get some artwork you never know .

 

The next event to draw the UK's homebrew scene together again was announced as being the first weekend in December this year with no change in the venue.

 

Hopefully some of the coders I spoke too this weekend will take up the 7800 cause. Hmmmm... Maybe a need to work on them some more .

 

The naysayers and 7800 XM haters on AA would like everybody to think that the 7800 scene is dead but from where I'm sitting it doesn't look that way at all.

[sh3-rg]

"Unlucky Fried Kitten"