They are many - Abbuc SWC 2020 Entry

[zbyti]

@Irgendwer

I have't updated the results for CC65 for a long time because due to my special interests and lack of knowledge of C, I decided to programming in Millfork and CC65 is not on my radar anymore.

 

Maybe @tebe will thwart my plans and I return to Mad Pascal? Who knows

 

Anyway... MP seems (from my point of view) to be the best choice for A8 at the moment due to plenty of libraries, examples, speed and last but not least the author who knows the platform inside out.

 

@popmilo sorry for off topic.

Edited September 10, 2020 by zbyti
off topic

[Irgendwer]

30 minutes ago, zbyti said:

Anyway MP seems (from my point of view) to be the best choice for A8 at the moment due to plenty of libraries, examples, speed and last but not least the author who knows the platform inside out.

 

I have in general problems with generalizations.

 

For me MP it isn't the best choice:

• if I like to try something out quick and esp. on a native machine, there is no alternative to (Turbo-)BASIC
• if I have the need for speedy code, I have to choose ASM anyway
• if I have to port an algorithm which is implemented in C (which is far more common) I can save the time for adaptations
• even I started with PASCAL before getting used to C back then, I never got warm with the syntax, but that's just personal taste (computers are made to print, not write something... )

It's good to have the choice and if this stimulates coders to produce something it's even better. But 3% speed gain won't let me exchange my "{ }" into BEGIN and ENDs...

Edited September 10, 2020 by Irgendwer
(sorry for being off topic, too)

[zbyti]

6 minutes ago, Irgendwer said:

if I like to try something out quick and esp. on a native machine, there is no alternative to (Turbo-)BASIC

Unless you have an Action! cartridge around

 

As for the rest, we can differ in opinion and live in peace  

[Heaven/TQA]

On 9/11/2020 at 1:33 AM, zbyti said:

Unless you have an Action! cartridge around

 

As for the rest, we can differ in opinion and live in peace  

And if you rely on integer only  

 

 

[zbyti]

@Heaven/TQA true :]

[zbyti]

On 9/5/2020 at 10:51 PM, popmilo said:

Coderz please consider building much more complex worlds and game mechanics.

 

 

Quote

Real time strategy, called Black Raven ("Чёрный Ворон") that recreates Warcraft 1 gameplay on ZX Spectrum. This is a showcase video that includes playthrough of the 1st level for human side. The game is made by CopperFeet (Viacheslav Mednonogov) in 1997.

 

[+Philsan]

This WIP is not bad too.

 

https://arlagames.itch.io/funfair-inc

[popmilo]

22 hours ago, zbyti said:

 

 

 

Black raven is exactly what I was thinking about when I said rts is possible on 8bit

Now just to find time to code that 

 

[zbyti]

On 9/7/2020 at 11:47 AM, popmilo said:

Don't know about world of warcraft but warcraft 1 sure why not

BINGO!  

 

 

This version is enhanced? I don't know, I discovered this game 2 days ago :] 

Edited September 22, 2020 by zbyti
enhanced?

[popmilo]

As I've promised, here is full source code and all needed scripts and graphics files.

 

they_are_many_aa.zip

 

You'll need Java and Python (python3 on ubuntu) to compile it.
On Linux:

./build_they_are_many.sh

On Windows:

build_they_are_many.bat

I've used Kickass compiler originally built for C64, as I prefer it now over something like Mads as it's much more powerful. 

 

Game executable is also inside, so no need to go through build hassle if you just wanna play the game

If you have any questions about how stuff is done, or you need help understanding code, just ask.

 

Compo is over, so here are some of my thoughts about the project.
I'm sorry I didn't have enough time and energy to finish game as it was imagined. Drawing background graphics was supposed to be more detailed, lakes and rocks should've looked much better.

Archers were supposed to fire visible arrows, lamps would be possible to position only in close proximity to each other so you couldn't expand easy. Resource collecting and archer fire had some bugs, so it became erratic at times and I couldn't find those bugs in couple frantic days before deadline....

 

Lack of music is a great downer, but to repair that I would need to make RMT work with Kickass or write my own tracker... Both of those options will take some effort.

 

Anyway, game will get deserved parts as soon as I'm able to work on it. I had common cold symptoms for last three weeks, and then it got worse around a week ago, I fell in bed, couple days later I got tested positive for Covid...
I'm recovering now, all looks to be good, but I'm still half time spending in bed.
 

All in all, it's always fun to work on games for atari, so you'll see more from me for sure

Cheers!
Vladimir

 

[zbyti]

33 minutes ago, popmilo said:

As I've promised, here is full source code and all needed scripts and graphics files.

Big THX! :]

[popmilo]

6 hours ago, popmilo said:

As I've promised, here is full source code and all needed scripts and graphics files.

 

they_are_many_aa.zip 597.35 kB · 13 downloads

 

You'll need Java and Python (python3 on ubuntu) to compile it.
On Linux:

./build_they_are_many.sh

On Windows:

build_they_are_many.bat

 

 

Forgot to add memory map calc sheet I've used to keep sain through development

Has main memory map plus some diagrams with offsets and some other bit values needed to make shooting, fog, direction of zombies faster.

memory map zombies.ods

[Yautja]

Forgive my ignorance... Is there an ATR or XEX file available to play the game?

 

Regards,

 

- Y -

[Wrathchild]

21 minutes ago, Yautja said:

Is there an ATR or XEX file available to play the game?

 

On 11/15/2020 at 11:49 AM, popmilo said:

Game executable is also inside, so no need to go through build hassle if you just wanna play the game

 

But here it is extracted from Popmilo's upload

they_are_many.xex

[Yautja]

1 minute ago, Wrathchild said:

 

 

But here it is extracted from Popmilo's upload

they_are_many.xex 40.01 kB · 1 download

Many thanks!

 

- Y -

[+MrFish]

On 11/15/2020 at 6:49 AM, popmilo said:

I had common cold symptoms for last three weeks, and then it got worse around a week ago, I fell in bed, couple days later I got tested positive for Covid...
I'm recovering now, all looks to be good, but I'm still half time spending in bed.

 

Good to hear you're getting better.

 

The game looks interesting. How do you play it? Are there any instructions?

 

[popmilo]

1 hour ago, MrFish said:

 

Good to hear you're getting better.

 

The game looks interesting. How do you play it? Are there any instructions?

 

Forgot to add those files

 

Joystick moves cursor
Fire - enter build or move mode. (fire leaves build mode, marked by blinking cursor).
Archers can be moved directly after selection.
Press fire again to release control of the archer.
Archers will shoot at enemies automatically, just leave them in some area where zombies are coming from.

When you press fire on empty terrain, cursor will blink.
Move cursor left, right, up, down and press fire again to build stuff (cursor shape will change so you can see what will be built).

Build lamps to produce power and expand vision.
Build houses to produce food, wood, rocks and workers.
Build archers to expand your colony.

 

Most important - build houses near wood and stone becaues game counts how many of those tiles is around the house and gives you that amount of stuff per turn.

Sorry if it gets buggy sometimes, something with that adding resources part is f-ed up...

 

At the start just build one house near forest, expand right-up with archers till you get to stone. Then build house there and wait till you get resources.
You can build walls, more archers etc...

 

Enjoy in the promise what could've been

As soon as I get better, I'll fix bugs and make new release.

Cheers!
Vladimir

 

they_are_many.xex

[dmsc]

Hi!

 

It certainly shows promise!  I found the interface for building and moving very intuitive.

 

 

4 hours ago, popmilo said:

Most important - build houses near wood and stone becaues game counts how many of those tiles is around the house and gives you that amount of stuff per turn.

Figured this out after a while, made the game a lot better.

 

Finally, I managed to exterminate all the zombies  :

 

 

IMHO, with only a few additions the game could be a lot more fun:

- Make the zombies progressively harder to kill.

- Count the number of dead zombies as your "score"

- Making the game faster - perhaps adding a "fast-forward" button to accelerate the time.

 

4 hours ago, popmilo said:

As soon as I get better, I'll fix bugs and make new release.

Hope you recover soon.

 

Have Fun!

[TheNameOfTheGame]

Glad to hear you're feeling better.

[Materion]

Really interesting game for 8 bit Atari ;). I had much fun playing it

[Atlan_Roland]

I had a lot of fun playing the game too.

Thank you.

 

Would be nice if you'd continue refining it.

 

[_The Doctor__]

but I want more of the many! How's it going?

[popmilo]

Well, due to problems in real world (family health), I'm only able to work couple hours a week on retro stuff. So now I'm trying to code simple puzzle game I've started years ago, for this year abbuc compo, so no dev on they are many at the moment.

That game sure has potential. While coding I've realized cpu is not the limit, there's nothing about gameplay that needs precise timing and all possible gameplay elements you could imagine in  such a quasi realtime strategy game are doable on simple A8.
So anything from simple tower defense, turn based rpg or even realtime strategy game like Dune could be possible imho.

 

It'll all depend on time I'll have. If I find time, I would make zombies move pixel by pixel, and workout bugs in resource earning, spending so it would be balanced struggle to make human colony larger.

Gfx also needs improvement. I have nicer lakes, forest and mountains drawn, plenty of space in charset, just need to implement routines for drawing it. We'll see