Skool Daze port for CPC (FINISHED)

Joseman · 22:41, 19 June 15

Quote from: Nich on 20:44, 19 June 15
Writing on the blackboards crashes the game ...

Yes, a bug caused by the last update, eric can run because the opqa are capital, but i forgot that not all the letters can be substracted from lower case to uppercase... imagine than a space caracter ascii you substract a number... the result will be unpredictable!

a minor bug, no problem!

Joseman · 03:18, 20 June 15

Ok

The bug with the keyboard is fixed.

Joystick and cursor support added

Dsk created with the Skool Daze 4 CPC beta0 -> Skool Daze 4 cpc -beta0-.dsk

Run"beta" and have fun!

At the moment better to select 'n' in "do you want to put in your own names?", because the input method selection plays with my keyboard routines and some keys may not work...

CraigsBar · 12:35, 20 June 15

Quote from: CraigsBar on 13:50, 19 June 15
Dsk definately would suit me more.

I tested the SNA with the Symbos SNApshot loader last night. You'll be please to know it works fine, so you have inadvertently made a perfect symbos launchable CPC game. Excellent work

Joseman · 12:54, 20 June 15

Quote from: CraigsBar on 12:35, 20 June 15

I tested the SNA with the Symbos SNApshot loader last night. You'll be please to know it works fine, so you have inadvertently made a perfect symbos launchable CPC game. Excellent work

Yes, but now it is an obsolete version!, try the dsk version for best gameplay

CraigsBar · 12:59, 20 June 15

Quote from: Joseman on 12:54, 20 June 15
Yes, but now it is an obsolete version!, try the dsk version for best gameplay

Just my luck, always one version behind the rest if the world. Anyway I revoke my preference for dsk. Either suits me fine.... How about CPR?

arnoldemu · 13:13, 20 June 15

Does the cpc version have chewing gum stuck to the desks? Or perhaps those balls of paper and spit that are fired and stay stuck on the ceilings? Or dead flies in the plastic case of strip lighting?

I will go directly to detention for my cheekiness.

arnoldemu · 13:15, 20 June 15

Serious now: @Joseman you are doing great with this conversion.

Joseman · 13:33, 20 June 15

Quote from: arnoldemu on 13:15, 20 June 15
Serious now: @Joseman you are doing great with this conversion.

Thankyou, was a good chance for me to learn more asm, because of the source code totally commented...

The bit rotations, the oscure comparations, how a game is managed on asm, the tiles... all is clear now for me... now they are more horizonts opened for me...

it's a hobbie, but now i see more clear how to port games, or how can i program a game from scratch... some games come to mind... we will see...

SkoolKid · 17:38, 20 June 15

Quote from: Joseman on 16:59, 19 June 15
Sorry by not getting in touch with you before, but while i wansn't sure that the port will work almost 100% i didn't want to bother anybody.

It has to be clear that the hard job, the difficult part is what skoolkid did, it is an incredible work to reverse enginer a game... and fully commented almost line by line.... thanks to it i learned a lot of asm...

your job shows the love that you have to this game.

I only added crappy code, to make it work at any cost on the cpc... Now is time to see if the code can be optimized, add features... i don't know...

If the port is finished, it will have a credits part where you will be the first

Thanks!

You're right about the love that I have for the game (and Back to Skool too) - some might call it an obsession. A healthy one, though, I hope.

Gryzor · 17:44, 20 June 15

Never played it on the Speccy really, despite it looking really good (and having read tons of material about it). Maybe it's about time...

SkoolKid · 12:50, 21 June 15

So I've been playing the game in Arnold (thanks @arnoldemu ), and I have an idea about what to do with a shield when it's hit: turn it upside down.

Actually, this is not my idea - it's what Chema did when he ported Skool Daze to the Oric.

Joseman · 14:03, 22 June 15

Beta 1 is available:

I re-read all my routines (not the bubble speech), and optimized them a little... is visible on the sprite repaint... before some little boys were draw a bit more slow...

I think that overall the game is a bit more speedy... not a lot but...

Here is the dsk & sna: 2 files - Ge.tt

The game is compatible con Xmass - Symbiface 2 + Bdos by the way, it can be installed on HDD

from this point i will slow the devolopment of the port, i think that i'll try to convert de school to mode 1 cpc sprites, and repaint them... but now i start 2 jobs a day (summer), i don't know how time i'll need to do this...

@SkoolKid: is a good idea to turn it upside down too... i don't know... i like the broken shield too... i'll see...

Thanks to

@Neil79 from Indie Retro News: The latest free games, indie games and retro news

@Dubliner from RetroManiac | Revista de videojuegos retro |Videogames Magazine | Indie | Games

for the coverage!!

Joseman · 00:45, 23 June 15

I've been playing the game this night...

there's a bug on the check of lines, Mr. Wacker don't send Eric to Home over 10000 lines never.

It's corrected on my code.

Take the beta1 as a infinite lives to test it

KaosOverride · 17:23, 23 June 15

Great job Joseman!!

Neil79 · 20:20, 23 June 15

Fantastic!

The article has been updated with the latest beta, thanks

Joseman · 17:02, 24 June 15

Good afternoon

Beta 2 is ready to download...

The shields now reacts to the pellet and the sprite change, this way now you can see what shield was hit and what shield still needs to be hit.

The sprite to show that a shield was hit is recicled from another sprite... hence the "strange" sprite for the hit-shield. when i have time, i will change the sprite, but now it's not important.

There is a know bug, the shields reacts allways to the pellet, even if it was hit before, i will fix this soon...

It was more easy than i thought at the first moment.

Changed the fire 2 joystick to HIT. now: fire1 catapult, fire2 hit. Eric is on fire that way!

Now the Border colour change at different sounds (like on spectrum)... but more vibrant colours

Finally, the bug on check lines is fixed, now Mr. Wacker will send Eric to home over 9999 lines, and he will have no mercy!!.

Now I really think that the game can be finished... when i have time, i will play to see... And you can too!!

DSK & SNA: 2 files - Ge.tt

see you!!

TFM · 20:37, 24 June 15

Great job!!!

Neil79 · 21:13, 24 June 15

Quote from: TFM on 20:37, 24 June 15
Great job!!!

This

Joseman · 01:48, 26 June 15

Yes, it's time for beta 4! (beta 3 will remain on my hd forever)

and yes, there were bugs:

When you hit all the shields, the teachers will reveal 1 letter of the code for the safe... in beta 2 the game will hang when the teacher is going to reveal the letter. Fixed.

Now only 1 hit for shield, no more extra hits... no more cheating!

Added the loading screen from spectrum version.

*After all the teachers reveals the code and Eric open the safe, the next job is hit all the shields again... this part of code is still not revised, maybe the game will not work in the last stage of the game but surely now it's 99% working...

SNA & DSK: 2 files - Ge.tt

Gryzor · 15:30, 26 June 15

Tee-hee! Just gave it a shot, it's so cute

SkoolKid · 17:37, 26 June 15

Nice work, Joseman. So close now!

On the subject of bugs, just wondering whether you're planning on fixing some of the bugs in the original game. If you had the foresight to use the '--fixes 2' option of skool2asm.py when you created the ASM file, you would have got some of the fixes for free already. If not, look for the '@ofix' and '@bfix' directives in sd.skool for clues.

Joseman · 19:29, 26 June 15

Hi @SkoolKid!

Did you notice any difference (besides the slowdowns) with the spectrum version? how about the timings on the playtime and lessons?

I didn't correct any bugs that are on the spectrum version... but if i'm not mistaken, the game can be finished and the bugs are no that important?

Neil79 · 22:59, 26 June 15

tested beta 2(?) through JavaCPC and I noted distinct slow downs when more than one person comes into view, so if you've got lots of kids walking about it is certainly noticeable.

Joseman · 23:55, 26 June 15

Quote from: Neil79 on 22:59, 26 June 15
tested beta 2(?) through JavaCPC and I noted distinct slow downs when more than one person comes into view, so if you've got lots of kids walking about it is certainly noticeable.

Yes, i know about the slowdowns. Think that this is a spectrum based game, with 1bpp graphics, the cpc is converting in realtime to 2bpp and managing twice the memory of the spectrum screen memory. If you see it that way, then you realize the merit that the cpc can do this at relatively good speed

.

A lot of games suffer of this on CPC (because of the speccy based game and lazy ports), a lot of people outside of the cpc scene thinks (by ignorance) that is a cpc fault when it's not. If you do proper cpc graphics, hardware scroll and double buffer, the CRTC will crush any spectrum / msx scroll (or graphic) and kick in the ass at the poor C64 sprites and palette... Not to mention the annoying attribute clash that this 3 computers have...

I know that is a matter of taste, but for me, the cpc has all the balance that spectrum, msx or c64 don't (and never will) have...

SkoolKid · 21:09, 28 June 15

Quote from: Joseman on 19:29, 26 June 15
Did you notice any difference (besides the slowdowns) with the spectrum version? how about the timings on the playtime and lessons?

I didn't correct any bugs that are on the spectrum version... but if i'm not mistaken, the game can be finished and the bugs are no that important?

The only thing I've noticed so far is some extra black pixels that show up in the speech bubbles. And no, the bugs in the Spectrum version aren't particularly serious - they don't prevent you from finishing the game.