SquareX - Little game as a present for the PCW, in its 30th anniversary

[FloppySoftware]

Hi all!

I've just uploaded SquareX to my website.

SquareX is a game developed by me, as a present for the Amstrad PCW, in its 30th anniversary.

Your goal is to complete lines (or rows) of squares, with the pieces that fall from the top of the screen.

The completed lines will disappear.

Do you remember the name of a game that does something similar?

Er... humm... yes, you do, don't you?

This game has been developed with MESCC, my own Small-C compiler version, and the XPCW library for the Amstrad PCW.

[||C|-|E||]

This is really cool! 

[GeoffB17]

Yes, Thanks very much.   Nice implementation of (what was it called again ??).   One of the shapes is particularly nasty - was that in the original?   The changed font is interesting, I had another game (long ago) that swapped to it's own font, I think it was a 3D chess game (or was it Hitch Hiker's Guide) and I extracted the font info and re-loaded the font into an alternative version of J??CPM3.EMS.   

I'll have to look at how this process works, and see what I can do with it.   May be possible to do something with some other font files I have?

Anyway, great program.   I'll have to try to do something with a prog I worked on a bit YEARS ago.   Got the original (ppong) from a PD disk of C progs, I modified it way back for the PCW (use the larger screen, some other little tweaks to suit the PCW) and it was working, but it could maybe use some fancier graphics??

Geoff

[FloppySoftware]

Yes, Thanks very much.   Nice implementation of (what was it called again ??).   One of the shapes is particularly nasty - was that in the original?   The changed font is interesting, I had another game (long ago) that swapped to it's own font, I think it was a 3D chess game (or was it Hitch Hiker's Guide) and I extracted the font info and re-loaded the font into an alternative version of J??CPM3.EMS.   

I'll have to look at how this process works, and see what I can do with it.   May be possible to do something with some other font files I have?

Anyway, great program.   I'll have to try to do something with a prog I worked on a bit YEARS ago.   Got the original (ppong) from a PD disk of C progs, I modified it way back for the PCW (use the larger screen, some other little tweaks to suit the PCW) and it was working, but it could maybe use some fancier graphics??

Geoff

This program uses XPCW to change the current font, but it doesn't change the internal PCW one (but there is a XPCW function to do that, if you like).

In fact, with XPCW, you can have in your program the number of fonts you want to have (but at a cost: 2048 KB each!), and write to the screen using your choice, mixing them, etc.

And you can still use the internal one, of course.

I design the fonts with a very old program I wrote in Basic a lot of years ago, but, in fact, you can use LETAFONT and LETAEDIT (they are somewhere in the net, including some font files). 

The shapes are not the same that the T*T**S game has, because I didn't want to deal with some ugly code. 

[GeoffB17]

Hello,

I attach the little game referred to above.   Polish Pong!   Actually works quite well, and fairly fast on the PCW.   File contains the .COM and the .C source.

Could do with making a bit fancier, for the 21st Century!   What about making the 'target' more interesting, maybe swapping between some different chars?

Geoff

[FloppySoftware]

[attachimg=2]

I attach the little game referred to above.   Polish Pong!   Actually works quite well, and fairly fast on the PCW.   File contains the .COM and the .C source.

Could do with making a bit fancier, for the 21st Century!   What about making the 'target' more interesting, maybe swapping between some different chars?

I had a look into the code of the file, and after a while this evening, here it is my port to XPCW. 

It's a "in a hurry" port and, of course, it can be done better. 

I have attached the SquareX font to the source.

When you run the program, it exchanges the internal PCW font with the SquareX font.

When you return to CP/M, it exchanges them again. So, you have the internal PCW font again. Friendly game. 

MESCC doesn't support multidimensional arrays, then I had to change a bit the code. 

Also, it was interesting to remember that a char can be signed or unsigned, and things go wrong when you forgot that. 

I had a lot of fun porting it. 

[Gryzor]

Link: FloppySoftware: Squarex


And working screenshot:


[attachimg=1]


Now I wanna see an in-game pic