Hyperdrive (development)

[reidrac]

Hyperdrive has website now.

https://www.usebox.net/jjm/hyperdrive/

Aiming at sometime in December!

[Badolepuddytat]

This game is looking awesome. I can't wait to have a play on this! Excellent work, well done!

[reidrac]

Quick update

We have started testing. All 5 stages (including bosses) are ready. I would like to give it a month, so it makes sense the game could be released early December.

Some music is still missing though, so there is that as well. Say I have a month to write 6 songs 

[reidrac]

I wrote a blog post with some comment re: the game and the upcoming release: https://www.usebox.net/jjm/blog/hyperdrive-is-almost-ready/

It includes some numbers behind the game (TL;DR: I've used around 144K of combined RAM/ROM). It is not a huge game, but it definitely feels big to me as I made it all on my own.

[reidrac]

Quick look at the music of stage 1 (WIP, but getting there).

https://mastodon.sdf.org/@reidrac/109352407422962192

[reidrac]

More WIP: music of stage 3

A bit under-powered, you should get to that stage with a few power-ups (unless you continue, and then you should be able to make a couple of chains early on the stage; although I failed on the video  )

https://mastodon.sdf.org/@reidrac/109416258079015838

Anyway, still on track to release next month!

[reidrac]

Testing is going well, and the game is pretty much finished (only one song left; may be two).

If I have time to give it a good test on my 464 during this weekend, the release date could be 9th of December (Friday).

Save the date, because it is very likely; even if things could change depending on last minute bugs (hopefully not!).

As you know already, the website is: https://www.usebox.net/jjm/hyperdrive/

Because the game will be digital only for now (CPR and Dandanator), any issues please report them to me and I'll fix whatever ASAP.

[martin464]

Did you enjoy coding it?!
I really enjoy CPC/Z80 stuff compared to modern environments I find that enjoyment of coding is most noticeable on the CPC I think that's why I keep coming back to it. No software layers between you and the hardware, it's just you and the CPU which is 100% doing what you tell it to. This is so different from any modern development platform. It's not surprising younger coders are attracted to the retro scene, it's something they've never experienced before and... it makes you a better coder

[reidrac]

Did you enjoy coding it?!

There is a difference between coding and making. I usually enjoy the coding part, but making a game is much more than that: enemy design, level design, gameplay and mechanics, graphics, music; and completing it all so it is a finished and complete thing is a lot of work. That I would say is the part that I find less enjoyable.

I started working on this game in November 2021, it has been more time than I usually like to invest on a project. Let's say I have mixed feelings right now 

[asertus]

I really admire you and other game makers.., you are right, I like coding small z80 assembler code.., but "building" a full game is different, design, sprites, gameplay, music..., testing... it requires really a lot of dedication.. 

[reidrac]

Tonight I have been running some final tests on the real hardware, and it looks, plays and sounds great!

https://mastodon.sdf.org/@reidrac/109451836737227836
https://twitter.com/reidrac/status/1599171858531643394


Release on the 9th is very likely!

[abalore]

it looks fantastic! and I'm happy to have more native cartridge games that run in the whole CPC family, including 464.

[Carnivius]

Smooth.

[TotO]

Nice video.

Reading the game controls, how do you exit a game from the GX4000? (Fire 1 + 2 few seconds?)
I imagine you can exit a demo by pressing Fire 1 too as the space bar is used for this purpose?

Thank you.

[reidrac]

Nice video.

Reading the game controls, how do you exit a game from the GX4000? (Fire 1 + 2 few seconds?)
I imagine you can exit a demo by pressing Fire 1 too as the space bar is used for this purpose?

Thank you.

I wrote my own control routines, as opposed to my previous games that used the code from cpcrslib (just to make it more efficient). Depending on pressing the button of the joystick or space it selects joystick or keyboard; in the case of the GX4000 it will be joystick (that will have to have 2 buttons if you want to throw bombs, in a regular CPC you can use "n" for bomb when using 1 button joystick).

The only way to exit the game is pressing ESC currently. In the GX4000 you'll have to lose all 3 lives; may change this if I can think of a good way of doing it.

In the demo, pressing fire 1 will stop it as well; so that works on the GX4000 just fine.

Edit: ah, on the website I didn't explain properly how to exit the demo. Fixed now!

[Axelay]

Nice video.

Reading the game controls, how do you exit a game from the GX4000? (Fire 1 + 2 few seconds?)
I imagine you can exit a demo by pressing Fire 1 too as the space bar is used for this purpose?

Thank you.

The only way to exit the game is pressing ESC currently. In the GX4000 you'll have to lose all 3 lives; may change this if I can think of a good way of doing it.

Maybe: Press P to pause, then while paused either press P again to unpause, or hold P for a second or so to quit?

[TotO]

Maybe: Press P to pause, then while paused either press P again to unpause, or hold P for a second or so to quit?

It is the other idea but that require to go to the GX4000 to press it each time you want to quit to retry. (not handy)

[reidrac]

What an oversight on the GX4000 design; although at least it supports 2 buttons and pause, it could have been worse!

The only thing that would be really clean is showing a menu on pause, but because the screen is setup for scroll, that would be more work that I'm happy to do.

Anything else sounds like a workaround. I guess it may be really annoying to lose all your lives if you want to do a good run and you lose a live early.

I'll think about it. Pressing pause for long when paused already sounds like is not too bad; will require people to read the manual.

[TotO]

That was the same issue with Alcon, so it use Fire 1 + 2 during few seconds to allow to exit.
For a die and retry, pressing pause a long time is not a good solution for the GX4000 players.

[SkulleateR]

... will require people to read the manual.

THAT could be a problem 

[reidrac]

Nice video.

Reading the game controls, how do you exit a game from the GX4000? (Fire 1 + 2 few seconds?)
I imagine you can exit a demo by pressing Fire 1 too as the space bar is used for this purpose?

Thank you.

The only way to exit the game is pressing ESC currently. In the GX4000 you'll have to lose all 3 lives; may change this if I can think of a good way of doing it.

Maybe: Press P to pause, then while paused either press P again to unpause, or hold P for a second or so to quit?

This is actually very clean. Pause is pause, do a long press (a couple of seconds) and it will exit the game. It is implemented already.

It is also consistent with the behavior of modern devices where a long press on power button stops the device even if the software is not responding.

It may be annoying if the console is far away from the controller, but other than that, I think I like it!

EDIT: updated the website; will include it in the manual (that nobody will read haha).

EDIT 2: I don't have a GX4000, I hope it doesn't have a reset feature by pressing pause a long time

[TotO]

It may be annoying if the console is far away from the controller, but other than that, I think I like it! I don't have a GX4000, I hope it doesn't have a reset feature by pressing pause a long time

Sure, you do not have a GX4000, because people using it today with CPC games hack is exactly to not have to move to require a game action. (except to pause it to do another thing)

[asertus]

What an oversight on the GX4000 design; although at least it supports 2 buttons and pause, it could have been worse!

The only thing that would be really clean is showing a menu on pause, but because the screen is setup for scroll, that would be more work that I'm happy to do.

Anything else sounds like a workaround. I guess it may be really annoying to lose all your lives if you want to do a good run and you lose a live early.

I'll think about it. Pressing pause for long when paused already sounds like is not too bad; will require people to read the manual.

I really think that "menu on pause" is the best approach for console games, with no keyboard..

[iXien]

That was the same issue with Alcon, so it use Fire 1 + 2 during few seconds to allow to exit.
For a die and retry, pressing pause a long time is not a good solution for the GX4000 players.

As a common GX4000 user since a long time, and after playing Alcon a lot, I can confirm the J1B1+J1B2 during a few seconds is a perfect alternative to the Pause button 

[iXien]

I really think that "menu on pause" is the best approach for console games, with no keyboard..

Yes, usually, but here the idea is to be able to quit game quickly without having to lean too often towards a console that is not necessarily within your direct reach