Extruder

[rmartins]

I finally decided that I will participate with an Arcade Conversion for the ZX Spectrum 48K.

This will be inspired-by an arcade match-3 gameplay, with a very fast action.

This is a game that I love to play on the arcade, and have been doing so, to get to know all its features and details, in terms of gameplay, rules and effects.

Single Player



Versus Mode


The Arcade has a native resolution of 320x224, which is too wide and tall for our humble ZX capabilities (256x192), so some adaptations are required, besides the usual color conversion and attribute clash issues.

I have been working on the look&feel of the thing for ZX, and after quite a few revisions, here are my screen goals.

Single Player


Versus Mode


Next ?

Start coding

[gabrieleamore]

WOW!

[Admin]

Magical Drop!!!!! Hurrah!!! It is going to be really addictive! So far looking good, even it is just a mock up
Have you thought about putting in-game music? That would make the game gain some points

The 2 players option would also be awesome, will it be difficult to implement?

Keep it up

[rmartins]

Aug 15, 2017 20:26:27 GMT Admin said:

Have you thought about putting in-game music? That would make the game gain some points

Before deciding to participate, I talked with UTZ about music, and he agreed to participate
So that's covered.

Aug 15, 2017 20:26:27 GMT Admin said:

The 2 players option would also be awesome, will it be difficult to implement?

I'm using Data Structures to keep my functions generic, so that I can use the same code for 1 or 2 players.
The hard part, will be implementing some AI, in order to be able to play against the computer (might not support this).
But playing against a human, will always be the better option.

[rmartins]

First Update on coding



Two distinct boards with distinct insert patterns.

[Admin]

Nice to see movement in the coding, Rui
By the way, now that you mentioned it, it is true that I do not remember any Spectrum game from this type which had 1P mode against the computer (I mean a puzzle game).

It is a really nice news that Utz is going to do the music, thats a guarantee. By the way, will you put backgrounds in the panels?

[rmartins]

One more update, on screen refresh performance


Here we can see, a full refresh (both Boards), with colored timming:
- Left Board, Red
- Right Board, Magenta
- Left Clown, Yellow
- Right Clown, White

Nice to see movement in the coding, Rui
By the way, now that you mentioned it, it is true that I do not remember any Spectrum game from this type which had 1P mode against the computer (I mean a puzzle game).

I'm not sure, but that could be the case yes, since it's hard to implement.

It is a really nice news that Utz is going to do the music, thats a guarantee.
By the way, will you put backgrounds in the panels?

Yes, great to have UTZ on board.

Unfortunately, no textured backgrounds will be available, during game play.
It's just not possible due to Speccy limitations.


Remember, that when board, drops one line for each player, we need a full refresh, so lots of CPU.

I can also optimize to refresh just the column we are currently working with, but sometimes FULL Board refresh will be required, like mentioned above.

To have some extra CPU, I'll probably split versus mode, into one board update into each own frame.
Making sure this will be fair, and not give any extra advantage to the first being refreshed.

P.S.
Re-using code from SteelBall, is a lot faster to develop, even when I need to refactor some functions into special cases, like Color Blit 2x2, for example

[rmartins]

And here is a small update


Idle animation.

[Admin]

Almost a month in silence, Rui, maybe you are advancing a lot on this?

Or maybe also getting things done in POW?

[rmartins]

Unfortunately, I had a sudden health problem in my family, that required immediate attention.
I had to postpone game development, for a while at least.
Hope to get back to it, when possible.

[Admin]

Sept 11, 2017 15:31:37 GMT rmartins said:

Unfortunately, I had a sudden health problem in my family, that required immediate attention.
I had to postpone game development, for a while at least.
Hope to get back to it, when possible.

Oh, I am sorry, mate, no worries, take care of those things and we hope everything gets sorted out nicely

[rmartins]

After probably the 3 hardest months in my life, the health problem in my family is under way to be resolved, with a good prognostic.

Hence I'm finally able to have some peace of mind to start slowly working on Extruder again.

I did some small changes on code, but nothing relevant to show yet.
However, I have been keeping my mind busy, doing some artwork for it lately.

Here is a reference image from the Arcade version.


And here is the work in progress version for ZX Spectrum

[greenwebsevilla]

Happy to hear everthing is better. Welcome back!

Very nice artwork!

[Admin]

Nice job!! The Spectrum could not do it better, excellent, Rui

[javierq]

I'm glad that everything finally goes better. A lot of encouragement to continue working on this promising project!