Lol, tried replacing the . with (dot) and the / with (bs) but I still can't show the link. I'll send you a private message. It's basically the same game, and only took me 2 days to write xD. Stole the start-up screen from the original tape and just took the graphics from the Spectrum game and touched them up in a paint package. Spent about 4 days creating new levels then got bored and realised nobody will play it anyway :p Mind you, it'd run on Android phones! :p
Unfortunately it is not possible to post links on youtube in the comment section. If you want post a 'link' here you must do it for example like this: url(dot)com. In private messages you can post links of course.
The scrolling is quite bad on this conversion, but it was fairly bad on every version, including the Spectrum. For some reason, I had always assumed the blocks on Boulderdash were 3x3 blocks, but they're 2x2, so it's much less jerky. The MSX has much nicer colours though - on the Spectrum the droids were a single colour and it didn't have the 3 droids shown at the bottom right, which is a nice touch.
Yes, as said earlier, scrolling is not one of MSX selling points. Colours however were always one of the best points on the MSX system especially on the later generations. MSX got a lot of conversions from the Spectrum, which were easily recognizable of course. Nothing wrong with these conversions of course and several of them are in my top 10 of favorite games, but the MSX was capable of so much more.
@saigokun I seem to remember the MSX was very similar to a Spectrum and used the same chip and other similarities. Infact, when asking me to do the conversions, Atlantis suggested I start with the MSX since it would be easiest to learn. In the end I declined but they got other programmers to make versions for 6 or 7 platforms. The graphics on the MSX are the closest I've seen to the Spectrum - pixel-perfect copies infact except for the colouring.
Thanks for this background information. Why did you decline?
MSX and Spectrum are in many ways similar to each other, like the micro chip.
In those days the UK was known as Sinclair's country as almost no other home computer could easily penetrate it. Electric Soft tried to produce British made MSX games.
@saigokun I declined because by the time it was released I was 16 (took over a year to finalise everything) and I'd left school and had another project on the go. More importantly, I couldn't program for any of the other computers. They asked me to do the Amstrad CPC 464 conversion since it also used the same processor as the Spectrum and MSX, but I couldn't get to grips with it. In the end, the conversions were all very well done though I'm not sure I've seen the Amstrad version.
@saigokun What I'm considering with the Speccy upload is to do some commentary with it. I know it's not a big game or anything, but a bit of background info might be interesting to some people. And I might try to complete it, all 7 levels.... lol xD
@saigokun I'd point out that there is no 'real' scrolling in this game. The Spectrum had no scrolling capabilities either - the first computer I came across with real scrolling was the Amiga (the C64 might have had some too). All that happens here is a grid is generated each refresh, just drawing a block for whatever appears at the positions around your droid. Even the Speccy could manage that 20 times a second or so - the MSX seems to struggle slightly but still does a good enough job.
I am not a programmer, so I can't judge about that but later on the MSX2 some excellent scrolling games were produced on the MSX2 and later generations, but indeed it remained a problem during the entire existence of the system.
It was quite common back in those days for school-kids to write games. Almost every game was written by a teenager and there were very few teams around. It took me a year to write it since I was learning assembler at the time. I could write it in a few days nowadays with modern languages, but it was a fun learning experience. They offered me £400 or 12.5% of the royalties - I took the £400. Not sure if the 12.5% applied to conversions but I doubt it.
Ok I didn't know that almost every game was written by teenagers in the UK. I think that a lot has changed since those days with regards to computer languages. But it is the experience that counts I think. £400 must have been a big amount of money for a 14 year old in those days.
Can you perhaps upload the Spectrum version? I would really like to see that one. Perhaps you can make a remake for the PC. Remakes are pretty hot these days I think.
@saigokun Ah, finally worked out how to put my replies in the correct place. Sorry I made a mess of this page :p Yeah, there's lots of stories of young guys writing games in their bedrooms, although there were some bigger companies around, but there wasn't much money in the gaming business in those days, not until the late 80's or early '90's. I'll upload the Speccy version soon. A remake is possible but I doubt it'd be very hot, the game wasn't all that popular (it was on the Electron I think).
No problem, this happens to me too :) Back then the gaming industry was still a small cottage but after the late 1980s, early nineteens it grew much bigger. Although people still make games in their own attic so to speak, and I am thankful for that. I am looking forward to that Speccy upload :) You can upload it as a reply to my video.
Originally it was just going to be the one robot, but the idea of using 3 was a flash of inspiration I had on my way to school (I was 14 at the time). Good thing too, because the 3 droids are what make the game playable :)
Thanks for your reply and your sub to my channel. Wow only 14! Indeed now the robots have to work in a team and solve the problems. I guess it took you quite a lot of time to program this game. I have never seen the Spectrum version.
I'm sure it'll be no surprise to know the inspiration was Boulderdash. Having said that, I wasn't a huge fan of that game, although I quite enjoyed it, but nothing compared to my love of 'The Lords of Midnight'. I think what basically happened was, I had started to learn assembler on the Spectrum, and had put together the basic scrolling engine and realised that it was suited to a BD type game.
Boulderdash was a great game. On the MSX only Boulderdash and Boulderdash II were released. I have never heard of 'The Lords of Midnight'. Scrolling was always a problem on the MSX, unfortunately.
Oooh this is my game (I wrote the original Spectrum version). I've never seen the MSX conversion but it looks almost identical. The graphics are exact copies, except that the droids are more colorful, which is a nice touch.
Do you know if the surroundings change colour on the later levels? All the other conversions seemed to miss this, probably because the programmers never noticed it since they had access to the code and can just start at any point.
Thanks for your reply. It is always great when one of the original programmers replies. To answer your question, the colour of the surroundings does not change at the later levels.
This was a great puzzle game, and I liked it very much. Where did you find the inspiration for this game?
Lol, tried replacing the . with (dot) and the / with (bs) but I still can't show the link. I'll send you a private message. It's basically the same game, and only took me 2 days to write xD. Stole the start-up screen from the original tape and just took the graphics from the Spectrum game and touched them up in a paint package. Spent about 4 days creating new levels then got bored and realised nobody will play it anyway :p Mind you, it'd run on Android phones! :p
ProinelThePurple 1 month ago
Just did a remake for the PC, but I don't seem able to put up a link to it here, do you know how I post a link?
ProinelThePurple 1 month ago
@ProinelThePurple
Hello my friend,
Unfortunately it is not possible to post links on youtube in the comment section. If you want post a 'link' here you must do it for example like this: url(dot)com. In private messages you can post links of course.
I am looking forward to see this game.
saigokun 1 month ago
The scrolling is quite bad on this conversion, but it was fairly bad on every version, including the Spectrum. For some reason, I had always assumed the blocks on Boulderdash were 3x3 blocks, but they're 2x2, so it's much less jerky. The MSX has much nicer colours though - on the Spectrum the droids were a single colour and it didn't have the 3 droids shown at the bottom right, which is a nice touch.
ProinelThePurple 3 months ago
@ProinelThePurple
Yes, as said earlier, scrolling is not one of MSX selling points. Colours however were always one of the best points on the MSX system especially on the later generations. MSX got a lot of conversions from the Spectrum, which were easily recognizable of course. Nothing wrong with these conversions of course and several of them are in my top 10 of favorite games, but the MSX was capable of so much more.
saigokun 3 months ago
@saigokun I seem to remember the MSX was very similar to a Spectrum and used the same chip and other similarities. Infact, when asking me to do the conversions, Atlantis suggested I start with the MSX since it would be easiest to learn. In the end I declined but they got other programmers to make versions for 6 or 7 platforms. The graphics on the MSX are the closest I've seen to the Spectrum - pixel-perfect copies infact except for the colouring.
ProinelThePurple 3 months ago
@ProinelThePurple
Thanks for this background information. Why did you decline?
MSX and Spectrum are in many ways similar to each other, like the micro chip.
In those days the UK was known as Sinclair's country as almost no other home computer could easily penetrate it. Electric Soft tried to produce British made MSX games.
saigokun 3 months ago
@saigokun I declined because by the time it was released I was 16 (took over a year to finalise everything) and I'd left school and had another project on the go. More importantly, I couldn't program for any of the other computers. They asked me to do the Amstrad CPC 464 conversion since it also used the same processor as the Spectrum and MSX, but I couldn't get to grips with it. In the end, the conversions were all very well done though I'm not sure I've seen the Amstrad version.
ProinelThePurple 3 months ago
@ProinelThePurple
Ok thanks for the information. It seems to me they were asking a lot of you.. Hope to see that Speccy upload from you soon :)
saigokun 3 months ago
@saigokun What I'm considering with the Speccy upload is to do some commentary with it. I know it's not a big game or anything, but a bit of background info might be interesting to some people. And I might try to complete it, all 7 levels.... lol xD
ProinelThePurple 3 months ago
@ProinelThePurple
Looking forward to it. I think a lot of background info might be very useful. Hope you are still thinking of that remake. :)
saigokun 3 months ago
@saigokun I'd point out that there is no 'real' scrolling in this game. The Spectrum had no scrolling capabilities either - the first computer I came across with real scrolling was the Amiga (the C64 might have had some too). All that happens here is a grid is generated each refresh, just drawing a block for whatever appears at the positions around your droid. Even the Speccy could manage that 20 times a second or so - the MSX seems to struggle slightly but still does a good enough job.
ProinelThePurple 3 months ago
@ProinelThePurple
I am not a programmer, so I can't judge about that but later on the MSX2 some excellent scrolling games were produced on the MSX2 and later generations, but indeed it remained a problem during the entire existence of the system.
saigokun 3 months ago
It was quite common back in those days for school-kids to write games. Almost every game was written by a teenager and there were very few teams around. It took me a year to write it since I was learning assembler at the time. I could write it in a few days nowadays with modern languages, but it was a fun learning experience. They offered me £400 or 12.5% of the royalties - I took the £400. Not sure if the 12.5% applied to conversions but I doubt it.
ProinelThePurple 3 months ago
@ProinelThePurple
Ok I didn't know that almost every game was written by teenagers in the UK. I think that a lot has changed since those days with regards to computer languages. But it is the experience that counts I think. £400 must have been a big amount of money for a 14 year old in those days.
Can you perhaps upload the Spectrum version? I would really like to see that one. Perhaps you can make a remake for the PC. Remakes are pretty hot these days I think.
saigokun 3 months ago
@saigokun Ah, finally worked out how to put my replies in the correct place. Sorry I made a mess of this page :p Yeah, there's lots of stories of young guys writing games in their bedrooms, although there were some bigger companies around, but there wasn't much money in the gaming business in those days, not until the late 80's or early '90's. I'll upload the Speccy version soon. A remake is possible but I doubt it'd be very hot, the game wasn't all that popular (it was on the Electron I think).
ProinelThePurple 3 months ago
@ProinelThePurple
No problem, this happens to me too :) Back then the gaming industry was still a small cottage but after the late 1980s, early nineteens it grew much bigger. Although people still make games in their own attic so to speak, and I am thankful for that. I am looking forward to that Speccy upload :) You can upload it as a reply to my video.
saigokun 3 months ago
Originally it was just going to be the one robot, but the idea of using 3 was a flash of inspiration I had on my way to school (I was 14 at the time). Good thing too, because the 3 droids are what make the game playable :)
ProinelThePurple 3 months ago
@ProinelThePurple
Thanks for your reply and your sub to my channel. Wow only 14! Indeed now the robots have to work in a team and solve the problems. I guess it took you quite a lot of time to program this game. I have never seen the Spectrum version.
saigokun 3 months ago
I'm sure it'll be no surprise to know the inspiration was Boulderdash. Having said that, I wasn't a huge fan of that game, although I quite enjoyed it, but nothing compared to my love of 'The Lords of Midnight'. I think what basically happened was, I had started to learn assembler on the Spectrum, and had put together the basic scrolling engine and realised that it was suited to a BD type game.
ProinelThePurple 3 months ago
@ProinelThePurple
Boulderdash was a great game. On the MSX only Boulderdash and Boulderdash II were released. I have never heard of 'The Lords of Midnight'. Scrolling was always a problem on the MSX, unfortunately.
saigokun 3 months ago
Oooh this is my game (I wrote the original Spectrum version). I've never seen the MSX conversion but it looks almost identical. The graphics are exact copies, except that the droids are more colorful, which is a nice touch.
Do you know if the surroundings change colour on the later levels? All the other conversions seemed to miss this, probably because the programmers never noticed it since they had access to the code and can just start at any point.
ProinelThePurple 3 months ago
@ProinelThePurple
Thanks for your reply. It is always great when one of the original programmers replies. To answer your question, the colour of the surroundings does not change at the later levels.
This was a great puzzle game, and I liked it very much. Where did you find the inspiration for this game?
saigokun 3 months ago