Hey Taxi - WIP Game for Commodore PET 4032
Posted: Mon Jul 10, 2023 6:56 pm
Navigate the maze and avoid crazy drivers in the city. Pick up fares in your taxi and drop them off to various establishments (hospital, church, bar, even Slay Radio HQ).
If it plays well and receives decent reviews (I haven't tested it on a real PET) then I plan to strip out all the excess code and the huge map and create a smaller map without buildings, and add flags and smoke screens to make a proper Rally-X release (no taxi, no passengers).
This is all dependent on how well it plays though... see the technical notes.
Technical Notes
This game was inspired by Rally-X for the PET. To date I have no idea how they create the maze (also Radar Rat Race). They were however able to pack all the code into just 8k and extrapolate the data to make obstacles, and the surrounding terrain borders. I was fascinated with how this was able to be accomplished.
The map data doesn't appear to be stored as full data in memory, but rather generated on the fly from some compressed data.
I was going to try the same but then I had the issue of how would the enemy cars chase you when they were off the visible screen because they wouldn't be able to navigate the compressed map? I have no idea how to do that, and so almost 8K of my game is pure screen mapping.
The game was made on the C64 because I know the locations by memory, and then ported to the PET. It plays somewhat fast on the PET and there appears to be 'tearing' of the graphics under Vice. I'd be interested in hearing how it plays on a real PET.
Also the AI to chase you is excellent in the HAL PET version while I was left struggling to get a decent AI. I even considered disassembling the HAL version to port it with proper graphics (not the PCG mod). I borrowed some code from Pac Man for the Vic-20 to try to pick the best direction but also relied on my own code.
Also open to suggestions on how to improve AI, chasing you based on X and Y coordinates.
The maze was created using the online PETSCII Editor (http://petscii.krissz.hu/) and can be imported via the map.asm file.
Includes source code, PET 4032 version and c64 version (without sound or color because it was just for porting).
https://milasoft64.itch.io/hey-taxi-commodore-pet-4032
https://webdrive.commodoregames.net/SHARE_ECXHCXEKBB
If it plays well and receives decent reviews (I haven't tested it on a real PET) then I plan to strip out all the excess code and the huge map and create a smaller map without buildings, and add flags and smoke screens to make a proper Rally-X release (no taxi, no passengers).
This is all dependent on how well it plays though... see the technical notes.
Technical Notes
This game was inspired by Rally-X for the PET. To date I have no idea how they create the maze (also Radar Rat Race). They were however able to pack all the code into just 8k and extrapolate the data to make obstacles, and the surrounding terrain borders. I was fascinated with how this was able to be accomplished.
The map data doesn't appear to be stored as full data in memory, but rather generated on the fly from some compressed data.
I was going to try the same but then I had the issue of how would the enemy cars chase you when they were off the visible screen because they wouldn't be able to navigate the compressed map? I have no idea how to do that, and so almost 8K of my game is pure screen mapping.
The game was made on the C64 because I know the locations by memory, and then ported to the PET. It plays somewhat fast on the PET and there appears to be 'tearing' of the graphics under Vice. I'd be interested in hearing how it plays on a real PET.
Also the AI to chase you is excellent in the HAL PET version while I was left struggling to get a decent AI. I even considered disassembling the HAL version to port it with proper graphics (not the PCG mod). I borrowed some code from Pac Man for the Vic-20 to try to pick the best direction but also relied on my own code.
Also open to suggestions on how to improve AI, chasing you based on X and Y coordinates.
The maze was created using the online PETSCII Editor (http://petscii.krissz.hu/) and can be imported via the map.asm file.
Includes source code, PET 4032 version and c64 version (without sound or color because it was just for porting).
https://milasoft64.itch.io/hey-taxi-commodore-pet-4032
https://webdrive.commodoregames.net/SHARE_ECXHCXEKBB
