5 ms·

I have an actual commercial game from 1987 :) https://github.com/TheJare/stardust-48k https://github.com/TheJare/stardust-48k

by Jare 2y ago

pan69 2y ago
Actual? Is this not reversed engineered?
- MrLeap 2y ago
  I think the "actual" in this case points to "commercial game".
  - axus 2y ago
    From the README.md: "Also thank to Roberto Carlos Fernandez, who many years ago made me promise I'd give him a printed copy of the sources. That copy is buried in some box in storage somewhere, and we'd rather do this than go search for it."
    - SilasX 2y ago
      To adapt the old saying, 3 months of reverse engineering can save you 3 hours in the storage room.
- Jare 2y ago
  We lost the source code in any usable form. Even if we dug up the printed copy, scanning it would be tedious as hell. :) So we ended up reverse engineering our own game, fun times. But yeah, "actual" in that it's a real commercial game (30k copies or so) developed and released in 1987. If memory serves right, we started in late autumn'86 and it was published around November'87.
  - kotojo 2y ago
    This is awesome. I listen to a video game history podcast with the founder of the video game history foundation, https://gamehistory.org/ https://gamehistory.org/ , and the one thing he constantly brings up is to send him any and every person in the game industry with fun stories, weird bits and bobs of prototypes, and anything in between. If you've got the time I know that dude would love to pick your brain!
    - Jare 2y ago
      I didn't know about that site! I've queued up a few of the podcast episodes already. Thank you for the reference!
0xf00ff00f 2y ago
Wow, that's pretty cool. The game looks great! Was it developed on an actual ZX Spectrum? I think I read that the development environment for the Spectrum port of R-Type was running on a 80286 PC, curious if this was common back in the day.
- Jare 2y ago
  Yes, developed on a 100% standard Spectrum 48K with the rubber keyboard :) We had a Timex 3" double disc drive, unlike our previous (not commercial) game which we developed using regular cassette tapes. We used HiSoft's GENS assembler. My brother reverse-engineered the microdrive code in GENS and replaced it with functions to access the Timex drive. That was a huge timesaver for us and other Spanish developers at the time. The source code and the GENS program had to fit in the 48K. For our next Spectrum game, we used a hardware system to connect an Atari ST and develop on it. It was certainly faster and more comfortable, but the system was buggy as hell and crashed/corrupted the source almost daily.
theendisney4 2y ago
It looks stunning for the time and system
pmg101 2y ago
Just watched a play through at https://youtu.be/i5QV-J3JlAY https://youtu.be/i5QV-J3JlAY and I can definitely say that the graphics in this game would have blown 9-year-old me away in 1987! Really impressive
- ddingus 2y ago
  Seriously great use of monochrome bitmap graphics. These are my favorite old computer games. I really like frame locked, often using sprite system, type games. Atari VCS comes to mind, as do many other systems that have sprites and some means to sync with the display. But the feel of those is crisp, sharp edged, fast, sometimes too perfect if you can maybe guess what I mean. Bitmap games are different! The drawing, masking, and every other thing happens on the CPU. It feels a bit wild, and the feel varies. Number of enemies, missiles, etc... do often change the speed a little. And that's nice, kind of wild! The game feels alive in a way. Not living but not stale either. The author packed a lot of shooter into a 256 x (whatever) screen. And the art is really good! Takes a bit of talent to make multiple baddies stand out amidst quite a bit of background detail. And the sounds! Little bits of this and that packed into the game loops. That's a feel I like too. Often sounds are just a click or beep. But sometimes there is a little more, and this game does that. Great work. Just my kind of game.
  - Jare 2y ago
    Thank you for your kind words! I drew most of the environment graphics and designed/encoded the maps in pen+paper as you can see. That style of graphics fascinated me since I saw Uridium on the C64 and then the Spectrum port. Julio Martin (a real artist) drew the ships and sprites and frame, the actually artistic stuff. Fun bit: the explosions and possibly other sounds were just us pushing graphics bytes to the audio port (a 1-bit piece of metal which you had to flip in software to make it vibrate) as we rendered them. A poor man's source of noise.
    - ddingus 2y ago
      Lol, I feel that! On my 2600 game Ooze! I would drop item Y values into the audio registers as a poor man's way of making some cool sounds of enemy advancing. Same for the player missile. As it travels, some variation of its Y value becomes the sound. Tossing bytes at ports does insure the user associates the noise with the right on screen action. Anyhow, great art! You did a fine job making things stand out and that is not easy.
ykonstant 2y ago
The disassembly is great, but I also love the hand-drawn maps. I wish modern games came with thick paper manuals detailing lore, mechanics, development notes and other goodies.

I have an actual commercial game from 1987 :) https://github.com/TheJare/stardust-48k https://github.com/TheJare/stardust-48k

by Jare 2y ago

I have an actual commercial game from 1987 :) https://github.com/TheJare/stardust-48k https://github.com/TheJare/stardust-48k

pan69 2y ago

Actual? Is this not reversed engineered?

MrLeap 2y ago
I think the "actual" in this case points to "commercial game".
- axus 2y ago
  From the README.md: "Also thank to Roberto Carlos Fernandez, who many years ago made me promise I'd give him a printed copy of the sources. That copy is buried in some box in storage somewhere, and we'd rather do this than go search for it."
  - SilasX 2y ago
    To adapt the old saying, 3 months of reverse engineering can save you 3 hours in the storage room.
Jare 2y ago
We lost the source code in any usable form. Even if we dug up the printed copy, scanning it would be tedious as hell. :) So we ended up reverse engineering our own game, fun times. But yeah, "actual" in that it's a real commercial game (30k copies or so) developed and released in 1987. If memory serves right, we started in late autumn'86 and it was published around November'87.
- kotojo 2y ago
  This is awesome. I listen to a video game history podcast with the founder of the video game history foundation, https://gamehistory.org/ https://gamehistory.org/ , and the one thing he constantly brings up is to send him any and every person in the game industry with fun stories, weird bits and bobs of prototypes, and anything in between. If you've got the time I know that dude would love to pick your brain!
  - Jare 2y ago
    I didn't know about that site! I've queued up a few of the podcast episodes already. Thank you for the reference!

0xf00ff00f 2y ago

Wow, that's pretty cool. The game looks great! Was it developed on an actual ZX Spectrum? I think I read that the development environment for the Spectrum port of R-Type was running on a 80286 PC, curious if this was common back in the day.

Jare 2y ago
Yes, developed on a 100% standard Spectrum 48K with the rubber keyboard :) We had a Timex 3" double disc drive, unlike our previous (not commercial) game which we developed using regular cassette tapes. We used HiSoft's GENS assembler. My brother reverse-engineered the microdrive code in GENS and replaced it with functions to access the Timex drive. That was a huge timesaver for us and other Spanish developers at the time. The source code and the GENS program had to fit in the 48K. For our next Spectrum game, we used a hardware system to connect an Atari ST and develop on it. It was certainly faster and more comfortable, but the system was buggy as hell and crashed/corrupted the source almost daily.

theendisney4 2y ago

It looks stunning for the time and system

pmg101 2y ago

Just watched a play through at https://youtu.be/i5QV-J3JlAY https://youtu.be/i5QV-J3JlAY and I can definitely say that the graphics in this game would have blown 9-year-old me away in 1987! Really impressive

ddingus 2y ago
Seriously great use of monochrome bitmap graphics. These are my favorite old computer games. I really like frame locked, often using sprite system, type games. Atari VCS comes to mind, as do many other systems that have sprites and some means to sync with the display. But the feel of those is crisp, sharp edged, fast, sometimes too perfect if you can maybe guess what I mean. Bitmap games are different! The drawing, masking, and every other thing happens on the CPU. It feels a bit wild, and the feel varies. Number of enemies, missiles, etc... do often change the speed a little. And that's nice, kind of wild! The game feels alive in a way. Not living but not stale either. The author packed a lot of shooter into a 256 x (whatever) screen. And the art is really good! Takes a bit of talent to make multiple baddies stand out amidst quite a bit of background detail. And the sounds! Little bits of this and that packed into the game loops. That's a feel I like too. Often sounds are just a click or beep. But sometimes there is a little more, and this game does that. Great work. Just my kind of game.
- Jare 2y ago
  Thank you for your kind words! I drew most of the environment graphics and designed/encoded the maps in pen+paper as you can see. That style of graphics fascinated me since I saw Uridium on the C64 and then the Spectrum port. Julio Martin (a real artist) drew the ships and sprites and frame, the actually artistic stuff. Fun bit: the explosions and possibly other sounds were just us pushing graphics bytes to the audio port (a 1-bit piece of metal which you had to flip in software to make it vibrate) as we rendered them. A poor man's source of noise.
  - ddingus 2y ago
    Lol, I feel that! On my 2600 game Ooze! I would drop item Y values into the audio registers as a poor man's way of making some cool sounds of enemy advancing. Same for the player missile. As it travels, some variation of its Y value becomes the sound. Tossing bytes at ports does insure the user associates the noise with the right on screen action. Anyhow, great art! You did a fine job making things stand out and that is not easy.

ykonstant 2y ago

The disassembly is great, but I also love the hand-drawn maps. I wish modern games came with thick paper manuals detailing lore, mechanics, development notes and other goodies.