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t.golem intro
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2022-08-26
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INTRODUCTION TO GOLEMS
by Dave Moorman
I recently downloaded a C-64 port
of the classic Amiga game [Lemmings].
The translation to C-64 (made in 1994
-- one of the last commercial C-64
releases) was pretty remarkable,
considering the hardware differences.
But I'm just not able to leave
something well enough alone. Something
LOADSTARites and other Commodoreans
could fiddle with, improve and expand.
What we need, I said to myself, is
[something like] [Lemmings]. Creating
programs that are [something like]
other games is one of my favorite
programming challenges. The trick is
to not fight the C-64, but jujitsu its
unique features to every possible
advantage.
This is what I did with Sea to
Sea, which is [something like]
Railroad Baron. We can build a giant
charater cell map in memory and
quickly move screen code on the map to
the screen.
A year after Sea to Sea appeared
on LOADSTAR, Jeff Jones published Big
Screen, an ML module that accomplished
what my dedicated screen map code did,
and more. So I grabbed Big Screen off
issue 119 and got to work on Golems.
Soon had them walking, climbing,
falling, and all sorts of things in a
test program. The next step was to
design a level design program so I
could build the whole game.
And the design program needed a
small font editor like in Mr.MICK --
which was written in 1997. Of course,
the source code for that program is
long gone. So I wrote FontStar, also
available on this issue. If you have
need for a small screen/level editor
with font editing capabilities,
FontStar will do the trick. The level
design program was just a matter of
linking together Jeff's Big Screen and
the FontStar features (with Mr. Mouse,
of course).
Finally -- to the game. If you
break out and look at the game, you
will see that the BASIC is mostly
about loading levels and displaying
text. One feature is that all the
Golem level file names on a disk are
loaded up at the beginning of the
program and played in order. This way,
Golem can have any number of levels --
up to 127, to be exact. And that's
where [you] come in!
Play the game. See how the little
fellows move. Then boot up Golem
Editor and create new adventures and
challenges. Send them to LOADSTAR, and
recieve a free issue for each level we
use on later issues. We may even have
enough for a stand-alone disk: The
Compleat Golem!
DMM