124 lines
6.3 KiB
Plaintext
124 lines
6.3 KiB
Plaintext
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___ ___ __ ___ ___ ____ ____
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| \ / _] / ] | T T / T| \
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| \ / [_ / / _____ | _ _ |Y o || _ Y
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| D YY _] / / | || \_/ || || | |
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| || [_ / \_l_____j| | || _ || | |
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| || T\ | | | || | || | | by mcphail
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l_____jl_____j \____j l___j___jl__j__jl__j__j btl AT mcphail.uk
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- An exciting arcade game for the ZX Spectrum
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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You are DEC-Man and must search the haunted castle for delicious protein pills
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whilst avoiding "Stinky", the terrifying ghost who will ruin your day! Use the
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magical teleporter to zip to the other end of the main corridor to escape his
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spectral clutches. If you survive, you get to come back another day!
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---Controls-------------------------------------------------------------------
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Up - "E"
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Down - "D"
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Left - "O"
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Right - "P"
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---Features-------------------------------------------------------------------
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- Exciting action!
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- Several colours!
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- Thrilling* sound!
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- An intelligent enemy who will hunt you down!
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- Working teleporter!
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* - not actually thrilling.
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---Loading--------------------------------------------------------------------
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The "decman.tap" file can be loaded in any standard ZX Spectrum emulator, of
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which there are many. I recommend FUSE, which is available for Windows, Mac
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and Linux. Alternatively, the "decman.wav" file can be played through the tape
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socket of an original ZX Spectrum and loaded with 'LOAD ""' in the usual way.
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The game will auto-run when loaded.
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---Listing--------------------------------------------------------------------
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Press "CAPS-Shift"+"SPACE" (Shift and Space on an emulator) to BREAK into the
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program then type "LIST" (using the 'K' key) then "ENTER" to see the listing.
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It can be seen that all lines are maximum 80 characters. For convenience, a
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full listing is included in the "listing.txt" file which accompanies this
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game. This has been produced using the "listbasic" utility from the FUSE
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suite of tools. Note that line 1 has 4 extra colour-control characters added
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which are represented in the listing as € symbols, to prove the 80-character
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limit has not been exceeded.
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---Submission-----------------------------------------------------------------
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This game is being submitted for the 2026 BASIC 10Liner competition. It has
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been written by me, mcphail, and is all my own work. No AI has been used in
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the production of this game. I can be reached at "btl AT mcphail.uk".
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It uses standard Sinclair BASIC, as shipped on the original 16 and 48K
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ZX Spectrum computers in the UK.
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I believe this submission meets all the criteria for the PUR-80 category.
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---Notes----------------------------------------------------------------------
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This game was written in VSCode using my "speccydev" dev container. The source
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code and build system is available at:
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https://boarstone.mcphail.uk/mcphail/BASIC10Liner2026 .
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I used the "zmakebas" utility to build the code into the .tap file.
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Sinclair BASIC is a poor choice for this competition due to its verbose
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keyword structure, and the Spectrum is a tricky target as there are no subtle
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ways to print characters to the screen without using lengthy "PRINT" commands.
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Furthermore, there is no "ELSE" keyword so an "IF...THEN" construct
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effectively ends a line. On the other hand, "DATA" statements can be placed
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anywhere in the program and function definitions can be made before or after
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the function is actually called. This allows the creative programmer to move
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some data and logic to the dead spaces at the end of lines.
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I only use 2 "IF...THEN" statements in the program. Most of the logic is
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constructed using boolean comparisons as part of "LET" assignments. This saves
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a little space and prevents premature line closure.
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Most of the graphics are created by POKEing the screen attribute area to make
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coloured blocks. It isn't pretty, but it is character-efficient and the
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squares can be PEEKed for collision detection.
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Lines 1-3 create the play board. The coordinates of the walls in the upper-
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left quadrant are read in and mirrored to the other 3 quadrants. As there was
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a little spare space in these lines, the defined function "b" is located here.
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This will be described later.
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Line 4 creates the teleport squares and starts the main game loop.
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Line 5 reads the keyboard input. If a direction key is pressed, it uses
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defined function "a" to check if that direction does not contain a wall and
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sets the new intended character direction if that is the case. Line 6 will
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keep the player going in the original direction if there has not been a valid
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change in direction.
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Line 7 teleports the player to the other end of the main corridor if they are
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on the teleport square and prints the player at the new location.
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Line 8 will move the ghost up or down to match the player's row if there is no
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wall in the way. If the ghost cannot move up or down, it will try to move left
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or right towards the player (calling defined function "b" to do this as there
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was no space left on this line), again if there is no wall in the way. The
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algorithm is a bit 'loose', which creates emergent behaviour where the ghost
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will sometimes branch away from a pursuit and try to head-off the player at
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the next corner, which is quite fun!
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Line 9 will cause the ghost to back up a square if it cannot move towards the
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player due to walls. This keeps the ghost in motion at all times. A check is
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made for a player-ghost collision and the game restarted if that is the case.
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Line 10 increments the pill counter if one has been eaten, and either restarts
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the game loop or plays the victory sound if the board has been cleared. The
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defined function "a" is stuck on the end here, and is used multiple times in
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the program to check for wall collisions by player or ghost.
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DEC-Man is, of course, a play on Pacman and "DEC" for "10", in the spirit of
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the competition.
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---Have fun and thanks for the opportunity to make this!----------------------
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