My New Game - Attack of the PETSCII Robots - Part 1

[@starphaser]

You know what? This concept would work really well on a modern game as well. I'm almost imagining a current gen game where you'd enter a robot factory and had to eliminate robots and solve puzzles in order to reach the next level. Solid concept and looking forward to it!

[@MontieMongoose]

I love that you made the difficulty setting makes the robot more angry. Reminds me of the difficulty settings in Wolfenstein3D and Doom.

[@The8BitGuy]

Indeed.. That is where I got the inspiration, only it's backwards because it is showing the enemy's face instead of the player.

[@FenrirTheGray]

Reminds me of Jazz Jackrabbit 2

[@gxgamingandtech2017]

Maybe it was a reference 🤔 😉

[@Martipar]

For me i recognised it from LHX Attack Chopper.

[@ScottCervelo]

For me it were the tiles at 1:17 that made me think of Wolfenstein.

[@druidofpies]

8 bit guy: so I have this idea for a game 8 bit guy: alright here's an advanced prototype ready to go on 3 systems

[@bn326160]

Including map editor and custom developer tools

[@RedSkyHorizon]

For the past 6 years I've been writing a text adventure for the PET. I think I've just about got the title screen done.

[@YoreHistory]

Including Map editor, custom developer tools (Bram Beirens) PLUS a Snes to 9pin adapter for Snes gamepads...Just wow...

[@bsharpmajorscale]

8 bit guy: also, I will be making versions for a half dozen other systems and will add SNES controller support

[@maxrobe]

Got my pack of paperclips, where do I plug them in?

[@LaskyLabs]

As soon as you have an idea for a game, you've got a prototype ready within seconds. It's genuinely amazing how with old, simple computers like this, you're making the game as you're working on the concept. Nowadays you want to think on a game for months, then do simple demos... Then years later it's done. But this will be done in what... A year? Two? Not only because you're skilled, but because it's simple. The better games got, the more points of failure.

[@anorax001]

Commodore VIC-20 and C64 are still my all time favorite PC's. So many great games and it was fun programming on them.

[@seanl6340]

Grew up on the C64....and it took 35 years for me to see what it was capable of. Thanks, Dave!

[@FreeMan-wz3hj]

Lay of the haterade. Let me see your code!

[@chickendog3042]

As a modern programmer, I feel like we are missing something nowadays. I feel like your program that is "closer to the metal" has a feeling to it that you dont get any more. I was writing in python while watching this and I wish we had some of the feelings back if that makes sense.

[@Daeraxia]

I think that is exactly what David is trying to get back to with the Commander X16 project which I am equally excited for

[@mfaizsyahmi]

which makes me think... The most modern OS with closest to metal API must be TempleOS, right? I wonder what David thinks about it, and whether he'd consider tinkering with it a bit.

[@Daeraxia]

@@mfaizsyahmi Out of interest where has this widespread fascination with TempleOS come from? I swear it used to be an occasional throwaway comment but I've been seeing it pop up all over the place recently.

[@PickleSurpriseVEVO]

Drop python and go back to c, if youre doing graphics programming try out raylib. It’s got the advantage of being new and modern but still really low level

[@deanolium]

@@Daeraxia KZbin has been recommending a lot of videos on it over the last quarter. I know there was a longish YT documentary on it. The thing is that TempleOS sucks ass.

[@BodyByGaming]

this kinda stuff makes me really want to pickup a mini pet.

[@markusTegelane]

Are you talking about a small pet or a computer?

[@cursed_cats5710]

@@markusTegelane The mini-pet kit from tfw8b

[@MyChannel-vm6dw]

Very cool but I think making fire with the wasd keys instead of classic movement is a huge mistake as most people associate wasd with movement

[@yasyasmarangoz3577]

LEGO STAR WARS TCS

[@bitterlemonboy]

They're overpriced. Don't.

[@astrosteve]

I love how obviously proud he is of the game's complexity. As someone who loves writing complex code solely for the sake of complexity, I can completely understand being proud of that.

[@aerohard]

Back in 83-84 I made C64 board game called Drunken Bum. The object of the game is the Bum travels the board to collect bottles and scrap that he can redeem at appropriate board locations, but there were challenges to that redemption along the way. There was a full simple board layout and the spaces you landed on expanded to show a specific action for that space. For example, if the Bum had collected any bottles, he would lose a randomly generated number of them if he landed on scrapyard and received the "guard dogs find you" random result instead of the "find 1 lb of copper pipe". Other pitfalls were landing on a space with police and they take you to the dunk tank and a fine is taken from you. Eventually, you ended up with enough money to go to the liquor store for a bottle of whiskey and the game ended. I had that game saved on a cassette until the 90's, when my younger brother used it for a mix tape.

[@playswithblades]

David today: Yay, I made a new game! David in 5 months: There are so many packages to pack and ship out, what was I thinking!?

[@mixazizu]

that happens every fucking time and yet david still makes games,im glad he does

[@Framed_Niner]

Predicted the future

[@nebunezz_r]

Average David Murray development cycle

[@baroncalamityplus]

Hello, please reconsider reimplementing the shift+wasd for movement and shoot. I don't have the use of two hands and that would be a great accessibility option. Thanks.

[@ericjianuzzi3448]

How do you game with one hand? When I radially dislocated my wrist I relearned to hold my controller and managed to push buttons with my ring and pinkie finger but I did have at least that. I'm very curious about true one handed gaming. I am aware a keyboard may have advantages but I assume there's also unique challenges by comparison to a controller.

[@scottmanderson5523]

Can't wait for this - it's so great you dedicate so much time to making these games for vintage systems.

[@VK2FVAX]

Hi David. Love everything about the game, especially that you've not forgotten us CBM8032 owners! Looking forward to it there and on the X16 when we're allowed to buy and build one. P.S. Some of us PET owners have the SID board upgrade. Also looking forward to the keyboard for my CBM8032 arriving from TexElec ..it's horribly delayed it seems. Will be a nice replacement to the 8032's because the silver paint on the keys doesn't last too long using it daily. Best wishes for the game, I think it's wonderful!

[@scottwilliams895]

No kidding, you are BRILLIANT! I love to see what you're up to. I don't have any of the old computers you do, and being a few years younger, pretty much never have used them. I also have very limited (computer) gaming experience. Still always love to watch The 8-Bit Guy!

[@Thunk00]

David Murray, this is glorious! Never quit doing what you do.

[@Neffeps]

i'm so glad somebody took on the challenge of programming a really good game for the PET! it's such an interesting machine for me and it almost makes me wanna pick a MiniPET to play around with it

[@csward53]

The number of things that the 8-Bit Guy can do blows my mind. This is amazing!

[@DiestroCorleone]

It's my birthday today, and honestly, what a beautiful gift to get a new video from The 8-Bit Guy, specially so close to the last one! Great as usual!

[@NathanChisholm041]

Happy Birthday mate!

[@jat240]

Hey Dave. I just want to say I love your videos and you have done more for the vintage gaming and computer scene than so many people could even dream about. Please keep doing what you do!

[@CDP-1802]

Those graphics look awesome! I love the door animations and the level reminds me of Scumsoft from SQIII

[@Hezkore]

I'd suggest remapping movement to "IJKL" instead of "PL()", as that's what many games already use when there's no numpad available.

[@SamiKankaristo]

And if you're playing the game on an emulator, you might have keyboard layout issues with ( and ), they're under Shift+8 and Shift+9 on my layout...

[@Keavon]

Exactly, WASD is the standard set of directional keys and IJKL is the standard secondary set. I'd also recommend using WASD for movement and IJKL for shooting, rather than the reverse, since that's more expected as a standard.

[@TheAio]

also () won't work on most nordic keyboards

[@deanolium]

With this setup it then makes sense to then use the number pad for firing, otherwise it’ll get uncomfortable

[@SamiKankaristo]

@@deanolium "Tenkeyless" keyboards are pretty common these days, so a number pad might not be available. WASD+IJKL would be a "safe" default layout, since those keys are in the same positions on all keyboards. (Unless you're not even on a QWERTY layout, but then you're probably used to keyboard layout issues in games, and the keyboard config is the first place where you always go).

[@moccalou]

I love how the whole point was to create a game for the Pet but you got so into the game itself that you got excited about what the C64 could bring to it. Hehe.

[@antman2919]

There's a magic and simplistic beauty to these old games that I really love. Nice work!!

[@hidden_vault]

David these videos suit you best mate , love your development videos vs repairs . awesome video

[@farmerdave33]

Missed opportunity if the robot is not named Joe Petscii

[@EveryDooDarnDiddlyDay]

Vote this to the top. Lol

[@joetheman74]

Lame

[@Matlockization]

That's a derogatory term for guido's.

[@souljastation5463]

@@Matlockization Nah, Guido la Vespa is not derogatory, just an average name.

[@MattKasdorf]

Please add CB2 sound to the PET versions, possibly as a small addition the the SNES User Port card.

[@BalugaWhale37]

I had no idea the PET had any sound at all, but a quick web search shows that the user community had discovered sound was available out of the CB2 pin on the cassette port in 1978. I guess this would chew up some CPU resources. If adding the resistor, headphone jack and piezo speaker parts are too costly, perhaps the PCB could just have the traces with NOPOP options on the components.

[@mrmimeisfunny]

Maybe David could use CB2 sound on all systems if the SNES card is bundled with the game. I hope if it does he uses an aux/composite port instead of a piezo speaker.

[@nuk1964]

​@@BalugaWhale37 I remember my jaw dropping when I heard the digital samples audio coming out of the Apple ][ speaker with Castle Wolfenstein -- pretty impressive considering it was done with a "push-pull" interface (e.g. you send 0s and 1s to control port to vibrate the speaker) I also remember the method of getting audio from the TRS-80 Model I by sending 0s and 1s to the cassette interface. A portable AM radio could be placed near the cassette port to pick up the RF interference from the circuitry. A better solution was to get a mini-amplifier/speaker and connect that to the cassette audio connector. Of course in BASIC the best you could achieve for audio was a low-frequency buzzing noise.

[@makipri]

Eric Hollas Later models have an inbuilt piezo speaker connected to the timer2 interrupt. And you can play back samples through that as well. Check my demo OOBC: We are computers.

[@MattKasdorf]

@@makipri is the source available? I've just started down the rabbit hole of 6502 Assembly and find studying others' code useful. Even moreso if it's annotated. 🇨🇦

[@SquirrelMonkeyCom]

Wow, looks awesome! Wish I had a PET though. :'(

[@kikoplays44]

Hey look! It's squirrel monkey

[@SquirrelMonkeyCom]

No way, that's@@kikoplays44!

[@HazyJ28]

Emulation, my friend. Emulation

[@winksplorer]

wait when did squirrel monkey like 8bit guy

[@SquirrelMonkeyCom]

@@winksplorer I always liked him. Even made a video about him. :)

[@rickwt64]

Thank you for all of your videos you post! I thoroughly enjoy them and have learned so much from you. Keep up the good work!!

[@drcemdede]

These explanations really help me understand the "why" questions I had years ago when playing games on these computers. Thank you!

[@florkgagga]

A w e s o m e. A proper game for the PET! Looking forward to reading about acknowledgements for a game that works and is fun and complex on all the 8-bit commodores.

[@organiccold]

This will be a amazing game. Keep the great job Dave and the cool videos, ignore the haters. We love your channel ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ all the best from Portugal 🇵🇹🇵🇹🇵🇹🇵🇹

[@evanjones8049]

Imagine if this game had been around in the 80's! It's really amazing what he managed to do with so little to work with.

[@PJBonoVox]

Whilst I agree, try and remember that he's standing on the shoulders of giants. It's extremely impressive and I'm glad that he's doing this but it's disrespecting the early programmers who had *nothing* to go on to suggest this is amazing.

[@LuisOtavioLimaJulio]

Hello 8-Bit Guy, I'm from Brazil and I discovered your channel about 20 days ago and since then I've run a marathon, watched from the first video to this one. Congratulations on the work, I learned and had a lot of fun so far. Hugs!

[@Evgenii_Fedorovskii]

Your ambition and productivity are very inspiring as always !!! Nice to watch the work of the master =) Thank you so much for the video and GOOD LUCK in developing the game !!!

[@sourcecode6467]

I'm an Android developer, this has inspired me to code a retro game for Android

[@bacon_lover6964]

What games have you already made so far?

[@mahirwalker6613]

Thank u sir... for your opinion

[@visiongt3944]

I'm a beginner wannabe Android developer, I wanna know how to start thinking about like retro looking design? Do we use unity or something? Or is Android studio capable of building retro-looking games?

[@jnspr]

@@visiongt3944 Well you can just use OpenGL ES through C++ or through a Java GLSurfaceView.

[@vukkumsp]

True, These kind of videos are always both entertaining and inspiring !!

[@davidhoward496]

Just wanted to say I found out about the vice article, and it sucks that people are trying to drag you down. I love your content, mistakes and all. Don't change for anyone but yourself. Thanks for your uploads, and God bless.

[@feedle]

A recent Adrian Digital Basement mailcall had a SNES controller device that plugged into a C64 using both joystick ports. You might want to look into supporting that, too, if possible.

[@RESTROOMREVIEWS]

Thanks for these great videos David. My two kids and I never miss an episode. Always entertaining and informative.

[@SLMK-rk7ht]

I have to say. I love David's videos. To me they feel like cold rainy weather with hot cup of tea and a blanket. Its weird but that's how I feel when I watch it. Total bliss!!!

[@Paradroid1793]

Here’s a challenge: Attack of the Petscii Robots For Timex Sinclair 1000

[@herrbonk3635]

Possible. But it would demand pseudo hires, which is tricky, because the ZX81 has no diagonal lines in its character set. (Also, it would be in Z80-asm instead of 6502-asm, of course. So no code resuse.)

[@kimgkomg]

@@herrbonk3635 Why would it require pseudo hires?

[@herrbonk3635]

@@kimgkomg Again: Diagonal lines. But the slash character could perhaps do as an approximation? It depends on how nice you want things to look.

[@MasterArrow]

This is a really inspiring video to watch, and the game looks awesome, especially within the limitations of the hardware!

[@thecaveofthedead]

I think that by using the PET characterset, you've created a unique retro-nostalgic aesthetic that looks amazing and will very much satisfy C64 users IMO.

[@TheRealColBosch]

There are few things that make me happier than seeing new games and accessories for classic hardware. I'll definitely be following this!

[@FeelingShred]

I still think there's much hidden potential in the Sega Saturn that is not yet fulfilled, hopefully with the recent hacking of it there will be some homebrews coming around soon

[@wpherigo1]

Hitting it out if the park! Just awesome. Particularly when it comes to next-level like all those time saving editors you’ve designed. Just amazing.

[@ClaudioBalbin]

I find it amazing how David can dedicate himself to projects like that and keep improving. That's some strong willpower right there!

[@highpath4776]

And build a new studio !

[@JujuAdams]

Tip from a gamedev: IJKL is the accepted standard for "opposite WASD" input

[@The8BitGuy]

OK, good to know. The controls aren't set in stone yet.

[@enjibkk6850]

Reminds me of a certain text editor Edit: on second thought, not quite :)

[@0x9E01]

@@enjibkk6850 game idea: invader vim

[@Jossandoval]

A good reason for this is that, for emulator qwerty players, the symbol beside the "L" key varies depending on their regional keyboard distribution, so "L" is the most practical middle-row key to the left for use.

[@parnikkapore]

@@enjibkk6850 IJKL is so going to annoy all the Vim users 😅

[@newq]

This guy's really living the dream. Full time KZbinr who makes games for the old systems he grew up with. Makes me wonder how he does his taxes. What does he have to tell the IRS that he does?

[@frazzleface753]

Self employed. Probably an LLC/SCorp. Videography? Computer Repair?

[@jake0305]

I love your videos are having surprisingly calm intro music instead of bullpoop loud 28th century musics

[@DavidWonn]

Programming on the classic 8-bit machines always had its own special appeal. A friend and I were just barely starting on making something for the Apple ][e before he moved away, so it was abandoned completely. I can’t wait to hear how your game turns out!

[@Raphy99997]

i love this channel

[@brianh2771]

Looks really cool. Love the portability. What about color 80-column mode for the C128? There are a heck of a lot more C128's than there are 80-column PETs or B128s, and it would have the highest color resolution of any of the Commodore platforms. Plus the C128 has independent cursor keys AND numeric keypad AND a SID chip.

[@TB-td6fx]

Brian H And 2Mhz in 80 col mode 😃👍

[@MartinAncher]

That was exactly the question I had. 🙂

[@javiergonzalez7104]

But the video chip for the 80 column screen, the VDC, doesn't share with the CPU the memory mapping like the other 8-bit CBM platforms do. The 8bg would need to rewrite the scroll routines and so, and I don't think there's many people out there with VDC programmings skills to help out.

[@TheSimTetuChannel]

Spy Robots VS Spy Robots :-)

[@svensimon]

came here for exactly that comment! show us C128 owner some love too

[@Juke172]

The limitations of that system really gives you good boundaries to work with and develop ideas in peace. Modern systems have way too much to give and the problem comes down to where to draw the line nowadays. Too much options and possibilities that it's overhelming.

[@enjibkk6850]

And the limitations are part of the fun :)

[@The8BitGuy]

Exactly! That's why I love coding for older computers. Not only do you have boundaries but you can also figure out ways to exploit features that maybe nobody else has thought of, which is fun!

[@PhantomWorksStudios]

@@The8BitGuy *Agreed!* and as you mention its an awesome way to show off not only what the system is capable of doing/producing but what you can do to push it beyond its limits that no one never thought of as well to show off the extents on what they can do!

[@msx80]

You could try some fantasy consoles like pico8 or tic80.. They're artificially limited "retro like" platform but with the comforts of todays computers

[@Juke172]

@@msx80 I have tried Pico before. Maybe I give it a try again. Never really understood the potential of it before.

[@PaulinesPastimes]

It looks fantastic. The 3D effect and the way the main character moves is so clever. So many other surprising things too. Cheers

[@len322]

this is awesome i can't wait to see how the game progresses. What I really liked about the planet X3 "documentary" was the production process in the 4th part. I know it's early but i kinda hope to see something similar with the series :p Keep doing awesome stuff like this it's great :D !

[@Po4to]

So brilliant! Your imagination and the drive to improve, try something new, are admirable. I regret giving up on programming on C64 after my first failure, at age 9 or so. Didn't really pick it up till my thirties on PC. That said, I did enjoy my C64 a lot in a creative way, nonetheless. I loved doing weird little drawings of cartoon characters, right on the prompt screen. Text mode offered some cool possibilities, too. I might be remembering it wrong, but wasn't there a key that upon pressing changed whatever you typed in into an alternative set of characters/glyphs.

[@makaylaserniotti1474]

I wish I knew how to help with the art aspect, but I'm loving what you've got so far!

[@BrianRRenfro]

Whenever "It's kind of expensive" is said I am always like, "Dave have you looked at what functioning vintage anything costs these days?!?!? It's a bargain!"

[@cyuiyuwyguiyui]

A PET costs 2000 dollars mate.TODAY !

[@TheRainHarvester]

Apple ][c ?

[@makipri]

cyuiyu wyguiyui I paid less than €100 for my CBM 4032 and my friend paid €1 for a CBM 8032. You can get it cheap through the proper user groups.

[@BrianRRenfro]

@@cyuiyuwyguiyui Exactly. These newer products are cheap in comparison.

[@Enum_Dev]

It's nice to see that you now upload more frequently. Nice job. Can't wait for part 2

[@ariebrons7976]

Dear Mr David, thanks for the informative video, great to see obsolete tech like this being pushed one minor gripe about this: there's a faint beep at the end, whilst not a major issue, i'd aprecicate if changed thanks

[@michaelepprecht2237]

Hey how are you? My Name is Michael im from Switzerland, and i wanna say thank you, your Videos really helped me to learn English. And you Make great Videos. Hope you and your family are good in this difficult Times. Sorry my English writing is not the best. Thanks bye

[@samevans8922]

Writing is very good 👍

[@StellarSpacey]

Dude, you are a legend. You seem like such a chill dude but you are a monster at getting stuff done!! Very impressed with you channel

[@80s_Gamr]

This is actually pretty amazing. I bet this would've been a million selling game back in the day.

[@astrosteve]

Maybe. The one factor I see is that retro graphics were not a good or desired thing in the 80s (graphics could make or break things back then) and this would come off as looking very primitive on a C64. That would massively hurt its appeal, in my opinion. The C64 would be the main driver of sales, due to their market share. If he used sprites in a graphic mode, though, I could see people going wild for it.

[@thecannoneer5850]

Wow I haven’t watch any of your videos since 2018 but I’m glad your still making videos

[@DoctorNemmo]

The best thing about the 8 bit era computing was that you could develop games on your own during weekends. Now it's all large companies worth millions of dollars.

[@Dream0Asylum]

I got major Ultima I nostalgia from watching this.

[@davidl.7383]

This is one of the most impressive hobbyist games I’ve been seen, keep up the work this looks insanely fun!

[@fluffycritter]

The Legend of Zelda: PET of the wild Instead of compositing tiles and sprites into an offscreen buffer, why not composite the sprites as you draw the tiles? You could probably make this efficient by keeping track of a list of the start addresses of each span of visible sprite data (stored in ascending order), and every time you hit the next address in the list, draw the row of sprite instead of the next couple of tiles, and advance the “next sprite address” pointer.

[@The8BitGuy]

I have actually considered a method similar to this. I'm still thinking about it. The trick is, as you guessed, not to take too much CPU time between tiles trying to figure out what to draw.

[@terohei]

​@@The8BitGuy Instead of having a 1000-byte character buffer, you could work everything on the tile buffer that has the size of the amount of tiles on screen, which I guess is 77 bytes. Prepare the 77 bytes with the map information, then overwrite it with "sprite" tile numbers based on their coordinates. Only then draw the screengraphics based on the tile buffer which will do everything in one go. This can be done as I'm seeing the "sprites" are always fixed to the tile boundaries, effectively making the sprites just tile variants. This is the way Ultima games work. However if your background tiles and sprite tiles together exceed 256 variants, then you may have to rethink the tile buffer.

[@fluffycritter]

@@zygocact5947 It was because of the environmental setup puzzles and also wanting to make a pun on the PET. Calm down.

[@PaleozoicPCs]

@@The8BitGuy I thought I saw someone mention this in a comment yesterday but I can't find it today, so I'll bring it up again. I'm pretty sure the PET has a 60hz interrupt that fires when the machine enters the vertical blanking area. I'm curious if you're timing your screen updates to track that or just doing them asynchronously. It probably doesn't matter on most PETs because I think all models since the "Dynamic Board" have their video set up so it's fully synced with the 6502's duty cycle and non-conflicting, but I believe on the original models with very slow video RAM you can get "snow" if you update when the raster is in the active area.

[@fluffycritter]

@@zygocact5947 I am not saying that at all. Just that I was reminded of it. There's more than one game that does the same thing. It's okay for people to like different things than you.

[@HappyCodingZX]

Nice work. About the SNES adapter, I noticed on Adrian's Digital Basement channel that there is a really nice SNES controller adapter for the C64 which includes a lot of great features, including allowing you to switch ports and assign buttons, you might want to check it out, I guess you can search KZbin for his channel.

[@HappyCodingZX]

it's called PadSwitcher64

[@legodarthvader3567]

The pet version is the most fascinating to me, I love the way it looks.

[@Thohean]

I don't have any 8 bit machines and never had enough interest in them to get one, but this game looks like I might be adding a c64 to my collection.

[@PlittHD]

oooor you could use an emulator

[@Name_cannot_be_blank]

"collection" with no other 8-bit machine lol

[@macstar8317]

Check out ther MiSTer FPGA project. There are lots of 8 & 16 bit cores available and given its hardware simulation rather than software emulation it feels more like using the real thing.

[@Thohean]

@@Name_cannot_be_blank Can one not collect a general aspect of something without being limited to specific era? The answer is yes, by the way.

[@Thohean]

@@PlittHD wow, I had no idea that a, what did you call it? Emulator? I had no idea that was possible, because I didn't watch the video. /S

[@adamhainstock2699]

No new posts in a while. Is everything okay David? Hope the family is healthy and doing well.

[@jamescurrie01]

Probably because our community was cruel to him for bs reasons over his last videos. That would de-motivate anyone and he didnt deserve it, hes probably taking a well earned break. Hes been putting out amazing videos for years. This channel is one of the driving forces behind a lot of love for DOS and Commodore era collection and preservation. David ignore the trolls.

[@adamhainstock2699]

@@jamescurrie01 I thought the building a new office was really cool.

[@claudiostano]

hoping he's back soon with new videos !!

[@guayabito6946]

@@jamescurrie01 The community was not cruel to him, he did it to himself and he lost subscribers due to what he did.

[@Reed-Publications]

@@guayabito6946 What are you talking about? What did he do in his last video that caused so much backlash? I thought his last video was great.

[@charlesjmouse]

Awesome! Just a (very) small thought - sound: As the non-PET versions are intended to be "flavors" of the base game rather than out and out "improvements" maybe that can be leveraged as a "feature" for the sound in all versions... ...write the best sound effects and music you can manage for the PET, it always amazes me what can be done with a computer that doesn't actually have any sound hardware! The other versions would use the exact same data, played the same way, with a little code to "emulate" the PET's beeper where a direct port won't work... ...yes the SID or TED would be virtually unused but as this game is all about "How awesome can I make a game on the PET?" ...and here's versions for people without PETs, that may add some charm. If people really, really, moan then maybe a rudimentary tracker player from the main menu on the systems than can handle it to play one's own tunes might be fun,.

[@shiru8bit]

This is kinda the plan, although VIC-20 does not really have resources to emulate PET sound close enough, so it will sound different. You can check out what is going on the technical side of the sound code development here: tinyurl.com/y6d6c5n7

[@FeelingShred]

Duuuuuuude !!! It's amazing how these simple ASCII graphics instantly fascinate me more than any modern 3D game out there.

[@GregSimon]

David, major kudos to you for your passion and skill in creating these games!

[@adityasanthanam1945]

I hope you are okay sir, it has been around a month since you posted a new video. Is everything fine? Please make new videos, we love them.

[@bestthefor]

​@@Theexplorographer I have never seen so many people get worked up over something as inconsequential as an obsolete computer getting fried, good lord

[@HeadsetGuy]

Very ambitious project. I wish you the best of luck!

[@iskandertime747]

This might be the nerdiest thing i've ever seen. I love it.

[@YoreHistory]

As a lifelong gamer whose first computer was a C64, this looks AMAZING. Seriously...your character graphics look better than many hardware sprite and redrawn character rom games. Nicely done!

[@SignorZukini]

Back in the day I remember being impressed by how creative people were with ASCII art but this takes it to a whole new level. Awesome work!

[@claudiostano]

Hey David, hoping to see you back soon =) missing your content !! YT is quite boring without that !!

[@Evan420]

Now I have some motivation to get my pet’s keyboard fixed!

[@Jasemtl]

It’s been three weeks since the last video. Hope David is in good health

[@Elomentoplayz]

He probably not doing well his last video got alot of backlash and the comments where turned of because of that. He broke broke a VERY VERY rare pc. Shorted the pc out and it broke he didn't have enough time to fix it but he spent way more time on the more popular pcs. there is only 50-60 of those pcs and it almost hurt to watch that video. He should of spent more time fixing that pc it would be much better if he delayed the video 2 weeks and properly fixed it. It would make a much better video and he would of avoided those whole mess. We wouldn't of cared if he accidentally broke the commodore 64. Alot of fans unsubscribed and got very disappointed by that video like me. That's why I stopped watching for awhile. go to the wayback machine to see what what I mean.

[@guayabito6946]

@@Elomentoplayz Yeah that was appalling. I can't believe he did that. Then he tried to sweep it under the rug by disabling the comments. That was horrible.

[@guayabito6946]

@@Moffstarr To him it was probably a crappy old PC because he has so many. But and IBM prototype of which there are only 60 in existence is not just some "crappy old pc". What he did was inexcusable.

[@Elomentoplayz]

@@Moffstarr i know it wasn't that bad or I would of left completely never thinking about it again. But, he just broke a really rare pc but that still hurt to watch. I'm very interested in pcs and trusted him with these videos alot and when he made that video it was way more disappointing because he fixed many other old pcs that were much more common and to more time to fix them properly.

[@Sciesdraspsp]

@@guayabito6946 crappy old pc, who cares.

[@MrGlowstoneMan]

this looks super cool and I'm excited. also, the short circuit animation really satisfied me

[@jeromethiel4323]

You are my hero. Making software for these old designs is amazing. Coding for these primitive machines takes a lot more thought that for more modern computers.

[@yourick1953]

Damn David, you sure are pumping out a lot of videos in a short span!

[@The8BitGuy]

Yeah, perhaps one too many.

[@yourick1953]

@@The8BitGuy Well it's sure never too many from you, your videos are always a pleasure to watch. Very informative and addicting.

[@pablorai769]

@@The8BitGuy, quandoque bonus dormitat homerus

[@501Floyd]

Very cool! I would love to see a way to take control of the robots somehow. A terminal perhaps? And use them against each other.

[@glenncaughey5044]

That should be the unlock when you beat the game

[@k_kon131]

I would definetly change the FIRE and MOVEMENT keys, since most people nowdays use the WASD keys in games to move around

[@FilipAlexx]

Yes, I can imagine this setup with wsad used for fire would crack my brain in half

[@rcookie5128]

Agreed

[@JZM006]

yep

[@mycosys]

Thought the same, makes sense to swap or use wasd move ijkl fire

[@Mugenloo]

He literally said in the video there will be custom key bindings

[@stephendouglas9355]

We had a small network of PETs in my school when I was a kid. When I realized the PET could make chirping sounds I wrote a simple shooter where chirpy petscii crickets fell from the sky as you shot them. My earliest programming memory. So, special feelings for the PET!

[@DisasterSquad]

For some reason I find this game adorable. Most likely the main characters walking animation

[@Diggnuts]

Right, so.. This is F%$*ckin brilliant.. You do realize that?

[@Danny.._]

i'd like to suggest you swap the movement and firing keys. wasd for movement is so universal in modern gaming, it would be much more natural for most people if your control scheme followed that.

[@SamiKankaristo]

Was thinking of this as well, WASD is so common for movement (for a modern gamer at least).

[@joshuavincent7884]

he said he'd do user-customizable controls so...

[@TheYaMeZ]

I agree. Most twin stick shooters/FPS will have left stick as movement, right stick for aiming.

[@Danny.._]

@@joshuavincent7884 even if they're customizable, it still makes more sense to have the default be the one that makes the most sense to the most people, to reduce confusion/frustration.

[@FriedOrange]

As someone used to playing old-school Windows games with the arrow keys (games that were made long before WASD was popular) I do like the current control scheme though. In any case, user-definable controls would be the way to go

[@aa-au]

The programming looks great - simple and effective. I have not written any code for a Commodore machine, as I was mainly a CoCo programmer and wrote many programs for the CoCo - my first computer and inspiration to computer programming. I haven't written anything for a long time, but you have inspired me to find my CoCo and write some code. Thank you.

[@TheRealShedLife]

I'm at 12:58 and telling all my middle-aged friends how awesome this is and your page. This is absolutely fascinating. Grew up programming C64, and hearing you explain stuff and show it - when I was programming, we had no money, so there was little way to get much information. I wish videos like this had existed back then lol but then again I am so happy about the mounting uptick in interest for programming on 6502 8 bit, C64 among others. I think a lot of guys a little younger than me are interested in programming on the Commodore 64 because they all had Nintendos., And they know that's the same processor, and programming on a C64 is certainly cheaper than a Nintendo devkit.

[@timsmith2525]

I'm amazed at your patience and perseverance to make this game run on so many different machines!

[@Akotski-ys9rr]

7:50 I would’ve never solved that puzzle...

[@JoSephGD]

Somehow the story is going to tie in to the Planet X-Series, I bet.

[@MrDowntemp0]

in most modern WASD games, E is used to interact with objects. Might make sense to change Move from M to E

[@VampireOnline]

Yup this is what I was going to say. WASD for moving your character E for interact. Shift makes sense for moving objects just because it's another common key.

[@zvisger]

I really love this project you're working on. Programming is so much fun, and old computers just have a cozy feeling to them

[@waynerowlinson6177]

I've been sitting here trying to put together the best statement on this game. I wanted to make sure that it summed up everything I was thinking. Here it is: Wow!

[@Echidneys]

Couldn't have said it better