Applecorn Man is a BBC Basic program, made to work with Applecorn. Applecorn is for running BBC ROMS on the Apple II line of computers. See the Applecorn project here: https://github.com/bobbimanners/Applecorn
This Pac Man game will work only on machines that have a working TIME command in Basic (so the IIgs or a //e with Mockingboard). Apart from the need for time, acceleration is really also needed. I do play it on my IIgs with Applesqueezer but the game is best played in an emulator. This video showing a little bit of gameplay is using the GSplus emulator with g_limit_speed = 3.
Video: https://youtu.be/zjvO9Fhhlcw
Applecorn Man Features:
- Animating UI with character intro's
- 1 or 2 players
- 1 Pac Man level and 2 Ms Pac Man levels (3 levels to play through)
- 4 frames of animation per direction, per "sprite" (currently repeating 2 characters except for player death)
- Acorn Man is faster in open spaces, slower when eating dots (maybe not tuned as well as can be)
- Ghosts are slower when vulnerable
- AI similar to Pac Man AI
- Level layouts can be added (modified, really, as memory is now full)
- No sound (not really a feature)
- And lastly, almost certainly bugs
If I drop a level or find more RAM some other way, and Applecorn starts to support user definable characters (VDU 23) in MODE 1, say, then I can make this game look pretty nice but till then, this uses regular characters in a 40 col text mode (mode 6).
I wrote the code in VS Code and used a tokenizer program to turn my text into a valid BBC Basic program. The basic program doesn't have line numbers (they are all 0) since I use only PROC and FN for flow - no GOTO or GOSUB. Also, THEN is not needed after IF which I accidentally discovered, so I have no THEN.
Thank you Bobbi for Applecorn - it's awesome!
Thank you
Stefan Wessels
swessels@email.com
20 November 2022
| Name | Desc |
|---|---|
| AL | active level (0 based) |
| AP | active player 0/1 |
| ET | elapsed time (only for dt calculation) |
| GGT | ghost vulnerable time when power dot eaten |
| HS | high score |
| K | keyboard key pressed |
| LC | Num levels -1 |
| NAP | number of active players 0 or 1 |
| PAF | player animation frame 0..3 |
| PAT | player animation time - move/animate < 0 |
| PD | player direction (0=up,1=right,2=down,3=left) |
| PDX | player desired x (-1/0/1) Joy direction |
| PDY | player desired y (-1/0/1) |
| PNX | player next x |
| PNY | player next y |
| PWF | power dot animation frame |
| PWT | power dot animation time |
| PX | player x |
| PY | player y |
| RU | running (alive) bool (-1 is true) |
| SL | show level bool |
| ST | level state - patrol or hunt |
| STM | time to level state switch |
| Name | Desc |
|---|---|
| DIX(3) | x components of direction (0,1,0,-1) |
| DIY(3) | y components of direction (-1,0,1,0) |
| GA(4,3,3) | ghost animation frame indices - each ghost has 4 frames per direction |
| GAF(3) | ghost animation frame counter |
| GAT(3) | ghost time to move/animate |
| GCT(3) | ghost anim/move rate (GAT=GCT when GAT<0) |
| GD(3) | ghost direction (0=up, clockwise ..3) |
| GM(3) | ghost mode (=1 if ghost was alive when power dot was eaten) |
| GS(3) | ghost state (see below) |
| GST(3) | ghost state timer (only used to release ghosts from hold) |
| GSX(1,3) | ghosts start x |
| GSY(1,3) | ghosts start y |
| GTX(3) | ghost x position |
| GTY(3) | ghost y position |
| GX(3) | ghosts X locations |
| GY(3) | ghosts Y locations |
| HOX(3,3) | ghost hunt offsets x |
| HOY(3,3) | ghost hunt offsets y |
| LEX(3) | level exit x location |
| LEY(3) | level exit y location |
| LL$(5) | characters to print for level design |
| LS(LC,24,23) | level layout data (see below) |
| LSS(LC) | # dots in each level |
| LTX(3) | ghost patrol targets X |
| LTY(3) | ghost patrol targets Y |
| NE(3,3) | next dir for a dir (same,right,left,reverse per direction) |
| OP(3) | opposite directions ex. OP(0)=2 |
| OS(1,24,23) | off screen (back store) level layout for each player |
| PA$(4,3) | player animation frames to print |
| PDE(1) | player dots eaten |
| PL(1) | player lives |
| PNL(1) | player needs next level init bool |
| PS(1) | player score |
| PSX(1) | per level player start x |
| PSY(1) | per level player start y |
| PV(1) | player current level |
| PWA$(1) | power dot animation characters to print |
| PWX(LC,3) | location of the power dots X on each level |
| PWY(LC,3) | location of the power dots Y on each level |
| UIX(4) | ui marquee starting draw dots x |
| UIY(4) | ui marquee starting draw dots y |
| Name | Desc |
|---|---|
| a | walls |
| b | ghost house door |
| c | blank (space) |
| d | dots to eat |
| e | power dots |
| f | ghost (starts alive outside house) |
| g | ghost |
| h | ghost |
| i | ghost |
| j | player |
| Name | Desc |
|---|---|
| gsPTRL =1 | patrol (target corners) |
| gsHUNT =2 | hunt (target Applecorn Man) |
| gsHOLD =3 | hold (in house at start) |
| gsEXIT =4 | exit house |
| gsDEAD =5 | dead (seek house) |
| Name | Desc |
|---|---|
| gtGDS =0 | Ghost Dead movement Speed (movement and animation are tied) |
| gtGNS =1 | Ghost Normal movement Speed |
| gtGR =2 | Ghost Release from house (index * this value) |
| gtIH =3 | Intro Hold for UI |
| gtM =4 | Marquee speed |
| gtPS =5 | Player movement Speed |
| gtPGH =6 | Pre Go Hold (How long READY stays up) |
| gtSH =7 | State Hunt (duration of hunt mode) |
| gtSP =8 | State Patrol (duration of patrol mode) |
| gtGML =9 | Ghost Mode Length (duration of ghost mode after powerup) |
| gtPA =10 | Power Anim (animation speed of power up) |
-- OST% is for timing. By setting dt to 1 in PROCtime and zero-ing out some of these, this will work on a machine without TIME but the fps at 1 or even 2.8 MHz makes it not worth-while.
- The ghost house must have the same dimensions (but can be moved)
- The ghost directions at start are hard coded
- The patrol locations are hard coded (but this can easily be adapted with a new layout type)
- Wrapping can only happen left/right, not up/down
- Ghost f must be outside house (hard coded for patrol) and will go left