HEROCkto ST

So you w a n n a be a hero, 7th SEPTEMBER 1 9 9 0

huh? Well, Gremlin are First day of work on H a The storyboard is
read through and we start memory mapping.
about to m a k e your Immediately it becomes obvious that on the
dreams c o m e true w i t h 54, memory and speed will be the biggest
problem. I decide that the best approach will
their C64 conversion o f be to use multicolour bit map mode with soft-
the MB/Games Workshop ware sprites for characters, front doorways
and so on.
fantasy role playing Because of the time taken to draw all the
board game, HeroQuest- sprites I have to use a flip screen technique
and this means using 16K in screen RAM, a
Grab your trusty sword further 2K in video RAM and 1K colour RAM,
and prepare for battle... The sprites require approximately 4K put-
back space (used to store the background
data before drawing a sprite onto the screen,
David Vout - one member of the and hence when removing the sprite from the
programming team 2218, who pre- screen the putback data is simply 'put back'
viously worked for Teque Software over the spnte). This allows enough room for
C 6 4 Development
Hero QuestLtd
is being coded such
on projects by 34 sprites of 3 x 5 characters, which actually are checked for monsters, furniture, walls,
as Prison, Space Harrier 2, Passing Shot and represents 17 sprites on two screens. The doors, traps etc and it present, sprites are set
Max. (221B Baker Street was the address of rest of the up. Once all visible floor tiles are plotted then
fictional super sleuth Sherlock Holmes.) memory is the sprites can be plotted in order of back to
When we asked David for some Hero quest saved for code front, left to right priority. That's the plan...
into he gave us a complete diary of events! and data,
Take it away David... quantities becom-
ing apparent as the OCTOBER 1 9 9 0
game takes shape. This month we concentrate on interacting
AUGUST 1 9 9 0 The first month is with the background and with other charac-
We met Gremlin and were given a copy of spent writing floor plotting. ters. Firstly we enable a player to walk
the boardgame to storyboard from. The screen drawing and sprite around the rooms opening doors and search-
month is spent playing it and storyboarding plotting routines. Every ing for secret doors and treasure. This
until we are totally happy with it. Finally we time a floor tile is drawn, information is held in maps and corresponds
present the storyboard and sign the contract. enemy and floor maps to the cards in the boardgame, so when trea-

• This panel s h o w s
Click h e r e to bring Wanna start a
your current s t a t u s ,
Click h e r e t o number of moves up a m a p of t h e right? Click h e r e The oomPuter game is as close as possible
open doors remaining and so on whole m a z e for a p u m m e l l i n g
to the boardgarne. One to four players can
play taking the roles of the Barbarian,
Wizard, Elf and Dwarf. The computer plays'
the Dungeon Master (evil wizard Morcar) •
and moves last.
There are 14 scenarios to play through,
from a simple maze filled with arcs, to
finding kidnapped Sir Ragnar, killing his kid
flapper and defeating the witch lord with the
quest treasure Spirit Blade.
To prevent you succeeding in your que
the evil wizard sets out traps and any num-
ber of monsters from arcs to chaos warrio
Wandering monsters can called up by an
untimely search in the wrong place!
Every scenario has a different layout wi
hidden doors leading into passages which
serve only to confuse the unwary traveller.
e You are helped by a map that fills in as an
I ; when a location is visited.
At the end of each scenario a player m
buy equipment and save his character to •
reloaded again and again. 2218 are alrea
exploring two expansion packs for
HeroCluest Return of the Witch Lord and
r... littt tee; sure II you' wóllt to T h i s eye-con Click on t h e s e
arrows to move Kellars Keep, filled with new traps and test
about this one. change w e a p o n s , ( g r o a n ) is u s e d
Could be Cast Spells this is w h o r e you go t o S e a r c h for the experienced quester.

. . 4 . 1111 M 11 3 0 11 6 1 .

Eat bliss - COMMODORE FORMAT 6, March 1 9 9 1

 sure is searched for, a number is pulled from
the map and this is used to access the correct
treasure card. Bingo_
Once completed we then have to be able
to attack monsters found in the rooms. On the
64 I decided to have a set animation
sequence for a successful attack and one for
a miss. When fighting in the boardgame the
player throws a number of dice to attack and
the evil wizard player throws a number of dice
in defence — the difference being the number
of body points lost. The 64 uses the same
principle but instead of showing dice being
thrown, a sequence is played depicting a hit
or a miss_
NOVEMBER
1990
This month we put in the
artificial intelligence (Al), possi-
bly the hardest part to do. The
problem with Al in this type of
game is emulating the dungeon mas-
ter (the Evil Wizard player).
A human is capable (well most are)
of making very complicated decisions
based on a number of factors. To emulate this
and cover all probable areas of play is impos-
sible so a fine balance is needed. For
instance, if a monster is placed in front of a
door, he's there to guard it I f a player enters
a room and then leaves, does the monster fol-
low him and attack or stay guarding the door?
DECEMBER 1 9 9 0
We now have a working game with only a few
features missing. Eventually, these are added
over the coming months. I'm now faced with
memory problems so my first task is to
reclaim memory, not easy!
I finally decide to remove some lines of the
screen as each line is 320 bytes on two
screens 6 4 0 bytes per line.
Christmas arrives and we are all working
at home for the holiday period (sure — Ed). On
Christmas day, P D S (the Programmers'
Development System by PO Systems Ltd run-
ning on a 286 PC 16MHz) displays the
message Working on Christmas day, ukk!'
And on New Year's day it dis-
plays the
message 'Happy
New Year'.
zovm
ltP• A "
•re
At••;,,y,
r-!*1
r *
_Afro!,
2 C'"A 14'1
t 2 Corilior bor
f•Mek't
Oleo.. • i•lArt•
A.u4 're'14"
• boty 7 'r"1""
There's proof I worked all through Christmas
(okay, we believe you — Ed).
This month is almost totally taken up with
spells, potions and weapons. (Isn't it always?
— Ed) There are 12 spells and seven potions
and most of them have different effects. Each
.14111111111
can be cast on monsters or players who have
to be within line of sight. Some effects take • IIIRBOCHARGE
place immediately, some wait until the next When System 3 released Vendetta, the game was met
go. There are seven weapons available, but with much praise - especially the driving section,
not all the characters are allowed to use them. which was merely intended as an in-behveeny bit.
Gosh, thought System 3, if driving games are so pop-
ular, why don't we do one? So they did_ And from the
early demo we've seen it could be a goodie_
Tu r b o c h a r g e - t a k i n g a q u i c k dip
For instance, the Wizard is only The plot goes thus: you're an officer of a drug
allowed a staff. Each weapon has differ- enforcement agency on the trail of sm000fficrimin-
ent characteristics, fighting diagonally, long iminals,.. ler. sorry. Slipped into Michael Jackson
range, close up and so on. mode there for a second). Anyway, you race across
There are also four pieces of armour each country battling the mobile drug pushers, blasting
of which is different, and finally there are five cars and generally having a whale of a time.
quest treasures to be found in the dungeons That's it tor now - more news as and when...
as you play each scene. These treasures • MIGHTY BOMILIACK
have various uses and in some cases are the
We haven't shown you a C64 screenshot before, so
only things able to kill certain monsters.
here's one we prepared earlier. This latest
JANUARY 1 9 9 1
Bombiacking exercise takes place over huge
scrolling levels where litJ has to avoid the baddies,
This month is spent taking at the look of the collect the dash and keep on going. There are plenty
game and tidying bits and pieces. Some fea-
tures have been altered and the ones left out
have been added, for instance there are now
rock, spear and pit traps scattered about the
increasingly deadly dungeon.
The rest of the month is spent writing the
Set-up scenario, shop and set-up character
routines. The shop is where you can buy
weapons and armour with the hard earned
gold gained in a scenario.
'Create Characters' enables you to select
The M i g h t y Bombiack, k e e p s on j a c k In'
the characters you wish to play and their
names. One player can take of tricky bits to get stuck on and a few bonus levels
either one player or all four. thrown in for good measure.
The player may save and Tune in for a full review next issue. So there.
load his character details. • ACTION REPLAY
eI 1117
• r Olooth o v i r
'Set-up Scenario' allows
you to choose which sce-
The splendiferous Action Replay cartridge is cur-
rently undergoing a small redesign to stop people
wrri •XN,
nario to enter and then
' " 4 ?ca. ruthlessly pirating software with the device. From
.rtt ifyori are loads the level data and
now on, any games copied are security coded so that
LI
gives you your instruc-
they will Only run when the same cartridge is
„ r oi ( , tions_
r,..(N(4('
plugged into the C64.
It won't stop 'professional' piracy but it will cer-
FEBRUARY tainly stem the flow of 'amateur' thievery_
1991 • GREMLINS 2
At long last, Elite's CU version of Gremlins 2 is
February should see the
starting to take shape_
final stages of play test-
The location is Clamp Plaza - MOW of dubious
ing at Gremlin and bug
genetic engineering. Gizmo's offspring are currently
removal. (Hoorah! — Ed)
running riot in the building. interfering with experi-
C o m i n g Soon! A
ments, becoming mutated and indulging in an orgy
playable d e m o of
of mischief and destruction.
Hero Quest the c o m -
As you thread your way through Clamp Plaza,
puter game and a full
you can collect icons (like Rambo Gizmo), combat
review — only in C P
Incoming! COMMODORE FORMAT 6, March 1 9 9 1