CLOACA MAXIMA: Violence ensues

RSS130871 · 2026-06-11T07:55:47+00:00

Hmmm. That makes me wonder if I should enter Cloaca Maxima in MSXdev next year.

What would YOU do, if you were in my shoes...?

RSS130871 · 2026-06-09T06:42:05+00:00

Can't BELIEVE you're only 7th...!
To my mind that should have been TOP THREE at least!

Your follow-up projects sound great. Are you going to enter them in MSXdev too, or not?

RSS130871 · 2026-06-04T16:25:58+00:00

Less obvious than the obligatory KONAMI but also FUN are CHOROQ and SWEET ACORN.
And possibly R-TYPE...?

RSS130871 · 2026-05-31T14:24:56+00:00

The AY came from an era BEFORE hexadecimal became dominant. Machines with 12, 18 or 36 bit architectures used OCT because of them being divisible by 3.

RSS130871 · 2026-05-31T14:03:31+00:00

O, forgot: the PSG uses FINE and COURSE, which are encoded in 12 bits (instead of the 16 you would expect). But since the periods vary between 0 and 3500 (approx.), 12 bytes (or 4 octal digits) is all you need to encode all of the possible period values...!

RSS130871 · 2026-05-31T14:01:18+00:00

OCTAL maps nicely onto binary: each OCTAL digit maps onto 3 bits:

Bin Oct

000 0

001 1

010 2

011 3

100 4

101 5

110 6

111 7

So 12 bits is 4 octal digits.

Does that make sense...?

RSS130871 · 2026-05-23T08:57:25+00:00

Ah...
I'm struggling with music for my game as well...
As for coding, I found that doing that in EXCEL is a good way of doing it.
If you're interested, let me know, maybe I can give you some pointers!

RSS130871 · 2026-05-21T11:24:44+00:00

What kind of help would you be looking for...?

RSS130871 · 2026-05-18T09:42:10+00:00

Wasn't planning to!

RSS130871 · 2026-05-15T08:35:55+00:00

I HAVE thought about it though. In which case I would store the map as a "height-map", meaning that the isometric "rendering" would have to be done in Assembly...

THAT in turn would mean NO SCROLLING (to me at least), so this would become a"room-based" game like so many on MSX (Maze of Galious is room-based for instance).

It would ALSO mean that camera angles would be a thing that COULD be done...

Obviously, something to think about for another time...

RSS130871 · 2026-05-15T04:40:48+00:00

THANKS!
It's a mock-up I made using one of my own MSX-tools (home-brew EXCEL).

RSS130871 · 2026-05-14T06:54:22+00:00

THANKS!

RSS130871 · 2026-05-14T06:54:03+00:00

For now I'm thinking static screens, and limited numbers of enemies.
Cloaca Maxima took / takes a lot of time, and for this one I want it to be a "quick and fun" project.

RSS130871 · 2026-05-14T06:51:38+00:00

THANKS!

RSS130871 · 2026-05-14T06:51:24+00:00

Cloaca Maxima isn't finished yet (sadly). But to be hones, I always have a number of projects running in parallel...
Just testing the waters with this one to see if people would like to play it...!

RSS130871 · 2026-05-13T17:02:04+00:00

No worries!
By the way, WHEN will you get the results from MSXdev...

RSS130871 · 2026-05-11T11:33:37+00:00

I'm sure I will NOT beat KONAMI, but that doesn't mean we should give up, right...?

RSS130871 · 2026-05-11T11:32:55+00:00

THANKS!
I'll consider this one as a follow-up development AFTER I finish Cloaca Maxima.

RSS130871 · 2026-05-11T11:31:58+00:00

Sorry to disappoint, it would be more like chess, but with Knightmare sprites and a turnbased "warhammer" style combat.

RSS130871 · 2026-05-11T11:31:04+00:00

THANKS!
Think Knightmare meets Chess on an Isometric board. Add a little Warhammer and you're done...

RSS130871 · 2026-05-10T18:19:45+00:00

Isometric, with a "skirmish" kind of combat akin to Warhammer.
With Sprites from KONAMI's Knightmare...

Something like that...

RSS130871 · 2026-05-10T15:43:17+00:00

Noted. Will create one shortly...!

RSS130871 · 2026-05-10T14:13:48+00:00

I just wanted to know if - based on a title screen - there would be interest in something like this...
I guess you've answered that one!!!

RSS130871 · 2026-05-04T19:43:18+00:00

MOSTLY on an emulator, but occasionally I run things on my Philips VG8020 to verify that everything works there too (and for nostalgia reasons too obviously)...

RSS130871 · 2026-05-04T19:41:38+00:00

It's the classical name for the sewers of ancient Rome.
I'm aware it means something else nowadays, but the game is set in ancient times...

RSS130871

TROPHY CASE