RANBLE (ZX Spectrum Next)
A downloadable game
UPDATED (KS2 / os 2.08)
When downloading RANBLE, please download version for KS2/2.08
This update should also work ok on machines still running 2.07 as it references the FRAMES system variable (2.08 has a new TIME command that performs a similiar function, but for now I have not used that). However for now I have left the older version available for those who want it.
With the release of the Kickstarter 2, and the updated version of NextBasic (2.08) being somewhat faster, the game has started to show what were once 'subtle' speed decreases when more logic is being processed as being a bit more extreme.
A minor change has been made that now balances the game back to 25/30fps and provide a much nicer experience.
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Fly your fighter-bomber on a mission to pointlessly wreak havoc across the undulating terrain in this Scramble-inspired arcade classic.
Waves of attacking ships, missiles and a limited amount of fuel that you have to remember to refill (easy to forget when under mass attack) by bombing fuel tanks are all designed to keep you on your toes!
This version is my take on the game, written entirely in NextBASIC for the ZX Spectrum Next. It's not an exact 'clone', and it started out just being a personal challenge to see if I could get a scrolling terrain working in NextBASIC (then I just kept going)
FEATURES
- Arcade-style high score and score board (for a more authentic experience)
- Supports both Keyboard and Joystick
- Top 5 high score table
- 4 different levels that seamlessly flow into each other
- AY Sound effects and a couple of little 'tunelets' of sorts.
- A PDF guide to the entire program is provided, along with notes and tips on how to modify the game to your own liking.
- Note that the source code is included in the game download as a text file. Amendment update notes for what has changed is explained in the text file
Play it as-is, look at the coding and play with it for some learning fun, even edit the code and graphics to make it your own! Enjoy.
Download
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Comments
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Here's a little tube of what I've managed to pull together totally coded in z80 assembler. Its been a great learning curve. Think I'll tackle platform/tile-maps next. Thanks again for use of the assets, meant i could just focus on the coding side of things.
Wow! That's really cool - and smooth. Great job! Subscribed to your channel - hope you'll post up more of your work there. :)
Thanks buddy. I think its ok for a first crack at Next Z80, still a lot to learn.
Great game, and respect the detailed design pdf provided to help us novice wannabie coders. On that note if it's ok I would like to use this as a challenge to myself as a novice coder to build a Z80 next assembler version, making use of those brilliant sprite assets, obviously credited to yourself. Didn't want to just go ahead without seeking permission first. Thanks bud.
All good! Sounds like a cool project! :)
I am always more then happy for people to modify and recycle stuff from these games. Its all part of the fun...
Cool man... many thanks. Hoping my effort will inspire one or to give it a go. I think a great starting place for Z80 is to follow something like you've created and use basic techniques within z80, and reference other Z80 sample code out, bringing the two together certainly helping me to get my head around the next.
Thanks for your work Kevin especially for the superb documentation which is going to be a great help for me. Comments on Facebook also really helpful to get me going!
Cheers - Rob H
Thanks Rob! Glad to hear people are interested in the documentation...
Amusingly the documentation takes more time then writing the game itself 😂😂😂 but I wanted to pay respect to the 1980's era of type-in learning with documentation and to provide some educational value to the games for those keen to learn to write their own...
That's why I suggest people modify, improve, bug fix 😜 or experiment with parts of the code they are interested in understanding. The documentation hopefully helps explain it enough to make it easier to mess about with.
Pleasure Kevin!
That’s always the way that the documentation takes longer than the software :-) It does however make what you do quite unique on the platform at the moment.
Don't know if it is just me but I find the scrolling or probably the game speed to be very jittery on my ks2 machine. It slows down when firing for example. But when not a lot is happening it speeds up quite a lot.
Compared this to the youtube footage from ks1 machines from 2 years ago and their scrolling seems slower but stable. Tried 50hz and 60hz, didn't make much of a difference in stability. Slowing down the next to 14mhz remedies the issue somewhat, but probably makes the game run too slow overall and it seems to reset to 28mhz on every new game start, so is not a fun workaround
am i missing something or is the game just no longer working that well with ks2 machines or newer core versions or something?
I'm not sure - possibly something has changed in NextZXOS/NextBasic that has broken something... As you noted on Alien Annihilation, that also seems to now have an odd bug...
This is very wierd... Thanks for the heads up on that one (and the comments on the other games)
Definitely seems it's the now much-faster NextBasic 2.08 throwing things out of whack...
I will update my Next to 2.08 - I have a fix that I will need to apply across all my games especially for the new KS2 users out there.
On a plus, 2.08 should allow me to push more stuff in future games 👍
I have uploaded an updated version (one small single tweak is all it took on line 130) for KS2 / NextBasic 2.08 that should now correct the speed fluctuations. Enjoy (I hope)
Love it! Thanks man! Was able to compete now on some leaderboard thingy 😄
lol! Really enjoyed your video! :)
new video of just the gameplay up on the channel also. Hope you like it.
Awesome - Yeh, I watched that one (and subscribed - been meaning to do that for a while now). Thanks so much for showing it, as well as the user-modded code version - I'm sure Jay is chuffed (aka Spriteworx).
Maybe if you're feeling adventurous have a bash at making a "Bapstarcade" version. ;-)
If I could code I would. :)
What an awesome take on scramble! Would love to see some extra level design like the original and some nextdaw music added! Fantastic little game, i will be featuring this in my next youtube video bapstarcade the series episode 3..please look out for it!!
Thanks for showing it on your channel (just saw it - didn't realise I hadn't subscribed (but I am now)) - also the modded version from the link posted in the comments below was cool to see.
Excellent and addictive game. Here is a link to a modified version with a few enhancements : Enhanced Ranble
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yNU4njF-qSCg460cx9TSaGvnxJLTaxU1/view?usp=shari...
Nice features and mods! Really glad to see people having some fun with tweaking and playing with the game code/graphics.