Karoshi MSX Community

title: Libreway
developer: nitrofurano
year: 2013-2014
game size: 8kb rom / 1kb ram
game genre: (no idea...)

about: perhaps not so original game, but since the original Freeway game for Atari 2600 never (afaik) were released for MSX1, i would give it a try (with some small differences), and this game seems to be not that hard to code - as well, this game will be developed on Boriel's ZX-Basic Compiler, and the sources of the game will be released - palette will be also "enhanced" for msx2, and probably will be released to Colecovision and SG-1000 as soon i can figure out how to do that from Boriel's ZX-Basic Compiler! ;)

(http://s29.postimg.org/nv9a4jaw7/label.png)

(http://s8.postimg.org/b6rzy5atx/Libreway.png)

(the "whole package" - msx, sg1000 and colecovision versions, including sources: http://nitrofurano.altervista.org/retrocoding/misc/libreway_20140622124006.zip - MSX: tested on OpenMSX and Mess; SG1000: tested on Meka, Mess, MasterGear and TwoMbit; ColecoVision: tested on Meka and Mess - download: from this weblink here, click on "qui" from "La risorsa richiesta è accessibile qui")

Nitro:

After reviewing the original Atari 2600 game, I think that you could make the moving "cars" using blocks. If you check the original, they have only one color per horizontal line and that is perfect for the good'n'old MSX. Using blocks you can keep smooth scrolling (redefining blocks) and have, as the original, 3 cars in a row or even the long trucks. And so you can use sprites just for the moving players and have up to 2 colors per player without any flickering.

Anyway, thank you for proposing this game. I remember playing it with some cousing ages ago and enjoying it very much.

or 4 players simultaneously if keeping 1 colour per player! :) (i really enjoy a lot the idea of games for 4 players on 8 bit machines, just like what i sent to csscgc once - http://nitrofurano.altervista.org/retrocoding/zxspectrum/misc/bacaball.html )

about moving "cars" as redefined blocks, it would be amazing if i could do that! :D (but btw, i'll keep this idea in mind and hoping that one day i'll be able to do this :D , and anyway, the sources will be released as well, for people that might want to improve it somehow! )


you're welcome! :)

a question, after reading this contest rule, and while i'm advancing step by step the development of this one: how far can we enter these games we are submitting here, on other competitions like smspower coding competition 2014 (deadline march 27), for the sg1000 game console? ( http://www.smspower.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=14530 )

the first test (no collisions yet) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsUdofo2eMY

Nice to see that someone wanted to make a nice and funny conversion of old Atari videogame for MSX! :) Thank you!

you're welcome! :)

btw, i guess that we can start sharing our actual releases now? i guess it is playable enough to be considered valid

http://nitrofurano.altervista.org/retrocoding/msx/libreway_20140614205403_romonlyfornow.zip (last revision)

and when can we start sharing the sources we used?

i guess that i have to edit the first post in this thread, and add this actual release there? (i might want to fix bugs or improve in the meanwhile)

just one thing, i don't know if i found a bug on Mess emulator, or if the bug is from the game - it seems that changing the palette (msx2, 2+ and turbo-r), seems to affect the vdp somehow on the msx1 on Mess, but this situation is not happening on OpenMSX (that i heard is far more accurate than Mess )

as promised, the sg1000 version of this game is available as well! :) - edited the 1st post in this thread! :)

Can also be runned on blueMSX :)

FYI : besides MSX machines, blueMSX emulates ColecoVision, SVI-318/328, Sega SG-1000, SC-3000 and SF-7000.

i tried blueMSX once on Wine years ago, quite painful experience, and never tried again... :( (sad there is no native GNU/Linux version of it yet... :S )

added the ColecoVision version too! :)

releasing the sources 10 hours before the deadline, sorry about my anxiety about! :D