[Lachesis]

I was playing through Labrynth of Zeux earlier last night/this morning and realized that while I found the game to have quite a few good traits, that they were overshadowed by a few obnoxious mechanics that made the game a bit of a pain in the ass. My preposal is that, as a joint project between multiple MZXers, that Labrynth be ported/remade in Megazeux with updates that make the game less of a burden to play while still remaining challenging and fun, and a new, completely replaced soundtrack (see bottom of post).

Port Checklist:
-- : Unimplemented
x : Incomplete Implementation
√ : Flawed Implementation
√ : Perfect or Near-perfect emulation
+ : Implemented and improved

+ Player (Player can jump from conveyors next to spaces. Player can now jump from the bottom of a vine.)
√ Amoebas (make sure they consume everything they're supposed to.)
√ Soundtrack (needs ending music)
x Level Pack (24/25 finished)

2012/02/04 Update - Got rid of everything that was taking up space in this post since the game's already been released twice. All that's left is the level pack, some minor details, and the ending music.

[Seventh Shade]

Megazeux really needs to include a new game of some kind to show off the new features. Caverns is dated. An updated Zeux game or even a sequel could do it. I'm interested but I'm not sure what I'd do.

[CJA]

I'll do some remixing! What sort of musical aesthetic do you have in mind? CMF files are what, again?

[Lachesis]

SeventhShade: I hadn't even thought of that, but I think that's a pretty good idea. I had the though to give Labyrinth of Zeux two viewing modes; a "map" mode which looks pretty much the way it did in Labrynth, with the level filling the whole screen, but with slightly updated graphics -- you'd only be able to look at the whole level through this, not actually play on it, because gameplay would be in a zoomed, 2x2 sprite mode with physics and detailed enemies. I honestly didn't give this much consideration until now, my main intention mostly having been to port Labrynth, but if everybody thinks something like this would be a better route, then great. Did you want to design some graphics?

CJA, on 13 June 2010 - 05:34 PM, said:

I'll do some remixing! What sort of musical aesthetic do you have in mind? CMF files are what, again?

CMF files are pretty much just MIDI files with some instrument registers included that SB16s used to turn into synthesized instruments. If you want the CMFs themselves, they're in Vault with the game (I didn't think to look for an actual CMF editor but I'm sure anything that does MIDI could probably do CMF).

[Lachesis]

As far as music aesthetic goes, I suppose we'd aim for a style similar to the MZX Zeux games, maybe a little more Epic or Serious, because this isn't 1994 anymore -- I was even going to propose that we use samples from Alexis's music, or things that at least sound similar.

[allison]

I volunteer to remix. Sadly, the remixes will be WAV files...

[Seventh Shade]

Alright, I could do some graphics. I'm already making some maps for MetroidRL but that'll be done soon enough. What do you need?

[Lachesis]

Well, somebody (looks like it's gonna be me) needs to figure out the file format or take a screenshot of every single level from the editor; then, whoever wants to participate can help remake every level by hand to, well, not look like this:







For simplicity, if I release a straight-up port first, it will probably use the original graphics at first while everybody's working on the remake stuff.

Anyway, I just figured out the character set:
Original character set - Megazeux conversion

Original character set seems to have been in 8x16 or 8x14 (can't really tell, as the last two bytes were usually blank) with an extra 16 or 18 bytes after each character, the bytes after each character being all x00 or all xFF. I'm not entirely sure what function this would have served. Also, notice how every frame of every animation is in the character set -- something we're going to have to work around if we go the 2x2 sprite route.

EDIT 3:

Level format in .DAT file:
x32 byte header ;who knows what this is for *shrug*
;levels follow, each consisting of:
xE60 bytes ;level data (char, color, alternating)
x4E bytes ;level title (text)
x4E bytes ;hint (text)
x02 bytes ;amoeba reproduction rates (normal, yellow)
x14 bytes ;music filename and extra space (text)

Level format in exported level files:
xE60 bytes ;level data (char, color, alternating)
x4E bytes ;level title (text)
x02 bytes ;unused?
x14 bytes ;music filename and extra space (text)
x02 bytes ;amoeba reproduction rates (normal, yellow)

Hi-scores format in .HI file:
;there are always 10 entries in the high scores
x14 bytes ;name (an x00 byte in here will make it skip the rest of the name)
x04 bytes ;score (32-bit integer)
x02 bytes ;level (16-bit integer)
x02 bytes ;gems collected (16-bit integer)
;I've yet to figure out how the rankings work, but I figure it's based on the level
;Labrynth of Zeux records high scores but replaces all names with "Labrynth of Zeux" except for the most recent name entered.  This is being treated as a glitch, and will be fixed in the port.

This post has been edited by Lachesis: 19 June 2010 - 08:21 PM

[Lachesis]

Warning about the MIDI files: the percussion is stored in channels 12-16 instead of channel 10, and apparently CMF could pitch and instrument patch the percussion, so it wouldn't work properly in channel 10 anyway without a bit of work. Percussion channels:

12 - Bass Drum
13 - Snare Drum
14 - Tom Drums
15 - Crash Cymbal
16 - Hi-Hat

EDIT: Crazyal; I don't think we'll be able to use WAV files for music, and even OGGs would be pushing it. All of the music's going to be in one format for simplicity, and it seems like the general module format consensus around here is .IT. Have you ever used Modplug Tracker?

This post has been edited by Lachesis: 16 June 2010 - 10:19 PM

[Lachesis]

Music team decided that the CMFs were mostly covers anyway, and we didn't want to waste time covering covers. Game will feature completely original soundtrack, with ideally one original track per level. Most of the samples will be from the original Zeux games, to create a sense of continuity.

Most of the Zeux game music samples, compiled by iamgreaser!

[ajs]

I approve of this effort. Looks like you guys are doing some great work. If you need any help decoding stuff or writing converters, let me know.

--ajs.

[Lachesis]

The main things that I can think of that I really don't have much of a clue about what seem to be scripted parts of levels, i.e. the rubble collapsing. Are there any other in-game scripts like that which I should know about?

[Lachesis]

I've learned more about the file formats, which now should be 99.9% correct in my post above (still not sure what the header's used for, though). Still playing the game through and trying to figure out how exactly everything works, so I can emulate everything properly. In the meantime, I'm

[smilymzx]

Quote

The image is also for the game's progress too, so don't get me wrong!

Also, Image is not mine. From: Google/Uncyclopedia

Great progress!

This post has been edited by smilymzx: 19 June 2010 - 10:04 PM

[Lachesis]

Where are my $strings used as virtual files, eggman?

[smilymzx]

Lachesis, on 26 June 2010 - 06:01 AM, said:

Where are my $strings used as virtual files, eggman?

Each screen is a 80x23 Level!

The strings are hidden under the levels, Try a hex editor such as XVI32

There is a file format, the process is:

1: A Useless header,

2: **Ansi Level Data, If modded could be used in a DOS version of MZX that used to support this old ANSI format: Char, Color

3, Text Data, Then it repeats: Level,Text,Level,Text,ect
(Actual Level Text)

**= Inside the Zeux.exe Executable is some more ANSI data, If you want the ending remade, It is a must!

This post has been edited by smilymzx: 26 June 2010 - 07:11 PM

[Lachesis]

...what? I was talking about the "$string as virtual file" functionality that Lancer-X has been pushing for a while, where in that case, I'd have redesigned the gameplay engine to read and store its data in a virtual MZM which would have been written to the board every cycle. It was a potential optimization that I was considering which would attempt to save as much processing time as four expressions and a put command inside of a loop 1839 takes up. I found a way around requiring its usage, though. The data's now going to be stored on a 1840x1 vlayer, saved as an MZM, and reloaded to the board with modified dimensions.

edit: though, the virtual file thing would still help a little

edit 2: 15.5% processor usage decrease.

This post has been edited by Lachesis: 26 June 2010 - 10:51 PM

[zzo38]

Lachesis, on 26 June 2010 - 03:05 PM, said:

I'd have redesigned the gameplay engine to read and store its data in a virtual MZM which would have been written to the board every cycle. It was a potential optimization that I was considering which would attempt to save as much processing time as four expressions and a put command inside of a loop 1839 takes up.
edit 2: 15.5% processor usage decrease.

Of course I would do it differently, by writing Forth codes to make extkinds for each kind of object in Zeux, and then having EV.UPDATE events and so on, making the speed and processor usage about the same as normal MegaZeux. (But if you don't want that, then.......!)

[Dr Lancer-X]

What if Lachesis wants to make something that people will actually play?

[zzo38]

Lancer-X, on 27 June 2010 - 06:37 PM, said:

What if Lachesis wants to make something that people will actually play?

Then perhaps sell it at the computer game store in your town?

[Dr Lancer-X]

go and die

[asgromo]

Is zzo snarkily implying that almost nobody plays MegaZeux games, and everyone here is guilty of closed-minded, impractical, aspie-hobbyist fixation?

[Dr Lancer-X]

I wasn't sure, exactly.. but I came to the conclusion that, no matter which way you interpret his post, it's still bad

[Lachesis]

Anybody want to try to duplicate Zeux's SFX? I dunno how to get into the sound test.

[Exophase]

zzo38, on 28 June 2010 - 01:23 AM, said:

Then perhaps sell it at the computer game store in your town?

I think more people will play it if you don't do that.

Funny story (okay, not really, but it's a story all the same): the government has a facility for performing static analysis on software. I was told that for a given program all the underlying projects were cleared through this facility, except for one. For that one nothing could be done because it was written entirely in Forth. And this reminded me of zzo.

[zzo38]

Quote

the government has a facility for performing static analysis on software. I was told that for a given program all the underlying projects were cleared through this facility, except for one. For that one nothing could be done because it was written entirely in Forth. And this reminded me of zzo.

Which government? It is pretty much correct, static analysis is impossible or nearly impossible with Forth codes. Dynamic analysis can still be done. Another possibility is to add some sort of header file to make something which is in between static/dynamic analysis, allowing partial static analysis with mostly dynamic analysis, but I don't know if any such software exists.

[Zappman]

I remember this old game... Yeah, used to have nightmares about it. Still do occasionally. But you're all turning it into something that doesn't make people shudder and cry and run for the hills? I think you've put many of my nightmares to rest.

As for all that jizzle-jazzle about CPU cycles, just make it so it runs at a playable speed. I don't care if it's a little slower than regular MZX.

(and if people get picky when it gets close to running the normal speed of MZX, but a little slower, I'll be content to eat my own head, sir!)

[Lachesis]

Added track checklist. Yes, you read it correctly. Each level will have a unique track, which will all be listed with their authors in the credits.

[Lachesis]

Also, I put the link to the main sample pack we've been using for these tracks in the first post, though you can use other samples if you want. I'm going to go back through all of the levels some time and maybe compile a list of general ideas that could be used for the music in each level, if that would help people who want to contribute to the soundtrack.

[Lachesis]

The soundtrack's coming along, and I've been getting a bit of the programming work done on the side. IAmGreaser, nooodl, and Danger have been doing a great job, and I'd really like to see more from them and even some other contributors if anybody else'd like to chip in!