Norman Sword Posted December 12, 2020 Author Report Share Posted December 12, 2020 Tools used for writing Manic Panic Context (text editor for writing the assembler code) Pasmo (A z80 assembler) Fuse (for testing assembled code) QBasic for tedious calculations. Code was written as needed - no usage of libraries. No usage of other programs - apart from those listed above. All additional graphics were typed in binary. Music data and music code directly typed in. Room layout data (platform positions)- typed in directly in hex. Sprite movement and room specific data - typed out by hand. Sprite movement - mentally calculated and typed in. Room graphic tile data (numeric data was visually taken from another program I wrote MANIC 40 MINER and then typed in. I allowed macro's to transpose the data. The main code block is 9,155 lines of comments, equates and code. which is 450k in size The sprite file is 1,480 lines of hex statements and binary statements. which is 41k in size The room data is 3,450 lines of macro's and data statements. which is 128k in size Every time I changed the program logic and needed different data - I edited the above files with a text editor. Spider, jetsetdanny and JianYang 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spider Posted December 20, 2020 Report Share Posted December 20, 2020 🙂 Popular with good reason. Although this version has only (at the time of writing this) been present for a week and a half, its already had 350+ downloads. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norman Sword Posted December 21, 2020 Author Report Share Posted December 21, 2020 (edited) Anyone following the heading Post of "MANIC PANIC" would after around 16 posts, find the theme has been hijacked into a discussion on Christmas and JSWED . JSWED is a program I do not use. A program that does not enable anyone to edit anything written by me (Norman Sword) - Altered Reality - Manic Panic - Manic 40 Miner - Dual (SP and BB) Manic Miner etc The hiatus in the theme would probably curtail the casual reader from continuing if their only interest was Manic Panic, and for that reason I will not add anymore detail about Manic Panic here. If any more detail is needed it will probably be easier to edit one of my posts the occur before post 16 and add any detail there. (before the major sidetrack) Concerning Downloads:- Great to pass 350 downloads, which are of course FREE. Edited December 21, 2020 by Norman Sword Grammar - changing interested to interest. IRF 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jetsetdanny Posted December 21, 2020 Report Share Posted December 21, 2020 The fact that you allow free download of your games is greatly appreciated, Norman Sword! 👍 Spider and IRF 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spider Posted December 21, 2020 Report Share Posted December 21, 2020 @Norman Sword, I've tidied the topic and split the posts that were a bit too far off topic into a new topic of their own, in the 'Remakes' forum area. For reference said new topic can be found here as there is some interest in 'Seasonal' themed creations although I do confess upon viewing the whole original topic here in its entirety there were a few too many off topic posts present, and I'm guilty of posting just as much as anyone else. 🙂 I'd like to hope you will perhaps consider continuing to use this topic again now I've had my "sweeping brush" out to attend to it. 2 hours ago, jetsetdanny said: The fact that you allow free download of your games is greatly appreciated, Norman Sword! 👍 I concur IRF and jetsetdanny 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IRF Posted December 21, 2020 Report Share Posted December 21, 2020 (edited) 20 hours ago, Norman Sword said: Anyone following the heading Post of "MANIC PANIC" would after around 16 posts, find the theme has been hijacked into a discussion on Christmas and JSWED . JSWED is a program I do not use. A program that does not enable anyone to edit anything written by me (Norman Sword) - Altered Reality - Manic Panic - Manic 40 Miner - Dual (SP and BB) Manic Miner etc The hiatus in the theme would probably curtail the casual reader from continuing if their only interest was Manic Panic, and for that reason I will not add anymore detail about Manic Panic here. If any more detail is needed it will probably be easier to edit one of my posts the occur before post 16 and add any detail there. (before the major sidetrack) Concerning Downloads:- Great to pass 350 downloads, which are of course FREE. I was thinking the same thing about the topic having 'veered off' a bit. To bring it back on topic, JianYang mentioned that they found the game a bit too fast. There is a combination of keypresses which will slow the game down, which would perhaps make it more playable. (NS revealed it to me in private correspondence.) Question for NS: would it be appropriate to reveal this secret here, or is it not intended for public knowledge? P.S. I would like to add my appreciation of your FREE contributions as well, Norman Sword! Edited December 22, 2020 by IRF jetsetdanny, JianYang and Spider 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norman Sword Posted December 22, 2020 Author Report Share Posted December 22, 2020 (edited) 16 hours ago, IRF said: I was thinking the same thing about the topic having 'veered off' a bit. To bring it back on topic, MtM mentioned that they found the game a bit too fast. There is a combination of keypresses which will slow the game down, which would perhaps make it more playable. (NS revealed it to me in private correspondence.) Question for NS: would it be appropriate to reveal this secret here, or is it not intended for public knowledge? P.S. I would like to add my appreciation of your FREE contributions as well, Norman Sword! The purpose of those keypress combinations was to enable raster interrupts. I constantly experiment and one of those experiments was the enabling of interrupts. The purpose of enabling interrupts was to stop the jitter caused by framing rates being inconsistent. (I can expand on why that causes jitter, and what is the actual cause of the change in framing rate) - but not here Enabling interrupts allows for more consistent frame time, which helps stop jitter. It does however as a trade off, slow the game down. The amount of slowing down will vary and whilst it does slow the game down. The amount is based on rounding up frame times and will not produce a slowed down game as such. Some caverns could run at nearly the same speed whilst others are slowed down quite a bit. Since its purpose is NOT to enable a slower game but to stop jitter with a side effect of possibly slowing the game down in some caverns. Knowing how to switch the effect on will not really help if the objective is to run the game slower. The title is Manic Panic - a game that runs fast, and plays fast. Willy Lethargic can be achieved by changing the speed of most emulators to play at what ever speed is needed. The above mentions why I added the ability to enable interrupts. And why I prefer the game to be left at full speed. However I added the ability to enable interrupts because of MY concern over jitter. And for that reason alone, I will divulge the key press needed to enable interrupts just to show that the judder/jitter that the game experiences can be removed if needed. Whilst playing:- Press "A" "S" "D" all together - the game will enter pause and display the status line. (doing this action will also change the status of the interrupts) The colour of "H-Score" indicates the status of Interrupts - Green indicates Interrupts are enabled and the game might run slower with no jitter/judder Yellow indicates interrupts are turned off and the game runs flat out with slight jitter/judder Exit back to the game with any key that exits from pause. Interrupts can be turned on and off at any time and in any room/cavern. Repressing "A" "S" "D" whilst in pause will toggle Interrupts on/off/on etc Edited December 22, 2020 by Norman Sword Clarifying key press action. jetsetdanny, IRF, JianYang and 1 other 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jetsetdanny Posted December 22, 2020 Report Share Posted December 22, 2020 Thanks for this info, Norman Sword! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IRF Posted December 22, 2020 Report Share Posted December 22, 2020 Norman, am I at liberty to divulge the other two similar keypress combinations, which have minor aesthetic effects during the game? I ask because I had difficulty getting one of them to work, and I wonder if others might encounter the same problem? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norman Sword Posted December 22, 2020 Author Report Share Posted December 22, 2020 (edited) 20 hours ago, IRF said: Norman, am I at liberty to divulge the other two similar keypress combinations, which have minor aesthetic effects during the game? I ask because I had difficulty getting one of them to work, and I wonder if others might encounter the same problem? Just as easy for me to explain those extra key presses. There are two other key combinations that change trivial game settings. If the key combinations do not work, then the option can not be changed. Both of the extra options are as stated trivial changes to the game. I added the options, simply to see which setting I prefered. The default setting is my prefered setting. Very brief ---- "A" - "S" - "D" changes the interrupts (as stated on my last post) "S" - "D" - "F" changes the way the border flashes when Item/objects are collected. "D" - "F" - "G" changes the way the way landing on a platform is displayed. (Dust) ------------------------------------- "ASD" changes interrupts - Status indicator= "H-score" - Green=interrupts on - Yellow=interrupts off "SDF" changes border flash - Status indicator =The numeric part of "SCORE 000000" - White=border flash on - Cyan=border flash off "DFG" changes foot landing (dust) - Status indicator= The numeric part of "H-SCORE 000000" - White=dust displayed - Cyan= No dust displayed ------------------------------------- The border flash was added simply because I tend to play without the sound turned on. When playing "Water Permeation" the item/objects turn themselves on and off at regular intervals. It is possible to jump at an item/object that is displayed and at the moment of collection the item/object could switch off. When playing with no sound there is no real feedback as to whether the item was collected or it switched off. The border flash was added just for this room. If playing with sound, probably no reason to have the flash enabled. The combination "SDF" will turn the flash on/off/on etc. ------------------------------------- The foot dust routine was added over a period of an hour. The switch option was added so I could see which mode I prefered. It was left as being on by default ------------------------------------ If the above options can not be switched by the relevant key combinations you are not missing much. They were written basically for me to change at will what the game displayed. I consider the three sets of key switches a trivial addition - they are not intended game features. ---------------------------------- Trivia:- The end game sequence where it says "PLAYING VICTORY TUNE" and the sequence of border flashes, is another consequence of me playing with no sound. Without that feedback text and border flash, it looks like the game has crashed. Edited December 23, 2020 by Norman Sword Clarification of terminology. jetsetdanny, Spider, IRF and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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