Who wants to volunteer for a little play testing?

I’m working on a rewrite of Escape from Exeria – the first game released by Soft Rock Software in 1990, and subsequently rewritten in 1994.

Some of the features of the new version will much better graphics (running at 1920×1080), many more levels to play, and a modified ghost movement algorithm.

The new version is nowhere near ready, but when getting the ’94 version ready to upload, I realised I can modify a copy of it for the purposes of play testing the levels/new movement algorithm.

I’ve therefore adapted the it to use the new (first draft) graphics (well, a subset of them – the old code doesn’t do some of the planned transitions and animations), and it now loads 160 levels instead of 40.

And this weekend I’m going to hopefully add the line of sight feature (the main change to the ghost movement).

So, would anyone like to volunteer to help play through some of the levels once that’s done? (You will need something capable of running 1920×1080 with 16million colours at a decent speed.)

I should stress that this is not the new version, but a modded 1994 version. There is some terrible programming in it, and a number of bugs – these will not be fixed; this is not a beta test. It is merely a play test of the level designs.

Once I have a few people willing to play, I’ll allocate a range of levels for each person. (There’s a ‘cheat’ mode in the game that allows any level to be selected to play).

Would a Pi B+ be enough to run it?

Easily – I copied it onto my original Pi a couple of days ago to see if it worked on that¹ and it was fine.

¹ And readiness for taking it to the Bristol Users meeting tonight, if it’s practical to do so. It looks like it is.

Cool! I have a couple of other teething issues with my Pi but assuming I get those sorted then I would be happy to play test a few levels…

Well this evening I’ve added the new line of sight mode for the ghosts (which kicks in from level 41) and it seems to work as planned/expected.

I’ve also knocked together another couple of programs – one to extract the screen data, map the characters to normal ascii codes, and dump it in a text file, and the second to reverse that process, so I can edit the levels if needed (and it will be) in a text editor. (Thanks for that idea, Tony!)

I was going to upload a pair of comparative screen grabs – the old 800×600 graphics, and this modded version running at 1920×1080 – but my ARMX6 appears to be not talking to my network right now, and given the time I can’t be bothered to try fixing it. It can wait until tomorrow.

(I do have a fair old pile of work to do this weekend, but I can work around that.)

I’m here for tests. I love games (when I have time :) ).

David, Glenn – email me at vince@softrock.co.uk so I have the email addresses at which you want to receive the game/notes/instructions. I’ll send it to you some time tomorrow (probably evening).

Anyone else?

FWIW:

1994 RiscPC version…

…modified to run in 1920×1080 with new graphics

The full size version of that last image.

A video of it running

Hi Vince. I’m looking forward to trying the new levels.

Like the new graphics.

I’m going to do some work on the sound module tonight and make it bit more ‘road legal’ based on review comments from Jeffrey Lee (which I’m very grateful for). Hopefully it might be useful.

Don’t get too attached to the new graphics; some of them are just draft designs, very roughly/quickly created in order to have enough of a set to drop into the ’94 version – some are going to change for the actual rewrite! :)

A good example of that is the cages containing the stars – they’ll go back to (lightly coloured) boulders, though the current graphics have given me a nice idea for when they open.

Vince: I’ve sent my email through but the way that my email account is working lately I’m not sure you will get it!

I will keep checking here for updates as well…

Test versions sent – let me know if you don’t receive it, Glen.

Got it thanks Vince! I will pencil in some time tonight or tomorrow depending on how busy I get with work/life.

Would anyone else like to volunteer to do a little testing? I only have a small number of people at the moment, and would like to double the number at least (no I’m not revealing what the actual number is!) – and spread the range of machines.

If anyone would like to be added to the list, let me know – info@softrock.co.uk

The latest version went out shortly before Christmas, and featured a full 80 levels (40 original, 40 additional featuring a modified approach to guardian movement – THEY CAN SEEEEEEEEEEE YOOOOUUUUUU), and sound.

I’m planning on changing the sounds, and re-exporting the graphics at a lower resolution – given that this is essentially the mid-1990s code with changes, I’m hoping to be able to make it available for RPC and later, but I don’t have one set up to test on myself. (Yes, I know RPCEmu, but that tends to be faster than the original hardware!)