Discussion:
New version of Star Fighter 3000
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c***@gmail.com
2013-09-15 10:54:31 UTC
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I have released a new patch for Star Fighter 3000 on the web site (http://www.starfighter.acornarcade.com/). Star Fighter 3000 is a 1994 game where you fly a one-person fighter spacecraft around a mainly flat-shaded polygonal world shooting things, blowing them up, and collecting floating bonus coins.

The highlights in this release are the addition of an invulnerability cheat, improved collision-avoidance A.I. for non-player spacecraft, and bug fixes for the VGA monitor upscaler mode added in the previous release. I also eliminated several illegal reads from zero page addresses, which may help compatibility.

Changes in this version:

-Added an invulnerability cheat (a climbing plant).
-Replaced the algorithm used by the A.I. to avoid collisions between spacecraft and ground objects. In particular, spacecraft no longer turn towards obstacles.
-Attacking spacecraft no longer fire at their target and now have unlimited ability to roll when avoiding collisions with ground objects.
-Enabled some historic code to reduce the jitter of roll control by A.I.
-Made it configurable whether or not the camera view is reset to the player's spacecraft whenever it is hit by incoming fire.
-Reduced memory usage by 12 bytes per spacecraft.
-A message is now broadcast to claim ownership of the input focus from other desktop applications.
-Fixed bug introduced in version 3.00 where enemy spacecraft launched from hangars or big ships did not swerve to avoid head-on collisions with the player.
-Eliminated occasional overflow in calculations for deflection shooting.
-Fixed longstanding bug concerning friendly spacecraft that can't find an enemy to attack when the spacecraft they are following joins the player's formation and there is no room to join too.
-If the player fires upon a friendly spacecraft that has been configured to ignore attacks then it no longer mutinies and leaves the player's formation without actually attacking the player.
-Fixed longstanding bug where a big ship could attack a bonus coin for up to ten frames if it appeared at the same time that an enemy spacecraft was destroyed.
-Fixed loads from illegal addresses 2, 12 and 68.
-Fixed bugs introduced in version 3.15 where keyboard navigation of the in-game menus and key activation of map control icons didn't work when upscaling to 480 lines.
-Fixed bug introduced in version 3.15 where garbage was displayed instead of the title screen in full-screen mode except when upscaling to 480 lines.
-Fixed an incompatibility with RISC OS 6 which prevented mouse clicks on the 'PLAY GAME' button being debounced properly.
x***@gmail.com
2013-09-15 17:24:15 UTC
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Thanks for this.
SF3000 is a 1st class game clearly demonstrating what the Archies have in their guts.
h***@gmail.com
2014-04-03 13:14:27 UTC
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c***@gmail.com
2013-09-22 15:02:08 UTC
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As I'm not quite talking to myself (Cheers xlt...), I had better confess --I mean announce-- that I made a bit of a cock-up with the version of Star Fighter 3000 that I released last weekend.

It turns out that the ARM instructions LDRB and LDR and not synonymous. Due to that unforeseen circumstance, non-player spacecraft never do any deflection shooting in version 3.16 of the game. I have therefore released version 3.17 at http://starfighter.acornarcade.com/sfdownloads.htm, on the assumption that you, gentle reader, aren't into decompressing executable files and finding the right byte to change.

I looked specifically for such a bug during pre-release testing, but concluded that the A.I. was bad at aiming before my changes, and still bad afterwards. In other words, I couldn't tell the difference! The A.I. usually underestimates the distance between a spacecraft and its target, and significantly overestimates the speed at which lasers travel. The net effect is a failure to adequately lead the target.

I know what you are thinking: lasers travel at the speed of light! Do not be deceived; I am not referring to Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation but "lasers" that occupy the same universe as "wangers", "rots", "adders", "movers" and "pex".

So why haven't I improved the aiming algorithm? It might be hard to believe, but I take my responsibility as curator of this historical artifact seriously. Also, I don't want to take the flak (geddit?) for making the game more difficult. Trust me, it's alarming to fly into "lasers" unleashed unerringly from long distance. If I changed the behaviour then I would have to add a configuration option to disable it, and I just can't be bothered.

Perhaps an expansion pack could introduce a sixth faction: The fearsome alien race of Pythagorians, who use their closely-guarded secret formula to shoot with deadly accuracy. Until then, simply keep moving!
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