This should now be the complete set of tests. It should provide full coverage for all the game logic and enable testing the critical path and all the side quests without the need to actually play through the game. Playtesting can then focus on pacing and fun factor. There’s still some work to do on the map tests. Everything on the menu after the map tests is done.
It’s 2025 and Pax Britannia is back in active development. Most of the codebase is about 11 years old at this point. But, it was written in a fairly modular way. The first task is stitching it all together. The easiest way to do that without breaking anything was to make a virtual devkit. The target platform has 128K of program (the game and data). The devkit includes an additional 64K of space for a monitor and test routines.
At present the world map, town maps, encounter maps, font, tile and audio tests are working. It’s also possible to export the game package. Exiting from the monitor starts the game, and you can return to the monitor by pressing the NMI (non-maskable interrupt) button or quitting the game.
The monitor uses the actual code from the game to print to the screen, display tiles, play music and so on, which means everything can be tested in situ. Besides all the code, it was also necessary to import all the data. The layout has changed slightly to reflect the requirements of the code. From bank 0 to 7, it’s now:
audio|2D tiles|game logic|3D tiles|world map|framebuffer|mini maps|dialogueY
Progress continues, if a little slowly. Next up will be a new version of the cloth map.
Owing to failing to notice that my WordPress account was accessed via Facebook email, and having forgotten my username, I’ve been locked out from posting for a while. Today I randomly remembered my username, so here’s a little update … new character creation cards.
If you don’t use the character creation program, you get the default character. For example:
Name: Tyris
Sex: Female
Class: Barbarian
Weapon: Sword
Armour: Leather
Use NMI or Symbol Shift to enter debug mode.
A – Avatar mode
B – Sound FX test
C – Call RAM address
D – Dungeon teleport
E – Equipment max
F – Food max
G – Gold max
H – Heal party
I – Items max
J – Jump to co-ords
K – Keys max
L – Level-up party
M – Magic max
N – New game
O – Output RAM from address
P – Party modify
Q – Quest flags
R – Resurrect party
S – Spawn horse / ship
T – Time shift
U – Talk to NPC
V – View mode toggle
W – Win fight
X – XP increase
Y – Music / FX test
Z – Stats adjust
Platform / Emulator
Android / Spectaculator
DS / ZXDS
iOS / Spectaculator
Linux / Fuse
OS X / Fuse
Wii / FBZX
Windows / Speccy
a – skin
b – cloth
c – leather
d – chain mail
e – plate mail
f – magic cloth
g – magic leather
h – magic chain
i – magic plate
Class Restrictions
Wizard based classes are restricted to cloth armour.
Rogue based classes are restricted to leather armour.
Priest based classes are restricted to chain armour.
Multi-class characters have the armour restrictions of the weaker class.
a—hands
b—staff
c—dagger
d—sling
e—mace
f—axe
g—sword
h—bow
i—crossbow
j—spear
k—halberd
l—magic staff
m—magic dagger
n—magic sling
o—magic mace
p—magic axe
q—magic sword
r—magic bow
s—magic crossbow
t—magic spear
u—magic halberd
Class Restrictions
Wizard based classes are restricted to staff, dagger, and sling.
Rogue based classes are restricted to single-handed weapons.
Priest based classes may not use edged or pointed weapons.
Multi-class characters have the weapon restrictions of the stronger class.
a – attack
b – board
c – cast
d – descend
e – enter
f – fire
g – get
h – hole up
i – ignite
j – jimmy
k – climb
l – look
m – map
n – new order
o – open
p – pick pocket
q – quit & save
r – ready weapon
s – search
t – talk
u – use
v – volume
w – wear armour
x – exit
y – yell
z – stats
symbol shift – trigger NMI / enter debug mode