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Writer's pictureBruce

MPAGD Shmupkit Dev Guide

MPAGD SHMUPKIT is a Multi-Platform Arcade Game Designer project for creating vertical shoot-em ups, initially for ZX Spectrum, but eventually for other MPAGD supported platforms.


Shmupkit contains MPAGD scripts for:

  • Player (Left, Right, Thrust & Fire)

  • Extensible Enemies - you can define enemy movement patterns using a series of directions (16 compass points) & repetitions - create simple or complex movement patterns as you like (demo game includes 12 movement patterns for you to explore)

  • Extensible Enemy Spawners -  allowing you to define the types of aliens spawned in each attack wave, including # aliens,  alien type, alien sprite, alien colour, time between each spawn, spawn point, points for a kill, weapon, weapon firing height, weapon firing probability, weapon firing proximity to player

  • Player weapons

  • Enemy weapons

  • Explosions

  • Score & High Score

  • Redefinable keys

It also contains Sprites for:

  • Player

  • 16 frame Alien (aligned with direction of movement)

  • Enemy missile

  • Player missile

  • Animated Explosion

Also included is a demo game with 12 Enemy attack wave patterns.


Getting Started

Obviously you'll need to have installed Multi Platform Arcade Game Designer first.


Next, download the latest version of MPAGD Shmupkit.


Extract the zip file to a folder on your PC, ensuring there are no spaces in the path.


Open MPAGD

From the file menu select Load Project

Navigate to your Shmupkit folder and open the Shmupkit APJ file.


Build the game and have a play!




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aboutME

Hello, I'm Bruce and I write games for old 8bit computers using Jonathan Cauldwell's excellent Multi-Platform Arcade Games Designer (MPAGD)

I've written a few successful* games for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum and MSX platforms that have been (largely) well received including Twenty Four Hour Parsley People scoring a 10 out of 10 on Planeta Sinclair.

In my blog I am sharing lots of the code that I wrote for my games, in a way that you can use in your own games.   I've commented it so that you'll learn some of the techniques I use to create interesting new mechanics and help your games stand out from the pack.

MPAGD includes lots of standard scripts, they're great to get you started, but if you're new (or just rusty) when it comes to writing code, hopefully my tutorials will help you get started and  turn your imagination into awesome 8 bit games!

All my code is free to use and do with as you please, but if you find them useful please feel free to buy me a coffee ...or better still - buy or download my games :)

*successful is a very relative term in 8bit computer games

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