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Writer's pictureBruce

Vertical Shmup - Part 4 - The Player Weapon

So far we have an spaceship that the player can control, now we are going to give him a weapon he can fire. First, we need to consider that, as standard, MPAGD works with 16 x 16 pixel sprites, so we will initially create a 16 x 16 weapon.


Let's create the weapon sprite:


MENU: EDITOR > SPRITES


Hit X to add a new sprite, and create your Photon Torpedos (or whatever you want the enemy spaceship to shoot!), here's mine:



Now, before we start coding, there's a couple of things we need to consider:

1) MPAGD can only handle 12 sprites on screen at any one time, so we're going to need to keep track of how many are in play.

2) We're going to want to check the player has released the fire key each time they shoot, no auto fire here, so we're going to need to check for key debouncing.


Each of these can be solved pretty easily.


Keeping track of on screen sprites


We'll use a variable, S, to keep a tally of how many sprites are on screen at any one time. Each time an enemy appears, or a torpedo is fired, we'll increment the tally, making sure it never goes above 12. Similarly, each time one is removed we'll decrement the tally (S).


To start with we'll s,et S to 0 in the RESTART SCREEN event then we'll ADD 1 to S for each sprite when it is initialised:


MENU: EVENTS > RESTART SCREEN



EVENT RESTARTSCREEN

LET S = 0			; initialise the sprite counter

MENU: EVENTS > INITIALISE SPRITES



EVENT INITSPRITE

ADD 1 TO S            ; increment the sprite counter

So, when the screen is drawn, S starts at 0 and increments for every sprite that is then placed on Screen


Next, we'll write some code for the Photon Torpedo's (the weapon) which will define what happens when the player shoots one. We'll use Sprite type 1 for the weapon:


MENU: EVENTS > SPRITE TYPE 1

Q



EVENT SPRITETYPE1

							; PHOTON TORPEDOS
							; ====================


IF DIRECTION 1				; Torpedo travel up
	LET IMAGE = 1				; make sure we are on image 1
	REPEAT 6					; torpedos move quick, so do this 6 times
	SPRITEUP					; move up
	ADD 2 TO SETTINGB			; increase the distance counter by 2
	IF SETTINGB > = 88		; when distance travelled = 88
		LET DIRECTION = 99	; run the explode routine
	ENDIF
		IF Y <= 8			; has the torpedo reached the top?	
		LET DIRECTION = 99	; yes, so explode it
		EXIT				; exit this event (as we are in a loop)
	ENDIF
	ENDREPEAT
ENDIF

IF DIRECTION = 99				; explode the torpedo
	REMOVE					; remove the torpedo
	SUBTRACT 1 FROM S			; decrement the sprite counter
ENDIF


Like in Arcadia, player torpedos do not travel the full height of the screen, they explode after travelling half the full height, so we're doing the same. I've used the local variable SETTINGB to calculate when the torpedo has travelled 88 pixels, at which point we change its DIRECTION to 99 which is a sub routine that will explode the torpedo, we'll design an explosion graphic later, for now, we'll just remove the sprite and decrement the sprite counter variable (S)


We remember to update the Initialise Sprite Event to set SETTINGB to 0 when a torpedo is first initialised.



EVENT INITSPRITE

ADD 1 TO S				; increment the sprite counter

IF TYPE 1				; PHOTON TORPEDO
	LET SETTINGB = 0		; initialise the distance counter
ENDIF

Next, we'll head back to our player event and add the code for the FIRE button:



EVENT PLAYER
AT 0 14 DISPLAY TRIPLEDIGITS S

						; COLOURS
						; =======================
SPRITEINK 69				; Bright Cyan ink

IF KEY UP				; Player presses up (thrust)
	LET FRAME = 1			; switch to the frame that shows jetflame
	IF Y > 92 			; If player is below the 80 y pixel line
		SPRITEUP			; move player up
		SPRITEUP			; and up again (faster movement)
	ENDIF
ELSE						; if player is not pressing thrust
	LET FRAME = 0			; switch to the regular spaceship (no jetflame)
	SPRITEDOWN			; move player down
ENDIF

						; PLAYER MOVEMENT
						; ====================
IF KEY LEFT				; has player pressed LEFT?
	IF CANGOLEFT			; can the player move left?	
		SPRITELEFT		; yes, move player left
		SPRITELEFT		; and again (moves faster)
	ENDIF 
ENDIF

IF KEY RIGHT				; has the player pressed RIGHT?			
	IF CANGORIGHT			; yes, can the player move right?				
		SPRITERIGHT		; yes, move player right
		SPRITERIGHT		; and again (moves faster)
	ENDIF									
ENDIF

								; FIRE PHOTON TORPEDOS
								; ====================
IF KEY FIRE						; if player presses fire key
	IF SETTINGA = 0				; if firekey is debounced
		IF S < 12				; and if less than 12 on screen
			SPAWN 1 1			; spawn a bullet
			LET SETTINGA = 1		; bounce the fire key
			SPAWNED				; switch to the Photon Torpedo
			LET DIRECTION = 1		; set its direction to 1 (up)
			ENDSPRITE			; return to this sprite
		ENDIF
	ENDIF
ELSE								; fire key not pressed
	LET SETTINGA = 0				; debounce it
ENDIF				


						; BOUNDARY CHECK
						; ====================
IF Y >= BOTTOMEDGE		; has player gone beyond the bottom edge?
	LET Y = BOTTOMEDGE	; yes, keep them at the bottom edge
ENDIF

Let's give it a test. by building the game



That's working as expected, now let's tidy it up by creating an explosion, we'll do this by adding some additional frames to our torpedo sprite:







Now we'll update our explosion subroutine in the torpedo event (SPRITE TYPE 1), I've highlighted the new code below:



EVENT SPRITETYPE1

						; PHOTON TORPEDOS
						; ====================


IF DIRECTION 1			; Torpedo travel up
	LET IMAGE = 1			; make sure we are on image 1
	REPEAT 6				; torpedos move quick, so do this 6 times
	SPRITEUP				; move up
	ADD 2 TO SETTINGB		; increase the distance travelled counter by 2
	IF SETTINGB > = 88	; when distance travelled = 88
		LET DIRECTION = 99; run the explode routine
	ENDIF
	IF Y <= 8			; has torpedo reached the top?
		LET DIRECTION = 99; yes, so explode it
		EXIT				; quit this event as we are in a loop
	ENDIF	
	ENDREPEAT
ENDIF

IF DIRECTION = 99			; explode the torpedo
	ADD 1 TO FRAME		; increment the frame
	IF FRAME = 5			; when we reach the last frame
		REMOVE			; remove the torpedo
		SUBTRACT 1 FROM S	; decrement the sprite counter
	ENDIF
ENDIF

So, now we have our playr spaceship, which can move and fire torpedos...I think we're going to need an enemy!


NEXT: PART 4: OUR FIRST ALIEN ENEMY



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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)

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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 :)

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

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