Herro fantasy - the King's sword

[Dom]

This Monos game was featured by Didier in the first issue of Oric-Mag. I ported it to disc with Monos' kind permission.
A few aesthetic changes have been made. Colors are now present instead of monochrome black and white, the "ping" and "shoot" sounds have been replaced by "pong" and "kshh." The hero's movement continues as long as you hold down the keys.
This disc version now allows you to save and load ongoing games.
(1' 50") Nothing magic Ijust loaded a previously saved game, in order to shorten the video (and ensure final victory )

Maps and winning strategy in the next issue of Oric Mag...

edit: Following Didier's message, I removed the disc from the download, pending a unique Oric version of the game.

[Dbug]

That's an interesting concept, are the levels fixed or is it like in rogue games with randomized elements?

[Dom]

That's an interesting concept, are the levels fixed or is it like in rogue games with randomized elements?

The four maps are fixed
The location of monsters on each map is fixed.
The cost of each fight depends on the monster, but it is initially fixed for each monster. After that, it depends on the magic items you have found.
The only random element is the bonus you can get after each fight (in terms of the number of lives, shields and potions).

[ibisum]

Nice game. Is it BASIC? Would be interesting to hear more about the mod process to add color and so on ..

[Dom]

Nice game.

Monos' merit

Is it BASIC?

It is 100% 6502 code. We can read in issue one of Didier's oric-mag :"This time, the development didn’t use CC65 or OSDK, but VBCC with a pure 6502 assembly, code please!"

Would be interesting to hear more about the mod process to add color and so on ..

1- Disassemble the code using oric-explorer. (code extract bellow)

Code: Select all

$0500  AD 6A 02    LDA $026A      .j.
$0503  29 FE       AND #$FE       ). 
$0505  8D 6A 02    STA $026A      .j.
$0508  AD 6A 02    LDA $026A      .j.
$050B  09 08       ORA #$08       .. 
$050D  8D 6A 02    STA $026A      .j.
$0510  4C 14 05    JMP $0514      L..
$0513  01 A9       ORA ($A9,X)    .. 
$0515  01 8D       ORA ($8D,X)    .. 
$0517  13          ???            .  
$0518  05 AD       ORA $AD        .. 
$051A  B6 E4       LDX $E4,Y      .. 
$051C  C9 8E       CMP #$8E       .. 
$051E  D0 05       BNE $0525      .. 
$0520  A9 00       LDA #$00       .. 
$0522  8D 13 05    STA $0513      ...
$0525  EA		NOP            .  
$0526  AD 13 05    LDA $0513      ...
$0529  F0 00       BEQ $052B      ..

2- Rebuilt a source code (same code extract as above but with labels)

Code: Select all

deb_
	LDA $026A	;$0500  AD 6A 02    
	AND #$FE        ;$0503  29 FE       
	STA $026A       ;$0505  8D 6A 02    
	LDA $026A       ;$0508  AD 6A 02    
	ORA #$08        ;$050B  09 08       
	STA $026A       ;$050D  8D 6A 02    
	JMP jp_0514     ;$0510  4C 14 05    
fl_513
	.byt $00	;$0513  00 
jp_0514
	LDA #$01	;$0514  A9 01       
	STA fl_513      ;$0516  8D 13 05    
	LDA $E4B6       ;$0519  AD B6 E4    
	CMP #$8E        ;$051C  C9 8E       
	BNE bn_0525     ;$051E  D0 05       
	LDA #$00        ;$0520  A9 00       
	STA fl_513      ;$0522  8D 13 05    
bn_0525
	NOP		;$0525  EA          
	LDA fl_513      ;$0526  AD 13 05    
	BEQ be_052B     ;$0529  F0 00 

To do this, I had to modify, by means of labels, every call/reference to an address located between the start address and the end address of the code.
Example: BNE $0525 became BNE bn_0525 or JMP $0514 became JMP jp_0514 (The important thing is not to forget to add these labels before the code located at $0525 or $0514
You also need to pay attention to the type of code in which the address does not appear directly.

Code: Select all

$05CF  A9 65       LDA #$65       .e 
$05D1  85 F0       STA $F0        .. 
$05D3  A9 26       LDA #$26       .& 
$05D5  85 F1       STA $F1        .. 
 

In the example above, it is not immediately obvious that the address $2665 is being used.
You need to translate this into:

Code: Select all

be_05CF	
	LDA #<dta_2665	;$05CF  A9 65       
	STA $F0         ;$05D1  85 F0       
	LDA #>dta_2665  ;$05D3  A9 26       
	STA $F1 	;$05D5  85 F1       ;$F0-F1 <== $2665
	
dta_2665
	.byt $00,$00,$02,$02,$02,$02,$02,$00,$02,$02,$02			;$2665
	.byt $03,$03,$03,$02,$02,$03,$03,$03,$01,$01,$01,$03,$02,$01,$01,$01	;$2670
	.byt $01,$01,$24,$01,$02,$01,$01,$01,$01,$01,$01,$01,$02,$02,$02,$02	;$2680	
	

Another important point is understanding how the data is organized. Below, as an example, are the beginnings of the different data included between addresses $1825 and $1CAC.

Code: Select all

dta_1825 	; general map level 0 
	.byt $00,$02,$02,$04,$0B,$00,$00,$00	;$1825
...
dta_1865 	;general map level 1
	.byt $0F,$08,$FF,$FF,$FF,$FF,$FF,$FF	;$1865
...
...
dta_18E5 	;general map level 3
	.byt $FF,$08,$FF,$0F,$FF,$FF,$FF,$FF	;$18E5
dta_1925	; detail map room model 0	
	.byt $02,$02,$02,$02,$02,$02,$02,$02  	;$1925	
...
			; Plan détail modèle 7	
	.byt $00,$00,$02,$01,$01,$02,$00,$00	;$1AE5
...
			; detail map room model 0E		 
	.byt $00,$00,$02,$01,$01,$02,$00,$00	;$1CA5	
	

3 - Once the source code is validated (no more bugs…), you can modify it as you wish...
Provided you understand a little about how it works.

4 - Example

Code: Select all

dta_1721
	.asc $01," YOU'RE DEAD !!!",0			;$1721
	.asc "THE NECROMANCER MARCHES ON THE WORLD",0	;$1734
	.asc $03,"GAME OVER",0,$FF			;$1759

In the original game, this text appears in white. As you can see, I added a red ink attribute ($01) before "YOU ARE DEAD" and a yellow ink attribute ($03) before "GAME OVER". I thought these two extra bytes wouldn't cause a crash, since the final characters "$0" and "$0,$FF" are usually used to indicate the end of a sentence and paragraph.
The game crashed!
I hadn't considered that before being displayed on the screen (with the use of $0 and $FF), the text was transferred from $1721 to $4380 using the X register as bytes counter.

Code: Select all

bn_07B7	
	LDA dta_1721,X	;$07B7  BD 21 17    
	STA $4380,X     ;$07BA  9D 80 43    
	INX             ;$07BD  E8          
	CPX #$43        ;$07BE  E0 43       
	BNE bn_07B7     ;$07C0  D0 F5    

After replacing #$41 with #$43 (+2 bytes), everything was OK again with red and yellow color this time .
I hope I've answered the question and ... Sorry for having been a bit (too much?) long .

[ibisum]

This is awesome, I'm so motivated to find a machine to put Oric-Explorer on and start disassembling my own project, just so that I can understand your techniques better.

Thanks for the excellent dissertation!

[coco.oric]

Ohhh, what surprise.
For your information, 1st version was Atmos only. I've modified the source code (given by monos) and make it compatible with Oric1. This is the version available on itch.io (1.00.42). Following an exchange with Monos and its beta-testeur, adding a title screen on C64 version, i've added 3 hires screen (menu, death and victory to the game) but it hasn't been upgraded on itch.io.

[coco.oric]

This is awesome, I'm so motivated to find a machine to put Oric-Explorer on and start disassembling my own project, just so that I can understand your techniques better

You can also use 6502bench (source on github) which allows to dissassemble 6502 code and recognize some Oric typical adresses.

[Dom]

Ohhh, what surprise.

Yes, what a surprise for me too! It's a shame Monos didn't tell me you were working together on this game. I didn't read anything about it in your Oric magazine article either. I really thought I was the only Orician working on it. But perhaps we could now join forces and create two identical oric versions together, one tap and one for discs?

I removed the download from my first post while waiting for a common version.

[Bieno]

Nice RPG/Strategy game. Thanks for the update and DSK version !

[rax]

Great work!

As a fan of roguelike games, I really like the concept – it has a nice classic feel while keeping its own style. The title screen is truly impressive and gives a great first impression. You can clearly see a lot of attention has been put into the graphical details.

It will be exciting to try it out, and we’re eagerly looking forward to seeing the maps.

[Dom]

Great work!

Thanks, 99% of the work is due to Monos

The title screen is truly impressive and gives a great first impression. You can clearly see a lot of attention has been put into the graphical details.

thanks for these words, a lot of attention and quite a bit of time too

It will be exciting to try it out, and we’re eagerly looking forward to seeing the maps.

I haven't advertised this, on this forum, but the maps have been available for a month now, via this link:
https://oric.forumactif.org/t958-hero-f ... ng-s-sword
The maps are bilingual.The article is in french . An English version should be release in a next Oric-Mag.

[Chema]

Really nice! Congratulations.

You could probably animate the character when moving (it's just a couple of sprites more). And, with some care and using two characters, you can have it performing a stride in between positions for each step. That would be a stylish touch

[Dom]

This latest disc version of Jean Monos' game, Hero Fantasy - The King's Sword- now includes Didier's HIRES screens.
The attached archive contains:
- the English version of the game on disc for ATMOS/ORIC-1 and SEDORIC
- the manual of the game.
Reading this manual is essential to fully enjoy the game.

French version available via this link: https://oric.forumactif.org/t958-hero-f ... word#11205

[Chema]

Great! Another game for our Orics. Keep new productions coming in 2026!!