Here's another great game from Stan Ockers to challenge both your playing and typing skill! Watch all those DATA statements which represent machine code routines.
One of the best things about Stan Ockers is that he lets you into the secrets of his games
so that you can make changes to tailor the program to suit yourself. Wildwest is quite complicated for beginners because of the machine language routines included but some changes can be made quite easily. The program was written to demonstrate a 'failing' routine
in machine language. All of the sound and dropping and catching routines are included in the Vertical Blank. This is how Stan says it can be changed.
'Timing is most critical in this program and you may wish to change some of the characteristics. Most of the timing is controlled by the DATA in three strings. Each byte in the string represents one difficulty level. DSPD$ (lines 1030,1040) bytes control the speed at which the dynamite fails. Lower numbers mean faster speeds. DDLY$ (lines 1050,1060) holds bytes which determine the delay time until another stick is dropped. CNT$ (1070,1080) determines the total number of sticks dropped in any one group. The number used for comparison with the random number in line 250 determines how often Dan switches direction. Increase the value to make him change direction more frequently. Experiment with some of the values and try to come up with the most challenging combinations'.
The program was written originally for paddles but as listed works with a joystick. To change back to paddles make the following amendments:
1 Replace line 1150 with 1150 DATA 173,112,2,73,255
2 Replace the 417's in line 1110 with 398 (two places)
3 Change
'joystick 0' in line 640 to 'paddle zero'
4 Change
STRIG(0) in line 230 to PTRIG(0)
Change the program to suit yourself and see if you can stop Dynamite Dan!
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