My projects - Don't Angry 5K

This game was contributed in AtariAge forum competition called Atari BASIC 4K challenge competition. The main goal of the competition was to make a game using only Atari BASIC in 4K limit size with no help of any machine language routine. Neither interrupt routines were allowed to use, only some hardware features like player/missiles and sound using simple POKE commands. Game is a board game using a dice, which involves some stategy and thinking.

In this attempt of making a 4K Atari BASIC game I failed, actually. My game reached a 5K limit. Limit constraints didn't allow me to make a full game, so I had to make some hard decisions and optimizations, which led to limited (2 players instead of choosing up to 4 players, no computer opponent), slow gameplay with some remaining bugs.

Before moving on Atari game, here are some basic rules of classic board game... The board is standard cell playfield with up to 4 players, which play against each other or teamed up. The goal of the game is to move player figures to the final four cells, which belong to her/him. Each player has 4 figures available, which are moved in steps across the cell playground depending on a number got from throwing a dice. The winner is player who first fills her/his last 4 cells. Throwing a dice can become boring at times, so there is a catch. You must plan smart what figure to move where and when, deciding of removing opposite figures or escaping from them, or move on with another figure, etc. So there is a strategy of thinking, every move has to be planned carefully.

Rules of throwing a dice: each player has three tries to release first figure to starting position. To do that, he/she must throw dice with number six (6). Next moves are done by throwing dice once, and figure is moved accordingly. There is one exception when another number 6 is thrown, which allows you to throw dice again for further move. At that pooint you can decide to move current figure further or release another figure to starting position. If there is other player's figure in the same spot, it is removed from your way and moved out of playground.

My game is little different, because competition limit constraints didn't allow me to follow strict rules of standard board game. So I made few changes in the rules. Only two players can play, other two are there just for observation with no effect to the gameplay at all. Unfortunatelly, there is no computer player, of reasons described (5K limit). If you are alone, you can play for both players :) The winner is a player who succeeds to move any two of their four figures to the final four colored cells first. The rules could be different, but I didn't want the game to last very long.

The game has some bugs: - Figures of the same player can overlay each other (this can become confusing) - Opposite player figure is not removed when current player's new figure moves to starting position (if they are both in the same cell spot)

So here it is. Don't Angry, in pure Atari BASIC.

My observation... Atari BASIC is great, but also limited in many ways. But with more free RAM and using assembly language it becomes more powerful and many wondeful things can be done.

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