Failsafe 7800 Editor

[jwierer]

As Bob mentioned in his post on FAILSAFE here, I created a game editor for him to use while developing and testing the game. It makes for a pretty good level designer if you would like to create custom hacks or just see the later levels you've been having trouble getting to. You will need to use the final binary available here.

 

Here are the basic capabilities:

 

1. Editing the playfield for each of the 6 levels

2. Changing the graphics (ex: Playfield, Player, Enemy, Title, etc…)

3. Setting the initial player start position

4. Setting the enemy locations

5. Increasing the number of lives in case the default is not enough!

 

Download

FailsafeEd1.0.19.zip

 

Getting started

The first thing you'll want to do is go to the settings tab and set the location of your favorite emulator. Optionally you can also set a bit code or hex editor in case you want to make additional changes not available in the editor. Below I am using ProSystem and Hackomatic3.

Editing the game field

 

This is the default setting when you open the editor. To begin, Failsafe has six levels. Each level is pretty big and is broken down into 256x11 cells. When you are editing the playfield you will get 3 toolbars with all the items you can place on the playfield. Most of the basic items have a quick key next to the image. There aren't enough keys on a basic keyboard o the final 8 playfield items you'll have to click on the button to place them on the screen. You can also select a range of cells and copy, paste cut, delete, flip horizontally and vertically.

 

 

Setting Enemy Locations

 

To view the enemies use the menu bar View->Enemy Locations. Each level has 4 sets of enemy locations. A run time an enemy set is selected randomly to keep the game from becoming too predictable. Additionally, you'll notice you get an extra row, "R", when setting enemy locations. This is the random row. Enemies placed in the random row will be assigned a row randomly at run time to further randomize the game. Each enemy set can only have 127 enemies set. The editor provides you a total count and will prevent you from going over the 127 limit. You can copy, cut, past, and edit, but if you hold down the ALT key you can drag an enemy to a different location.

 

Setting Player Start Position

 

To set the player position, use the menu bar View->Player Tank. From there you will see a tank on the design surface. Just grab the tank and move from the current location. Only restriction is it needs to be placed before column 16.

 

 

 

Editing Graphics

 

This section is pretty straight forward. Here you can change the playfield, player, enemy, and text graphics. I never got around to modifying all the color palettes, but in general it will automatically change colors for the different items and, in most cases, changing the colors will be reflected during game play. The graphics are stored in two different locations in the game. You can switch to those two locations by changing the bank from 0 to 1.

 

 

I also have a blog posting on editing the title screen using Hackomatic 3.

 

You should buy your copy of Failsafe now!

 

Enjoy,

Jeff

[gambler172]

Hi Jeff

Nice work

I use your editor for my newest hack.....

greetings Walter

[Albert]

I wonder if anyone would be interested in having a cart of their "hacked" version of FailSafe made once they are done customizing the game? People could also share their hacked version of the game, I'm sure we'd see some interesting variations.

 

..Al

[+TrekMD]

This is nifty!

[Atari Joe]

That's a great idea Albert!

 

FailSafe sure looks like it stays true to CounterMeasure on the 5200. I like it a lot!

 

Will this editor work on Mac OSX?

[jwierer]

Will this editor work on Mac OSX?

Nope. You'll have to boot into Windows in a seperate partition or use a Windows virtual machine.

 

-Jeff

[PacManPlus]

Very Cool, Jeff

 

Your tool was intrumental in saving me time when I was creating the levels and placement of enemies. It allowed me to 'tweak' a few enemies that were too difficult in the place they were in. I thank you for that.

 

Looking forward to what people create with your editor

 

Bob

 

@AtariJoe: I'll be in your neck of the woods in the coming months. I'm moving to Naples as soon as my house is sold here. A community called 'Island Walk' in Naples on Vanderbuilt (off of Logan).

[jwierer]

Very Cool, Jeff

 

Your tool was intrumental in saving me time when I was creating the levels and placement of enemies. It allowed me to 'tweak' a few enemies that were too difficult in the place they were in. I thank you for that.

It was both an honor and a pleasure to help out. I am glad you found it useful!

 

-Jeff

[gambler172]

I wonder if anyone would be interested in having a cart of their "hacked" version of FailSafe made once they are done customizing the game? People could also share their hacked version of the game, I'm sure we'd see some interesting variations.

 

..Al

Hi Al

I am working on a new hack.It will be an ASTERIX hack.Cause Asterix celebrated his 50th birthday and i like Asterix.More soon......

greetings Walter

[+TrekMD]

An Asterix hack...cool.

[jwierer]

Because I didn't add this to the editor, I recently added a blog posting on changing the title screen using hackomatic 3.

 

-Jeff