Vectrexer Posted May 28, 2018 Share Posted May 28, 2018 (edited) Oh Yum! STRAMASH ZONE Stramash Zone for VECTREX. Available Now. http://www.clockworkrobot.com/shop/ Stramash Zone is a 3D tank game for the Vectrex. The package includes a full 64k worth of game play, a labelled game cassette, a full colour screen overlay and protective sleeve, a colour manual, sturdy foam box insert, a box and a clear box protector. http://www.clockworkrobot.com/shop/ #Vectrex #StramashZone #BattleZone Edited May 28, 2018 by Vectrexer 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Intellivet Posted May 28, 2018 Share Posted May 28, 2018 Woohoo! Ordered my copy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirchoff Posted May 28, 2018 Share Posted May 28, 2018 Congrats on the release! Ordered mine! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JEFF31 Posted May 28, 2018 Share Posted May 28, 2018 Ordered a copy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vectrexroli Posted May 28, 2018 Share Posted May 28, 2018 (edited) Thanks for the heads up! If you want to know what to expect, what some gameplay of an early prerelease test version here starting at 21:55: https://youtu.be/7RFU4UNXA5s Edited May 28, 2018 by vectrexroli 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaserCat Posted May 28, 2018 Share Posted May 28, 2018 And another childhood dream comes true. I love the future! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrekMD Posted May 28, 2018 Share Posted May 28, 2018 Ordered placed. This looks fantastic! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redrumh2o Posted May 28, 2018 Share Posted May 28, 2018 Is this a limited release, or will it be ongoing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Innit Posted May 28, 2018 Share Posted May 28, 2018 Ordered! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClockworkRobot Posted May 28, 2018 Share Posted May 28, 2018 Is this a limited release, or will it be ongoing? It's not limited as such but I've only got so many boxes and overlays printed. When they're gone they're gone and there's no guarantee there'll be other runs. We did 2 runs on Nox/Deathchase and there could be more of them too but it depends on whether we think there's further demand or not. After less than 24 hours, 22% are sold. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClockworkRobot Posted May 28, 2018 Share Posted May 28, 2018 Here's a nice big photo: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redrumh2o Posted May 28, 2018 Share Posted May 28, 2018 Thanks, it looks beautiful!! Fingers crossed you make a 3rd run of those 2. I think there's a large number of us that entered the scene over the past 2 years or so that missed out. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Innit Posted May 28, 2018 Share Posted May 28, 2018 (edited) I think there's a large number of us that entered the scene over the past 2 years or so that missed out.Yep, that would include me. Edited May 28, 2018 by Lord Innit 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ledzep Posted May 29, 2018 Share Posted May 29, 2018 It's not limited as such but I've only got so many boxes and overlays printed. When they're gone they're gone and there's no guarantee there'll be other runs. We did 2 runs on Nox/Deathchase and there could be more of them too but it depends on whether we think there's further demand or not. After less than 24 hours, 22% are sold. Congrats! I placed my order already, so cool that you made this game. Your site mentioned that this game has been in development since 2013(?), I was wondering what was the hardest part, did you try to replicate Battlezone's Math Box chip, maybe? Obviously, the next question (from someone like me who owns the arcade version) is will completing this conversion make it possible to see a Red Baron conversion for the Vectrex in the future (please please please...)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClockworkRobot Posted May 29, 2018 Share Posted May 29, 2018 Congrats! I placed my order already, so cool that you made this game. Your site mentioned that this game has been in development since 2013(?), I was wondering what was the hardest part, did you try to replicate Battlezone's Math Box chip, maybe? Obviously, the next question (from someone like me who owns the arcade version) is will completing this conversion make it possible to see a Red Baron conversion for the Vectrex in the future (please please please...)? i actually got most of it running in 2014. i kind of did a bit every Christmas. I'm really a bit of a newb at coding in assembly. This is only my second releasable vectrex game, in fact i started it before finishing NOX! There's an ancient thread on Vectrex Fans Unite that i recently resurrected where it was discussed if 'that' 3d tank game was possible on the veccy. I kind of naively said why not? A zx spectrum could do it. It sort of got created to settle a friendly argument :-) There was nothing essentially hard about it. Just masses and masses of simple and there's also the issue of me now completely forgetting how it works! No i didn't refer to that other 3d tank game other than playing my cabaret from time to time. It has 4 processors to do the math, a processor built in ttl logic to do the vector generation and another processor to run the game, as well as a processor to handle sound and input + some analogue sounds too. The vectrex has a 6809 and a sound chip so replicating the original as it's executed on original hardware is a non starter. Stramash Zone doesn't have any fancy hardware hidden in there. This game could have been released in 1982. I think SZ's performance is comparable to other 3D tank games released on similar hardware back in the day. I loved those games. I bought Rommel's Revenge and 3D Tank Duel back then (weirdly i bumped into one of the guys who programmed 3D Tank Duel a few weeks ago - put my foot in my mouth and got all excited and said "You wrote Rommel's Revenge"!). I think it goes "3D Combat Zone" < "Stramash Zone" < "Rommel's Revenge+3D Tank Duel". 3D Tank Duel was probably the best port but it had a horrible colour scheme so that marks it down. :-) The trick to getting SZ to work was to save a lot of processing time and pre-calculate the 3d rotation on the objects. This used up tones of rom but saved a lot of cycles. That way I just had to do the 3D projection on the fly. The biggest problem was the RAM. You don't get much ram on a vectrex and in order to get a stable (ish) image I've got 2 gargantuan chunks of ram reserved so i can build the 3d landscape in one whilst displaying the previous frame, then swapping the frames over. If i didn't do that you'd see a tank then a cube then a saucer, etc. So i wound up using almost every single byte of ram. I even had to go hunting for chunks of system ram that you're not really supposed to use as they're reserved for functions that i fortunately wasn't using :-) The full game also uses up almost every byte of rom (32k). The vectrex lets you page the rom so i've got the full game on one chunk of 32k and another 32k containing the menu system and also some simplified game variant (Rammy Zone and Gloaming Zone). Talking of Gloaming Zone.. Red Baron is kind of battlezone but with the tanks (planes) rotating on the other axis. the way i built my 3d engine, It was a very simple task to swap a couple of axis and BOOM, i had Stramash Zone with a top down perspective. That'd effectively be your Red Barron engine. But am i going to make it? Probably not, because, i've proved my point and there are some coders out there who are way more brilliant than me and i'd like to see them take a pass at it. I think it's going to appear but i'm not going to say anything more on that. also i don't like Red Baron. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClockworkRobot Posted May 29, 2018 Share Posted May 29, 2018 If you're into the 'behind the scenes' stuff, I just uploaded scans of some of the notes i made as i created Stramash Zone: http://www.clockworkrobot.com/stramash-zone-some-notes/ 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ledzep Posted May 30, 2018 Share Posted May 30, 2018 ... Talking of Gloaming Zone.. Red Baron is kind of battlezone but with the tanks (planes) rotating on the other axis. the way i built my 3d engine, It was a very simple task to swap a couple of axis and BOOM, i had Stramash Zone with a top down perspective. That'd effectively be your Red Barron engine. But am i going to make it? Probably not, because, i've proved my point and there are some coders out there who are way more brilliant than me and i'd like to see them take a pass at it. I think it's going to appear but i'm not going to say anything more on that. also i don't like Red Baron. Aw, man! Still, many thanks for making this game and explaining some of the hurdles you had to jump to get here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClockworkRobot Posted May 30, 2018 Share Posted May 30, 2018 Aw, man! Still, many thanks for making this game and explaining some of the hurdles you had to jump to get here. Don't be down.. i suspect a red barron will appear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted May 30, 2018 Share Posted May 30, 2018 This is fantastic. Definitely a missing game from the Vectrex library. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killersquirel Posted June 4, 2018 Share Posted June 4, 2018 This looks really amazing. I ordered one today, thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkyBry Posted June 7, 2018 Share Posted June 7, 2018 Ordered mine today! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xybot67 Posted June 7, 2018 Share Posted June 7, 2018 Has anyone received it yet? I was looking for a quick review. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cNp Posted June 7, 2018 Share Posted June 7, 2018 Has anyone received it yet? I was looking for a quick review. I don't believe shipping has started yet, last pieces arriving from the printers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClockworkRobot Posted June 7, 2018 Share Posted June 7, 2018 Has anyone received it yet? I was looking for a quick review. They will begin shipping from the 18th (overlays are not here yet and i'll be working all next week). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chas10e Posted June 8, 2018 Share Posted June 8, 2018 got my order in \o/ . thanks again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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