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*                                                                             *
*   Game:   Cannon Fodder Clone Type:    Amstrad CPC Emulator DSK File        *
*   Author: Odiesoft            Webpage: http://www.odiesoft.de               *
*   Size:   1 * 194816 Bytes    Date:    27. January 2003                     *
*   File:   Odiesoft Games - Cannon Fodder Clone (1996).dsk                   *
*                                                                             *
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Title: Cannon Fodder Clone
Year:  1996

After finishing my Dynablasters/ Bomberman clone Megablasters I wasn’t sure what
to do next. I was working on my parts for the Divine Megademo, but I also
intended to write another game.

With Rex of BENG I was planing to create a Zombie Fighting game called "Rigor
Mortis". But this was looking like it would be a lot of work for either the
graphic artist (Rex) and the programmer (me).

So I thought I could do something little inbetween. So I’ve formed a short lived
alliance with Siggi of Bollaware. I was playing Cannon Fodder a lot at that
time. First on the Amiga of my brother, later on my Acorn Risc PC, which I
bought from Leather Rebel on the Inicron Meeting in 1995.

I liked the game, but thought it was a little too hard, especially at the end. I
figured that it wouldn’t pose too much of an effort to make a CPC conversion of
it. With some nice Mode 1 graphics it could even look very nice and highly
detailed. And who would be better for Mode 1 graphics than the Mode 1 graphics
artist Siggi from Bollaware, who has created such cool graphics featured in the
games Black Land, Fres Attack and later in Fres Fighter II Turbo or in the demos
Morphing Through the Ages and Women and Dragons.

I got a disc with the first set of objects after a few days. The graphics looked
very promising. I’ve already started to work on the program. As in Megablasters
I also wanted to use an overscan mode for the game and so I was already working
on a fast sprite routine that wouldn’t need double buffering, but repainted the
parts of the screen that would be left over, when the object moved in the
opposite direction. This routine had to be fast, so that the objects didn’t
start to flicker (or flicker too much for that matter) and so that I was able to
display a number of objects at the same time.

When I got the first set of graphics from Siggi I just included the jeep in
several different color mixes, so that I could test how fast the software would
be with eight objects on the screen. Since I didn’t have this many joysticks or
keyboard keys as to move all eight objects at once I’ve mapped four jeeps each
to one set of controls, keyboard and joystick 2. Thus I was able to move all
eight cars around without being an alien with 32 fingers to press all possible
control keys...

The sprite routines were okay, they were able to cross between the border
between two sets of regular screens (which were connected in order to provide a
complete view in an overscan mode). Everything was fine, so why didn’t this game
ever see the light of day?

To be honest, I don’t really remember. I think it was probably that I had
started studying in the fall semester of 1995 and during the summer of 1996 I
lost more and more of my leisure time to my studies and thus had no more time to
continue any of my CPC projects. Moreover the scrolling of the screen would also
have required some nice programming to be smooth and without flickering, so
maybe this was also a reason for abandoning this project.

It’s too bad, I would have liked to be able to play this game on the CPC. I even
intended to insert a nice level editor, so that I didn’t have to create so many
levels by myself and that the Amstrad freaks had something to do besides playing
the game. But well, that’s the way life goes, isn’t it...



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*                                                                             *
* This program can be distributed freely and without the need of a written    *
* of a written permission by Odiesoft, as long as it is distributed free of   *
* charge!                                                                     *
*                                                                             *
* If you had to pay for this, you've been ripped off!                         *
*                                                                             *
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