Drone Zone C64
A downloadable game
Every two years Reset64 Magazine run a competition to create a game for the Commodore 64 in 4kb or less. I entered in 2020 and 2022 with Blockheads and Nurikabe respectively, both can be downloaded from my page here on itch.io
Drone Zone is my 2024 effort and I wanted to do something a little more technical with this entry so this game has full screen 50/60hz scrolling. The code for that is generated at runtime as it takes over 4k of RAM on its own.
The idea of the game is to get around each of the six zones as fast as you can. With practice zones one and two can be completed in under 11 seconds so it's definitely a speed run game.
Here are my best times if you'd like to compete against the developer:
Zone 1 - 10:56
Zone 2 - 10:66
Zone 3 - 14:36
Zone 4 - 15:02
Zone 5 - 18:02
Zone 6 - 17:42
Instructions are included in the zip as either a text file or a C64 .prg file.
The game is compatible with real C64s, TheC64 and all emulators. It will also run on PAL and NTSC machines.
Download
Install instructions
Extract the zip file and load the .prg or .d64 file onto your preferred device/emulator.
Comments
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Just downloaded this. I play gravity cave games and can see this has a massive skill technique. Very deep with regards to positioning, when to use and release the thrust, and taking risks for shaving off time. This is a dangerous game for me. It will consume my time. Excellent.
Cheers for the kind words. Thrust is my favourite ever C64 game. Whilst the physics in this are nowhere near as complicated as that game I find the precision of control required very satisfying.
Is 13:85 decent for Zone 1?
It's not bad, now you've got to start taking some risks. I was hoping somebody would get under 10 seconds on that zone but I've not seen it yet.
under 10!!!!??? Wow.
I haven't managed that myself to be fair. My times are on this page though, 10:56 for Zone 1 but there are better gamers than me out there.
10.36 on first Zone. Still looking at areas to experiment with.
Excellent time, that’s the fastest I’ve seen. Congrats.
Ooh wow! The video of this looks awesome. I need to give this game a try.
UPDATE: Played it now and it's a very nice entry indeed. It's bloomin' hard, but addictive.
Well done Carleton!
Enjoyed this one!
I played it on my Ultimate 64. It's a tough game, but I was really impressed with what could be done in 4K. I hope this entry does really well. It is a great title.
Cheers. Some players do seem to find the game tricky. I expected people to be able to get around but perhaps not with quick times.
Impressive for 4K. I'm still far from your times, but I love these thrust games. Here are the first four zones recorded in one go.
Nice video, looks like you could be challenging my times soon enough. You need to be a bit braver keeping the momentum going. The video looks to be 25fps, I assume the game runs at the correct 50fps on a MISTER?
Actually it plays at 50fps on YouTube itself, just not in the preview window on here.
YT reduces the fps to 25 at resolutions below 720p. The preview window starts at a resolution of 360p.