Poor Sam got nerfed. Now his force range starts out really low (about 5 characters), but can be improved by picking the proper extra. And finally cheat keys appear. Press 1 to advance to the next stage.



We modify the existing SamUseForce routine to check for a max range (stored in PLAYER_FORCE_RANGE):

;------------------------------------------------------------
;sam uses power
;returns 1 when holding an enemy
;------------------------------------------------------------
!zone SamUseForce
SamUseForce
          lda SPRITE_HELD
          beq .NoSpriteHeldNow

          lda #1
          rts

.NoSpriteHeldNow
          stx PARAM6

          ldy SPRITE_CHAR_POS_Y,x
          dey
          lda SCREEN_LINE_OFFSET_TABLE_LO,y
          sta ZEROPAGE_POINTER_1
          lda SCREEN_BACK_LINE_OFFSET_TABLE_HI,y
          sta ZEROPAGE_POINTER_1 + 1

          ldy SPRITE_CHAR_POS_X,x
          lda #0
          sta PARAM7

.ShotContinue
          lda PARAM7
          cmp PLAYER_FORCE_RANGE
          beq .OutOfRange
          inc PARAM7
          ;y contains shot X pos;PARAM6 contains x sprite index of player
          ldx PARAM6
          lda SPRITE_DIRECTION,x
          beq .ShootRight
          ;shooting left
          dey

          lda (ZEROPAGE_POINTER_1),y
          jsr IsCharBlocking
          beq .CheckHitEnemy
          ldx PARAM6
.ShotDoneMiss
.OutOfRange
          lda #0
.ShotDoneHit
          rts

.ShootRight
          iny

          lda (ZEROPAGE_POINTER_1),y
          jsr IsCharBlocking
          bne .ShotDoneMiss

          .CheckHitEnemy;hit an enemy?
          ldx #0

.CheckEnemy
          stx PARAM2
          sty PARAM1
          lda SPRITE_ACTIVE,x
          beq .CheckNextEnemy
          tax
          lda IS_TYPE_ENEMY,x
          beq .CheckNextEnemy
          ldx PARAM2
          ;is vulnerable?
          lda SPRITE_STATE,x
          cmp #128bpl .CheckNextEnemy
          ;sprite pos matches on x?
          lda SPRITE_CHAR_POS_X,x
          cmp PARAM1
          bne .CheckNextEnemy

          ;sprite pos matches on y?
          ldy PARAM6
          lda SPRITE_CHAR_POS_Y,x
          cmp SPRITE_CHAR_POS_Y,y
          beq .EnemyHit
          ;sprite pos matches on y + 1?clcadc #1cmp SPRITE_CHAR_POS_Y,y
          beq .EnemyHit
          ;sprite pos matches on y - 1?
          sec
          sbc #2cmp SPRITE_CHAR_POS_Y,y
          bne .CheckNextEnemy

.EnemyHit;enemy hit!
          stx SPRITE_HELD
          inc SPRITE_HELD

          ;call enemy hit behaviour
          ldy SPRITE_ACTIVE,x
          ;enemy is active
          dey
          dey
          lda ENEMY_HIT_BEHAVIOUR_TABLE_LO,y
          sta ZEROPAGE_POINTER_1
          lda ENEMY_HIT_BEHAVIOUR_TABLE_HI,y
          sta ZEROPAGE_POINTER_1 + 1

          ;set up return address for rts
          lda #>( .ShotDoneHit - 1 )
          pha
          lda #<( .ShotDoneHit - 1 )
          pha

          ;1 as return value
          lda #1jmp (ZEROPAGE_POINTER_1)

          .CheckNextEnemy
          ldx PARAM2
          ldy PARAM1
          inx
          cpx #8
          beq .NoEnemyHit

          jmp .CheckEnemy
          .NoEnemyHitjmp .ShotContinue

If the extra is picked up the range is simply increased to a max of 38 (Remember, screen width is 40 characters):

.EffectIncForceRange
          cpx #0
          beq .DeanDoesNotUseForce

          lda PLAYER_FORCE_RANGE
          clcadc #2
          sta PLAYER_FORCE_RANGE

          cmp #38
          bcs .NotTooLong

          lda #38
          sta PLAYER_FORCE_RANGE

.NotTooLongjmp .RemoveItem

Adding cheat keys is way easier. Since the Kernal (yes, with an 'a') comes with a keyboard check routine we just call that. Notice that for this to work you must not have the Kernal disabled (remember the memory layout in the beginning):

          JSR $FFE4 ;GETINBEQ .NOCHEAT
          CMP #49bne .NOCHEAT

          ;jump to next level
          jsr StartLevel

          inc LEVEL_NR
          jsr BuildScreen

          jsr CopyLevelToBackBuffer
          jsr DisplayGetReady
.NOCHEAT

And still something new: Element Areas. A new primitive that fills an area with m/n repeats of an element:

!zone LevelElementArea
LevelElementArea
          ;!byte LD_ELEMENT_AREA,24,16,5,1,EL_SN_BROWN_ROCK

          ;X pos
          iny
          lda (ZEROPAGE_POINTER_1),y
          sta PARAM1
          sta PARAM10

          ;Y pos
          iny
          lda (ZEROPAGE_POINTER_1),y
          sta PARAM2
          ;x count
          iny
          lda (ZEROPAGE_POINTER_1),y
          sta PARAM7
          sta PARAM9
          ;y count
          iny
          lda (ZEROPAGE_POINTER_1),y
          sta PARAM8
          ;type
          iny
          lda (ZEROPAGE_POINTER_1),y
          sta PARAM3
          ;store y for later
          tya
          pha

.NextElementRow
          jsr DrawLevelElement

          dec PARAM7
          beq .RowDone

          lda PARAM1
          clcadc PARAM4
          sta PARAM1
          jmp .NextElementRow

.RowDone
          lda PARAM2
          clcadc PARAM5
          sta PARAM2

          lda PARAM9
          sta PARAM7

          lda PARAM10
          sta PARAM1

          dec PARAM8
          bne .NextElementRow
          jmp NextLevelData

step47.zip

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