Project: Metagalactic Llamas Battle at the Edge of Time - Atari 800 Port
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Jeff Minter:

Metagalactic Llamas: The game itself is a shoot 'em up pure and not so simple -
the evil twist is the way you have to deflect your bullets around the
screen. Spruced up for the '64 with larger graphics and tune/scrolling
credits. By the time this was done the VIC was on its way out; Meta
represents the last of the pure-shoot-'ems on one screen with a just
more and more aliens style of scenario. From here on in it had to be
tunes, scrolling, a zillion screens and hyper-hyper presentation -
the old, simple VIC blasts were dead. A shame really, sometimes I
like a good, honest zap without having to worry about mapping and
suchlike... mind you, I was heavily into mapping with...

Heaven:

1983...When I got my first computer, I played Jeff's games and one of
my all time favourites was the VIC 20 version of Metagalactic Llamas. I was suprised that
this little 3.5KB game had never appeared on my second love, the Atari 800.
Years passed by and then one day I had a mad idea to port the game to the Atari.
During 2007 and 2008, "emulated" games started appearing frequently on the Atari,
these ports used a conversion of the core engine from another platform, for example
Jetpac from the Spectrum or Knight Lore from the BBC Micro, that was then modified to
run natively on the Atari. The advantage of this method is
that the core gameplay still remains the same even when there are slight improvements
to the graphics or sound. And so the project started...

In late 2007, I had discussions with T.M.R of Cosine regarding a Metagalactic Llamas port and
how this could be achieved; a few ideas were kicked around and I delved into VIC coding
again, my last look at it having been somewhere around 1984/85. I started to print out a
disassembly of the original VIC code and realised that it was written in a very "Atari friendly
fashion, meaning that there was no VIC-specific stuff used except for colour RAM,
22 by 23 character screen layout and the sound routines.

So after studying it over Christmas 2007, I simply loaded the VIC code into
the Atari's memory and let it run. And, since VIC hardware registers start at $9000 and the Atari has
nothing there apart from RAM, the code couldn't accidentally do any harm to the Atari's operating
system. The next step would be using the same screen layout which, thanks to Jay Miner (designer
of the Atari Chipset), I could reproduce by defining a custom screen layout via ANTIC that matched
the VIC 20 one. After doing that and running the VIC game code the title screen appeared.
Great.... so, to make a long story short I patched more and more in the VIC code
to make it more suitable for the Atari, for example the sound, Joystick and keyboard
routines and voila, I could then play it. Several more "custom service routines"
were inserted that didn't affect the gameplay but improved how the game looked on the Atari.

In fact, the only difference compared to the VIC 20 version is that I had to avoid using the overscanned
mode (a 24x23 character screen layout) since "real" televisions are prone to cropping off the columns at
the edge of the screen and, since there could be enemies appearing there, it would definitely affect the
game play. So I had to come up with a work-around which used scrolling when you reach the edge of the screen
and blinking indicators that appear when enemies are coming down in areas of the screen that aren't visible.
This solution seems to work pretty well... (After weeks of play testing I decided to go for a patched
version running on 20x23 without the scrolling feature. So the final is without.)

So, after finishing these modifications I sent the game off to Jeff Minter and he gave me his final go for
the project (thanks Yak, by the way) but, being a demo coder I wanted to make it a little bit more interesting,
after all this is 2008 and not 1983... so I asked Sal to write some arcade-style, eighties themed music which
came out pretty well and, in the discussion on Atari Age about the port, Emkay produced a great conversion of
the title picture from a freeware port of Metagalactic Llamas on the PC.

All in all, not bad at all for a four week project...

Credits:

Idea: Heaven of Taquart & T.M.R of Cosine
Game Code: Jeff Minter of Llamasoft
Additional Atari Code: Heaven of Taquart
RMT music player: Raster of C.P.U.
Music: Sal of Atlantis Games Group
Sound-FX: Miker/BJB/NG
Title Graphics: Emkay using G2F

Tools used:

- WinVice
- Notepad++
- MADS Assembler (http://mads.atari8.info)
- G2F (http://g2f.atari8.info)
- Raster Music Tracker (http://raster.infos.cz/atari/rmt/rmt.htm)

Sites worth to visit:

http://www.llamasoftarchive.org
http://www.llamasoft.co.uk
http://www.YakYak.org
http://www.llamasoft.co.uk/softography.php
http://www.oldschool-gaming.com/
http://numen.scene.pl
http://www.atariage.com
http://www.abbuc.de
http://atari.fandal.cz
http://atari.online.pl
http://www.atarimania.com
http://www.atariarchives.com
http://www.lemon64.com
http://www.sleepingelephant.com/denial/

Check out Space Giraffe on Xbox 360 Live Arcade!

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Instructions [Original VIC-20 Text]:

METAGALACTIC LLAMAS BATTLE AT THE EDGE OF TIME
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Man is on his way to the stars.

After millennia in the racial cradle of the mother planet Earth,
the human race finally began the push to the stars early in the
24th century A.D.

War, as ever, was the spur which prompted the tremendous
technological advances necessary for interstellar exploration
and settlement.

The famous Grid Wars forced advances in spaceship design which
were passed on to the first interstellar probes. The same branch
of physics which rendered the orbiting Matrix unnecessary -
allowing energy to be derived from the very stresses in the
space/time continuum - resulted in the development of the
Instantaneous Phase Translation drive. The I.P.T. drive allowed
interstellar distances to be covered without all that tedious
massing around with Relativity.

As expected by scientists of Earth, Man discovered that he was
not alone in the Universe. Many intelligent beings were discovered
on countless planets. Spacefaring cultures were common. And without
exception, they lived under the shadow of a mighty Enemy.........

The combined Empires of Irata and Zzyax sprawled like a blight
over one-third of the Galactic Cluster.

Its inhabitants were united only by their desire to subjugate
or destroy all other intelligent life forms.

Human outposts were established throughout the Galaxy. Often they were
attacked by raiding ships of Zzyax or Irata. Once again technology
responded to the pressure of war. Huge Laser Zones faught the enemy
spaceships. But perhaps the most interesting advances had been
recently made in the field of genetic engineering.

Following an abortive attack on Earth in which agents of Zzyax mutated
camels into awesome war machines in an attempt to overrun Earth, our
scientists worked hard to crack the secrets of genetic manipulation.

This research has finally borne fruit in the so-called Metabeasts -
animals enhanced physically and, most important, mentally. It is
perfectly possible to converse intelligently with a cerebrally
enhanced Metabeast (although don't expect them to make scintillating
conversation at dinner parties).

These enhanced beasts are often used to run observation outposts
throughout the Galaxy, keeping an eye on the comings and goings of the
Evil Empires.

One such outpost was OP/37r out on Galactic Rim, known to the
MetaLlamas which operated there as the station at the Edge of Time.

Some five years after the setup of the outpost, it came under attack
by Zzyaxian cyborg arachnid mutants. Armed only with their
laser-spitting capability and the still-experimental Planar Field
Generator, the Metagalactic Llamas must defend Humanity's outpost at
the Edge of Time!


GAME PLAY
Moving your Joystick left and right moves your llama in the
corresponding direction. Moving off either screen edge causes the
beast to reappear at opposite edge.

Pushing the Fire button causes the beast to spit in the direction
it is facing. Spit may be deflected off the screen edges and off
the force field.

Moving the stick up and down moves the force field up and down.

THE ACTION
Cyborg arachnid mutants descend from the top on threads, which you may
break by shooting or which eventually break of their own accord.  You
should watch out since, on breaking, the cyborg drops to the surface,
mutates into a disgusting Weeviloid, and crawls towards you with the
avowed intention of doing you in. Skilful ricochets are needed to pick
off the grounded Weeviloids.

SCORING
Shooting arachnid while still on web     100
Shooting falling arachnid (off web)      400
Shooting grounded Weeviloid              600
Breaking arachnid's web                  200-700
(earlier the break, higher the bonus)

There are three llamas on OP/37r. Since the gestation period of a
llama is considerably greater than the duration of the battle, no
extra beasts are likely to appear however much you score.

STRATEGIES
1. Break webs early. High bonuses earnt for doing so!
2. Let Weeviloids form if you get good enough, since they are worth
   600 each.
3. Use the Force Field wisely. By moving it up and down expectoration
   may be aimed at many parts of the screen from a static llama.
4. Keep an eye on the Quota meter; it tells you how far you are from
   the end of the wave.

Good scores are over 100,000. Good luck with the beasts!

24th February 2008, Karolj Nadj (Heaven/TQA)
