WORDVADERS (C64)
Type quickly and accurately to destroy the evil WORDVADERS!
Face wave after wave of alien invaders, each tougher than the last - how long can you survive?
Some of the WORDVADERS will be shielded - type to shoot down their shield and then keep typing to destroy them!
Type accurately to fill the multiplier bar and increase your score! Any mistakes will empty the multiplier bar and decrease the multiplier value so type carefully.
If a WORDVADER makes it to your laser defense wall it's game over.
GOOD LUCK!
UPDATE 1.01
You can now select the starting wave number (1, 5, 10 or 15) on the title screen by pressing + or - before starting a game. You can also play it in your browser!
TECHNICAL
The game uses a dictionary of approximately 6000 words. Words are compressed into a special format by an external tool I wrote specifically for this game. The compression works by finding the most common 2 letter pairs. The 229 most common pairs are assigned byte codes 27 to 255, while codes 1 to 26 are reserved for the letters A to Z. By looking up the letter pairs for each code from 27 to 255 the game can rebuild each word. Words are grouped by length and some clever indexing allows words to be located quickly. This method reduces the amount of ram required to store the word list by around 55%.
The game makes heavy use of sprite multiplexing for the various enemy lanes and sprites are also used in the top and bottom borders for the territory markers and multiplier progress bar. Raster interrupts are also used to horizontally scroll the enemy text bubbles smoothly. Extended color mode is used to allow more than one background colour (used on the enemy word bubbles) and it also makes it easy to create effects like the laser beam flash.
Sounds are generated via a simple IRQ function that can set a voice frequency and adjust it by a set value a set number of times.
CREDITS
The enemy sprite graphics are lifted directly from the C64 version of Zynaps published by Hewson Consultants in 1987. I could not find a way to contact anyone involved with Zynaps to get permission so hopefully it's ok. If not please let me know. :)
Music: "LEK DNB" by Richard Elliott (Lektroid) (https://hvsc.c64.org/search?sid=147986)
Download
Install instructions
If you're using an emulator like Vice64, download the regular d64 disk image and drag it into the emulator app to launch it. On a real C64 (or C64 ultimate) use the fastload disk image to load the game faster.
Comments
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This was entertaining.
Good idea, combining fast-paced typing with a shooter game. Nice work.
I wanted to pay for this, but you forced me to get it for free. Great idea, it should be used in schools! (And I've actually worked years with school software).
Glad you like it! I don't make these games for money. I make them because it's a fun challenge to make a game on such limited hardware plus it's what I loved to do as a teenager a very long time ago.
A very healthy attitude, sir! I understand completely. Let me instead offer you a big "thanx" then! :)
Interesting shmup:)
I love the idea to type every word. And on my first try, I went up to wave 12. Surely begginer's luck.
Well done! The furthest I've gotten is wave 18 so far. I think the early waves might be too easy though. I might add an option to let the player start at a higher wave number.
Wave 18? Wow, I'm impressed. I have to say english is not my mother tongue. So wave 12 is good. And why not an option to start at wave 5 or 10? It could make the game more challenging!
The new update 1.01 has a wave selection on the title screen
Ok. Will download it asap today. Thanks.
Nice touch the level selection :)
Lovely done!
Thanks!
I actually love this game! Very nice. Would love for it to appear in FREEZE64 at some point :-)
Thanks! I'd love to have it appear in FREEZE64. Let me know if you need anything from me.
I’d love an email address, please, so that we can have a chat about the game’s development 😊
I sent you a message via your web site with my contact details.