Grid Runner Streaming Project

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In the year 2190 there is a solar station in space to send solar energy to earth. The solar station is called "The Grid". Shortly after the solar station went into operation, it was found that it was supplying insufficient energy. Engineers were sent into space to repair them. It was found that "The Grid" was occupied by alien droids that use the collected energy to reproduce and invade Earth. To fight the droids, a special spaceship called the " Gridrunner " was developed, which receives its energy from "The Grid" in order to charge its powerful plasma cannon. With it all kinds of droids Gridsearch Squads, Pods and X / Y-Zappers can be fought.

  • Gridsearch Squads: As seen, they behave like worms and run from top to bottom and from left to right across the network. When they reach the lower net line, more droids of this type appear in the lower area of ​​the net. If these droids hit the "Gridrunner", it will be destroyed. If individual droids are hit by the plasma, they transform into the droid type pods. This type of droid changes its vertical direction through plasma jets and through fixed obstacles like the pods! When all Gridsearch Squads droids have been destroyed, the next level appears.
  • X / Y-ZAppers: This type of droid runs around the outside of the net and also shoots plasma in the X and Y directions. If both beams meet, the droid type pods appear at this interface. If this plasma jet hits the "gridrunner", it will be destroyed.
  • Pods: Are firmly anchored in the net and can be touched and destroyed by multiple shots. They continue to develop and at the end of the development phase fall off the grid as peaks. Here you can destroy the "Gridrunner".

Seen in this way, "Gridrunner" is a variant of the game Centipede and thus a fast shooting game.

What is this project.

Well the reason for this project, is that I have been asked on many occasions "How do we see how other programmers code" or "Reverse Engineer" another programmers program without the original source to use as reference.

So After C64Mark's reverse engineering of "Attack Of The Mutant Camels" https://github.com/C64-Mark/Attack-of-the-Mutant-Camels I thought it would be good to do a video series about "How To" reverse engineer a game.

The game I choose was "GridRunner" by Jeff Minter, and the reason for this choice, it was my first ever game I bought for the VIC 20, and then subsequently for the C64 when I had the opportunity to use one.

So this section is dedicated to the :

  1. Reverse Engineering of "GridRunner" and "GridRunner 2" off stream, and
  2. Recoding the game using modern programming methods and procedures.

The hope is to be able to assemble this game not only for the C64, but also for the VIC 20, C16 / Plus4 / C128 and the PET.

Also been tasked to see if I can migrate it to an Atari (800 or XL).