Early PC-version is available now

I've released the first version of Numbertron for the PC as a bonus for those who have bought the Sharp MZ-game today. It should be available for those who've paid 2 dollars or more on Itch, to those who have bought the physical Sharp MZ-version (and activated the code they got with it), and to those who have bought the game as a part of the Palestinian aid bundle. Although I actually can't figure out how to confirm that the latter is the case, so let me know if you're in that group (btw, I obviously would have liked to add Numbertron to the current Ukraine-bundle, but that was not possible due to the game not having a minimum price).

While I've done quite a lot of work on it, it is obviously far from finished. The graphics and sound are mostly temporary, and the game's presentation could change quite a lot. The scoring balance is also completely out of whack. There are also several features or adjustments that I simply have not had the time to do yet. This includes things that were supposed to be a part of this initial release, but unfortunately February was a terrible month for me on a personal level and the horrific Russian invasion of Ukraine topped it all off. Still, I needed to get this thing out there.

I will no doubt release several updates in the coming months, but be aware that the finished version of the game will be released as a standalone product.

The major change from the Sharp MZ-version is that the game now has a real goal. The clover - or potion in the PC-version - now respawns in most game modes, and the squares that respawn when the potion is activated gets a different background colour. So the point is then to «paint» 100% of the level. When you do this, you will also gradually reveal the background, which is a major concept for the game's forthcoming campaign. As of now, a selection of backgrounds can be chosen before starting a new game.

I have not implemented a victory screen yet, sorry about that. :-)

There are some new mechanisms as well, such as ice blocks that act as barriers until they are removed (by capturing all the surrounding squares), bonuses that will activate (and stay for 10 turns) upon various situations and spawners for new hearts as well as goo that will reduce your score when captured. Capturing three hearts in one move will spawn a golden heart. The money bonus will always respawn when captured, and the value will be higher every time you grab it. The diamond doesn't double your score, but gives a bonus score based on your performance so far.

In the high score game, you can play in coop mode. When a player dies, a respawner will be created and when activated by another player the dead player will get resurrected. There is also a separate Tron-like mode. There might be other vs. Multiplayer modes in the future. The game supports mouse, keyboard and gamepad controls. In single player you may use whatever you want at any time, but in multiplayer you need to select a system for each player (there's nothing wrong with having two players share one gamepad or mouse, but only the selected input method will work for each player). Keyboard controls are numpad and QWE,ASD,ZXC. And I literally just realized that this will fail on AZERTY-keyboards without a numpad; hope you've got a mouse. :-)

Please try different things, and if something doesn't work properly let me know. There's not been much external testing so far.

What needs to be done:

The game is intended to have a campaign mode, where players gradually unlock new backgrounds through a series of increasingly difficult levels (though the difficulty is not the main point here, I do not want to frustrate players, I mainly want to give them a reward for playing). This is not included as of now, and the few backgrounds that are in the game can be selected in the background menu when starting a high-score game. Some of these are final, others are work in progress or temporary.

The graphics are mostly if not all temporary. I would like the player sprites to look interesting, and move in a more fun way (jumping from tile to tile). The same is true for the sound effects.

My plan for the music has been to use SIDPlayer and actual Commodore 64 music, but due to technical problems with the SIDPlayer plugin (and the fact that I have not made contact with any composers), I've bought the license to use some music from Jamendo for this release. Currently using Insert Coin by Windpearl.

There will be a lot more settings in the final release, including accessibility stuff like colour blind modes. Also, the game will default to more appropriate colours/settings for each background (depending on the background colours et.c.). Hopefully also language settings.

Known issues: The profile system is a mess, so I'm sure it'll cause weird behaviour if there's a bunch of changing players/profiles et.c. I'd like to rewrite the whole thing, but I think I'll just have to use duct tape to patch it. Also, the font used is a bit limited, so there's little support for special characters as of now.

It goes without saying that this release is not going to be of interest to everyone. But if you enjoy it, and would like to become involved in testing et.c., please get in touch.