Back in 1985 I wanted to convert my favorite arcade game to my beloved C64. The Atari version was rubbish, this could be done better!
My friend Helmut jumped onto the boat and we designed the C64 version of Moon Patrol. He would create the graphics, I would do the programming.
My only tool was an ass/diss monitor (4k length) with which I could directly write and modify the memory…
I don’t remember why we changed the name to Mars Patrol, probably because we feared copyright issues when selling the final game and making biiig money :-)
In mid 1985 I changed school, some other things happened and the whole project went to hibernation. And because there was no source code, no compiler, no documentation after a couple of years I couldn’t continue even if I had wanted to.
Then in 2024, 39 years later, I gave it a chance and my first step was to disassemble the whole thing and document it in proper source files on my Mac. And it worked! Disassembling and assembling again - I could start the game again like before. The next step was to cleanup the code and add missing items. I added the tanks and the speeder from the arcade game, I completely rewrote the flying algorithm of the UFOs, changed some sprites and characters and so on. And lastly I implemented the ground action with the craters and rocks and mines. I found a longplay on Youtube from mameplayer who managed to survive 2 full courses so I could adapt and copy the action on the floor and for the UFOs as similar as possible. Unfortunately I couldn’t implement the rolling boulders from the arcade… And because I was never good with SID and sound effects I think back then I ripped the sound from the Atari version. And in 2024 I still was not able to ‚compose‘ the missing sound element when starting from the base. Feel free to send me the music and some code for playing it, I can always add it to the code now.
My kids tested the game on bugs and playability - and to my surprise it is still fun for them, even in a world of Internet, multi-player games and insane 3D graphics.
I used VICE with the 50Hz PAL emulation - I never played this version on a real C64. I have one still - but buried deep in the garage.
Have fun!
(June 2024)
