Melkhior’s Mansion
A downloadable game
Melkhior's Mansion, for Windows PC, Spectrum Next and ZX Spectrum 128k.
A fast paced, action packed throwback to the classic games of the 80's, in 15 glorious colours, hand picked from the infamous ZX Spectrum colour palette (we left out bright black!)
Guide Sir Stamperlot the knight around Melkhior the Wizard's house of horrors, or choose to play as one of his trusted companions, Lester the clumsy Serf, Zouch the green haired Witch or perhaps the elegant Princess Ashby.
Your task is to find the pieces of the key that will unlock the main entrance to the mansion, thus granting our hero, whoever that may be, their freedom from Melkhior's evil clutches.
More details to follow, watch this space! Available now on Windows/Mac/Linux, and coming soon for the ZX Spectrum 128k......
Development log
- <Insert specifics here>Jun 02, 2024
- Eek! Monsters!!Apr 20, 2024
- BallisticsFeb 24, 2024
- An apology...Feb 14, 2024
- Eats, Shoots, and Crashes...Feb 04, 2024
- AY-up & leaving the nestNov 25, 2023
- The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ MenSep 16, 2023
- Summer-cleaning the frontendAug 03, 2022
Comments
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In the end, this engine deserves some isometric RPG, action or SRPG, too.
The engine as a whole has become very bespoke to this game, although elements of it could be re-used for other titles. However, I'm not much of a game creator these days, and admit I have no idea even what an SRPG is, and so somebody else would need to design the whole thing for me for it to become a possibility.
I follow your work and I see that the engine is clearly adapted to the requirements of the game. Think of SRPG as Hero Quest for Speccy.
Ah, there you have me at a loss - I've never played the game. I did watch a video of it though, and you are right that the engine could be made to work for that style of game, but somebody would need to design it for me.
Interesting update Bob. Imagine if that 209 bug happened at random times in random rooms? That might well have finished you off! :o)
Looking forward to this release, will there be a Next version?
I wouldnt mind a physical copy if there is.
There was, and still might be, a Next version in development, but not by me. As for a boxed release, although we can all imagine this in an Ultimate PTG "big box" all the versions of the game are on a strict not-for-profit rule, and so that's not going to happen.
Wow this is looking spectacular. Can't wait to load it up on my 128k!
Thanks! Sorry it's taking so long, but that's life. It'll very hopefully be finished this year.
Hi Bob! Are you still working on this project? Do you estimate any publication date? Thanks!!!
Hopefully the latest dev. log entry can answer your questions
Graphics look very nice. Looking forward to trying on my Spectrum +2
great project !
Any update on the project ?
Hi Bob, this looks wonderful, I cannot wait to play it on my 128k Speccy one day! And what an incredible games library you have created over the years. And I'm not even a ZX81 man, but those games looks really interesting as well. Keep up the great work sir! Best regards Adrian
Hoping to see it soon.
Me to! <grabs pop-corn>
I've been on hiatus from the game for a few months - see latest dev. log entry - but hoping to get back up to speed on it soon.
Really looking forward to this. Loving Rich's full fat PC version but there's something special about the Spectrum version. Despite the mono look it just looks awesome. Atic Atac was the first 48K game I got for my Spectrum for Christmas. Unfortunately I had a 16k machine so couldn't play it for months until my parents got me an aftermarket upgrade. I spent those months imagining what Atic Atac looked like, and I saw it with isometric ghosts! don't know why but it stuck with me and this is the realisation of it nearly 40 years later. good luck getting this finished.
How long until the game is ready ? Your work seems wonderful
The plan is to release something in time for the Spectrum’s 40th in April, which could be a playable demo, or the full game. Unfortunately I’ve been able to spend very little time on development recently, and possibly not for a few weeks further, so we’ll have to see what happens.
This is a beauty!!
Any update on this?
Many! I know I’m behind on the dev. diary updates, but will hopefully be adding a new entry shortly
Great job! Just out of interest what tools / framework(s) etc. did you use to build the ZX Spectrum version? Thanks
PS: well done for keeping a Development log - I keep meaning to do this but never do…!!
Thanks!
The code is written using Microsoft’s VS.Code editor, along with a couple of plug-ins for syntax colouring and counting the t-states of a selected block of code. Everything is then compiled using the Pasmo assembler, which has been updated to support compiling to the memory bank pages required for a 128K game such as this.
The graphics are done in an old version of Photoshop elements (from when it was still pretty close to Photoshop instead of the photo-retouching service it is now). These are output as required for the game code using some basic scripts in Unity. That gives me the flexibility to write whatever I need the output format to be, and use just about any input image format.
Everything is then tested in the Spin emulator.
Thanks a lot Bob for information - I'm glad I asked about this because this is the first time I've heard about using the Pasmo assembler :) http://pasmo.speccy.org Again great job with game. Regards, Steven.
incredible job Bob. Just wondering what sort of size the data is for the frame on the title screen? A while back I studied the data for the frame on the Alien8 screen and managed to compress it to about 550 bytes. Obviously totally different data, but just wondered how you store and print it?
Only one quarter of the surrounding frame is stored, as it’s then mirrored and flipped to fill the other three quarters. Because of that it only uses 52 characters, so is technically stored in 52 x 8 = 416 bytes, there’s the supporting code for that as well, and also the table used to mirror that data. The current frame might not be the final design though...
yeah, I noticed that it’s the same as Richards PC version. I suppose even with some super amazing compression it won’t free up much space.
Wow this looks A Maze ing.
Thanks!
looking forward to this 😊
Thanks! It’s a long time coming, but hopefully it’ll be worth it in the end.