Castle Dain is good fun with some tricky puzzles. It doesn't support the keyboard on older Apple II machines because they don't have a way to check if a key is being held down, which would make controlling it pretty clunky. Starting with the Apple IIe, reading the keyboard strobe at $C010 indicates if a key is currently held down.
Ah, thanks for the explanation. I was thinking it had to do with less memory, but that didn't make much sense since the keyboard handler routine can't be that big. Wouldn't there be some way to do that on a II or II+, say by looking for a repeated key and just assuming it was held down?
@@CT6502 What action games generally do is start movement when a key is pressed and stop when another key is pressed. Lode Runner starts movement when a direction key is pressed, changes direction when another direction key is pressed, and stops when any other key is pressed. Castle Wolfenstein is similar but requires pressing a specific key to stop moving. And in Sneakers, once you start moving you cannot stop unless you fire your weapon which forces you to stop whether you want to or not. They are all easier to play with a joystick (or paddles in Sneakers' case). The old keyboard hardware is really suboptimal for action games, so much so that Bug Attack and other older games do not even support keyboard controls. Personally, I think Lode Runner's style would work well for Castle Dain.
@@JonRowlison All Apple IIs can tell you the last key pressed (read keyboard latch at $C000), and if the high bit is set ($C000 >= $80), that means the key was pressed since clearing the keyboard strobe (any access to $C010), but only newer models can tell you if any key is being held down ($C010 >= $80; $C010 also reads the keyboard latch on those models).
@@xotmatrix That was my recall as well... so you just tell users they can't HOLD a key and have to press it repeatedly to move (and then code pings $C010 to reset the strobe again.)
@@CT6502 Chris, that maze has me turned around and around. I dreaded the mazes in Wizardry even when my mapping skills and memory were better when I was young. I can't wait for the CALL APPLE guidebook to come out!
It's a fair point. However, if a joystick is fully functional as an apple joystick there is no point to modify it. It already holds the value as a working apple joystick. Fully functional apple joysticks are already priced pretty high. In fact, it’s almost the same cost as one of the modified Bluetooth joysticks. Many people are converting PC joysticks to apple because apple joysticks are valued higher. If effort and expense is needed to repair it, then it is repaired, and Bluetooth is added. Which is why this is a cool, fun project. Many of the potentiometers in these joysticks do not span the full voltage range any longer and need to be replaced. It seems some people are just changing the resistor values and not actually fixing the potentiometers. With software running inside the joystick, we can make it work even better than new. Incredibly smooth.
When you were killed off and couldn't make it to the exit or show level 2, you could have used time travel to back up to the fight and try the random number generator again or run.
Yeah, you're right, I didn't even think of that! I did end up using the "save emulator state" feature a lot, and then I never needed to go back to the Castle entrance to save the game.
![BOWKYLION - วิงวอน (ex-change) [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/cLdnZWDaO-w/mqdefault.jpg)
Great to see you doing reviews again!
Thanks! More coming soon
Castle Dain is good fun with some tricky puzzles. It doesn't support the keyboard on older Apple II machines because they don't have a way to check if a key is being held down, which would make controlling it pretty clunky. Starting with the Apple IIe, reading the keyboard strobe at $C010 indicates if a key is currently held down.
Ah, thanks for the explanation. I was thinking it had to do with less memory, but that didn't make much sense since the keyboard handler routine can't be that big. Wouldn't there be some way to do that on a II or II+, say by looking for a repeated key and just assuming it was held down?
@@CT6502 What action games generally do is start movement when a key is pressed and stop when another key is pressed. Lode Runner starts movement when a direction key is pressed, changes direction when another direction key is pressed, and stops when any other key is pressed. Castle Wolfenstein is similar but requires pressing a specific key to stop moving. And in Sneakers, once you start moving you cannot stop unless you fire your weapon which forces you to stop whether you want to or not. They are all easier to play with a joystick (or paddles in Sneakers' case). The old keyboard hardware is really suboptimal for action games, so much so that Bug Attack and other older games do not even support keyboard controls. Personally, I think Lode Runner's style would work well for Castle Dain.
Don't ALL the Apple IIs support PEEK(-16384) and POKE -16368,0 combo?
@@JonRowlison All Apple IIs can tell you the last key pressed (read keyboard latch at $C000), and if the high bit is set ($C000 >= $80), that means the key was pressed since clearing the keyboard strobe (any access to $C010), but only newer models can tell you if any key is being held down ($C010 >= $80; $C010 also reads the keyboard latch on those models).
@@xotmatrix That was my recall as well... so you just tell users they can't HOLD a key and have to press it repeatedly to move (and then code pings $C010 to reset the strobe again.)
Castle Dain had been an awesome experience from the ziploc packaging to the addictive gameplay itself. It takes me back! Can’t wait for the guidebook.
Yes, I agree! I'm up to level 3 in the castle now.
@@CT6502 Chris, that maze has me turned around and around. I dreaded the mazes in Wizardry even when my mapping skills and memory were better when I was young. I can't wait for the CALL APPLE guidebook to come out!
Love your videos!
Thanks so much!
Game looks cool and has a real retro vibe to it.
Yeah, I was a bit surprised at first with the blocky character (if you couldn't tell from the video), but it grew on me.
A great video and awesome reviews! Love your content Chris.
Thanks! And I love the joystick - I've continued to use it on my Mac.
That's a bit silly "I only modify non-functional joysticks" since they are pretty easy to fix.
It's a fair point. However, if a joystick is fully functional as an apple joystick there is no point to modify it. It already holds the value as a working apple joystick. Fully functional apple joysticks are already priced pretty high. In fact, it’s almost the same cost as one of the modified Bluetooth joysticks. Many people are converting PC joysticks to apple because apple joysticks are valued higher. If effort and expense is needed to repair it, then it is repaired, and Bluetooth is added. Which is why this is a cool, fun project. Many of the potentiometers in these joysticks do not span the full voltage range any longer and need to be replaced. It seems some people are just changing the resistor values and not actually fixing the potentiometers. With software running inside the joystick, we can make it work even better than new. Incredibly smooth.
That looks like a fun game.
I made it to level two! I gotta say - playing it in the emulator is much better because you can save your state at any time. Cheating? Nah.
Great reviews! Thanks for sharing
Thanks Rudy!
When you were killed off and couldn't make it to the exit or show level 2, you could have used time travel to back up to the fight and try the random number generator again or run.
Yeah, you're right, I didn't even think of that! I did end up using the "save emulator state" feature a lot, and then I never needed to go back to the Castle entrance to save the game.
Gak on the packaging of the joystick!! That joystick could have easily been broken\crushed during shipping.
Sorry, I didn't show the complete packaging - it was shipped within a box, but it had my address on it, so I didn't show that. It was well packaged.