Useful Links:

New Release: v0.6.30.x

This release will automatically update on all platforms. Please restart the game to begin the update.

New

Introducing loot caches - These heavily guarded areas can be found dotted throughout the map and contain 2-3 crates and 2-3 high level asteroids but are guarded by an invincible enemy spawning contraption and should be approached with care

General

Tweaked several tutorials to make things clearer
Adjusted the color and brightness of crates to make them slightly more easy to spot
Drone and consumable level tier is now displayed as a colored border in the top right display

Balance

Mining Laser 1 is now awarded by default after the first run
Significantly increased (+600%) the amount of damage needed to open a crate
Bad cards should no longer appear as a choice at level up, why would anyone pick them?!
Drone damage will now scale correctly with card tier, mining drones will mine faster
Consumable damage will now scale with the card tier, also applies to the freeze mine duration, and nitrous duration and strength
Nitro Boosts now stay available for the whole duration and are no longer cancelled on releasing the button

Fixes

Fixed several map regeneration issues caused by revisiting older areas that had been mined after moving a fair distance away from them
Restored the shockwave effect when killing enemies, for some reason this had been disabled weeks ago
Quitting a run by exiting the game will no longer allow the player to retain the clones consumables and drones on respawn
Fixed several issues with the asset preloading system to hopefully fix many of the initial frame drops on the first run

Mining My Business community · Posted in Awesome stuff!

Hey! Glad you like it, there's a whole butt load more stuff coming as we work our way through the list of features and fill the game with content

Mining My Business community · Posted in Patch Notes 12/14/23

New Release: v0.6.25.494

This release will automatically update on all platforms. Please restart the game to begin the update.

New

Added new clone quirks; Lucky, Unlucky, Diviner, Warhawk, Pacifist, Tachophobe and Tachophile
New Quirk Card Searing Light
New Quirk Card Lucky Streak
New Quirk Card Unlucky Streak
New Quirk Card Vampiric Familiar
New Quirk Card Mining Frenzy
New Quirk Card Reflective Shield

Balance

Reduced the effect of Agile, Clumsy, Resolute and Hardened quirks slightly
Increased the radius of the Freeze Mine effect
Increased the splash radius of the Proximity Mines

Fixes

Fixed an issue where clone quirks were not showing in the pause menu panel during combat
Fixed an issue where Plasmarang damage upgrades were having little to no effect, they should now scale correctly with upgrades

Mining My Business community · Created a new topic Patch Notes 12/14/23

Shallan1 year ago (1 edit)

New Release: v0.6.18.x

This release will automatically update on all platforms. Please restart the game to begin the update.

General

Added epilepsy warning to game start up, thankyou to those who fed back to us about this. We will look to reduce the intensity of areas such as the warp in sequence to try to address this head on in a future update
NPC clones on the mothership will now occasionally take on the names of recently logged in players
NPC clones on the mothership will now prioritise warping before the players first run to help guide the player to the warp as part of the tutorial
Added link to view current user online in Mothership pause menu
Deck and Ship Upgrades info now sent to stats server and can be viewed on user profiles on the website

New

Added a new NPC Ore Trader merchant, trading ores at 50:1 ratio. He can be found in Corridor 3A

Fixes

Fixed an issue where mouse and keyboard players would accidently click level up cards if they appeared while holding mouse to fire
Fixed the pixelated logo on splash screen and did some tidying of the transitions
Shops now correctly display all 6 ore tiers rather than just the first 3, also adjusted the font size of shop item prices to help with small screen visibility

Mining My Business community · Created a new topic Patch Notes

Shallan1 year ago (1 edit)

New Release: v0.6.14.x

This release will automatically update on all platforms. Please restart the game to begin the update.

General

Ore farmed per run statistics are now sent to the stats server
You can now select a new destination from the Bridge console using Button A or Left mouse to click the button

Balance

Increased the frequency of blue sappharite ore to make it more common, there was a definite issue with the speed and quantities at which players were finding it

Fixes

Fixed an issue where the easier Kill Kevin Challenge was not registering as complete both on the stats server and the in game challenge lists
Tier 3 ore and beyond from World 2 onwards should now be correctly displayed in the end of run statistics
Fixed an issue with Kevin's pincer animation getting out of sync with his rotation when charging to and away from the player

itch.io Community » General » Release Announcements · Created a new topic Mining My Business

Announcment
Early Access to our little game "Mining My Business" for PC and Steam Deck is now released https://shallan64.itch.io/mining-my-business and for the next month its 33% off.

Summary
It's a work in progress twin stick shooter roguelite (vampire survivors style) for PC and Linux(tested on Steam deck). Mine ore and survive endless waves of enemies as your work to upgrade your ship with better weapons and capabilities. As you progress you'll unlock things like mining lasers, drones and new ways to get cards.

Early Access Info
The plan is to release a larger early access on Steam in the coming months (maybe 2-3 worlds), purchasers on itchio will receive Steam keys and both versions will continue to auto update. This release contains World 1 and over 200 cards to collect. We want to use this Itch.io early access release to tweak our online stats system @ https://miningmybusiness.co.uk/ and use community feedback for improving and balancing the game as we work our way to our ultimate goal of 5 Worlds with hundreds more cards, ships and weapons to collect.

Please view our developer logs for more info https://shallan64.itch.io/mining-my-business/devlog

Rambler - Free C64 Game comments · Posted in Rambler - Free C64 Game comments

RIP buddy, will think of you every time I hear Xmas sid music now. You'll be missed by the whole community :(

Luna - A witch-em-up comments · Replied to Lenakrator in Luna - A witch-em-up comments

The game is intentionally designed to be very very hard. Some players have been able to get to wave 80+ it just takes patience and some strategy :)

The Big MEGA65 Competition community · Posted in [Solved] LDZ in KickC/KickAssembler help?

Shallan3 years ago (1 edit)

This is an inline label. Allowing to reference the value of an instruction directly rather than having it before the instruction and using label+1

The Big MEGA65 Competition community · Posted in Criteria for game completeness?

I guess it depends on how easy it is to complete. You could argue it affects the replayability if it's too short, and could slightly affect the level design scoring maybe. But nothing stopping you submitting at all.

The Big MEGA65 Competition community · Replied to riq in Competition FAQ

There's an all versions drop down on that page where you can select that specific version asking others :)

The Big MEGA65 Competition community · Replied to grimmrobegames in Competition FAQ

Sorry you are correct, i will make that change. :)

The Big MEGA65 Competition community · Replied to riq in Available character and tile editors? Sprite editors?

Once you have node installed , navigate to the aseparse65 folder in a command prompt/terminal and type:

npm install

This will install the dependencies required to run the parser. Please not however the parser is very WIP I just shared to give a starting point for people, it may or may not suit your needs

The Big MEGA65 Competition community · Posted in Available character and tile editors? Sprite editors?

Checkout the excellent scripts found here: https://github.com/JettMonstersGoBoom/Mega65

Or my less than excellent WIP script at: https://github.com/smnjameson/M65_Examples/blob/main/_include/aseparse65/asp65.j...

At the very least theres will give you an insight of how to write exporting tools and convertors for Aseprite.

The Big MEGA65 Competition community · Posted in Competition FAQ

Shallan3 years ago (4 edits)

Useful Links:

Reserved...

The Big MEGA65 Competition community · Created a new topic Competition FAQ

Shallan3 years ago (2 edits)

Going to keep this thread as sticky and update it as necessary, feel free to ask questions in the comments below and I'll do my best to add them to the list.

FAQ

I'm using BASIC65. Which ROM will be used, can I specify a specific ROM for my entry?
- In order to make life as easy as possible for the judges, and to ensure a fair level playing field for everyone, we will be using the same ROM for all entries. This ROM will be the 920224.bin dated 7th Sept 2021. You can download this ROM from the filehost here, follow the instructions on that link to patch the freely available 911001.bin file.
  It's worth noting that some of the memory layouts at $f700+ are different to some of the older ROM versions so even if you are not using BASIC65 you should still use this ROM to ensure there are no issues.

Which version of XEMU will be used?
- As with the ROM version we will be using the same version of XEMU for all entries. However to allow the reporting of any emulator issues or missing features and any subsequent fixes, this will be the MASTER branch as it stands at 23:59 on November 19th. This will allow two weeks for entries to be adjusted should the version at that time cause any issues. Should the version on this date be deemed too unstable an alternative version will be selected and immediately communicated through this FAQ, Discord and Twitter. XEMU can be downloaded here.

The Big MEGA65 Competition community · Posted in Advice for beginners?

Hi there,

Firstly thank you for taking part, it's always exciting to see people joining in the fun! Personally I use ASM although as organiser of the competition I obviously won't be taking part. You can check my Youtube channel (specifically the mega65 stream uploads) for some information on what I use and my Github for some potentially useful libraries.

As for tools I use:

Sublime Text 4
KickAssembler (Jespers KickC 45GS02 version)
My own M65Debugger for deploying and inspecting - found in the Github repos below

I'm sure others who have worked more with Xemu or indeed other mid level languages can provide more information.

Thanks

Shallan

Github:
https://github.com/smnjameson?tab=repositories

Mega65 stream playlist :

The C64 'Cassette 50' Charity Competition community · Replied to Masterware_Entertainment in Rule Clarification plus Tips and Tricks

The CLR ensures that all the variable space pointers are moved to match the end of basic pointer just set by POKE 56,16. Without it the program would seemingly run fine the first time and possibly be using memory >$1000. However a second run of such a program would correctly result in out of memory error

The C64 'Cassette 50' Charity Competition community · Posted in Rule Clarification plus Tips and Tricks

Shallan4 years ago (1 edit)

Added another note about BASIC programs:

For BASIC programs to conform you must limit the memory available to BASIC by doing POKE 56,16 before running the program or before a CLR. You can include it as the first line like so:

1 POKE 56,16: CLR
10 PRINT "MY AMAZING PROGRAM HERE"

The C64 'Cassette 50' Charity Competition community · Replied to kakefoni in Rule Clarification plus Tips and Tricks

Putting the games onto tape will be the responsibility of myself and the competition team. We of course will not be needing to follow the same rules, as they are just for the initial entries. Most likely we will load games into $1000+ and relocate them once loaded, for games that require special loading.
Also good note on the screen colors, I will add a note to the text to say as such. Thank you! :)

The C64 'Cassette 50' Charity Competition community · Posted in Rule Clarification plus Tips and Tricks

Fixed the first testing breakpoint, the original one was too early. The new one waits for file loading. (Thanks Docster for the heads up)

The C64 'Cassette 50' Charity Competition community · Created a new topic Rule Clarification plus Tips and Tricks

Shallan4 years ago (7 edits)

Hey All!

I wanted to write this post to clarify the competitions technical rules as there seems to be a little confusion over them. Also to show how you can test your entries to see if they conform to the rules. And finally give some pointers to help you make the most of the space you have available.

Technical Rules

First up the technical rules.

At first glance the rules may seem strict & confusing. But while they are somewhat strict they should hopefully become less confusing with some explanation.

The most important thing to note is that you can enter this competition at various skill levels. Games in BASIC are perfectly valid as long as they conform to the memory limitations. Simple assembly programs with no memory trickery are of course allowed too. But if you want to take up the maximum challenge, see how close you can get to 4kb and how many tricks you can use to pull it off!

So here are some clarifications:

2. Final code must be in .PRG format that loads into memory below $1000 hex, giving 4,096 bytes of address space.

For all games we expect them to be in PRG format and be able to load and run from VICE. The PRG can load at any address below, and must not run past $1000. The idea here is to create limitations which force the creation of Cassette 50 style games, but to do something other than just saying "You have 4kb" in order to create some intrigue for the more technical coders. Some valid examples:

Assembly program saved as PRG that loads at $0801 (As most using some form of Kick Assemblers BasicUpstart do) and contains $7ff bytes. This program therefore loads into $0801 - $0fff.
20 line BASIC program saved as PRG. This will load in at $0801 and will be short enough to not run past $1000
Assembly program saved as PRG that loads at $0120 and uses $edf bytes. This program loads from $0120-$0fff

All of these examples are possible to have run in VICE, although the third example requires some trickery which I will explain in a later part of this post.

3. At no point can the code write to any location at or above $1000, however using IO normally at $D000-$DFFF is allowed, as is calling BASIC or KERNAL routines. BASIC programs are welcome too, just be sure to start your program with POKE 56,16 so it conforms to the memory limits.

This is the rule that seems to have caused the most confusion, but its actually quite simple. It simply means that you must keep all your memory writes below $1000, therefore:

All your variables must be below $1000 and are probably best stored in zero page
Your screen ram cannot be moved beyond $1000 so is probably best left at $0400
All your assets, should you choose to use custom font or sprites must also live below $1000
You cannot unpack or unroll anything into space at or above $1000
You cannot use $fffe/$ffff to set interrupts as this is writing above $1000. Use $0314/$0315 instead

The ONLY exception to this rule is accessing IO area, that is memory between $d000-$dfff when and ONLY when it is banked in as IO area ram (which it is by default). You CANNOT bank out IO area RAM and use the space underneath!! This means it is OK to:

Write to any VIC registers such as border color $d020, sprite registers $d000, $d027 and so on
Write to any SID registers e.g. $d400+
Write to Color RAM at $d800+

This rule also does NOT prevent you from:

Reading memory at any addresses at or above $1000, if there's a set of values you can use that exist in the BASIC or Kernal, go for it! Just don't write there!!
Calling methods in BASIC or kernal. More on this later on!

If you are writing a BASIC program makes sure the very first line is POKE 56,16. This ensures that your program and variables can never go past the $1000 limit.

TESTING

Testing your game against these rules should you wish to, is actually quite straightforward. I will be testing all games this way to ensure they conform. (Additionally I will be checking for any sneaky IO banking using $01!!!). I will be using VICE 3.4 for all testing and recommend that everyone should do the same.

Start VICE and open up the monitor (Alt-H in the latest v3.4) and type the following lines pressing ENTER after each:

w exec f5da      
g

This sets a breakpoint at the point when the machine is ready to load (via virtual fs or copy to d64). Now drop your PRG onto the VICE window to load it and you should see the monitor reappear due to the breakpoint we set. Now we can apply the memory rules. Type the following lines into the monitor pressing ENTER after each:

w store 1000 cfff
w store e000 ffff
g

Your game should now load as normal, but if at any point you write to memory above $1000 it will bring up the monitor again and this will indicate the game breaks the rules.

TIPS

#1 - BASIC programs are more than enough and definitely in the spirit of Cassette 50

If you take a look at some of the 10 liner C64 BASIC competitions, there are some great games there in only 10 lines!! The C64 can only fit 80 chars on a line, so these programs take less than 1Kb to store in memory. Variables do take a little bit of memory at runtime but as long as you use the POKE 56,16 to contain everything below $1000 you should be able to create some awesome results, just take a look at some of the 10 line competition winners over the years:

For BASIC programs to conform you must limit the memory available to BASIC by doing POKE 56,16 before running the program or before a CLR. You can include it as the first line like so:

1 POKE 56,16: CLR
10 PRINT "MY AMAZING PROGRAM HERE"

#2 - Using routines from Kernal and BASIC

Some things you might want to do already exist in BASIC and Kernal, though you usually have to sacrifice some of zero page and some of the area at$200-$2ff for them. Check out the ROM disassemblies at https://www.pagetable.com/c64ref/c64disasm/ for more details and to work out what locations you need to sacrifice. But here are some examples:

Clearing the screen and fill color ram with RED, obviously you can preload 0286 and 0288 if you want:

 lda #$02
 sta $0286
 lda #$04
 sta $0288
 jsr $e544

Note: It has been pointed out that on older kernal the color is taken from $d021, so you would want to load the color value there instead. (thanks to kakefoni for this info!)

Shift screen contents up 1 row, again preload 0288 if necessary:

lda #$04
sta $0288
ldx #$19
jsr $e967

Load the accumulator with a random number 0-255:

lda #$01
jsr $e09a
lda $63

There are many more useful routines I suggest browsing through the disassemblies of the ROMs linked above to see whats there and what you need to sacrifice to use them.

#3 - Using screen ram for code and other data:

One sneaky way to get more space for code is to reduce the size of your screen area. You could sacrifice a few lines at the top and bottom of the screen to put code into instead, filling color ram at that location to hide the resulting garbage. Remove 4 lines from top and bottom and you can save an extra 320 bytes.
If you additionally squash horizontally by reducing the screen width by 8 on each side you have room for some predefined tables or even some custom fonts, a screen that's 18 high and 24 wide will give you enough room on the sides to hide an enough custom font for alphabet and numbers 0-9, while still providing 280 bytes of free space at the top and bottom too!

#4 - Using very low memory locations

The following kick assembler snippet shows how you can utilise memory way below the usual $0801 area:

//Autostarting PRG code under $1000
// 3767 bytes free for code
// 254 zero page bytes free for variables
// 18 bytes at $1ed for variables
* = $120
Entry:
    ldx #$1f 
    txs    //Push stack down to $100-$11f
    //Start your code HERE (205 bytes up to $1ec)
    inc $d020
    jmp *-3    
* = $1ed
    //This area can be used for runtime vars
    //Once prg is loaded (1ed-1ff = 18 bytes)
    //But is bashed by the loading process
* = $1f8  //Override return from load vector on stack         
    .byte <[Entry-1], >[Entry-1]
* = $200
    //143 free bytes here
    .fill $8f, 0
*=$028f
    .byte $48,$eb //Prevent keyboard jam
    //131 free bytes here
    .fill $83, 0 
* = $314 //IRQ, BRK and NMI Vectors
    .byte $31, $ea, $66, $fe, $47,$fe
    //Keep the following vectors also
    .byte $4a,$f3,$91,$f2,$0e,$f2
    .byte $50,$f2,$33,$f3,$57,$f1,$ca,$f1
    .byte $ed,$f6 //STOP vector - Essential to avoid JAM
    //3286 free bytes here for your pleasure!
    .fill $cd6, 0

This works by overriding the stack return pointer for the load routine, which can be found at $01f8 and pointing it instead to a new Entry point found in the lower end of the stack. This entry point then moves the stack pointer to $011f reducing the stack to 32 bytes (can of course be adjusted as need be). At this point you now have 3767 free bytes between $123 and $fff where you can place anything (currently just filled with zeros). Note I used VICE 3.4 for this and recommend that everyone should do the same (VICE 3.1 has been reported to crash with this code, thanks Docster for the info)

Hopefully that's helped to alleviate some of the fears some people had about the requirements and given a few useful pointers to those that wish to enter.

Shallan50k

Luma comments · Replied to Umpftata in Luma comments

No the Laxity NTSC fix made the code entry extremely glitchy and almost unusable. But I wouldn't expect a cracker to know how to actually QA stuff. Re: the end sequence it appears to be ok for me on NTSC, but ill take a closer look in the coming days, thanks :)

Luma comments · Replied to hayesmaker64 in Luma comments

Can be done in 18 moves, just saying ... :)

Luma comments · Posted in Luma comments

Shallan4 years ago (1 edit)

NEW VERSION 1.1
- Proper NTSC support unlike the terrible version "cracked" by Laxity that broke the code entry, didn't slow the music properly and broke the completion screen

Luma comments · Replied to eightbitswide in Luma comments

Currently PAL but look out for an NTSC update 1.1 in the next few days

Luma comments · Replied to PixiEdward in Luma comments

It is though id recommend a usb keyboard as you will need for entering codes and spacebar for reset level.

Luma comments · Replied to kikendo in Luma comments

I can give you one clue. Start by moving the first mirror the laser is hitting to the left. Hope that helps!

Luma comments · Replied to Jeff D in Luma comments