Thursday 14 November 2013

Cheerful Chicken

By MykeP

Genre: drop ‘n’ don’t hatch


This is more, or less, based on the modern game character of a similar name.  Those familiar with it will know it involves button (or pad) mashing in order to lay as many eggs as possible, and that this version bears little to no resemblance whatsoever!  The ever increasing number of sprites to be drawn on the screen presents a problem for the spectrum coder: how to maintain game speed and keep pushing those pixels around?  Well, with some lightening fast machine code, clever game design and general use of nifty tricks it is more than possible to make a playable version for the good old ZX-Spectrum.

But this is the CGC, and thankfully MykeP has used none of the above!

 
Fans of loading screens be sure to turn off turbo load and appreciate the lovely easter eggs hiding under the attributes.  This chicken based game is programmed in BASIC and marks an excellent first entry from Myke.

I've not played any modern version, but I think I've got to grips with the gameplay here.  Press the any key and the chicken lays an egg, fail to press a key before a random counter winds down and they hatch.  It is not actually so much about button mashing, as button holding, as that suffices to keep the game going!  The number of eggs on the screen is your score.  So naturally it is fairly easy to accrue a large number of eggs, and equally naturally the spectrum slowly grinds to a halt giving S.N.A.I.L a run for its money!  I suppose in this sense the biggest challenge is one of inner strength, how long can you bear to keep mashing a key  and watching your poor spectrum get tortured?


Nice presentation, lovely beeper music, and an unplayable load of old carp that is most welcome in the competition!

Thank you Myke!

Download TAPE here.

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