ZX81 Caverns

zx81

The ZX81 has been away too long, and to commemorate 20 years since I first wrote the game CAVERNS - never released on ZX81 - I decided to reissue it for the PC. The game originally 16K of Z80 machine code took over a year of hard slog to write as a 16 year old with multiple crashes and 15 minute save and load times on tape recorder each time it crashed. Now older and wiser I decided to see how long it would take to write using a modern programming language - Delphi. Less than a week.

Are you ready for ZX81 gaming heaven? :-) DOWNLOAD CAVERNS HERE

Download game


The first screen of the game was loosely based on an arcade game I played in the eighties underage in a pub - thanks to Dan Edenhofer for identifying it as 'The Pit' - it had a chamber in the bottom centre like the first screen. I wonder if anyone can remember it?

You must snatch three loads of Mithril (M) before your spaceship takes off. Jewels (*) may also be gathered. The keys are:

A -
up

Z - down

comma - left

fullstop - right

> -
laser right

< - laser left

M - Menu

S - Start

R - Refresh

E -
Edit screens

T -
Next Man

 

Martin xx

Retro Remakes site review 'the game is lovingly restored in all it’s ZX81 style glory. It has jewels, dwarves, aliens, lasers, Balrogs and spaceships. Now, by my reckoning that’s only a pirate, fez and a ninja short of everything you could ever want in a game......' (by oddBob)

Tested on Windows 2000 & 98, 200+MHz


 


 

   

Download game

 

Version

1.0 Started working on the game

 

1.1 Five caverns working

 

1.2 Sixth cavern added

 

1.3 Laser and Balrog working

 

1.4 Dwarves added and Intro completed

 

  

There is a preview video of Caverns here

  

Martin Ruffe

email twitter

Photography
Web design & development
Software

  • Interests

Comments

Ian wrote 'Runs on mine a bit flakily. Normally judders to a halt with an infinite number of alert boxes saying "cannot write to bitmap". Worth it for the nostalgia tho. I liked your intro write-up. Especially the bit about the ZX81 as a development platform. My most ambitious project was a version of Scramble. I got the first level with the rockets and fuel dumps going okay, in fact it all worked fine, but lost my nerve with the rest. Ah, but the memories; hours spent hunched over the program scribbled on A4 (ruled with feint), all hand assembled; then you spot the bug, reload everythng off tape, change two bytes and it crashes. Start again... Kids today, don't know they're bored.'

Chris Cowley wrote 'After a night out, I can often name the pub I was in but not who was there, what I did, or who I did it to! It only ever happens when I go to pubs. Funny that. I like the remake by the way. It works fine here on a Win2K box, although it does occasionally go into an "MessageBeep" loop (bong! bong! bong! bong!) at which point it has to be shut down with the task manager. How about adding a "21st Century" mode with full-colour graphics?'

Write Something: