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Here are the basic capabilities:
1. Editing the playfield for each of the 6 levels
2. Changing the graphics (ex: Playfield, Player, Enemy, Title, etc…)
3. Setting the initial player start position
4. Setting the enemy locations
5. Increasing the number of lives in case the default is not enough!
Download
FailsafeEd1.0.19.zip 224.12K
70 downloadsGetting started
The first thing you'll want to do is go to the settings tab and set the location of your favorite emulator. Optionally you can also set a bit code or hex editor in case you want to make additional changes not available in the editor. Below I am using ProSystem and Hackomatic3.
Editing the game field
This is the default setting when you open the editor. To begin, Failsafe has six levels. Each level is pretty big and is broken down into 256x11 cells. When you are editing the playfield you will get 3 toolbars with all the items you can place on the playfield. Most of the basic items have a quick key next to the image. There aren't enough keys on a basic keyboard o the final 8 playfield items you'll have to click on the button to place them on the screen. You can also select a range of cells and copy, paste cut, delete, flip horizontally and vertically.
Setting Enemy Locations
To view the enemies use the menu bar View->Enemy Locations. Each level has 4 sets of enemy locations. A run time an enemy set is selected randomly to keep the game from becoming too predictable. Additionally, you'll notice you get an extra row, "R", when setting enemy locations. This is the random row. Enemies placed in the random row will be assigned a row randomly at run time to further randomize the game. Each enemy set can only have 127 enemies set. The editor provides you a total count and will prevent you from going over the 127 limit. You can copy, cut, past, and edit, but if you hold down the ALT key you can drag an enemy to a different location.
Setting Player Start Position
To set the player position, use the menu bar View->Player Tank. From there you will see a tank on the design surface. Just grab the tank and move from the current location. Only restriction is it needs to be placed before column 16.
Editing Graphics
This section is pretty straight forward. Here you can change the playfield, player, enemy, and text graphics. I never got around to modifying all the color palettes, but in general it will automatically change colors for the different items and, in most cases, changing the colors will be reflected during game play. The graphics are stored in two different locations in the game. You can switch to those two locations by changing the bank from 0 to 1.
I also have a blog posting on editing the title screen using Hackomatic 3.
You should buy your copy of Failsafe now!
Enjoy,
Jeff
