New ZX Spectrum homebrew: Ad Lunam

[Corporal Jonlan]

Hi everybody,

this is my first project made with ZX-Basic: Ad Lunam, a strategy/management game for the 48K ZX Spectrum where you are put in charge of the space program of the United States or of the Soviet Union. Starting from 1956, you must send a crew on the Moon and safely back to Earth within 20 years.

Before you even attempt such a task you must research new spacecraft and equipment, plan and carry out missions, recruit and train pilots, and try to stay ahead of your opponents.

The game has not yet reached its final stage, and is currently at version 0.2. Users should be able to play it to the end, although some features have not yet been implemented, fine tuning is needed and bugs might still be present. So beware!

For now, game and documentation are only available in English. Italian will follow, then Spanish, and possibly other languages as well. There's a very large amount of text in it, so translation won't be an easy task.

Download link will stay unchanged on every release. Here it is: http://www.alessandrogrussu.it/zx/AdLunam.zip

Feedback is welcome. Enjoy!

[TrekMD]

Nice title screen! 

[Corporal Jonlan]

Thanks! It is based upon Robert Grossman's illustration for the cover of the 6 December 1968 issue of Time magazine.

[TrekMD]

Excellent!

[Corporal Jonlan]

Version 0.3 is here!

What's new:

• Choose one out of three difficulty levels at the start. Parameters affected are: funds, prestige, fund multiplier factor, mission control handicap
• Chance of random events at the end of each turn. Some will need certain prerequisites to happen, e.g. available pilots
• Italian version now available
• Various bugfixes and code optimizations

The game is now close to its definitive form. Again, memory left is still very scarce; I guess graphics and sound will be postponed to a prospective 128K version. What is needed now is a lot of fine tuning. This can only be done through playing sessions. Let's see what happens next.

[zapiy]

Absolutely awesome work as always fella.

[Corporal Jonlan]

Hi folks,

the game is still being developed after a pause due to "real" life issues, and I plan to release version 1.0 in the next few weeks. I have been hunting and squashing tons of bugs, further optimizing the code, and fine-tuning several features. Unfortunately, to fit the whole game into the 48K Spectrum, I had to leave any graphics aside, but introduced some beeper blips and short tunes for an even more retro atmosphere.

And here are some screenshots of the Spanish version! Juego y manual en castellano para todos 

[zapiy]

Great work mate.

Thanks for updating us.