New ZX Spectrum homebrew: Ad Lunam Plus

[Corporal Jonlan]

Ad Lunam was a proof of concept, designed to fit into the humble ZX Spectrum 48K. Here is its big brother, Ad Lunam Plus.



The game is now a 128K exclusive - although I have, as for several of my other titles, considered to make a TR-DOS version which can be run on the 48K with a DivIDE/DivMMC. and ESXDOS - and features graphics for many of its sections and AY sound for national anthems and end-of-game congratulations.


Will you impersonate Von Braun or Korolev?


The main menu

There are other tweakings and enhancements, for instance "pilots" are now aptly called "astronauts" and "cosmonauts" and you can even see their faces when selecting them for training.


Choose an ability to train John Glenn in

In the R&D section, you are now able to see pictures of what you are actually researching.


Soviet research and development main menu


American rockets

Facilities (previously called "structures") can also be seen now, even when they are under construction/repair.


The advanced training facility is being built, while launch pad 1 hosts a rocket for a planned mission

You can now follow missions from the control room.


Engines started, lift off

End-of-turn messages and communications will be shown as papers on a desktop.


The president is pleased with our work

The game is currently at version 1.0 and like its predecessor is available in Italian, English and Spanish. Please report any feedback about possible bugs/strange behavior/typos etc. here or to my email address (shown in the manual).

Enjoy!

Download

[Corporal Jonlan]

Update: A bug affecting pilots management and a garbled text in the English version have been fixed.

[TrekMD]

This looks quite nice.

[Corporal Jonlan]

Thanks TrekMD!

Meanwhile, another small update: "MISSIONI" instead of "MISSIONS" in the missions main menu has been corrected.

[Corporal Jonlan]

Update: a user reported a bug in the final lunar manned mission, which has been now fixed.

[zapiy]

Great to hear you are keeping the game updated mate.

[Corporal Jonlan]

Sure!  And in fact, here is...

Version 1.1

What's new:

• Some specifications have been changed (see user manual for details).
• The initial funds amount for easy, medium and hard difficulty changes from 150, 120 and 90 to 170, 135 and 100 respectively.
• Initial prestige for easy, medium and hard difficulty changes from 90, 80 and 70 to 105, 90 and 75 respectively.
• Calculation of funds assigned every year according to prestige is slightly more favorable.
• Possible extra funds/budget cuts at the end of a turn do not depend upon difficulty anymore and are fixed at +20/-20.
• Various corrections and optimizations in the game code and messages.
  
• New “Tips” section in the user manual.

Download link is the same as before. Enjoy!

[Corporal Jonlan]

More news ahead!

• We have the first winner: a user reached the Moon playing with the Soviets. Well done, comrade director! 
• A discrepancy between variables in the mission control block that could create problems when a pilot was injured or killed during a mission has been fixed.
• English version only: a printing error in the "...ONAUT UNAVAILABLE" message when you try to assign an unavailable pilot to a manned mission has been corrected.

[TrekMD]

Nice for the winner! 

[Corporal Jonlan]

A new build (hopefully, the last! ) has been released today.

Savegames from the previous two builds (15.07.2020 and 17.07.2020) are compatible with this one. If you have a game in progress, save it and load the savegame in the new build.

What's new:

• The criteria for the calculation of the final score have been modified.
• (English version only) Deleted a superfluous dot in a secret service report.

[Corporal Jonlan]

Hi everyone, Ad Lunam Plus and its 48K text-only counterpart Ad Lunam have been re-released under the Zankle Soft label. Both games have been updated to version 1.2 to reflect this change.

Download them from here, and have fun trying to reach the Moon