https://davidprograma.itch.io/celeste Celeste Classic is an iconic platform game, originally developed by Maddy Thorson and Noel Berry, for the Pico-8 fantasy console (link). They later developed Celeste, a highly acclaimed game that any platformer lover should play (link). This is a remake for the Spectrum Next, made with the intention of being as faithful as possible to the original. It is NOT an official version. I asked Noel Berry for permission for a remake and he kindly granted it. How to playHelp Madeline climb Celeste Mountain, through 30 screens of increasing difficulty. Jump, climb walls, dash into the void. There are four directional controls (left-right-up-down) and two actions (jump and dash). You can redefine keys if the default map is not for you. A kempston joystick connected to the joystick port 1 may be used (simultaneously with the keyboard). I like to use a Megadrive gamepad, so I have two action buttons available. Jump into the air, Madeline will respond to directional buttons while airborne. If you push against a wall while falling by its side, fall speed will diminish. Also, you can jump from the wall, an even chain jumps. The dash is the most powerful movement, but it can be used only once until you touch floor. Don't forget to point the dash direction with the directional buttons, it will make a great difference! Playing modesThe game has infinite lives and if you die, you restart the level. Keep passing levels and you will get to the end. If you reach the final level in less than one hour, the game will let you put your name in the hall of fame (which is saved, as the redefined keys). It's a difficult game, but not impossible. With practice, it can be completed in a few minutes. During development, with all that testing, I have become quite good at it. InstallingOn a ZX Spectrum Next / N-Go / Xberry Pi, just copy the celeste.nex file to your SD card and run it from the browser. Game speedCeleste for Pico-8 runs at 30 Fps. Celeste for Next runs at 25 Fps at the standard Next mode (50Hz), so it's a bit slower (some will thank this). But the Next can be set to run at 60Hz (see manual), and the game will run as fast as in Pico-8. If you want to try 60Hz running from emulator, use the scripts ending in "-60". Development notesI have tried to create a faithful port of the Pico-8 original. It's been a somewhat difficult task, because although the Pico-8 seems like low power console, it really isn't. It's a fantasy console which requires some power to run (700MHz CPU and at least 512Mb RAM). Compared to the Next (28MHz Z80 with 2Mb RAM), it's a huge machine. Pico-8 uses the Lua programming language, and internally uses 16.16 fixed point for numbers. I have been able to implement all gameplay and movement logic using 8.8 fixed point, using 16 bit integers on the Z80. At least, the graphic system of the Next (layer2, tiles, sprites) seems to get the work done. Development tools used
Thanks & Mentions
Source codeI have provided the source code of this game as a downloadable ZIP. It is also available from the github repo. System RequirementsCeleste Classic for Spectrum Next has been developed and tested using:
The game should work on other versions / firmwares. |