MegaZeux has evolved @__@

So, I’ve been working on some improvements to the game, and boy howdy, it’s been interesting to learn how MegaZeux has evolved over the years. Thanks to all these improvements, I can do stuff like:

• Pixel-perfect mouse cursor with minimal effort (this didn’t use to be a thing, trust me)
• Make the game usable mouse-only, which also means touch-only for Emscripten users (which I guess I could have mostly done anyway, but the Emscripten port of MZX hasn’t existed for very long)
• Optimise the hell out of some of this code
• Debug without using my old debug codes (for the most part)

I’ve also been making some changes and rebalancing to the base game itself, including:

• Various UI improvements, such as larger score digits, touch-friendly Paint Can dialog, and fancy combo/chain popup markers
• Change when the fifth and sixth colours show up
• Weighted “Next Bumper” shuffler, to spread Bumper colours out more evenly
• More frequent Paint Cans
• Reworked bonus score calculations

I’m also planning to add a few additional options:

• More sound/music themes, including at least:
• The music from the original DirectX port of the game (which was a college class project)
• The sound from the short-lived mobile version (I’d add the music, but I straight-up don’t think I’d be able to implement that in MZX)

…and if I really wanted to (read: if I was absolutely insane), I could also:

• Make Bumper Stickers MZX into a free-sliding port (which would be an enormous pain and probably require starting mostly from scratch)
• Add SuperMZX graphics (which I’ve never entirely been able to wrap my head around)

In any case, it feels pretty good to do stuff in MZX again, and also to know that I still kinda know what I’m doing. Maybe I’ll make something new someday soon? I was planning on participating in the Desert Bus for Hope Game Jam next week, and, after hearing that it’s the 25th anniversary of MegaZeux coming up, that kind of adds an incentive to make that game in MZX.

Anyway, it is 3:40 AM on the last full night of DST, so I should probably go to bed. Expect Bumper Stickers 2.0 to happen soon!