jamesrandall

The weird world of retro game archaeology - it's genuinely fascinating.

Maybe I should pop in an original keyset as an option - I think the original uses the caps key maybe. I'm pretty sure it's weird on a modern keyboard layout. I think the version on the bbcmicro site keymaps it by default, in any case if you want to revisit the original its here:

https://bbcmicro.co.uk/game.php?id=432

Edit: I'm going to have to go and revisit it again now... I was sure it was infuriating on a modern keyboard.

It's actually in the commented original disassembly and used in some of the original BBC documentation / writing. Which is how it ended up here - the article is a mix of things I wrote and things I asked an AI to write for me from the notes / findings from the archaeolgy.

For what its worth the article was a mix of things I wrote and things I asked an AI to generate from the notes I'd accumulated from the archaeology.

My focus was on the recreation - and getting it accurate was a lot of work (and a lot of fun). It's pretty easy to get an approximation (particularly if you just go with a standard physics model) but one that feels "off" if you played the original a lot.

Managed to find some screenshots.

https://www.jamesdrandall.com/old-thrust/1.png

https://www.jamesdrandall.com/old-thrust/2.png

https://www.jamesdrandall.com/old-thrust/3.png

I think it was Opus but can't remember the version. Would have been whatever was available in Claude Code in February.

Managed to find some screenshots. It did work but gravity wasn't really gravity - things fell at a constant rate. Turrets were floating in mid-air. It was missing the shields and you couldn't pick up the ball from the pedestal.

https://www.jamesdrandall.com/old-thrust/1.png

https://www.jamesdrandall.com/old-thrust/2.png

https://www.jamesdrandall.com/old-thrust/3.png

Yeah. Different is the word. In many ways it’s just another abstraction but we’re not machines and this, to me at least, just gives a very different feel.

If you bothered to read it you’d find that I am embracing the tools and I still feel there is craft. It’s just different.

But snark away. It’s lazy. And yes it is so damn tedious.

Long time lurker first time contributor. I recently released an iOS app and thought sales stats etc. might be of interest to other iOS developers.

Any questions feel free to ask.