Arcade Game Designer
A downloadable Gamemaker
Now with instructions in German, thanks to Björn-Lars Feddersen.
Arcade Game Designer is a tool for creating ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC464 games. In fact, it's the tool we'd all have given our right arms for in the 1980s. Create blocks, sprites and screens, knock out a few lines of code (far simpler than ZX BASIC and numerous coding templates are included) and create a game that would have graced any software house's catalogue back in the day. There a few bugs, but this is the tool you wanted when you were a kid. Over two hundred (and counting) games have already been written with this tool. Free to download with no obligations, I don't expect anything in return. However, should you absolutely insist on contributing towards the cost of a pint of beer go and buy one of my games or game development tools (my suggestions: SEUD, Quantum Gardening or Gamex) from www.cronosoft.co.uk
The Spectrum version is available as software for the 48K or 128K machines, but also as a new Spectrum ROM, for which you'd need to burn a new 128MBit PROM or use the 16 bank ROM card from www.samcoupe.com. Boot your Spectrum to AGD and with the editors in the ROM the whole of the Spectrum's RAM is at your disposal!
If you like this, check out the free and far more powerful Multi-Platform version, which will import games written using this tool and allow you to convert them to other formats. It also allows far bigger games and boasts extra commands and extensive documentation. This is the professional version, in addition to being far more user-friendly for beginners.
To get the best out of AGD, make sure you join the community of AGD and MPAGD developers over at the forums where help and support are available. There's also a Spanish tutorial and a series of English video tutorials
For the hardcore devotees there are even AGD T-shirts
Other resources:
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Download
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Development log
- AGD 4.8Feb 16, 2019
Comments
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Hello there. On which platform do AGD run? I am guessing Windows only since MPAGD has a windows logo next to the download.
MPAGD runs on Windows. AGD runs on the ZX Spectrum, so you would need an emulator for that.
Thanks. Then AGD is for me, I'm mostly on macOS or Linux. I want to create a CTF challenge where the player first must realise (s)he should load the tap-file into an emulator, then solve the game to get to the secret flag, which is just a text string that proves you solved the challenge. So I'll use AGD to create the tap-file.
well i'll be, this looks nice
Really a great tool...!!! :-)
Sir, a few months back you mentioned AGDv5. Is that project still continuing ? Kind Regards.
Yes, it is still in development
One Last Thing How Do you add music to your game
One last thing how do you add a main menu To your game
AGD has a CONTROLMENU command that waits for the player to press 1, 2 or 3 and sets the controls to keyboard, Kempston or Sinclair joystick accordingly
Ok. But When I Test Game I Want The Game To Have A menu Like This:
A Name then i want it to say Like press any button to continue
You should display the text on screen yourself using messages. There's also a WAITKEY command that will just wait for a keypress and won't set the controls
One Last Thing How Do You add music to your game?
There is a program to do that, there should be some posts about it at the AGD forums.
where is the control menu
How do you add sound
the BEEP command creates beeper effects. It should all be explained in the AGD documentation
Hey jonathan I have a question
When i die on the second level or higher It makes my screen stuck and i have to test the game again so can you tell me how to fix it please i really want to complete creating my game
Briefly, check that you have put a player sprite in your preferred re-spawn position on every screen on which the player might die. If that doesn't work, post on the AGD forums with a little more detail
is there a way to export an executable file?
Yes, there's an option to create a .TAP file
what's a .TAP
It's a file that when loaded into an emulator loads and runs the game. If you wish to play a game on a Spectrum emulator you usually load .TZX or .TAP files
Hello Jonathan. The AY sound don't work, i try it with spectrum standard and SOUND 1. Why?
Just use the beeper effects and have some nice AY music, that's what most users do
yes, but in the case of wanting to use ay sounds, for example for amstrad.
Is it possible to use your new ROM in an emulator like Spectaculator?
Yes
Tested the ROM with my fairly new ZX Spectrum ROM Cartridge hardware, no issues :)
Last year I became fascinated with the failed ZX ROM cartridge format Sinclair released in 1983/4. I first released 'ZX-ECUTOR' interface to allow the cartridges to run on the SAM Coupe, then followed up releasing a flash memory cartridge which can store 16 ZX ROM cartridge images / system ROMS (such as your new AGD ROM) and a modern Interface 2 style interface to use cartridges on all ZX Spectrum models: 16k,48k,+,128,+2,+3,+2A/B and the new ZX Spectrum Next.
Info/Ordering: : www.samcoupe.com
Excellent, thank you for letting me know! The 16 bank ROM card looks like a handy piece of kit, maybe I'll have to write more stuff for the ROM. Meanwhile I'll give your website a link from mine
Thanks!
Hello there! Need to test that! I’ve unified all my projects and the Spanish Turorials are now here https://www.metsuke.com/ sorry for any inconvenience!
Hey there! Is there a PDF documentation for scripts and editor help?
There's a manual in the Docs subdirectory. The first section explains how to use the editors and the second is a language reference manual complete with examples of how to use each instruction
Thank You so much, Jonathan! I found it!
Hi Jonathan, sorry this is a little off-topic, but do you still provide any support for S.E.U.D? I'm looking for help with outputting sound. Thanks.
It might be best to talk to Sebastian Braunert and the guys behind Pi-dentity, I think they hacked the tool to get around some sound issues
I have downloaded this on the word of another. Tried to load but seem to not know how with the emulators. Is there a guide in english somewhere as could only see the german one
There should be a Word document in the zipfile, AGD48.doc
Any way to import my AGD 3.0 game into the newest version 4.7? I'd hate to redo the game from scratch.
There aren't many 3.0 users left, one or two here and there. Someone (I forget who) was writing a space-themed platformer with version 3 last year. To answer your question, not that I know of as version 4.7 is a significant improvement on 3.0 with many improvements so all the addresses are different. If memory serves, 3.4 was the latest version that would work with 3.0 games. The multi-platform Windows editor MPAGD can extract data from versions 4.0 to 4.7 but nothing earlier as things stand. I'll have to see if I can find the source for version 3 - think there may be a backup copy somewhere - then I can figure out if MPAGD could import those games. Meanwhile, you could try asking Allan Turvey on the AGDX Facebook group (Highrise on the AGD forums) if he has any suggestions as he's done some work on extracting data and I'd be happy to assist him if required. Let me know how you get on
Can you also give the link to Spectrum emulator ?
Thanks Anyways :-)
I use online http://torinak.com/qaop and I think it's fantastic. Snaps/save/load supported, just switch it to 128 and drag&drop the TAP there and you're all set up!