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@@ -82,6 +82,42 @@ Lastly, note that if you walk close the a platform's edge the game won't force you down as with the original. I found that unnecessary and it made things more complex on the technical side, so I skipped implementing this behavior. +## Sound + +The sound is entirely different from the original, and it's the thing that will +stand out the most to players used to the original "soundtrack". The ZX Spectrum +was very limited in this department, with only a single-channel beeper, and so +the only sound in the original are beeps making up the sound effects. These +beeps are charming and all, but they are next to impossible to reproduce on the +NES/Famicom. + +All in all, this port stays in the same beeper department, but via the more +advanced channels from the NES/Famicom. Long story short: all sounds are just +different on this port. Having said that, there are a couple of considerations +to be made. + +First of all, the take off animation is done via noise channel from the +NES/Famicom, which is close enough to the original sound. But this noise channel +is also used for enemy/player explosions, which will sound entirely different to +the beeping from the original. All in all, I thought it was funny to have it +this way, which sounds more aggressive and it's charming in its own distinct +way. + +Moreover, in the original the CPU had to slot some time to produce the beeping, +which made the game to lag in some situations. This doesn't happen on the +NES/Famicom, simply because we don't have to waste CPU cycles to produce +sound. When it comes to bullets, this lag made the beeping on the original +unreliable. But if we delivered a sound effect for each bullet on the +NES/Famicom, it would simply be overwhelming to the player, as they would get a +fast stream of beeps. Because of this, I'm only delivering sound at a maximum +capped frame rate. This will make the randomness of beeping from the original +less random on this port. + +Last but not least, and realizing that this shooting game isn't that far off +from games like Gradius when it comes to being a bullet smasher, the sound +effect for each bullet is closer to those kinds of games in contrast to the +original. In the end: different machine, different sound effects. + ## Shooting Shooting is something that is completely different to the original, as the |