Technology Notes:

This game was developed entirely on an 80286-based PC running MS-DOS, connected via a serial cable to a second 80286-based PC running MS-DOS as a debug terminal. No emulators were used in the development of this game. The engine was built from scratch over the course of about a year, using Borland Turbo C. All of the game logic is built in a custom scripting language called Jorth, which is a dialect of the Forth language. A full interpreter is available over the serial port while the game is running, which is used for debug output, interactive testing of scripts, and for things like map editing commands. To enable DEV mode, edit GAMEBOOT.JOR and change the line "0 const DEV" to "1 const DEV". With DEV mode enabled, a complete sprite & tile editor, written in Jorth, is integrated into the game - it can be accessed with the TAB key. With DEV mode enabled you can also edit the map with the mouse - the "<" and ">" keys cycle through the available tiles. Right-click selects the tile under the mouse.