NoFutureXL
No Future Z80 game for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum 128K High level report:

Loading: Use the 128K menu on the Spectrum to select "Tape Loader". Then press the Enter key and the computer will load the tape after you press the play button on the tape recorder.

A group of UFO hunters have stumbled on a hidden invisible portal in the sky. The portal appears to be a gateway into another dimension and when it opens, it is letting in alien ships that are extracting H2O (Water) and O2 (Oxygen) from our dimension and taking these resources into their own dimension through the portal.

We must put a stop to this grave situation before the aliens take all of our water and air resources. Because, if these resources deplete in our dimension, there will be NO FUTURE!!!!!!!

You must move your ship (at the bottom of the screen) left and right to dodge the aliens and their fire. Multiple keys across the keyboard are assigned to left , right, and fire control.

You must shoot the aliens down before they reach the bottom of the screen to grab the water resources.

To move left use keys Q,E,T,U,O,Z,C, and N. To move right use keys W,R,Y,I,P,X,V,B, and M. To Fire use keys A,S,D,F,G,H,J,K,L,0,and ENTER. Or you can choose to use a joystick.

When an alien reaches the bottom of the screen, it will turn blue to show that it has collected water. You must shoot it down before it reaches the portal at the top of the screen. As soon as it enters the portal at the top of the screen, that resource will be gone forever. The meter on the left of the play area shows the remaining H2O. As soon as it reaches the bottom of the meter, you will lose a life.

The O2 meter is located on the right of the play area. This will slowly drop until you have destroyed all aliens for the current level. The portal is open while the level is playing. So O2 will leak out into the aliens dimension. When the O2 meter drops to the bottom, you will lose a life.

You start with three lives and you can earn more lives by collecting bonuses that drop when you shoot down an alien.

Written in Z80 machine code using the famous Zeus assembler which can be found here: https://www.desdes.com/products/oldfiles/zeus.htm

Compatible with Fuller/Kempston joysticks and Fuller AY3 sound.

Notes:

This game was written between 1st Dec 2013 and 14th December 2024. I had to go to hospital, and to pass the boredom of being in a hospital bed, I started to make notes for a 48K Spectrum shooter engine schema on my iPhone using the Notes app. When I finally got home, I converted the notes into Zeus assembler on my laptop. The game developed from there and 9 months later, I had a finished game. Many people contacted me saying I need to write a 128K version with even more aliens. So I took the code and expanded it and called the game No Future XL (Xtra Large).

I hate the beep sound on the 48K spectrum and wanted some arcade sounds. So I added in some code for the Fuller sound addon. But changed this on the 128K version to simply use the internal sound chip.

I wanted to do the title music in AY format for the 128K verion. But time was not available and I just wanted to get this released. If someone wants to add this into the code, please do and email me at stevebroad@yahoo.com to upload it here.

(c) 2024 Mycat Software. Game concept by Steve Broad. www.stevebroad.co.uk