Monster Chase, Part 2

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I’ve been working through a number of ideas to produce a Monster Chase / Robots hybrid for Sharp MZ series computers. I’ve been using my Pico MZ-80K/A emulator in K mode as the development machine. It’s working well, except when I forget to save my work to SD card before turning it off …

As it’s a work in progress, the code is now a mess and sub-optimal, but I’m starting to get something that I like. The main developments so far are:

  • A 30×16 playing area, rather than the 5×5 of the original Monster Chase.
  • A teleport function – BSD Robots has this feature.
  • A scoring system, based on how many gold pieces are collected from the board and how many turns you have survived being eaten by the monster. The monster looks remarkably like the Japanese currency symbol.
  • A ‘level’ system – the board refreshes once all of the gold pieces have been collected.
  • Automated monster movement, triggered if you spend too much time thinking about your next turn, illustrated in the gif below.
A game of monster chase in progress, demonstrating the monster 'auto move' feature.
A game of monster chase in progress, demonstrating the monster ‘auto move’ feature.

Now that I have an outline for the game, I think the next step is to re-write the code so that it’s better structured. That will reduce the code size, although I suspect that it will never be small enough to enter the next BASIC 10 liner competition.

I definitely have things I want to add as well. For example, holes in the board which end the game if you walk into them, more monsters on the board as you go up a level, sound effects and a leader board.

12th August 2025

There’s now an interim version of the game available in my Sharp MZ-80K programs repository. It still needs work to make it truly playable, but it’s too hot outside (and inside) at the moment to carry on!