StarBlast Game - Latest Version

[SirCrow]

Here's the NEWEST VERSION of my Asteroids-inspired space game! (Download link is under (or among) the screenshots below.)

N E W in v. 2019.10.6:

• JUMP ROUND: Pressing Alt-J will take you to a special mode in which two Objects appear and disappear unpredictably.  Your challenge is to turn your ship as quickly as you can to blast the Objects before they vanish.  There's a time limit, so zap as many as you can, while you can.  And don't miss too many times if you want to keep your ship!  Use of a mouse is highly recommended.

• BIG ROUND: Every few rounds (levels), you'll have the opportunity to enter the Big Round, where you may be overwhelmed by the insane number of Objects flying all around you.  Your job will be to zap either as MANY or as FEW of them as possible (mind the on-screen instructions) in order to score the biggest bonus you can.  As time passes, the Objects pop out of existence, one by one, until all have vanished.  Keep your cool and you should do just fine -- you may even earn a bonus ship.  Perform poorly and it may cost you dearly!  Use F10 or F11 to enter the Big Round.

• SPINNERS! There are now several special rotating objects, and the special tasks associated with them.  Most of them must be destroyed by having their cores hit repeatedly.  You may need to blast your way through their thick shells to get the job done.  Careful not to hit the red hot zones, though!  One of the Spinners is extra special, and your challenge is to protect it by clearing its path of the usual Asteroids or Objects, which will damage the Spinner on contact.

• Second Ship: Now, after you've played a while and proved yourself a worthy space pilot, you'll be awarded a second ship.  It's exactly like the first, except in how it looks.  You can alternate between the two with Alt-S.
  

N E W in v. 2019.2.18:

• NEW LASER: I've added a second set of laser cannons to the StarWing (that's what the pilots call their ships, y'know).  Also, the laser bolts are now a little fatter and brighter.  Some are green(ish), some are radish....reddish.
  
• FONTS FILE:  Because I wrote this prog. to work on my Ubuntu system, the fonts it uses won't be found on a typical Windows system.  So, now, it reads the fonts from a text file, SB_Fonts.dat. The file can be edited to refer to Windows font paths and files instead.  Hopefully, this will be useful if your system is not Linux-based.
  
• Miscellaneous additions and enhancements.

Features added in v. 2019.2.7:

• LASER BLAST: Now, in addition to the purple Plasma Balls, you'll be able to zap all those space objects with your shiny, new twin laser cannons!  You'll find that the Laser Bolts are faster and more effective than the Plasma Balls, especially when your energy is high. 
  
  Starting in Round 3, after you've blasted enough Objects with your Plasma Balls, the laser cannons will be enabled.  Be aware that Laser Bolts use slightly more energy than P-Balls.  Use F6/F7/F12 to activate and use your Laser Bolts.

• ROUND & ROUND: Remember those Super Bugs that try to defend the Super Sphere at the end of each round or level?  Well, they no longer merely meander in your general direction while you're trying to blow up the Big One.  After several rounds of play, at least sometimes, the Bugs will move in circular or spiral paths around the Super Sphere.  If your projectiles don't reach, you'll need to make your way through the circling/spiraling baddies to accomplish your mission.
  
  If the single Bug's path is a SPIRAL, you'll be warned to stay FARTHER away from the Super Sphere than the Bug is at any moment.  Be sure not to be in the same QUADRANT as the Bug if it does happen to move farther than your Ship is.  Eventually, the Bug will expire and a fresh one will emerge from the Sphere, giving you a new chance.
  
  If multiple Bugs have concentric CIRCULAR paths, then watch for openings thru which to get your Ship nearer the Super Object.  If you've weakened the Sphere's protective shield and then hit a Bug with your projectile, the outer shield will be restored to full.  In earlier rounds, ALL shields will be restored.

• FREE SHIP'ing: Now, as an added method of gaining extra Ships/Lives, some rounds will provide a special Object (Asteroid or animated Sphere, depending on your selection at Intro Screen).  If you start a new round with a single Ship (life) remaining, there will be a Free Ship Object somewhere not too far.  Find the object, zap it and that bonus Ship is yours!
  

• The MILLION Mark: If you manage to make it to 1,000,000 points, you should find that certain restrictions on your weapons have been lifted.  This means your projectiles should travel faster and farther than they normally would when energy is low.

• As usual, some miscellaneous fixes and enhancements have also been made.

Features added in v. 2019.1.1:

• TEXT TO SPEECH:  Much more variety (and fun, I think) has been added to the communication between pilots, leaders and command base.  Lots more names of pilots, space ships, alien races, etc.  Not to mention a whole lot more technobabble! (I'm trying to make those Star Trek people envious!) Additionally, you can now choose whether the chatter will come in the form of Text Only, Text + Voice (Central Command only), Text + Voice (ALL characters), or no text + no voice.  Use Alt-C to control this feature.
• MULTI-HIT vs. SINGLE-HIT: Now, you can choose whether Objects must be hit ONCE or MULTIPLE times to be destroyed.  The higher the Skill and Round, the more times they must be hit.  Use Ctrl-P to toggle this feature.
• Misc: Lots of mostly-minor enhancements & fixes.
  

Features added in v. 2018.12.4:

• TEXT TO SPEECH:  During the game, imaginary chatter among the pilots, their leader and command base will appear near bottom of screen as text.  If you have Festival or eSpeak TTS software installed, you should be able to hear some of what's being said.  Use Alt-C to select Text Only, Text + Voice, or nothing at all.  You may need to alter the source code to have it work with your installed TTS app.
• Warning Ring: As you approach the Super Sphere at the end of a typical round, you may find your Ship's energy dropping.  To alert you to the danger, a ring will appear around your Ship.  The closer you get to the Sphere, the brighter the ring, and the faster your energy drains.
• Projectiles, behave!  When the Ship fires while moving and then suddenly stops, the projectiles will behave in one of two ways.  The difference may be most noticeable when the Ship is traveling in reverse (and firing) and then abruptly stops.  Use Alt-P to change how projectiles behave.
• Your Best Score is now saved and shown on screen.

Features added in v. 2018.11.4:

• Triangles of Terror! Yes, you heard me right!  You wanted the game to be more challenging?  Well, I did anyway.  So, now, in addition to all the Objects that your Ship mustn't touch, you need to watch out for threatening threesomes.  That is, if 3 on-screen Objects are near enough to your Ship (in higher rounds only), they may generate a buzzing triangular "death zone" which saps your protective shield, and if your Ship remains within it too long, adios!  One less Ship to worry about.
• Bits and Pieces:  Now, when your Ship is destroyed, instead of just the expanding rings suggesting an explosion, you'll actually see the craft blown to bits.  Enjoy.
• In the FreeZone, blasting a green Power-Up object will freeze any nearby Objects, earning you points, just as if you had hit them with your projectiles.  Similarly, hitting a pink UnLocker object will UNFREEZE any nearby frozen Objects.  Strategy may be needed here.
• Super Swarm: If you survive enough rounds, you'll find that the Super Object is now accompanied by not one, but many defensive Super Bugs.  But at least you can zap them.
• News FLASH!  When you destroy a larger Object, you may see a bright flash that makes the blast more dramatic.
• While many flaws remain, I've made many improvements.  For example, when accelerating to maximum using the keyboard, the Ship should no longer drift off course when moving diagonally.

Features added in v. 2018.9.11a:

• New RGB Round: Starts with 36 Objects in total.  First, you must blast the 12 RED spheres, then the 12 GREEN ones, then the BLUE.  You lose points for hitting the wrong color.  And the more times you miss altogether, the fewer points your next hit will get you.  You may even score negative points!  Note: RGB Round is accessible in all game types except FreeZone.
  
  Your first chance at the RGB Round will come at 5000 points.  Subsequently, opportunities will come every 10,000 points, starting at 10,000.  When you see the RED/GREEN/BLUE dots appear at bottom of screen, you can press Alt-R to enter the RGB Zone.
• Pressing F1/F2 to save a game during play will now save it in a file specific to the type of game it is.  This means you can separately save a Normal game, a Planetary game, a FreeZone game, etc.  In addition, every ten seconds, your game will be auto-saved in a special file.
• Joystick control works pretty well on my PC with my Logitech Wingman, but I don't know how it will work with yours.
• Corrected issue with sound files.
• Many minor additions and improvements.

Additional features:

• Dare to enter the FreeZone!  It's a new region of space in StarBlast.  Here, if you zap Objects, be they "spheres" or ASTEROIDS, rather than being destroyed, the Objects merely FREEZE.  And, if you blast them again, they come back to life!  Either way, contact with your ship should be avoided!  Press F7 at the Intro Screen.
• Better Sounds!  Now, instead of a bunch of beeps and bloops, you'll hear what may actually sound like explosions and such.  It's fun to play sound designer; I should do it more often.
• 3-D Space Array:  Instead of nebulae or clouds, you can have just a multi-layered bunch of glowing dots letting you know how fast your ship is moving.  Press F6 at the Intro Screen.
• Floating Points!  Now, when you zap certain special Objects, your earned points will briefly float, or drift, in the space where the Object was.

Please read the help file for all the details.  And I'd love to know what you think of the game.  Enjoy!

N O T E :  I've added the EXE file to the archive so visitors coming from my demo on YouTube can, hopefully, run the game w/o the need for QB64.  (If I've forgotten it, I'll try to add it soon.)

[jack]

perhaps use 7-zip and compress to 7z

[SirCrow]

perhaps use 7-zip and compress to 7z

That may be a good option, but I think the problem turned out to be, I guess, that I hadn't FIRST removed the previous archive, saved the post, and THEN attached the new one.  Is that how it works?