AX-2: Uchuu Yusousen Nostromo (Space Freighter Nostromo)
Designed and Programmed for the Commodore Pet 2001 by Akira Takiguchi in 1981
Ported to the NEC-PC6001 by Masakuni Mitsuhashi aka Hiromi Ohba aka Mitsu in 1982
Cover Artwork by Masashi Iwasaki
Published by ASCII Entertainment in Japan
Ported to Radio Shack TRS-80 Micro Color Computer MC-10 by Jim Gerrie in 2015 and 2018
Ports to Tandy Radio Shack Color Computer and Dragon Data Dragon 32/64 underway

Memory Layout: NOSTROMO Memory Map
N60 BASIC Listing: NOSTROMO.BAS
Z80 Machine Code: NOSTROMO.Z80

Nostro-19xx-Mode_1,_Page_1-.cas available from the TOSEC NEC PC6001 2012-04-23 collection at http://archive.org

2015-11 NOSTROMO: https://jimgerrie.blogspot.com/2015/11/
2018-05 NOSTRO: https://jimgerrie.blogspot.com/2018/05/uchuu-yusousen-nostromo.html

NOSTROMO feels much more like a game now that the following work:

• The alien stalks the corridors around the storage rooms
• The crew can knock down walls to break into store rooms
• The crew can only carry five items max
• The crew can drop items in the escape shuttle
• The tally of items carried and stored in the shuttle now update

Some of the remaining work to complete include:

• Timer display (timer coded, display remaining)
• The time expired screen
• The alien killed you screen
• The level completed screen
• Score tally
• Next level goal logic to update number of items needed of each type
• Game configuration interface to choose video, audio, controls, expansions
• 17 x AY-3-8910 audio cues playable through sound drivers
• Joystick control (written, needs to be integrated)
• Hallway display 1 and 2 for time trial
• The alien animation screens for level 7 and beyond
• The game over play again screen
• The ASCII and AX-2 logo screens (already mocked up)
• The NOSTROMO intro screen (already mocked up)
• Do I need to add a PMODE 3 screen for Dragon output?
• Debug the item placement to fix the occasional mis-placement into the wall
• Correct the wall display blocks for SG4 mode after the CoCoVGA font change
• Take advantage of red/blue artifact colors on RG6 screen)
• Add artifact color switch
• High score display for screen shots
• Help Key mode for later levels

All “code-” file prefixes have been changed to “ax2-” for starters.

Just the top-level source directory content needed to build the game are shown below.

Additional repo directories of various tests, mockups, and such created along the way are not shown, but are represented in the repo statistics above.

The code below gives you an example of where I got to by the mid-2023:

Click for full size …

MACHINE / MODE	COPYRIGHT SCREEN	MAIN LEVEL
CoCo 1/2 VDG RG6
CoCo 3 ACVC 256x192x16

~ 2022-04-08 via MAME

Timeline Page| BOX=ART
Z80 instruction set - ClrHome
ASCII Corporation - Read-Only Memory

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