Bagger (Compute's Gazette)

A new sport has just been added to the Summer Olympics: Bagging. Inspired by the millions of baggers in supermarkets across the country, the new event will test the skills of bag boys and girls around the world. You've been chosen to represent your country and bring back the bagging gold!
The article for this game can be found on page 36 of Compute's Gazette Issue 61 (July 1988)

Why TAS This Game?

The continuation of TASing games from my all-time favorite magazine, Compute's Gazette. This makes my 51st TAS from this series.
I think this around the time that I started wane a bit on this magazine. By this point, I had started to miss magazines. This was during the time when I would get my issue from the Tobacco store, which was a fond memory. I do remember this one very well, as I only typed in Bagger, and not the other game. My reason was very simple...it looked like "Tapper", only a cheaper version.
Previous Compute's Gazette submissions include (In order of submission):
1Astro-Panic!2Royal Rescue
3Miami Ice4Chopper 1
5Spike6Heat Seeker
7Omicron8Alien Armada
9Star Dragon10White Water
11Space Gallery12Bagdad
13Race Ace14Quolerus
15Trap16Maze-Mania
17Balloon Blitz18Bowling Champ
19Circuits20Going Up?
21Space Dock22Saloon Shootout
23Sno-Cat24Queens' Quarrel
25Stronghold26Lincoln Green
27Disc Blitz28SuperSprite
29Dunk30Basketball Sam & Ed
31Bee Zone32Q-Bird
33Space Worms34Powerball
35Castle Dungeon36Pool
37Snake Pit38RADs
39Spy Defense40The Forbidden Crypt
41Cosmic Combat42Canyon Cruiser
43Cell Runner44Sky Diver
45Snake Escape46The Viper
47Root Race48Cypher
49Revenge of Cyon50Maze Master

Game Difficulty and Ending

This game is a bit weird. I have found that It loops over 3 different levels, over and over...with no speed increase. Basically, it acts as follows:
  • Level 1: Serve 10 Customers
  • Level 2: Serve 30 Customers
  • Level 3: Serve 50 Customers
  • Level 4: Serve 10 Customers...
I found two addresses that helped me to determine this.
  • 0x02E4 Number of customers served
  • 0002D9 Level
After altering these addresses, I saw variations of speed...which turned out to be faster when less things were on the screen. Nothing ever changed after Level 3, since it repeats the same 10/30/50 customer service over and over.

Effort In TASing

As with other games, I gave this a rest so that I could come back and see if I could figure something out. Well, it appears to be more simple than I thought. I was hoping it would have gotten faster and faster, but no. So...the only real effort that I needed to perform was to clear customers off as soon as possible so that spawning will occur. Now in this game, spawning was a bit different. If you are aware that the Commodore 64 could only display 8 sprites at a time, then you probably were caught off guard when you saw more movement than was possible. Here, this game uses a "Raster" interrupt to give the appearance of more. So, the screen was divided 4 times which will help to display up to 32 sprites...only 28 will be seen. Why 28? Because of the way the game works to control the ability to have enough bags to supply customers, only with the conveyor brings you tips. So...to make the game "fair", it would have a max number of 3 customers, 3 bags to counter those customers, and the ability to have tips/money being laid down for collection. Any more customers would mean that you would have to give up the money collection, which is a nice touch.
In this game, there is RNG...but it not controllable in the normal sense for a machine language written game. It acts more like a BASIC written game.

Human Comparison


feos: Claiming for judging.
feos: Accepting.

EZGames69: Processing...


TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 15582
Location: 127.0.0.1
This topic is for the purpose of discussing #8783: nymx's C64 Bagger in 03:57.45
GJTASer2018
He/Him
Joined: 1/24/2018
Posts: 304
Location: Stafford, NY
Honestly, if it were me doing this game, I would've cut out the cutesy level intro and put the coding effort toward a bag-filling animation so that it looks more like Tapper instead of just throwing what looks like boxes down the "checkout lane"...
c-square wrote:
Yes, standard runs are needed and very appreciated here too
Dylon Stejakoski wrote:
Me and the boys starting over our games of choice for the infinityieth time in a row because of just-found optimizations
^ Why I don't have any submissions despite being on the forums for years now...
nymx
He/Him
Editor, Judge, Expert player (2234)
Joined: 11/14/2014
Posts: 932
Location: South Pole, True Land Down Under
GJTASer2018 wrote:
Honestly, if it were me doing this game, I would've cut out the cutesy level intro and put the coding effort toward a bag-filling animation so that it looks more like Tapper instead of just throwing what looks like boxes down the "checkout lane"...
Yeah...some drawbacks to these games. I wish some things were different also. Couldn't complain as a child though...3 bucks a month gave me tons of entertainment!
I recently discovered that if you haven't reached a level of frustration with TASing any game, then you haven't done your due diligence. ---- SOYZA: Are you playing a game? NYMX: I'm not playing a game, I'm TASing. SOYZA: Oh...so its not a game...Its for real? ---- Anybody got a Quantum computer I can borrow for 20 minutes? Nevermind...eien's 64 core machine will do. :) ---- BOTing will be the end of all games. --NYMX
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 15582
Location: 127.0.0.1
This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [5750] C64 Bagger by nymx in 03:57.45