Conquer GS - real-time strategy for the Apple IIgs

CONQUER.GSSUPER HI-RES 320x200

MISSION BRIEFING● LIVE

Commander. Our scouts report enemy activity across the valley.

Build a base. Harvest the ore. Train an army - and wipe out every last enemy unit and building.

A real-time strategy game for the Apple IIgs, written from scratch in 65816 assembly.

The radar: Green Valley, our base in gold in the south-west, the enemy's in red in the north-east

VIEW INTEL ARSENAL DEPLOY

65816pure assembly

60 FPSscrolling battles

48 UNITSand structures at once

ENSONIQsound and music

APPLE IIGSROM 01 or 3, 1 MB

INTEL

SAT.RECON

Straight from the Apple IIgs: Super Hi-Res, 320 x 200, 16 colors. Click a picture for a closer look.

The start of a game: the command center, a war factory, two tanks, a harvester and two soldiers — REC 01The start: a command center and a war factory

A built-up base with a power plant, radar center, barracks, refinery, guard tower and turret — REC 02A base with a radar center, a refinery and defenses

Enemy tanks and soldiers attacking the base, explosions near the ore field — REC 03The enemy attacks; the defenses fire back

The enemy base in red: barracks on a concrete pad, a war factory, a refinery, a power plant and guard towers — REC 04The enemy's base, scouted

Gold tanks and soldiers fighting red units at the enemy base — REC 05A fight at the enemy base

The River Crossing map with a refinery next to an ore field and harvesters at work — REC 06River Crossing: a refinery by the ore

The sidebar's build icons with a name tag showing REFINERY 1500 — REC 07Twelve build icons, each with its name and price

The mission setup screen: difficulty, a map preview with arrows to pick one of four maps, and music on or off — REC 08Mission setup: difficulty, one of four maps, music

ARSENAL

UNITS: 5

Every unit faces the way it moves. Weapons are strong or weak against infantry, vehicles and buildings - pick the right tool for the job.

READY

TANK

$8008 s

ARMOR120

RANGE3

The backbone of any attack: a cannon that hits everything equally hard.

NEEDS A WAR FACTORY

READY

BUGGY

$3005 s

ARMOR90

RANGE2

Fast, with a rapid-fire machine gun that shreds infantry.

NEEDS A WAR FACTORY

READY

SOLDIER

$1003 s

ARMOR40

RANGE2

Cheap and quick to train. A rifle, and plenty of friends.

NEEDS A BARRACKS

READY

ROCKET SOLDIER

$3005 s

ARMOR30

RANGE4

Long-range rockets: double damage to vehicles, slow to reload.

NEEDS A BARRACKS

READY

HARVESTER

$100010 s

ARMOR200

CARGO500

Mines ore on its own and brings it to the nearest dock. No harvester, no credits.

NEEDS A WAR FACTORY

STRUCTURES

BUILD: 7

Place them on open ground near your base, sell them for half their price or repair them. Mind the power: run short and everything builds at half speed - and the radar goes dark.

COMMAND CENTER

+100 POWER 400 hit points

Your headquarters, with the dock where harvesters unload. You start with it and a war factory - and if it falls, the mission is lost.

READY

POWER PLANT

$3006 s+100 PWR

Two cooling towers' worth of electricity. Build one before you need it.

READY

BARRACKS

$5008 s-30 PWR

Trains soldiers and rocket soldiers; they march out of its door.

READY

REFINERY

$150010 s-30 PWR

A second dock for your harvesters - and a harvester of its own. Build it near the ore.

READY

WAR FACTORY

$100010 s-30 PWR

Tanks, buggies and harvesters roll out of its big door.

READY

RADAR CENTER

$8008 s-40 PWR

Turns the radar on: the whole world at a glance, and one click to jump anywhere.

READY

TURRET

$6008 s-40 PWR

A heavy cannon on a concrete base: 200 hit points, range 4. Holds off the early attacks.

READY

GUARD TOWER

$4005 s-10 PWR

Cheap, with a machine gun on its platform: deadly against soldiers.

THE ENEMY

THREAT: HIGH

The enemy has a base like yours, and it sends its army against you in waves that grow bigger over time. Hit it where it hurts:

Destroy its war factory - no more tanks and buggies.
Destroy its refinery - no more money.
Destroy its power plant - it builds at half speed.

	EASY	NORMAL	HARD
First attack	3 min	2 min	90 s
Then every	80 s	60 s	45 s
Wave size	2-4	3-5	3-6
Income	low	medium	high

FIELD MANUAL

MOUSE + KEYS

CONTROLS

CLICK	Select a unit
DRAG	Select several units with a box
ESC	Unselect; stop placing, selling or repairing
CLICK GROUND	Move there (a green cross)
CLICK ENEMY	Attack it (a red cross)
ARROWS / EDGE	Scroll the battlefield
CLICK RADAR	Jump there (with a radar center)
BUILD ICON	Build; click again when READY, then place it
SELL / REPAIR	Then click one of your structures
REST THE MOUSE	See what something is - and what it costs
M	Music off or on
P	Pause: resume, or quit the mission

STANDING ORDERS

1Keep the ore flowing. Your harvester mines on its own: 25 credits a scoop, 500 a load. A refinery near the ore shortens its trips.
2Mind the power. Your command center makes 100, each power plant 100 more. Too little, and everything slows down.
3Scout ahead. The fog hides the enemy until one of your units has seen it.
4Defend early. A couple of turrets and guard towers by the command center hold off the first waves.
5Match your weapons. Rockets against tanks and buildings, machine guns against soldiers.
6Finish the job. You win when every enemy unit and building is gone.

UNDER THE HOOD

65C816 @ 2.8 MHZ

Pure 65816 assembly

No compiler, no engine: every routine written by hand for the IIgs's 16-bit CPU and assembled with Merlin 32.

60 frames a second

Sprites are compiled into code, only changed screen cells are redrawn, and the view is copied with the stack - fast enough for 48 units fighting at once.

A world twice the screen

Four maps that scroll in every direction - Green Valley, River Crossing, Twin Lakes and Stone Pass - with fog of war, pathfinding around rivers, lakes and rocky ridges, and a radar.

Ensoniq sound

Recorded weapon sounds and two original music tracks played on the IIgs's wavetable sound chip, in time even while the view scrolls.

Original pixel art

Hand-drawn units and buildings modeled in tiny 3D, all in the 16 colors of Super Hi-Res.

Boots from ProDOS

One 800K disk: the program, its packed graphics, the sounds and the title picture.

DEPLOY

STATUS: IN DEVELOPMENT

THE DISK

Conquer GS comes on an 800K ProDOS disk image that boots straight into the game. The first release is being prepared.

DISK IMAGE - COMING SOON

CONQUER.SYSTEM .. the game
CONQUER.DATA .. packed graphics and maps
CONQUER.SOUND .. sounds and music
CONQUER.TITLE .. the title picture

REQUIREMENTS

An Apple IIgs (ROM 01 or ROM 3) with at least 1 MB of memory, and a mouse.
On real hardware: a 3.5" disk, or a FloppyEmu, BlueSCSI or similar. The files also run from a folder on a hard disk.
Or an emulator: MAME (on a Mac most easily through Ample), Apple IIgs with 1 MB or more.

CREDITS

Game, graphics and music: Walter Tengler.
Weapon sounds (CC0): from "The Free Firearm Sound Library" and "cannon fire" by Thimras, both on OpenGameArt.
Built with Merlin 32 and Cadius, boots ProDOS 2.4.3, tested in MAME.