MSXdev’20: #17 – Anchors Aweigh

Name of the game: Anchors Aweigh
Game size: 160Kb (megarom, K5 mapper)
RAM size requirements: 16KB
Genre: Puzzle
Names of the individuals involved: Manuel Martínez

Another surprise entry, that’s based on the classic “Battleship” tabletop game. You know, where you have to guess the positions of the ships in your opponent’s fleet and throw bombs on them.

Practically last minute, a very nice MSX rendition of this concept surfaces at the cost, like a submarine that nobody knew about.

Could there be some kind of theme, this MSXdev edition? We’ve seen quite some cats and military vehicle combat in the past time.

Anyway, some cool features of the game:

Thematic soundtrack, based on american folk and naval music (press shift+m on the loading screen for the music menu).
Custom player
4 languages.
Integrated instructions
Practice and campaign modes: reach the rank of admiral of the navy!
Undo feature on the puzzle (up to 256 actions)
Simple interface
Music adapted to the time left
Achievements will go on Twitter
Code in C will be available and the author states that he will be forever ashamed of it
R800 enabled to speed up graphics and puzzle generation.
Cheats, and a good and a bad finale

Tested on (emulated) MSX1 (50Hz and 60Hz), MSX2, and Turbo-R.

Credits:

The music is based on traditional american folk, without copyright claims.

Graphics are all by the author. Opening and ending credits are based on pictures from WW2 widely available and highly altered (fair use claim).

Title font is Newsgeek, from https://arcade.itch.io/newsgeek. Other fonts are his own creations.