Tank War Next
A downloadable game
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to Tank War Next, a graphical shoot-em-up for the ZX Spectrum Next.
In Tank War Next, players take on the role of a battle tank commander tasked with navigating through treacherous battlefields. The objective is to neutralise enemy turrets, paving the way for follow-up attacks to secure and dominate these contested territories.
Five enemy turrets must be destroyed on each battlefield, but players face threats from enemy tanks, soldiers, minefields and more. Some turrets are protected by walls and gates, so the player must navigate around walls and destroy gates where necessary to gain access to the turrets.
There are seven different maps in the game, along with six different ‘themes’ (grassland, desert, winter, swamp, moon and lava) which are then combined to create many different battlefields for the player to explore.
NEW VERSION - WITH EXTRA MAP
An updated version of Tank War Next is now available to download, with the following additional features:
- New map, providing four additional levels
- Prison Islands - where is the additional tank hidden?
- New Difficulty Mode settings:
- STANDARD
- One extra tank
- Ability to gain further tanks by breaking into POW camps
- HARD
- One life per game!
- STANDARD
- Enemy tank will now always spawn off screen
DEMO AVAILABLE
A single-level demo of Tank War Next can be downloaded below.
CONTROLS
The game can be controlled using either a keyboard or a joystick plugged into the Next. You control the tank in a typical tank-like fashion:
- Q = Forward
- A = Reverse
- O = Turn Left
- P = Turn Right
- SPACE = Fire
LEVEL CREATION
Tank War Next has been designed with an open architecture, allowing additional level packs to be created and released by anyone. Level layouts, tile map graphics and colour cycling can all be defined on a level-by-level basis. Documentation on file formats and level structures are included in the ReadMe.
COMPATIBILITY
The game requires version 2.08 or 2.09 of the ZX Spectrum Next distribution. This means that it will run on Kickstarter 2 machines immediately, but will require KS1, N-Go and XBerry Pi machines to be running 2.08, 2.09 or above. The game will work with VGA or HDMI displays at either 50 or 60hz.
CSPECT
The game will run with version 2.19.4.4 of CSpect using a 2.08 distribution, but due to issues with the music driver it is better to use the special TankWarNextCSPECT.zip file. This contains a full SD card image that can be placed in the CSpect directory and then run as follows:
cspect -nextrom -zxnext -esc -mmc=tankwar.mmc
The game is inside the TankWarNextCS_v1.1 folder.
INSTALLATION
Download the TankWarNext_v1.1.zip file and copy it to your SD card. You can place the file in any directory (e.g. 'home'). On the Next itself, the file can be unzipped in the browser by navigating to it and pressing Enter. This will create a new folder called 'TankWarNext_v.1.1'.
Access the folder by pressing Enter, then find the file called 'tank.bas'. This is the main game file, which can be run by highlighting it and pressing Enter again. ENJOY!
DEMO INSTALLATION
Download the TankWarNextDemo.zip file and copy it to your SD card. You can place the file in any directory (e.g. 'home'). On the Next itself, the file can be unzipped in the browser by navigating to it and pressing Enter. This will create a new folder called 'TankWarNextDemo'.
Access the folder by pressing Enter, then find the file called 'tankdemo.bas'. This is the main demo file, which can be run by highlighting it and pressing Enter again.
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $2.50 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Download demo
Development log
- New Version - With Extra MapApr 30, 2024
- Demo AvailableApr 26, 2024
- Release!Apr 24, 2024
Comments
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Thanks for lowering the price! :)
No problem! It was really hard to decide what to charge, as I spent a huge amount of time creating the game, and I think it's great fun to play, but I also didn't want to put people off.
The number of sales has been tiny though, so I decided I'd rather have more people playing the game than trying to make money from it :-)
I would like to buy the full version of this game, but can you also provide me a download link for a 2.08 SD card image I can use with CSpec...
A new version of CSpect has just been released, so I'm going to test Tank War Next with it over the next couple of days to see if it fixes the current sound issues.
Once I've done that, I'll provide some more info on how to get it set up and the game running.
I still can not get 2.08 bas files to work. I think the SD card image needs to be 2.08H and not 2.06H, which are the ones available to download on zxspectrumnext.online...
I've just uploaded a new version of the game with an additional map and game mode.
There is also a specific CSpect version that uses a 2.08 SD card image containing the game, which can be run using the instructions described in the CSPECT section above.
This version also doesn't attempt to play any music, as the driver was causing problems for CSpect.
CSpect 2.19.4.4 seems to be an old version that is not available for download any more ??
It's still available here:
https://dailly.blogspot.com/2023/07/cspect-v21944.html?m=1
This is the only version that will work with 2.08 of the Next OS at the moment.
Good game, I made it to the fifth level, but there are a few frustrating flaws:
1. RESPAWN: Sometimes enemies respawn on the same screen where they were killed and at once after they were killed. Sometimes they respawn on your starting screen and immediately kill you.
2. EDGE OF THE MAP: When you approach to the edge of the map, there is some space in front of it, which you can see and you think you can reach it, but you can't. It's very disorienting, and sometimes it leads to your death.
3. CONTINUATIONS AND LIVES: This is the worst thing in this game. There are NO ANY lives and continuations in this game, and if you made a mistake, lost your armour and die - you have to start from the very beginning, no matter, how far you came!!! Dear author, seriously??? It's a game, not a real life and it's 2024, not 80s:)
Thanks for the great feedback!
Thanks for reply and for your game! Those flaws are just minor flaws! Good job anyway!
This is a stream of your game:)
Thanks - I really enjoyed watching the game being played, and to see how you use a lot of the same tactics that I do.
It gives me a lot of encouragement to keep supporting the game with updates and new maps.
I'd love to get a networked two-player version working if at all possible!
Thanks! Good Luck!
This is superb Steve and your dedication to make this the best you can on all fronts really shines through. There’s so much for people like myself to learn from this, so those docs are going to be highly valued once completed.
Thanks for the positive feedback Rob, I'm looking forward to finishing off the documentation now that I have a relatively stable set of code to work from.
It’s fully deserved! I know just how much work goes into making something as polished as this. I can’t wait for the docs! That’s going to be one of my next projects going though it to learn as much as possible. Keep me posted.