Pyrebirds for ColecoVision

01/22/2026: Some minute changes, with the headliner being the keets appearing out of thin air. It's an effect I liked in the arcade game and I wanted it here as well. Next up? (Gulp) Keet attack logic. I've been putting it off, but the game can't be complete without it. Now I have it mostly written, but not yet integrated into the main code. There will be problems, because there always are in coding, but the programming for the keets should result in a functional experience... just not an arcade perfect one.

Oh yeah, and also! That stupid chain of explosions on the mothership wasn't showing up properly, so the plumes of flame popped all over the place. Now, they're properly centered. No wonder it didn't look right before... I mixed up the measurements for tiles and sprites. Again!

Anyway. Real close to completion, but with a few really important features missing. Also thinking of adding a warp effect between keet stages, as a trade off for the scrolling background which is not possible for a variety of reasons. (The ColecoVision doesn't handle scrolling well; it's a disability shared by all systems running the TMS9918 chip. I've used tiles for shots instead, and having a background too is going to cause all kinds of complications I didn't really want to address. Maybe twinkling stars or some crap would be enough, I dunno.)

01/21/2026: We have crossed the 32K barrier! No going back now! And because I'm procrastinating on the keet attack logic, I've decided to add more music (the JessCREATIONS logo has its own jingle now! Hee hee!) and an attract mode. A little somethin' somethin' to make the ColecoVision experience feel more like the arcade experience.

01/20/2026: Fixed the score labels not disappearing and added some preliminary vertical movement to the crows. The only things really missing are the keet attack logic and collisions between the player and onscreen objects. Once that's all in there, the game is technically complete.

Technically. You know how it is. The rest of development time will be spent on polish, sharpening the gameplay, adding bonus features, etc. etc. This is just barely cresting 24K at this point; that leaves 8K for extra goodies, which you can actually do on a ColecoVision. 

01/18/2026: That alien queen dies real good. Check out the latest beta and see for yourself!

There's been strong progress made on this game, with the only massive hurdle being attacking keets. I've already got a plan for that... it won't be exactly like the arcade game, but it should be close enough to work on this machine. Basically in addition to the keets in formation, there will be variables for three "active" keets, selected at random from the flock.  Keets in formation don't fire, but active keets do, and will be capable of spilling out of formation, zigzagging downward, moving in cardinal directions, parking in place, and if they reach the bottom of the screen, retreating, where they're worth the most points. They're all simple commands, akin to the pieces on a chess set, and it shouldn't be that tough to do. I just have to work up the gumption to do it. (Gumption? Who says that, old-timey prospectors?)

01/17/2026: We have explosions! The player's explosion can be triggered with the 9 key on a ColecoVision controller. It's a little rough; it needs some touch up work. However, the alien queen ALSO explodes, and its death is more elaborate than the one in the arcade game. The game just ends here at the moment, but in time you'll be taken back to the first stage and a new loop. (Edit: The game now resumes play from the first stage, but the new formations of the keets hasn't been triggered yet.)

01/16/2026: The UFO now has bullets. Some timing changes will need to be made for when the ship is made vulnerable, because otherwise, you are gonna get creamed. But hey, check out the flashing lights on that thar flyin' saucer! Oh, we are really cooking with gas now! Next up? 'Splooooosions!

01/15/2026: Enemy bullets! We have them now! In the two crow stages. The UFO will be next, and after that (once they have attack logic), the keets. I'm not sure if the enemy bullets are slowing the game down... there's only four of them onscreen at any one time!

01/14/2026: We're creeping into beta territory with this build, titled "Pyrebeta.rom." We have an intro now! And a ColecoVision take on the song Romance L'Amor... it didn't sound great in the arcade game, but it's beautiful in its native guitar.

Anyway! There are still no enemy bullets, still no swooping crows, and still no attacking keets. I suspect it'll be the toughest part of this game, but it isn't really much of a game if you can't lose, huh? So my nose goes right back to the grindstone.

01/12/2026: Preliminary sound added! Hey, it had to happen eventually. By the way, I dropped in an extra sound effect for clipping the wings of a crow with a bullet.

Here's an early work in progress build of Pyrebirds, a clone of the arcade hit Phoenix on ColecoVision-class hardware. It's not a perfect arcade translation, partially because that's beyond the scope of the TMS 9918 graphics chip, but also because I'll have to improvise with the enemy logic. 

That's why I'm calling it Pyrebirds... well, that and to put a little legal distance between it and its inspiration. Taito's corporate parent Square-Enix is known to be litigious, after all.

Anyway, here's what's included in this, uh, 50% complete build.

* Title screen
* All five stages from the first loop!
* Scoring based on the arcade game!
* Basic logic for keets (stage one and two soldiers)
* Basic logic for crows (stage three and four generals)
* Behavior and movement for alien queen boss
* Shooting; limited to one bullet
* Shield; behavior roughly approximates that of Phoenix
* Collision detection between shot and enemies
* Stage advancement

Here's what's not:

* Advanced keet logic (falling out of formation, zigzagging, retreating)
* Vertical movement for crows
* Explosions for player's ship and alien queen
* Enemy shots (movement, variables, collision detection)
* Game over screen
* Introduction screen
* All sound and music

Same scheme as usual, folks. It's free until it's fully baked as a game, in which case the price will be five bucks.

Stay tuned for future updates!