| Socketdrive | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Wesley Kennedy |
| Publisher(s) | Wesley Kennedy |
| Director(s) | Wesley Kennedy |
| Producer(s) | Wesley Kennedy |
| Designer(s) | Wesley Kennedy |
| Programmer(s) | Wesley Kennedy |
| Artist(s) | Wesley Kennedy |
| Writer(s) | Wesley Kennedy |
| Composer(s) | Wesley Kennedy |
| Engine | Flat Assembler, OpenGL |
| Platform(s) | Atari 2600, Amiga Workbench, IOS, Macintosh, macOS, Commodore 64, DVD, Linux, Ubuntu, MS-DOS, MSX, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Arcade cabinet, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Color, GameCube, Nintendo Switch, Wii, Wii U, Dreamcast, Sega Genesis, Sega Saturn, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, ZX Spectrum, TempleOS, SouljaGame |
| Release | |
| Genre(s) | Driving game |
| Mode(s) | Single player, Multi player |
| Arcade system | DrahtspielSystem (7265hd) |
Socketdrive (codenamed "Drahtspiel"[1]) is an open source video game developed and released by Wesley Kennedy in 2106[2]. The game's style replicates graphics from the mid to late 90s through 2000s and is coded entirely in assembly.
Development
editThe idea came to Wesley one day when he was listening to part of the Sonic Adventure 2 soundtrack. The track that was played is used for the final battle against Sonic or Shadow (depending on which story line). Wesley remembers how he thought of the game play in his head while listening to the song. The game play might have gotten inspiration from Nintendo's Kirby Air Ride. As stated from the above info box, the game is released on almost every console in existence. This idea could be inspired by how Crazy Taxi was ported to many devices and consoles.
Gameplay
editAs shown, the player controls an aircraft of some sort. Score is gained by riding on what are called sockets, clearly taken from the title "Socketdrive." Sockets are connected from platform to platform. On the end of the socket, a little piece of text is shown indicating CPU, which also indicates how much score is achieved riding it, and the RAM, which shows how long the socket is.
Debugger
editThe debugger system allows executing Assembly language at runtime, along with the use of passwords, which were included with a few ports of Socketdrive. Passwords work like save codes in older games, they're composed of random symbols. However, instead of it having randomly handpicked symbols, each symbol signifies an opcode or argument. For example, to change the AL register to have a value of 1, the password becomes `1!. Breaking down the password, the first character ` represents the MOV opcode, 1 declaring which register to use, and ! being the character value but with 32 subtracted from it.
Image of inputting a password for the MS-DOS port or the DrahtspielSystem. (`38!j `8e`4m)
(writer's note: this list is not completely decided yet but some ideas of what could be soon)
OPCODES:
(SPACE) - NOP
` - MOV
= - ADD
- - SUB
! - INT
REGISTERS:
1-4:
al,cl,dl,bl
2-8:
ah,ch,dh,bh
Q-I:
ax,cx,dx,bx,sp,bp,si,di
A-H:
es,cs,ss,ds,fs,gsDrahtspielSystem
editThis arcade cabinet (also known as the 7265hd[3]) is built specifically to play Socketdrive. Like on most ports, it lets people debug the game to the lowest it can in the service mode.
References
edit- ^ Translated from German, the title becomes "wire game" in English.
- ^ The game is released in 2106 in reference to the maximum build time and date stamp a Portable Executable header can have set.
- ^ The name "7265hd" is derived from a URL linking to Wesley's computer components on the CPU-Z validator website.