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Main loop: Main flight loop (Part 3 of 16)

[Acorn Electron version]

Name: Main flight loop (Part 3 of 16) [Show more] Type: Subroutine Category: Main loop Summary: Scan for flight keys and process the results Deep dive: Program flow of the main game loop The key logger
Context: See this subroutine in context in the source code Variations: See code variations for this subroutine in the different versions References: No direct references to this subroutine in this source file

The main flight loop covers most of the flight-specific aspects of Elite. This section covers the following: * Scan for flight keys and process the results Flight keys are logged in the key logger at location KY1 onwards, with a non-zero value in the relevant location indicating a key press. See the deep dive on "The key logger" for more details. The key presses that are processed are as follows: * Space and "?" to speed up and slow down * "U", "T" and "M" to disarm, arm and fire missiles * "-" to fire an energy bomb * ESCAPE to launch an escape pod * "J" to initiate an in-system jump * "E" to deploy E.C.M. anti-missile countermeasures * "C" to use the docking computer * "A" to fire lasers
LDA KY2 \ If Space is being pressed, keep going, otherwise jump BEQ MA17 \ down to MA17 to skip the following LDA DELTA \ The "go faster" key is being pressed, so first we CMP #40 \ fetch the current speed from DELTA into A, and if BCS MA17 \ A >= 40, we are already going at full pelt, so jump \ down to MA17 to skip the following INC DELTA \ We can go a bit faster, so increment the speed in \ location DELTA .MA17 LDA KY1 \ If "?" is being pressed, keep going, otherwise jump BEQ MA4 \ down to MA4 to skip the following DEC DELTA \ The "slow down" key is being pressed, so we decrement \ the current ship speed in DELTA BNE MA4 \ If the speed is still greater than zero, jump to MA4 INC DELTA \ Otherwise we just braked a little too hard, so bump \ the speed back up to the minimum value of 1 .MA4 LDA KY15 \ If "U" is being pressed and the number of missiles AND NOMSL \ in NOMSL is non-zero, keep going, otherwise jump down BEQ MA20 \ to MA20 to skip the following JSR ABORT-2 \ The "disarm missiles" key is being pressed, so call \ ABORT-2 to disarm the missile and update the missile \ indicators on the dashboard to white squares (Y = &09) LDA #40 \ Call the NOISE routine with A = 40 to make a low, JSR NOISE \ long beep to indicate the missile is now disarmed .MA31 LDA #0 \ Set MSAR to 0 to indicate that no missiles are STA MSAR \ currently armed .MA20 LDA MSTG \ If MSTG is positive (i.e. it does not have bit 7 set), BPL MA25 \ then it indicates we already have a missile locked on \ a target (in which case MSTG contains the ship number \ of the target), so jump to MA25 to skip targeting. Or \ to put it another way, if MSTG = &FF, which means \ there is no current target lock, keep going LDA KY14 \ If "T" is being pressed, keep going, otherwise jump BEQ MA25 \ down to MA25 to skip the following LDX NOMSL \ If the number of missiles in NOMSL is zero, jump down BEQ MA25 \ to MA25 to skip the following STA MSAR \ The "target missile" key is being pressed and we have \ at least one missile, so set MSAR = &FF to denote that \ our missile is currently armed (we know A has the \ value &FF, as we just loaded it from MSTG and checked \ that it was negative) LDY #&0D \ Change the leftmost missile indicator to a black box JSR MSBAR \ in a white square on the missile bar (this call \ changes the leftmost indicator because we set X to the \ number of missiles in NOMSL above, and the indicators \ are numbered from right to left, so X is the number of \ the leftmost indicator) .MA25 LDA KY16 \ If "M" is being pressed, keep going, otherwise jump BEQ MA24 \ down to MA24 to skip the following LDA MSTG \ If MSTG = &FF then there is no target lock, so jump to BMI MA64 \ MA64 to skip the following (also skipping the checks \ for "-", ESCAPE, "J" and "E") JSR FRMIS \ The "fire missile" key is being pressed and we have \ a missile lock, so call the FRMIS routine to fire \ the missile .MA24 LDA KY12 \ If "-" is being pressed, keep going, otherwise jump BEQ MA76 \ down to MA76 to skip the following ASL BOMB \ The "energy bomb" key is being pressed, so double \ the value in BOMB. If we have an energy bomb fitted, \ BOMB will contain &7F (%01111111) before this shift \ and will contain &FE (%11111110) after the shift; if \ we don't have an energy bomb fitted, BOMB will still \ contain 0. The bomb explosion is dealt with in the \ MAL1 routine below - this just registers the fact that \ we've set the bomb ticking .MA76 LDA KY13 \ If ESCAPE is being pressed and we have an escape pod AND ESCP \ fitted, keep going, otherwise skip the next BEQ P%+5 \ instruction JMP ESCAPE \ The button is being pressed to launch an escape pod \ and we have an escape pod fitted, so jump to ESCAPE to \ launch it, and exit the main flight loop using a tail \ call LDA KY18 \ If "J" is being pressed, keep going, otherwise skip BEQ P%+5 \ the next instruction JSR WARP \ Call the WARP routine to do an in-system jump LDA KY17 \ If "E" is being pressed and we have an E.C.M. fitted, AND ECM \ keep going, otherwise jump down to MA64 to skip the BEQ MA64 \ following LDA ECMA \ If ECMA is non-zero, that means an E.C.M. is already BNE MA64 \ operating and is counting down (this can be either \ our E.C.M. or an opponent's), so jump down to MA64 to \ skip the following (as we can't have two E.C.M. \ systems operating at the same time) DEC ECMP \ The E.C.M. button is being pressed and nobody else \ is operating their E.C.M., so decrease the value of \ ECMP to make it non-zero, to denote that our E.C.M. \ is now on JSR ECBLB2 \ Call ECBLB2 to light up the E.C.M. indicator bulb on \ the dashboard, set the E.C.M. countdown timer to 32, \ and start making the E.C.M. sound .MA64 LDA KY19 \ If "C" is being pressed, and we have a docking AND DKCMP \ computer fitted, and we are inside the space station's AND SSPR \ safe zone, keep going, otherwise jump down to MA68 to BEQ MA68 \ skip the following LDA K%+NI%+32 \ Fetch the AI counter (byte #32) of the second ship BMI MA68 \ from the ship data workspace at K%, which is reserved \ for the space station. If byte #32 is negative, \ meaning the station is hostile, then jump down to \ MA68 to skip the following (so we can't use the \ docking computer to dock at a station that has turned \ against us) JMP GOIN \ The Docking Computer button has been pressed and \ we are allowed to dock at the station, so jump to \ GOIN to dock (or "go in"), and exit the main flight \ loop using a tail call .MA68 LDA #0 \ Set LAS = 0, to switch the laser off while we do the STA LAS \ following logic STA DELT4 \ Take the 16-bit value (DELTA 0) - i.e. a two-byte LDA DELTA \ number with DELTA as the high byte and 0 as the low LSR A \ byte - and divide it by 4, storing the 16-bit result ROR DELT4 \ in DELT4(1 0). This has the effect of storing the LSR A \ current speed * 64 in the 16-bit location DELT4(1 0) ROR DELT4 STA DELT4+1 LDA LASCT \ If LASCT is zero, keep going, otherwise the laser is BNE MA3 \ a pulse laser that is between pulses, so jump down to \ MA3 to skip the following LDA KY7 \ If "A" is being pressed, keep going, otherwise jump BEQ MA3 \ down to MA3 to skip the following LDA GNTMP \ If the laser temperature >= 242 then the laser has CMP #242 \ overheated, so jump down to MA3 to skip the following BCS MA3 LDX VIEW \ If the current space view has a laser fitted (i.e. the LDA LASER,X \ laser power for this view is greater than zero), then BEQ MA3 \ keep going, otherwise jump down to MA3 to skip the \ following \ If we get here, then the "fire" button is being \ pressed, our laser hasn't overheated and isn't already \ being fired, and we actually have a laser fitted to \ the current space view, so it's time to hit me with \ those laser beams PHA \ Store the current view's laser power on the stack AND #%01111111 \ Set LAS and LAS2 to bits 0-6 of the laser power STA LAS STA LAS2 LDA #0 \ Call the NOISE routine with A = 0 to make the sound JSR NOISE \ of our laser firing JSR LASLI \ Call LASLI to draw the laser lines PLA \ Restore the current view's laser power into A BPL ma1 \ If the laser power has bit 7 set, then it's an "always \ on" laser rather than a pulsing laser, so keep going, \ otherwise jump down to ma1 to skip the following \ instruction LDA #0 \ This is an "always on" laser (i.e. a beam laser, \ as this version of Elite doesn't have military \ lasers), so set A = 0, which will be stored in LASCT \ to denote that this is not a pulsing laser .ma1 AND #%11111010 \ LASCT will be set to 0 for beam lasers, and to the STA LASCT \ laser power AND %11111010 for pulse lasers, which \ comes to 10 (as pulse lasers have a power of 15). See \ MA23 below for more on laser pulsing and LASCT