Commodore 64 Double Dragon: The Waist Gap (Sprite Multiplexing)

Описание: We take a look at the 1988 conversion of Double Dragon for the Commodore 64 which is somewhat notorious for poor playability and the infamous "waist gap" the developers issued a veiled apology for in the game manual. We take a look at the "sprite stacking techniques" (aka sprite multiplexing) used in the game - could this be improved on? Is this even what's really wrong with the game?

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Download my work disk: https://8bitshowandtell.com/prg/dd.d64
Instructions for use of Sprite Stacking Double Dragon work disk:
Use a real or emulated C64 with a REU
Mount dd.d64
LOAD"TMP+REU",8,1
SYS 32768
Back Arrow, Shift+R, L, load file: ddsprites
load to: $5000 (use delete to remove the default $d000)
Back Arrow, L to load one of the following recommended files:
dd8 - this is my original solution
dd12 - optimized to eliminate gap
dd19 - Allows use of keys 1-8 to cycle forward through sprites (shift to go backwards)
Back Arrow, 3, S to assemble and start
Reset and SYS 320 to re-enter Turbo Macro Pro

Index:
0:00 C64 Double Dragon (1988)
1:57 Waist gap and other flaws
5:20 A Note From The Programmers
7:25 Looking at the sprites
10:18 Quick look at the interrupt handler
16:40 Saving the sprites to disk
18:39 DD8: sprite stacking / multiplexing attempt
21:20 Code walkthrough
24:55 Diversion: skin colour?
26:03 Code initialization continued
32:57 The tricky timing part
35:54 DD12: No waist gaps?
41:24 Conclusion & thanks!