Explorer

This is a remake of one of my 1980s games, Explorer, that was published for the 48k ZX Spectrum. Originally programmed in Sinclair BASIC and Z80 assembler, this new version is plain Javascript in an HTML page, only using the 2D canvas API.

My algorithms for generating terrain and automatically placing features within it date from the beginning of the 1980s and were first used in The Forest. That was published for 16k TRS-80 in 1982 and then modified and published for ZX Spectrum in 1983. Both machines used the Z80 processor but their very crude graphics were generated quite differently.

Both The Forest and then Explorer used my procedurally generated terrain, limitless but repeating after 65,536 metres because coordinates had only 16-bit range. These were very early examples of open worlds.

The Forest was remade with HTML/Javascript about 10 years ago (available free at https://grelf.itch.io/forest ). I have reused some of that code in this version of Explorer but a great deal of new program has been added.

The original Explorer was published by Electric Dreams in 1986. Then, as now, I was only developing games as a hobby. The code was all mine but the graphics were very cleverly designed by Simon Dunstan, of the Ram Jam Corporation. I think I was more interested in devising programming techniques and algorithms than in the game play and it shows. The original Explorer got very poor  reviews. The remake improves some aspects. See what you think.

How the terrain generator works: PDF on github