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Main loop: MainLoop (Part 4 of 6)

Name: MainLoop (Part 4 of 6) [Show more] Type: Subroutine Category: Main loop Summary: The main game loop: the competition race Deep dive: Program flow of the main game loop
Context: See this subroutine in context in the source code References: No direct references to this subroutine in this source file

This part of the main loop checks the slowest qualifying lap times to see if we should make the game easier.
.game5 LDA currentPlayer \ We have now got all the player names and qualifying STA lowestPlayerNumber \ times that we need, so store the player number in \ lowestPlayerNumber, which will contain 19 if there is \ one player, 18 if there are two, and so on \ \ Human players take the place of drivers with higher \ numbers, so the first player takes the place of driver \ 19 (the aptly called Dummy Driver, as they never get \ to race), and the second player takes the place of \ driver 18 (Peter Out), the third player replaces \ driver 17 (Rick Shaw) and so on \ \ So this not only represents the lowest player number, \ but also the highest non-human driver number (which is \ lowestPlayerNumber - 1) LDA #0 \ Sort the drivers by best lap time, putting the results JSR SortDrivers \ into positionNumber and driversInOrder, so they now \ contain the order of the drivers on the grid for the \ coming race \ We now adjust the class of the race to cater for the \ player's qualifying lap time, which makes things more \ fun for a mixed group of player skills LDX #0 \ Set X to the race class number for Novice .game6 LDY driversInOrder+19 \ Set Y to the driver number with the slowest lap time CPY lowestPlayerNumber \ If Y < lowestPlayerNumber, then driver Y is one of the BCC game8 \ computer-controlled drivers and they have the slowest \ lap time, so jump to game8 as the race class doesn't \ need changing \ Otherwise the slowest lap time is by one of the human \ players, so we now set the race class (i.e. the race \ difficulty setting) according to the figures in the \ track data) LDA bestLapSeconds,Y \ Calculate the slowest lap time minus the time for SEC \ class X from the track data, starting with the seconds SBC trackLapTimeSec,X LDA bestLapMinutes,Y \ And then the minutes SBC trackLapTimeMin,X \ Note that for X = 2 (professional), the track data \ figure is 0, so the C flag will always be set BCS game7 \ If the slowest lap time is longer than trackLapTimeMin \ from the track data, jump to game7 to consider setting \ the class to X, if it is easier than the current class \ \ In other words, if the slowest lap time is really slow \ and is by a human player, this can make the game \ easier if the race class isn't already on Novice \ \ For example, for Silverstone: \ \ * We will consider setting the class to Novice if \ the longest lap is > 1:33 and by a human player \ \ * We will consider setting the class to Amateur if \ the longest lap is <= 1:33 and > 1:29 and by a \ human player \ \ * We will consider setting the class to Professional \ if the longest lap is <= 1:29 and by a human \ player \ If we get here, the slowest lap time is quicker than \ the figure from the track data, so we now check the \ next figure from the track data and try again INX \ Increment X to the next difficulty level BNE game6 \ Jump back to game6 to check the next race class (this \ BNE is effectively a JMP as X is never zero) .game7 CPX raceClass \ If X >= raceClass then X is the same or more difficult BCS game8 \ than the current setting, so jump to game8 to leave \ the class unchanged STX raceClass \ Otherwise set the race class to the easier class in X