from the lemon 64 forum:
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Nox Archaist creator & lead dev here - thanks for the discussion!
We've been asked many times if there will be a C64 port of Nox Archaist, which is great. We're thrilled there is so much interest in our game in the
retro community !
As was noted in a post above, I haven't given much encouragement in my answers to the question. It was not for lack of desire, the C64 is an awesome platform and despite my being an Apple II enthusiast, I think the C64 is an objectively better gaming machine to the Apple II in many ways. Seriously, I am not just blowing smoke. While I have nostalgia for the Apple II for what it is because I grew up with it, the C64s better graphics, hardware sprites, and cartridge support
(and probably more) clearly make it the objectively better machine for gaming IMO.
I didn't offer much encouragement in my answers to the port question because my philosophy, and 6502 Workshop's philosophy, is to underpromise and overdeliver. Once we say we're doing a project we'll move heaven and earth to make it happen, but we don't make commitments lightly to be cautious about over extending our time and abilities. I'm sure we've
all seen too many retro projects get out over there skis and end up unfinished or rushed.
In the last few months, Robin @ 8-bit Show and Tell did a feature on Nox Archaist (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIX53QzKRYw) and that led to a conversation with Per Olofsson (aka MagerValp) who from what I understand did the Gold/Remastered versions of Ultima III and IV for the C64.
He doesn't have time to lead a port but after exchanging some technical information he thinks Nox Archaist is a good candidate for a port using a cartridge. We worked up a very high level memory conversion map between the memory banks for the Apple IIs 128k and the C64 internal RAM and cartridge.
If there is a C64 programmer who may be interested in taking the lead on a port project like this, I'd be very interested in discussing it. I'd anticipate working out a profit sharing agreement, so it wouldn't entirely be a volunteer gig. While Nox Archaist was first and foremost a project of passion, I have a business background and managed to make some money at the same time (2200+ copies sold).
Here is some additional information on the discussion points raised in the posts:
The Nox Archaist's overworld map is 256x256 tiles. There are five underworld maps which are 256x256 tiles. There are a bunch (offhand I'd say a few dozen) maps which are 48x48 tiles (for towns, villages, etc). This is all map size. Nox has over 1000 unique bitmap tiles (14x16 pixels). There is of course only one map in memory at a time, and for the large maps actually just a 48x48 regional map. We scroll data in and out from disk when the player approaches the edges.
Each map type (town/village, keep, castle, ruin, underworld, underworld_town) has a tileset of 256 tile shapes each, which is loaded when entering the map. There is some overlap between the sets, which leads to disk space inefficiency for sure, maybe a little memory inefficiency but I don't think anything decisive.
As some of you mentioned, the tile_IDs are used to detect tile attributes for special functionality. For example, obstacle tiles are all groups together in a range, line-of-sight blockers are all in a range, as well as swap tiles (player/NPC stands on bed tile and sleeping person shape is drawn...tile_ID++), archway tiles (suppress drawing of player icon) and many others.
I have thought a bit over the last few years about the viability of trimming down to Nox Archaist to 64k for the purpose of porting. There are things beyond the map tile bitmaps which drive the 128k requirement. My general feeling is that by the time all the trimming and tucking was done, it would feel like a different game, and from a creative standpoint I'm
really not interested in doing that.
The reason I'm thinking C64 instead of C128 is that, from what I understand, the C64 market is much larger. I think that's the place to start, if anywhere, and if a C64 port were successful that may be a good pivot point for giving serious consideration to a C128 release.
Just for general information, here is a link to the Nox Archaist post-release game trailer. The other link posted was from fairly early in development.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFpl80TxIa0
-Mark Lemmert
6502 Workshop"
https://www.lemon64.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=77484