To cart or not to cart
======================

One of the aspects that I particularly enjoy about developing for C64 is the
way its hardware limitations force you to focus your game design goals and
keep your scope small.

Ram size is undoubtedly a significant constraint, however, the most notable
limitation is arguably the slow disk reading speed: even when using custom
ROMs like the JiffyDOS, disk loading is agonizingly slow.

To overcome this limitation, one solution is to develop games for cartridges
instead. Reading data from cartridges is incredibly fast, and copying data
from the cartridge into RAM is also a breeze. The speed increment is so
massive that the issue of disk speed becomes almost nonexistent.

This shift completely changes the way I think about game design. Initially, my
project began as a typical roguelike game. My plan was to have a single PRG
file that loads into memory, eliminating the need for disk loading after the
initial loading. However, the more I think about the game, the more I realize
that I want more than just a simple roguelike experience: I want auto
generated maps, but with a central town where players can interact with NPCs,
engage in gossip, trade, or just unwind, similar to the style of Diablo. This
expanded design introduces a new obstacle: text. Dialogues and interactions
with NPCs mean that a significant amount of text needs to be written, and it
can't all fit in memory. This requires text to be loaded from storage but I
really don't like the idea of forcing players to wait for disk loadings;
cartridges totally solves this problem as strings are now accessible almost
immediately.

However, I need to resist the temptation of getting comfortable and start
over-designing things, as keeping the game size manageable by a single person
is still my main goal. After all, I still aspire to complete the project
before reaching retirement age!

The increased storage capacity of the cartridge also allows for greater
flexibility in map generation: more prefabricated chunks can be hardcoded into
the cartridge and this will hopefully lessen the amount of repetiton the
player experiences.