# Blessing of Ra

**Blessing of Ra** - a two-player pyramid escape for the Commodore 64
(ACME + VICE), in the same spirit as [rabbitc64](../rabbitc64).

The legend: when the great pyramid rose, a worker was sealed in its
peak. He prayed to Ra until the sun god took pity - now Ra bends the
pyramid's labyrinth walls to lead him out.

**Player 1** (joystick 2, or `w a s d`) is the worker, running the
corridors toward the green exit portal. **Player 2** (joystick 1, or
`i j k l`) is Ra: a bracket cursor rides the corners of the walls -
fire (or `return`) spins the four wall pieces around the cursor by
90 degrees, reshaping the maze in real time. A spin is denied while
anyone is standing in one of the four slots (the border blips red);
the spun pieces flash white.

Eight levels, each maze one cell bigger than the last: a square that
starts at 4x4 cells and grows to 11x11 - the tallest square lattice
the screen fits - always centered on screen. One more enemy joins
each level (up to four): the cyan **scarabs** roam the corridors,
and the light-red **scorpions** also spit a venom sting whenever
they line up with the worker - the purple drop flies down the
corridor until a wall swallows it.

The look: a desert palette of sandstone walls and brown pivot posts
from a custom RAM charset, every actor (worker, cursor, bullet,
sting, enemies) a hardware sprite gliding smoothly between the
cells, an animated exit portal, a raster color band behind the
status row, and a fade to black between all screens. The menu floats
over a dark maze backdrop under the big gold-washed title.

The options screen adds two optional twists:

- **worker gun** - player 1 shoots a bullet with fire/`space`; a hit
  enemy respawns on a random cell after a pause.
- **spin cooldown** - each spin starts a recharge; further spins are
  denied until the bar on the status row drains (pixel by pixel) and
  the readout flips back from *wait* to *ready* (the cursor also
  turns red while recharging).

Screens: TTG intro (ported from rabbitc64) -> pyramid title card
(the pyramid, the trapped worker and the pulsing sun of Ra) -> main
menu (play / options / story / credits) -> game -> next level, and
after the last one the escape screen (back to the menu); game over
lets fire retry the same level with a fresh maze, `m` backs out to
the menu. The story screen tells the legend and lists who steers
what.

## Build & run

```
make deps       # macOS: brew install acme vice
make build      # -> blessingofra.prg
make run        # build + launch in x64sc
```

Test builds can boot straight into one state:

```
acme -DAUTOPLAY=1 -f cbm -o blessingofra.prg main.asm
# also: AUTOOPTIONS, AUTOSTORY, AUTOPYRAMID, AUTOCREDITS,
# AUTOWIN, AUTOLOSE; add -DFORCEOPTS=1 to start with both
# options turned on
```

## Files

- `main.asm` - entry point, BASIC stub, per-frame state machine,
  the border/status-band raster work
- `defs.asm` - registers, constants, zero page, macros
- `intro.asm` - TTG boot logo with the gold color wash
- `pyramid.asm` - title card: the pyramid, the worker, the sun of Ra
- `menu.asm` - main menu card over a dark maze backdrop
- `options.asm` - the optional extras and their toggle screen
- `story.asm` - the legend of the worker and Ra + the controls
- `credits.asm` - the crew
- `play.asm` - maze geometry + generation (recursive backtracker,
  animated) + the game and its eight growing levels
- `win.asm` / `over.asm` - end screens
- `common.asm` - shared routines: printing, big block font, the
  title wash, input, RNG
- `sound.asm` - single-voice SID SFX driver
- `gfx.asm` - RAM charset with the custom tiles, the sprite engine,
  the portal animation and the fade-to-black transition