Dead Air for Tandy CoCo 3 | Tequestafarian

Original game • CoCo 3 512K + CoCoSDC

The world has gone silent.

Empty roads. Abandoned homes. Forests where even the birds have stopped singing. Somewhere in the darkness, a faint signal breaks through the static. A young boy. An old radio. And a desperate search for answers. But something is hiding in the shadows.

Something is listening.

DEAD AIR

Some signals are better left unanswered.

Free demoOriginal game4 greys, 30 fpsCoCoSDC required512KTested on a real CoCo 3

Download the demo Watch the video Screenshots

Dead Air on the CoCo 3: the boy stands on a crate at the foot of a cliff beside a hut in the fog — The crate, pushed to the cliff by the hut

See it running

A short clip of Dead Air in action. Everything is drawn in four shades of grey at 320×192, and the screen scrolls in hardware at 30 frames a second.

The music is a slow, looping drone with wind, a glass bell and a faint radio whistle. It streams from the CoCoSDC while you play. Thunder follows each flash of lightning, and the closer the strike, the sooner it comes.

An SD card with a Dead Air label, resting on a Tandy CoCo 3 — The Dead Air SD card on a real CoCo 3

About the game

There are no weapons in Dead Air. You walk, run, jump, climb, and push and pull things to get past the forest. You can't fight the creatures, so you have to get away from them. The radio is the only tool you have. Its pulse rings out in a wave and, for about two seconds, lights up what is hidden in the black: a buried cable, stepping stones in still water, the eyes of something waiting in a hut.

Under the hood

Dead Air runs on the TQ Engine, the same engine behind my Ghosts 'n Goblins and Metal Slug demakes, adapted for this game. The screen is 320×192 in four greys, with hardware scrolling and blitted sprites. Lightning is just a palette change: the sky turns white and the forest goes black, so the flash costs no drawing time. When the Listener wakes or the bridge breaks, the engine swaps in new background tiles. The graphics, music, sound effects and the radio voice are all new. The voice plays at 11 kHz through the CoCo’s 6-bit DAC.

Screenshots

Captured from the demo build running in MAME's CoCo 3 (512K) driver with an emulated CoCoSDC and an RGB monitor. Click any screenshot to enlarge it, then use the arrows (or your arrow keys, or swipe) to flip through the rest.

Dead Air on the CoCo 3: The title fades in over the forest — The title fades in over the forest

Dead Air on the CoCo 3: He wakes under the dead tree — He wakes under the dead tree

Dead Air on the CoCo 3: A broken fence in the fog — A broken fence in the fog

Dead Air on the CoCo 3: The crate, pushed to the cliff by the hut — The crate, pushed to the cliff by the hut

Dead Air on the CoCo 3: The shut gate under the hill — The shut gate under the hill

Dead Air on the CoCo 3: The Listener wakes in the hut — The Listener wakes in the hut

Dead Air on the CoCo 3: The Listener chases him to the gate — The Listener chases him to the gate

Dead Air on the CoCo 3: Onto the bridge, the Listener behind — Onto the bridge, the Listener behind

Dead Air on the CoCo 3: Chapter 2: The Relay — Chapter 2: The Relay

Dead Air on the CoCo 3: A toppled crane under the pylons — A toppled crane under the pylons

Dead Air on the CoCo 3: A lit hut at the end of the line — A lit hut at the end of the line

Dead Air on the CoCo 3: The Stalker comes out of the dark — The Stalker comes out of the dark

Dead Air on the CoCo 3: A pulse lights up the Stalker — A pulse lights up the Stalker

Dead Air on the CoCo 3: The keeper's house: the living room — The keeper's house: the living room

Dead Air on the CoCo 3: The upper floor — The upper floor

Dead Air on the CoCo 3: The basement under the house — The basement under the house

Dead Air on the CoCo 3: A dish over the reeds — A dish over the reeds

Dead Air on the CoCo 3: Up the mast’s lift, the Stalker below — Up the mast’s lift, the Stalker below

Dead Air on the CoCo 3: I HEAR YOU. — I HEAR YOU.

Download the demo

DEADAIR-DEMO.zip DEADAIR.DSK + DEADAIR.DAT + STARTUP.CFG

The free demo has chapters 1 and 2, from waking under the dead tree to “I HEAR YOU.” at the top of the relay mast. When it ends, it goes back to the start. Chapter 3, The Listening Station, is still in development.

You need a Tandy Color Computer 3 with 512K and a CoCoSDC. The demo is three files: DEADAIR.DSK (the boot disk), DEADAIR.DAT (the graphics, levels, music and sound, which stream from the SD card) and STARTUP.CFG (mounts the disk at power-on). DEADAIR.DSK and DEADAIR.DAT must come from the same download.

Option 1: Mount it at power-on

Copy DEADAIR.DSK, DEADAIR.DAT and STARTUP.CFG to the root folder of the SD card (not a subfolder).
Power on the CoCo 3. The SDC mounts DEADAIR.DSK in drive 0.
Type:

RUN"AUTOEXEC

STARTUP.CFG replaces any STARTUP.CFG already on the card (for example one that boots another game). Back it up or rename it first if you want to keep it.

Option 2: Load it from SDC Explorer (SDCX)

Copy DEADAIR.DSK and DEADAIR.DAT to the root of the SD card. STARTUP.CFG isn't needed.
In SDC Explorer, mount DEADAIR.DSK in drive 0.
Exit to BASIC and type:

RUN"AUTOEXEC

If the screen turns red when it starts, it can’t find DEADAIR.DAT. Check that it is in the root of the SD card.

Controls

Action	Keyboard	Joystick
Walk	Left / Right arrows	Stick
Run	SHIFT + arrow (or keep walking)	–
Jump (hold for higher)	X or Z	Button 2
Crouch	Down arrow	Stick down
Climb up when hanging	Up arrow	Stick up
Grab, push and pull, pull a lever	SPACE	Button 1
Radio pulse	R	Stick down + button 1

The pulse recharges in three seconds. It does nothing until you have found the radio. In chapter 2 it also freezes the Stalker and runs the mast’s lift.

Dead Air is an original game by Tequestafarian. Its graphics, music and sound are all its own.