Jump to content
IGNORED

Pole Position + voice + VBXE enhancement


Rybags

Recommended Posts

I started the project about 14 months ago, but a whole bunch of other stuff got in the way - interlace mode, Stellar Shuttle, graphics stuff, VBXE, demo stuff, not to mention lockup problems and the discovery of the Timer vs DLI bug.

 

Original thread here

 

I've decided now to get this thing going again, but hey - may as well take it a step or two further and throw in some VBXE enhancement or two, and probably a hi-fi speech option as well.

 

The final goal will be to have a standard 48K version and a VBXE enhanced version, with "proper" cars in 320x/256 colours, more colourful text and possibly some better graphics for the mountains and (maybe) visuals for the signs.

 

ed - almost forgot. A low priority item at this stage, but better engine sounds would be nice. I'm thinking maybe two-tone Pokey effects, or maybe even digitized engine sound, although I feel option 2 would probably be a bit taxing on the system.

 

 

Now to the "assistance" part:

I've not really done any reverse-engineering work on the code - so far the only modifications I've needed have related to patching into the VBlank code and modifying the main DLI. The Timers and some other code are addons.

 

If anyone has any code documentation or reverse-engineered info on the game, even if it's as simple as RAM variables used or specific landmarks within the ROM, that'd be handy.

 

Also, someone at a recent meet (Germany?) developed a PolePos mod that allowed using a real USB steering wheel via Flashcart+USB. Does anyone remember who that was?

 

Finally - I've looked at the car graphics in the arcade version... not exactly great, we could do a lot better with VBXE. So, if someone wants to work on some animations, I'm open to offers.

 

The mechanism I have in mind for the graphical enhancements for VBXE mode is to just leave the original stuff in place - the cars and signs are all PMGs, so doing so would allow the collision code to still work. The objects can just have priority and colours set so that they don't show onscreen.

As such, VBXE enhanced graphics for cars/signs would need to be roughly the same size as the originals - a little bigger = fine, a little smaller = not really desirable as we'd get false collisions.

Edited by Rybags
Link to comment
Share on other sites

sounds good!

 

my VBXE plans are similar... leave original games (i am not telling yet which ones) the same but do VBXE overlay if running on VBXE... so learned from the Llamasoft projects I know my way of addition and patching existing games...

 

Gridrunner is not counting but will my first VBXE enhanced one... (that's one reason why it is not released yet)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Assuming the CPU isn't being maxed out... it's a straightforward process.

 

Moving several cars/signs about would barely get the blitter off idle in this case.

 

I don't want this to be some multi-month mega-project, hoping that it'll be under a few weeks worth of work.

 

I reckon VBXE really needs a "killer app" to spark up more interest, but IMO it won't be a demo or a mod to an existing game - would really have to be a brand new game or application.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

post-7804-126276454445_thumb.jpg

 

The weird thing... the cars in Pole Position 2 (rhs) look inferior (from straight-on rear view, at least) than those in Pole Position. ed - actually, I think the bitmaps are the same, just the colour selection leaves a bit to be desired.

 

64 pixels width... so probably about what we'd be looking at so far as size for a VBXE enhancement, but we can do a lot better in the colours department.

Edited by Rybags
Link to comment
Share on other sites

well... I would start with integration of the VBXE overlay code & bank switching... as not sure which ram PP occupies.

 

Digispeech would be nice to have but that is not the killer feature imho... (for the VBXE but essential for PP I know... "prepare to qualify")

 

I am not sure how much cycles are left to feed the blitter? if not enough... then potentially disable the player routines for the cars and the signes as we all know... pm moving sux time...

 

Ah... just got my idea for VBXE enhanced game... ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think it was Donkey Kong actually.

 

I guess the PMs, or most of them might be able to be removed if needed - collisions could always be done by VBXE for car vs other cars and signs, but I'm fairly sure the game would need collision detect for the ripple strip (side of road).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello Rybags

 

Also, someone at a recent meet (Germany?) developed a PolePos mod that allowed using a real USB steering wheel via Flashcart+USB. Does anyone remember who that was?

That was "cas" at the Fujiama 2009.

 

BTW why not add some Multi-Link code, so we can play on multiple Atari's?

 

greetings

 

Mathy

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I want to stick to the philosophy of the initial voice mod - the strategy is to try and limit as much as possible the changes to the actual game code $8000-$BFFF and rely more on strategic patches and have the extra code/data at $4000-$7FFF. That gives it a better chance of easily running with existing mods out there.

 

Multi-link sounds nice, but like I said before, I don't want it becoming a major rework, just an enhanancement that doesn't take long to develop. So if the code to do that is already out there, it might be possible to incorporate it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello Rybags

 

On my Special Stuff Page, you will find three files by Jiri Bernasek. Here's what my site says about them:

 

NTWGAME.ARC Three text files by Jiri Bernasek explaining how to code games for the MultiLink interface.

MWORMS.ARC MultiWorms, a snake clone. Written by Jiri for explanatory purposes.

MWSOURCE.ARC The sources to both parts of the game MultiWorms; the game routine and the networking routine.

 

I really hope these files tell you what you need to know about MultiLink games.

 

greetings

 

Mathy

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Also, someone at a recent meet (Germany?) developed a PolePos mod that allowed using a real USB steering wheel via Flashcart+USB. Does anyone remember who that was?

That was "cas" at the Fujiama 2009.

It's from 2004. The game is here and the project page here. I think Carsten will be happy that someone's interested.

AFAIK what Carsten showed at the last Fujiama was his new driver for a gameport->USB converter.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello Rybags

 

On my Special Stuff Page, you will find three files by Jiri Bernasek. Here's what my site says about them:

 

NTWGAME.ARC Three text files by Jiri Bernasek explaining how to code games for the MultiLink interface.

MWORMS.ARC MultiWorms, a snake clone. Written by Jiri for explanatory purposes.

MWSOURCE.ARC The sources to both parts of the game MultiWorms; the game routine and the networking routine.

 

I really hope these files tell you what you need to know about MultiLink games.

 

greetings

 

Mathy

 

Yep,

I once translated these texts for Abbuc into german language - and Jiri also said in these texts, that "... it is not possible to enhance existing games for multilink..." Which means, one has to write a program for multilink right from the start (remember, multilink programs have to switch off the OS and use their own kind of OS). So I doubt that it is possible to enhance Pole Position for multilink - but I would be happy, if someone proves me wrong ;-)

 

-Andreas Koch.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Note this is just a mockup done by cut/paste and modifying screenshots.

 

But, it looks good compared to the normal game already.

 

post-7804-126407836527_thumb.jpg

 

The arcade cars are a little tall compared to the A8 ones - although the A8 ones look kinda squashed anyway.

 

The mountains on the A8 game are one of several aspects that really annoy me - something as simple as changing the colours would probably make a huge difference. A graduated horizon might look good too.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 years later...

This is one that stalled as I was having problems - it's before Altirra became the predominant emulator, the debugger would have the problems sorted in short order.

Also I was doing it as a patch job which really is a painful way to do game enhancements.

 

It's one of those things on the backburner that I hope to pick up again. At the least to just put the speech in that it should have had from the start (OK, it would have made for a 32K game but who cares?)

 

There's other stuff around to test VBXE. Some included in the Release package from candle's site.

Some of the stuff I've done is in there, and downloadable here too. From memory:

- Moon Shuttle (Basic + asm game with some VBXE enhancements)

- Quadrillion (port from C= Plus4 game, mainly uses VBXE for colour mapping, 160x bitmap with more colours)

- Spectipede (port from C= Plus4 game, uses legacy hires with VBXE colour mapping enhancements)

- Moon Cresta (port from 7800 game in progress, uses VBXE bitmap 320x mode with multiple colours)

Edited by Rybags
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

They're made from the missiles. Only way to get detail would be using VBXE graphics overlaying them. Antic graphics near impossible as the track uses predefined graphics with unique LMS + HScrol on each scanline.

I'll probably shoot a bit lower with the goals once this is picked up. Just the voice stuff and maybe a colourmap for the text/score stuff.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

- Quadrillion (port from C= Plus4 game, mainly uses VBXE for colour mapping, 160x bitmap with more colours)

 

Yeah, I found your Quadrillion game, booted up and it looks and sounds great, haven't played any rounds yet, was just verifying my VBXE install. I'll check your other games too. Even though this is not my VBXE (doing install for somebody else), I may play the games on my regular atari monitor (if they also work without VBXE), heck I may even get a VBXE even though I don't really need one, the display and the blitter is simply impressive.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Spectipede works without VBXE. I actually did 2 versions. The 320 version uses hires and will be monochrome on a standard machine. The 160 version is intended for standard machines and has several colours.

 

Moon Shuttle should work without VBXE. I originally did that game nearly 30 years ago, it was my first venture into VBXE as I wanted a quick/easy way to test out using some of the features.

 

Quadrillion and Moon Cresta are VBXE only, won't work at all on standard hardware.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...