19rsn007 Posted July 27, 2014 Share Posted July 27, 2014 Here's a little something I've started. Really hard, since all the graphics are CHARSET based I'll keep working on this until something playable has rolled out, and then I'll be releasing a public demo 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquaman Posted July 27, 2014 Share Posted July 27, 2014 Great to see, that you are trying to make this game for the Aquarius ! I would love to see a public demo in the nearby future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
19rsn007 Posted July 27, 2014 Author Share Posted July 27, 2014 Hey Aquaman! It's about time the aquarius gets a new game. The thing is cripple as h*ll, but I like a challenge. Last week I finally took some time to repair (and upgrade) my 16k rampack....it's a 32k now The only damn thing which I stuggle with is the fact you can't make any graphics the easy way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+evg2000 Posted July 27, 2014 Share Posted July 27, 2014 Images aren't showing this morning?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquaman Posted July 27, 2014 Share Posted July 27, 2014 (edited) Hey Aquaman! It's about time the aquarius gets a new game. The thing is cripple as h*ll, but I like a challenge. Last week I finally took some time to repair (and upgrade) my 16k rampack....it's a 32k now The only damn thing which I stuggle with is the fact you can't make any graphics the easy way. I couldn't agree more about the Aquarius finally getting a new game The existing games hardly pushed the machine to it's limits, although I know the graphical part is the major push back. To overcome this, Jay is working on the Mini-Expander II, which finally makes programmable graphics on the Aquarius possible. But in the mean time there is still potential of creating good games with the existing hardware, if keeping in mind the graphical restrictions. Beamrider seems a candidate which would be possible without compromising too much of the original game available on other machines. You changed your 16K rampack into a 32K rampack you mention . As you probably already know, If needed a game using 32K RAM would not longer make a game only playable for the few owners of an original 32K RAM extension (like me ), but with the 32K RAM pack from Jay, every serious Aquarius owner could also enjoy these games on an original Aquarius if they really want to. Edited July 27, 2014 by Aquaman 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
intvnut Posted July 27, 2014 Share Posted July 27, 2014 It looks like AtariAge accidentally the mockups. Could you repost them? I'm curious to see them. :-) Beamrider was one of my faves on the Intellivision. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted July 27, 2014 Share Posted July 27, 2014 Hey, that looks pretty good! The sprites could look more detailed with some of the characters in the Aquarius character set beyond the "bloxels", but Beamrider would be a good choice for the Aquarius, and this certainly looks like a promising start. Here are some quick Beamrider sprites that I mocked up, to give some idea of what can be done with the other characters in the set: 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
19rsn007 Posted July 27, 2014 Author Share Posted July 27, 2014 Hey, that looks pretty good! The sprites could look more detailed with some of the characters in the Aquarius character set beyond the "bloxels", but Beamrider would be a good choice for the Aquarius, and this certainly looks like a promising start. Here are some quick Beamrider sprites that I mocked up, to give some idea of what can be done with the other characters in the set: ship.png saucer.png sentinel.png Hey Jay, wow those look pretty cool ! The aquarius has been a system I chased for years, and when I finally got hold of it with a 16k rampack (which wasn't working like it should) I couldn't wait. That 32k rampack of your is certainly a thing I would have bought if I wasn't too technical I am much more of a hardware guy, but this beamrider project is something I wanna do. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquaman Posted July 27, 2014 Share Posted July 27, 2014 Strange thing, that EVG2000 and INTVNUT are not seeing these mockup pictures, as most of us have no trouble in seeing these pictures? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted July 27, 2014 Share Posted July 27, 2014 Maybe it's because the images in the first post are hotlinked. I'll re-submit them here as attachments: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted July 27, 2014 Share Posted July 27, 2014 Hey Jay, wow those look pretty cool ! The aquarius has been a system I chased for years, and when I finally got hold of it with a 16k rampack (which wasn't working like it should) I couldn't wait. That 32k rampack of your is certainly a thing I would have bought if I wasn't too technical I am much more of a hardware guy, but this beamrider project is something I wanna do. I used my own homebrew 32K module for years, too. I found that a 4K module was easier to upgrade, since it uses PDIP components. If you ever want to put Beamrider on a cartridge, let me know; I've got lots of general-purpose 16K cartridge boards and EPROMs on hand. Just out of curiosity, what are you using to program it? Assembly, BASIC, C, or something else? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JasonlikesINTV Posted July 27, 2014 Share Posted July 27, 2014 My Malware blocker originally blocked the images, but I "allowed" them. Now they work fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+evg2000 Posted July 27, 2014 Share Posted July 27, 2014 thanks for reposting the images, looks good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
19rsn007 Posted July 27, 2014 Author Share Posted July 27, 2014 I used my own homebrew 32K module for years, too. I found that a 4K module was easier to upgrade, since it uses PDIP components. If you ever want to put Beamrider on a cartridge, let me know; I've got lots of general-purpose 16K cartridge boards and EPROMs on hand. Just out of curiosity, what are you using to program it? Assembly, BASIC, C, or something else? well I am using ASM, but is there any specific Aquarius programming tool ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted July 27, 2014 Share Posted July 27, 2014 well I am using ASM, but is there any specific Aquarius programming tool ? Great! I've always used straight assembly in my projects so far, nothing specific to the Aquarius. The Telemark assembler is the one that I use, but any Z80 assembler will do. Later this year, I'm going to be spending more time with the SDCC compiler, and I hope to develop a set of Aquarius libraries for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
19rsn007 Posted July 27, 2014 Author Share Posted July 27, 2014 Great! I've always used straight assembly in my projects so far, nothing specific to the Aquarius. The Telemark assembler is the one that I use, but any Z80 assembler will do. Later this year, I'm going to be spending more time with the SDCC compiler, and I hope to develop a set of Aquarius libraries for it. Yeah I heard some things about that SDCC compiler. ASM is hard, but I guess it's the only way to go with the aquarius if you wanna get it done the right way. Can't wait for you to get those libraries ready. My 16k pack was surfacemount btw. I would have mounted another PCB in there with PDIP parts, but a friend of mine had a nice surface mount 32k sram chip we seated in place of one of the original SRAM chips. I can share photo's if you want. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted July 27, 2014 Share Posted July 27, 2014 Yeah I heard some things about that SDCC compiler. ASM is hard, but I guess it's the only way to go with the aquarius if you wanna get it done the right way. Can't wait for you to get those libraries ready. Well, I'll definitely be getting more familiar with SDCC this year, because I'll be using it at work next year (although not for the Z80) in a class I'll be teaching. It's nice when one's work and hobbies overlap that way! I'm envisioning a library with tools for constructing GUIs (somewhat like ncurses), but optimized for the Aquarius, and with additional tools for creating sprites and using the PSG and hand controllers. My 16k pack was surfacemount btw. I would have mounted another PCB in there with PDIP parts, but a friend of mine had a nice surface mount 32k sram chip we seated in place of one of the original SRAM chips. I can share photo's if you want. Sure, I'd be interested to see it! I believe all the original 16K modules used surface-mounted 2K SRAM chips, which made for a very crowded cartridge. Perhaps that's why Mattel's original 32K module used DRAM instead. Nowadays, of course, you can get 32K of SRAM in one very inexpensive PDIP package, which makes building those modules much easier. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
intvnut Posted July 27, 2014 Share Posted July 27, 2014 Maybe it's because the images in the first post are hotlinked. I'll re-submit them here as attachments: WP_000164.jpg WP_000165.jpg Wow, that looks pretty sharp! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
intvnut Posted July 27, 2014 Share Posted July 27, 2014 Strange thing, that EVG2000 and INTVNUT are not seeing these mockup pictures, as most of us have no trouble in seeing these pictures? Yeah, all I got was the attached... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
19rsn007 Posted July 27, 2014 Author Share Posted July 27, 2014 Here are the photo's I took on the Rampack repair/expansion. The socket houses the 74LS138 and the AND logic is done by 2 1n4148 diodes and a 10k pull-up resistor (DIODE LOGIC....gotta love it) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquaman Posted July 29, 2014 Share Posted July 29, 2014 (edited) Hey Jay, wow those look pretty cool ! The aquarius has been a system I chased for years, and when I finally got hold of it with a 16k rampack (which wasn't working like it should) I couldn't wait. That 32k rampack of your is certainly a thing I would have bought if I wasn't too technical I am much more of a hardware guy, but this beamrider project is something I wanna do. As Jay suggests, you should also make some clever use of the Aquarius build in character set. When using these and also invert some of them by the way of changing the background and foreground colors, you can get some pretty nifty results! Edited July 29, 2014 by Aquaman 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted July 29, 2014 Share Posted July 29, 2014 Here are the photo's I took on the Rampack repair/expansion. The socket houses the 74LS138 and the AND logic is done by 2 1n4148 diodes and a 10k pull-up resistor (DIODE LOGIC....gotta love it) Very clever upgrade! I suspect that your circuit is similar to mine; I also used a 74LS138, along with a 74LS02, to generate the CE signal for the RAM. Amazingly simple, especially compared to Mattel's original (and very bulky) 32K module! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
19rsn007 Posted July 29, 2014 Author Share Posted July 29, 2014 (edited) Very clever upgrade! I suspect that your circuit is similar to mine; I also used a 74LS138, along with a 74LS02, to generate the CE signal for the RAM. Amazingly simple, especially compared to Mattel's original (and very bulky) 32K module! Hey Jay, at first my design was build just like that. Later on I found out I didn't have an AND gate in stock so I switched to a NAND gate using 2 gate (1 output of the NAND gate going to another 2 of them inputs and then that output to /CE). A friend of mine pointed me to the DIODE-logic which just AND-gate, but using 2 diodes and a pull-up resistor. See this page for more info on that http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diode_logic Edited July 29, 2014 by 19rsn007 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
intvnut Posted August 7, 2014 Share Posted August 7, 2014 Hey Jay, at first my design was build just like that. Later on I found out I didn't have an AND gate in stock so I switched to a NAND gate using 2 gate (1 output of the NAND gate going to another 2 of them inputs and then that output to /CE). A friend of mine pointed me to the DIODE-logic which just AND-gate, but using 2 diodes and a pull-up resistor. See this page for more info on that http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diode_logic I've sometimes heard that logic style called M2L, which is short for "Mickey Mouse Logic." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
19rsn007 Posted August 8, 2014 Author Share Posted August 8, 2014 I've sometimes heard that logic style called M2L, which is short for "Mickey Mouse Logic." M2L or not...it's working Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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