+OLD CS1 Posted November 2, 2014 Share Posted November 2, 2014 I am extremely excited to announce that for the past month and a-half or so I have been working on the graphics and sound assets for a TI-99/4A conversion of Arkanoid. I am currently working to stay as arcade-accurate as possible. I will be developing on retrocloud's excellent Spectra2 framework. My goals for this are somewhat ambitious being that this is my first assembly language project: arcade accuracy accounting for comparative deficiencies between the full arcade screen in portrait versus a 9981A and landscape presentation and limited colors, use of the MBX analog stick knob, and a yet-to-be-decided mouse type (I have at least one good lead on this,) and sound. Oh, yes, sound! The original arcade uses the AY8910 (or AY-3-8910) sound chip which is very similar to the TMS-9919. User ferluci in xda-developers forum posted up some sound extractions, and I downloaded a long-play from YouTube to extract more of the game sounds, then converting them by ear into Rasmus' really nice Sound List Ripper. The mock-up available below is done with Matthew's XB Sound List Player. (Thanks to both Rasmus and Matt for fielding my recent blast of posts patiently.) (Note: I was going to post up sample sounds to play in XB, but the XB sound list player plays them VERY quickly, about twice as fast as expected. I will post them up once I test them on real hardware.) Without giving up too much of the assets involved at this time, I do want to give a sneak-peak of my work thus far. Fortunately, there are plenty of conversions across many platforms. Aside from the arcade I chose to use the NES and MSX conversions as references. While integrating some of the elements of these games, in line with my ultimate goal, graphics will go above and beyond. For instance, the Vaus: I used a screen capture from BlueMSX for a mock-up for a special level, created with Rasmus' newest iteration of Magellan, which has been an excellent tool for getting a feel on how some programs' graphics are done (in particular, the NES and MSX, of course, screens import very well.) Another thanks goes to Tursi for letting me bounce ideas off of him while I have been planning this and some great guidance. I also have put some time into physical assets. These are likely to be revised over time. Old-style labels: New-style labels: Stylized label: New-style manuals: Old-style manual (I have an affinity for this one): Unfortunately I do not have anything ready to play, yet. I have been spending more time on the graphics and sounds, and the preparations for programming, like memory layouts, logic pseudo-code, and a bunch of research. I have literally watched about a half-day's worth of video from the arcade and various conversions. Not to mention scouring the web and following every lead to turn up every bit of information I can. The only thing I have not done is scraped data from any of the ROMs. In any case, I plan to have a prototype by Christmas. And with some of the experts I have helping me out, I have high hopes to realize this 15 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+eebuckeye Posted November 2, 2014 Share Posted November 2, 2014 Awesome! I'd love to get this on cartridge in the future! ! Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iwantgames:) Posted November 2, 2014 Share Posted November 2, 2014 O_O this is SWEET! Love that purple cart label Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imperious Posted November 2, 2014 Share Posted November 2, 2014 This should be awesome when done. I like the Purple cart label too, the multicoloured one looks like the Font needs to be stretched sideways a bit though or a bigger gap between letters, looks a bit squished on both the cart label and the manual. Definitely think I got back into the TI at the right time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firepod Posted November 2, 2014 Share Posted November 2, 2014 This is an awesome game, I haven't played it in a long time, but I sure would love playing it on my Ti!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asmusr Posted November 2, 2014 Share Posted November 2, 2014 Excellent. Will you be using full bitmap mode or one of the hybrid modes? Are you going to use Magellan for editing the levels? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willsy Posted November 2, 2014 Share Posted November 2, 2014 Brilliant! One of my all time favourite games! Have you seen Backstein by Quinton Tormenen (sp?). I think it's on the ti gameshelf site. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ti99iuc Posted November 2, 2014 Share Posted November 2, 2014 Yes, i always thought at Backstein of Quindon Tormanen like a great port of Arkanoid on TI99 and i liked it a lot (as all the games of Quindon Tomanen). sure, have a port of the original Arkanoid excited me ! ... a big work also on the covers and labels ! i like a lot the one yellow title and new manual style Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
am1933 Posted November 2, 2014 Share Posted November 2, 2014 This is great to see and as a brief side point-I really like both the red and purple old style labels. One thing concerns me and that is the method of control, Arkanoid dies a death playability wise when playe with joystick or keyboard, mouse would be good, or would it be possible to use a set of Atari paddle conrollers through one of the 3rd part interfaces? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+retroclouds Posted November 2, 2014 Share Posted November 2, 2014 Really looking forward seeing how this further develops Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted November 2, 2014 Author Share Posted November 2, 2014 Excellent. Will you be using full bitmap mode or one of the hybrid modes? Are you going to use Magellan for editing the levels? Ah, yes. I did forget to mention that I used Magellan to import the MSX screenshot and create my mock-up. I will definitely credit that in my FP. I will be doing the screen lay-outs with my own editor as at this time the screens are essentially PAT dumps of just the play-field. I am right now writing for full bit-map as I want to make use of more than eight sprites. Though a flicker routine may preclude that necessity. During development I will be trying a number of approaches to reach my desired goal and I will detail them as I do. I do not expect to have my first work product up until around the first of December. Brilliant! One of my all time favourite games! Have you seen Backstein by Quinton Tormenen (sp?). I think it's on the ti gameshelf site. Yes, i always thought at Backstein of Quindon Tormanen like a great port of Arkanoid on TI99 and i liked it a lot (as all the games of Quindon Tomanen). sure, have a port of the original Arkanoid excited me ! ... a big work also on the covers and labels ! i like a lot the one yellow title and new manual style Walid showed me Backsteine at the Faire. Definitely a nice looking clone and I might likely have a look under the hood for some ideas. This is great to see and as a brief side point-I really like both the red and purple old style labels. One thing concerns me and that is the method of control, Arkanoid dies a death playability wise when playe with joystick or keyboard, mouse would be good, or would it be possible to use a set of Atari paddle conrollers through one of the 3rd part interfaces? In playing the NES, MSX, and Commodore 64 versions using the joystick, they play very well and I have defeated two of them. There is a trick to joystick controls in the game that I am doing my best to find. When I put up betas I will be very happy if everyone would let me know how it plays for them and what I can do to adjust. I do have one quick question for everyone: I assembled Matt's XB sound list player in WinASM and have tried to transfer it via TI99dir to my CF7+. It pops up options for the transfer to translate: format, record length, and CR/LF etc. I have not tried all four options, yet just DF80 binary (no translation) and DF80 Editor/Assembler. While I try the other options can anyone here put up for posterity how to transfer CALL LOAD-able object files from Windows to the real TI? Right now I get I/O ERROR 25. EDIT I think I know the problem. The result of my sound lists is around 9k (8608 bytes, 104 lines,) and if CALL LOAD is loading into low memory, then that well exceeds low memory capacity. I will fix that up shortly! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asmusr Posted November 2, 2014 Share Posted November 2, 2014 I do have one quick question for everyone: I assembled Matt's XB sound list player in WinASM and have tried to transfer it via TI99dir to my CF7+. It pops up options for the transfer to translate: format, record length, and CR/LF etc. I have not tried all four options, yet just DF80 binary (no translation) and DF80 Editor/Assembler. While I try the other options can anyone here put up for posterity how to transfer CALL LOAD-able object files from Windows to the real TI? Right now I get I/O ERROR 25. EDIT I think I know the problem. The result of my sound lists is around 9k (8608 bytes, 104 lines,) and if CALL LOAD is loading into low memory, then that well exceeds low memory capacity. I will fix that up shortly! WinAsm99 doesn't write the TIFILES header on the object file, but you can let WinAsm99 copy the file to a DSK file for you and you shouldn't have any problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dphirschler Posted November 2, 2014 Share Posted November 2, 2014 Wow!! Looks fantastic! I love the TI logo in the level. Nice touch. The yellow Arkanoid logo on the purple label (and red label) with the new style look awesome. I also prefer the yellow logo on the manual too. Really nice work. One of my favorite games for sure! Can't wait to see a playable prototype. Darryl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ksarul Posted November 3, 2014 Share Posted November 3, 2014 I definitely like the purple label too! This is another of my favorite games, so it is great to hear that you are converting it (and I like Backsteine too, but a mostly true to the arcade original that sucked away so many of my quarters is priceless). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted November 3, 2014 Author Share Posted November 3, 2014 WinAsm99 doesn't write the TIFILES header on the object file, but you can let WinAsm99 copy the file to a DSK file for you and you shouldn't have any problems. Thanks; this worked (should have noticed I could do that, but, you know,) but I am still getting I/O ERROR 25. I will go look that up and see what I can figure out. Bear with me, fellas! I am trying to get you some sound demos 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted November 3, 2014 Author Share Posted November 3, 2014 I have attached the high score theme. It plays too fast, though -- about double-speed. I do not think the problem is with the Sound List Ripper, nor Matt's XB Sound List Player, but it might be my F18A/CF7+ console. Why? Who the crap knows, but that is where my suspicion lies until disproved. Then I move on to the next layer. Would someone please try this on a stock console (non-F18A?) Let me know how it works. I have also put the original arcade extraction in the Zip for comparison. Use TI Extended BASIC and execute: CALL INIT CALL LOAD("DSK1.HISCORE") CALL LINK("SPINIT") CALL LINK("SPPLAY",1) EDIT: This also plays too fast in Classic99 highscore-theme.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurt_Woloch Posted November 3, 2014 Share Posted November 3, 2014 Sorry, but I have problems even loading this in Classic99... first, the file name in the ZIP file is "highscore" instead of "hiscore", and loading it gives an "Unrecognized character" error. Then when I try to do Call Link, it seemingly tries to execute something (because an X appears on screen), but then says "Subprogram not found" with both Call Link statements. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asmusr Posted November 3, 2014 Share Posted November 3, 2014 The highscore file is an object file without the TIFILES header. I could load it in Classic99 by adding an .obj extension. It's very likely that there is a timing issue with my Sound List Ripper - after all it has only been tested by a few people AFAIK - but ripped music seems to be playing as the right speed (also when saved and loaded again), and I just tried to time a sequence of 10 x 2 sec notes (duration 120 each), and the duration I measured was very close to 20 sec. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asmusr Posted November 3, 2014 Share Posted November 3, 2014 After doing some more testing I think this is in fact an issue with my Ripper. I tried ripping the opening sound from Sabre Wulf and it is definitely playing slower than in the game. I will investigate and post an update when I find the bug. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asmusr Posted November 3, 2014 Share Posted November 3, 2014 Found the bug and posted a new version. Sorry about that, it looks like you have a bit of editing to do... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted November 3, 2014 Author Share Posted November 3, 2014 No worries at all, and thanks. I doubt I will have to start from scratch. Out of curiosity, what was the problem? (Off by one, it looks like?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asmusr Posted November 4, 2014 Share Posted November 4, 2014 No worries at all, and thanks. I doubt I will have to start from scratch. Out of curiosity, what was the problem? (Off by one, it looks like?) Yes the duration of each row was off by one. It was only noticeable in sound lists with many short notes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted November 4, 2014 Author Share Posted November 4, 2014 Okay, here we go. This disk will auto-load in XB, and has six sounds. This is made from the update version of Sound List Ripper. No big deal fixing things: I used an editor to search and replace values, set an AORG and assembled a cartridge binary, then loaded the resulting binary into SLR and voila. All fixed. Currently has six sounds. There will be plenty more as time goes on but I have been working on other things right now. ARKSNDTEST.DSK 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted November 5, 2014 Author Share Posted November 5, 2014 This should be awesome when done. I like the Purple cart label too, the multicoloured one looks like the Font needs to be stretched sideways a bit though or a bigger gap between letters, looks a bit squished on both the cart label and the manual. The multi-color label is made from an image of the arcade marquee, and the logo I used on the manual is from official graphics. I am considering doing new design work and am learning a lot more in GIMP in order to accomplish, though it is not a high priority right now. I am also kind-of partial to the purple label, as well. But the old style also tickle me a little bit, to go along with the old-style manual. Two months seems like a long time to get some more work done, but you would be surprised (some will not.) Oh, and a quick laugh, my TI rendition of the Commodore 64 music is too big to CALL LOAD(). Ah, well! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Vorticon Posted November 5, 2014 Share Posted November 5, 2014 Okay, here we go. This disk will auto-load in XB, and has six sounds. This is made from the update version of Sound List Ripper. No big deal fixing things: I used an editor to search and replace values, set an AORG and assembled a cartridge binary, then loaded the resulting binary into SLR and voila. All fixed. Currently has six sounds. There will be plenty more as time goes on but I have been working on other things right now. Sounds great so far Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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