CHIP-8 looking Pacman

[Mr SQL]

Remember this CHIP-8 looking Pacman? Atari 2600 Pacman had nothing on Scarfman:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWjUcxoMFVM&index=54&list=PLDfh7JjQaSYAhND1UxZdPxBTyBfvnJMBZ

 

Liked this semigraphics Defender clone; imo the semigraphics modes were the best graphics modes but they only worked on the CoCo I and II:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItddIniQh_k&index=102&list=PLDfh7JjQaSYAhND1UxZdPxBTyBfvnJMBZ

 

[Briza1]

Gidday mate.

 

Shame Tandy never got the Semi-graphics from the coco 1,2 to work in the coco 3. It was the modes most under used and had the most colours.

 

laters

 

Briza

[Mr SQL]

Gidday mate.

 

Shame Tandy never got the Semi-graphics from the coco 1,2 to work in the coco 3. It was the modes most under used and had the most colours.

 

laters

 

Briza

 

Hi Briza! I agree, the GIME did a nice job supporting the other modes of the VDG but those extra colors and the pixelated horizontal axis of those special modes gave them a different feel reminiscent of the Atari 2600. They were really fast too for being semigraphic - Guardian was awesome.

 

I was working on a semigraphics game when the III came out and we could no longer use the modes.

[BassGuitari]

Guardian's a good game, too. Definitely one of the better Defender clones. Emulation really doesn't do it justice, though.

There was actually an original cassette copy of Guardian on eBay recently (that ended up going for way too much when you can just make a cassette yourself like I did ).

 

 

...those extra colors and the pixelated horizontal axis of those special modes gave them a different feel reminiscent of the Atari 2600. They were really fast too for being semigraphic - Guardian was awesome.

For me, the VIC-20 comes to mind when I see semi-graphics Color Computer games...except without the color-clashing.

[Briza1]

 

Hi Briza! I agree, the GIME did a nice job supporting the other modes of the VDG but those extra colors and the pixelated horizontal axis of those special modes gave them a different feel reminiscent of the Atari 2600. They were really fast too for being semigraphic - Guardian was awesome.

 

I was working on a semigraphics game when the III came out and we could no longer use the modes.

 

 

Gidday SQL.

 

Shame you never finished the semi-graphics game you were working... Do you still have the code for it?

[Mr SQL]

 

 

Gidday SQL.

 

Shame you never finished the semi-graphics game you were working... Do you still have the code for it?

 

May have it somewhere on the original discs, I last used 5 1/4 drives to transfer data to a PC around Y2K.

 

I also had a pretty cool semigraphics paint package that let you create 20x32 scrolling 9 color pictures for the disc directory itself that used the supported semigraphics mode that did work on the III.

 

It was initially used to put artwork on our discs (literally) for Saint John Gallery Software; I think I gave you the SJG archives to share with the CoCo community in the early 2000's!

 

I later sold that semigraphics editor to T&D Software, all their programs have been shared and released and there are two versions - Directory Picture Fixer is the better one because it doesn't steal any FAT granules for the 16 entries it occupies.

[Briza1]

 

May have it somewhere on the original discs, I last used 5 1/4 drives to transfer data to a PC around Y2K.

 

I also had a pretty cool semigraphics paint package that let you create 20x32 scrolling 9 color pictures for the disc directory itself that used the supported semigraphics mode that did work on the III.

 

It was initially used to put artwork on our discs (literally) for Saint John Gallery Software; I think I gave you the SJG archives to share with the CoCo community in the early 2000's!

 

I later sold that semigraphics editor to T&D Software, all their programs have been shared and released and there are two versions - Directory Picture Fixer is the better one because it doesn't steal any FAT granules for the 16 entries it occupies.

 

Gidday SQL,

 

I know I released the games for the others to play with, But do not think I ever released your Apps stuff. Sounds like tonight I need to take a looksy through your stuff and checkout your Apps mate

 

laters

 

Briza

[jhd]

What an interesting project.

 

I used a Coco extensively between 1983 and 1988, and the only commercial software that I ever saw that used the semigraphics modes was some educational titles.

 

Other than Bill Barden's book on Coco graphics, was there any documentation of the various semigraphics modes? The technical appendix to the Coco BASIC manual does not really count as that was impenetrable to anyone not an engineer.

[Mr SQL]

What an interesting project.

 

I used a Coco extensively between 1983 and 1988, and the only commercial software that I ever saw that used the semigraphics modes was some educational titles.

 

Other than Bill Barden's book on Coco graphics, was there any documentation of the various semigraphics modes? The technical appendix to the Coco BASIC manual does not really count as that was impenetrable to anyone not an engineer.

 

Thanks, the disc directory was a very unusual target for semigraphics. Here it is in action with one of my adventure games initially released on Tape in 1984 - discs opened up a variety of new possibilities:

 

The semigraphics editor was initially just an internal utility at Saint John Gallery Software but I wanted to share it without just giving it away at the time; T&D software had very broad distribution almost like a magazine, and made a good offer for it.

 

Barden's book Assembly Language Programming was a great resource but didn't have much on semigraphics, his CoCo graphics book probably did but I never read it; I was in an engineering club with other programmers and received photocopied pages that may have been from that book and other sources about the additional semigraphics modes.

 

It's too bad those modes were never exposed to the BASIC, that would have been far more awesome than the CoCo III BASIC ROM revision and could have been accomplished the same way (dump the ROM to RAM and modify).

 

Maybe somewhere in an alternate universe such a CoCo exists - Flashback BASIC (and SuperCharger BASIC) for the Atari 2600 surface semigraphics modes to the BASIC as I envision it could have been done on the deluxe Color Computer that only appeared in vauge references in the manuals and catalogs.