KK/Altair

K65 already saved me more time than it took to write, and enabled making some cool things I wouldn't dare to do with classic assembler, so they sometimes point in the same direction.

Really nice game. I definitely should look into E7 bankswitching one day.

I'm not quite sure which exactly STA happens to early or too late, but if you'd like to split the 2-cycle NOP in half for greater flexibility, you can use shadow registers on the $01xx page. In other words, for every TIA or RAM basic address, there's an alternate location 256 bytes higher. And by using these locations you can easily force the assembler not to use zeropage addressing mode - because the address is not on the zero page. Bad: STA GRP0 ; 3 - let's assume for this example it's 1 cycle too early NOP ; 2 STY GRP1 ; 3 Fix: STA GRP0+256 ; 4 - bullseye! this instruction now takes 1 cycle longer, but on VCS does exactly the same STY GRP1+256 ; 4 - this one needs 1 cycle delay too, to write at 8th cycle exactly as before This trick is VERY useful on the VCS to get 1-cycle NOPs.

Well, that's the table. Measured on a PAL light sixer with a standard voltage multimeter. Of course much better measurement could be made (e.g. by better tools, or possibly automated with an Arduino or something), but this one was enough for my purposes. I tried matching these to a resistor network model, but the measurements failed to match any assumptions I tried, so I just used this table as it is. Also if you'd like complete emulation of TIA sound, I have written complete cycle-exact implementation basing on the TIA internal schematics, including some not really obvious quirks (e.g. the fact that it's actually driven by two clocks). Sadly, it looks like you can't glitch the sound in any meaningful way by exploiting this, which is something I hoped for. AUDF0 AUDF1 x0 x1 x2 x3 x4 x5 x6 x7 x8 x9 xA xB xC xD xE xF 0x 4.91 4.88 4.68 4.53 4.28 4.13 3.93 3.78 3.53 3.39 3.22 3.09 2.91 2.79 2.67 2.56 1x 4.89 4.73 4.53 4.37 4.14 3.98 3.79 3.64 3.40 3.26 3.10 2.98 2.80 2.69 2.57 2.47 2x 4.69 4.52 4.33 4.17 3.94 3.78 3.61 3.46 3.22 3.10 2.94 2.83 2.66 2.56 2.45 2.36 3x 4.53 4.37 4.18 4.02 3.80 3.65 3.47 3.33 3.11 2.97 2.83 2.72 2.57 2.47 2.36 2.28 4x 4.28 4.13 3.93 3.78 3.56 3.42 3.25 3.12 2.91 2.79 2.66 2.57 2.43 2.33 2.24 2.16 5x 4.13 3.98 3.79 3.64 3.43 3.29 3.12 3.00 2.80 2.69 2.56 2.47 2.34 2.26 2.17 2.09 6x 3.93 3.79 3.61 3.46 3.25 3.12 2.97 2.85 2.66 2.56 2.45 2.36 2.24 2.16 2.08 2.01 7x 3.79 3.64 3.46 3.32 3.12 3.00 2.85 2.74 2.56 2.47 2.36 2.28 2.17 2.09 2.01 1.95 8x 3.54 3.39 3.23 3.10 2.91 2.80 2.67 2.57 2.41 2.32 2.23 2.16 2.05 1.99 1.92 1.86 9x 3.41 3.26 3.10 2.98 2.80 2.69 2.57 2.48 2.33 2.25 2.16 2.08 1.99 1.93 1.86 1.81 Ax 3.23 3.10 2.95 2.83 2.67 2.57 2.45 2.36 2.23 2.15 2.07 2.00 1.91 1.86 1.80 1.75 Bx 3.10 2.98 2.84 2.72 2.58 2.47 2.37 2.28 2.16 2.09 2.01 1.94 1.86 1.81 1.75 1.70 Cx 2.91 2.80 2.67 2.56 2.43 2.34 2.24 2.17 2.05 1.99 1.92 1.86 1.78 1.73 1.68 1.63 Dx 2.80 2.70 2.57 2.47 2.34 2.26 2.17 2.10 1.99 1.93 1.86 1.80 1.74 1.69 1.63 1.59 Ex 2.67 2.57 2.45 2.36 2.25 2.17 2.08 2.01 1.92 1.86 1.79 1.75 1.68 1.63 1.58 1.54 Fx 2.57 2.47 2.37 2.28 2.17 2.10 2.02 1.95 1.86 1.81 1.75 1.70 1.63 1.59 1.54 1.51

Well, looks like it's me. You might or might not remember me from games like RoboMechanik (VCS), Druidarium (XL/XE) or the Chiphead demo (VCS).

Human ear is very sensitive to anything happening regularity at 5kHz rate. And my player was giving randomly 3-cycle peaks and notches exactly at that rate. Nice. And thanks, but I have enough confidence in my multimeter. The only oddity here is that I failed to found any reasonable approximation for this circuit, but on the other hand the DAC resistances in TIA are not real resistances but rather half-open transistors, so that was to be expected.

AUDV0/AUDV1 is definitely updated immediately on real hardware. When writing my softsynth I tried use both registers separately to improve the output quality, because the volume addition is not linear in TIA. E.g. when setting both channels as "High", volumes don't simply add up, and volumes 0+14 give different voltage than 7+7. I was trying to use that feature to improve output quality, but even the 3 cycle delay in writing AUDV1 after AUDV0 gave audible buzz at 5kHz sampling rate. And if anyone would like to update Stella with the AUDV0+AUDV1 mixing table, just PM me. I have measured output voltage for all 256 combinations already and can share the table.

World F renamed to G, and added new world in its place (to give ZPH some more levels to fill the stream). Also last boss got weakened considerably.

Thanks! Also please note that worlds A-G are just preview. I have twice that number already.

Looks really great! And playing mostly on Amiga, I definitely prefer the 1-button controls. I know this is far from being complete, but what really stands out right now is: - no proper gravity when jumping (the character moves up and down), - colors are broken on some moves (e.g. uppercut) - will this be fixed, or is it going to be some optimization (gfx reuse)? - Raiden sprite lacks hat - another optimization? - controls feel a bit unresponsive in general But other than that, it starts looking great. Good luck! (and PM me if you'd like some help with the msx/sound)

Code size is not a problem, because all maps reside in two banks filled 99% with map data. Some map data could be shared between maps, but that would need serious cleanup of the maps.

Hi guys! Thank you for your support and patience! I definitely didn't drop this project, just got a bit burned with my extreme perfectionism. Right now I'm able to fit about 97 maps in the 32k binary, but I would love to break the magic number of 100. I see a clear way of breaking that number, but it would require a bit of rewrite cleaning up tile data in all the existing levels, which is not something I'm looking forward to. So, given my very limited free time I focused on other things, waiting for my energy and focus to build up again for this task, or go forward to release the thing as is. And going 64k just to waste 31.9k is again something my perfectionism can't accept. In any case, the project is not abandoned, and if you would like to reach me (e.g. to help with testing), find me on Facebook and just PM me (as you have notices, I'm not active user of this forum). Take care! KK/Altair

Never. Just Atari is also cool and Silly Venture needs some stuff to show. Good point! Haven't checked (i.e. updated) it for some time. I was already thinking in this general direction. Endbosses were on my wishlist as well.

If I didn't want to "complicate things", I wouldn't code for Atari. Also the enemy count limitation would only be temporary for the duration of the move. As soon as the enemy moves to the desired row, it will free the previous one and continue horizontal movement. And I think it's worth including to break the row fragmentation and to surprise the player. Also diagonal shots is something I probably should consider, but only if I can come up with a control solution that doesn't break the general flow of the game.

I have a few empty chars still left in the village/forest charset, and plenty in the stonehenge/cemetery one, so that would be a good idea. Also adding a third one could still be an option. Still, I have very limited amount of free time for all this, so I can't really promise. But any ideas on possible new locations are always appreciated. I can't really change their color without affecting other things (missiles), but I'd really like to make a few pain frames for them. I know this trick, but it requires a single texture for entire background, otherwise you get into trouble at edges (the edges should move with background speed). I also like to have some more background variety in the caves, even if it's just mixing background and black tiles, as it is right now. I did not create the font, so it's probably better as it is now. Using proper variable-width font in graphics mode would add even more, in this case. What elements exactly would you me to get inspiration from?