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Mord's Blog

A blog by Mord

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About this blog

I'm really not sure what I'll use this blog for so I should probably leave this blank, but that would require backspacing. Much easier to just hit a period and stop typing.

Entries in this blog

 

(Action RPG) Version 0.008 beta (Looping Original)

I guess I'm feeling better-ish, although still not top of the world. I decided to do this a bit more gradually instead of doing it all at once and assembling. The beta attached looks identical to earlier versions, and it isn't the finished version for 0.008, but it shows the corrected off-by-one error I mentioned earlier and the code generating the scanlines for the P bar is about 1/11th the size of version 0.007. I managed to loop it up with just a few bytes added to one sample line and m
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(Action RPG) Version 0.008 beta 2 (Second Bar)

Beta 2. Second mini-goal done. Added in the second bar as planned, and set it so that the item-equipped displays properly. Also took a few seconds to replace the horrible looking sword with a horrible looking chalice.   I've pondered the idea of minor animations (2-4 frames) for the items, although where they're single color I don't know if that's really worth it. I am pondering allowing the item's color to change each scanline if I find I have time for it. That'll probably be a touch up
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Completed Persona 3

And I totally trounced the boss. Even without using the gamebreaking skill combo of Armageddon + Victory Cry.   Armageddon is a fusion spell you can use if you have Helel and Satan personas active, one of them equipped. For 999 SP (ie: everything you have, and only if you're at max level) you can instantly deal 9999 damage to all enemies. The monsters can't resist or dodge it. So it's basically an instant win skill. Even the Reaper can be one-shotted with the skill. Of course, this drains
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Room Loader

Accomplished step 1. Optimize the Room Loader as it is now. Probably saved 30-50 bytes with the simplistic/obvious fixes I used. I'll probably ponder better ways later that include redesigning the room data's format. One that'll let me do all down-counters. Since the rooms currently used in the rom are test rooms only, I'm guessing it's safe to put it off until I have all the things I know I'll want implemented added to the format that relate to the room.   Remaining steps:   1. Write
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Raise

Got a raise at work recently. While I have some things to catch up on first, this means I may be able to start ordering from the Atari Age store again! We'll see how it goes I guess. I'll likely get something when my tax refund is processed (A reward for getting the damned thing done on time!) but after that we'll see how things go through the summer. Might be better to save up some cash to get a nice christmas order.
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Also. Pictures!

Finally took the time to examine the little digital camera I bought back in 2006ish. I have a LOT more than the little bits shown in here, but that would require effort to unpack out of boxes, etc.
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(Action RPG) Version 0.018 - 16k Rom

Version 0.018 is complete. This upgrades the rom to 16k. And the amount of space available in each bank is awesome.   I've spliced up the code as detailed in the previous post. The rom plays essentially the same as the previous version/beta as far as anyone were to tell by playing it. There's just a lot more space available to add things now.   As I mentioned, I took a stab at trying to modify the Random Number generator. After reading it over and actually understanding what it was d
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Back to the grind.

Seems every time I finish a tiny milestone, as each version tends to be, I get a kind of rush. Of course this means much procrastination for a job well done.   At least I spend that time -thinking- about the upcoming goals for the next version.   So while it's already been a week I'm getting back to the editor. Work is a little heavier right now up until christmas but I'm sure I'll get a few things done before Christmas Eve.   Goals for Version 0.011:   1. Patch in Eric's f
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(Action RPG) 8K.

Bankswitching implimented, correctly this time. It does a little jumping around for the second-portion of the Variable init. I noticed there's an issue with the sprites displaying properly however (actual sprites 0 and 1, the robots) They work fine if they're set to either even or odd but show the wrong (but predictable and I know where) data if it's the opposite. This is caused by the double-scanline approach I took and interweaving of the sprites for space. I had thought I applied a fix to
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Coding Days are surprisingly still here.

So the idea I had for adding the playfield is quite a bit more complicated than I originally thought. But then I'm also working on an actual usable system that'll be kept from version to version from this point on instead of a simplified test case. It does use up quite a bit of the ram, but then I'm writing this with the superchip in mind. Not going to use the extended bytes of ram until the rom itself gets more complicated at any rate.   I'm more surprised that I'm still working on thi
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Perhaps a bit late.

For version 0.016. While writing the code I've been thinking about how it would react in flicker conditions. And it's quite likely I'll need to make some extra modifications to the Object Manager to give object preference at times. In other words, some objects, particularly room-loaded objects, may be negatively affected by flickering. So for those objects, it would be best to not let them flicker at all, at the cost of the other objects flickering a little worse. (or perhaps a lot worse, bu
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[Action RPG] Prelude to Version 0.013

Working away at version for 0.013 and since I'm running away from the code I'll give a general idea what I'm planning on having this release do when I'm finished.   The display has been lightened up some already, but it's looking like trying to iron out timing issues with branches crossing page boundaries is going to be a nightmare. I did a manual count of the bytes to see how things would fall. As it turns out there was a branch crossing right on the boundary. When I did a little moving of
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(Action RPG) Version 0.011 Beta

I copied over the code I've been working on to fit as much of the setup code into as few lines as possible for the vblanking. Here's what it looks like in stella. Looks the same in z26.           Sprites are fine. unlinked and all that as they should be. Haven't tested for their correct scanline yet but it should be. I still have to add code to set up the sprite's reflection (if needed) and size. (which would also adjust the sprite's coordinate for drawing with the position-a-sprite r
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Graze (2015-05-18)

The name of this game will likely change before it's finished. It just describes the goal of the game for the most part.   Right now it's showing the maximum number of free-roaming enemies the engine can do before causing slowdown. The plotvalues and boxcollisions are a big cause of this but there's a lot of 7800basic commands I can re-write into assembly to get that number up again. In case it isn't obvious from playing it a bit, a successful graze flashes the background blue. A hit, which wo
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(Action RPG) Return to Playfield

I'm going to have to admit defeat on attempting to unlink the SP bar from the HP bar for now. There's a lot more to consider than I originally realized about needing the cycle73 routine. Especially when I use a regular hmove routine at the same time at other parts of the screen. (For the player which can be positioned during vertical blank.)   Essentially, since the movement registers don't change unless we reset them to the value 0000 with the hmclr register, or unless we alter them indivi
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Found the problem. x_x

I use the stack pointer as an extra register during the gamefield zone scanlines, namely to keep track of the scanlines to generate - it's faster than updating ram itself. Problem ended up I was setting the stack pointer before the last sprite positioning subroutine call that I added in to the zone between status bar and gamefield. This corrupted the playfield that was intended then returned the stack value to "normal" so the screen would still generate the proper number of scanlines.   Noti
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Definitely a bit late.

The code is getting written, modifications being made, etc but I still haven't gotten to the point where I can compile the code and actually expect it to work. Right now the point is to determine how to load the object in the roomloader bank without needing data that is in the display bank. I really don't want to make complete item copies in the roomloader bank, although a lite version of the data might be done - and the rest of the processing handled in the Vertical Blank on the following fra
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(Action RPG) Version 0.008

I decided the final Status Bar scanline size will be 20. The top 16 basically handle the useful info, but I'm keeping a few lines reserved for repositioning the sprites used in the status bar to be used in the gamescreen itself. Obviously that's going to be needed.   As such, the final version 0.008 looks slightly different from beta 2. I'd love to finish the status bar completely but until I master a hmove 73 routine it just isn't going to be. I have a potential alternative to it if it be
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Curse you Cycle 73!

Well, I suppose it's not THAT bad. It's just annoying as heck to work out a usable cycle 73 hmove routine. The best I've worked out so far is to use a table, which of course sacrifices about 160 bytes of rom for the table. Assuming that hitting RESPx at cycle 76 counts as the end of a scanline and not the beginning of the next then the table I have written should work out... hopefully.   Not really in the mood to muck with it right now beyond inserting the table into the rom.   This is t
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The kind of visitor you never want to see.

I live up the road from a fire hall. I'm use to seeing - and hearing - the trucks go by at least 2-3 times a day. This is the first time one of those loud beasts stopped at my apartment building. Seems half of the apartments are pretty much apathetic to this situation. I am not. I slipped on my sneakers and went downstairs, and despite being on the top floor, I was the first person down to let the gentlemen into the building. I saw a total of probably 3-4 others that were at least interest
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