SpiceWare's Blog

I suppose we should figure out some format for me getting the graphics to you that will help with importing. Maybe a standard bitmap, but with a list of how far each line gets shifted?

 

It's bigger onscreen than I expected. Not sure if that's good or bad, but at least I know it doesn't need to be any larger.

 

Although I think the fireball should probably come out of his mouth, instead of his butt.

I suppose we should figure out some format for me getting the graphics to you that will help with importing. Maybe a standard bitmap, but with a list of how far each line gets shifted?

I spent quite a bit of time coding the dragon today and decided I'm going to write a command line utility to do the graphic conversion. The dragon is very impressive, so I suspect other 2600 coders may wish to use the technique in the future and having a ready made utility will make it easier to do so.

 

It's bigger onscreen than I expected. Not sure if that's good or bad, but at least I know it doesn't need to be any larger.

same thought came to my mind. Might make sense to shrink him a little, though the head seems perfect and making the body smaller might not look OK. I also need to figure out a way to scroll the dragon on/off screen - the row shifting makes that a tad difficult.

 

Although I think the fireball should probably come out of his mouth, instead of his butt.

I guess the implication is he had something spicy for dinner I'm going to redo the fireball launch sequence once I add the ability for the dragon to fly to the left. I see I also forgot to flip the right sprites after drawing the dragon - the shields are backwards

This is looking good Are you going to provide a computer-controlled player option for those of us without Atari-playing friends?

Chris

Eventually. My ROM usage is starting to get tight so I need to evaluate my options on where to put the AI code.

 

bank 1 - system init, display kernel & graphic data for dragon animation, lower shields/castles

bank 2 - menu

bank 3 - game processing (move fireballs, dragon, shields, sounds)

bank 4 - display kernel & graphic data for score, upper shields/castles, additional dragon animation

 

I had planned to put it in bank 3, but I'm running out of room as the fireball speed/direction tables took quite a bit of space(that's also why there's now seperate NTSC and PAL BINs). I have some extra room in bank 2, but I'd planned on an easter egg going in there. Bank 1 & 4 have a bit of space, but it's allocated to dragon graphics. Until they're done I don't know how much space will be left over.

 

Nathan has end-of-semester coming up so the dragon space will be in limbo for a bit.

 

I figure I could

1) revamp the fireball speed/direction tables to gain the needed room - however that'll cost in processing time in Overscan.

2) drop the easter egg plans and use the extra space in bank 2

3) put off the AI for a bit

 

3 actually isn't that bad of an idea - I want to write a tool to convert the dragon graphics to code anyway as it was rather tedious to do it manually - all the shifting took a bit to get right.

Eventually. My ROM usage is starting to get tight so I need to evaluate my options on where to put the AI code.

 

bank 1 - system init, display kernel & graphic data for dragon animation, lower shields/castles

bank 2 - menu

bank 3 - game processing (move fireballs, dragon, shields, sounds)

bank 4 - display kernel & graphic data for score, upper shields/castles, additional dragon animation

 

I had planned to put it in bank 3, but I'm running out of room as the fireball speed/direction tables took quite a bit of space(that's also why there's now seperate NTSC and PAL BINs). I have some extra room in bank 2, but I'd planned on an easter egg going in there. Bank 1 & 4 have a bit of space, but it's allocated to dragon graphics. Until they're done I don't know how much space will be left over.

 

Nathan has end-of-semester coming up so the dragon space will be in limbo for a bit.

 

I figure I could

1) revamp the fireball speed/direction tables to gain the needed room - however that'll cost in processing time in Overscan.

2) drop the easter egg plans and use the extra space in bank 2

3) put off the AI for a bit

 

3 actually isn't that bad of an idea - I want to write a tool to convert the dragon graphics to code anyway as it was rather tedious to do it manually - all the shifting took a bit to get right.

You can always go 32k. There 16k and 32k carts cost exactly the same to produce.

True - though it seems silly to go from 16K to 32K just to add an easter egg.

Dragon looks great. This is shaping up to something Atari Inc. would have loved to be able to release as Super Warlords back in the day.

 

Maybe you could use the extra space for an AtariVox soundtrack or something.

You can always go 32k. There 16k and 32k carts cost exactly the same to produce.

 

True - though it seems silly to go from 16K to 32K just to add an easter egg.

 

Just give yourself the option and reserve the bankswitch addresses now. If you don't use them, fine. But later you might come up with an idea which would use that extra 16K.

Dragon looks great. This is shaping up to something Atari Inc. would have loved to be able to release as Super Warlords back in the day.

Nathan is The Master when it comes to the sprites

 

Maybe you could use the extra space for an AtariVox soundtrack or something.

Neat idea - but I think that would conflict with 4 player.

Just give yourself the option and reserve the bankswitch addresses now. If you don't use them, fine. But later you might come up with an idea which would use that extra 16K.

I'm using a Macro for the hot spots so it'll be easy to modify the program if I change my mind on the 32K. And I guess I could have more than 1 easter egg.

I'd suggest using an extra bank (or banks) for music.

I like that idea. I suspect in-game music would conflict with the stereo sound effects, but would work great for the title screen and winner of the round, winner of game.

 

Another plus that's leaning me towards 32K is that I can dedicate a single bank to the dragon kernel. That would give Nathan plenty of room for the dragon animation, plus I'd be able to have animation frames for smooth-scrolling the dragon on/off the screen.

This is turning out fantastic!

 

I like the 32k idea, as you said, you can dedicate the dragon to its own bank, allowing it for more/better animations and more room to code the dragon for more details if you so desire.

 

Does catch work on the ROM? I haven't had a chance to play it yet...

No catch yet. Probably in a week or two.

This is shaping up to something Atari Inc. would have loved to be able to release as Super Warlords back in the day.

 

Actually, I prefer the title "RealSports Warlords".