Cybergoth

vdub_bobby · January 27, 2006

See above

vdub_bobby · January 27, 2006

Hi there!

Well, you can speedup the sorting - at the cost of RAM and possibly kernel cycles - if you create an index table and only sort that

So three sprites with Y values:
Sprite A: 100

Sprite B: 98

Sprite C: 96

They all overlap.

Assume they start sorted.

Then 1st iteration leaves:

CAB. Only C will show, since the kernel won't check for A or B until it has begun drawing C and by that time it has already passed A and B!

Eh, now that is suboptimal!

- Assume both sprites are already positioned outside the kernel to the first two list entries.

- Whenever one sprite finished drawing, immediately reposition it.

- Then just wait until you meet it's starting position and draw it then.

- Repeat procedure.

In your CAB example. Consider C and A are both already positioned *before* line 96. Both are displayed and B is skipped this frame, because both sprites are busy.

Greetings,

Manuel

vdub_bobby · January 27, 2006

For two sprites I'd try two iterations of my Flickersort

I'm pretty sure that won't work.

In fact, I'm pretty sure that would be worse than a single iteration.

Or maybe...hmmmm.

Let's see... displayed are always the first 2 sprites:

3 overlapping sprites: 123, 312, 231, 123

=> Works (Each sprite goes on/on/off)

4 overlapping sprites: 1234, 3412, 1234

=> Works (Each sprite goes on/off/on/off)

5 overlapping sprites: 12345, 34512, 51234, 23451, 45123, 12345

=> Works (Each sprite goes on/off/on/off/off)

6 overlapping sprites: 123456, 345612, 561234, 123456

=> Works (Each sprite goes on/off/off/on/off/off)

...always even distribution of "on" time for any sprite it seems

The improvement of 2 sort iterations over one is most noticable with four sprites:

on/off/on/off is 30Hz

while

on/on/off/off is 15 Hz

vdub_bobby · January 27, 2006

Part of the problem was that I could never figure out a good sorting algorithm. Anybody have any ideas?

For two sprites I'd try two iterations of my Flickersort

Greetings,

Manuel

vdub_bobby · January 27, 2006

What do you actually think is wrong with the other demo? I thought it looked pretty good. It sure could do an pretty good Ufo port.

Also your technique should come to full effect with 4 sprites in a row. Compare that to a 1 sprite engine!

Try Zookeeper!

Greetings,

Manuel

vdub_bobby · January 27, 2006

Hi there!

No, that's the wrong game. For that effect you'd just shift a missle around, without having to flicker anything

Greetings,

Manuel

Zach · January 27, 2006

Hi there!

What, no Archon?

Greetings,

Manuel

vdub_bobby · January 26, 2006

Hi there!

I love it! I always knew that the VCS could do games like that

Greetings,

Manuel

Cybergoth · January 26, 2006

Hi there!

So who was the better drummer, Tommy Ramone or Marky Ramone? I vote Tommy and Dee Dee kicked CJ's ass in terms of playing as well.

I'm too young for the old line-ups, unfortunately I've only seen them live from "Mondo Bizarro" (92?) onwards

Generally Helena and I go mostly for the first two albums (her favourite being "Baby Baby" ), though you generally can't go wrong with any Ramones recording

Greetings,

Manuel

vdub_bobby · January 26, 2006

...but what is it?

An engine for Ufo I'd guess

Cybergoth · January 25, 2006

Hi there!

2008????

That is unless you find a sponsor paying me to do it earlier

Greetings,

Manuel

Nathan Strum · January 25, 2006

Hi there!

I have to make two sets of each bug animation - horizontal and vertical. This is due the the 2600 not using square pixels. So that will take some doing.

Aha, so it can only have monochrome sprites, since turning the colorschemes by 90° would be impossible.

I generally think it must be a nightmare for an artist to do sprites for the VCS, considering all those weird limitations you have and even weirder instructions from programmers like "I need 8 explosion frames but in sum they may not use more than 60 scanlines" and stuff

Greetings,

Manuel

Thomas Jentzsch · January 24, 2006

Hi there!

We'll see. I am not even sure, if I will try to redo Tunnel Hunt. Maybe I'll just do a simple 3D-racing minigame (with separate and different tracks of course ).

I think it'd be cool if it'd fully cover Tunnel Hunt and just had all other stuff like 3D-Race, 3D-Kaboom, 3D-Cave, etc as extra playmodes

Greetings,

Manuel

Cybergoth · January 24, 2006

*dropsunconscious*

Uhm... ok that'd be 2013 then

Hm... I just realize that with this roadmap I have another 3 years to bug Chris to do Hunchback himself

Thomas Jentzsch · January 24, 2006

Hi there!

Is this the "yet to be announced project" that Manuel mentioned in the Ladybug - 2600 thread?

There I meant Juno First from Chris. Of course from the blogs you already knew about that

Greetings,

Manuel

Thomas Jentzsch · January 23, 2006

Hi there!

But currently I am pondering about a kernel generator

You mean a generator in ROM, which is creating the desired kernel in the RAM on the fly?

That certainly sounds like the next level of 2600 programming

Greetings,

Manuel

Thomas Jentzsch · January 23, 2006

Hi there!

Looks cool! I hope you get it moving.

Would a brute force solution work, with 40 different kernels, one for each possible center square?

Greetings,

Manuel

Cybergoth · January 22, 2006

Hi there!

Yeah, it'll be interesting to me see if you find something for me
How about Activision's Ice Hockey? I remember we played that one quite a lot, when I visited you.

It's amazing fun for two players, definitely!

Thinking about this, Ice Hockey must be my favourite sport for computer games (if any ). I also enjoyed "Superstar Ice Hockey" on the C64 and even a few of the early NHL installments. The more sports games turned into "realism" the less I liked them it seems

Ok, so it's probably a dozen sport games I enjoyed in m life

Greetings,

Manuel

Cybergoth · January 22, 2006

Hi there!

This is a fun game - I just went back and played it in MAME again. Hopefully you can do better than the 7800 version

Hehe... well, I only had a first glance at the 7800 game, but from what I've seen, all kidding aside, it should be the best game Froggo ever made - it's almost playable

I'm going to have to check this out in MAME.

Cool, let me know what you think of it!

I have a feeling that it was sort of a successor of "Alpine Ski", so if you liked that, you should love Water Ski

BTW, I think my next blog entry will have to be on Sports games. I can't stand watching sports on television, but I love playing the games. Maybe I can help you find something to change your mind about the genre.

I don't think I liked more than 5 sports games in the past 25 years. Let me see...

C64 Microprose Soccer,

NES Ice Hockey,

NES Punch Out,

2600 California Games,

AMIGA M.U.D.S.

Hm... I think that's it already...

Yeah, it'll be interesting to me see if you find something for me

Greetings,

Manuel

Nathan Strum · January 22, 2006

Hi there!

So, I suppose, of all the animated movies I have seen in the last 10 years or so, I think I enjoyed the Emperer's New Groove the most. A lot of people hated it, but I laughed my butt off.

My favourite would be "Titan AE", but that was already an easy guess from my blogs name, no?

Greetings,

Manuel

Cybergoth · January 21, 2006

Hi there!

So, removed another 2 entries, Juno First and Mega Zone. Juno First because of Juno Second and Mega Zone for being too generic.

EDIT: And Tin Star also lost it. It just sucks

Greetings,

Manuel

vdub_bobby · January 21, 2006

Hi there!

I think I know why this category is so surprisingly small - it may be missing some entries. Where did you put these? (not a complete list - just from memory)

Also Fatal Run.

Greetings,

Manuel

vdub_bobby · January 20, 2006

Hi there!

Any ideas on how to subcategorize the Driving/Racing games?

Well, pick your poison:

Cars / Other vehicles

Action / Simulation (or Fun / Serious)

Joystick / DC + Paddles

Atari / Other manufacturer

Arcade port / VCS Original

Score / Timer

2D / 3D

Circles / Straight

Background music / SFX

Full Speed / Braking required

A-M / L-Z

Greetings,

Manuel

Zach · January 18, 2006

Hi there!

Except that you can't have wide sprites and multiple copies at the same time...

Uhm... but you can

I don't remember the trick in detail, but there's a demo in the [stella] archives that does it, showing two big dragons. I think the "meltdown" prototype also does that.

Greetings,

Manuel

vdub_bobby · January 18, 2006

Cool stuff, indeed!

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