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Philsan

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Posts posted by Philsan

  3. Posted · Edited by Philsan

    So, attached you will find:

    - Bmpto256.ATR, the BMP to Paint 256 converters by M. Sobe

    - XLEmenu, the mentioned menu-program (plus other utilities)

    - 9 ATR images with Paint 256 pictures (e.g. conv. Jag-pict., etc.)

    - Swat.ATR, which shows some pictures of our old (no longer existing!) Abbuc regional group, "Andreas" shows an old picture of me, made in the early 90s...

    Andreas, beautiful images and nice moustaches!

    Thanks, but I already have BMPTO256.TUR (in my post #8 there is the link to the thread where Mirko Sobe post is).

    Unfortunately I have problems converting a .bmp image (after loading the .bmp file I get a Paint256 screen but with garbage - then after a minute I get the ready prompt but the program has saved nothing).

    I have written to Mirko Sobe.

     

    EDIT

    After BMPTO24.TUR with 8 bit .bmp images, I have tested B24TO256.TUR with 24 bit .bmp images, and it works!

  4. Posted

    That is freaking amazing! Are there any practical uses of these techniques, or is it only good for making pretty slide shows? I wonder if you could do a graphical adventure using this?

    In Paint 256 program disk there is a Turbo-Basic XL routine to load Paint256 pictures so I think it is possible to make graphical adventures.

  5. Posted · Edited by Philsan

    Andreas,

    1. your friend's "FADE256.COM" or "MULFADE.COM" programs work very well: is it possible to hide the upper menu?

    2. what program can I use to convert gif/bmp 80x96 256 colors PC pictures to Atari paint256?

    Thanks

  7. Posted

    What you guys all forget here is that we basically compare a machine from 1978 vs a machine from 1982.

    In that respect, the Atari truly is one outstanding hardware, since NOTHING in the 70s came even close to it. The chip designers did a lot of engineering to make it both a work computer and a "fun" machine by including scrolling/sprites/lots of colours etc... I love the A800 and really is the true spiritiual predecessor of the Amiga (both had the same chip designers).

    Nevertheless, the C64 DOES outdo the Atari in most parts. The character mode is more complex (256 characters, every character can have its own colour and even its own resolution), the c64 has a way better bitmap mode (4/2 unique colours for each 4x8/8x8 block) and the sprites are much better (12x21 in 4 colours lores or 24x21 colours hires). How can one even compare Pokey with SID? The Sid has variable waveforms, envelope generator, hard sync, ring modulation and a powerful multimode filter with low/band and high pass functionality.

    There is MUCH more you can do on the C64 you can't on the Atari than vice versa.

    But you know what, it's irrelevant. The Atari was 3-4 years earlier, so even if the Atari has its drawbacks, it's nevertheless a beautiful architecture. Who else would have thought of implementing a whole subprocessor with its own display instruction list in the 1970's??? It's architecture is very innovative for its time and thus very sympathetic.

    Bottom line: get real, and appreciate every machine in its context of their own time.

     

    I quote *every* single word.

    I don't think Commodore engineers were so stupid to make, after many years, an inferior machine like some fanboy's point of view.

    That said, I love my A8!

  9. Posted · Edited by Philsan

    Points of view of a n00b basic Atari/C64 programmer:

    - Atari Basic is one of the slowest basics, arrays are single dimensional, has graphics commands

    Atari Basic: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

    Fortunately we have the fast and command extended Turbo-Basic XL (Atari can autoboot from disk so you can use this language without having to load it manually)

    - C64 Basic is faster than Atari one (but slower then TB XL), has no graphics command

    - C64 has 8 high resolution 24x21 1 color sprites or 8 medium resolution (like Atari single line resolution) 12x21 3 colors sprites (every sprite can have an independent color but the other 2 are the same for all 8 sprites)

    - Atari has only 5 medium resolution 8x256 1 color sprites

    - In the C64 to move a sprite you poke x and y positions, in the Atari you poke the x position but it's more complicated to insert y position

    - In Atari you have to move memory pointers if you use sprites and push reset button if you don't want garbage on screen when you stop the program

    - Atari has a bigger colors palette (256 instead of 16), graphics mode 9 (80x192 16 shades of one color) let you display shades of grey photos, with display list interrupts you can mix various graphics modes

    - Atari has wonderful and cheap devices like SIO2PC (also usb version and Vista compatible) and SIO2SD for perfect disk drive and printer emulation

    - The perfect disk drive emulation solution for C64 is the new 1541 Ultimate (187$) other cheaper solutions (I have MMC64 and 64HDD) have many limitations.

     

    These are my Basic programming experiences.

  11. Posted · Edited by Philsan

    Thanks Andreas.

    I have looked Paint256's directory and I have found a simple Turbo-Basic routine to load and display pictures!

    Now I have to try PC to Atari conversion using the program BMPTO256.TUR (do you know another conversion program?).

  12. Posted · Edited by Philsan

    Hmm there are a lot of A8 -> C64 conversion which are 1:1. Boulder Dash, Bruce Lee etc etc. Especially in the early 80s many games were ported over. Typical sprite based games port over pretty easily from A8 to C64.

    Boulderdash: only 1 three colors 6 pixels wide sprite (you can easily overlap 3 Atari players)

    Bruce Lee: 2 two colors 8 pixels wide sprites (you can use 4 Atari players) + 1 one color 8 pixels wide sprite (you can use 4 Atari missiles)

    These games are easy to port because you don't need C64 sprites number, width, multicolor or high resolution.

    A simple game like Ms. Pac-Man needs tricks on Atari because of the 5 multicolor sprites and the result is worse (no hires Ms. Pac-Man, ghost's eyes are the same color of the ghost instead of blue, the sprites flickers when are on the same row).

     

    Don't get me wrong, A8 are wonderful machines produced many years before C64 and still better in some respects (a great achievement in my opinion).

    But for games, in particular '80 arcade games, C64 is better and easier to program.

     

    Moreover, all C64 games can use 64KB and many A8 games are limited by marketing to only 16KB: it's easy to understand why C64 is the most successfull 8-bit.

  17. Posted

    For some reason Commodore 64/128 spread better than Atari 8-bits although most people would agree that the Ataris are and were better machines than C64/128 especially their video features and quality-- the screen appearance, more colors/shades, DLIs, more accurate timers, faster updates (due to faster CPU and variety of graphics modes), etc.

    I too am an Atarian but don't exaggerate.

    For example C64 has 8 larger (24x21) hires or multicolor sprites.

    It is simpler do program games having more and more colorful hardware sprites (look at Ghostbusters players on Atari and C64).

    But, as you said, everyone must agree that Atari is a great machine that come out many years before C64.

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