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Philsan

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Posts posted by Philsan

  4. Posted

    33 minutes ago, amarok said:

    Done, thank you for pointing out. Is there any way to correct file names of previously uploaded files?

    It's not an issue, only aesthetic, because if you download part or all (you are new so your files are not there) of this topic's files, your files will be correctly ordered because your name is before image's name and it's separated.

     

    Only an administrator could rename your files.

     

  8. Posted

    I never used keyboards to play games (additional commands and text adventures apart), all my computers had joystick ports, even my first PC in 1996 (Soundblaster with game port) so it's not a problem.

     

    All Atari computers had 2-4 joystick ports.

     

    That would have been a big issue for computers without joystick ports like Sinclair, Apple, BBC.

     

    Thanks for the info and... please give some love to Elite port! 😁

    • Like 2

  11. Posted

    Thank you very much Victor @vitoco !

     

    I had a hard time getting Racer started until I found out (reading the code) that joystick must be plugged in port 2!

    Strange choice by the programmer, A8 software assumes joystick in port  1 (unlike C64 where joystick most of the times should be plugged in port 2 but sometimes in port 1).

  14. Posted

    30 minutes ago, Nojeee said:

    Most of the changes were cosmetic ... such as reworking the title page and adding music etc. There were a few improvements to the balancing of the game as it was fairly easy to get through lots of screens before it became difficult. I didn't think that the changes warranted updating the A8 version - it might have confused things.

     

    I'm actually just finishing converting my old Timeslip game to the 5200. This has had lots of changes to the game play so I do intend to release an updated A8 '2020' version. 

    If it's not too complicated, I would like an updated Major Blink A8 version too, but the time is limited therefore you should do whatever you prefer to do.

    Timeslip update is a good idea, thanks!

    • Like 2

  15. Posted

    @SpiceWare explains what DPC and DPC+ are:

     

    DPC is the co-processor that David Crane developed for Activision. It makes some calculations significantly faster, such as updating the players (sprites), adds the ability for 3-voice music, and other things. It was used for Pitfall II. The market collapsed before they could use it for any other games.

     

    The ARM chip in the Harmony/Melody cartridge emulates the DPC so it can play Pitfall II. Back in 2010 we decided to use the extra resources to expand upon DPC's abilities and came up with DPC+. The new features are even faster updating of sprites, better 3 voice music (the waveforms can be customized while the original DPC only used square waves), and even the ability to offload processing to the ARM chip in the Harmony/Melody. Games like Space Rocks and Stay Frosty 2 were written using 6507 assembly and DPC+ with ARM.

     

    The DPC+ for Atari 2600 VCS has those strenghts:

    - it is well accepted by the community because it is based on 1984 DPC, it's not a completely new modern enhancement

    - it is emulated by Harmony cart, the standard multicart for VCS for over ten years; VCS hasn't dozens loading devices like A8

    - homebrew VCS market is wider than A8 one and many people buy games on carts that have melody boards inside that support DPC+; BTW, those carts with awesome games and awesome packages like Galagon, Aardvark... cost only $50!

     

    A8 already has some upgrades or solutions, like VBXE, Rapidus, multicarts (UNO, Veronica, Hashi, other multicarts could add enhancements too) but:

    - there isn't a standard

    - some of them needs hardware mods

    - some of them are not well accepted because some people think that they transform A8 in something different

     

  19. Posted

    So, here are the three programs that create the file that can be used with ENTER"D:DIR" to show directory.

    The results are the same, apart the fact the third program displays name-size bar.

    Which is better and what are the differences from a programmer's points of view?

      

    THORFDBG

10 OPEN #1,8,0,"D:DIR"
20 DIM Q$(1):Q$=CHR$(34)
30 PRINT #1;"CLR:DIM D$(32):CL.#1:";
40 PRINT #1;"O.#1,6,0,";Q$;"D:*.*";Q$;
50 PRINT #1;":FORI=0TO0STEP0:";
60 PRINT #1;"I.#1,D$:?D$:";
70 PRINT #1;"I=I+(D$(2,2)<>";Q$;" ";Q$;")";
80 PRINT #1;":NEXTI:CL.#1:CLR"
90 CLOSE #1
    HC MEIN COMPUTER 02/1984

1 DIM M$(120)
2 M$="CLR:DIMQ$(20):CL.#1:O.#1,6,0,'D:*.*':FOR N=1TO25STEP0:I.#1;Q$:?Q$:IFLEN(Q$)>10 AND Q$(5,8)<>'FREE' THEN N.N"
3 OPEN #1,8,0,"D:DIR"
4 FOR N=1 TO LEN(M$)
5 Z=ASC(M$(N,N))
6 IF Z=39 THEN Z=34
7 PUT #1,Z
8 NEXT N
9 PUT #1,155:END
    COMPUTRONIC 1986

30 DIM M$(200)
40 M$="CLR:DIM A$(20):? '{CLR}  NAME         SIZE':? :CLOSE #1:OPEN #1,6,0,'D:*.*':FOR A=1 TO 70:INPUT #1,A$:? A$:"50 M$(103)="IF A$ (1,1)=' ' OR A$(1,1)='*' THEN NEXT A"
60 OPEN #1,8,0,"D:DIR.LST":FOR N=1 TO LEN(M$):C=ASC(M$(N,N)):IF C=39 THEN C=34
70 PUT #1,C:NEXT N:PUT #1,155
80 CLOSE #1

     

  20. Posted

    On 4/1/2020 at 8:33 PM, thorfdbg said:

    Nope. I used to place a small program on every disk that printed the directory. It  is even possible to place there a couple of commands  in a text file, e.g. "D:DIR", and then list the directory by  ENTER "D:DIR".

     

    The following text file may do:

      

    CLR:DIMD$(20):CL.#1:O.#1,6,0,"D:*.*":FORI=0TO1STEP0:INPUT#1,D$:?D$:IF D$(2,2)=" " THEN NEXTI

     

    Print this line to the file "D:DIR", and everytime you need the directory, "ENTER "D:DIR"" does the job, without erasing the current program.

     

     

    18 hours ago, Philsan said:

    Could you please write the code to do it, I think OPEN and PRINT # something...

     

    Done!

     

    Place this file on disk and just type "ENTER D:DIR".

    DIR

     

    Why didn't you explain me that solution 36 years ago? 😄

     

    • Haha 1

  23. Posted

    12 hours ago, Rybags said:

    The problem using DIR.LST is you then need to put it on every disk you're likely to use.

     

    An alternate could be to just embed it in your current Basic program.  Probably best to put it right near the end, and have it such that you can GOTO it in immediate mode and have it create minimal disturbance.

     

    So it might be something like:

    32000 CLOSE #5 : OPEN #5,6,0,"D:*.*" : TRAP 32100

    32010 GET #5,ZZ : PUT #16,ZZ : GOTO 32020

    32100 CLOSE #5 : STOP

     

    STOP instead of END so that other IOCBs aren't closed and you can use GOTO to resume your program if you've hit Break somewhere.

    After RUN or GOTO 32000 I get STOPPED  AT LINE 32100

  24. Posted

    On 4/1/2020 at 8:33 PM, thorfdbg said:

      

    CLR:DIMD$(20):CL.#1:O.#1,6,0,"D:*.*":FORI=0TO1STEP0:INPUT#1,D$:?D$:IF D$(2,2)=" " THEN NEXTI

    Print this line to the file "D:DIR", and everytime you need the directory, "ENTER "D:DIR"" does the job, without erasing the current program.

     

    Could you please write the code to do it, I think OPEN and PRINT # something...

    • Confused 1
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