Gemintronic

As a side I've been a huge fan of bBpf - the original playfield editor that generates pfpixel commands. Using it helped me over the years to "think different" about generating mazes, passwords and numerical displays. Super stoked that you are getting back into making handy tools for batari BASIC. Thank you for your work! It's made batari BASIC even more fun for me.

Got it to work. Feel free to use it however you please Not sure if it was Firefox or some ad blocking extension messing with it, but, sometimes it would change the foreground or background color even whenever I clicked outside the drawing area. Say, trying to select an option or change a color. linemantitle.zip

Went for the digital version as I really should use the very expensive eink reader I bought months ago. Will never let go of the hard copy of the first book. Still plonking through examples

Unpopular opinion but I opted to buy a pre-built MiSTer. Too many vendors with too many things to ship - most out of stock on one part or another. Plus, I didn't want to risk fugging it up. No regrets. I enjoy the few 7800 games that work with the currently available core on my Xbox One joystick.

The source and ATASCII character set make great food for thought. I'm thinking password systems and DOS character graphic games like Rogue. Thank you!

I think bB needs some additional files tweaked for Genesis button support. have you tried pairing down the logic by making the changes outlined here and compiling RevEngs example? https://atariage.com/forums/topic/158596-2-button-games-in-bb-using-sega-genesis-pads-with-the-2600/ Maybe after that changing the example to use your kernel options and trying again. Just to see if it stops working as intended. Not trying to sound huffy muffy. Just thinking about what I'd do to figure it out

Lurking (as usual) and trying to follow both the question and the answer. I realize I can't find the font CyranoJ posted above. Did a search on pictures in the JagStudio folder. Also tried to find a reference in print.bas figuring it'd load it in somewhere. Where is this beautiful ASCII character set? UPDATE: Made a version myself. Probably needs tweaking for real use.

Seems a little messy. I know it gets that way in the bB section with a mix of assembly and BASIC questions. Probably not the same situation in the 7800 scene, I guess.

Draconian and Scramble are on my do want list. Mostly because I'm dazzled by the programming. But, I also enjoy the arcade games they pay homage to.

7800basic has been around for a bit. Might even have some homebrew completed using it. I don't see a section like batari BASIC though. Am I just missing something? Usually am

Maybe try the online 8 bit workshop? https://8bitworkshop.com/redir.html? It's still a stretch and may not work. Also, not sure there's enough space to properly code even on a tablet or cellphone in Samsung DeX mode.

The price has always been amazing. The firmware is actively being maintained (and improved.) So, it's just a matter of getting it while in stock.

Let's not forget Nativefier has been successful so far in dropping in the files on github and making the tool "native" and offline for Winwoes and Linux. Nativfier https://github.com/nativefier/nativefier How to make local web pages into stand alone apps https://medium.com/ciiag/nativefier-turn-local-html-files-into-desktop-app-21ad70bdf35f

I'm probably missing something, as usual. I press the [ Choose File ] button and select a 48x96 bitmap file. Nothing happens. Tried a local copy from github as well. Untitled.bmp

Bought a 386sx instead of an Amiga. Would have been much farther along in game development and multimedia skills.

My big hare brained scheme is to figure out if a machine is running on PAL or NTSC. Thought of comparing the difference between two different counters: one running in vblank and one in the main loop.

Makes me think me and atari2600land need to figure out what delta time is and how to roll our own implementation. Get things basically the same speed on real and virtual hardware.

It also turns out using bits from a variable is a boolean (true/false) kinda thing. That's why you see bitwise operations look like this: rem //** Declare var to later use as 8 true/false values **// maryostate = c rem //** Define first bit in maryostate as hasfireflower for easy reading by the coder **// def hasfireflower = maryostate{0} rem //** Put a 1 or 0 into hasfireflower **// if collision(player0, ball) then maryostate{0} = 1 rem //** don't need to write it as "hasfireflower = 1" because it's going to be 1 (true) or false (0) anyway. if hasfireflower then goto firejoyevent

Not sure where I included inline assembly. Maybe your'e talking about the unexplained counter{0} thing? The counter variable goes up by one every main loop. That means the first binary place always flips from 0 to 1 and back again. That makes it perfect to trigger things every other frame. counter{0} means the value in the first binary place 0000000x counter{1} means the value in the second binary place 000000x0 ..and so on

Can you save settings per game? I keep having to change the screen rotation for some games.

I'd second not worth it for collecting reasons. Local shops sometimes intentionally (and unintentionally) sell reproductions. Don't know until you open it up.

Not the best code but maybe this'll demonstrate gosub-less techniques rem //** counter counts up once every iteration of the main loop **// rem //** redghostdir holds the current direction the red ghost wants to go in **// dim counter = a dim redghostdir = b rem //** load up player graphics **// player0: %10010101 %11111111 %11100111 %11000011 %11111111 %01011010 %10111101 %00000001 end player1: %01111110 %11100011 %11000001 %11000001 %11111111 %11011011 %11001001 %01111110 end rem //** set player locations on screen **// player0x = 44 : player0y = 44 player1x = 66 : player1y = 66 main rem //** Do loop maintenance including updating counter and dealing with reset requests **// if switchreset then reboot counter = counter + 1 rem //** Handle player joystick input **// joyevent if joy0up then player1y = player1y - 1 if joy0down then player1y = player1y + 1 if joy0left then player1x = player1x - 1 if joy0right then player1x = player1x + 1 rem //** Put player in ghost trigger position for testing **// if joy0fire then player1y = 72 : player1x = 85 rem //** Instead of moving by a fraction (.5) just call movement event every other frame **// if counter{0} goto aicontrolsroom0 after_aicontrolsroom0 rem //** set up colors and things for drawscreen **// COLUP0 = $0E COLUP1 = $2E drawscreen goto main aicontrolsroom0 rem //** if player is in trigger Y position clear out redghostdir else exit **// if player1y = 72 then redghostdir = 0 else goto after_aicontrolsroom0 rem //** Check for X coordinate triggers and exit if no go **// if player1x = 28 then goto moveghost if player1x = 85 then goto moveghost if player1x = 141 then goto moveghost goto after_aicontrolsroom0 moveghost rem //** set redghostdir to random 0-3 value and jump to appropriate code **// redghostdir = rand&3 on redghostdir goto red_up red_down red_left red_right rem //** This section moves red ghost coordinate by 1 but note this only gets called every other frame **// red_up player0y = player0y - 1 goto after_aicontrolsroom0 red_down player0y = player0y + 1 goto after_aicontrolsroom0 red_left player0x = player0x - 1 goto after_aicontrolsroom0 red_right player0x = player0x + 1 goto after_aicontrolsroom0 pacexample.bas

Yeah, I've learned to not use gosubs. Or, at least use them outside the main loop if possible. Had a game called M.M.S.B.C. 2 that eventually rolled the screen due to gosub usage. Instead, I use a lot of "sub" labels with things like "after_" main if debounce > 0 then goto after_joystick else debounce = debounce - 1 joystick if joy0fire then missile0y = missile0y + 1 after_joystick

There are only weird techie voodoo solutions left and even those are trial and error. Like I said in a previous thread we might have to break down and learn how to set up a virtual Windows 7 machine via Virtualbox. it's free. https://www.virtualbox.org/ It also has a seamless mode that makes VisualbB look like any normal application even though it's running on a VisualbB friendly virtual machine running Win 7. Either that or use Visual Studio Code with Atari Dev Studio. Keep the half working older copy of VisualbB open for the extra tools Atari Dev Studio doesn't yet have. The last, LAST option is to track down the developer of VisualbB and beg him to re-compile VisualbB for modern Windows and .NET. I think he's long gone, though.

I'd take out the fancy decimal point math " _P0_L_R = _P0_L_R + .2" and using variables this way too: " dim _P0_L_R = player0x.a" For me it's much more stable to use the modulus operator to do things every so many frames. Here is some code that slows the character down by moving him every 4th frame using "counter&3" main if switchreset then reboot counter = counter + 1 if counter&3 > 0 then goto after_input input if joy0left then player4x = player4x - 1 if joy0right then player4x = player4x + 1 if joy0up then player4y = player4y + 1 if joy0down then player4y = player4y - 1 after_input This technique may not directly solve your problem. Maybe it will. But, the code will be easier to read using less complicated variables and math - leading to better tracking down where the ghosts get displaced. Also realize bB programmers have no control over the flicker mitigation technique. So, the ghosts may be told not to draw by the bB flicker mitigation routines. I'd start their Y coordinates separate from eachother on screen. In my experience virtual sprites need around three pixels worth of padding between them (i.e. 3 pixels below or above displayed part of sprite).