retroclouds

You can make screens in custom sizes as well, e.g. (120x80) by overwriting the W: and H: input values. Ofcourse the Z80 player code that displays the screen would then need to support a "viewport" (perhaps with scrolling).

Thanks, that is very cool

Are these the fonts as used in the SG-1000 games Ninja Princess and Bombjack ? Cool

I'd say that most #EA5 assembly games on the CF7+ load in less than 2 seconds

Thanks Daniel.

Yep, the CF7+ is the best you can get. Unfortunately we don't have a menu software similar to the atarimax cartridge. I've been thinking about building something like that. I mean a 8K or 16K ROM image that we can put on a Jon Guidry cart. This ROM image would act as the menu software. We've got plenty of space on the CF7+ flashcard, combined with 32K of RAM we could have many features like game selection via screenshots, manuals, etc. The actual games or programs would be on the flash card. Combine that with a PC software for generating the flashcard DISK images, screenshots, manuals and we would really be rolling

I can highly recommend the CF7+, combined with an editor/assembler module -or if you are into 8K ROM images, an 8K supercart- it's all you'll need to get rolling There's nothing like the real deal for doing the final tests on new software

Thanks sometimes99er, I have some plans for this font

you mean Peyo? because i'm not from Belgium. Yes, Peyo and yes I know you are not Belgian but I am so am I

I was specifically thinking about the CF7 compact flash device. Guess it won't work there as it emulates normal disk drives ?

Did a cross-post in the colecovision programming section. Check it out here.

Hi colecovision friends, I'd like to point your attention to Magellan. Magellan is a map editor targeting the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A home computer or more generally speaking the TMS9918 VDP. Codex (the programmer) did a great job and Magellan already sports some nice features in the current version. There is no specific colecovision output format at this time, that is why I'm hoping someone could chime in to help with the specs for that. However, Magellan is already able to export binary files. The file format is documented, so a Z80 player could easily be written, I hope Check here for the details. Please note this is still a work in progress. The TI-99/4A and Colecovision communities aren't that large, that is why a joined effort could make sense. We can always use some more ideas for new features, etc.

Check the ninerpedia wiki here. Look for sections 3.5-3.9 I'll update the development resources thread shortly, making reference to the wiki and TI-FAQ.

Yeah, wished I had one of these. Unfortunately I don't have the space for it

Absolutely. I sure hope when things have cooled down a bit, opcode will continue doing his great work

Bumping this thread; just want to check how Magellan development is doing ? I know in the past we talked about a "feature request" list, at one point it was even added to one of the posts. Is that still the most current one, or does a newer version exist ? Would like to suggest to add it to the first post if possible

Thanks for the GPLLNK routine willsy! I'm currently working on my spectra2 arcade game library and would like to have a gate into GPL. Still working on the scratch pad memory setup and maybe I'll be able to squeeze the 32 bytes in

hehe, thanks As a matter of fact I've been looking at GPL a bit closer lately. That is TI-Intern and the GPL programmers manual both available here. GPL does have some very nice features. They for example have the COINC instruction for doing sprite collision checks. Something you don't want to do yourself in assembly language. I dunno of this instruction was ever used though

Are there any good examples on how to do sector and file access in assembler ? Does a PAB always need to reside in VDP memory or can it be in RAM as well ?

If I wanted to call a GPL routine from my assembly language program and return safely, what would be the things I have to take care of ? 1. Setup scratch-pad memory as required, GPL workspace in particular ? 2. Enable interrupts, is that really required ? 3. ????

Yes, it does look like a MSX2 game, but it is an MSX1 game. It won 2nd place in the MSXdev'06 competition. That's a competition for development of new MSX1 games. Check here. It does have very smooth scroll, which we all know is very hard to do on the TMS9918. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dH6gtS_2iGM

I'd love to see "Malaika: Prehistoric Quest" ported from MSX1 to the Colecovision (and to the TI-99/4A as well). That is a fine homebrew game indeed. Don't know if it would be possible on the colecovision with 1K of RAM though. Check the screenshots here.

Suprisingly, Car Wars is not an assembly language game. It is written in an interpreted language called GPL (Graphics Programming Language). GPL is noted to be slow. Well, I think Car Wars really shows that fast games are possible in GPL as well

I want to play it now!! Seriously, it really is crazy how life can get in the way. Somehow I wasn't able to do much TI stuff myself lately. Went through the thread and from what I understand you already got real far. I do am looking forward playing this game, when your conversion is done

Very cool