hardhat

I started working on a CV Dracula in 2008. I've been working on it again this month. But slow as I am I don't currently have a release date in mind.

Well, I'm often not available on Saturday evening, but if NIAD wants to host then I could give him moderator status. But this Saturday in particular I can be flexible and could come out any time. There is always the Wednesday evening chat time slot of course.

Okay then, we will try 2pm EST (9pm GMT+2, 1pm Central, 11am Pacific) Saturday, and 9pm EST Sunday. So join either or both.

Yes. Now.

Sorry I didn't manage to capture any of those this year. I'll try harder to work that in next year.

Yeah, so EST is GMT-5, so a 7 hour spread. I'm thinking we could do one at 2pm EST, which would be 9pm in GMT+2 I'm just trying to pick a day I'm available then, but maybe next weekend, either Saturday or Sunday would be an option. I'll have to check my schedule for then. Would either of those times for well for you AtariBuff and CrazyBoss? What about other people?

Yes, I also have access to various 3D printers, both through work and via friends. In addition there is a local hacker space that would give me access to 3D printer. So then the challenge becomes one of 3D modelling instead of milling. Still a hard enough problem if you don't already have those skills. But it is something that you could certainly learn. Is that your plan?

Just download your favourite iPad IRC client, and you can go there no problem. Search in the Apple App Store for IRC.

Interesting to hear you say that. I tried PKK's tool chain and convinced Daniel to convert his toolchain to work with SDCC because I was impressed with the code generation, and the reliability of the compiler. Frequently I would write code that would cause Hi-Tech C to crash, which was quite frustrating for me. With optimization options turned off, I find SDCC to be faster than Hi-Tech C (maybe twice as fast). When I'm coding, that is how I usually run it. I've never had any issues with linking when I use either a Makefile or when I use Daniel's CCI3.exe. And since it is Open Source, I can run it on Mac, Windows or Linux with no issues. But I don't specifically want to get you to switch to SDCC -- do whatever works for you. It's just most programmers that I've talked to use SDCC these days. I truly believe that it isn't the tools, it is the game that matters. I previously use Aztec C before I used Hi-Tech or SDCC. I quite liked it at the time, but these days the C syntax it uses is archaic. And I can say with confidence that everyone seems to use a different assembler if they write code in assembly. It is completely amazing to me that there are that many different z80 assemblers. I use an open source one from z80.info, that I document here: http://www.adamcon.org/~dmwick/mayan/ with some good samples for use with Adam or ColecoVision games.

Okay, so just a reminder that we're going to try 9pm-11pm EST (that's starting at 8pm Central, or 6pm Pacific) tonight again, and because the room wasn't big enough we will be trying http://www.adamcon.org/chat/ Just choose a user name, and away you go. If you use IRC already, you can access it directly at irc.freenode.net in channel #retroemu

Well basically everyone who does C coding on the ColecoVision is currently using SDCC and it's z80 code generation. It is powerful enough and the code generation does improve over time, do to contributions of people like PKK (who works specifically on the z80 part). There is 1k of RAM (fast access) and 16k of Video RAM (slow access) which if managed carefully can support a wide variety of games. C doesn't inherently allocate memory, but instead leaves those decisions up to either the programmer or the support libraries that are included. There are several support libraries written by several different people. So for example Marcel's does everything with the hardware directly, but Daniel's lib4k uses the ColecoVision BIOS wherever possible. Different strategies, so different memory overhead requirements. There are certainly Forth compilers for Z80. I've used one on CP/M on the Adam. But I never developed specific ColecoVision libraries for it. It is stack based, and is very similar in feel to PostScript which I really mastered for some projects for work. I am still quicker at programming in C. So if it is speed of programming that I'm trying to maximize, I'll personally choose C over Forth, given the choice. Following assembled code isn't as bad as you say, since the operations still need to be done, and any code that works efficiently can't waste time doing irrelevant obscure things. There are always valves in any program that make for good points for hacking. And compiled Forth would be no different.

It doesn't look usable, and hasn't really changed in the last two years. Modem Chess and Modem Tank by Chris Brayman were both written in Turbo Pascal. Run on CP/M with a library for ColecoVision programming. So check out Turbo Pascal.

So one thing I was thinking of mentioning was that Donkey Kong is the only game that uses the OS7 Pascal entry points, which suggests that DK was actually written in Pascal. I don't know of any other game that uses those entry points though.

Dancing Demon (TRS-80) Android Nim (TRS-80) Mr Driller is for sure a great one. 2048 (puzzle game for PC -- I've been thinking of trying to do a nice version of this one) Castle Wolfenstein (Apple II) California Games (C64) Death and Taxes (Apple II) Time Bomb (TRS-80)

Sweet! I'm glad to see that it is ready to release. Congrats.

I would definitely believe that steaming boxes could work, but you'd probably want to do it on the inside, and then reglue the box together after. I haven't been brave enough to try it and find out if it makes the ink run or not. But if I give it a try, i'll for sure post before and after pics here.

Hmm...overly successful. I'd estimate at least 5 more people than the chat server could handle. Well, maybe we'll try IRC next week then.

It's 9pm! So let's all go into the chat room. Just make sure you're signed in, and click on "Chat" at the top of the page.

Video glitches usually suggest to me that there is a power supply issue, but there are other threads on here about replacing the video chips, which seem to be the next most likely thing to fail.

I really like Mod2PSG2. I'm wondering about exporting in Coleco BIOS format. There are two basic choices: either convert the VGM to Coleco format or add an exporter. Is there a document somewhere that says what the VGM encoding means?

So the good news is that your VDP register set up is perfect, as I'm sure you probably knew. I know from other threads that you don't normally use the BIOS, which is fine. And from your video mode set up, I see that you don't request the VDP interrupt which causes the NMI (Z80 non-maskable interrupt) on the VDP. Do you use the NMI later? If not, your difference in behaviour would make sense, since you only sync to the VDP if the title screen is on or if the reset button is hit. So then the solution really is to turn on the VDP interrupt, and use HALT, like nanochess suggested. The NMI is vectored to the jump table near the beginning of the cartridge map: ORG 8000h ; Tables DB 055h,0aah ;Magic number DW SPRITE_NAME ;Pointer to sprite name table DW SPRITE_ORDER ;Pointer to sprite order table DW SPRITE_WORKING ;Pointer to WR_SPR_NM_TBL work area DW CONTROLLER_BUFFER ;Pointer to hand controler input area DW MAIN_PROG ;Entry point to game ; Vectors JP RST08 ;Restart 8 JP RST10 ;Restart 10h JP RST18 ;Restart 18h JP RST20 ;Restart 20h JP RST28 ;Restart 28h JP RST30 ;Restart 30h JP MASK_INT ;Maskable interrupt (used by spinner) JP VDPINT ;NMI interrupt (used by VDP 60 times per second) ; Title screen name DB 'ADAMCON 11',1eh,1fh DB '/PRESENTS ADAM NEWS NETWORK'S'/1999' ;1dh is copyright symbol ;1eh,1fh is trade mark symbol If you don't want a handler for the VDP interrupt, you can always do RETN there. But the recommended minimum is to have a handler that saves the registers (probably just AF really), reads the status register (which clears the interrupt on the VDP), restores the registers (probably just AF really) and then RETN.

I won the Smurf, and the details in it are awesome. It is now resting safely on my son's bed.

No worries. We will be there at least 6:00-8:00pm PST most likely, so just join us as soon as you're free. Obviously if you're in Europe it is the middle of the night. So we will also try one that is more convenient for European time zones too, and that should miss your supper time when it comes up.

Hi, After talking a bit with NIAD and a few others, we thought we'd try to come in force into the AtariAge chat room this Sunday night at 9pm EST (8pm Central, 6pm Pacific). That was the traditional time for the live chat on CompuServe back in the 80s and 90s. So maybe that is a good time to start with. Is that the best time? I'm not sure. So I think the plan is to try a couple of other times in the coming weeks and see if we can decide what works best for most people. So when Sunday evening happens, just click Chat on the bar across the top and we will have a ColecoVision party. I hope to see you there. Bring your problems, questions, things to show off and so on. Or just come to hang out -- see and be seen.

I didn't find a new client yet, but I'm in IRC at http://www.adamcon.org/chat/ if you want to chat tonight.