adamantyr

I presume, as you mention "software sprite", you mean that you used characters to create these? I am not familiar enough with either XB256 or RXB to comment on their capabilities in this area, but what you describe is a pattern mapping, right? You want to quickly blast out the character patterns at different positions on the screen? Unfortunately, there's no "direct memory" work you can really do here to achieve this in XB or most flavors of it. Part of the problem is I presume you want to have a "transparent" block which will just skip and show the background. Different character patterns CAN be drawn relatively quickly by using DISPLAY AT, but having done this myself in an early version of Wizard's Doom, I can assure you it won't be fast enough for an action game. What IS possible in XB, though, is to write an assembly language routine to do the work for you. I wrote routines to draw the 3D maze portion of Wizard's Doom quickly on screen and it worked pretty well. This is a similar operation; each different frame of your karate guy can be stored as a number value, and a LINK that just passes a starting position and the frame ID would then be able to draw the pattern out.

Well for the moment, all the monster graphics are done! Some may get tweaked here and there but that's relatively easy to do compared to a complete redo. The final couple dungeons of the 3rd world disk are taking forever... I'm grinding away though!

I never noticed the score, honestly. The fact it has no variation and no difference is definitely an issue.

Really? I never got far in the 2nd phase simply because the aliens moved too fast, but I felt like it was pretty awesome and I got my money's worth out of it.

Okay, I got a PAL TV from Germany on it's way to me. The TV is 230 volts, 50hz, 43 watts. Can anyone tell me exactly what kind of transformer or adapter I will need to power it safely please? Links to amazon or other sites are welcome. This one sounds like it would do, but a vote of confidence before I spend money would be nice: https://www.amazon.com/LiteFuze-LC-300US-300Watt-Voltage-Converter/dp/B00BQ0FQ4S/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?keywords=230v%2Btransformer&qid=1558306886&s=gateway&sprefix=230v%2Btrans&sr=8-4&th=1&psc=1

I'll let you know. The problem is, even getting a component TV nowadays is a challenge, most TV's now only have a composite (if that) and HDMI. That said, it's a nice cable, but I imagine the work involved plus the cost of international shipping may get up there a bit in price.

The cartridge came "tested"? I recall Super Demon Attack had a lot of issues on mine, I had to remove and replug it several times to get it to work.

In a pitch, you can use windex and a q-tip to clean the contacts.

Not actually, my goal was to SEE the TI running in a PAL format. Running on a regular TV using the modulator is fine, that's basically what every TI user in Europe had unless they heavily modded it or got some custom cable. The TV I may be able to get looks like it's from Germany, so it should work with the standard PAL modulator which was optimized for the European standard and not the UK. Hopefully anyway. I'll find out Monday if I can get it. Someone should really edit the top of this thread with a list of everything a U.S. 99'er would have to do to get a PAL TI working. It's not trivial.

There's no fine tuning on this TV... just a channel detector. I ran that, it found 33 and 34 for the TI, and a bunch of digital channels. (Vizio, if it helps.) Also, I think the fact it's B/W with splotchy artifacts of color is indicative that the color bands aren't being handled properly. Per "system information" it considers the channel 34 on antenna to be NTSC. So it's clearly NOT detecting it's a PAL signal or compensating. And no, there's no manual option to change it. I think my last test here will be to acquire a PAL TV if I can (I'll know by Monday if I can get one), and test on that. It will require me to buy a transformer/converter for the TV.

Yeah, I'm guessing with older TV's, you NEED to have an actual PAL 50hz TV. Maybe a modern one would work, I'll test it sometime this weekend. EDIT: Tested it, the modern TV doesn't have a sync issue, but there's no sound, it's black and white, and there's TONS of nasty artifacts going on, little blips and splotches all over. This picture looks better than it is.

Some pics of it in action:

I do, but reaching the antenna port would be a major hassle, and the TV is huge so it's not really going to show me how it looks in comparison to my regular TI monitor.

There is no VCR here. Nothing worked with that, so I had to go to a TV I had that is ALSO a VCR but has an antenna in, so I could just directly hook up to it. There's no composite cable involved right now whatsoever.

It's an unmodified PAL modulator, so it says it's tuned to channel 36 UHF on the label. As I switched the TV closer to 36 the sound changed as it got closer to the band. Channel 34 was the only one that rendered any image, the rolling black and white. My VCR/TV is from the 90's so it may be one of those TV's that just doesn't work with the older standards. Unless someone has a better theory?

Okay, an update... I had to order a PAL Male to RF adapter part so I could hook up the PAL Modulator to a US TV or VCR. Unfortunately, on the VCR, I get nothing. I happen to have an old VCR/TV combo that has an antenna in, so I hooked up to that directly. That works, but the ONLY channel that comes through is channel 34, and it shows a rolling black and white picture of the TI screen. So even if the VCR COULD go to channel 34, it would probably show the same. On the plus side, the console is confirmed working. On the down side, I still don't have a clear and useful picture. And based on what I know of the standard, it may be my TV doesn't have a PAL compatible mode or something. EDIT: I'm following a lead to perhaps acquire a 14" TV that's PAL. It will require a transformer to use, but at least I could hook up to it directly. I'm okay with a TV because by the look of things TV's are what 99'ers have been using pretty much forever outside of the states. Because there are no other options.

Shucks. I was hoping you maybe weren't using it anymore since getting an F18A.

I'm not a hardware guy, so no, I can't build my own. Which is why I said if someone can make one to give me a price quote for the work. (In the other thread I think.)

If someone with the tools and skills wants to figure the cost of parts and labor and testing and make me one, give me a quote!

Yeah, that would be a legit fear of mine as well. If the modulator breaks, this TI is for me just a nice door stop.

Yeah, I'd LOVE to have that cable, I could do a lot more with it. Unfortunately they are no longer made. If you're interested in selling it let me know!

Good to finally find posts on the modulator modifications, many of the links from the prior thread 404'ed on the subject. I'm not a hardware guy, though, so I'd have to find someone who could do the modification for me.

Hey I just picked up a PAL TI, but I have no way of viewing anything at the moment. My only present method is to use a VCR as a converter from coax to composite, which I'll be able to test tomorrow. It's too bad we can't make an 6-pin RGB cable that's compatible with the old Magnavox monitors... I considered buying a commodore serial 6-pin cable to mess with, but I realized it would be way above my skill level (None) to create, plus you'd have to split off a second cable for audio, so that's a heck of a lot of cable work. And the Tech Pages mention about needing an encoder suggests JUST a cable isn't enough.

I'm doing some research, but I need help here before I spend any more money on this. I see that PAL male to F-type adapters exist, but that would in this case only allow me to hook it up to a TV's antenna port, if I understand it correctly. https://www.amazon.com/uxcell-Female-Satellite-Antenna-Adapter/dp/B007PPZXU0/ref=sr_1_3?crid=1XD86SOSP87QL&keywords=pal+male+to+f+female&qid=1557976220&s=gateway&sprefix=PAL+Male+to+%2Caps%2C204&sr=8-3 To hook it up to a composite monitor with A/V cables, I'd have to still have a coaxial adapter and THEN also use a second RF modulator to split it to the requisite cables. https://www.amazon.com/CIMPLE-CO-Composite-Converter-Modulator/dp/B06XC9Y3VB/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=1JGP3ITSDW778&keywords=coaxial+to+composite+converter&qid=1557976128&s=gateway&sprefix=coaxial+to+composite%2Caps%2C201&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&smid=A3LYGL3VCPC7H8 Anyone here of a cable-making hardware mind-set that is up to the challenge of making a 6-pin DIN composite monitor cable? I'd gladly pay for one... EDIT: Nevermind, I see this isn't possible because the 6-pin DIN would require an extremely customized cable with an RGB 6-pin style connector AND an audio cable. Plus, at least according to the TI Tech Pages: "The Y, R-Y and B-Y video signals from the TMS9928A and TMS9929A require an external encoding circuitry to drive a RGB monitor." It sounds like I should just live with trying to convert a coax cable to coaxial then composite. Further EDIT: It appears that there is no such thing as a coaxial to composite adapter. They ALL go the other way. Apparently the ONLY way I can actually view it is to use an old VCR, which fortunately I have, which can take an antenna signal in and then convert it to the composite ports. I'd love to get one of the custom component video cables, but it appears they are out of stock and no longer being made.

Okay, I got the PAL TI today. As stated here, a regular US Power supply works fine with it. However, I can't figure out how you hook up the RF modulator to a monitor? It just has one white cable with what LOOKS like a composite male pin, but it's a little too small. Plus, no audio at all. Do I need to get a PAL monitor cable from somewhere? EDIT: Based on the discussion on this thread here, I see that no composite video cable for the TI was ever made for PAL version. That rather sucks. http://atariage.com/forums/topic/195510-eu-6-pin-av-cable/ So now I'm left with, how the hell do I use this? NONE of my composite monitors have a compatible connector. Incidentally, I have the older PAL modulator, the silver and black box variety.