Andrew Davie
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Posts posted by Andrew Davie
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Very nice!
Andrew, I always wondered: what does the few seconds of 'fog' mean in the original version?
I'm talking about the little stripes that appear in the empty spaces after you've picked up a few diamonds.
Your fog is my extra life. Looks MUCH better in real life than indicated in the video above. The 'fog' is about 10x quicker in movement so appears as a general snow-type effect.
Cheers
A
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I get how it works but for the best version he came up with, I was wondering, for a still image, how many actual frames are used and how much data it takes to display a BG still image (ie: the picture of the blue car demo)? I have an idea for a game concept that could use this technique. Also, conceivably, how many images could be done with a bankswitched 32K rom?
That was a truly lovely car. Ford Laser 3 door hatchback, 1981 model. I bought it for $8500 in 1987 or thereabouts and sold it in 1999 for just $50. It was still working but had become, in my opinion, unsafe to drive. I hope this helps.
Cheers
A
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I think I'd really like to go with original music for Atari 2600 Boulder Dash®. I know this has been discussed on threads earlier, but I'd like to start this thread to call for anyone interested in contributing to the music and sound side of this project to contact me, or post examples here. What I'd be looking for is someone to independantly implement the Boulder Dash theme on the '2600 as close as possible to the original.
The conditions are that the music must be a single call per frame, not be prohibitively time-using. More limits to be posted if/when they show up and/or I remember them.
Reward, as such, would be credit for sound and music in the final package (onscreen if this is done for programmers), at the very least in the manuals, and two production cartridges (if it ever gets this far).
I'd like to open up this thread to discussions/opinions on the music side of things -- including sound effects.
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I've been playing with a rewrite of the amoeba code. The amoeba is a difficult beast because of the various differnt things it does (randomly grow around the edges, turn into boulders when occupying too great an area, and changing into diamonds when 'trapped'). Implementing these characteristics has been difficult, especially as it has to happen in very small time-slices. Up until now I've used a simplistic 'fill' algorithm that just expands to all possible areas, but this had several significant problems, especially an inability to detect when it was trapped.
I just this minute got the first fully-working vesion using this replacement code, and although it's glitchy as hell (indicating timing issues), it does actually work -- the video shows me waiting above a trapped amoeba to see what happened (and hell, it took me a dozen plays to trap the amoeba). Well, the video is a bit long, but the wait was definitely worth it.
What you see here is the very first time I ever saw this happening, too. Here we see the trapped amoeba fill the available area, then after a bit of a delay (I'll work on that) decides it's trapped and changes to diamonds. Whahooo! Mind you, I couldn't get to any of the diamonds because I didn't leave a way back in -- how annoying is that?!
The changing to boulder works too, but that's much less exciting
so I'll leave that to your imagination.Also of note: correct font now installed so the digits look pretty much like the original.
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Very nice!
Andrew, I always wondered: what does the few seconds of 'fog' mean in the original version?
I'm talking about the little stripes that appear in the empty spaces after you've picked up a few diamonds.
I know what you are talking about, but I have no idea. Perhaps something to do with time running out?
Cheers
A
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This video shows level 13 in action. This has always been the killer level for me, because it involves so many creature calculations. Note the insane number of butterflies and an amoeba on the same screen. I don't really expect much speed improvement over this version, but we shall see.
... and the beauty of posting something like the above is that I think about the problem a bit more, and this time I came up with a great solution to speed it up... watch this space
Cheers
A
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I've had a bit of a brainflash and been able to organise things so that the engine is running "even faster still ". It's hard to quantify, but the most "busy" levels (eg: level 9 with the cascading falling diamonds/boulders or level 13 with the 20 or so butterflies and the amoeba) are now becoming almost-playable.
I thought I'd throw this video up, because it shows the faster screen updating AND Thomas's experimental amoeba graphics operating together. The whole screen at the end is full of animating amoeba, yet you don't really see each individual amoeba character being 'drawn'. This also shows nicely the multiple playfield colours in action -- green amoeba with brown dirt/boulders, and no flicker.
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Andrew,
Why can't you be hired by First Star and let them supervise the release of (say) 100 BD carts?
Oh, I'm way too expensive by far, I'm sure
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On the control front-- I assume that tapping the button causes a boulder push, but holding it down for X amount of time kills off the character? If so, how big is X?
-John
No. Holding button + direction "grabs" the object in that direction (or clears dirt). Pushing in the direction of a boulder tries to push the boulder. Hitting the select button suicides.
Cheesr
A
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i can't wait for this game to come to life
Mmmh, never say "never ever", eh?
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Player coming to life.
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Prototype title screen graphic. It's actually extremely tricky getting the moving pattern in the background like in the original. Not sure if this is the way I'll do it... but thought I'd show the prototype.
Also, a "stress test" video is available at
which shows the system performing under extremely heavy load.Cheers
A
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The Atari 2600 Boulder Dash ® engine implements a fairly complex time-sharing system to allow all the various components necessary for the game to operate in the limited time available on a '2600 system. Getting the available time "right" for a lot of the objects is a bit tricky, and overflows in time usage are generally the cause of glitch and flicker in this '2600 version. As the game gets more complex (that is, more objects on screen doing more "stuff"), the available timeslices are still shared between more objects, and so it takes longer to do things. The game lags. I've been trying to balance the allocation of time against the lag, against the flicker and glitching. Right now I'm at a particularly stable version -- and one that even allows 8 lines of characters on the screen (instead of the normal 7). An extra line of characters is a killer for performance as it reduces the timeslice time availabe for object processing. Nonetheless, it's quite possible that 8 lines will make it to the final version.
I've placed another video on YouTube which demonstrates this "less glitchy" version, and also demonstrates a magic wall in operation (drop boulders through it, they turn to diamonds). Also shown in this video is the spiffing new explosion graphic, courtesy of Thomas, who has been of great assistance.
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Recent effort has concentrated on optimising the draw system. Consequently, the scrolling appears much less prone to shear and character draw lag. This video shows level 1 played on difficulty 5 (this is pretty much the fastest the game gets).
Cheers
A
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By the way, just out of curiosity, how large is the game? 16K? 32K? 64K? Or has that information not been released yet?
16K ROM/RAM
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Hypothetically, if there were a limited edition release of Boulder Dash ® -- of course approved by First Star Software -- just how much do you think you would be prepared to pay for a copy. Some people, for example, are happy to pay $100 for a picture cartridge of dubious nature. I would imagine that Boulder Dash ® would be much more attractive to most. But would you pay $100 for a copy? Would you pay $200? Just what is a reasonable amount to charge for such a 'jewel'?
I'm more interested in numbers rather than $ figures. Is Boulder Dash ® intrinsically worth more (whatever that means) than, say, a cartridge producing 7 pictures in a slideshow? If so, how much more...
Cheers
A
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Following feedback from Thomas, this version has increased the screen size to an extra row, and removed the bottom scoring line. The system can cope with this extra work -- just. The video above shows a fairly complex screen scrolling reasonably well at good speed. I'm quite happy with this but of course more speed is always needed.
One day I hope to release this with FSS's blessing, but for now I'm happy to play with it and make it as perfect as I can. I will not even consider releasing a non-approved version. It's been a long while since I discussed BD with FSS, so any bottlenecks on this are all with me, not them.
Cheers
A
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In answer to the question about the amoeba and turning into diamonds -- no, that is not yet implemented. It's a difficult problem given the architecture of the system, but I will solve it.
http://www.taswegian.com/TwoHeaded/Atari2600/amoeba2.avi
This video shows this now working. In this test I let the amoeba grow for a bit, then press my secret programmer key to turn the amoeba into diamonds... and voila. This is on the level with about 20 butterflies and to be honest the system really can't cope with so many butterflies, and an amoeba... it dogs down somewhat... this speed issue can be seen in the following (11MB)
http://www.taswegian.com/TwoHeaded/Atari2600/amoeba3.avi
And forget diamond animation -- when there's a whole screen of them it kills the scrolling speed. I may switch diamond animation on and off based on the level. The various frame glitches will eventually be fixed. This is just a quick and dirty proof of concept.
Cheers
A
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I've done some more work on this and posted the result on YouTube, also with a much better image. This version shows the "grab" of diamonds in action, though it doesn't show boulder pushing (which works -- you can push a boulder without moving to the boulder's position). This version is still showing some timing glitches, but not too bad.
In answer to the question about the amoeba and turning into diamonds -- no, that is not yet implemented. It's a difficult problem given the architecture of the system, but I will solve it.
It was my last day at my job today -- I am moving to a new company next year. I haven't felt able or inclined to program much of anything for the past year, but now I've left... and had a look at this program, I'm feeling a bit of interest returning. I'll try and push this closer to completion.
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WOW so much cool stuff!!!!
I have my cart up to $250 and realized I had kids
These will do for now...
b*nQ
Colony 7
Castle Crisis
Qb
Here is hoping the other new games this xMas holiday are not limited time games so I can pick them up later.
Al... good job with this Holiday sale... I was indeed pleasantly surprised to see so much new stuff. And a special thanks to Andrew Davie for allowing another run of Qb be made.
You're welcome. Please ask Al for a refund on my commission on the Qb cart. Happy Christmas.
Cheers
A
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After seeing the new holiday cart, I just splurged and couldnt resist ordering:
- 2007 Holiday Cart: Stella's Stocking
- Fall Down
- Qb
- Conquest of Mars
- Toyshop Trouble
- Colony 7
I really can't afford this right now but what the hell... you only live once!
I'm happy to support the programmers and all their hard work keeping the 2600 alive and well for us diehards! It will be a Merry Christmas indeed!
Seasons greetings everyone!
As a Christmas present just for you, because this is the first post I've read where someone has ordered Qb -- please ask Al for a refund of the 'royalty' I get for this particular Qb cartridge. Merry Christmas.
- 2007 Holiday Cart: Stella's Stocking
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My idea of bringing this into public if Andrew doesn't get permission:
1. release the game with different name, graphics and levels
2. a "talented hacker" releases a patch, which converts the game back into original BD.
Now that would be naughty. I do have plans, however, to release the engine -- without ANY of the algorithms or logic related to Boulder Dash ® embedded. Basically a system that could be used to create any number of 'character graphics' style games. I'll seek FSS's approval on what I release first, just so there are no misunderstandings.
Cheers
A
BTW the video on YouTube is a few years old. I've been playing with the code -- just cosmetics, really -- for the past few days and it looks a bit nicer now.
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Andrew, do the levels have the same layout as the C64 version?
The levels are absolutely identical to the original.
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Atari 2600 Boulder Dash ® in action. Damn that looks nice.
Albert suggested I give away a free Boulder Dash ® with every 10 Qb sold (per individual!) in the Christmas Sale.
Cheers
A
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help to understand andrew's full colour bitmap mode
in Atari 2600 Programming
Posted
6 bytes per line (5 if you pack PF0) for a single colour. Triple this for R/G/B triplets.
192 lines/screen.
6 * 3 * 192= 3456 bytes/frame. Or 2880 if you pack.
32K/2880 (leave some overhead for game logic!) = 11 frames. But you'd have to have each frame carefully organised to avoid page crossings, requiring something like a ram-based cart. In any case, let's say 10 frames maximum.
Cheers
A