Atarius Maximus
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Posts posted by Atarius Maximus
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Adventure Plus was the only one. I updated it in 2005 and made an all-invisible version as well, you can grab them on my website.
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7800Basic nub here.
I'm enjoying 7800Basic, but there are some quirks I'm not sure about, I often get a BIN size errors that seem to be caused by syntax or logic errors, but it gives me no clue to where the issue is (line number etc). Is this standard behavior? Because its very time consuming to find these sometimes.
My second issue is when I complete my homebrew I would like to produce a cartridge for it, whats the best way to go about this? I've have read cannibalising a real 7800 cartridge is an option, but cant I print a PCB and use a 3D printer to print the case?
I thought this might be helpful for common errors when you're first getting started, it's pulled from part 1 of my 7800 basic for newbies thread.
Common Compile Errors
This is not an exhaustive list, but here are a few errors you might see when compiling your code, and what you can do to resolve them. In many cases the error itself will tell you specifically what the problem is. I figured I'd be revising this list and adding to it as time goes on.
The system cannot find the path specified.
It’s likely you are running the 7800bas.bat file by itself with no code specified after it. Run “7800bas mycode.bas” instead.
7800basic 0.6 Jul 12 2017 22:46:35, then it hangs
If you only see a message similar to the above that shows the version of 7800basic you’re using, you’re probably running 7800basic.exe instead of 7800bas.bat. 7800basic.exe is not intended to be run for compiling, you need to use the batch file.
*** (101): ERROR, graphics overrun in bank 1
The error message means you have too many graphics with "incraphic" in bank1. You'll need to shift some of those to another bank. Keep in mind that when you issue "drawscreen" you can only use graphics in the last bank or the same bank with the "drawscreen" command.
*** (1667): error: Label mismatch...
Unrecoverable error(s) in pass, aborting assembly!
There can be a few causes for "label mismatch". General syntax errors or duplicate labels are the common causes. An bank that’s over filled might trigger the error as well.
I generated the error above by creating an "if...then" statement and leaving off the "then", an easy syntax error to make.
If you can't figure out where the error is, the (1667) refers to the line number in the asm output file. You can open the asm file and look at line 1667 to see what exactly is causing the error.
*** (144): ERROR, alphadata character ' ' is missing from alphachars."
You defined an alphachars image file that doesn’t contain the character specified in the command. The "144" means the syntax error occurred on line 144.
*** (1698): error: Value in 'cmp #257' must be <$100
Somewhere in your code you've called an invalid number.
Unresolved symbol List Errors
--- Unresolved Symbol List ---
USED_ADJUSTVISIBLE 0000 ???? (R )
ROMAT4K 0000 ???? (R )
0.dsdfff 0000 ???? (R )
The "Unresolved Sybol List" error will give you some clues as to where to look. In this case, I created an invalid goto statment to a non existent label, "dsdfff". Look for items in the list that you recognize that you’ve created yourself – variable names, label names, etc. That’s where to look first.
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Thanks to everyone for the kind words about this project. To clarify what gambler172 said, there are some other things that that are incomplete in this release.
1) When you enter and complete each dungeon the crystal is not guarded. It was my original intention to add a boss fight in each dungeon, right now when you get to each last dungeon screen you can simply pick up the crystal with no fight.
2) As gambler172 noted, loading and saving to the AtariVox is not currently functional. You can use save states in emulation on A7800/Mame/Mess, however.
3) There is a slight screen flash when you switch rooms that very briefly shows unintended graphics on the screen. This is likely due to me overrunning the capabilities of MARIA in screen transitions and I have not yet addressed that.
4) In the graveyard area you will be randomly attacked live by skeletons rather than the typical turn based attack. I did notice some strange character movement issues during this attack sequence, in some cases you may not be able to move in areas that you otherwise should be able to.
5) I have a defined level progression in place, but because of the long amount of time it takes to actually play the game it's not well tested for game play balance. Same goes for the progression of how quickly you can earn gold with monster fights vs. how much it costs to continue to purchase health potions and other items, it's not well tested for balance as you progress in the game.
6) Some items you can buy in the marketplace have no actual function in the game.
7) There are no sound effects and there is no music, right now this game is completely devoid of audio. I do appreciate the AA members who offered assistance with that, I just haven't been able to get back to this.
That's all I can remember off the top of my head as I haven't played it or modified any code since January '18, there may be some other minor issues. With all those things said, the main storyline of the game was completed and the game can be beaten. It's basically a playable work in progress and I still do not have any defined timeline to get back to it due to personal and family issues.
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... I really just burned myself out and have been working on other projects - mostly in iOS development.
It's not related to the demo, but I actually have been working with iOS development for a while now and I've created lots of new curse words for XCode.
I did finish up a free reference application for my professional blog and it was just approved by Apple. It was added to the app store yesterday. It's nothing special, it's just an alternate way to access my blog content and I expect it'll get a bunch of one star ratings if any at all, but it was a great learning experience to get my feet wet with XCode. I'm going to work on an iOS game of some kind next before I dive back into another new (or unfinished) Atari project. -
Are you still having trouble displaying the blue portion of that 320B sprite above? You'll notice that the C1 color has conditions on being displayed in 320B, in that it must be paired with either a C2 or C3 pixel in the same pixel-pair, otherwise it doesn't get displayed. (ie: it'll take the background color for itself.)
I ran into that issue early in Graze Suit Alpha. Note that prosystem will incorrectly show C1 all the time, but Mame and real hardware will display C1 pixels using the rule above.
Also, 320B only uses palettes 0, and 4. Attempts to use palettes 1-3 will default to palette 0, and uses of palette 5-7 will use palette 4. ie: it only looks at the top palette bit in the display lists to determine palette.
Mord - thanks for the excellent description of how 320B works. I didn't have a very firm grasp of how it worked when I was working on that demo. I haven't worked on it since sometime last summer so I can't say I'm still having trouble with it... I dug that up just as a sample for Dauber. Either way the info you shared will make it much easier next time, thank you.
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Dauber - I found the demo I was playing around with last summer that uses 320B. It's an asteroids-type game based on RevEng's spacephysics sample. I used a 320B title screen graphic, and to get it to display how I wanted I had to split it into left & right sections. I'm attaching the demo files just in case you'd like to take a look at what I did. This was nowhere near complete - I was simply testing the use of 320B with this demo and abandoned the idea. If anyone wants to take this demo code and/or graphics and use them for a project, feel free. I'm not planning on taking it any further.
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Yeah, I wanna keep it kind of...mysterious...until I'm just about done.
In the mean time, I have a new problem: my banner is only showing the first 16 pixels across. ughghh....the size is 143 x 16, on a 320B screen. Doublewide enabled.I understand that, I usually wait on posting about a game until I have a mostly complete playable demo. I've seen that issue you're having before, but I don't remember off the top of my head what the issue is. I have some sample programs on my laptop at home where I was testing 320B in a similar manner, although I can't remember if I was using plotbanner or plotmap. I'll take a look tonight when I get home.
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DUDE! Turns out I was thinking palette comes first, THEN colors. THIS HELPS!!! Holy cow...thanks so much!
You're welcome! I look forward to seeing what you're working on when you're ready to share.
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You've got the sprite using 320B mode which is a little tricky. 320B mode requires pairs of pixels to use the same palette, and it's not a graphics mode I've attempted to use in any of my games.
You could try using a different graphics mode, or take a look at the documentation for incgraphic and try swapping the color index values. You can use trial and error to see which combination produces your desired result. Where you have ingraphic testsprite.png 320B in your code, you could try incgraphic testsprite.png 160A 0 2 1 3 instead (swaps the 2nd and 3rd index, as an example). You could also try importing it with a different mode and test the results: ingraphic testsprite.png 160A 0 1 2 3. There's more info on the incgraphic command here.
I realize this isn't a very good answer, but I am at work and can't really dive into it right now. If you'd like to post your image files and code I can download it and take a look myself when I get some time and give some better feedback.
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Hi AM
will check this out at weekend.....would be great,if the
SAVE option works......maybe someone can fix it....
greetings Walter
I can't remember what the issue was with saving. The AtariVox code for loading/saving is in there, it just doesn't work. Note that you can use save states in Mame, Mess, and A7800 to save your progress, that's what I was doing in my testing and it works fine.
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Because it's been 5 months since I posted any actual updates and I have no timeline to get back to this, I thought I'd go ahead and share the source code and all of the files needed for compiling Legend of Silverpeak. Note that there are lots of spoilers here... If you dig into the source code you'll find all the info on the storyline, game events, and exactly how to beat the game, and I have complete game maps of the overworld and the dungeons included in the image files. All I ask is that if you not rip off the graphics and re-use them in your own game, other than that the source code itself is fair game if anyone wants to try their hand at creating an RPG with 7800basic. Hundreds and Hundreds of hours of work have already been poured into this, and I'm still feeling a bit burned out on the project.
The source code contains lots of extended ASCII characters and I use Microsoft's free Visual Studio Code as my editor. It all lines up and looks great in VSC, your mileage may vary with how it looks in other editors. Also, I didn't completely clean up all of the graphics files, there are more included than I actually used in the game, many are simply older versions that were later revised and given a different file name. The overworld/dungeon maps I created are slightly outdated. Overall room connections are the same, but some images were altered. This is exactly the same version I released in the first post back in January, I haven't done any development on it since.
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So did the Nintendo Lawyers actually contact someone on here?
I was not contacted, but I presume that's because I never released an infringing game (it was simply a map demo) nor did I ever share any of Nintendo's intellectual property that I re-created for the demo to allow anyone to compile it or use it for something else. I did release a game using the same game "engine" as the demo about 5 months ago titled "Legend of Silverpeak" that is completely original. It's "complete" in that it's playable game that can be played through and beaten, however it's lacking some elements I planned on including and some in-game options remain unimplemented. It's certainly incredibly difficult and time consuming and hard to remain motivated to complete a game in this genre, I really just burned myself out and have been working on other projects - mostly in iOS development.
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Anymore updates? Atari 2600 and 7800 need more RPGs!
No updates, I haven't worked on this at all since my first post on New Year's Day. I will get back to it eventually, I had more time at the end of last year to work on it than I do right now. I'll admit to also spending a great deal of time with Zelda: Breath of the Wild on my Switch in the last few months whenever I've had down time. Let's call it practical research.
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I'd be willing to help out on some music. Will you be using POKEY sound, or just TIA ... or POKEY music plus TIA sfx?
I appreciate the offer. If I was doing this all myself I'd go with TIA only, if your or anyone else would like to contribute their talents toward POKEY sound that would be cool. Honestly I was taking a short break from working on this game for a while, I dedicated most of my waking hours on the weekends in November and December and I need to do something else with my free time for a little while longer.
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Now that the xm is near done this would be the perfect game to take advantage of maybe some killer tunes and other good stuff .
Agreed! But, yeah, I suck at music and sound effects. I'll be adding sound to the game eventually, but I'd definitely need to collaborate with someone to help with music.
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Played a ways into it yesterday, and of course I didn't save state my progress...
Wow! This is good stuff!
Thanks Inky!
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Was this game entirely done with 7800Basic or DASM? Or both?
It's done entirely in 7800Basic.
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What emulator are you using to run this? I've tried a couple, and can't get it to work.
I'd recommend the latest versions of either Mame or A7800. This game will not work with ProSystem.
I have the windows command line version of mame installed at c:\mame. If installed there, to launch the game you'd go to a command prompt, type "cd\mame" to switch to that directory, then type in mame64 a7800 -cart LoS.a78 to launch it.
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I was able to get a 5.44 using my hacked auto-shift version of Dragster (the auto shift code was written by Thomas Jentzsch), I took a pic of the screen in this thread. It may be possible on the original game.
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Hi Steve
greatwork..i like the Ultima style.I was able to check it
on real hardware with my Cuttle cart 2 .
Works well,but i also used Atarivox...however,when saving
by presding left button,the game crashes....
When loading the game again,i tried to load and it loads,however a totally weird screen.
Hope this helps....keep on the great work
greetings Walter
Thanks for the feedback. Yeah, the Atarivox functionality was/is completely untested. I'll of course fix it in a later revision.
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So is this like Adlez?
Mountain home grove almost sounds like a place I might visit in 35 years. They have shuffleboard on thursdays.
Nah, it's not directly related to Aldez, or any other game for that matter.
Hmmm, maybe I'll add a secret shuffleboard mini-game as an easter egg.
For the last month I've really just been working on making changes that keep this within the limitations of the hardware, and as usual when I fix one thing it sometimes breaks another. I just did a quick 2 minute play and I see that the max HP and max Health on the status bar glitches when you're in battle. I've struggled with the attack sequence and made the most compromises in that part of the game. I know exactly what's causing it, but it'll take a while to see what else I can re-arrange or remove to fix it.
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"Nonnag"
Hmmm. Not subtle enough?
I also forgot to mention in the original post that this game is completely devoid of audio. I'm not good at it and have been putting that off.
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Happy New Year!
I've been working on an RPG title since October, and I thought I'd start off the new year by sharing my progress. It's a fairly expansive title, with a large overworld with towns and dungeons to explore and plenty of turn-based level grinding fun. While the game's basic objectives are in place and the game is playable (and winnable) there is still much work to be done. I'm aware of a few minor issues here and there that still need to be worked out. The most notable area that isn't completed is the planned boss battles in each dungeon, some objects in the game don't do anything yet, how you level up and progress in the game will likely be changed/tweaked, and the graphics are my first attempt and may be changed. The battles at the beginning of the game are very easy, and later on they are probably too difficult. Hundreds of hours of work have already gone into this already, and many design and gameplay choices were made based on compromises related to available hardware resources (especially the attack sequence). I thought it would be a good time to take a short break from it, share my progress, and hopefully hear some feedback.
Saving and Loading your game to the Atarivox is implemented but untested on real hardware. Actually I haven't tried it at all on real hardware yet, just in Mame. The game is 512K, and is currently actually using around 280K of that space. In emulation you'll have to use Mame, Mess, or A7800, and while the AtariVox saves aren't supported in those emulators you can use Mame's save states, which I tested and that seems to work fine. At any time when you're not in the middle of a battle you can press the right fire button to bring up a detailed status screen. There you can save your game, use an item in your inventory, see your location on the overworld map, and review your statistics. In battle, use the left button to attack, and the right button to switch back to the menu at the top to choose alternate options or use items.
Here's the story...
You are Azémar Rehn, a simple woodsman from Mountain Home Grove, a beautiful patch of forest just east of the Silver Mountains. You set out from your homeland to reunite with your Uncle after your father's death. Unfortunately, upon your arrival, your Uncle is no where to be found. A short note is left in the Cabin, but it's not as helpful as you'd like it to be.
You'd heard of the war, and how all the most virtuous crystals that were revered by the people of Midlothia were captured and scattered into the deepest dungeons. They are fiercely guarded by powerful men who are determined to crush the will and spirit of the people. Without their beloved symbols of virtue, the entire realm had been taken over by mercenaries and theives, bent on taking whatever they can for their own selfish gain. No power or virtue of man could ever have deserved that, what has been fated should not have taken place. Feelings of hopelessness and misery abound, and no one has risen to the challenge of ridding the land of these thieves.
No one with good intent, that is. One powerful warrior, who calls himself Nonnag, who's mere prescences strikes fear in the hearts of men, has spread his evil throughout the realm. He created the the Crystal of Wrath, which serves as a beacon for those who serve his evil purposes. It must be captured and destroyed in order to bring peace, light, and life back to Midlothia. The common people are waiting for a hero to emerge. Once who can vanquish the evil, recapture the crystals, and restore the rod of life. Only this man is worthy of being crowned the next King of Midlothia. Great crisis produce great men and great deeds of courage.
The Midlothian army has long disbanded. With their tragic losses and lack of leadership, hope was lost. Soldiers are citizens of death's grey land, drawing no dividend from time's tomorrows. It is now up to Azémar to restore order, to agree to the ultimate sacrifice for the sake of his homeland. As soon as sacrifice becomes a duty and necessity to mankind, there is no limit to the horizon which opens before him. It's time to fulfill your destiny.
I'll leave some additional details for later.
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You made it a little more difficult for me by not using TJ's disassembly, Nukey.
This version has been modified to include the turbo speed and fast shots along with the Spread Shot firing. I commented my changes in Nukey's disassembly in case anyone would like to modify them.
Edit: I included this hack and Nukey's original hack in the first post of the thread.
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Steve Engelhardt Adventure Hacks
in Atari 2600
Posted
I also released a zip file with 200+ development ROMS. Yes, they were all the WIPs as I was working on the hack. There are also on my website, but you can download them directly here. I honestly don't remember exactly what changed in the 2005 version, I don't think it was very much at all though, probably just some graphical updates. I had called it "Adventure Plus Packrat Edition" as it was going to be released with Packrat Games too (hence the "PE 05' added to the title screen), but that never happened - and I just referred to it as Adventure Plus 2005.