[Internal Ram revamped]

Very nice work! I love to see Stella debugger become even more powerful, and this was definitely a gap.

 

I've been giving 7800 development a bit of attention lately, and I sorely miss Stella's excellent debugger. I feel blind without it.

[Next project]

You could always go with a cheaper micro and use shift registers for most of those pins.

 

Speaking of cheaper micro, v-usb is pretty well tested, especially for implementing HID keyboards. Not speaking from experience, but I'd give it a shot. (I worked on a couple of small atmega projects before, just not v-usb)

 

There are even sample implementations you can crib from.

[7800basic update #3. the woods are lovely, dark and deep]

Agreed on both points!

[7800basic update #3. the woods are lovely, dark and deep]

It may happen. But even if Jeff doesn't want to port vbb, I'm sure someone will eventually fill the niche.

 

I'd also like to see something cross platform some day, like an Eclipse plug-in. JAC! did some very cool stuff for 6502 assembly development with his WUSDN Eclipse plug-in.

[7800basic update #2. powered by good will]

Another update had been posted.

[Hex to BCD conversion (0-99)]

Thanks!

 

Understood about the lack of range check. I'll document that and leave it up to the end-user. That way the routine can stay nice and lean.

[Hex to BCD conversion (0-99)]

Very nice! It's one of those routines that looks like magic if there isn't an explanation.

 

Do you mind if I add it as a utility function to 7800basic?

[7800basic update #2. powered by good will]

Joke taken in the intended spirit, but Bob definitely welcomes the project.

 

It will take a special level of talent to even approach his level of quality and output. But I'm hoping people will try.

[7800basic update #2. powered by good will]

Thanks Allan!

 

RT, agreed that it seems like we have a ton of resources compared to the 2600. I have a feeling that developers will find a way to use them all up, though.

[7800basic update #1. beans spilled, peek sneaked]

update #2 is posted.

[Unsigned Integer Division Routines]

Dang, I was looking for a good divide by 33 routine.

 

Educational as always Omega. Thanks for posting this!

[7800basic update #1. beans spilled, peek sneaked]

Awesome! Glad to hear there are some folks with CC2s in the audience too.

[7800basic update #1. beans spilled, peek sneaked]

If you wanted to blow a bunch of RAM on tileset graphics, you could do a single character that way. But practically, no.

 

You pass the plotval command the tileset you want to use, so you could swap the whole tileset you're using with an if...then.

 

For similar effect, you could also use the old bB trick of defining hex digits to point to other images. Then you can enable the image you want by setting one of the nibbles of the score to $A or more.

[7800basic update #1. beans spilled, peek sneaked]

Horizontally yes. Vertically, not so much.

 

This will be in the docs in some form, but MARIA splits the screen into horizontal sections called zones. While a character can be offset by fine amounts in X, it can't be easily offset in Y within a zone like sprites can.

 

So to fine scroll vertically, 7800basic will need to resize the top and bottom zones, and adjust the bottom zone Y offset with an interrupt.

[7800basic update #1. beans spilled, peek sneaked]

The score can go anywhere, multiple places, or nowhere. There's still a 24-bit "score" variable, but I'll probably change that to be "score1" and "score2".

 

You can actually plot BCD values anywhere on the screen, and they can be any number of digits, within reason.

 

Regarding printing, 7800basic already has character printing ability with "plotchars" and "plotmap" commands. plotchars does a line of characters (or less) and plotmap does a 2d block of them.

 

The map data that plotmap works with can be bigger than the 2d block you display on the screen, so its suitable for displaying a smaller part of a larger area.

 

You can also use RAM with plotchars and plotmap, so you can instead generate the screen algorithmically.

 

I don't have fine scrolling in there yet. It's on the roadmap, but pretty far down.

[7800basic update #1. beans spilled, peek sneaked]

Sweeeeeet. Thank-you very much for confirming, DracIsBack!

 

I was slightly concerned because I'm using interrupts to flag the start and end of the visible display, to give 7800basic programs all the cycles they can possibly get. I'm glad it worked out!

 

@theloon: Agreed about real hardware testing. (see above. )

 

batari announced he hopes to get Harmony 2 out later this year, for CGE 2014 or PRGE 2014. I think there's a pretty good chance he'll manage to do just that.

[7800basic update #1. beans spilled, peek sneaked]

Not trying to sway you one way or the other, but 7800basic can presently stretch to 48k. I confirmed with CPUWIZ that he could still produce those boards. And larger 7800 games will be possible with his new board, when I get to SuperGame format support.

 

I'll take partial credit for the vertical wrapping... I have code that limits the wrapping sprite from writing to memory it shouldn't be using when it's off or partially off the screen.

 

The horizontal wrapping is all MARIA.

[7800basic update #1. beans spilled, peek sneaked]

Thanks for the support, all!

[7800basic update #1. beans spilled, peek sneaked]

Heh, I figured the implementation questions would start coming.

 

For bB style named variables, you'll have a-z and var0-var99. The memory block $2200-$27FF is also dedicated to the 7800basic program, so that's another 1.5k of RAM.

 

To use that block you just use a dim, like "dim kangaroopants=$2200"

 

When I get around to supporting SuperGame format... if on-cart RAM is provided, it will be accessed in the same fashion; just dim it and use it.

[7800basic update #1. beans spilled, peek sneaked]

Thanks for the support, guys!

 

@RT, a lot of the Windows devs seem to use the ProSystem Emulator. I don't know if there's an edge in emulation with it, or if its just easier to setup compared to MESS.

 

I'm on Linux, so I can really only choose MESS. (unless I resort to Wine or dual booting)

[Shut up!]

close enough?

[Wii U 4 me?]

My sympathies on the fire. We went though exactly the same thing earlier this year. The worst was living out of a hotel room for weeks.

 

For replacement of smoke damaged stuff, my insurance guy just tallied up everything and cut a cheque. If they do that for you, you can always put aside the money and decide later.

 

Also, the newer Wii revision dropped GameCube ports and compatibility. Not sure if the older SKUs are available... you might want to check that out if that's the way you're leaning.

[The DVR Project - aka "Ditch DirecTV"]

Thanks for writing this up. I'll be watching this with great interest!

 

I cut the cable a couple years back, switching to over-the-air and Internet based video. My family doesn't miss cable at all, but having recording/pause on ota would make a big difference to our viewing experience.

 

Even better, it looks like the HDHomeRun is supported under XBMC, which I'm planning to switch back to in the future. A single interface for over-the-air and Internet video only helps the wife acceptance factor!

[Get a CLU]

I'm a sucker for cartoons that have adult appeal - loving Legend of Korra right now - and will be looking out for Tron: Uprising too.

 

Thanks for the heads-up, Nathan!

[WIPs of days gone by - part 2]

Cool - thanks for sharing that!

 

It's always fun to see how someone else approached a similar problem.