PAC-MAN-RED

Improved the Blue Valkyrie sprites and her overall animation:

Well I took a closer look at Froggie, and I gotta say it's a masterpiece of programming. It's doing stuff I can't understand without first mind melding with Schmutzpuppe. However, it is doing something I do recognize so here it is: Also, after examining the screenshot I would hazard a guess that it is most likely made up of more than one 320 mode. Thanks to Eric Ball - This effect is demonstrated by a test program he made and is explained on this page: https://sites.google.com/site/atari7800wiki/graphics-modes/320b-d-and-kangaroo-mode Would also be fantastic if Schmutzpuppe would chime in and allow us to learn from his mad skills.

Hey thanks buddy! I really do appreciate the praise I get for my work. Message me when you need my help. illya

I've taken the sprites I made for the 5200 Gauntlet version and revised and, I think, improved upon them: illya

Here's a bit more info Quoted from a message to me from Ziggystar: "Levels are actually from the NES version. I am picking and choosing the best ones and sort of duplicating them, the aspect ratio is a little different. I will have about 20 unique levels and then inverted ones of those and some treasure rooms for a total of around 48 levels. John" I did the sprite work for the 4player character sprites, but I'm pretty sure the animations for them were cut, and ya, they don't move well, as we already know.

Here's something to help those people, myself included, that require more of a visual aid: Thanks to RevEng for posting the image he created in his up coming batari Basic port for the 7800 so that I could steal it and use it in my diagram.

Quoted from GroovyBee in a message to me explaining how the 7800 graphics work: "The Atari 7800 does not have a linear video frame buffer like the ST, A8s etc. Its graphics are generated on a per zone basis from a Display List (DL) on the fly. A zone can have a vertical resolution of between 1 and 16 pixels. Each zone also extends across the full width of the screen. Each Display List header points to some graphics/character data and a palette index (0-7) that the data will pass through on its way to the screen (the Display List headers have other data like starting X coordinate and sprite width in bytes too). The video hardware is poked with the start address of the Display List List (DLL) which is a list of pointers to Display Lists. Confusing I know . For example the Display List for zone 7 might contain :- <Display List entry - background gfx data> <Display List entry - sprite 1 gfx data> <Display List entry - sprite 2 gfx data> <....> I like to think of all the 7800 graphics data (background tiles, foreground sprites etc.) as all just being sprites because it makes life easier. The order of sprite display is controlled by the position of that sprite's Display List entry in the list for that zone. In the display list example above if sprite 1 and 2 overlapped you'd see sprite 2 on top of sprite 1. Both sprite 1 and 2 are on top of the background sprite. I hope this is making sense. This is what puts most programmer people off the 7800 . You don't need sprite masks on the 7800, its all done by the hardware for you. Where ever you use the common background colour in the sprite it can be considered as transparent when the sprite is overlaid onto other sprites. Sprites on the 7800 cannot be zoomed or flipped in hardware. Its software routines or graphics duplication in the ROM for those sorts of effects. You don't need to clip sprites in X. For example, if you had a sprite that was 16 pixels across and you stated its starting X position was -1 (off left side of screen by one pixel) only the rightmost 15 pixels would be drawn on screen. A similar effect happens on the right side of the screen. If you specify the draw position as 149 only the left most 10 pixels of the sprite will be drawn. Using Display Lists in this manner allows easy left and right scrolling too. With 12-13 writes to your Display List entries (for all zones on screen) you can scroll sprite blocks left and right. You can do 50/60 FPS side scrollers doing this. Colour on the Atari 7800 is done with hardware palettes. It supports up to 24 colours on screen per scan line at the same time (as standard) and a background colour giving 25 colours in total. You don't specify the RGB for the colour though. The value you poke into the palette registers directly affects the phase of the chroma component of the TV signal. There are 8 "mini palettes" arranged as 8 lots of 3 colours. The common background colour to all the mini palettes is set in another register. The 7800 has 2 graphics modes that I use in games :- 160A - Each sprite can be 4 colours, 3 colours come from the each palette and a common background colour to all sprites. 160B - Each sprite can be 13 colours, 12 colours come from the first 4 mini palettes and a common background colour to all sprites. the second lot of 12 colours come from the last 4 mini palettes. The video chip in the 7800 is called MARIA and it has a fixed display bandwidth. If you have too many 12 colour objects in the display list for each zone it'll soon max out the bandwidth because it takes MARIA too long to fetch the graphics data in the time alloted to that video line. You can also mix and match 160A and 160B graphics in the same Display List for a zone. The 7800 also has some 320 pixels across graphics modes but they have a more limited palette. For each zone you can trigger an interrupt. The interrupt fires before data for that zone is extracted from memory and used. This allows the 7800 to change colours on the fly. You can achieve nice colour bars and the like doing this. It also allows status areas in games to use different colours to the main game. If you want more information (I've skipped some of the other stuff you need to know about as a programmer like Holey DMA and sprite cutting between zones). Have a read of :- http://www.atarimuse...maria_specs.pdf The 7800 only has 4K of RAM internally. You can have up to 48K of ROM space before you need to bank switch. When you bank switch you swap out a chunk of memory for another in the cart. Let me know if you need any other technical information. Mark."

Here's George punching in the various positions found in the Arcade game: The first set is George in 2x size for illustrative purposes. Second and third is George tiled up as described in the image. It helps to see the parts that are duplicated amongst the frames(or maybe it's just me stuck in 7800 mode ).

I think you meant Pac-Man-Red. But since Bob is so popular around here, and his and my name are similar, it's hard not to get them mixed up.

Just in case Krazy Chase comes out of the maybe category... KCM & KCKC: The 5 basic Maze types: Added my usual flare to things, but as always nothing here is written in stone. illya

I'm using the O2EM emulator with the sound samples and Krazy Chase sounds awesome. The Krazy Chase manual states the voice enhancement but the KC Munchkin manual doesn't. http://o2em.sourceforge.net/

*UPDATE* An even more scared look for the Munchkin death animation. The Munchkin is now 4 frames instead of just 2 frames. Slight colour modification to the Down facing Muncher.

*UPDATE* One death animation frame changed to a more frightened I'm-gonna-die! look. The Munchers Up and Down frames modified to add missing antennae. Changes to the 2nd frame of animation for the Munchkin.

You got it. The coloured brackets indicate what part of the wall disappears and goes this order: Red, Blue, Brown, Green 200x200px Atariage KC Munchkin Avatar if anyone wants it. Got bored, and because some one mentioned it *cough* atariLBC *cough*... I made a 12 colour version of the sprites. He's kinda scary with teeth.

This will help you. illya

Thank you. I know exactly what you mean about the grout. Having only 2 colours to work with is limiting to say the least! All in all though I think there are enough visionaries around this place to see this idea to fruition. Why yes it is. KQ for 2600 would be awesome, but I have a feeling the 7800(XM probably) may be a better place for it... illya

After seeing Marco's inspiring handywork I had to contribute my own mockup. Remember this is just a mockup.. so don't go feeding this into any Atari 7800 mockups -> Instant Money Machine or it could implode the universe... please... program responsably. illya

The first and last frames are the same standing still frames. Without them we have a total of 12 frames in his step animation.

Prince of Persia - 4 colour 320b mode: Seems legit... illya

Update! Webpage up and running to showcase the Youtube videos. This is still a WIP at this time: http://www.shadowcastshow.com/ Stay tuned for more videos being posted soon! illya

Hey everyone! A few friends and I have just started doing game reviews with commentary and as much humor and satirical humor as we can put into the videos. We're starting off with some Atari 2600 and NES games, but we will expand after awhile to include other consoles and also Homebrew Atari games. We call it the Shadowcast Show, and you will soon see why! Shadowcast Show PS - Please subscribe if you like the show. illya

Thank you very much! I enjoy making sprites and wish It could be a full time hobby.

Mockup I did awhile ago and figured I'd post it here. illya

Just in case anyone missed this old thread, the Bubble Bobble sprites/tiles for the 7800 are ready to go : http://atariage.com/forums/topic/200163-bubble-bobble-arcade-sprites-7800/ Illya

If you answered yes to the topics title, then you need to check this out! http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE9zxmb7lnZKGPT3sHq7PYQ