freshbrood

This looks awesome. Can this be used in VBatari Basic for the 2600?!

Interesting. I need to start playing with the assembly tutorials. Unfortunately my pc just crashee on me.

Just an fyi, RT's Batari Basic page lists the waterfall effect as an issue when using the background color kernel without the no lines kernel, and from what I understand the pf kernel just pushes the background colors to the pf. That's why I assumed it was the pfcolors kernel. Separate issue maybe?

Thanks. Yeah it's been a pain but thanks to your assistance I was able to literally double the amount of colors and sprite frames for nearly half the memory. It's an incredibly efficient engine I think for the amount of content and functionality included.

Hey just as an update to this issue, Karl G helped implement a very elegant solution that fixes the waterfall effect using the background/pfcolors kernels by plugging a tiny bit of assembly to direct the page to stay in the 256 page boundary.

That's a very cool scrolling falling sky demo. I've also noticed that if I try to manipulate too many pf blocks at once it does weird graphical things like flashing blocks in the wrong places.

I hope my question didn't come off as rude or condescending towards batari's incredible work! -not my intent at all! I certainly do not know better. It was a sincere question based on my extremely limited understanding and I literally have no idea what goes into writing kernels or the first thing about assembly.

I wish I knew how to write kernels. Even if there was a way to start drawing the top row of playfield blocks only half as wide, starting lower on the screen if that saved time. (The green "health" bars. That would look better anyway.) And in turn use less sets of colors for the scanlines that it doesn't draw. Also, if the 12th row of playfield blocks can't even be shown, why does the tia still waste cycles attempting to draw it? I realized that it's still there and can be displayed if you scroll the playfiled up 3 or 4? times. Then you get 12 rows with the top and bottom rows being half as thin. I don't know how to do it myself but I think I have a rudimentary understanding of the concept and that seems like a missed exploit.

Warning: If you don't use no_blank_lines with background, timing issues will cause a stairstep effect (the rows will not be perfectly straight). https://www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-batari-basic-commands.html It's just after kernel options. 2 multi colored sprites are non negotiable. I'd like to at least have either a multicolored playfield or background if possible. I think it looks ok with blank lines as long as they are geometric brick shapes and there is no waterfall effect. I'm also open to any options you think might add some visual variety. If I have to do a solid playfield and solid background it's not the worst look I guess.

I can't believe no one's ported Lemmings to the VCS yet. Seems totally doable. That Congo Bongo looks great! In the Zevious I'd think you could get 5 colors with flickering 2 sets of playfield colors. It doesn't even use the background other than as a black border.

(STANDARD KERNEL - NOT DPC+) When using both playercolor kernels with the playfield colors kernel, RT's Batari page says there is a known issue with a stairstep/rolling lines effect on the left side of the screen. Is there any workaround to this? Some bit of code to be inserted however sloppy that could eliminate this? I am not trying to learn how to write another kernel right now. Also; Can any of those kernels run in VBLANK? Would it help?

I figured. Not sure if you're familiar with the Ninja Kombat port I have in development, but memory space seems crucial to make it playable at all. I can live with chunky blocks. But is there a way to eliminate the waterfall/stairstep at least?

Standard kernel? This sounds like you mean DPC+ ? Also I have only used bbasic. I'm not sure I know how to do this.

I apologize if this is the wrong thread to ask- but using the standard kernel with both player color kernels in bbasic, and pfcolors, have we figured out a way to remove the "stairstep" effect on the left side of the screen? On RT's page it says this is a known issue when combining the 3 kernels. It's really distracting. Also, question 2. Without using superchip ram, what is the smallest size the playfield blocks can be?

This is a great concept! Hope you keep it up!