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Tony Cruise

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Posts posted by Tony Cruise

  1. Posted

    Ok just now I have uploaded a new version (I had accidently updated the .Net version to 4.7.2 and the Wix installer only goes up to 4.6.2, so I have downgraded it to 4.6.1), use the link in the first post and then click on the download link (does not work if I post the link separately - will have to work out why).

     

    Also minor updates:

    - Screen Layouts - added a current tile display with the tile zoomed x 2 (Is this what were thinking @youki)

    image.png.8f93def60c525527342f5d3f8d3f5d5b.png

    - I did not have the proper ending byte sequence for RLE - fixed.

     

    More work soon - watching James Bond, can't concentrate ;) 

  2. Posted

    24 minutes ago, Itchy Scratchy said:

    Maybe a dumb question but is this going to be the same link on the first page.

    I am only used to getting it from your website.

     

    Personally I like this much better because you don't have to setup firewall connections and the like.

    Better if were just a portable version with no install whatsoever but that's just me.

     

    I drag and drop everything especially when I am on the road and switch over to my laptop.

     

    It is just a .Net application and doesn't use anything too spectacular, but an installer is easier for people to use i.e. get an icon on the desktop and in the menu etc

    But to answer your original question, yes same link, I don't keep old versions on the server.

  4. Posted

    8 hours ago, youki said:

    Thanks a lot!  i'll try as soon as possible!

     

    the RLE is i think (correct me if i'm wrong)  faster to decompress than pletter. 

     

    Speaking about DAN1   , i never used it , but i used a lot the DAN0  (in all my games in fact , except Muncher Mouse)  it is very efficient if you have set of images. But not very efficient on only one image.

     

     

     

    Might be an issue with the upload (Eric has reported it still says the same version), I'll re-upload after I get home from work.

  5. Posted

    New version uploaded with the following fixes:

    - Now that you have set transparent to be a cell with some dots in it, this should really also be the same in the "Select Colour" dialog box that pops up when changing colours.  Also, if one selects transparent in the "Select Colour" dialog, and are returned to the Sprites or Character Sets tab, the selected colour box is still shown as plain white and really should now show the dots in it to show that transparent is the active "colour" @Ikrananka

    - File > New, doesn't clear the name in the "Screen Layout Name" box, Then if I add a new layout using the '+' button, the new layout becomes "Layout 02" with a blank one listed above it @Ikrananka

    - Export to 'C' format @youki

    - You can now select Pletter or RLE (I will add Dan1 with the next update), hope I have the ending byte correct @youki - I wouldn't use RLE, very poor compression - see my templates for the Pletter decompression routine.

     

    I'll work on the remainder of the suggestions (and adding Dan1 compression) over the next few days.

     

    • Like 1

  6. Posted

    3 minutes ago, youki said:

     I second that!:)

     

    1 hour ago, Itchy Scratchy said:

    Can I ask what changes you made?

     

    If I had a wish list it would be an expandable window where the onscreen data expanded with it.

    I love your work but this gets a bit tedious when trying to get down to the finer details.

    or how about some other kind of zoom feature for the screen layout.

     

    Another would be freehand drawing on the screen layout and/or import an 8 bit picture then it would divide up the tiles with the ability to save the new pattern set with identifying the repeat data.

     

    I know, sounds crazy but this would go really far to aid development.

    At present you have to build your characters then create the background picture.

     

    Last would be a sound and music editor that saves the data then export directly to your game data.

    Maybe even be able to import other systems that use the SN76489A like TI994/A music and sound.

     

    I second the tile set limitation.

    I can always work within what is already there but at present if I have more than 256 tiles I have to break them up into several files.  In game I load my extended tiles on the fly from rom if my game is that graphical intensive.

     

     

    Yes, it is a wish list.

     

    Always remember, people like you make all the difference.

    Without those like you it would be just a chore to were hobbyist may just throw their hands up in the air.

    If I had to do all this by hand like in the 80's I probably would not bother.

     

    The import from clipboard is already there, but only on the tileset edit screen, and it is definitely not perfect, so yes it would be good if that was on the screen layout page potentially as well.

    I also agree it needs the ability to use more than one set of tiles per screen layout (the data structures in the file format already support that).

    Drawing straight into the screen layout is also a good idea, I just need to think about the best way to do it.  I would like it to optimize the tiles as you do it though and it may be better to have a dedicated screen for that type of entry to be able to give it the right focus.

     

    There is actually the start of a music and sound editor in there :)  I just haven't made it visible (as lets face it it doesn't work yet ;) ).

     

  7. Posted

    3 hours ago, youki said:

    Very nice tool!  i love it! thanks a lot!

     

    But i did not manage to export to C format?   I can to Asm , but C  Format i don't see it in the options.

     

    Would it be possible also to add the RLE compression in addition to Pletter?

     

    And can we use 3 different tilesets to construct one image? (one tile set by group of 8 rows)   i did not manage to do that also.

     

    All good suggestions, thank you, I will get to work on them over the next few days.

    • Like 1

  9. Posted · Edited by Tony Cruise
    New version released

    This is an application written in C# .Net for home brew developers to create both Sprite and Tile Set designs for their home brew projects.

    MSXSpriteEditor1.png

    The sprite design section allows:

    • multi-layer pattern design
    • animation sequences
    • export to assembler and C formats
    • import data directly from existing source code

    MSXSpriteEditor2.png

    The tile set editor section allows:

    • characters can be designed in groups of four for larger objects
    • powerful colour editing and copying

    I intend on adding more features in the future.

    The application is free to use, but I have included a Donate button if anyone would like to contribute to the cost of the certificate.


    The installation link is here:

    Current Version is : 1.0.7666.38689

    • Like 1
    • Thanks 1

  10. Posted

    4 hours ago, Albert said:

    We'll have two new Atari 8-bit computer games available in the AtariAge Store later this month: Adventure II XE and Scramble!  We've published both of these game for the Atari 5200 in the past -- Scramble last year, and Adventure II back in 2007!  Scramble for the 8-bit computers is mostly the same as the 5200 version, but Adventure II XE has undergone many changes and improvements!  These are also the first Atari 8-bit games we're producing boxes for, and the first new Atari 8-bit games to hit the store in over a decade. 

     

    Now that I have a good source of Atari 8-bit shells, next year I will be seeking to add many more 8-bit games to the store.  :)  As my first computer was an Atari 800XL, and I used those computers for years (learning BASIC, 6502 Assembly, playing tons of games, running various BBSs, etc.) it excites me to finally being able to add more 8-bit games to the store.  :)

     

    Here are renders of the boxes for both games:

     

    800_AdventureIIXE_Render_Boxes.jpg

     

    800_Scramble_Render_Boxes.jpg

     

    I'm shooting to get all the new games in the store in the middle of this month, with the aim to ship orders in early December.  Many more games are also being added to the store, for the 2600, 5200, 7800, and Jaguar (the Jaguar games are already available to pre-order).

     

     ..Al

    Awesome, I will be adding them both to my Santa list as well!

    • Like 2

  11. Posted

    20 minutes ago, AnalogKid said:

    About two weeks ago I decided to try writing my first arcade port for the Colecovision so I looked around for a title I thought should be available for the standard console and landed on Asteroids.  Yeah, I dove in the deep end 😃   After getting past the learning curve of using the library SDK and relearning C, which I haven't used in 20 years, I came up with something that I think demonstrates how powerful and underrated the console really is.  At its most intense, my port of the game has 21 independent sprites moving in their own directions at their own paces with animated explosions of different rates and all sound channels filling the room without any lag or jitter.  The console could easily support a few more asteroids on the screen but I coded to avoid the dreaded 4-sprite-per-line issue.  Anyway, here's my initial proof-of-concept demo:

    Starting out, round one

    Bring it on!

     

    Not too shabby for a 3.5Mhz Z80 with 1K RAM running C based code.  Well done Coleco


    btw if anyone out there is coding in C and could use some tricks for having a large number of characters with independent pacing, I'd be happy to share

    Absolutely outstanding work!  Love the smoothness of the ship spin animation, asteroid shapes are spot on, explosion animations are awesome and the sound effects are also spot on.

  12. Posted

    4 hours ago, Ikrananka said:

    Tony, I'm now working through your excellent YouTube programming series.  I've only got to Episode 7 but was wondering something about the text editor you use.  In the early episodes, and in the new book, you recommend/suggest using the ConTEXT editor, but then in the video series you switch over to using Sublime Text.  I'm just curious what you current editor of choice is now.

     

    I have a simple non-game test project I want to tackle as my first foray into programming the CV, part of which will involve showing white lines on a black background.  I'm assuming that my best approach to this is to set up a bunch of tiles and was planning on using your Sprite & Tile editor.  So, in this case should I draw tiles with the white lines and the other pixels black.  Or should I leave the other pixels transparent and simply set the background plane to black?  Or does it not really matter?

    I do definitely prefer using Sublime Text, as it has a very nice presentation style i.e. fonts, colours etc, plus is much more extensible.  It also works on other platforms.  The only caveat is it is not free, so I bought a license.

    Since then Visual Studio Code has been released, which is actually built on a similar platform base to Sublime, and is also multi-platform, so I would probably pick that if I started again as it is of course free.

     

    Tiles are definitely the way to go, as to whether you use white lines on either black or transparent background it would depend on whether you want the colour of the squares to change if you change the border colour of the screen at any stage.  So unless that matters then which one you use, won't matter in the end.  Now if you were making it for MSX, there are several MSX machines that allow you to overlay the computer signal with another video feed, which would then show that video in any tiles that used transparent as their background colour.

  14. Posted

    19 minutes ago, imstarryeyed said:

    Just an FYI, even though the CoteGamers website allows you to change the currency from Euro to US dollars, if you use PayPal, Paypal will not let you pay in US Dollars.  I had to change the format on the CoteGamers website to Euros before I was able to Paypal the funds.  So anyone in the US who may be having trouble buying it with PayPal might want to check this.

     

     

    Good Deal Games are going to stock the book in the US as well, but it will be a few weeks before it will be able to be listed due to issues with shipping more than one book at a time at the moment.

  16. Posted

    My board arrived in the mail today, thank you.  I still need to order and get a Pi Zero, so it will be a couple of weeks before I get fully started (which is probably good as I am finishing off another game at the moment).

    Just saying excited to start looking at this, get into another platform and see if some of my existing games as concepts could be used on this.

    • Like 1

  18. Posted

    I have sent off the final release version of my new game Cavern Fighter for the original un-expanded ColecoVision. 30 years in the making, it is a conversion of the last title I was working on for the Spectravideo and MSX, that never got released.

    It is of course heavily inspired by one of my favourite arcade games, Scramble.

    It has six different stages and three difficulty levels, giving every player a reasonable challenge.

    It really pushed the original hardware to the line, I was literally down to the last couple of bytes of Ram left.

    I thought I would give it a decent play through on real hardware to give everyone a decent look at the game play.

    It will be available to purchase from the CollectorVision website in a few weeks time, once the box and manual have been completed.

     

     

    • Like 14

  19. Posted

    1 hour ago, Ikrananka said:

    As well as pre-ordering the physical book I also just bought the Kindle version as I had some time on my hands to read it while away from home.  Really enjoying it so far but have spotted a few minor errors that I thought I'd let you know about:

    • The ColecoVision VDP is listed in many places as being the TMS9918A whereas in practice it was the TMS9928A (NTSC) and TMS9929A (PAL) that was used.  I know that from a programming perspective they are the same but it's still an important distinction.
    • Page 16 - CV Specifications table - the Z80A clock speed is near as damn it 3.58Hz and not the 3.57Hz listed (splitting hairs I guess but isn't timing everything 😛).
    • Page 17 - ADAM Specifications table - same as above.
    • Page 19 - "Sprite and Tile patterns can of be made..." I suspect should be "Sprite and Tile patterns can be made..."
    • Page 32 - 8-bit Registers table.  IYL description I believe should read "The lower byte of the IY register." and not "The lower byte of the IX register."

    This is about as far as I've got.  If this is useful to you then I can highlight others if I come across any.

    Thank you, this is definitely useful as I can do some final edits before the print edition gets printed at the end of the month.

    Good to hear you are enjoying it so far as well :) 

  22. Posted

    8 hours ago, davidcalgary29 said:

    I have no idea what this is, but I'm in! My first thought was "EA made CV games? Cool! Finally, I can (somehow) play Seven Cities of Gold and M.U.L.E.! on the CV!". The funky font on the cabinet on the left side of the box makes it looks like that game is called "Frog of Death". Awesome!

    Hehe, yeah they actually started before I adopted my label, but hey no Internet back then :)  A game called Frog of Death sounds cool though. I reckon a Commando type game with a Frog spewing out bullets everywhere would be awesome.

    • Like 1

  25. Posted

    On 8/8/2020 at 9:56 PM, Pixelboy said:

    Thank you very much, Oscar!  :)

     

    Alright, so with Jaymiester's and nanochess' contributions, I can narrow down the scans I'm still looking for to:

     

    - Oil's Well (blue box version)
    - Tomarc The Barbarian / Motocross Racer (double-ender)
    - Aquattack
     

    I know someone here who has (or at least had) the blue-boxed version of Oil's Well, as well as a couple of others on my want lists, and I'm also aware that he saw this thread, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he still has them and that he will scan them for me.  ;) 

     

    Also, there's an Australian Laby Bug on eBay right now, but no way am I paying anywhere near that asking price. The shipping fees alone are a deal-breaker.

     

    Finally, I spotted the Australian version of River Raid in the thread linked below, which dates back to 2014 so it's probably been sold already, but anyway, that's what I'm looking for.

     

     

     

     

    I think I have the Australian version of Lady Bug, I'll check when I get home from work.

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