Sprybug

This is so weird. I swear I posted a two level demo at one time. I remember making it and I swear I posted it. Well, darn. The 2022 binary is the version before I changed it to more of a mission style game, but you still have the same feel of it.

There was another one that was posted that was a more recent one which basically was a stripped down version of the full game. Basically, the official demo. But, it's fine, we can move on now.

Oh there was in the forums, but it was just a 2 level demo so people could get a feel for it, and not a full on demo where you could play everything.

I'm going to chime in here, and BTW, I do appreciate those that do think that Robot Zed should had been included in 2600 Homebrew of the year, I really appreciate that. I did talk about putting a full BIN up for the people who were voting on the finalists, but then decided against it, since it was kind of an iffy thing to be doing with how the rules were, and since the game is being sold on the store, I didn't know how Albert would had felt about it. So, I decided that my video that I had made of my game on youtube, showcasing the playthrough would had been enough as that was allowed so people could at least see it. Perhaps there could be something done in the future that would allow the people who choose to be able to be able to play the games for nomination.

I don't see why it would be a problem. Sega seems to be a lot more lenient than Nintedo with their IPs and when I made Zippy and Albert had it for sale here on the store, we never got any pushback. Wish you the best of luck and I hope my code can help make it a possibility.

Looks like I'll need to do some experimenting in a new file to see what I can do. I do use peekchar and pokechar as well to detect level collisions and to plot the entrances and exits of each section since, like Zed 2600, each section of a level is randomly placed in a set order for a different playing experience every play. I bring that up to see if using those functions would work in this kind of setup you're suggesting.

I originally tried to define my own set, but was running out of keyboard characters before I could get a full 96. In fact, I got 94. The problem with using TileEd in my case is that you're forced to use PlotMapFile, which I can't do with my screen scrolling methods that require using PlotMap, because PlotMap actually has the capability to display what parts of the level you want along with perfect pixel placement. If PlotMapFile had that capability, then I would definitely be using the other method instead.

Hey guys, have a question on using alphachars ASCII So, I decided to put all my level tiles for all 9 levels into one PNG file, because doing each level separately maxes out the space I have for tile graphics after 5 levels. Putting them all in one file will allow me to reuse certain tiles in different levels with a palette swap, allowing me to do all 9 levels using just 1 png for the entire tile set. It's going to have 96 tiles in total, so I thought it'll probably be best to use alphachars ASCII to define the character set for the alphadata of my levels. Now that I am going to do this, what's the order of the ASCII characters in this set, so when I make the level sections with alphadata, I know which ones to use where for the tiles. That's about all I need to know. Thanks!

Cool. Be interested in seeing that. I've done more work on it today. I found that I can fill out a graphics block with 32 zed sprites, so I went back and got all the zeds that I will need for the game in there. I took out the "ducking" sprite since I won't be using that in this version for power changing. There will be a bit of a menu system for that instead, now that I have more capability with the 7800. That was something I just couldn't quite squeeze into the 2600 version. I added the "hurt" sprite and the ladder climbing sprite. Yep, that's right. Zed can climb ladders to upper areas now in this version, just like you can in Mega Man. The 32 was the perfect amount. Sure, it won't allow me to do some other ideas I had, but I think I can live with that. I also went and scaled back the level graphics massively. I got 18 in total now for Base Area. If I can do 18 4x16 sprites for all 9 levels in one block, I won't need to copy in RAM, like I've been looking to do. I can get probably the 4 MAIN enemies that you will find on all the levels in the last available 8K block. Any other levels though that will have more that the typical 4, I will probably have to do their levels in their very own bank to squeeze in the other enemies. But that's where I'm at right now.

@mksmith Thanks for all that! I think what will help too is if I share my code so everyone can see what I am doing. I'm using 160B for the maximum amount of colors I can use at one time. I know with PlotMapFile you can get that on a 160A, but you lose support for offsetting your map coordinates, which is what I use to do the scrolling along with masking off the sides with solid black tiles. This is why I use Plotmap instead, because you can easily employ scrolling using the x y and offset coordinates. Since I know what the solid blocks are, I can use peekchar to determine what is solid and not, so I don't need a separate data table for the collisions. Each section of a level is only 1280 bytes, so I'd be able to get a few full levels in just 1 bank. Just my biggest problem is having all the graphics available at one time for the program to use. I could try and squeeze all the level graphics into one tileset, but that will limit how many tiles I can use in one level, which is why I was looking into a way to get the tile graphics in RAM instead so I can copy a level's tile graphics into RAM depending on what level you're on, so they'll be always available for the MARIA to plot with no matter what bank I am in. The last bank is where all of Robot Zed's sprites are in an 8K block, and I plan on putting all the enemy sprites in the other 8K still available. The boss sprites will be in their own bank as the boss battle stuff I plan on putting all in its own bank, including all the code. Here's my code so far. Robot_Zed_01.bas

I've been trying to figure out the set dumpgraphics command, but the small amount of info there on the documentation doesn't feel complete. I'm kind of confused on how it really is supposed to work and when and where you're supposed to do things. From what I could guess, is that I would take my currently working Zed program, make a copy of it, so I can include the set dumpgraphics $4000 at the beginning, which I did. It does create the files I was looking for. Then in a whole new version of the program, don't put in set dumpgraohics $4000, and include the things that the examples are showing. So in bank 1, which is my main bank I put include dump_gfx_00.asm ; ** allow plot* commands to work gosub copymycharset bank3 Then in bank 3 I put copymycharset memcpy $6000 .levelgraphics 4096 return otherbank levelgraphics incbin dump_gfx_00.bin But when I do this, I get the error "Cannot open dump_gfx_00.asm7800.asm for reading" .asm7800???? When it saves it saves it as dump_gfx_00.asm The files are there after I run the first program that creates the files, but when I run my new program to load them in, not only do I get that compiler error, but the ASM and BIN files that were created before are just magically gone! This is weird. Added Note: A whole other extra thing to note from a previous attempt not using this method. That error I got before with the parse error and unrecognized character "'" with my method. I accidentally still had it set for "batari BASIC" and when I discovered that, I switched it over to 7800basic, but my idea didn't work out as all the map graphics were corrupted.

Thanks, Smitty. I currently have 39 4x16 tilemap sprites for Base_Area with screen mode 160B, Doublewide on. I noticed with your method there seems to be a limit of 16 total tilemap sprites. Since using doublewide on a 160B, each sprite takes up 2 spots, so for example when I use Peekchar to see if he's running into a solid platform, that range is from 2-45, since each graphic number is in multiple of 2's, such as sprite 0 taking 0 & 1, the next sprite taking 2 & 3, etc. I've tried my idea without success so far. Keeps giving me compiler errors saying there's a parse error and unrecognized character "'" for some weird reason. However, I am very interested in this new command to see if it can work for me. I don't see any documentation about it, so I don't know how I would implement it into the program. Is there a thread somewhere that talks about it?

Unfortunately, I'll need the extra RAM to store the music data for the RMT player and to store the tileset data for the map, which can run anywhere from 4 to 8K in total depending on how big the song is. Today, I tried putting the tilemap and the sprites that are not zed in the same bank that plots the map, sprites, and does a drawscreen, into a different bank (I used bank 3) that is called from the main routine (in bank 1), and the tilemap flickers like crazy. Since each level is going to have its own tileset, I think the best way is to take that data and put it in the 8K of RAM that I have left, that is accessible by everything no matter what bank I happen to be in. Would that work? Would I have to do, for example in say bank 3, put in incgraphic gfx/Base_Area.png 160B 0 1 2 3 7 8 4 5 9 6 then later in the same bank as a routine to be called early from bank 1 before the main routine copybaseareagraphics memcpy $6000 Base_Area 8192 return otherbank And then in bank 1 dimensions have something like dim levelgraphics=$6000

This was great info. I shifted things around, put my map into RAM, and got the song playing! Had to do a few other things, such as setting the Zed Sprite with a 2 zone range so Zed wouldn't be cut in half, since I put Zed's graphics in bank 8. But it's working. The Zed sprites alone took up 8K of bank 8, and the Base Zone graphics took up about another 8K in bank 1. So I'm going to have to get real creative with it all somehow to make the graphics all work together when I add even more. But this is a great start. Here. Have an update with music! Robot_Zed_01.bas.a78 Robot_Zed_01.bas.bin

Looks like I'm going to have to do some more playing around. How many banks do you get in a 128kRAM configuration? What would be the last bank in this scheme? I just may need to store all my graphics in the last bank. There's going to be a lot of them. These graphics I have made so far are just for the first level, all of Robot Zed's sprites, and the artillery sprites. Haven't done any enemy or "effects" sprites yet, not to mention all the graphics for all of the other levels too. This would mean I would have to do the incgraphics to load them in, in that last bank. By doing so, would this mean that these graphics would be accessible by all the other banks? Kind of like how Batari BASIC for the 2600 does it?

Hey Rev. So I did a little playing around last night and today and noticed how much less space I have to work with in bank1 with a 128kRAM bankswitching scheme. After loading in all my graphics for the first level, all the Robot Zed sprites, and other sprites I have made so far in the first bank, I've exceeded the ROM space in the first bank. Is there a recommendation on how I should start organizing my banks, and what should be going where? Thanks!

Thank you, Rev! I will take a look at the example for sure. I did change the romsize to 32kRAM, because I knew I'd need the extra ram for the music because of where it puts that info in RAM, but you are right. I will need more than just 32K for sure. I always start with the minimum until I see that it's time to add more, but with all these extra features, it's pretty much going to be a given. I'll give the 128kRAM setting a go, and do some experimenting and get back to you. Got a busy day today, but I'll see when I can give this a try.

Yes, I've made 3 Atari 2600 homebrews with Batari BASIC. The syntax is the same, just has a lot of added features for the 7800 that I needed to learn, and how things worked. I wanted to cross platform my Atari 2600 homebrew of Robot Zed after finishing it, making it available on multiple platforms, while taking advantage of what each platform gives me. The 7800 not only will let me have improved graphics, but a POKEY based soundtrack, and extra features and touches that I wanted to do with the original game that I just couldn't do on the 2600.

Thanks for the suggestion. I went back and added it to the original post.

For those that don't know, I have had plans to port my new Atari 2600 homebrew, Robot Zed, to other consoles. My first attempt at this is for the Atari 7800 using 7800Basic. Over the past few weeks, I've learned how to scroll and get Zed to interact with the level, even jumping and shooting. I've got a little working demo finished to show it off. I also have first/rough drafts of 2 of the songs in RMT with Base Area, and Ice Zone. I tried to include the RMT of Base Area into the program but the emulator hangs when it loads up, so I commented the RMT related stuff out for now until I figure out what's going wrong there. I used RMTfix to get the start address at $4000 from the ROM code and yes I did set trackersupport RMT. The compiler wouldn't allow me to set pokeysupport to just "on", it wanted me to pick an address for it to work, so I chose $450 with no change in result, and tried $800 with the same result. So, if anyone can guide me through that so I can get these rocking tunes playing in the game, that'd be great! The demo works with A7800 and the online Java emulator too. It glitches with the ProSystem emulator, but from what I understand that emulator is less accurate and is no longer updated and supported, so it's best to stick with the better emulators. Enjoy! Test3.bas.a78 Test3.bas.bin

Thanks! I got one bug left to fix, which is driving me crazy because I've looked at my code a million times and even checked the memory with the debugger in Stella and it doesn't make any sense why it's happening only every once in a while. Sometimes it'll take you to the next section of the level before you defeat 4 enemies. I have no idea why it's doing it.

Oh, I never came across this message until now. Did we ever chat about this outside of this, because I did talk to one person about the sound engine of Zed.

Smitty, you're a genius! Changing the name in the tmx file itself in a text editor to "Base_Area_Tiles" did the trick! This will be good information for anyone else that has this problem.

No difference. In the plotmapfile example program, the sprites didn't use any parameters, however the tiles do. I tried it anyway to see if it made any difference. I tried: incgraphic Robot_Zed.png 160A Same error, then incgraphic Robot_Zed.png 160A 0 1 2 3 Same error, then incgraphic Robot_Zed.png 160A 0 1 2 3 0 Nope, still get the same error. 😕 Thanks for the suggestion though!

Hey guys. I've been experimenting with 7800basic and plan on porting my latest Atari 2600 homebrew Robot Zed, to the 7800 with all the stuff that I initially wanted to do with the game. However, in my test I've run into this problem. I've gone over it countless times, checked the 7800 manual online, checked the plotmapfile example, and even looked at other threads where people had this problem and I don't understand why I am getting the "Plotmapfile didn't find a palette" error. Here's a part of my code from the start up to the point where it calls plotmapfile... set zoneheight 8 dim zedx=a dim zedy=b displaymode 160A P0C1=$82 P0C2=$86 P0C3=$8A P1C1=$12 P1C2=$F6 P1C3=$FC BACKGRND=$00 incgraphic Base_Area_Tiles.png 160A 0 1 2 3 1 incgraphic Robot_Zed.png incmapfile Base_Area.tmx characterset Base_Area_Tiles clearscreen plotmapfile Base_Area.tmx Base_Area 0 0 20 23 And the error I get every time is *** (30): ERROR, plotmapfile didn't find a palette for Base_Area Seems no matter what I do, I can't shake it. Anyone know what in the heck's goin' on?