Mord

Now that the antivirus issue is dealt with, try compiling simple.bas from it's own directory again to see if it compiles this time. (It'll be a lot more convenient on you to make sure you can do that rather than working directly from the 7800basic directory all the time once you're working on your own projects.)

From the looks of it, I'll assume you copied the simple.bas file to the c:\7800basic folder and tried to compile it there. You'd get the error above if you forgot to also copy the .png file to the same directory. That being the case there's no reason why you should have copied it to that directory. You should be able to move to the C:\7800basic\samples\simple directory and run 7800bas directly in that folder. Does it give you an error when you do that?

Looking at the state of AAA games these days, I'd say we're already there. Buy a pretty game that hopefully doesn't crash, spend shitloads of money on it with DLC/microtransactions/etc then dump it when the next pretty bobble comes along that does mostly the same thing. Rinse/Repeat. Still, it's not like you HAVE to accept a download-only game era just because the industry's stopped innovating in any meaningful way. For me, when we get to that truly download-only era I'll just not be picking up any new console. Will I still game on steam? Probably, but good luck on the publishers getting more than 20 bucks out of me on there. Luckily I got a lot of games on cart to go back and play (So in a small sense perhaps I'm hoping for this era to start. ) although to be honest this year my gaming has been maybe 80% playing Romance of the Three Kingdoms 3 on the genesis. I think I'll get along just fine ignoring modern gaming eventually.

I'd recommend you do try. 44 billion may sound like a lot, but that's thanks to dlc, microtransactions, loot boxes, online subscriptions, in addition to actual game sales being lumped together.

Well that beats my buck fifty. I'm surprised though. I thought they sold out long ago.

Best thing to do for that is to have a random number generated (And discarded) every frame while sitting at the title screen. That way just idling will ensure a different potential starting number. Could spice it up so that every time a key is pressed on the controller, another random number is generated, etc. What's more, if you support the save key for instance, when a game is started, you can save the current random number to it so when the next time you start up the console it'll be able to start on that number instead of the same value originally stored in the rom/etc. (But that's only if you're already using the save key/atarivox. Would be a waste to use it just for that.

You misspelled predatory.

This is the 7800. A mid-80's machine. Palette swaps should be perfectly fine for anyone's realistic expectation, so long as the enemies are "different" otherwise. Different stats, maybe behaviors/skills if that kinda thing is in the game. (ie: don't worry about it that much.)

I'd have to actually try to use for loops I think. I use to have horrible luck with getting them to work in the earlier days (likely due to my own stupidity!) and at some point I ended up just writing my own conditional loops that pretended to be a for loop. Anyway, I doubt I'd use a for loop in what you're talking about. Instead I'd probably: -1. Define an array for holding the 28 values you want, so they're next to each other. 0. Define and set an index to 0. 1. generate a number randomly. 2. Do a test comparison. If it's over 208, do some calculations to adjust it and test again. (Even subtracting the amount over 208 would at least make sure it's under 208) 3. Compare that value to all the values you've already placed in your array to make sure it's unique. If not, go back to 1. 4. If it's a unique value from 0-208, place it in the first unused slot of the array. (perhaps fill the array with 255's to indicate unused slots.) 5. Test the loop to see if all values are filled. If so the loop is done. If you're concerned about spending too much time in one frame setting up these values, you can add an extra loop terminating check to make sure it won't go over a certain number runs through the loop without terminating. However if you do that you'll need to make sure the program knows it'll need to go back into this loop on the next frame to continue. (perhaps have it's own little gameloop that doesn't technically end but will handle the clearscreen/drawscreen stuff?) It's important to note however that my coding style makes others screen in terror.

Oh, just thought of something. When the vertical scrolling goes live, or even before , would it be possible to adjust plotmapfile so it can display a portion of a larger map the same way plotmap does? Been thinking of trying to write an assembly program to do that myself but I'm having a hard time figuring out how the mapfile is stored in the rom.

Pretty sure that's one of the reasons why the clock line goes out to the cartridge - so a cpu or other chip go on there. Of course, being able to do something, and being able to do something economically are two entirely different beasts.

I'm sure the PS4 and Pro have at least 5 years of life left in it either way. Even if Sony has an actual release of a PS5 in 3 years time (That might just be the official announcement of the next console for all we know) in all likelihood we'll continue to see new games come out on the PS4 for several years after any PS5 release. The same way the PS2 and PS3 hung on.

If you're not into online gaming then it should be fine. You do need a plus membership for online multiplayer on the PS4 but I highly doubt that would affect any local multiplayer. (Assuming you can find any games that still do local multiplayer of course.) Not sure about multimedia stuff for the PS4, as I have a bluray player for bluray/dvd (don't have any 3d blurays since I don't have a tv that supports it, but would like to get one - of course those are getting rare.) Not sure which games are online only for single player. If such a thing is disclosed properly I'd have never bought it in the first place. Hard for me to verify without actually going ahead and disconnecting the PS4's wires to my router. I think people recommend getting a Pro unit for using the VR gear, although I don't have the PSVR yet so can't confirm how it plays on a base model. Thinking of getting a Pro at some point anyway which drives the costs of VR up pretty high (new console + vr set)

Trying to play through several games, although the most recent is Iconoclasts. Was susprised when I bought it on psn this weekend that it's apparently a cross-buy for PS4 and Vita.

Because we all know game stores would be above resealing used games. As at least one museum in France recently discovered.

320 mode sprites are moved about the sprite the same way as a 160 mode sprite. Consider the pixel pairs in a 320 sprite to be full pixels. So 0-159 moves the sprite around the screen the same as before, with 160+ being drawn off the screen. Yeah, movement isn't done as 320 pixels although you can fake it if you had two identical sprites, each off by 1 pixel. The player in Graze Suit Alpha is done that way. I use to do it with the enemies as well but it was eating up a lot of sprites.

Did the previous false rumors give specific dates? Seems legit to me. Given how hard it is to find a physical vita game in stores as it is, especially one that isn't just a shovelware title to begin with, I can see them finally axing it. Although they do explicitly say it's just for physical cards. If anyone happens to still have space on their tiny memory cards, digital releases will still be coming out afterwards. (Although glimpsing amazon, looks like the prices for the tiny memory cards hasn't come down an inch in all these years.)

So they screwed themselves over every which way imaginable then. Great. Doesn't really earn sympathy points though. Now mind you, I may end up picking up the game myself at some point. Ebgames/Gamestop is currently having it on sale for apparently 14.99 during their current sale. Whether or not I bother with it might end up on whether I actually find a copy on display since apparently based on yesterday at the store I don't care enough about the game to even ask the store clerks if they have any behind the shelf. At 14.99, I'd almost consider it worth the cost. However it's important to note that I've had the chance to buy at that price tag before and left it.

Are you still having trouble displaying the blue portion of that 320B sprite above? You'll notice that the C1 color has conditions on being displayed in 320B, in that it must be paired with either a C2 or C3 pixel in the same pixel-pair, otherwise it doesn't get displayed. (ie: it'll take the background color for itself.) I ran into that issue early in Graze Suit Alpha. Note that prosystem will incorrectly show C1 all the time, but Mame and real hardware will display C1 pixels using the rule above. Also, 320B only uses palettes 0, and 4. Attempts to use palettes 1-3 will default to palette 0, and uses of palette 5-7 will use palette 4. ie: it only looks at the top palette bit in the display lists to determine palette.

They probably shouldn't have teamed up with Sony in that case. If they were running out of money as you say then obviously Sony wasn't actually paying them so I'd have to wonder why they had to work with them at all. Either way, their fault for allowing themselves to get in that position if it was the result of some bad contract. As for the death threats, obviously not. I highly doubt even a fraction of the majority pissed off with the game were threatening bodily harm to the developers though.

Well, given that their only recourse would have been the unemployment line otherwise it's not surprising they didn't give up after selling so many copies on the hype train they themselves created. All that stuff you list is basically the stuff they were promising either way, so great the game is finally starting to show some promise. (Seriously, do you think they would have had any future in video games if they simply dropped No Man's Sky after the horrible response it got at launch?) But that wasn't my actual question - I'd have hoped that that after all those major patches they'd have included some of that. My question was did they add anything about the center of the galaxy that was "Amazing" rather than that lame pull-out they threw in there after telling everyone there would be something awesome. In other words, does anything else happen now when you get to the center of a galaxy or does it still just pull you out and throw you into a new one to start the whole grind over again.

Again, sorry that's not how it went as well. He wasn't going "yeah we might see that" or "that could happen" in the speculative sense - certainly not all the time. I saw him giving definitive answers of "yes.". On one response to being able to grief other players he did say "yes that could happen." but followed up with "But it would be so unlikely to even meet another player due to the size of the galaxy". Then we see gameplay footage of things being shown off that were not in the game. Sky monsters, planetary portals, massive armada battles, etc. Running out of money is not a reason to release a game these days when there are so many options available to secure additional funding, or simply releasing it into "early access" on steam for instance so you can start collecting that money without trying to pretend "ok we got the game ready!" Anyone buying it in an early access model know full well they're not getting the final product and can expect game freezing bugs (which were a BIG problem on the PS4's disc release until several patches were put out.). So sorry, no, I still believe they're fully deserving of the backlash. BTW, since I've yet to actually pick up the game on the PS4 over how shoddy it was released (And at this point have completely lost interest in ever getting it unless I find a used copy for 10 bucks or less - I've already seen it for 15 bucks used and felt it wasn't worth picking up.) could those who have played it tell me something? Have they ever actually added "something amazing" at the center of the galaxy like promised, or does it still just do the sudden pullout/rewind once you get there? And I'm serious that they outright said there would be "Something amazing" once players get there in interviews. And in the interview I'm looking at he wasn't prompted by the interviewer with "Is there something amazing at the center of the galaxy when players get there?" type of question, but he confirmed that "we've already said that there would be something amazing at the center" rather than a fade to black like someone was joking would happen.

Sorry, I'll disagree with you on that. If the devs themselves weren't the ones creating the hype I could understand your point of view. The devs did this to themselves and deserve the response they got at launch. If the game's finally got the content that was promised, fine, give it a chance if you feel it's still worth the asking price. But when devs screw up as badly as they did you're not doing them or actual gamers a favor by trying to smooth things over because then the dev will think it's ok to ship with less than a beta release and it'll become the norm not just for that dev but every other dev that looks at the situation and realizes they can do it too. (You know, like how every bad practice has proliferated in the gaming industry like loot boxes.) To be clear, if the devs didn't explicitly tell players what to expect in the game at launch I would be right there with you defending them from the backlash. But a lot of us have seen the actual interviews with the devs where they kept saying "yes yes yes yes yes" to what you'll be able to do in the game.