Thomas Jentzsch

That would work, but it would require a lot of RAM and quite a lot of CPU time for moving the sprite data while scrolling.

We do not know how long Steve is supporting Autism Speaks. BTW: @tman03 Store reviews should be for the game and nothing else. Giving a good game a 1* review, just because you do not like where the royalties go is IMO not the right way to criticize.

I did some brief research in the web and I at least partially understand the criticism. But the motivation of the homebrew author is all positive, so IMO you should try to discuss with him first and not directly escalate this to the admins.

Open the settings, switch to "Advanced Settings" and then follow the Stella User's Guide documentation (included in every non-R77 download).

What's wrong with supporting an organization which helps people who have autism and have not?

We have a bug in Stella 6.2.1 for R77. You have to use the Advanced Settings and map the analog input for the paddles again. Currently we are working on a 6.2.2 fix release.

The basic idea of Zeviouz (PF color mixing) could be used for other vertical scrollers too. I have no game in mind, but I am sure others can come up with a lot of them. E.g. games which are extending the gameplay with power-ups. Or maybe add some horizontal scrolling. And then I wondered how far one could get with 6507 assembly only and did some math (assuming the kernel is in RAM): The asymmetric playfield alone requires 6 read/writes per scanline plus 2 color read/writes. Each playfield r/w requires 7 cycles. And each color r/w 5 cycles. So that's already 42 + 10 = 52 cycles per scanline used. Displaying a sprite using e.g. MaskedDraw requires 11 cycles, that results into 22 cycles for both sprites. And then you have a minimal loop overhead of 5 cycles every 2nd line (it makes sense to unroll the kernel at least once). So in total that's 52 + 22 + 2.5 = 76.5 cycles. Which is already too much. And then you still have no sprite repositioning (and hiding the HMOVE blanks) or multicolored sprites covered. One could omit PF0 (which would look pretty odd then with the striped background) and save 14 cycles/scanline. And/or use two-line sprites and save 11 cycles/scanline. Maybe then it becomes feasible. But the overall conclusion is that you cannot replicate the Zeviouz kernel even theoretically using pure 6507 assembler.

Stella takes the labels from the .sym file. They are either sorted by DASM either alphabetically or by value. Stella it knows the TIA and RIOT values, so these should be always used. I haven't looked into the code, but it seems that Stella uses the first match for all other values. I never tried to optimize my code for Stella. Maybe the alphabetically sorting can be used to improve here, but this is only a work around.

I think you are right. Developers should use Stella's developer options and check how their game handles on multiple TIA variants.

I had the same problem with my provider's cable modem router. In my case IPv6 (not supported by the PlusCart's ESP8266 WiFi chip) was the problem. I added an old router to the setup and then it worked.

I did some tests with flicker, but at least in my slow LCD it doesn't look any better.

I didn't know the bug was temperature depending until now. Good to know.

Maybe. Might be worth a try.

That could be the case. Though Nathan reported that Pesco is working on James' console without stray PF pixel. BTW: There was a bug with the homing missile at 2:02:14.

What happened in Frantic at 2:02:14? Bug?

Yes, this one will work. Completely different tech used here.

Yes, it is similar. Boulder Dash uses three PF colors and a fixed black background color, Zeviouz uses two PF and two background colors for the mix. In both games the colors used are fixed per area/cave (Boulder Dash changes them for each cave). And they do not flicker.

Does it work?

...and you only need one pair for two people.

Nah, that would only distract people from the beautiful sash.

Just watched the Darrell Spice special. Great show and some quite interesting questions and answers. Thanks to everyone participating, I just wish I could have been there live. The new high score saving idea for Frenzy is a good one. We had the same problem with Aardvark and its possible option combinations. So we decided to have eight predefined game variations and the option for one user defined variation for which the high scores can be saved on the SaveKey.

Until the batteries die.

Only just found the time to watch the last show. There is another mole game, called Mole Hunter, but it is not very good. And actually your are hunting mice.

IMO it is better than Time Pilot or Phoenix.

/signed