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Jetboot Jack

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Posts posted by Jetboot Jack

  2. Posted

    ..er Jess....

     

    I was not talking of the XEGS or if it was special ( I have one or two ) - just pointing out that Markimus has a unique machine - no 8bit has ever been blessed with RGB output....

     

    sTeVE

  7. Posted

    Tell more - flicker free Horizontal multiplexing....

     

    Describe the screen - or take a digital shot and post it up...

     

    My HM code used LOADS of NOP to get teh horizontal timing right - split midscreen. I could not manage any color or image changes horizontally - vertically yes - but that was fine for my needs...

     

    sTeVE

  8. Posted

    State of Emergency is REALLY POOR!

     

    Such thin gameplay - get this object bring it back, protect this guy come back, kill this guy come back. No sense of pace, exploration or goals.

     

    You can't jump (it feels really weird), the weapon combat is awkward and dull, its full of silly design choices - you can't run down up escalators (or the other way round) in the Mall for instance...

     

    It is not GTA 3 on foot - a really let down..

     

    sTeVE, bought it and is a bit miffed...

  10. Posted

    5200 better than the 7800 - that's a matter of taste, I know what I think

     

    Why no games for 7800 (or very few) - is the 7800 a nostalgic system for anyone really?

     

    Isn't that why 5200 and 2600 games are still getting made, people loved those systems, grew up with them when they were younger, they embodied Atari in the 80's. The 7800 lacks that appeal.

     

    The Atari that finally released the 7800 was not the same one that built the 2600, or the one that dominated the videogaming world - heck they didn't even like video games!!!

     

    sTeVE, 80's boy!

  16. Posted

    I (and my fellow team mates - Kevin and John) did freelance work for Atari UK - Contagion, Z-force for the 8bits and Paintz for the ST.

     

    Atari then pulled european development and all the work was for naught

     

    Contagion leaked out, but by that time I was running my own company (with some business partners) - Harlequin...

     

    Which is a whole other story of failure...

     

    sTeVE

  17. Posted

    Cafeman,

     

    I would steer clear of any copyright properties...

     

    A bit of imagination soon overcomes the upside of "using" someone else's ideas/property

     

    The stuff you mention is in NO way old and unused - its all current and in use, the comic characters are in comics now and I'm sure Airwolf is running on TV somewhere - the owners of those properties are explotiting then even now....

     

    sTeVE

  18. Posted

    Eckhard,

     

    I had a dev kit for quite a while back in '88 - I had sold several 8bit titles to Atari and was looking to do "real" console development. But found I found it awkward to program for, and Atari support useless - just not comitted to development

     

    I understand what you are refering to - the object modes, I must admit I precieved the system as a sprite engine only - every object, background or foreground was a sprite and we coded it that way (badly too!)

     

    sTeVE

  19. Posted

    Eckhard,

     

    Its been a while since I had to code the 7800 I just remembered scrolling was a pig - guess I didn't remember what about it was so odd compared with what we had to do on the 8bit systems.

     

    I never experimented with the solutions you describe to the tile based issue. Was this a software approach Atari recommened or a system designed facility, ie a library or a microcode feature?

     

    I seem to remember lots of the issues raised by programmers were supplied as library's and code workarounds to convert stuff from 8bit/C64.

     

    One thing I did like was the ability to create 2D Display Lists, mix modes and pallettes on one scan line, rather than the just vertical ones the 8bit had...

     

    sTeVE

  20. Posted

    Ballblazer - I get the music in MESS - compared to the 800XL cart I have it seems exactly the same...

     

    I can't boot up a 7800 - mine is PAL and I don't have a PAL TV here in the US yet....

     

    I've not heard any TIA sound in Ballblazer - the SFX etc all sound "pokey" to me (thank god)...

     

    BTW - I can't get COmmando to run under MESS - does teh latest version have some issues with some carts??

     

    sTeVE

  22. Posted

    Notwithstanding that you could code the 7800 to produce tile-like fx the system had no RAM mapped display - bitmapped, tile or otherwise.

     

    My conjecture is that the 7800 is not lacking in performance, but its "way of working" was not what the software industry was set up for - and with no pressure to produce 7800 games - no advances or WOW fx ever appeared on the machine - it was a port box for 8bit games and old aracde titles (already on other 8bit systems)...

     

    My issue with the display hardware is the lack of indirection it posseses - For example a 5200 could simply change one byte -the screen pointer to change the entire screen, page flipping, not so on the 7800 I would have to have the system fetch new data into the line RAM line at a time. To smooth scroll vertically on the 5200 I only have to shift a few bytes - moving the video display over data in RAM - on the 7800 I have to move all the data through the line RAM (and thereby scroll the screen)...

     

    generally with low clock speeds - 8bit machine architecture favoured hardware sprites and hardware scrolling, character mapped modes and the like

     

    sTeVE

  23. Posted

    Mark,

     

    I agree the 7800 - could have been great

     

    I just think the fact it never reached any crtical mass in the market that no one ever got a chance to make it shine

     

    SMS or NES could have done any released 7800 game well IMHO. Im also SURE the 7800 could have produced great versions of SMS/NES games - just no one tried...

     

    the 7800 has a 320X192 mode - why did no one use it?? Maybe to difficult to use, maybe no incentive to use, or as you say the ancient titles the system was infected with didn't need it

     

    Video RAM - the 7800 has enough for a couple of scan lines

     

    Tiles - SMS and NES video hardware breaks the screen up into 8X8 tiles - each with a RAM location. The 7800 breaks the display into 1 pixel high lines, and has enough video RAM to create 2 - one being drawn and one being loaded with data. The basic concepts are very different - the 7800 effectivley has bitmapped line RAM and the NES a character based screen. Both have +ve and -ve issues - just the previaling methodology on 8bit consoles and computers was that games were done in character modes for the most part - or if not then fully RAM mapped bitmap modes (like the XL systems)...

     

    sTeVE

     

    [ 02-23-2002: Message edited by: Jet Boot Jack ]

  24. Posted

    Gunstar,

     

    IK - the blank backgrounds in the fight area, one would assume, are there so there is less masking and associated calculating to be done - 8bits can only do so much math

     

    One reason many games don't use huge amounts of DLI's to potentially stun us with colors is also a speed issue - if the Horizontal Blank routine is stuffing every color register every scanlne then there is not much else the machine can get up to

  25. Posted

    GTIA equiped 8bit machines have a 256 color palette - CTIA a 128 color palette...

     

    BUT

     

    Only the GTIA modes can show the 256 colors, mode 9 - 16 shades of one color - add DLII's and get all 256 colors.

     

    Al other modes ignore the 1st bit of the color value - giving 128 selectable shades in non GTIA modes.

     

    The odd color values have no effect except in GTIA mode...

     

    sTeVE

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