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calamari

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Posts posted by calamari

  1. Posted · Edited by calamari

     

    I don't think they necessarily are since - media hyperbole aside - this is not a traditional console launch nor is it from a company with a particular bounty of resources.

     

    Ah! I think I've got this figured out! You're talking about what you "expect" the system/games will actually be (MW dictionary says "to consider probable or certain"). You very well might be right about that, who knows at this point. But, I'm not trying to make a prediction, I'm simply stating what I "expect" the system/games to be in order for me to consider buying it ("to consider reasonable, due, or necessary"). Same word, two different meanings.

  2. Posted

    In any case, I think your last paragraph again is going down the "too high expectations" rabbit hole for the reach of the present day Atari. I doubt they'll be able to develop any games specific to this hardware. Unless something has changed, that's not really necessary anyway, since it should run existing stuff. My expectation remains that this relatively low cost, modestly powered hardware will succeed or fail on whatever value/service proposition they can come up with. Anything else is really not something I can see them being able to pull off, especially if this goes the expected crowd funding route.

     

    What good is a system if it brings nothing new to the table and doesn't have fun games? My expectations are reasonable.

  3. Posted

    My two cents...

     

    I like the futuristic theming, but personally, I don't care about the hardware specs. The 5200 wasn't very powerful and had the best arcade ports. The Jaguar was powerful for its time and flopped (and there was no decent first party content, besides the nostalgic Tempest 2000).

     

    I don't care about emulation, as we have way too much of that already. "Accidentally" make it hackable, that will be enough ;)

     

    Develop some NEW high quality first party arcade-style content, throw in a few quality remakes of classic games... then I'll buy one. They don't need the old crew to do this, but they need a crew that is willing to take the time to analyze and channel the creative simplicity that made those early Atari arcade games so successful.

    • Like 1

  6. Posted

    Okay I've given up trying to get the 1030 to work with Ice-T.. so now I'd like to try to get my 850 interface working with Ice-T.

    Which R: handler am I going to want to use for this, (and if possible where can I get it)? I know I'm going to need a handler of some kind, as Ice-T refuses to load without one tacked on to itself.

    You don't need to tack anything on, just rename atari850.hnd (included in the distribution) to rs232.com and you're all set. Sorry about the delay in answering, I hope 6 years is better than never :)

     

    Ice-T will bomb with Y-modem-G and when I reported the Bug to the Author his reply was (oh then use Zmodem) #@!
    In YModem-G, data is streamed without any breaks except those generated by hardware flow control. Ice-T will attempt to write to the file to disk without closing the R: port but simply not reading data, assuming that the R: driver will take care of flow control. With the hardware I was developing and testing with - either an Atari 850 or an SIO2PC cable that behaved like a P:R: Connection cable - this was an illegal operation and would crash the Atari. I only allowed this mode because people on c.s.a.8 told me that there is hardware (MIO and BB, I believe) that does allow writing to disk while the R: port is still open, and does take care of flow control. I'm sorry but there was no way for me to test Y-modem-G on my setup at all, or debug this issue. Sorry if I sounded like a jerk.

     

    Looks like the original link is dead
    Indeed, universities have that annoying tendency to close students' accounts when they graduate.

     

    The problem with ICE-T is that it doesn't work on my machine. Whenever I run it, all I get is a continuous flow of "j" characters running through the terminal screen (and yes, the same stuff appears on the other side too). I mailed Itay Chamiel about it several months ago, but got no reply at all.
    I don't seem to remember such an email, sorry about that. This bug probably has something to do with the way Ice-T generates keyclicks. Since Ice-T has 3 different keyclick styles (none, simple, standard), and since some keys are accepted by Ice-T that do not naturally generate a click, the keyclick is defeated when the keys are read from the keyboard, and only after checking the current mode is the keyclick generated (or not, in "none" mode). The method by which the "standard" keyclick is generated is by artificially inserting an arbitrary value into the keyboard buffer, then calling the OS keyboard read routine. I'm pretty sure that arbitrary value is a 'j'. The OS read routine is supposed to clear that buffer, but obviously in some case (no idea which) it does not. Needless to say, this never happened to me on any system or emulator I've tried it on. A workaround to this bug would be to use Simple or no keyclick.

     

    I've posted the source code to Ice-T for your debugging pleasure in this thread. If anyone can reproduce and explain the "screamin' J's" bug, I'd be happy to hear it.

     

    -itay

     

    Sweet! I'm totally going to have to try this now... I no longer have dialup, so I'll have to figure out how to connect this mess to Linux and get a terminal. Then I can use ircII or similar to connect to #rgvc. Hopefully my 850 still (ever?) works, especially after sitting in various closets for 9 years :)

  8. Posted

    Nice program here. I've just been playing around with it.

     

    Is it coded for DOS or Windows? I guess it is for DOS. It takes up my full screen which is a little problematic (especially as I have dual screen and my setup makes both screens fill with Antic4!). Is it at all possible to have it Windowed? (or would that mean a big re-write?)

     

    And also, if I hit alt-enter and then go back to full screen, my mouse pointer initially can't get to the top left of the screen until I've waggled it about a bit!

     

    Would it be possible that when I go to load a file, that an option to list the contents of the directory is there?

     

    Ha ha, oops, I'm asking for the moon on a stick!!! Sorry! It's a good program and I like it, I wish that there were more PC based cross-development tools.

     

    Yeah it's written for MS-DOS, using a Microsoft Basic compiler for MS-DOS. Having moved completely off the Windows platform to Linux at least 5 years ago, I don't mean to be unsympathetic to your issues, it's just that I have no real way of seeing them or maybe even fixing them. However, I have provided the source code, so if you wish to submit patches, I'm happy to include them. I have no plans of rewriting the program for a windowed environment, but feel free to do so, the source is GPLv3 :)

     

    As far as a listing of files, my user interface is rather primitive (basically interfacing with the mouse driver directly), and isn't well suited to scrolling lists of files. But, as a workaround, you can load files directly from the command line, so do a "dir *.ant" then run "antic4 filename".

     

    Jeff

  9. Posted

    Is this still available?

     

    http://kidsquid.com/old/compilers/5200bas/5200bas.html

     

    Allan

     

    Sorry, I went with free hosting and now my web page is a steaming pile. Half the pages don't work and there are all sorts of file restrictions.

     

    However, at the polite request of an old friend and with the help of VirtualBox I resurrected ANTIC4 and added BMP screenshot output and DLI support (each line can have its own set of 5 colors). So here is ANTIC4 version 2.00. Important to note: the save file format has changed, so when you save your ANT file with 2.00 there's no going back to 1.xx (save your 2.00 work under a new filename and you're safe).

     

    Feel free to report bugs via email. Due to switching over to running Linux years ago, I've only tested it in VirtualBox with Windows 98 and DosBox (it's an MS-DOS program). Source code is included and released under the GPLv3, but note that you'll need Microsoft PDS 7.x (or possibly VB-DOS?) to use it directly.

     

    Jeff

    antic4-2.00.zip

  10. Posted

    I downloaded bas5200 and played with it for a while, great fun with quick results. Calamari should really let someone else take over to maintain it or maybe even develop it further. It's a shame to let something like this die.

     

    /P

     

    Ditto. It's a great program. Hopefully we'll see it developed further.

     

    Allan

     

    Sorry you guys! I really didn't mean to let it go like this. I certainly didn't mean for it to be considered dead. Please, send me an e-mail next time! :D

     

    5200BAS is still available on my website, here:

     

    http://kidsquid.com/old/compilers/5200bas/5200bas.html

     

    Due to this thread, I've put the source there as well, but you aren't going to like it! I wrote it in QuickBasic Extended, and I had to hack around some MS-DOS limitations. The code is a huge mess. My personal preference would be to see the compiler ported to Java or ANSI C. I started on a Java port some time ago, but I cannot find it now. Check the included README for more information about the source code release.

     

    So, good luck, and enjoy! :ponder:

  13. Posted

    Actually, I did :)  I e-mailed [email protected] on June 20th, and [email protected] on June 22nd, with the same offer (free combats, pay shipping).  My e-mails were completely ignored.. so I had to assume they didn't want the carts.

    886397[/snapback]

    My bad, that was right after OVGE (which was on the 18th), and I forgot to respond to the email you sent me on the 20th (I'm sure some other emails have fallen through the cracks also).

     

    ..Al

    886409[/snapback]

     

    No problem.. glad everything worked out! :D

     

    Thanks,

    Jeff

  16. Posted · Edited by calamari

    I have a huge box of combats that I've been storing and need to get rid of. They are packed and ready to ship.

     

    The shipping box is approx 17" x 20" x 22" and weighs about 50 pounds. The combats have not been tested (too many!) Some are physically in better condition than others. Some have picture labels, some text. I'm pretty sure that all of them are NTSC format.

     

    The combats are free, but if you want them, please pre-pay me for shipping via USPS priority or parcel post. Video games cannot be shipped via media mail, so please don't ask for that. International shipping is fine, but please do not ask me to fill out any forms dishonestly.

     

    If you're interested, contact me at [email protected] with your address and shipping method, and whether you want insurance. First takes all.

     

    Thanks,

    Jeffry Johnston

  17. Posted

    It does have 99 levels, however it stops getting harder way before then (the hardware can only handle so much), so not really 99 levels of difficulty. My brother and I got there (one driving, one shooting). Once you pass level 99 it simply repeats level 99 again. We played level 99 a few times over to see if it'd do anything (crash, weird score, etc), but it just kept on as normal. To get this high we just went straight for the exit every time. Along the way we got plenty of treasure to stay alive.. I'm almost positive we had more than the 5 shown lives when we got to level 99. No idea what the final score was, didn't write it down.. since it was a 2 player effort, I guess it wouldn't count anyways.

     

    calamari

  18. Posted

    Whatever happened to Solitaire, Utopia and Airworld?

     

    While we're on the subject, has anyone heard from Calamari over the past year?  is he still around or has he completely left the scene?

     

    Hi,

     

    I'm still around, but I haven't read Atariage in a long while. I've recently gotten married, and right now am going to the university full time. I read some rumors on AA that homebrewers were getting in trouble? So is it even worth finishing the Solitaire game or will I get busted by Infogrames if I try to sell it?

     

    It has been ages since I looked at the Solitaire source code. The last I remember, my 5200BAS compiler was a mess (the joys of DOS code segments) and I was trying to get it ported over to Java. But that never got finished. I was a lot happier working on the compiler, because I knew that other people were using it to write cool games. It seems that the weird quirks have become known, and I'm happy that there don't seem to be that many (at least that I've heard about).

     

    As far as the game goes the card moving routine was way too slow. This was the main thing that halted my progress. Another biggie was getting joystick support working right. My goal is to have both the joystick and trackball work and calibrate automatically. Also, I need to redo the shuffling routine, based on what I've learned recently while doing a school assignment (I came across something in the past that was close to the Knuth shuffle, but not quite right). There is a weird visual glitch on the title screen that I don't understand. I also still have no clues about what to have it do when the player wins.

     

    Right now there is no chance of me working on it. I have basically no free time (it's past 11pm now as I'm writing this), or I spend it with my wife. Honestly though, even before I had time pressure the game was sitting around (other projects seemed more fun). But, I will eventually finish it. I promised that I would, and I still hold to that. The game will be finished eventually.

     

    calamari

    [email protected]

  19. Posted

    Oops, that's a typo. If you do LOCATE num, num, nothing is included (it is pre-calculated by the compiler). Of course, if a variable is involved, compile time calculation is not possible, so it uses MULADD.

     

    The compiler sets up MULADD appropriately and then that does all the work. If you are curious, you might check how it is setting up MULADD and do the calculation by hand comparing against what is returned (see the MULADD manual entry for more information).

     

    calamari

     

    P.S. I've actually been wanting to release the 5200BAS source under the GPL, but it wouldn't do much good. I programmed it using Microsoft PDS Basic 7.0, which is an ancient MS-DOS compiler. I am running up against its code size limitations. I actually got around it once (by making two modules) so I could keep going, but it made a huge mess of the code. My plans are to port it to a modern compiler such as C++ or Java, but I have not had time.

  20. Posted

    You can put pretty much any code in, however:

     

    1) Make sure to restore any registers you changed. Remember that your program will be interrupted to process the IRQ's, so if the registers get mangled and not restored back to what they were, you might crash or have a weird bug, and you won't be able to figure out why its not working. Usually POP ALL does the trick, but it depends on what it pushed at the beginning for you. Check my examples to see what I did.

     

    2) You have a limited time in which to work. With a DLI you have a screen line worth of time (not very much), with a VBI you have the retrace (a few lines at the bottom of the screen, then going from the bottom of the screen back to the top). If you take too long (easy with DLI's), then you will see weird things, mid-line changes, etc. stoing something into WSYNC can help here too 

    WSYNC = A

    . If you want to experiment with timing you can modify the DLI's/VBI's in my screen mode examples. I highly recommend that 6502 link on my resources page, it has all the timing info in it. Very nice. You can see the asm instructions when you look at the .asm file for your program.

     

    3) Use the Atari800 emulator. It might not be the easiest, but the timing and artifacts, etc are right on.. you can see what it will really look like. IIRC, they even implemented mid-line changes.

     

    calamari

  21. Posted

    The SET command has multiple uses. This is pretty much straight out of the docs, but here you go anyways :)

     

    1) You can move one of my built in routines (say you need the range of memory where I put the keypad debounce code.. you can move it) 

    SET VKYBDF=$B000 'default is $BC00

     

    2) If you don't like my debounce (doesn't do what you need, etc) and want to use your own routine, you redefine it to point to your own routine and the default routine isn't loaded. You are telling it where your routine will be in memory. Notice that the SUB command doesn't ask where it the routine is in memory, that's because you told it with the SET command. 

    SET VKYBDF=$B000 MYKEY

...

SUB MYKEY

 'See incKEYPAD.INC for my code.. A=key pressed

 POP ALL 'restore vars

END SUB 'end sub, (does RTI, could just use that but this looks prettier)

     

    3) Actually the same as #2: many of the IRQ's simply point to RTI's, so you redefine it to your own routine.

     

    4) Or, you can point it to the default ROM location, so it doesn't use my code or yours. Basically same as #1.

     

    You might want to read my 5200 Reference Manual.. it talks a lot about 5200 IRQ's and should give you an idea about what it going on. Not a whole lot as it turns out.

     

    I have not made any complicated DLI's or VBI's.. talk to Ziggy or Cafeman, they might share a few tricks with you. They are both excellent 5200 coders.

     

    calamari

  23. Posted

    Hi,

     

    Actually, I bet that you already know how to do 16-bit math, you just don't realize it. For example.. if you are counting in decimal and only have one digit to work with.. 7, 8, 9.. uh oh, now what? The obvious answer is 10, but how was that figured out? With only one digit to work with, adding 1 more to 9 wraps us back to 0, and that's the correct right hand digit, but another digit is required. We need to carry the 1 (aha! the 6502 carry flag, although with an inc/dec you would use the zero flag). Our carry is added to another digit that started at 0. So with both digits represented we really did 07, 08, 09, 10. Same thing with 16-bit math, except you have digits of 0-255 instead of 0-9. Addition & subtraction are similar. Here is an example of adding 12 to a 16 bit variable "pair" (DIGITH and DIGITL).

     

    A=DIGITL:A=A+12:DIGITL=A:IF CFLAG=TRUE THEN:DIGITH=DIGITH+1:END IF

    This page should give some additional ideas on more complicated 16-bit algorithms: http://www.obelisk.demon.co.uk/6502/algorithms.html

     

    Also, check out the source code for the 16-bit 5200BAS multiplies and divides in the inc directory (muladd.inc, div16.inc). For an example usage of muladd, see the code produced when LOCATE is used with two variables (LOCATE Q,R). Screen memory starts by default at $1000 (this can be changed with SET), but anyhow, it is an example for where 16-bit math is needed, because 40*24 > 256.

     

    calamari

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