Muddyfunster

New build. Fixes the ghost explosion on the generator. Code changes to fix the intermittent sticking. Code changes to fix back screen (wip). Rocket explosion code updated.

@-^CrossBow^- Thanks again, the detailed feedback is superb. I've been working on fixed to the issues you captured and noted. Blackscreen. I've still not had this happen but I've made a few code changes that I hope will help this. Sticking to stuff - I've mode some fixes here and I've been flying around for a good hour and I've not stuck to a surface yet so I'm hopeful this is also fixed. I also rewrote the code that does the enemy missile explosions. This code was some of the earliest I wrote and because it "worked" I didn't update it. The old code meant that if a rocket exploded or was destroyed you got an explosion, but not more than 1 at a time (it glitches), new code is happy with many rockets fully exploding. Rewriting some more rocket handling code to make them more efficient & will pop a new ROM up later.

Who thought the 7800 could look this good !

I can view .mov files no problem, which ever is easier for you:)

Ok this one took some snagging. I could replicate it every time (the video examples are fantastic by the way!) but there was no reason why the ghost explosion should exist, or so I thought... I tracked it down to be not the rocket you destroyed but the player bomb explosion. It could only occur when destroying the generator due to a sloppy code call that bypassed the usual logic to clear down the position variables after the explosion of the players bomb. Now fixed

Thanks guys, The blackscreen issue, I don't know what's causing this yet. I have a few ideas but I can't replicate it. During all of the testing I've done tonight I've not had it happen once. I've sat and done over 400 screen transitions on the screens where it's been noted to occur. I added some code traps so I know which part of the code is triggering it. Not a single occurrence. Not a sniff. I've no doubt it's happening because you are seeing it. This is going to be a pain to track down I've changed some code that was not optimal, but as I can't reliably replicate the issue , I don't know if that's made any difference yet. Sticking to floors and ceilings. This is a glitch I know about. I've worked on this tonight and found a few spots where I could replicate the effect fairly consistently. I think there are a couple of things causing it, one, i've fixed so it doesn't happen any where near as often, the other, well I know the cause but the fix is eluding me for now .

Thank's @-^CrossBow^- I don't know about the controls changing on A7800. I use both A7800 and JS7800 to test and I use a game pad so I'm not sure why the key config would change between games. I think A7800 is a mame branch and I remember from MAME that you could set controls "per game" so that does sound like an emulator setting. Thanks for confirming the transition issue. I've tried for a good hour today and could not replicate it - it's frustrating to say the least I need to go back to the code and take a look what's happening there again, line by line. It also seems isolated to those two screens and the transition between them. Thanks again.

The new demo is directly available on the JS7800 emulator from the dropdown.

Thanks Matt, Appreciate your efforts getting this working!

Thanks @Trebor Fantastic write up and critique as always. Yes indeed I've not seen this happen in a long time (transition issue), so I thought this bug was squished. Thanks for the detailed description, it's really helpful and gives me something to go on trying to track it down. Thanks again @Trebor

Thanks again for the fantastic feedback guys. Emulator build 231_1b Balance changes in full Slowed the patrol aliens down by around 20%, vertically and horizontally (the laser screen patrol aliens were already slower so they are not adjusted). Screen # 3 (Banyan Tree) : Removed a rocket that could result in a cheap death on first entering the screen. Screen # 4 (Broom Cupboard) : Reduced drones from 5 to 4, increased the spawn delay slightly Screen #11 (Momento Mori): Adjusted the design to make navigating the traps easier. Aliens patrol slower, further and the drop gaps are widened. Screen #13 (Central Cavern) : Reduced drones from 5 to 4, increased the spawn delay slightly Screen #14 (Dulce Periculem) : Laser trap timer extended by 1 second. Screen #17 (The Gubbins) : Adjusted turret slightly. Screen #20 (Mustang Sally) : 2 rockets removed, 1 rocket moved to a more fair placement. Drone aliens no longer spawn if you are within 20 pixels of the screen edge (prevents deaths where you could be killed by a spawning drone as you move to change screen). Turrets now wait longer before shooting their first shot, usually at least 2 seconds (except screen 5 - Cecco's Rise) as the turrent is in the middle of the screen so an adjustment shouldn't be needed) Remember the screens aren't linear, the screen# doesn't directly equate to the order you see them, it's just a reference number that you can pretty much ignore. Always better to refer to the screen name if you spot an issue. Thinking of adding a couple of training screens (How to pilot your Salamander 101) exo231_balanced1b.bas.a78

With the lower speed on the blocking aliens, it should be a bit easier to get to the first checkpoint now.

Easy mistake to make 7800Basic is developed by @RevEng (this thread) ADS is developed by @mksmith and works with 7800Basic and Batari Basic (2600)(the thread I linked above) The two go hand in hand but are actually separate.

I've had that happen a couple of times, I usually close down ADS and restart and it clears. I can compile code ok, just not export anything from the sprite editor.

Yep, just done the same checks, I don't see anything in my AV quarantine, I've just posted in the ADS thread for Matt's attention :

There seems to be a wrinkle with exporting sprites : I get the error When ever I try to export any sprite from the editor. Tried a new sprite, existing sprite, 160A/ 160B, tried reinstalling. (I even checked my virus software to ensure it wasn't misbehaving again !)

I was just about to post the exact same thing

Thanks for the feedback guys, really appreciate it. One of the biggest challenges with getting the balance right is that I play the game a lot when testing so it naturally becomes easier for me. The challenge feedback is really useful as I'm biased/ less prone to notice the difficulty. Ultimately I want a game that's a challenge, but not one that's frustrating to the point it's not fun. @TreborInteresting point about the PAL and NTSC differences. I develop pretty much exclusively in NTSC, the same for the 2600, so I don't think it's that. I think JS7800 runs as NTSC. @mksmith Thanks Matt, I looked into this and the collisions seem ok : Neither triggered a collision explosion. I'm going to look into it some more using my torture room screen and record some videos to check nothing in awry. Some additional balance changes I've made to Level 1 : Slowed the patrol aliens down by around 20%, vertically and horizontally (the laser screen patrol aliens were already slower so they are not adjusted). Screen #11 (Momento Mori): adjusted the design to make navigating the traps easier. Aliens patrol slower, further and the drop gaps are widened. Screen #14 (Dulce Periculem) : Laser trap timer extended by 1 second. Screen #20 (Mustang Sally) : 2 rockets removed, 1 rocket moved to a more fair placement. Drone aliens no longer spawn if you are within 20 pixel of the screen edge (prevents deaths where you could be killed by a spawning drone as you move to change screen). Turrets now wait longer before shooting their first shot, usually at least 2 seconds (except screen 5 - Cecco's Rise) as the turrent is in the middle of the screen so an adjustment shouldn't be needed) A new JS7800 / A7800 ROM will be posted shortly.

Thanks @-^CrossBow^- The missiles have never been killable with the standard shot, only the player missile, that hasn't changed. The timings on the most part have not been changed, where they have been changed, it's to make things easier. (the laser fence for example is slightly easier, some of the barrier enemies have been slowed down). There are also a couple of points where rockets have been removed as they cause cheap deaths when approaching the screen from the reverse direction. I've checked and rechecked the screen with the green laser barrier, I can't replicate the bug you mentioned. Will investigate that some more. The next version demo will have a lot more balance tweaks to level 1 to make it easier and less brutal. (however if you think this is hard, I suggest checking out one of the 8bit versions of Cybernoid!). Thanks for the feedback, always appreciated

BBC Basic was great and was also one of the fastest interpreted BASIC's for the 8bits.

Looks great so far.

The latest demo build of E.X.O. is available directly on the rather excellent JS7800 https://raz0red.github.io/js7800/ This build is slightly different to the one from a few weeks ago (some palette fixes, a couple of points where the player deaths felt a bit cheap are revised and a few other general code tweaks). Plans for the next major version: Include level 2 (factory) Thinking about revising the title section and removing the instructions etc.. I don't like the text with the 8 wide font so maybe rethink this section Level select option - The game isn't totally linear. After level 1, select either level 2 or 3, but both need to be completed to open up level 4. Ability to save progress so you don't have to start at level 1 each time you play. Custom pause screen Balance and more tweaks to level 1

As Matt said, sometimes you need to change the order of how things are called in the graphics block to make efficient use of the block or blocks. I spend a bit of time tweaking this for sprites etc to squeeze every last byte out if the blocks. Moving small sprites into different blocks to fill up those few spare bytes that might be there. I think mapfile tiles need to be together in the same block, and you need to tell maria which block you are drawing from (characterset), otherwise she gets confused and uses whatever, that's when you see garbage I think. (Mike might correct me on this ). If you are using frames, sometimes I found animations will glitch if the sprites for the animation sit across two blocks if you are using indexes (as in gfx blocks where the sprites are stored, not blocks on screen). So try to keep animations frames in the same block if you are using indexes to animate and call. You can demarcate the blocks using "newblock" if you want to force things. I tend to see what goes where in the compile messages and see which blocks have free space or if something is straddling two blocks. For E.X.O. i'm using 256k+RAM. Each level lives across or uses 3 banks and taps the persistent bank for sprites. The game has multiple levels (4 currently). Each level shares the same base engine code (more or less) but the code is duplicated rather than trying to make one core and have everything hang off of it. In many ways, duplicating code is better than trying to follow the "efficient" branching code instinct (great advice from Mike and Matt). So for example on E.X.O. Level 1 looks like this : Bank 2 = background gfx tiles specific to that level only (fills block 0) + executable code for the engine. Bank 3 = mapfiles for screens 1-12 Bank 4 = mapfiles for screens 13-25 Last Bank = shared sprites like enemies, explosions, players ship etc. that can be used for any level. My execution path follows what Matt suggested above & the loop does some code like this : Has there been a screen # change ? if yes, Check what screen I'm on. if the screen is <12 goto bank 3 and copy the correct mapfile into memory - do some palette stuff if the screen is >=13 goto bank 4 and copy the correct mapfile into memory - do some palette stuff Plot the mapfile & save screen Jump back to bank 2 Plot sprites etc. game logic etc. Draw the screen I'm plotting the maps in bank 3 or 4, but I'm not drawing the screen until I'm in bank 2 so it's using the graphics tiles from bank 2 + any common sprites stashed in the last bank. Bit of a rambling explanation but I hope that's helpful! Keep at it, Popeye is looking great

Virus software decided the filter file was the spawn of Satan quarantined it. All good now!

Grrr! Thanks Mike. I just had to fight with damn virus software for like an hour. Appreciate the quick answer ! Virus software - this stuff is really dodgy, I quarantined it. Me, Nope, restore and don't quarantine. VS - OMG, i found this file (same as last time) it's dodgy, quarantine that bad boy! Me, Really, just stop, I restored it and added to the white list. VS... I found this.. ME, NO ffs. VS.. 😷