Dave Neuman

I loaded Planet Builder on my Kroc Cart and the starfield does not have the smooth movement that I want. Not sure where the problem is. Here is my Main Screen kernal where I call the subroutine DrawStars. I use LDA StarTable,Y to turn off and on idividual stars. Any insight into this problem would be appreciated. I'm using FILL_NOPs at Line 777 to pad the code MainScreen SUBROUTINE JSR SixDigitDisplay ;Ship Movement ;--SwitchDraw ; TopLine == top line of sprite ; BottomLine == bottom line of sprite ORed with $80 ; requires scanline counter < $80 (i.e., 128 lines, though you ; can get around this by interlacing your graphics) LDY Mineral_Truck ; Calculate SwitchDraw Variables SEC LDA Ship_YPos STA PSWITCH SBC #C_SHIP_HEIGHT STA PEND ; Subtract Height For SwitchDraw Routine LDA #<Sprite_Data0 SBC PEND STA Ship_Ptr LDA Truck_Tab,Y SBC PEND STA Ship_Ptr+2 ;Continue to Calculate SwitchDraw Variables LDA PEND ORA #%10000000 STA PEND LDX #0 LDA Ship_XPos JSR bzoneRepos STX PF0 ;prevents artifact after (Restore black border..) sleep 10 SEC LDA Ship_ColorPtr SBC Ship_YPos CLC ADC #C_SHIP_HEIGHT-#1 STA Ship_ColorPtr STA WSYNC STA HMCLR LDX #1 SEC LDA Ship_XPos CMP #12 BCS NoAdjust ADC #161 NoAdjust SBC #8 JSR bzoneRepos STA WSYNC STA HMCLR JSR DrawStars LDA #QUAD_SIZE_MISSILE STA NUSIZ0 LDA #SILVER ;Ball(meteor)is color of playfield STA COLUPF TSX ; Transfer stack pointer to X STX SavedStackPointer ; Store it in RAM LDX #ENABL TXS ;--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ;Top Kernal ;Begin Ship draw loop ;LDY #C_KERNAL_HEIGHT +#C_SHIP_HEIGHT - #1; LDY #127 ;was 151 (Switchdraw maximum height is 127) STA WSYNC ;0 ;--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ShipLoop ; Draw Sprite (SwitchDraw) CPY PSWITCH ; 3 = 3 BPL PSwitch ; 2/3 = 5 LDA (Ship_Ptr),Y ; 5 = 10 STA GRP0 ; 3 = 13 LDA (Ship_Ptr+2),Y ; 5 = 18 STA GRP1 ; 3 = 21 writes must be finished before cycle 22 to avoid tearing PContinue ;Color for Ship loaded below STY COLUP1 ; 3 = 24 ;Color for Ship loaded below STX COLUP0 ; 3 = 27 ;Draw Truck = 27 ;--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ;DrawMissile TYA ; 2 = 2 assuming y contains the scanline SBC Missile_YPos ; 3 = 5 carry must be 1 (else use DCP) ADC #C_MISSILE_LENGTH ; 2 = 7 LDA #2 ; 2 = 9 ADC #$FF ; 2 = 11 carry is always set! STA ENAM0 ; 3 = 14 bit 1 depends on the carry after ADC ;EndMissileLoop ;Draw Stars ;Y Has Scanline 127 LDA StarTable,Y ;5 = 19 STA ENAM1 ;3 = 22 waste a cycle ;Drawing Missiles =22 ;--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ;DrawMeteor CPY Meteor_YPos ;3 Assumes Y is your kernal line counter PHP ;2 LDX #ENABL ;2 TXS ;2 ;EndMeteorLoop ;Drawing Meteors =9 ;--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ;27+22+9=58 ;Load Color for RCV LDA (Ship_ColorPtr),Y ;5 = 63 TAX ;2 = 65 NOP ;2 = 67 NOP ;2 = 69 DEY ;2 = 71 CPY #48 ;2 = 73 BCS ShipLoop ;3 = 74 ;--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ; SwitchDraw Routines PSwitch ; 6 bne PWait ; 2/3 = 8 LDA PEND ; 3 = 11 STA PSWITCH ; 3 = 14 SLEEP 4 ; 4 = 18 bcs PContinue ; 3 = 21 PWait ; 9 STA HMCLR ; 3 = 12 SLEEP 6 ; 6 = 18 BPL PContinue ; 3 = 21 EndShipLoop if (>ShipLoop != >EndShipLoop) echo "WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING: ShipLoop Kernel crosses a page boundary!" endif ;--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LDA THREE_MED_COPIES ;three buildings STA NUSIZ1 ;place here to minimize vertical missile stretch LDX SavedStackPointer TXS And here is the Draws Stars Subroutine DrawStars SUBROUTINE LDA Star_XPos LDX #3 JSR bzoneRepos STA WSYNC STA HMCLR LDA #$70 ;this value is important for the effect STA HMM1 STA WSYNC STA HMOVE SLEEP 16 LDA #$60 STA HMM1 ;this is the tricky part RTS New11_16_08a.zip

This is like watching "How its Made" on the Discovery channel. I like the evolving illustrations during the development cycle. It is in many ways similar to programming. More please ...

I really enjoy reading about the artwork develepment process! The Seeker looks cool and so do the space croissants. Was the robot's name peeper?

I tried to simulate a parallax effect by moving Stars slower than Mountains and foreground sprites faster than mountains. Effect can only be seen in MESS. New11_7_08.bin

I can remember watching Super Chicken and Batfink when I was very young. Nobody I know can remember either of these ... This site brings back some old memories ... good find! This site sparked an old memory of my little brother waking me up on Saturday mornings to watch The SHMOO. I was 21 and usually hungover watching the shmoo with my 10 year old brother

Another minor update here. Bad guy on landing screen does a cool looking controlled morphing rotation thanks to Spiceware Graphics cleaned up a bit and frame rates a bit more stable. To get bonus point match the mineral in the hole to the mineral on the RCV New10_27_08.bin

Added color to Ship ... looks psychedelic New9_27_08.bin A little different look. I'm thinking that matching the shape that's in the storage area of the ship with the mineral extracted would improve the atmosphere. If you picked up the wrong mineral you would be penalized. New9_27_08.bin

I coded a little test for the enemies rotation on the landing screen. I add the value from 0 to FF to the enemies graphics pointer as you move the lander from left to right. The variable is $80 in the Stella debugger. Most of the values make it look like a borg cube. I also slowed down the mountain scrolling a bit. test enemy Borg like enemy slow enemy

The sprite is actually the same one I used in Space Battle. It's a rotation of all the sprites to try to make it look like a menacing and evil morphing alien ship. Maybe it's not conveying the effect I was attempting Thanks for the tips on image insertion.

That dotted line is actually the star background, but it only displays correctly in mess How do you add pictures to the comments?

I've added a couple of elements to the game. After landing on the planet you must retrieve and send 7 minerals to the mother ship to build the planets atmosphere. When the atmosphere has changed from black through reds to blue your ship will blast off to dock with the mother ship. After successful docking you proceed to land on the next planet. New9_24_08.bin New9_25_08_slow.bin New9_25_08_borg.bin New9_25_08_test.bin Cleaned up graphics a little on RCV screen New9_26_08.bin

It's been a while again since I made an entry, but I added some meteors. The meteors don't have any collision detection yet, but they look kinda cool. The star background only shows on the mess emulator. Still need more game-play elements as it's a little boring. New7_09_08.bin

I added collision detection for the hole. You have to inch up and lower your Rover's bucket to mine the mineral deposit. Apparently, all the minerals on this planet are partially submerged in a dangerous hyper gravity hole that causes immediate destruction if touched. New5_30.bin

Before I purchased my High Voltage Probe, I used a device similar to this and never bleed the discharge through a resistor without incuring any damage. Bob Roberts has a good website with advice on Arcade related repairs. His discharge kit does not use any bleed resistors. Randy Fromm's website is also a good resource. I have a couple of his instructional video tapes and he never uses a bleed resistor when discharging. Here is a link to his technical department.

I have always discharged (with one hand in my pocket) through my high voltage probe ... similar to this one.

I've made a couple more minor changes. Not sure where this is going, but I'm having fun doing it. A hole appears randomly with a small mineral above it. The idea is to lower the crane to pick up one of seven different minerals without falling into the hole. After picking up the mineral you must transport it up before picking up another. As you travel you can jump over the hole and avoid falling in. There is no collision detection for the hole yet so you really can't fall in. Landing sequence has multi-colored lander with blinking landing light. New5_23.bin

I've made a couple of minor changes. The mineral glows when it is avialable for pickup. After pickup the Rover glows to indicate it is ready to transport the deposit up to the orbiting atmospheric processor. I also added a progress bar for the Atmospheric Pressure. New4_24.bin

Or Ark II. Keep up the good work! It's nice to see progress on another homebrew. Thanks! I had forgotten about that show! Cool, it does look like the ArkII. Wonder what happened to the vehicle

It's been quite a while since I posted progress on "Planet Builder" ... work seems to get in the way of fun. The planetary processing station orbiting above now combines two sprites to make one. It looks kinda like a bus in the sky ... I need to make something much better looking. The planetary collection Rover can only transport up the mineral for processing after it has been collected. A new mineral becomes available for collection only after the collected mineral has been transported. Graphical glitches and frame count issues have not been resolved as of yet. Just having some fun with it when time permits. New4_14.bin A couple of bug fixes including steady framerate. Still need many more gameplay elements. New4_15.bin

Thanks! Option 2 (moveable missiles) is the best way to Battle the enemy. The difficulty settings will change whether or not fuel appears and at what speed it drops. If you're playing without fuel pods and the bombs drop fast with an unmoveable missile, the game is much harder. From Florida on vacation ... 82 and sunny at Fort Myers Beach

No flicker for NTSC on Kroko

Been quite a while since I posted anything as I have not had much time for coding. This update shows a starfield in the Title screen, landing sequence and the main screen. Effect only shows up in MESS as I am using missile 1 and Cosmic Ark trick for effect. New12_28.bin

TRON Opps, already listed above!

1. Star Wars 2. PacMan 3. Galaga 4. Asteroids 5. Pole Position I was just playing these in my basement Wish I still had my Donkey Kong

I've been playing the first release candidate for about an hour on the real hardware. It's a very fun and addictive game. The fighters seem more aggressive than the last version I played. The action gets very intense as you progress through level six and above. The "strafing effect" of the fighters is much like the arcade version and is very cool. The SFX for the Scout spawning really helps me to attack it quickly before he calls up more fighters. The colors of the score remind you of your "tries remaining" at a glance and is a cool feature. Game seems perfect to me and I will be ordering one as soon as it's available.