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I do. If you are in Northern America or Great Britain, it is probably the easiest to buy it from one of the shops there: http://www.colecovision.eu/buy.shtml Otherwise, it is probably easier to buy directly from me, but I'm often busy, which delays handling orders a bit and shipping can be expensive and slow depending on the destination. Philipp

The warning is not a big issue, and should only have a minor effect on code quality (possibly slightly bigger code for the function being compiled). If you care about code size, you might want to use --opt-code-size and possibly --max-allocs-per-node with a suitable parameter (the default for --max-alloocs-per-node is 3000; lower values speed up compilation, higher values result in more optimization). Philipp Edit: Fix typo.

Unfortunately, I didn't find time to do so yet. All I did so far was unpack one of my Flashbacks and check the contents of the box. I didn't notice any Bankruptcy Builder overlays, which I guess makes it hard to play the game. However, the picture at http://colecovision.eu/ColecoVision/games/Bankruptcy%20Builder.shtml shows what Bankruptcy Builder overlays look like. Philipp

It is emulating a ColecoVision, it runs ColecoVision games, it is meant to look and feel like a ColecoVision. The people interested in it are probably mostly the same as those interested in the real ColecoVision. Thus, IMO, it makes sense to have it as a subforum of the ColecoVision subforum. Even better would be both: Just like the ColecoVision programming forum is a subforum of both the ColecoVision and the Programming forum. Philipp

Some peole are creating threads for idividual Flashback topics, cluttering the forum. Others are replying to the big Flashback thread, making it hard to read (75 pages already). IMO having a Flashback subforum would be better. Philipp P.S.: My two Flashbacks arrived yesterday, didn't find time to unpack them yet.

Yes. Any memory access takes the same time. You can look up the number of cycles for an instructon in the Z80 manual, and divide by the frequency to get the exact time. Philipp

No. Why shoud it be? Philipp

For someone using the C programming language: http://colecovision.eu/ColecoVision/development/tutorial0.shtml Philipp

--max-allocs-per-node. The defualt is equivalent to --max-allocs-per-node 3000. Lower numbers make sdcc faster, but the resulting code worse. I rerely set it to valeus lower than the default. AFAIR, the release version of Bankcrupty Builder was compiled with --max-allocs-per-node 1000000. For the code speed vs. code size trade-off, there's also --opt-code-size and --opt-code-speed. Philipp

If you already have chosen efficient algorithms, and have some function called in an inner loop that has a big impact on the speed of your game, and a look at the compiler-generated code shows ineffciencies, and you are willing to really think about how to do the calculations fast in assembler, then assembler is the right tool for that function. Often, however, hand-written assembler would only be marginally faster than hand-written assembler code, and assembler code written without putting a lot of effort into making it very efficient might even be worse than compiler-generated code. And the sdcc compiler keeps improving. My games first written around 2006-2008 often had about a dozen functions written in assembler. When I now look at them again, many of them would be adequately handled by the compiler. I sometimes removed asm functions and went back to the C version, because the improvements in the compiler, with the C version now being as good or nearly as good as the asm version. There are some functions for which I noticed sdcc would generate rather bad code many years ago. I kept them around and used them as a benchmark while working on sdcc. Numbers that show how sdcc improved over time can be found at http://sdcc.sourceforge.net/mediawiki/index.php/Z80_code_size - even though the graphs are old). Philipp

Most of my games are: http://colecovision.eu/ColecoVision/games/ Philipp

Some are written in C. Some in Z80 asm. Some in a combination thereof. I do not know about any other languages being sed for ColecoVision games. Philipp

A new version of sdcc, the compiler used with both Daniel's and my ColecoVision development tools, has been released yesterday. Compared to the previous release, the improvements relevant to Z80, and thus ColecoVision development are mostly moderate improvements in code size and speed, bug fixes, and (for those using some forms of Megacarts) the named address spaces in ROM. Here's the release announcement from Maarten:

Fixed in revision #8961. Philipp

I jut noticed there was a minor mistake in the example I posted. Here's a corrected version: void setb0(void) // The function that sets the currently active memory bank to b0 { *((volatile char*)0xffff); } void setb1(void) // The function that sets the currently active memory bank to b1 { *((volatile char*)0xfffe); } __addressmod setb0 const spaceb0; // Declare a named address space called spaceb0 that uses setb0() and resides in ROM __addressmod setb1 spaceb1; // Declare a named address space called spaceb1 that uses setb1() and resides in RAM const spaceb0 int x = 42; // An int in address space spaceb0 spaceb1 int *y; // A pointer to an int in address space spaceb1 const spaceb0 int *spaceb1 z; //A pointer in address space sapceb1 that points to a constant int in address space spaceb0

Well, there is the tutorial at http://colecovision.eu/ColecoVision/development/tutorial0.shtml The environment there comes from a Unix background (I use Debian GNU/Linux, the tutorial works for Windows using Cygwin), so it should fit well for OSX, since AFAIK, OSX is based on BSD. Philipp

I did make another run of Cye, called Cye 1.2 (slightly different graphics from previous versions, a few additional levels). It will be available at Good Deal Games, Telegames UK and the GOAT store. I didn't mention it here, since there's already a thread for Cye. Philipp

I wonder if Destiny Games might be interested in more current homebrew game as well. Do they have a website or email? http://www.destiny-games.com is down. Philipp

I consider it to be as close to Qix as reasonable for a ColecoVision game. The Colecovision's graphics chip simply can't do the visuals of the arcade version; in particular, those white vertical lines with black on one side and blue on the other. Philipp

My games Search for the stolen Crown Jewels 3, Bankruptcy Builder and Shunting Puzzle released earlier this year sold out rather quickly and have not been available in the US recently. Fortunately, this will change. They should soon be available at both Good Deal Games and the GOAT store. Philipp

What's wrong with Ȼi̅x̅? Philipp

The game will also be available at the GOAT store. Philipp

Sorry for not replying earlier. I'm a bit busy this term. While it took you some effort to adapt your programs for current sdcc, there is a reward, since the new way of initializing global variables is much more efficient. Philipp

The Meka emulator has some basic debugging functionality, scuh as displaying the memory and graphics memory maps and the state fo there gisters. Philipp

There are multiple options. The most popular ones these days seem to be programming in C or in asm. Now, most C programmers seem to use sdcc as their compiler (previously, HITECH-C was popular). For sdcc there are at least two sets of libraries/tools: The one by newcoleco and mine. Here are some tutorials on getting started: http://colecovision.eu/ColecoVision/development/tutorial0.shtml http://colecovision.eu/ColecoVision/development/tutorial1.shtml http://colecovision.eu/ColecoVision/development/tutorial2.shtml Philipp