tjb
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Posts posted by tjb
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ok. last update for today...
more items (4096 weapons plus approx each of them in 4-6 variations >16385 individual wepaons!). if you don't believe it... just load the debug version and play around. the debug version just drops a lot more weapons than the "real game". any comments here?
when entering the character stat screen (press C)you can see now in details how the weapon affects your stats. and most important.... by pressing any other key you can go back to the game and continue to play...
so...time to think about an inventory system. the diablo approach is too complicated at the moment but maybe a simple list will do it as well... each item gots a char assigned (like in any game dos) and by pressing the key you can wear that item.
and when all this works... next will be the item background buffer...
Your game seems to be coming along quite nicely. I especially like the sound effects and backgound music.
-tjb
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I want to buy a Cmmodore 64 with games, F...
ebay, where can I go 
I would recommend 4 Jays:
I have had good experience with them. I purchased a Commodore 128D from them a while back.
For software I would also recommend Centsible Software:
They seem to have some items not easily obtainable elsewhere. There are others but those two I can speak of from experience.
I recommend you steer clear of Click Here Software:
The guy who runs it evidently has done some great work in the Commodore world in the past and he sells some great devices but he
also ripped me off. Your mileage may vary but at least you've been warned.
Good luck.
-tjb
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I started off (on my current project) doing a mix of C and assembly using CC65 and later moved to pure assembly. I then switched to Atasm but now I can't recall the reason
It seems like the Atari crowd is more active in the homebrew scene. I'd like to look into porting my current project to the C64/C128. In particular the 128 has a "high res" mode of 640 x 200. I'd love to see what an Asteroids clone would look like in that mode!
-tjb
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The shields might look better if they spun with the ship when it rotates.
I agree. My focus this pass was more on getting the mechanics of the shield working rather than the look.
The asteroids just seem to disappear once they are near one edge then reappear inside the opposite edge. It would look much better if they moved off/onscreen smoothly - but it would probably involve extra processing time.
Most implementations (on this particular platform) do this. This includes Atari's orginal implementation and Asteroids II. Meteorites seems to be smooth horizontally but does the same thing when an Asteroid moves off the bottom or top edge. It appears that the arcade game also moves smootly horizontally but not vertically. It's probably a bit more obvious in Rasteroids because I need to adjust the numbers a bit. Right now the min/max numbers are the same for all Asteroids. This causes medium and smaller Asteroids to wrap before they really needed to. This is on my list of tweaks that remain. I'll also look into making them wrap smoothly. For pure horizontal it can pretty much happend for free. Vertical would take a little extra effort (and cycles as you pointed out).
I do believe that in the arcade game, it is possible to be crushed whilst shielded by 2 asteroids approaching from opposite sides - coding that might be a little tricky.
Perhaps I need to shield functionality more closely. Was it crushed or did it simply run out of shield time?
I still hate the "artifacting" look - IMO the point of using GR.8 is to get hires - forget about colour and trying to simulate it - lots of us either use proper monitors or capture cards which don't do artifacting anyway.
I'm not trying to simulate color. I want the hires look. Are you simply wanting me to turn off artifacting in the emulator?
Does the ship getting bounced around when the shield is on seem reasonable or is it cheesy? I could always take the easy way out (as Atari did) and simply turn collision detection off and let them pass over the ship. Thoughts?
BTW, thanks for the feedback.
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and how are you keeping the speed constant? are you updating the array (and the asteroids) each frame?
A few of the Asteroids are updated every frame but not all of them.
-tjb
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btw. good work so far. just for my understanding as i have to deal with such an enemy que as well... can you explain how you handle the asteroids? it must be kind of dynamic list? i mean all its parameters and when hit you have to split up hence insert 2 more asteroids in your que?
when my item generator is done in my diablo-clone i want to expand the engine to more monsters attacking the player. but diablo uses a lot of vars/stats per monster/frame so i am not sure how to handle that fast enough... maybe some approach like frame 1 monster1+2, frame 2 monster 3+4, etc... but i am not sure if thats good enough...
I don't know that the method I use is necessarily the best way to go but here goes:
I determined what the maximum number of asteroids the game would ever have active at any given time and created arrays for such things as x and y positions large enough to accomdate the maximum.
I have one array that simply holds a flag that indicates whether or not that index or "slot" is in use. I have another array that I call the "active list" that holds indexes to each actve Asteroid. I also mantain a counter that reflects the number of active asteroids so that I know how far to walk the active list. Whenever I need to spawn a new asteroid I walk the array that holds the flags that indicate if a slot is active looking for a slot that is not in use. When I find one I change the flag to active, note the index, and add that index to the end of the active list. Finally, I increment the asteroid count.
You could probably keep the flag array sorted so as to make seaching for an empty slot easier but you'd also have to update the active list as well. To me its a trival matter to spin through an array looking for a particular value. I'm sure there are probably ways that use less memory at the expense of execution speed. For instance, I could simply walk the array of flags directly looking only at slots marked as active. Of course I'd have to look at each flag every time. The additional overhead of updating the flag array and active list only happens when a new asteroid is spawned or destroyed.
-tjb
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YARV (Yet Another Rasteroids Video)
This one shows the first cut of the shields. The graphics for it will likely change and I'm sure the behavior will be tweaked. It's a start anyway. The ship can really get bounced around if there are alot of fast moving Asteroids bouncing off it. Right now you can toggle the shield on and off and can leave it on indefinitely. I will likely only allow it to be on for a few seconds. Perhaps there will be a bar that indicates how much shield time is left. Should shield time regenerate over time?
-tjb
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Just for grins...this is my first attempt at a label. I tried to do a 2600/5200 style label, while still using 400/800 style colors...I have a Hi-rez copy if you like it
I like it. It looks good. I think I'd like to stick with the name Rasteroids to avoid possible legal issues.
-tjb
Done!
I also put together a couple of other labels just for fun. One is an XE style, the other a 400/800 box style
Hmm, I think I'm partial to the one in the middle the most. I like the older style. I have to admit that I like the logo on the last one the best with the rainbow stripe and Atari with the 400/800 vertical.
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Forgive me if this is a bit off topic. (I know, I have some nerve posting Commodore questions on an Atari Site!) I was wondering if I could get some recommendations on a good PC-based Assembler to use in C64/128 programming. I found a number of them here (You have to scroll down a bit):
http://www.fairlight.to/tools/pc.html
For the Atari 8-bit I use and very much like ATASM. Is there something on par for the C64/128? Also, are there any good C64/128 sites similar to AtariAge? I was wondering if there is much homebrew development going on in the Commodore community.
-tjb
P.S. Please direct all flaming arrows to /dev/null
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Just for grins...this is my first attempt at a label. I tried to do a 2600/5200 style label, while still using 400/800 style colors...I have a Hi-rez copy if you like it
I like it. It looks good. I think I'd like to stick with the name Rasteroids to avoid possible legal issues.
-tjb
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You forgot Asteroids II
a clone for vectorial Asteroid game in high res.
I've played it but not extensively. What's you opinion on it?
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The 800 version only allows one flip/shield/hyperspace/null option at once.
You could implement all 3 - back=shield, fire+back=flip, space=hyperspace.
It would also be great if shield worked like the arcade - bouncing off objects instead of just being a cloak.
An energy level system like Blasteroids would also be good.
The shield will definitely do the bounce thing. I didn't really like the cloak effect. When you say energy level system do you mean for the shield?
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this is looking good. If you do a 5200 conversion, I'll want a copy for sure
Thanks.
It just occurred to me that the 5200 version could allow the player to use flip, hyperspace, or shield at any time (as opposed to having to choose one as an option) thanks to the additional buttons available on the joystick. Does anyone know off hand if the official Atari version allows this? Do you think this would be ok? Would it deviate too much from the arcade version? Come to think of it the arcade version had no flip. Shields were only in Asteroids Deluxe. I'm also not sure if in Deluxe you could use hyperspace as well as shields. Personally I'm not too concerned with staying close to the Arcade version. My aim was to provide something that looked/felt a bit more like an arcade game. Thoughts?-tjb
I'd like to see a sort of "Asteroids Collection" Where option 1 would be Asteroids, 2 Would be Asteroids Deluxe, and 3 could be something like Asteroids Remix with flipping, sheilds, hyperspace etc.
On that note, it would be event cooler if you did Space Duel as well...man, I'm making myself drool.
I think your "Asteroids Collection" idea might be doable. I think Space Duel you be cool as well. I like vector based games. I was thinking of doing a port of the Vectrex game Armor...Attack after this one. It's a simple premise I know but I like it.
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this is looking good. If you do a 5200 conversion, I'll want a copy for sure
Thanks.
It just occurred to me that the 5200 version could allow the player to use flip, hyperspace, or shield at any time (as opposed to having to choose one as an option) thanks to the additional buttons available on the joystick. Does anyone know off hand if the official Atari version allows this? Do you think this would be ok? Would it deviate too much from the arcade version? Come to think of it the arcade version had no flip. Shields were only in Asteroids Deluxe. I'm also not sure if in Deluxe you could use hyperspace as well as shields. Personally I'm not too concerned with staying close to the Arcade version. My aim was to provide something that looked/felt a bit more like an arcade game. Thoughts?-tjb
It would be nice to be able to configure the buttons instead of having static assignments. This would accomodate users of the Redemption 5200. It would also allow users to set one fire button as fire and the other one as hyperspace, flip, or shield (depending on personal preference).
-tjb
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this is looking good. If you do a 5200 conversion, I'll want a copy for sure
Thanks.
It just occurred to me that the 5200 version could allow the player to use flip, hyperspace, or shield at any time (as opposed to having to choose one as an option) thanks to the additional buttons available on the joystick. Does anyone know off hand if the official Atari version allows this? Do you think this would be ok? Would it deviate too much from the arcade version? Come to think of it the arcade version had no flip. Shields were only in Asteroids Deluxe. I'm also not sure if in Deluxe you could use hyperspace as well as shields. Personally I'm not too concerned with staying close to the Arcade version. My aim was to provide something that looked/felt a bit more like an arcade game. Thoughts?-tjb
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Ok. Heres a list of drives that I BELIEVE might work "as is" with the original ROM.
You guys might want to start looking for them. There are many companies on the web that sell
them either rebuilt, or used for rediculous prices..
Also, theres some dude named "BRICKCOLLECTOR" on Ebay who seems to stock alot of them.
(its actually a reputable used/tested hardware reseller, as far as I can tell) His prices arent too bad.
Ok.. For SURE.. The seagate (henceforth referred to as SEA-CRATE) ST225N will work.. It is a 5.25", half-height drive.
Here is a list of drives from the exact same generation of embedded controller design from Seagate.. They are all also
whopping-assed 5.25" footprint, half-height drives:
ST251N
ST277N
ST296N
Ok.. Now.. in case you havent figured it out yet, the last 2 digits in the model number are the unformatted capacity.
Here are 2 drives that I THINK MIGHT work, as I have have some luck with them, but not 100%.. They are 3.5" footprint, half-height:
ST138N
ST157N
Good news is that alot of these old sea-crate drives were used in macintosh machines.. And we all know that apple sold an assload of early macs.
So they are probably out there sitting in your buddy's closet, or junk-parts pile somewhere..
Geeze, I hope this actually helps.. Maybe someone with a real MIO can verify the validity of this crap..
Everyone should do what they can to brown-nose steve (money works really good) into fixing that ROM ASAP.. hahah..
I'm not a hardware guy so forgive me if I ask stupid and/or obvious questions. I was wondering what else is needed to hook up the MIO board to a SCSI hard drive besides the drive and cable? I'm assuming you also need a power supply of some sort. Do you have suggestions for a power supply?
-tjb
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I often dream of someone taking something like ATASM and merging it with an emulator like Atari800 Win+ along with an IDE to make the ultimate development environment (for 8-bit Ataris that is). It would be really cool to write the assembly code, assemble it, set break points, step through the code, etc. It would make debugging graphics output much much easier. It seems like all the individual pieces are there, it would just be a matter of integrating them all (not a trivial task I know). At times I debug individual subroutines using a 6502 simulator which is great but it sure would be nice to step through it in the context of an 8-bit emulator.
-tjb
Hit F8?
It would be nice though if some assembler could export labels and the emulator could import them. I am thinking the assembler from CC65 can output some kind of symbols a certain C64 emulator can read? I would just settle for Atari800Plus would adjust its internal equates to the 5200 when running a 5200 program.
I was thinking more along the lines of writing the code, assembling it, and running it without leaving the IDE. You'd set breakpoints directly in your source code like any of the modern IDE's like Visual Studio, Eclipse, etc. Maybe I've just become spoiled using such environments...
-tjb
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I often dream of someone taking something like ATASM and merging it with an emulator like Atari800 Win+ along with an IDE to make the ultimate development environment (for 8-bit Ataris that is). It would be really cool to write the assembly code, assemble it, set break points, step through the code, etc. It would make debugging graphics output much much easier. It seems like all the individual pieces are there, it would just be a matter of integrating them all (not a trivial task I know). At times I debug individual subroutines using a 6502 simulator which is great but it sure would be nice to step through it in the context of an 8-bit emulator.
-tjb
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Thanks for all the kind words. I originally posted the topic under the 8-bit forum and one of the moderators moved it here. It's true that there doesn't seem to be much traffic here. It could simply be that there is not alot of interest in yet another Asteroids clone. It's also not listed in the under development area here at AtariAge.
-tjb
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Here's an update on the latest progress:
What's new:
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* Title screen/attract mode
* High score display/Enter Initials screen
* Asteroids can now move in 16 different directions
* Addition of smaller alien ship
To do:
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* Two player support
* Options screen to set:
- The number of points to earn an extra ship
- Auto-fire on/off (hold down trigger as opposed to having to hit the trigger for each shot)
- Action when stick is pressed down (flip, shield, or hyperspace)
* Sound
* Timing issues (game speed ups/slow downs)
* 5200 Port
I've attached a video to show the latest progress. I had to pretty much die quickly in an effort to keep the video as short as possible. It starts off at a high level so that I can test conditions with more asteroids on the screen. This is why the smaller alien ship appears more frequently (the higher the level the greater the chance the alien will be the small one). You'll notice that the background "stars" sometimes cause some of the text to have holes in them (because of the EOR'ing). This is another thing I need to fix. The to do list is far from complete as there are a number of things in need of tweaking. Still, all in all I'd like to think it's starting to look decent.
-tjb
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I've never finished Galahad and the Holy Grail is there a walkthru somewhere? May have had to do more with no documentation (it was pirated) than anything.
To the best of my knowledge no walkthru exists. I own a copy of the original and I can tell you that you aren't missing out on anything as far as the docs are concerned. They are pretty sparse to say the least. I finished it when I was a teenager and it can be incredibly difficult to complete. It's hard enough to get to the room with the Holy Grail but then you have to make it all the way back to the first Castle with the Grail. A while back I played it under emulation using Atari800Win. I made it to the room with the Grail and saved the state of the game. I can upload this if anyone is interested. You can at least get some idea of what the room (and rooms leading up to it) look like if you haven't already seen them.
tjb
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What video format are you using? I've tried a number of players and nothing works.
Allan
Do you get it working?
-tjb
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Just wanted to say this looks great! Keep going tjb!
Any chance this can be ported to the 5200 too?Thanks,
Thanks. Yes sir, there will be a 5200 version.
-tjb
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What video format are you using? I've tried a number of players and nothing works.
Allan
Just plain old AVI with Microsoft RLE compression.
-tjb
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In Development: Asteroids clone
in Atari 5200 / 8-bit Programming
Posted
Latest Progress:
The shield position is now adjusted properly as the ship rotates. Also, rather than causing the ship to bounce off Asteroids, the shield now damages large and medium Asteroids and destroys small ones. You are only allowed to deploy the shield for a few seconds. There is now a bar under the available ships area that shows how much shield time is left. Shield time is recharged for each reserve ship. The ship's thrust is now working properly. The rest of the changes are mostly minor tweaks. Asteroid size is now taken into account when an Asteroid nears a screen edge.
The next major task is sound. As usual I've attached a video. I even remembered to turn off artifacting this time...
I can't wait to finish this so I can go on to other Atari 8-bit projects.
-tjb
rast09012006.zip