tjb

Here's an update on the latest progress: What's new: -------------- * 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: ------- * 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 rastvid.zip

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

Do you get it working? -tjb

Thanks. Yes sir, there will be a 5200 version. -tjb

Just plain old AVI with Microsoft RLE compression. -tjb

I neglected to answer you earlier question regarding sound. As yet, sounds effects have yet to be written. -tjb

Here's a quick video with artifacting turned off. I used hyperspace once on this one. I'll probably allow you to choose either hyperspace or flip and maybe shield. For some reason the video occasionally jerks on my machine, I'm not sure why. -tjb rast4.zip

Here's yet another video of the latest. The explosions are improved in appearance and no longer slow the game down. Additonally the alien spaceship has been added. You'll notice that I ended up with quite a few reserve ships. This is because I have it temporarily set up so that you are rewarded an extra ship every 500 points for testing purposes. Even at 500 points for an extra ship it still rewards them far too often (bug). I'm hoping to have a screen that allows many of the games variables to be set. I'm also working on a high score display (top 10). I may also add a few minor twists like every fifth level being composed of a wave of attacking alien saucers. Of course you would be able to turn this off it you wanted to play a more traditonal game. -tjb rast3.zip

I don't know if this has been mentioned but how about a built-in profiler for assembly programmers. It would be great to know where an app is spending the majority of its time. Also how many times an addr is JSR'd to, average and maximum number of cycles executed by each subroutine, etc. Something like that would be great for evaluating different algorithms to see which ones are the fastest. For example, in my project I have been evaulating different blitting routines. Sure, you can count cycles on paper but it can get tedious. my 2 cents worth... -tjb

I like it! -tjb

I always thought JV Software has some really interesting titles. One of my favorites is Journey to the Planets. I spent many an hour on that one. -tjb

Has anyone ever seen this cart before (on Ebay): http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1 The seller claims the cart contains a number of utilities. I've seen/own flash carts (from AtariMax) so I know it's certainly possible but I guess the screenshot makes me wonder. It looks like an early Windows 3.0/3.1 screenshot. Anybody? -tjb

Hey Guys! I really been out of touch for awhile Since, I really don't have time to fix/finish what I started, any volunteers? Or release the source code? - Paul 1022642[/snapback] I just recently ran across your enhanced Missile Command. It's a great effort. I'm just now really starting to get into 6502 Assembly programming on the Atari and I was wondering what tool(s) you used to reverse engineer the original? Also, releasing even a portion of the source code for your enhanced version would be great. It would be a great learning tool for people such as myself. Heck, I might even be able to contribute. -tjb I used dis6502 since it seemed to do a decent job. Next, I used atasm to compile the disassembled code. And after making all the necessary changes got it to compile exactly like the 8bit dump. Then, started making all the hacks! Since I really don't have alot of time to make further changes (fix the 5200 version!), I'm gonna attach the current source code. My hope is that group/individual will continue this hack! (Just give me alittle credit ) Enjoy! - Paul Wow, thanks a million The code will be a great learning tool. I especially like the fact that it can be built for either the 5200 or the Atari 8-bits. This will be most useful in learning the differences between the two. -tjb

Wow, that is nice! Do you know if he is still considering releasing the source? -tjb

Very cool. Thanks for sharing. -tjb

As I said, there is still much work to do. Right now I'm focusing on getting all of the play mechanics in place. Once it's feature complete I'll address the timing issues. -tjb

Thanks. I'll try to put together another video of it running on real hardware. I'm still experimenting with the sprite routine but at present it doesn't use the "strip sprites" method. The main reason is because my sprite data runs from left to right rather than top to bottom. I have a Java sprite drawing program that calculates the data and I haven't gotten around to modifying it. The routine does employ some self modifying code in order to squeeze out a few more cycles. I'll also look into adding some timing bars. -tjb

Here's a new video of the latest version. Still much work to do but it's playable I'm thinking I'd like to have a 5200 version as well. Anybody have any porting tips they'd like to share? -tjb rast_latest.zip

Thanks for all the ideas. I'll have to look into them. The only collision at present is checking to see if a bullet hits an asteroid. It uses the simple bounding-rectangle method. I'm open for suggestions. -tjb

I'm actually at work at the moment. I can send them later today. What format? Can I send you .bmp files? -tjb

I really like the in-depth discussion on sprite engine techniques. If I would have known posting would have led to this I would have posted much sooner Please, continue... -tjb

>>Looks good. Are you implementing more ship angles than the original? Thanks. Currently the player's ship has 24 different positions. I believe Atari's has 16? >>I assume you're using a table lookup in the sprite routine to get the screen address based on the sprite's YPOS? >>You can gain extra speed by creative table lookups. >>I also would assume you are using pre-shifted sprite definitions? You're right on the money. I am using both a table lookup to find the screen address of the beginning of the row based on the sprite's Y position and pre-shifted sprite definitions. >A really nice feature would be tumbling/turning rocks but it might be rather expensive on memory - maybe do a 128K version? I had rotating rocks initially. It got pretty expensive as you mentioned in terms of memory - especially when you have several frames to make the animation smooth. I'd like to try adding them back at some point. Maybe there will be another version as you suggested - "Rasteroids Deluxe" -tjb

I'd love to hear about these routines as well as the ones in ZoneRanger. In regards to your questions: 1) why artifacting turned on? I assume you are referring to having artifacting turned on in Atari800Win plus? I have it turned on to better approximate what the game will look like on real hardware. I've run it on a real Atari and the artifacting is actually not as bad. 2) Antic F used? with 40 Byte scanlines? Yes, it uses Antic F. 3) sprite routines are based on EOR right? Yes. 4) how many objects will it possible to display? It really depends on the size of the objects. This is one area I realize I need to proceed with caution. Currently, the size of the largest asteroid is 32 x 32 pixels! Depending on how things work out I may have to shink it down somewhat. 5) double buffering? At present I am not using double buffering but that is an interesting possibility. Are you referring to the use of page flipping? I know you have alot of experience in sprite routines. Any suggestions/hints would be most appreciated. -tjb

I'm currently working on an Asteroids clone entitled Rasteroids. My goal is to make a clone that is closer to the arcade game that the versions I've seen (Asteroids, Meteorites, etc.) available on the 8-bit. There is much work to be done but basic asteroid and ship movement, firing, and some collision detection has been implemented. I'm curious to see if there is any interest in the community for such a game. I've attached a couple of screenshots and a short AVI of the game running under Atari800Win Plus. Please bear in mind that the game is very much a work in progress at this point (i.e. Ship graphics need lots of work, Asteroids do not explode when hit, the player's ship cannot be destroyed, etc.). -tjb rastvideo.zip

Interesting. I'm sure I'll continue to use the CC65/CA65 combination for many things. It's nice to test out assembly routines from the confort of C. My initial thought was to code the speed critical parts in assembly and do the rest in C. Since the entire app will essentially be executing as a VBI routine my strategy has changed accordingly. I guess there's no reason why I couldn't simply use a C function as the VBI routine (assuming I could get everything done in the limited amount of cycles available).