e5frog Posted September 29, 2008 Author Share Posted September 29, 2008 Monzamess was right about the text being fully justified (both right and left edge of the block of text is straight) - just like the original ones. I might add some text about Namco (Namco-Bandai) if I get their permission to release it... The cartridge sold for 1250 SEK in the auction, but I got 1270 when the winner paid, in todays currency exchange rates of 6,77 SEK per dollar that's about $188... not too bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CV Gus Posted October 1, 2008 Share Posted October 1, 2008 (edited) Yipe! Could you please explain that grey-background thing again? Edited October 1, 2008 by CV Gus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
e5frog Posted October 2, 2008 Author Share Posted October 2, 2008 Yipe! Could you please explain that grey-background thing again? If I want to use one of the plot-colors red, green or blue I can only choose one of the background colors lt. green, lt. blue or lt. grey. If I set the background color to black all plot-colors turn white. I could have choosen a lt.blue background as well, it would have looked like this (also the grey one to compare with, and a black/white version): I might be able to add some code so that the player could choose any background color they prefer - like a lot of VIC 20 games offer the ability to do. Changing the background color quickly while plotting the screen and thereby being able to use black background with color plot is perhaps possible but not really feasable, it might work for a static picture but not in the game. The lack of a vsync signal will also make it extremely hard to time with screen refresh. Perhaps the built-in timer in the 3853 SMI could be programmed to interrupt at the right pace to make this effect or perhaps play more sounds in the game... that is yet to be explored. There is very little known data about the timer in the 3853 SMI (the memory interface circuit in a SABA#20 and some other cartridges). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurt_Woloch Posted October 3, 2008 Share Posted October 3, 2008 OK, I've tried to do a video on YouTube. It's not very hi-res, but here you go... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CV Gus Posted October 3, 2008 Share Posted October 3, 2008 (edited) Oh, I see- the Fairchild console only offers a few choices. Yellow isn't even available? Considering what you had to work with, this is an incredible effort. It even has an attract mode. There is considerable talent behind this. Good luck on future efforts. Are RPGs (simple ones) possible on the system? Or is there enough memory? Edited October 3, 2008 by CV Gus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted October 3, 2008 Share Posted October 3, 2008 I second that, CV Gus. I'd say this blows away any other game on the platform, ever. Not even close. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurt_Woloch Posted October 3, 2008 Share Posted October 3, 2008 Oh, I see- the Fairchild console only offers a few choices. Yellow isn't even available? No, there are only four possible color combinations which can be changed line by line. So each pixel line may use one of the following hardwired color palettes: 1. black - white 2. light green - red - blue - green 3. light blue - red - blue - green 4. light grey - red - blue - green These are all the colors and all the palettes you get (the colors are not necessaraly coded in the order I gave). Are RPGs (simple ones) possible on the system? Or is there enough memory? I think maybe simple ones may be possible. On one hand, the Channel F has a bitmapped screen (though in rather low resolution). But as far as I know, video memory is write-only. I don't know of any documented way of reading from video memory, which means that video memory can't be used for storage. So the only RAM you have (unless there's extra RAM in the cartridge) are the 64 bytes that are internal to the CPU. Which is not very much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari2008 Posted October 3, 2008 Share Posted October 3, 2008 I second that, CV Gus. I'd say this blows away any other game on the platform, ever. Not even close. Agreed! Curiosity let me to try a sampling of Channel F games and for the most part I was unimpressed, which makes sense given the time the system came out and the fact that they were first. Then I tried this Pac-Man port and couldn't believe that the Channel F was capable of it. Even the title screen is nice. You should also do a search on this forum for another game that e5frog is working on called International Karate. That one too is very impressive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Godzilla Posted October 4, 2008 Share Posted October 4, 2008 WOW that's AWESOME. Sign me up to buy one if there is ever a chance (and the karate game, too!) GREAT work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LS_Dracon Posted October 4, 2008 Share Posted October 4, 2008 (edited) I don't know of any documented way of reading from video memory, which means that video memory can't be used for storage. So the only RAM you have (unless there's extra RAM in the cartridge) are the 64 bytes that are internal to the CPU. Which is not very much. I read you can use video RAM for general pourpose, the VRAM is bigger than television screen, that is, you can use some bytes from most right and these bytes aren't displayed. Here you find information about channel F hardware : http://veswiki.com/ Edited October 4, 2008 by LS_Dracon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassGuitari Posted October 4, 2008 Share Posted October 4, 2008 WOW that's AWESOME. Sign me up to buy one if there is ever a chance (and the karate game, too!) GREAT work Ditto! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
e5frog Posted October 4, 2008 Author Share Posted October 4, 2008 I don't know of any documented way of reading from video memory, which means that video memory can't be used for storage. So the only RAM you have (unless there's extra RAM in the cartridge) are the 64 bytes that are internal to the CPU. Which is not very much. I read you can use video RAM for general pourpose, the VRAM is bigger than television screen, that is, you can use some bytes from most right and these bytes aren't displayed. Here you find information about channel F hardware : http://veswiki.com/ I've studied the schematics and there's no way to read back anything from VRAM, it's write only. Thanks Kurt for the YouTube-video, unfortunately that's how awful it sounds on a standard Channel F or the official MESS emulation. Playing it on a Channel F II or the modified MESS available from http://veswiki.com gives a lot better sound, I'll see if I can record from MESS 0.80.1 directly otherwise I'll show you a recording of the game from a PAL machine, though it runs almost 25% faster which makes the music and all sound effects a little faster than intended (faster than the arcade machine). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Impaler_26 Posted October 4, 2008 Share Posted October 4, 2008 I just played the latest version of this and i'm really impressed! This is much better than 2600 Pac-Man, great work! Now i just regret that i sold my Saba Videoplay a few years ago.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
e5frog Posted October 5, 2008 Author Share Posted October 5, 2008 Here's Pac-man running on a PAL version 2 unit, unfortunately my old Pinnacle hard-/software makes the sound go out of sync more and more... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cd-w Posted October 5, 2008 Share Posted October 5, 2008 Very nice work. Is it possible to flicker the Pac-Man sprite between red and green to make a yellow, ideally on alternate scan-lines so it doesn't flicker too badly? Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrRetroGamer Posted October 5, 2008 Share Posted October 5, 2008 Here's Pac-man running on a PAL version 2 unit, unfortunately my old Pinnacle hard-/software makes the sound go out of sync more and more... That is SUPER impressive, I cannot believe this is on the Fairchild platform. It's amazing what you were able to do with the limited resources available on the Fairchild! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
e5frog Posted October 5, 2008 Author Share Posted October 5, 2008 Very nice work. Is it possible to flicker the Pac-Man sprite between red and green to make a yellow, ideally on alternate scan-lines so it doesn't flicker too badly? Chris As there is no signal to time the screen refresh this would be very difficult. That's also the reason for the moving objects flickering, the frame update isn't timed to screen update. I have tried experimentally to shift a small block between red and green and gotten something of a brownish color. As the green and red aren't pure colors the blend between them will not be pure yellow either. Even when doing this to a single block and nothing else there is synchronization defects that makes a wandering line move through the block and occasional red/green flicker. I would be very impressed if someone could pull that off while doing everything else that is required in the game. In a static picture it would probably be feasable, but hardly in a game using almost all cpu-power all the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Numan Posted October 5, 2008 Share Posted October 5, 2008 I want one, please tell us how sir! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
e5frog Posted October 5, 2008 Author Share Posted October 5, 2008 I want one, please tell us how sir! If you've got a Checkers cart to trade with I can fix one, otherwise you have to wait until I gather the money to buy materials to build the carts from scratch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Numan Posted October 5, 2008 Share Posted October 5, 2008 Sadly, I'm looking for that Checkers cart as well. I do not mind waiting....add me to a list, if you are making one. Same for the Karate game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Helmet Posted October 5, 2008 Share Posted October 5, 2008 Great job man. This game looks really good. I'm really surprised such a good translation was even possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+cvga Posted October 5, 2008 Share Posted October 5, 2008 Very impressive. Add me to the list of people who would definitely buy this cart! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted October 6, 2008 Share Posted October 6, 2008 That is awesome. There's finally a reason to own a Channel F. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Godzilla Posted October 7, 2008 Share Posted October 7, 2008 As the first cartridge programmable home game system (different from the way the odyssey 1 worked,) I think that alone is a great reason to own a channel F. and it had the first easter eggs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted October 7, 2008 Share Posted October 7, 2008 As the first cartridge programmable home game system (different from the way the odyssey 1 worked,) I think that alone is a great reason to own a channel F. and it had the first easter eggs. I've owned one in the past, and it was basically just a museum piece to me. Not much fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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