+grafixbmp Posted December 21, 2011 Author Share Posted December 21, 2011 Here's a utility that may also help: "Stake is a Windows-based level editor for the NES ROM, Castlevania. It was developed using Delphi 6, on the Windows XP operating system. It supports the many versions of Castlevania, such as the european ROM, the american ROM, and even Akumajou Dracula - the special rerelease of the Japanese CV. It doesn't however, support the Famicom Disk System original of CV. (Yet )" http://www.zophar.net/utilities/neslevel/stake.html ROM not included. Illya Now thats nice. wish I knew about this program earlier on. inspiration is high. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toptenmaterial Posted December 23, 2011 Share Posted December 23, 2011 Vampire Killer 2600! Are you gonna go the Gyruss route and exclude sound fx to take advantage of both sound channels? Ever since the early stages in design and the briliant work of thegoldenband with enough music to start out with, I thought about which way to go about incorporating as much sound as possible. I plan on using a music engine based directly on the one created by Richi_S. It was always what I wanted in a sound system and far better than I could ever do. I especialy like the envelopes available. Channel 0 will be lead and channel 1 the bass line. I am however hoping to add an aditional part that doesn't run during vsync. This runs as a multiplexer of the 2 channels. The portion for channel 1 adds percussion multiplexed in with the base and the additions to channel 0 are unique. with chalnnel 0, I'm going to try doing a strait multiplex between the lead music and sound FX only because one is actiual notes and the other is just noise. It will allow for musical continuity even though it may not sound great at least it will be less broken and still allow for SFX. nd because they are so diffrent from each other, the SFX will have their own volume controls and will never share the same waveform as the lead in order to keep distiction between them. To interpit this for a novice like me.... Are you talking about a way to squeeze more than two sound channels out simultainiously? Thanks and Merry Christmas!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+grafixbmp Posted December 23, 2011 Author Share Posted December 23, 2011 eh yes and no. of the 2 real channels the system has, they will both be doing harmony music with a lead and a base line almost all the time.The sound channel settings can be adjusted really anytime while the game runs but often this is designed to adjust the settings 60 times a second. The channel doing the base line also handles pricussion. pricussion sounds are fast, short, and full of noise. When this happens, pricussion simply over writes the current musical data for a single frame. Just enough to get a "tat" sound without destroying the sound of the base once the it has been reloaded the next frame. I havne't tested the last part yet, but It may accomplish what I want to hear. sound FX are short sound patterns that last less than a few seconds. since they are so diffrent from the actual game music, I want to alternate between lead and soundFX by alternating them 30 times a second. its gonna be choppy but may hold continuity with the music. If I wanted to really get extra channels out of the 2 the system has, I'd probably need to adjust them every 2-4 scanlines. say roughly (262/ 3)*60 = big #. bigger than I want to mess with lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PAC-MAN-RED Posted December 26, 2011 Share Posted December 26, 2011 I think I did this right... I was just experimenting with the 78 scanline layout, and lemme tell ya... it's not easy, but then again it's not too difficult either just time consuming: Illya 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+grafixbmp Posted December 27, 2011 Author Share Posted December 27, 2011 I think I did this right... I was just experimenting with the 78 scanline layout, and lemme tell ya... it's not easy, but then again it's not too difficult either just time consuming: Illya Everything is quite recognizable. But you also get to choose the background color behind the visible scanline. the left and right borders are always black though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PAC-MAN-RED Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 I adjusted the colors to the Atari palette, made some minor changes to my first drawing and finished all of the screens of Dracula's Chamber: HAPPY NEW YEAR! Illya Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Propane13 Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+grafixbmp Posted January 2, 2012 Author Share Posted January 2, 2012 I adjusted the colors to the Atari palette, made some minor changes to my first drawing and finished all of the screens of Dracula's Chamber: HAPPY NEW YEAR! Illya excellent. when I get f4sc setup, I'll start loading in screens to test the screen loading code. this part should be the easiest of all. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+grafixbmp Posted January 31, 2012 Author Share Posted January 31, 2012 (edited) Ok ladies and gents, after a time where I couldn't concentrate on coding. i'm slowly coming back with some long time comming help from my roommate. Your a lifesaver Matt. It's a small update (very tiny) but it means all the world to me since it works properly now and I'm no longer frustrated by it. He can now crouch with the best of them. God knows what will be comming next. Castlevania 2600 kernel v2.6.3.bin Well, kinda spoke too soon. It works, don't get me wrong. But a bug crept back up when going from down to an imediate left or right. Just a split second graphics garble that i'll fix later. Otherwise, I'm perfectly happy with the results. Edited January 31, 2012 by grafixbmp 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+grafixbmp Posted February 6, 2012 Author Share Posted February 6, 2012 Ok. Thought I would share some quick info about data storage of the game. In particular enemies, all candles (where and what). all hidden items, brick items All collision detection, and level screens. All info for each screen takes 50 bytes. for each screen: 1 byte for enemy 4 bytes for candle/brick/hidden items 5 bytes for collision data and 40 for playfield image data Since I intend to use f4sc for the bankswitching format, this is the basic grouping of the ROM starting with the above mentioned: About a page an a half for screen data Two pages for all graphics image data as well as screen kernel one page for music and sound. one page for all object attributes and tables one page for main game engine And what ever is left for opening/ map sequence/ closing/ an anything else left. Gonna suck now cause I need to build some extensive tables of data. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Gemintronic Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 (edited) Any compression going on? Would some sort of scheme work where you have one completely drawn screen and then each screen thereafter is just differential data? Edited February 6, 2012 by theloon 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+grafixbmp Posted February 6, 2012 Author Share Posted February 6, 2012 As a matter of fact, there is a sort of compression going on. Each screen worth of data (40 bytes) pulls its graphic info from one of 2 master data tables. 5 bytes for collision data references the 40 bytes themselves which in turn re-references the 40 bytes again. 1 = used for collisions 0 = ignore for collisions. 4 bytes for nearly all items is split into 2 groups 2 indicate positioning and depending on what the positioning is, may indicate what type of items there are to be placed The other 2 indicate 4 items per screen. with the last full byte for enemy data. Alot o his comes from table lookups which is where the compresion comes from. Not much diffrent from techniques use for music compaction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+grafixbmp Posted February 14, 2012 Author Share Posted February 14, 2012 (edited) Hello all. I've been redesigning the screen layout to come closer into sync with the look of the NES version and in doing so added more color to the scene. this may closer refect the final look than anything thus far. Once I have the screen loader code in place and simon can move, then new screens will be added. enjoy the latest demo. Castlevania 2600 kernel v2.6.3.bin Thanks go out to pac man red. Your rendition of dracula's castle helped me to upate the first level. And to the others who have contribute as well. Much thanks. Edited February 14, 2012 by grafixbmp 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Propane13 Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 This looks awesome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+thegoldenband Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 Looking good! BTW Simon seems to respond to paddle control in some rather...unexpected ways. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+grafixbmp Posted February 18, 2012 Author Share Posted February 18, 2012 been thinkin about adding in another level of compression to data storage. This may or maynot work but it's worth exploring. I already have 5 bytes to indicate which scanlines are used for collisions. I thought about breaking the screen into 8 sections am use a single byte to tell the screen kernel to switch over to one that loads the screen data diffrently. It would only store the first and second bytes/sections of the screen, and then, with the timming right, re-store that same data backwards. data: A B C D F Color PF1 PF2 PF2 PF1 standard kernel B A C D F repeat kernel B A C A C And then collision etection will take this into effect based on the byte that shifts the kernel(s) . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+grafixbmp Posted July 17, 2012 Author Share Posted July 17, 2012 It's a rare treat that I have today to share with you some of the recent progress with castlevania 2600. I don't have regular access to an ISP anymore so updates will be sparse. With that said, here are 2 versions with some new additions. Jumping is added and previous bugs with crouching are gone. I still haven't aded horizontal movement yet. Both versions have the same controls but I've added a new background to one. Enjoy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+grafixbmp Posted July 17, 2012 Author Share Posted July 17, 2012 It's a rare treat that I have today to share with you some of the recent progress with castlevania 2600. I don't have regular access to an ISP anymore so updates will be sparse. With that said, here are 2 versions with some new additions. Jumping is added and previous bugs with crouching are gone. I still haven't aded horizontal movement yet. Both versions have the same controls but I've added a new background to one. Enjoy. Castlevania 2600 kernel v2.6.4.bin Castlevania 2600 kernel v2.6.4.5.bin 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Gemintronic Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 As usual, pretty damn impressive! I would darken the grey wall a bit more so the staircase shows up a little better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 It's a rare treat that I have today to share with you some of the recent progress with castlevania 2600. I don't have regular access to an ISP anymore so updates will be sparse. With that said, here are 2 versions with some new additions. Jumping is added and previous bugs with crouching are gone. I still haven't aded horizontal movement yet. Both versions have the same controls but I've added a new background to one. Enjoy. Good to see you're still working on it. It's been a while since this thread's been at the top... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PAC-MAN-RED Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 Bump! Been awhile since there were any updates. Jan 1st 2013 was also the last time that grafixbmp was in the forums. Hope everything is okay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+grafixbmp Posted August 19, 2013 Author Share Posted August 19, 2013 Bump! Been awhile since there were any updates. Jan 1st 2013 was also the last time that grafixbmp was in the forums. Hope everything is okay. Well, I appreciate the concern. Everything is fine now. Took some time to get back on my feet with the horrible economy the way it is. been in a new job for a while. Just recently got Internet access up and running and a new computer. So ive had alot on my plate the last couple of years and have now been able to even consider getting back to coding. But the coding I want to begin with won't be castlevania right now. When I do, im starting with a fresh kernel. Right now i'm doing some starting work on another game that I've had in the back of my mind for a while and want to have some rock solid stuff before I reveal too much. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PAC-MAN-RED Posted August 28, 2013 Share Posted August 28, 2013 Well, I appreciate the concern. Everything is fine now. Took some time to get back on my feet with the horrible economy the way it is. been in a new job for a while. Just recently got Internet access up and running and a new computer. So ive had alot on my plate the last couple of years and have now been able to even consider getting back to coding. But the coding I want to begin with won't be castlevania right now. When I do, im starting with a fresh kernel. Right now i'm doing some starting work on another game that I've had in the back of my mind for a while and want to have some rock solid stuff before I reveal too much. Welcome back! I'm desperately looking for work myself in these hard economic times as I've been out of work for nearly a year now. That's my sob story. Anyway, glad to have you back and I wish you well. illya Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dubxcube Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 Bump. Very interested to know how this project is coming along, as well as the project that bumped it off to the side. If this game was looking as good as it was, I have pretty high hopes for the other project as well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YANDMAN Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 wow never saw this before, Amazing work, Continually amazed by the talent on this site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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