sometimes99er Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 Very nice indeed. Your animation seems be 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. The arcade version seems to be 1, 2, 3, 4, 3 and 2. I think you could compress you animation to the technique above, and you might even get away with a decent 1, 2, 3, 2. That’s if you need the bytes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+retroclouds Posted July 11, 2012 Author Share Posted July 11, 2012 (edited) Time for a status update, the project isn't dead (I kinda reanimated it ): * New sprite graphics implemented (hero). I'm pleased with the animation, it looks very smooth. Did make some change to the sprite colours. As previously mentioned I'm using 3 sprites for the hero. Originally intended to use one background character instead of a sprite, but that won't happen as it's too much hassle. Probably will be making the eniemies single-colour instead of 2 colours. * Collecting objects is working (including scoring). So I can now pick-up keys, diamonds and treasures. Also have our hero walking around with the key once collected. * Shooting left and right is now working. I'm using background characters and I'm pleased with the result. Looks a lot better than I originally thought it would be. * To drop the magic lamp you now have to be moving up-or down. That way you can use the joystick fire button to either drop the lamp (when moving up/down) or shoot left or right (when moving left/right) There are still some nasty bugs in there. Especially when switching directions. Also the screen scrolling is way too fast, will have to slow it down. But now I'm concentrating on finally making some more progress. Not sure what I'll be doing next, adding the end-of-level sequence or putting the enemies in. Guess I'll have to start working on the enemies sooner or later.... EDIT: I'm surprised how easily I could start writing TMS9900 assembly language again after having it ignored for almost a year. Well basically there are only a few instructions to deal with. I'd encourage everyone to give TMS9900 assembly language a try. It's not that hard. And you do have the benefit of having a debugger at your disposal (classic99 and others) that shows your program instruction by instruction while its running. That's a huge benefit. Edited July 11, 2012 by retroclouds Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+retroclouds Posted July 11, 2012 Author Share Posted July 11, 2012 (edited) Very nice indeed. Your animation seems be 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. The arcade version seems to be 1, 2, 3, 4, 3 and 2. I think you could compress you animation to the technique above, and you might even get away with a decent 1, 2, 3, 2. That’s if you need the bytes. Missed your post, interesting didn't notice that. Currently still have plenty of space in the VDP available. What I do now is that I load the sprite patterns each time I switch directions (up/down/left/right). So I basically have 6 frames x 3 sprites x 32 bytes (=768 bytes) that I copy it to the VDP and during the animation I then just cycle from 1-6. On a sidenote: I have currently 1 ROM bank (8K) reserved for the sprite patterns. So when changing direction, I switch to the sprite bank, copy the patterns to the VDP and switch back to the gameplay bank. Might consider implementing your idea when I run into VDP space pressure Edited July 11, 2012 by retroclouds 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willsy Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 I agree. It's the nicest assembly language I have used. I'd put it up close with 68k Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+retroclouds Posted July 13, 2012 Author Share Posted July 13, 2012 (edited) Here's a short video of the lates beta with the new sprites in place. http://youtu.be/-K44SgzSjfI EDIT: Not sure about the green sprite color. It makes a very nice contrast with the red and yellow. But when our hero Jimmy gets the key he starts looking like Robin Hood Edited July 13, 2012 by retroclouds 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 Amazing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ti99iuc Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 (edited) WOW !!!!!! , it's really nice !! Retrocloud, it's great Work !! are you sure i must stop with the manual i started some months ago ? i have an idea for the cover with the sword !! Edited July 13, 2012 by ti99userclub Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ti99iuc Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 Here's a short video of the lates beta with the new sprites in place. These are two my ideas for a non TI standard manual cover just for fun 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted July 16, 2012 Share Posted July 16, 2012 I agree. It's the nicest assembly language I have used. I'd put it up close with 68k As off-topic as it is, I have to say that, for its simplicity and ease of programming, I rather like 6502 programming, myself. Though, I would say that fits into my 8-bit programming experience and the 9900 fits 16-bit, so I can like both equally I understand Z80 though I have never written it, same with 68000. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kl99 Posted July 16, 2012 Share Posted July 16, 2012 retroclouds, i am glad you enjoy programming tms9900 again! Hope to see you at Augsburg this year??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocky007 Posted July 16, 2012 Share Posted July 16, 2012 These are two my ideas for a non TI standard manual cover just for fun i like very much both...left one looks more in the TI99 retro style, right one more modern.. anyway, i soooo impatient to see this game ! it's looks so amazing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+retroclouds Posted July 16, 2012 Author Share Posted July 16, 2012 Here's a short video of the lates beta with the new sprites in place. These are two my ideas for a non TI standard manual cover just for fun Ooh the 2nd one looks nice! Like that one 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+retroclouds Posted July 16, 2012 Author Share Posted July 16, 2012 Here's a short video of the lates beta with the new sprites in place. These are two my ideas for a non TI standard manual cover just for fun Ooh the 2nd one looks nice! Like that one 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sometimes99er Posted July 16, 2012 Share Posted July 16, 2012 These are two my ideas for a non TI standard manual cover just for fun I think they're pretty nice both of them. However, I think you could easily find some better font(s) to use with the "for Texas Instruments TI-99/4A" and "developed by RETROCLOUDS". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ti99iuc Posted July 16, 2012 Share Posted July 16, 2012 Yes... I agree... I am looking for an Egyptian font style... Have you any idea ? I found one but I looking for others... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sometimes99er Posted July 16, 2012 Share Posted July 16, 2012 For the smaller print one should of course go for something simple and easy readable - which you did, I just happen to think they look old, worn, not cool and not stylish. Egyptian style would probably be too detailed for small print. How about http://www.dafont.co...uments TI-99/4A 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ti99iuc Posted July 16, 2012 Share Posted July 16, 2012 (edited) http://www.dafont.co...uments TI-99/4A Yes, this could be good, it's similar to mine egyptian font, you can see on the old cover at this link: http://www.atariage....4a/page__st__50 but i think i could use one for the cover and the other one for the Text of the instructional pages... Thank you for your suggestion Edited July 16, 2012 by ti99userclub Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+retroclouds Posted July 17, 2012 Author Share Posted July 17, 2012 (edited) retroclouds, i am glad you enjoy programming tms9900 again! Hope to see you at Augsburg this year??? thanks kl99 oh it's not that I didn't enjoy tms9900 programming any longer. It's such a nice language. The difficulty is finding the right balance between work, family, personall stuff and TI stuff. Besides the TI stuff I have 2 other projects I'm currently working(coding) on, both non TI-related. So I'm basically switching between projects over and over again EDIT: concerning Augsburg, chances are looking good, but not 100% confirmed yet. Edited July 17, 2012 by retroclouds Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OX. Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 Can't wait for this baby retro, how long? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+retroclouds Posted July 20, 2012 Author Share Posted July 20, 2012 Can't wait for this baby retro, how long? Only time can tell. Progress was good in the last few weeks. But that doesn't mean a thing. I've stopped setting myself a target date, it's done when it's done Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+retroclouds Posted August 14, 2012 Author Share Posted August 14, 2012 (edited) Been doing some work on Tutankham in the last few weeks, this is what I now have working: * New fonts! (Yes, now using some fonts ripped by sometimes99er. They just look so great! Will probably redo title screen to make it look consistent, * End-of-stage animation working(smooth scroll on lock moving up & smooth scroll on opening gate) * Enemy sprites defined and code available. But they are not yet in the game. Do have the "smoke" animation working when a new enemy appears. * Some bug-fixes Could imagine I'm going for a 2014 release, sorry folks! But I really want to raise the bar with this one and only have limited free time. No youtube video this time, but here's a screenshot to give you an idea. EDIT: Just compared to my latest youtube video and I do have some more changes in there: * The timer is now ticking at a 1 second rate, instead of that stupid 1200 timer I ripped from the colecovision * Replaced "Level" labels with "Stage", that's what we have in the arcade game and like that better (even though it looks a lot different there) Edited August 14, 2012 by retroclouds 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+retroclouds Posted August 17, 2012 Author Share Posted August 17, 2012 There you go. The latest video of what I've been working on in the last few days. The thing of interest in this particular video is the animation/bonus when reaching the end of the stage. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matthew180 Posted August 18, 2012 Share Posted August 18, 2012 Heh, nice choice of music. :-) Any chance of sneaking a little F18A support in there? Like some smooth scrolling maybe? You are already having to scroll at a tile level, so incorporating a 0-7 pixel scroll in between the tile scroll, you can achieve smooth scrolling. Just a thought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted August 19, 2012 Share Posted August 19, 2012 Speaking of music, are you going to include renditions of the arcade music? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+retroclouds Posted August 19, 2012 Author Share Posted August 19, 2012 (edited) Heh, nice choice of music. :-) Any chance of sneaking a little F18A support in there? Like some smooth scrolling maybe? You are already having to scroll at a tile level, so incorporating a 0-7 pixel scroll in between the tile scroll, you can achieve smooth scrolling. Just a thought. As a matter of fact I have been thinking about that. The way Tutankham is designed -and from what I understand about the F18A- it should not be too hard to add smooth scrolling, Could also use the F18A for doing multicolored enemy sprites. The thing is I'd first need a good solution for emulating 64K (8x8) boards on the TI-99/4A as there isn't emulator support for the F18A yet and don't want to burn EPROMS for each test-cycle. You see, the whole Tutankham thing is done in emulation until now. I've been thinking about getting a SAMS card. With that I should be able to setup an environment that works ok. Too bad there's no SAMS support in the CF7+. Edited August 19, 2012 by retroclouds Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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