Oric ATMOS

[JamesD]

The SID chip rules. You have to applaud Commodore once in a while when they do good. It can't all be venom and vitriol.

I never cared for any of the old sound chips really, but it's better than silence. The SID is ok but it seemed like every damn game had a tune that warbled the sound so much I couldn't stand it. It really gets on my nerves. Frankly, the same thing was done with all the sound chips of the day.

 

I wish someone had driven a D/A converter with DMA like the Amiga on the old 8 bits. The CoCo had D/A conversion and you can produce about any sound, but it was a huge CPU hog for multi-channel music.

 

At least there were upgrades to the AY chips. But nobody ever took advantage of that in the 8 bit world (other than arcade machines) so it's a moot point.

[Arkanoid_376970]

 

 

The SID chip rules. You have to applaud Commodore once in a while when they do good. It can't all be venom and vitriol.

Don't you mean MOS Technologies? C= commissioned it from them

[jaybird3rd]

I never cared for any of the old sound chips really, but it's better than silence. The SID is ok but it seemed like every damn game had a tune that warbled the sound so much I couldn't stand it. It really gets on my nerves. Frankly, the same thing was done with all the sound chips of the day.

Yeah, that drives me crazy, too. Whenever I'd listen to some kewl l33t C64 demo that supposedly "proved" how much better the SID sounded, all I'd hear is the same warbling underwater ringtone music that I always hear in those annoying A8 demos. I'd love to hear something like a straightforward interpretation of some nice classical music, instead of more of the same warbling Euro-techno junk.

 

Of course, I've been working primarily with the Intellivision and Aquarius recently, so I've gotten to appreciate the AY series a little more. Some of the later Intellivision games in particular made good use of that family of chips.

[OldAtarian]

 

 

The SID chip rules. You have to applaud Commodore once in a while when they do good. It can't all be venom and vitriol.

Don't you mean MOS Technologies? C= commissioned it from them

 

You mean the MOS Technologies that Commodore OWNED 100% of SINCE 1976 and officially known as Commodore Semiconductor Group? Yeah, them.

Edited October 4, 2010 by OldAtarian

[emkay]

I never cared for any of the old sound chips really, but it's better than silence. The SID is ok but it seemed like every damn game had a tune that warbled the sound so much I couldn't stand it. It really gets on my nerves. Frankly, the same thing was done with all the sound chips of the day.

Yeah, that drives me crazy, too. Whenever I'd listen to some kewl l33t C64 demo that supposedly "proved" how much better the SID sounded, all I'd hear is the same warbling underwater ringtone music that I always hear in those annoying A8 demos. I'd love to hear something like a straightforward interpretation of some nice classical music, instead of more of the same warbling Euro-techno junk.

 

Of course, I've been working primarily with the Intellivision and Aquarius recently, so I've gotten to appreciate the AY series a little more. Some of the later Intellivision games in particular made good use of that family of chips.

 

 

That "warbling" is called Arpeggios. Originally it is a technique to enhance the "Room" of an Instrument, to play the same notes from different octaves , just to have a better volume on the instrument. In Chip tunes it is played that fast, just to have a channel and/or a frequency spread..... just like a chorus.

Soundchips with usually more than 8 channels do not need those fast arpeggios. They just play all needed notes at the same time.

[JamesD]

That "warbling" is called Arpeggios. Originally it is a technique to enhance the "Room" of an Instrument, to play the same notes from different octaves , just to have a better volume on the instrument. In Chip tunes it is played that fast, just to have a channel and/or a frequency spread..... just like a chorus.

Soundchips with usually more than 8 channels do not need those fast arpeggios. They just play all needed notes at the same time.

I just called it annoying.

[xxl]

level 1 & 2

 

http://atari.pl/stormlord.rar

 

need to replace the graphics...

[xxl]

turbo

 

Edited October 6, 2010 by xxl

[Rybags]

What's with the glitches - does ORIC use bit 7 as some attrib flag or something?

[xxl]

[7]6543210 - inverse ?

7[65]43210 - attributes on/off

765[43210] - color in attributes on

76[543210] - gfx if attributes off

[Twilighte]

A bit of tech info here http://twilighte.oric.org/twinew/start.htm

 

Oric FAQ here http://freespace.virgin.net/james.groom/oric/oricfaq.htm

 

This guy has a book with the tech stuff, but looks like a bunch of links are broken http://home.btconnect.com/geffers/#oric

 

Webring (remember those) http://www.webring.org/hub?ring=oric

 

Yep, Twilighte himself here, you can get most tech info here http://wiki.defence-force.org/doku.php?id=oric:main

There was a bug found recently that stopped Stormlord working on Oric-1, though its now been fixed.

Now working on Impossible mission which is about 95% complete

 

It is true that i get most of my own tech info from 'The Oric Advanced User Guide' by Leycester Whewell but unfortunately it doesn't seem to be available new from anywhere anymore

And btw Stormlord is based on the C64 version, as with all my conversions. For example i did Pulsoids about 10 years ago and again based on C64 version.

[Twilighte]

[7]6543210 - inverse ?

7[65]43210 - attributes on/off

765[43210] - color in attributes on

76[543210] - gfx if attributes off

 

Attributes are relatively simple.

Bit 7 is the inverse flag, setting the byte to the logical inverse.

Bit 6 is the Attribute flag, when set to 1 all bits from 0-5 specify a bit pattern. When set to 0 all bits from 0-5 specify attributes as follows

 

0-7 Ink

8-15 Stuff like flashing, double height(text mode only) and alt/std text selection(text mode only)

16-23 Paper

24-31 Stuff like Switch to HIRES or TEXT

32-63 Not used though appears as Bit5 set, Bits0-4 bit pattern

 

The problem is that because its 6 bit wide graphic its very non standard so makes it nye impossible to do straight conversions of even monochrome graphics from other machines.

 

Hope this helps.

[TMR]

And btw Stormlord is based on the C64 version, as with all my conversions. For example i did Pulsoids about 10 years ago and again based on C64 version.

 

Oh yes, i enjoyed that on the Oric... xxl, have a look 'cos it's better than the C64 version!

 

(By the way, answer your PMs on the RG forum - i wanted to interview you!! =-)

[José Pereira]

And btw Stormlord is based on the C64 version, as with all my conversions. For example i did Pulsoids about 10 years ago and again based on C64 version.

 

Oh yes, i enjoyed that on the Oric... xxl, have a look 'cos it's better than the C64 version!

 

(By the way, answer your PMs on the RG forum - i wanted to interview you!! =-)

 

Hi.

 

PULSOID on C64:C64 Pulsoid

 

PULSOIDS on Oric:Oric Pulsoids

 

Lots of colours/1colour different each Char/Line and Hi-Resol. on ORIC

 

vs.

 

2:1 in C64. Possible PRIOR 0? Would look better, I think...

 

José Pereira.

[TMR]

Lots of colours/1colour different each Char/Line and Hi-Resol. on ORIC

 

vs.

 

2:1 in C64. Possible PRIOR 0? Would look better, I think...

 

Well, i was talking about how the game played rather than looks...

[xxl]

there is new game for Oric:

 

http://im.defence-force.org/

 

and atari http://atari.pl/im.zip

[Heaven/TQA]

XXL... Impossible Mission looks quite fast on A8?

[Allas]

Excelent!

 

Only is needed to redefine the 6 wide char Oric to 8 pixels.

Perhaps you can talk to the author to do an official conversion. With the sources, i'm sure Atari could get a more colorful version.

What happens if you use ANTIC 4/E mode with grayscale colors?

Edited October 26, 2010 by Allas

[xxl]

that would be great but... I tried to contact the author (Twilighte - Stormlord) but not answered. without his permission I will not publish the game

 

--

@Heaven/TQA : yes, Atari is little bit faster then Oric

Edited October 26, 2010 by xxl

[emkay]

Excelent!

 

Only is needed to redefine the 6 wide char Oric to 8 pixels.

Perhaps you can talk to the author to do an official conversion. With the sources, i'm sure Atari could get a more colorful version.

What happens if you use ANTIC 4/E mode with grayscale colors?

 

 

Also a never solved riddle. Everyone would bet that IM is too slow in hires and with softwaresprites on the A8. But adopted code from another machine seems even too fast ....

 

Now soemone may find the forgotten register that turns the PAL mode with colours in hires on ...

 

 

[Tezz]

that would be great but... I tried to contact the author (Twilighte - Stormlord) but not answered. without his permission I will not publish the game

Twilighte was here recently 7th October (see post #36 & #37) His profile says last active here on 13th October so he has probably not seen your message yet.

[Heaven/TQA]

emkay... you have not much sprites involved... and it is not a shooter...

 

but what makes me wonder is the vertical scrolling... how fast is it on the oric?

[emkay]

emkay... you have not much sprites involved... and it is not a shooter...

 

 

.... and it needs the half of data to handle a hires software sprite...

[Heaven/TQA]

than what? why half data?

[emkay]

than what? why half data?

 

 

To have an 8 pixel wide sprite with "4" colours, you need always 2 bytes.... alike if in bitmap or 2 players got used. Hires 8 pixel is one byte to handle.