ANTIQ Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 (edited) This may be a dumb question (my speciality), but if the graphic mode was changed to the 9 colour GTIA one, and each line was doubled in the display list, would the engine go any faster, without the extra colour processing? yes Edited January 4, 2011 by ANTIQ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NRV Posted January 4, 2011 Author Share Posted January 4, 2011 This may be a dumb question (my speciality), but if the graphic mode was changed to the 9 colour GTIA one, and each line was doubled in the display list, would the engine go any faster, without the extra colour processing? A "little". First I wouldn't need to do the IRQ processing to alternate between gtia9 and gtia11 every scan line. That would save me like 3000 cycles per hardware frame. Also I wouldn't need to update the "color" part of the screen (the gtia11 lines), but that doesn't take much time because I only update the parts of the screen that changed, between the current frame and the previous frame in that buffer (and those are few). It would look "brighter" but without any color.. (Is not a dumb question!) Regards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Creature XL Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 Further, if your engine can handle maps... What? True, It didn't know how to phrase it better with a few words. So here is the same thing with more words The question was, if the engine is so general/flexible that you can input any map data to it. So that someone just have to make a "Textfile" with a layout of a level and it can be used. If it is still unclear just let's forget about it. As i think the answer is yes anyways Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZylonBane Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 Oh, you meant freeform maps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacques Posted March 8, 2011 Share Posted March 8, 2011 Hi NRV, is there still something going on with PM behind the closed door? Fingers crossed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pixelmischief Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 Is this thing still happening? Given how close to "done" it looked in the last demo, I am surprised we haven't heard about it since '08! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 He released an updated, playable mini-game a couple of months ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+darryl1970 Posted March 27, 2011 Share Posted March 27, 2011 This was truly awe-inspiring. I can imagine this demo in stores back in the day. I wouldn't have known what to do. Beats the Commodore 64 character graphics 3-d. I thought that was the Jaguar version for a moment.. lol. Nice job, and awesome music too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fibrewire Posted June 3, 2011 Share Posted June 3, 2011 Makes me think of Super Mario Bros 3 - the music is like a dark version of the flying fortress levels. I can't get the song out of my head Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miker Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 Any news on Project M? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NRV Posted July 8, 2011 Author Share Posted July 8, 2011 Nop.. sorry, it was hibernating the first half of the year Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sermajic Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 in theory... could it be ported to the 5200 with the ultimate sd cart? Hi all! At last, after a year of doing nothing, I got some time at the end of this year to advance this thing (a long vacation!). After like a month and a half of "casual" work I got to the point where you can move freely through the maze(s), and also added a lot of details and tested some ideas. There are 2 versions: PAL and NTSC, they only run in the correct machine and are almost equal. The colors are adjusted to be similar and the music plays at the same speed (NTSC drop one of every six music steps, but it sounds pretty good). The PAL version is the better one because of the PAL artifacting and the "longer" frames, but in general they are pretty similar. Try this in Altirra 1.8 for the best results. For PAL you need to select in "System->Video": "PAL" and "PAL artifacting". Also in "Adjust colors" the preset "original". For NTSC unselect "PAL" and select the color preset "Authentic NTSC". I had not tested this in real machines, but I cleaned up the code so not to load anything below the 10K mark, so I hope this helps those with modern load devices. I added a little intro, mostly to showcase the great music from Miker . Many thanks as always for all those songs! Basically, now you can move through the maze, picking up keys and some gold treasures, opening doors and founding secrets. There are no enemies or "visible" sprites yet, so I added a "graphical" way to show that you picked up something (anyway I generally put things near golden walls.. I'm not that bad a person ). There are 3 types of doors: blue ones are free, green ones need a key to open and red ones cannot be opened. Try to use "wisely" your keys (yes, right now is mostly trial and error..) and try to end the "game" with more than $600! (well, there is not really an "end", is just the last maze ) I implemented different methods of control, so you can choose the one that fits you better: -> by joystick: up/down moves forward and backward, left/right rotates, button+left/right strafe to the sides, button while looking at a door (needs to be at the tile beside the door!), opens the door. -> keyboard: - arrows (with or without [control]) and W,A,S,D: moves and rotates. - [shift]+left arrow/right arrow: strafe left right - Q and E: strafe left right - Z and X: strafe left right - [space bar] or [return]: open doors (In emulation, in a PC keyboard, I like to use the arrows and Z,X to strafe) -> other keys: [control]+M: music on/off [control]+R: rotation speed (between 1 and 5) [control]+P: old hud effect plus a "classic" vcount rainbow Right now there is no restart method, sorry for those that play in real machines . Technical post and spoilers later Regards! project_M_2.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacques Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 Or at least let's hope the project keeps going so this incredible "demo" will become a fully playable game in the future Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NRV Posted July 13, 2011 Author Share Posted July 13, 2011 in theory... could it be ported to the 5200 with the ultimate sd cart? Hmm.. my knowledge about the 5200 is a little lacking, but.. If the only difference is to remap some addresses and with that cartridge you can have at least 64K, then it should be possible.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sermajic Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 you have to remap the bankswitching the 5200 is an 8bit atari computer with only 16k, but this can be fixed with Atarimax`s Sd cart... in theory... could it be ported to the 5200 with the ultimate sd cart? Hmm.. my knowledge about the 5200 is a little lacking, but.. If the only difference is to remap some addresses and with that cartridge you can have at least 64K, then it should be possible.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 My 5200 cart design (used for MULE) allows for up to 512K. http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/69649-5200-game-announcement-now-shipping Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sermajic Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 M.U.L.E. runs great on my ultimate 5200 sd cart so i think its doable My 5200 cart design (used for MULE) allows for up to 512K. http://www.atariage....nt-now-shipping Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonl Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 M.U.L.E. runs great on my ultimate 5200 sd cart so i think its doable My 5200 cart design (used for MULE) allows for up to 512K. http://www.atariage....nt-now-shipping It's probably the 16K RAM that's the problem rather than cart space as the program uses double buffering for the screen and so on. It might be less effort to just get an 800XL or XEGS to complement your 5200 (if you don't already have one, it will open up a whole new world of Atari 8 bit excitement for you ) Cheers, Simon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sermajic Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 sorry to hear that... it would have been amazing, (maybe streaming memory from sd) i own several Atari 8bits and Myide flash interface w/512mb flash key from Atarimax though you can`t keep them all plugged at once and i really love the huge 5200! M.U.L.E. runs great on my ultimate 5200 sd cart so i think its doable My 5200 cart design (used for MULE) allows for up to 512K. http://www.atariage....nt-now-shipping It's probably the 16K RAM that's the problem rather than cart space as the program uses double buffering for the screen and so on. It might be less effort to just get an 800XL or XEGS to complement your 5200 (if you don't already have one, it will open up a whole new world of Atari 8 bit excitement for you ) Cheers, Simon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+David_P Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 It's probably the 16K RAM that's the problem rather than cart space as the program uses double buffering for the screen and so on. It might be less effort to just get an 800XL or XEGS to complement your 5200 (if you don't already have one, it will open up a whole new world of Atari 8 bit excitement for you ) Cheers, Simon As I recall, the 5200 cart port supports up to 32k. Could a custom cart be made, providing 16K RAM (possibly banked for more) and 16K ROM (also banked for more). That is, for example, a 128K SRAM with a toggle between 8 16K banks, plus a 16K ROM space with 8K fixed / 15x 8K banks toggleable? That would be suspiciously like the interior of an XE... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 Had Atari run a RD/WR line to the cartridge, this wouldn't be a problem. Right now the best solution is a RAM upgrade that sits on the expansion port. Not sure how effectively it can be mapped in, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sermajic Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 oh always thought 16k was the limit, then bankswitching It's probably the 16K RAM that's the problem rather than cart space as the program uses double buffering for the screen and so on. It might be less effort to just get an 800XL or XEGS to complement your 5200 (if you don't already have one, it will open up a whole new world of Atari 8 bit excitement for you ) Cheers, Simon As I recall, the 5200 cart port supports up to 32k. Could a custom cart be made, providing 16K RAM (possibly banked for more) and 16K ROM (also banked for more). That is, for example, a 128K SRAM with a toggle between 8 16K banks, plus a 16K ROM space with 8K fixed / 15x 8K banks toggleable? That would be suspiciously like the interior of an XE... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 The cartridge port occupies the space from $4000-BFFF. (32K) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonl Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 sorry to hear that... it would have been amazing, (maybe streaming memory from sd) M.U.L.E. runs great on my ultimate 5200 sd cart so i think its doable It's probably the 16K RAM that's the problem rather than cart space as the program uses double buffering for the screen and so on. It might be less effort to just get an 800XL or XEGS to complement your 5200 (if you don't already have one, it will open up a whole new world of Atari 8 bit excitement for you ) Oops, maybe it is possible for Project M, I thought I was replying to your similar comment about 5200 in the Space Harrier thread - too many late nights coding recently Regards, Simon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sermajic Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 sorry to hear that... it would have been amazing, (maybe streaming memory from sd) M.U.L.E. runs great on my ultimate 5200 sd cart so i think its doable It's probably the 16K RAM that's the problem rather than cart space as the program uses double buffering for the screen and so on. It might be less effort to just get an 800XL or XEGS to complement your 5200 (if you don't already have one, it will open up a whole new world of Atari 8 bit excitement for you ) Oops, maybe it is possible for Project M, I thought I was replying to your similar comment about 5200 in the Space Harrier thread - too many late nights coding recently Regards, Simon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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