AIRBALL

[José Pereira]

 

The A8Pallete can at least get something more like ST/MIGA and P.C versions Walls/Ground colours...

 

Exactly 40chars wide and 26char Lines tall.

Seeing different screens the lightest colour is what makes difference between different screen Gfxs. and we can have PF2/PF3 there and without colour clash most of the times.

 

 

-> Backr.-Black into PF1-(0,2) and PFs. (on the Playing Area) like:

PF0- (9,A)

PF1- (0,2)

PF2- (9,14) (Floo Lighest colour

PF3- (0,14) (or any other according to screen Gfxs./Objects)

 

-> SCREEN CYCLES: From Bitmap to ANTIC4 there's only more something like 40x9=360cycles

Going into ANTIC4 using 3Charlines=1Charset that's 9charsets and more 9x40 of the Charset BadLines.

 

-> PMs.: The same almost exactly...

Instead of all four for the Ball, there's only need P0&P1.

P2&P3 for the two snakes.

What are more are only the P2&P3 'data' that it's all the snakes high.

(The snakes movement are exactly the one used on the original program)

 

-> WHAT IT'S REALLY MORE?

The 360/400 cycles of the ANTIC4 (with some DLIs.) and we need to create a SoftSprite for the Ball that will have the P0&P1 overlay.

This is a 4x4chars and cycle counting, it's more or less (including shifting):

4bytes x 32scanlines x 21cycles = 2688cycles

 

What we really need to add is one more Masking. We had the Players masking and would need another Gfxs. Mask for the Ball softSprite.

This more the ANTIC4 and we would need something like 3000cycles free on the original code.

Don't say we didn't have?

 

 

 

José Pereira.

[José Pereira]

Just the 'G2F' file if anyone is interested:

airball 40wide_2.zip

[[email protected]]

Just the 'G2F' file if anyone is interested:

airball 40wide_2.zip

 

How do you view the .g2f files?

[José Pereira]

Just the 'G2F' file if anyone is interested:

airball 40wide_2.zip

 

How do you view the .g2f files?

 

ou have to get 'G2F' Program:

G2F

This is the Program I use to get these Pictures.

You do things on a P.C. and it saves in A8 Format.

Have a look there.

 

 

José Pereira.

[Sikor]

Jose, ths wrong with atari version? http://atari.fandal.cz/search.php?search=airball&butt_details_x= - for me it looks much better than your poor PC screen.

[emkay]

Graphically, I think the game is very good. Except the dragon animation.

The annoying point is the music that changes it's speed during bank switching(?). If someone can correct this, it would be fine .

 

Also with the music, some volume corrections here and there would help aswell.

[snicklin]

I feel a little let down by this game. It has so much potential to be a really great game, but it just isn't. It's best played with the sound off and would be fairer if you were not sent back to the start every time you die.

[Kr0tki]

and would be fairer if you were not sent back to the start every time you die.

You aren't. Every "airpump" in the game is a checkpoint.

[José Pereira]

Jose, ths wrong with atari version? http://atari.fandal.cz/search.php?search=airball&butt_details_x= - for me it looks much better than your poor PC screen.

 

 

That's your opinion...

[snicklin]

You aren't. Every "airpump" in the game is a checkpoint.

 

Thanks! Ahh, I must just be terrible at this game!

[MrFish]

The annoying point is the music that changes it's speed during bank switching(?). If someone can correct this, it would be fine .

It sounds like the melody & bass are out of sync with the percussion. Turn off "channel 3" (percussion) in emulation and the bass and melody sound fine. Go back and turn "channel 3" back on, and then turn off "channels 1 & 2" and the percussion sounds fine.

[José Pereira]

Never heard about the NES version:

The snakes aren't there almost sure because there isn't screen space on NES 32chars wide screen

(by the way: NES can't have sprites outside Borders, right?)

Also wondering if that wouldn't be the solution to increase 'speed' in A8 and probably fix the Music/Fxs.?

(If there's no snakes the screen would be 32wide, exactly like NES and A8Narrow Mode and will win lots of cycles...)

Edited June 6, 2011 by José Pereira

[emkay]

The annoying point is the music that changes it's speed during bank switching(?). If someone can correct this, it would be fine .

It sounds like the melody & bass are out of sync with the percussion. Turn off "channel 3" (percussion) in emulation and the bass and melody sound fine. Go back and turn "channel 3" back on, and then turn off "channels 1 & 2" and the percussion sounds fine.

 

 

That's not what I'm writing about. Check the video...

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeNMA-7EIrs

Edited June 6, 2011 by emkay

[emkay]

I really wonder, how someone could release such buggy stuff....

Edited June 6, 2011 by emkay

[+Eagle]

Check it out.

 

http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-airball_151.html

[emkay]

Check it out.

 

http://www.atarimani...irball_151.html

 

 

Interesting. This one seems to work. What's the difference?

[+Eagle]

I don't have clue.

[Bryan]

I assume the music slows down because everything is stopped while a new room is constructed. Of course, having the music screw up just calls more attention to the pause. I think it would be better if the old room faded out more slowly while the new room is being created in an alternate buffer. Or, the game could always be processing the adjoining rooms in the background. Perhaps it could be based on which exit you're closest to.

[MrFish]

The annoying point is the music that changes it's speed during bank switching(?). If someone can correct this, it would be fine .

It sounds like the melody & bass are out of sync with the percussion. Turn off "channel 3" (percussion) in emulation and the bass and melody sound fine. Go back and turn "channel 3" back on, and then turn off "channels 1 & 2" and the percussion sounds fine.

That's not what I'm writing about. Check the video...

I see what you mean. I had never played that version before (file version), always used the cart version. The percussion is still out of sync regardless.

[+rdemming]

Check it out.

 

http://www.atarimani...irball_151.html

 

 

Interesting. This one seems to work. What's the difference?

 

The cart version is the original. The file version from Fandal's site is hacked to use extended RAM instead of XE cart. Thus the cart bank-switch routines are replaced by extended ram bank-switch routines. Since cart and extended ram are at different memory locations, I suspect that to make this work, the extended ram version needed more complex bank-switch and copy operations and thus slowing things down.

 

Robert

Edited June 7, 2011 by rdemming

[sack-c0s]

I really wonder, how someone could release such buggy stuff....

 

today it would probably be 'we can fix it through <insert system for online delivery of updates here> later'

 

back then maybe 'because it looks good enough in magazine screenshots.'

 

or more innocently but probable 'after 3 months of hearing this frakking music I'm going to either kill someone or turn it off!', only for the volume switch to stay permanently turned off until release. Irony is I've actually *solved* a bug this way before

Edited June 7, 2011 by sack-c0s

[José Pereira]

The annoying point is the music that changes it's speed during bank switching(?). If someone can correct this, it would be fine .

It sounds like the melody & bass are out of sync with the percussion. Turn off "channel 3" (percussion) in emulation and the bass and melody sound fine. Go back and turn "channel 3" back on, and then turn off "channels 1 & 2" and the percussion sounds fine.

 

 

That's not what I'm writing about. Check the video...

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeNMA-7EIrs

 

And from here you can see that the Ball isn't also 'masked' in Doors... probably in more places...

[emkay]

Hm.... the game could have been more fluent with the dragon animations when using charmode. That one additional colour could help aswell.

 

I was searching for other versions of the music. Going through all available Youtube videos, it seems the A8 version is the nicest?

 

The St version sounds horrible, the Amiga version sounds cold, the nes version sounds infantile.... a.s.o. If only the frequency spread was enhanced a little with the XL version and some volume correction here and there...

 

Is it possible to extract the notations of the tune for RMT?

[+JAC!]

Silly question: What are the dragons for? Or were they added just to waste the CPU cycles which could easily have been used for proper masking

[ANTIQ]

They're to remind you that the computer's in the wrong mode.