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Tools for Colecovision homebrewing


AVoltoro

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Hello. I would like to get into Colecovision homebrewing, but I need to know some information first. For starters, I know that the programming can be done using assembly, but I would like to know of any tutorials and download links for it (and also if I need to set it up differently, as I know it can be used for other stuff as well). Secondly, if anyone knows of a good Coleco sprite editor, it would prove to be a great help. Lastly, any other information would be much appreciated.

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Hello. I would like to get into Colecovision homebrewing, but I need to know some information first. For starters, I know that the programming can be done using assembly, but I would like to know of any tutorials and download links for it (and also if I need to set it up differently, as I know it can be used for other stuff as well). Secondly, if anyone knows of a good Coleco sprite editor, it would prove to be a great help. Lastly, any other information would be much appreciated.

 

newcoleco did awesome tools

Check here

http://www.colecovision.dk/tools.htm

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Thank you for all of these tools, but I don't know which ones I would need, or what the tools do.

 

there is few videos on NewColeco Youtube's channel like this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dHoBzpOE6s

 

I don't know any sprite editors... but on my side, for the graphics I will be using my favorite paint software and parse the image file+adapting the data for my game in a custom tool.

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Thank you for all of these tools, but I don't know which ones I would need, or what the tools do.

 

ICVGM 214 is a tileset editor to be use for MODE_1 graphic mode. In that mode only 32 colors in a group of 8 tiles. While...

 

ICVGM 303 is a tileset editor to be use for Newcoleco's graphic_mode_2_text or graphic_mode_2_bitmap. These tool can also create sprites. They can let you place tiles on the name table provided in the left upper corner of this program. You can copy and paste a group of tiles to another area of the tileset. Just be aware of the Clear button when you're working at the very last bit of your tileset. If the 2 numbers aren't red and you accidently hit Clear, bye bye tiles. I think I might have hit Control-Z and restore the tiles... So make sure you save your work. Don't use the mouse wheel when opening a tileset. The program will error out and close. Other than that, this program is awesome and one of my world's favorite art program.

 

cvgraphictoolset

 

CVPAINT 2. You can copy image to your computer's clipboard and it will generates an image. This is very useful in making a title screen or a high quality image for your Colecovision game.

 

post-24767-0-03521800-1376666659_thumb.png Such as this image I found and generated with I think with Floyd x2. It did a great job with this one. I mainly use CVPAINT 2 to make a pp of the name table I produced with ICVGM.

 

The way I do it is to make a name table in ICVGM. Hit PrntScr. Open Paint Shop Pro 4. Paste the desktop image. Carefully crop the name table, makes sure it's 256x192. Then hit Copy or Ctrl C. With CVpaint2, I hit paste from clipboard and with all the color. Lastly, I save the image to .pp format.

 

CV SPRITE 2. I open background image, and then select the .pp image I generate with CVPAINT 2. In CVSPRITE 2, I can make sprites, and place them in the scene. This program makes it very easy to tower your sprite like the sprite in Malaika. Also imitate Colecovision sprite limitation which it'll drop the 5th sprite on the scanline. Very very useful program. It will tell you the coordinate sprite y and x on the bottom of this program. I have no clue how to use the sprite aptitude data, but I use sprites[0].y and sprites[0].x instead then updatesprites(); command in my program.

 

Newcoleco is very awesome for making these programs and sharing them with us.

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  • 1 year later...

In case you also consider C programming, you might want to have a look at the tutorials at

 

http://colecovision.eu/ColecoVision/development/tutorial0.shtml

http://colecovision.eu/ColecoVision/development/tutorial1.shtml

http://colecovision.eu/ColecoVision/development/tutorial2.shtml

 

Philipp

 

looks like site down(

where to download devkit?

 

all webpages opening fine, at least for me! :)

 

btw, if you want to try Basic language, i made some stuff available at http://www.boriel.com/wiki/en/index.php/ZX_BASIC:Released_Programs_-_ColecoVision (perhaps it might smooth the learning curve to C or Assembly)

Edited by nitrofurano
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Somehow I found this thread and noticed the image conversion tool, I thought I'd note that I've still been updating my own image converter for the 9918A VDP (and F18A for those who installed one of those) - it's a drag and drop interface and provides decent results.

 

http://harmlesslion.com/software/convert9918

 

post-12959-0-73905300-1419937377_thumb.jpg

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  • 1 year later...
  • 3 years later...
35 minutes ago, Kiwi said:

You need to install Java to run that program.  You can use http://harmlesslion.com/software/convert9918

to convert image to load to Colecovision.  It can output .raw or RAW rle. Colecovision can use that.

Thanks, though I have Java.  I tried Convert9918 but still not working.  I tried saving as RAW or PNG (PC), etc.  Are there specific settings I should be using inside that program when creating the file?  I just left all the defaults.

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I just checked my folder for Convert9918, the folder is set to Read-only.

readonly.jpg.6a4bd70f29f2dcd5131c01c1cf155b22.jpg

 

Same with Magellan.  So try to output the file outside that folder or remove the read only permission. 

Window 10, I need to get a machine to test to see if I can get CVtoolkit working.  Seems like people having trouble getting the tools to work.  I can't do without CVsprite 2. I'm on a Window 7 machine. 

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