+OLD CS1 Posted December 29, 2013 Share Posted December 29, 2013 My thoughts are that in order to update the display as fast as that on the TI I think you would need the map uncompressed in CPU RAM as ready as possible to copy to the VDP. This means you would be limited to scrolling around 20 screens before you had to repeat them (unless you used a high capacity cartridge for storage). Would expansion memory (8-bit) be fast enough, or would it need to be in PAD RAM? It does seem that a lot of patterns repeat, anyway. We would probably need to look at a cart dump. Which, BTW, archive.org has made very easy by hosting almost 200 different TOSEC collections. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+InsaneMultitasker Posted December 29, 2013 Share Posted December 29, 2013 Seems doable on the 99/4A. As well, this idea seems like it would translate to something like Spy Hunter. Anyone have any thoughts? Watching the video, it looks like the screen is scrolled every 8 (4?) pixels. If it is character based and 8-pixel scrolling, seems that would be relatively simple to accomplish. Not a bad looking little game, though the constant-pitch engine sound becomes annoying very quickly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobertLM78 Posted December 29, 2013 Share Posted December 29, 2013 As well, this idea seems like it would translate to something like Spy Hunter. Anyone have any thoughts? Spy Hunter was a great game back in the day Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asmusr Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 Seems doable on the 99/4A. As well, this idea seems like it would translate to something like Spy Hunter. Anyone have any thoughts? The raw speed is not an issue, see attached demo (E/A#3: RF). This is running at 60 FPS, twice the frame rate of the MSX game. RF.zip The problem is memory. I have asked in an MSX forum if anyone knows how the original graphics/maps were packed into a 16K ROM. My small sample alone takes up 11K uncompressed. Happy New Year! 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willsy Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 Wow! Awesome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sometimes99er Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 (edited) The problem is memory. I have asked in an MSX forum if anyone knows how the original graphics/maps were packed into a 16K ROM. My small sample alone takes up 11K uncompressed. We could break the map up into two, namely the road and the the other stuff. The road could be a stream thing with info like straight ahead for 30 characters (contained in like 2 bytes), expand left for 6 characters (again 2 bytes), turn right for 10 characters etc. The other stuff, if not essential to the game, could be a list of stamps (different sizes, indexed) picked randomly but from a given seed. It could of course also be streamed with something like, horizontal position 5, tennis court, horizontal position 23, house with hedge, 1 character of spacing, etc. I guess perhaps more like TI Scramble than Titanium. Edited December 31, 2013 by sometimes99er Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMole Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 Have you tried doing simple RLE comperssion on the data to see how much that gains? Probably not enough, but it would be my first try if I were to develop something like this from scratch. Secondly and more likely, they probably have some kind of meta-tile system in place (my guess would be somewhere around 8x8 patterns in size). Pretty much what sometimes99er is saying for the "besides the road" type stuff in his example. Last idea: there might be some repeating sections in each of the maps? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asmusr Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 Have you tried doing simple RLE comperssion on the data to see how much that gains? It reduces the size to around 60%, we need to do much better than that. The idea of 'meta-tiles' is interesting, but it's not obvious from looking at the map that this methods has been used. I have attached the Magellan file of the part I have ripped (using a tiresome process of pasting screen dumps together) if you want to take a look. Anyway, I would need to be able to extract the data from the ROM if I'm going to port the MSX version, so I would need to know the exact compression algorithm. Road Fighter.mag.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 The problem is memory. I have asked in an MSX forum if anyone knows how the original graphics/maps were packed into a 16K ROM. My small sample alone takes up 11K uncompressed. Happy New Year! Happy New Year, indeed! Damn, dude! Is there anything you cannot do? I am absolutely impressed -- I throw an idea and BLAM! Thanks. So that mortals aspiring for ascension might follow in your footsteps, can you tell us how you got to this point in the demo? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asmusr Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 After studying the map some more I think it's likely to consist of a number of unique 8 row sections combined in a predefined order. One such section is 'road in the middle with tennis court to the left', another is 'house to the right with road turning right' (there are at least 3 of those) and so forth. I would have to make a program to count how many sections there are in my piece of the map. They might also have stored the information independently for left, middle (road) and right part of the screen as Sometimes suggested, but that would make unpacking a lot less efficient. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asmusr Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 Happy New Year, indeed! Damn, dude! Is there anything you cannot do? I am absolutely impressed -- I throw an idea and BLAM! Thanks. So that mortals aspiring for ascension might follow in your footsteps, can you tell us how you got to this point in the demo? Well, I ran the game in the BlueMSX emulator and made a lot of screen dumps that I carefully pasted together in Paint Shop Pro into a large bitmap. I imported the bitmap into Magellan using the new 'Import Map Image' function and exported the result as an Assembler data file. Finally I wrote a short assembly program to send the data to the VDP one screen at a time. The only complicated thing is that I use two name table buffers to avoid updating the screen while it's being drawn. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 Well, I ran the game in the BlueMSX emulator and made a lot of screen dumps that I carefully pasted together in Paint Shop Pro into a large bitmap. I imported the bitmap into Magellan using the new 'Import Map Image' function and exported the result as an Assembler data file. Finally I wrote a short assembly program to send the data to the VDP one screen at a time. The only complicated thing is that I use two name table buffers to avoid updating the screen while it's being drawn. Really cool and seemingly tedious. Is there any way to take raw dumps from these games, like I believe was done with "Scramble"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OX. Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 Love Road Fighter, remember pumping the arcade version full of coins all night in my local pub back in the 80's, would love to see this version completed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted December 31, 2013 Author Share Posted December 31, 2013 HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014!! LONG LIVE ANOTHER YEAR OF THE TI-99/4A 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willsy Posted January 1, 2014 Share Posted January 1, 2014 Fukushima and USS Ronald Reagan (finally getting some coverage) though I believe it has not yet got the coverage that it should have. http://www.infowars.com/former-msnbc-host-told-not-to-warn-public-about-fukushima/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted January 1, 2014 Share Posted January 1, 2014 Fukushima and USS Ronald Reagan (finally getting some coverage) though I believe it has not yet got the coverage that it should have. http://www.infowars.com/former-msnbc-host-told-not-to-warn-public-about-fukushima/ Unfortunately, not "main stream" news. Once it hits NPR, THEN the shyte will hit the fan! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted January 1, 2014 Author Share Posted January 1, 2014 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willsy Posted January 1, 2014 Share Posted January 1, 2014 More on Fukushima: http://rt.com/news/fukushima-steam-nuclear-reactor-064/ And this, which is quite scary: http://www.infowars.com/us-government-orders-14-million-doses-of-potassium-iodide/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted January 6, 2014 Author Share Posted January 6, 2014 This is what Binary Bunny looks like when she stays up all night writing code on her TI-99/4A! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted January 8, 2014 Author Share Posted January 8, 2014 You all need to go to this thread << HERE >> and put in your two bit's worth! You (MIGHT) have to be signed in for the link to work... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 You all need to go to this thread << HERE >> and put in your two bit's worth! You (MIGHT) have to be signed in for the link to work... Where is the thread where I can argue about European Fabian Fascist Anarchists versus soccer moms? It is pretty much the same argument. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted January 9, 2014 Author Share Posted January 9, 2014 Where is the thread where I can argue about European Fabian Fascist Anarchists versus soccer moms? It is pretty much the same argument. You lost me on this one buddy. I don't see how a simple poll question about which band you prefer has anything to do with the idealistic principles of those with a creeping Socialist agenda as opposed to the average apolitical soccer mom. Sorry, I was just trying to liven things up a little and have some fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 You lost me on this one buddy. I don't see how a simple poll question about which band you prefer has anything to do with the idealistic principles of those with a creeping Socialist agenda as opposed to the average apolitical soccer mom. Sorry, I was just trying to liven things up a little and have some fun. Lighten up, appreciate the absurd, and rescind your apology as it is completely unnecessary. First off, Fabian Socialism and Fascism are a good part separated and both are mutually exclusive to Anarchy. Secondly, the comparison of the ridiculous combination thereof to a soccer mom -- many of whom are not by any stretch apolitical and they will tell you to your face -- was meant as a fun punt against those who would argue about anything for the sake of argument. When taken in full, my comment is an allusion to the even more absurd comparison of two bands which both take completely different approaches to their music, exist in two different genres, and produce music which is fun and timeless in their own rights. Crappy jokes are even crappier when you have to explain. So you, sir, are definitely off my Cinco de Mayo presents list for calling me on mine. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted January 9, 2014 Author Share Posted January 9, 2014 Crappy jokes are even crappier when you have to explain. So you, sir, are definitely off my Cinco de Mayo presents list for calling me on mine. Yeah, sometimes I can get a little dense in my advancing decrepitude! Sad, it flew right past me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Yeah, sometimes I can get a little dense in my advancing decrepitude! Sad, it flew right past me. Meh. New Year, getting back into the swing of reality ain't all it is cracked up to be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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