+sramirez2008 Posted July 13, 2019 Share Posted July 13, 2019 1 hour ago, mksmith said: @Jinks I'll put one up soon ? Do you have a way to play on hardware? I've added a check to ensure the POKEY is detected so it should play the game just not the music. Also currently runs great in A7800. Okay...first things first. I downloaded this to my Mateos multi-cart and it is awesome. The paddle movement is spot on. Here's what I noticed...the game is playing with TIA sounds only, as described above. When I capture a Break (B) Capsule, the behavior is different depending on whether the game is in joypad vs. paddle mode. Joypad - Break (B) capsule works as expected (e.g. warp gate opens and I can leave the level and collect 10k) Paddle - Break (B) capsule opens the warp gate, but I am unable to leave the level and am stuck in the level (please see attached video) B Capsule with Paddle Selected.MOV B Capsule with Paddle Selected.MOV 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevEng Posted July 14, 2019 Share Posted July 14, 2019 The pokey situation is expected. Arkanoid uses a pokey at $450 (a typical homebrew location) instead of one at $4000 (the commercial location) because the game is already using RAM at $4000. Both Mateos and CC2 only support pokey at $4000. I think Concerto is the same, but not 100% sure on that. Arkanoid is using the 7800basic pokey init, which should enable and work with a XM pokey. Obviously this hasn't been tested with real hardware. So an "XM" version of the cart is possible in theory. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted July 14, 2019 Share Posted July 14, 2019 Works on the MCP, AFAIK. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevEng Posted July 14, 2019 Share Posted July 14, 2019 For sure the pokey will work. The hotspot would need to be fixed for MCP compatibility. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mksmith Posted July 14, 2019 Author Share Posted July 14, 2019 2 hours ago, sramirez2008 said: Okay...first things first. I downloaded this to my Mateos multi-cart and it is awesome. The paddle movement is spot on. Here's what I noticed...the game is playing with TIA sounds only, as described above. When I capture a Break (B) Capsule, the behavior is different depending on whether the game is in joypad vs. paddle mode. Joypad - Break (B) capsule works as expected (e.g. warp gate opens and I can leave the level and collect 10k) Paddle - Break (B) capsule opens the warp gate, but I am unable to leave the level and am stuck in the level (please see attached video) B Capsule with Paddle Selected.MOV 1.11 MB · 2 downloads B Capsule with Paddle Selected.MOV 1.11 MB · 2 downloads @sramirez2008 great - thank you for testing and reporting! think I know what is going on there - I'll check that out later on today. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Defender_2600 Posted July 14, 2019 Share Posted July 14, 2019 Spectacular update, mksmith! Absolutely love it! Among other things, I'm looking at the colors of the background tiles and I was wondering if it is possible to add a second color to get closer to the arcade version. I would also suggest using the arcade colors for the ball in order to make it more visible. Regardless, fantastic job mksmith! And thank you again! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synthpopalooza Posted July 14, 2019 Share Posted July 14, 2019 (edited) I have been looking into that. Mike and I are possibly exploring the idea of doing a second NTSC only version using my character flip routine to get more colors. As it is now, the color registers are filled up, I believe. Edited July 14, 2019 by Synthpopalooza 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mksmith Posted July 14, 2019 Author Share Posted July 14, 2019 (edited) 4 hours ago, Defender_2600 said: Spectacular update, mksmith! Absolutely love it! Among other things, I'm looking at the colors of the background tiles and I was wondering if it is possible to add a second color to get closer to the arcade version. I would also suggest using the arcade colors for the ball in order to make it more visible. Regardless, fantastic job mksmith! And thank you again! 4 hours ago, Synthpopalooza said: I have been looking into that. Mike and I are possibly exploring the idea of doing a second NTSC only version using my character flip routine to get more colors. As it is now, the color registers are filled up, I believe. @Defender_2600 Thanks! We are all really pleased with it so far - and your ship graphic has added a real arcade theme to the intro which i still want to add the little animation too eventually. Unfortunately we waste a few colors for blacks across the palettes so we don't get the background bleeding through the tile on the right and bottom edges. I spent a fair bit of time allocating the colors in a way that they allow 3 white/grey colors for the borders (2 wasn't enough) and then allowed me to mix the rest across the sprites and backgrounds - essentially palettes 0-3 cover the border (160A), sprites (160B), capsules (160B) and backgrounds (160A) and the whole 8 palettes cover the brick (160A) colors. The bricks use the first 2 colors for a 2 different bricks and the 3rd color for the black edge - RevEng created a special assembly routine to lay the bricks out in a pre-rendered grid which we can turn thing on/off, color them etc which we feel wouldn't stretch to 160B rendering. I would need to see if the backgrounds can be drawn as 160B instead of 160A but I'm not sure that will allow enough render time. The biggest pity was loosing the flashing tips - i'd love to add some more sprites to color those but I don't know if i'll have enough room as I still need to add the enemies. It's been a big juggling act to get the colors just about right - unfortunately the backgrounds loose the one color they really need to make them look perfect. As Synthpopalooza said we are going to look at an enhanced version using his new rendering technique once this release is complete. Ah thanks for reminding me on the ball - I need to convert that to 160B to fix in the cyan/lt blue middle! Edited July 14, 2019 by mksmith 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mksmith Posted July 14, 2019 Author Share Posted July 14, 2019 @sramirez2008 Fixed the paddle issue with vaus leaving in warp mode - will be in the next release! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Posted July 14, 2019 Share Posted July 14, 2019 Others should take notice that THIS is what a 7800 Basic game can be. 5 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mksmith Posted July 14, 2019 Author Share Posted July 14, 2019 Just now, Shawn said: Others should take notice that THIS is what a 7800 Basic game can be. It's a great language and are really enjoying using it - don't feel I am limited in any way ? 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Defender_2600 Posted July 14, 2019 Share Posted July 14, 2019 (edited) Many Thanks for the explanation, mksmith! It's really fascinating to be able to look under the hood! P.S. Just a thought, perhaps you could reserve a palette (160A) exclusively for the background tiles and update the palette colors at each level (about 5 palettes should be needed to cover all levels). But probably this has already been considered. Edited July 14, 2019 by Defender_2600 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mksmith Posted July 14, 2019 Author Share Posted July 14, 2019 57 minutes ago, Defender_2600 said: Many Thanks for the explanation, mksmith! It's really fascinating to be able to look under the hood! P.S. Just a thought, perhaps you could reserve a palette (160A) exclusively for the background tiles and update the palette colors at each level (about 5 palettes should be needed to cover all levels). But probably this has already been considered. No probs - I really enjoy reading any blogs about peoples developments as you can see how and why they get to where they do ? I have only been able to set aside the one color which changes each of the 5 levels. If we had the option to set the transparent color in each palette to something that would have made all the difference ? I'll do one more review before we finish to see if I can squeeze one extra color in. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synthpopalooza Posted July 14, 2019 Share Posted July 14, 2019 Here's an example of my 160A rendering technique. It uses a flicker to get extra colors. In this case, a 4 level blue is possible. I used 3 here. Drawbacks ... it looks rubbish on PAL. It takes 2x font and Sprite memory because you must double-buffer everything. Advantage ... it's in 160A so no DMA costs. This method can also be used to anti alias the font and also get that elusive dark blue bg on the title screen. arkanoid3-bg.bas.bin arkanoid3-bg.bas.a78 arkanoid3-bg.bas 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synthpopalooza Posted July 14, 2019 Share Posted July 14, 2019 The big thing is that with this method, hopefully, we can do the shadowing which is in the arcade version as well. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mksmith Posted July 14, 2019 Author Share Posted July 14, 2019 1 hour ago, Synthpopalooza said: Here's an example of my 160A rendering technique. It uses a flicker to get extra colors. In this case, a 4 level blue is possible. I used 3 here. Drawbacks ... it looks rubbish on PAL. It takes 2x font and Sprite memory because you must double-buffer everything. Advantage ... it's in 160A so no DMA costs. This method can also be used to anti alias the font and also get that elusive dark blue bg on the title screen. arkanoid3-bg.bas.bin 32 kB · 1 download arkanoid3-bg.bas.a78 32.13 kB · 1 download arkanoid3-bg.bas 2.19 kB · 1 download Look forward to checking this out in the morning ? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synthpopalooza Posted July 14, 2019 Share Posted July 14, 2019 These were the same I sent you in PM:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted July 14, 2019 Share Posted July 14, 2019 12 hours ago, mksmith said: @sramirez2008 Fixed the paddle issue with vaus leaving in warp mode - will be in the next release! Excellent! I just fired this up on a real console, and of course I had to use paddles. I ran into this issue pretty quickly and was going to report it! I didn't have POKEY audio so I couldn't hear the music, but the sound effects are all good, the game looks great, and it plays very well! I've always enjoyed Arkanoid, so it's damn cool to see it on the 7800. Really excited to see how this continues to develop. One thing I noticed. If you don't have a controller plugged in when the game boots up, it immediately starts a game! I didn't realize right away that you had to plug the paddles into the second controller port. Once I did that and had a joystick plugged into the first port, everything was good. But would be nice if the errant behavior when a controller isn't plugged in is fixed. Also, I like that with a joystick controller you can hit the second controller button to speed up the paddle. I was going to complain that the paddle was moving too slow until I discovered this. Very nice! Keep up the great work! ..Al 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted July 14, 2019 Share Posted July 14, 2019 11 hours ago, Shawn said: Others should take notice that THIS is what a 7800 Basic game can be. Dungeon Stalker and T:ME Salvo are also both excellent examples of what can be done with 7800basic. ..Al 5 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Posted July 14, 2019 Share Posted July 14, 2019 3 minutes ago, Albert said: Dungeon Stalker and T:ME Salvo are also both excellent examples of what can be done with 7800basic. ..Al Yeppers! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinks Posted July 14, 2019 Share Posted July 14, 2019 1 hour ago, Shawn said: Yeppers! So your not going to buy my new 7800 basic game? It comes in a 2600 pac man, asteroids or donkey kong shell with the labels still attached. The board is clipped to give you a endless snow level that everyone dreams of. Your imagination truely is the only thing holding you back to a great game. 75usd plus 40 shipping for a limited run.(untill I run out of carts in a drawer) The title "sucker" will be attached with masking tape. Ebay prices will be much higher get it now!! ? If only all games would be this great! ? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebor Posted July 14, 2019 Share Posted July 14, 2019 1 hour ago, Albert said: Also, I like that with a joystick controller you can hit the second controller button to speed up the paddle. I was going to complain that the paddle was moving too slow until I discovered this. Very nice! I find myself holding the button the entire game with joystick controls. Perhaps the behavior should be reversed. Press the button to slow Vaus down, no button held and its speed reflects what is currently set with the button held. If such was implemented, for those that don't care to utilize a slowed Vaus, it opens the door to being able to use a favorite one button controller too. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted July 14, 2019 Share Posted July 14, 2019 7 minutes ago, Trebor said: I find myself holding the button the entire game with joystick controls. Perhaps the behavior should be reversed. I concur. When using a joystick, I would always hold down the button. Edit: This could always be added as an option as well, "Default Paddle Speed: [Fast | Slow]" ..Al 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted July 14, 2019 Share Posted July 14, 2019 How much RAM are you using? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synthpopalooza Posted July 14, 2019 Share Posted July 14, 2019 Trebor: Another test case for you. This is potentially for a port of Arkanoid 2 to the 7800 ... a what if, shall we say. Plug this in on a real 7800 and let me know how it sounds please. I did some experimenting ... it works in theory on Atari 1200XL. Did some messing about with AUDCTL and SKCTLS for this POKEY has been mapped to $0405. arkanoid2-levelstart.128 arkanoid2-levelstart.A78 arkanoid2-levelstart.asm arkanoid2-levelstart.bin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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