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Atari 7800 Homebrew: Into The Void / Number Crusher


fultonbot

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10 minutes ago, fultonbot said:

Decided to make a "Halloween" demo yesterday.
The result is the beginning of an "reverse star castle" game named "Last Stand : Halloween".
Just the basics done so far.

Oddly satisfying (I think because of the number of shots you can have on-screen)

 

FWIW, OpenEmu (Mac) has issues rendering it properly.

 

Rates it's own forum topic?

 

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13 minutes ago, Muddyfunster said:

Very cool !

 

Also had some issues running it on Bup and JS7800 and A7800

 

Think it might be running out of memory (or cycles) to render the sprites (when the screen gets super busy)

 

Could try set extradlmemory on and use some memory at $2200.

Does JS7800 support  " set romsize 128kBANKRAM"?
This one is set to the above:

laststand.bas.a78

laststand.bas.bin

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30 minutes ago, bhall408 said:

Oddly satisfying (I think because of the number of shots you can have on-screen)

 

FWIW, OpenEmu (Mac) has issues rendering it properly.

 

Rates it's own forum topic?

 

I kinda pushed the number of shots just to see what I could get.
I was seeing if there was a positive reaction before I cluttered up the forum with a topic.
The very I posted first was not exported with  "set romsize 128kBANKRAM".

Should have extradlmemory now.  

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4 minutes ago, fultonbot said:

Does JS7800 support  " set romsize 128kBANKRAM"?

Doesn't look like it. But I suspect you meant to just use cart-based ram, rather than cart-based bankswitched-ram. i.e. "set romsize 128kRAM"

 

If I change the a78 header to just reference ram@4000, your last posted version runs in js7800.

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9 minutes ago, RevEng said:

Doesn't look like it. But I suspect you meant to just use cart-based ram, rather than cart-based bankswitched-ram. i.e. "set romsize 128kRAM"

 

If I change the a78 header to just reference ram@4000, your last posted version runs in js7800.

You mean because I don't bank switch ?   Since I copied the Number Crusher code-based an modified it for this (believe it not, most of the collision detection still worked, unedited)  I still use bank 8 for graphics.  Would it work better if I tried to remove bank-switching for now?  

What is Ram@4000 the equivalent to in 7800 Basic? 

I uploaded my lasted so it can be played online now:

https://raz0red.github.io/js7800/?cart=https://intotheverticalblank.com/downloads/laststand.bas.a78

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2 hours ago, RevEng said:

You're trying to use bank switched ROM, but I don't believe you need bank-switched RAM. Check out what bankram does in the set romsize docs

 

If you use "set romsize 128kRAM" in 7800basic, you'll get the ram@4000 bit in the header set. That gives you normal non-banked ram, located at $4000.

So you can bank switch both ROM and RAM?

I thought 128KBANKRAM was 8 banks of 16k-ROM (#8 always available, the test switched) plus 16K extra addressable RAM above the original 4K?

I read this:
"The formats with BANKRAM on the end of the name provide 2 banks of 16k RAM from $4000-$7fff. You may switch the active RAM bank with the loadrambank command."

 

Is that 2 banks, one starting at $4000 (bank1) and one starting at $7FFF (bank2)

 

 

Does this mean that when I do this " set dlmemory $4000 $7fff" that uses up bank1, but I could also switch bank2 and store some things there as well?

 

Does 128KRAM still let me use the extra 16KRAM for the display list?


 

Edited by fultonbot
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35 minutes ago, fultonbot said:

So you can bank switch both ROM and RAM?

I thought 128KBANKRAM was 8 banks of 16k-ROM (#8 always available, the test switched) plus 16K extra addressable RAM above the original 4K?

You can bank switch both ROM and RAM, if the cart hardware supports it.

 

The 128KRAM format is what you've described above. The 128KBANKRAM is an enhanced version of that, where the RAM @4000 can be swapped for another bank of RAM @4000.

 

35 minutes ago, fultonbot said:

I read this:
"The formats with BANKRAM on the end of the name provide 2 banks of 16k RAM from $4000-$7fff. You may switch the active RAM bank with the loadrambank command."

 

Is that 2 banks, one starting at $4000 (bank1) and one starting at $7FFF (bank2)

Nope. 2 banks, with only one visible at a time from $4000-$7FFF. You decide which one is active at any time.

 

I should point out that this is a less standard format. AA can produce these carts, but flash carts and non-a7800 emulators won't like it. No homebrew author has used this format yet, outside of some test programs for the hardware.

 

35 minutes ago, fultonbot said:

Does this mean that when I do this " set dlmemory $4000 $7fff" that uses up bank1, but I could also switch bank2 and store some things there as well?

So long as the display is using that memory, you can't really bank-switch it away. So banked RAM is less useful for DLL storage.

 

35 minutes ago, fultonbot said:

Does 128KRAM still let me use the extra 16KRAM for the display list?

Yes.

 

 

 

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Last version of this before I return to finish Number Crusher. Added small jack-o-lanterns that are created when you shoot large ones. Limited shots and enemies to control slow-down, optimized some (but not all) of the collision detection.

https://raz0red.github.io/js7800/?cart=https://intotheverticalblank.com/downloads/laststand.bas.a78

 

laststand3.thumb.png.84b8ec55690c6bf23edf55ddad4f1f4b.png

 

laststand.bas.a78

laststand.bas.bin

 

 

 

Edited by fultonbot
added binaries
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6 minutes ago, fultonbot said:

Last version of this before I return to finish Number Crusher. Added small jack-o-lanterns that are created when you shoot large ones. Limited shots and enemies to control slow-down, optimized some (but not all) of the collision detection.

I think this is a great POC, worthy of spending more time on (ie, title screen, music, asteroids)!

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13 minutes ago, bhall408 said:

I think this is a great POC, worthy of spending more time on (ie, title screen, music, asteroids)!

Thanks, yeah, I have bunch of ideas for upgrades (shoot health, or right button beam to grab health) , maybe try to get 16 rotations instead of 8, etc.  Any feedback on ideas would be appreciated.  The jack-lanterns with probably be replaced.   Maybe I'll make it like Megamania where all sorts of weird stuff shows-up that you need to destroy.  

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14 minutes ago, fultonbot said:

maybe try to get 16 rotations instead of 8, etc.

I was thinking that as I played... Smoother rotation would be nice...

14 minutes ago, fultonbot said:

The jack-lanterns with probably be replaced.   Maybe I'll make it like Megamania where all sorts of weird stuff shows-up that you need to destroy. 

In the space field right now, debris removal is a big deal.

 

Perhaps it is "Space Debris" and you are shooting at/de-orbiting old/decommissioned satellites, space stations, etc. before they have a chance to re-enter the atmosphere, land on some city, and cause GLOBAL CATASTROPHE!

 

Maybe you have  a choice between shooting them (but then they need to be small enough to break up on re-entry) or grappler/tractor beam to suck them up/collect them.

 

That gets your two button action ;-)

 

But the easy/obvious one is for them to be asteroids.

 

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33 minutes ago, bhall408 said:

I was thinking that as I played... Smoother rotation would be nice...

In the space field right now, debris removal is a big deal.

 

Perhaps it is "Space Debris" and you are shooting at/de-orbiting old/decommissioned satellites, space stations, etc. before they have a chance to re-enter the atmosphere, land on some city, and cause GLOBAL CATASTROPHE!

 

Maybe you have  a choice between shooting them (but then they need to be small enough to break up on re-entry) or grappler/tractor beam to suck them up/collect them.

 

That gets your two button action ;-)

 

But the easy/obvious one is for them to be asteroids.

 

I like the space debris angle a lot.
I thinking of limiting the angles at which the enemies arrive to make the first levels easier.
With such basic game-play, there is a lot of room for graphics and sounds.  could be cool with some really pumping POKEY music.

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2 hours ago, fultonbot said:

Any feedback on ideas would be appreciated.  The jack-lanterns with probably be replaced.

You know, after I downloaded the latest version (back to working on OpenEmu, albeit with drawing issues I'd blame on OpenEmu)...

 

The name, "Last Stand", got me thinking.

 

You could easily use the same engine to do a non-space game... Instead of spaceship and asteroids, machine gun bunker and approaching enemies (sounds so violent!)

 

Think of it as a top-down view version of the old game Sabotage (where paratroopers descend on your machine gun/flak nest). Or a simplified version of Rip-Off (things coming to steal your stuff from the center of the screen). Of the two, I think it is more like top-down sabotage.

 

In that variant, perhaps it is people and tanks (or drones and tanks if you want to not have people getting shot, keeping it all ages) and you have a choice of machine gun (main fire button) or heat sealing missile or grenade launcher (limited supply, 2nd fire button)

 

Or riff on that and it is a last stand against zombies (instead of drones/tanks)

 

But the mechanic is the same -- you are at the center, taking your LAST STAND

 

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