Game Programming Forums

F18A PRE-ORDER

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 03:24:03 +0000

See post #424 in the F18A thread.

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/168968-f18a/page__view__findpost__p__2462894

Scrolling Attract-Mode Screens...Harmony Cart...Possible?

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:43:19 +0000

Hey programmers,
Sometimes I like to fire up my 2600 just to have it play some of the Attract Mode screens. Some are really impressive. It's kind-of nice having them play, while I may be focusing on other projects, or talking with guests. I've created a menu folder on my Harmony Cartridge of some of the games that have the more impressive Attract-Mode screens. I thought how great it would be if my 2600 could automatically scroll through this folder of games...letting each program run for a user-determined amount of time, before moving to the next.

Does anyone think this is possible?

Thanks,
StephenJ

Atari Assembler Editor Cartridge and inline comments

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:13:50 +0000

For some reason I have found it is impossible to supply an inline comment for a line which only has a label. For instance:

280 OSRC ;OPEN SCREEN ROUTINE

This will generate an error six.

The only way I can get the thing to assemble properly is if I include a dummy op-code:

280 OSRC NOP ;OPEN SCREEN ROUTINE

I have tried adding extra spaces for the non-existent op-code and operand, but it still does not assemble. Am I missing something obvious?

pfscore bar

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 09:00:51 +0000

I found out that it's impossible to change the pfscore bar color (suppose you want two different palettes, the pfscore bar color can't be changed once it's set.) Perhaps this bit of info should go in RT's bB page, and was just wondering how easy it would be to change bB to let you change the pfscore bar's color?

CV development on a mac

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 03:20:34 +0000

Are there any development tools for doing CV development on the mac? I know I can run windows on my mac, but I don't want to! I know SpiceWare is getting a assemble working on the mac, but anything for doing c development on the mac?

thanks,
Charles

Program bug from program from a book

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 01:27:27 +0000

I typed in the program below from an atari programming book (Understanding Atari Graphics) and I'm getting an error 5 in line 290 and can't figure out why. I don't think I made any mistakes. (checked it a bunch of times). Any suggestions?

Allan

10 REM Zigzag
20 REM a mode 10 demo
50 GRAPHICS 10
60 FOR R=704 TO 712:READ C:POKE R,C:NEXT R
70 DATA 0,148,182,216,30,58,74,68,100
80 DIM S$(33):I=-33
90 FOR B=1 TO 3
100 S$="ABCDEFGHABCDEFGH":T=1:I=I+32:GOSUB 160
110 S$="HGFEDCBAHGFEDCBA":T=2:I=I+32:GOSUB 160
120 NEXT B
130 X=PEEK(712)
140 FOR R=1 TO 8:Y=PEEK(704+R):POKE 70 4+R,X:X=Y:NEXT R:IF PEEK(53279)=6 THEN END
150 GOTO 140
160 FOR Y=1 TO 16
170 POSITION 0,I+Y
180 FOR X=1 TO 10
190 ON T GOSUB 280,290
200 NEXT X:NEXT Y
210 FOR Y2=16 TO 1 STEP -1
220 POSITION 0,I+16+Y2
230 FOR X=1 TO 10
240 Y=17-Y2
250 ON T GOSUB 280,290
260 NEXT X:NEXT Y2
270 RETURN
280 ? #6;S$(9-(Y-(INT((Y-1)/*),16-(Y-(INT((Y-1)/*));:RETURN
290 ? #6;S$(1-(Y-(INT((Y-1)/*),8+(Y-(INT((Y-1)/*));:RETURN

looking for ntsc vcs 2600 sent to germany

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:39:34 +0000

Hi there,
I am not too sure if this post is made at the correct spot.
However, I am very much looking for an ntsc 2600 console.
It gets a bit tricky to use ebay.com to send stuff to germany, since most dont know/care about shipping costs and/or set it very high.
Furthermore our customs require some 'bill' to be attached to the package or the package will remain at the customs like forever (easyly 2 weeks) before Im notified of that.
Hence my request here. I would pay via paypal and woudl happyly pay shipping as well of course which easyly might be more than the worth of the console itself.
I am only interessted in a very basic setup, meaning: just a light small junior console without PSU or joysticks (maybe an additional cart? .
Thank you very much - maybe you can help me out.
I do own PAL consoles but I want to do some tests and coding on ntsc machines (my TV screen can handle NTSC output). Yes, I am aware that the code produces the ntsc TV signal timing but I really want/need the true ntsc device.
Cheers,
Martin

GET and PUT source (Compute magazine)

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:57:51 +0000

Compute magazine publish source to GET and PUT functions in assembly language.
The article was in issue 91, December 1987
The original source hid part of the assembly as just bytes, but I hand disassembled that part of the code and included it.
It's bound to have errors in the disassembly and the branches need labels, but I thought I'd pass on what I had in case someone has a use for it or wants to finish what I started. See the article for full details.
FYI, some instructions start in one BYTE statement and finish in the next. Tabs may have gotten eaten by the look of the code.

;Compute Issue 91 Dec 87
XLSB = 214
XMSB = 215
YLSB = 216
YMSB = 218
LENGTH = 219
BYTESLSB = 220
BYTESMSB = 221
IMAGELSB = 222
IMAGEMSB = 223
CMD = 224
*= $FFFF ;Place your program's beginning assembling address here
JMP BEGIN
GET LDA #0
JMP GP
PUT LDA #1
GP STA 227
.BYTE 169,0,133,212,133,213,1
LDA #0
STA 212
STA 213

.BYTE 214,133,225,165,89,101,215,133,226,162
OR (XLSB,X)
STA 225
LDA #89
ADC XMSB
STA 226
LDX #0

.BYTE 0,228,216,240,32,165,225,24,101,220
CPX YLSB
BEQ #32
LDA 225
CLC
ADC BYTESLSB

.BYTE 133,225,165,226,101,221,133,226,165,215
STA 225
LDA 226
ADC BYTESMSB
STA 226
LDA XMSB

.BYTE 56,233,1,133,216,165,217,233,0,133
SEC
SBC #1
STA YLSB
LDA 217
SBC #0
.BYTE 217,169,0,201,0,240,220,228,217,240
STA 217
LDA #0
CMP #0
BEQ #220
CPX 217

.BYTE 6,169,0,201,0,240,214,162,1,160
BEQ #6
LDA #0
CMP #0
BEQ #214
LDX #1

.BYTE 0,196,218,240,81,165,227,201,1,208
LDY #0
CPY YMSB
BEQ #81
LDA 227
CMP #1

.BYTE 55,165,224,201,1,208,22,177,222,201
BNE #55
LDA CMD
CMP #1
BNE #22
LDA (IMAGELSB),Y
.BYTE 0,240,10,177,225,201,0,240,4,169
CMP #0
BEQ #10
LDA (225),Y
CMP #0
BEQ #4
.BYTE 1,133,212,177,222,201,0,240,20,165
LDA #1
STA 212
LDA (IMAGELSB),Y
CMP #0
BEQ #20

.BYTE 224,201,1,240,10,177,225,201,0,240
LDA CMD
CMP #1
BEQ #10
LDA (225),Y
CMP #0
.BYTE 4,169,1,133,212,177,222,145,225,200
BEQ #4
LDA #1
STA 212
LDA IMAGELSB
STA (225),Y
INY

.BYTE 169,0,201,0,240,191,177,225,201,0
LDA #0
CMP #0
BEQ #191
LDA 225
.BYTE 240,6,169,1,133,212,177,225,145,222
BEQ #6
LDA #1
STA 212
LDA 225
STA (222),Y

.BYTE 169,0,201,0,240,229,228,219,240,35
LDA #0
CMP #0
BEQ #229
CPX 219
BEQ #35

.BYTE 160,0,165,222,24,101,218,133,222,165
LDY #0
LDA IMAGELSB
CLC
ADC YMSB
STA IMAGELSB
LDA IMAGEMSB

.BYTE 223,105,0,133,223,165,225,24,101,220
ADC #0  ;add the carry bit
STA IMAGEMSB
LDA 225
CLC
ADC BYTESLSB

.BYTE 133,225,165,226,101,221,133,226,232,169
STA 225
LDA 226
ADC BYTESMSB
STA 226
INX
LDA #0
.BYTE 0,201,0,240,191,96
CMP #0
BEQ #191
RTS

;Begin your assembly language program at line 1400
; To use the routine, just store your values into the appropriate variables and do a 'JSR GET' or 'JSR PUT'
BEGIN

trying to modify un-listable BASIC file (timewise)

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 03:06:38 +0000

Atari Timewise program is a time management program. It is written in BASIC. Problem is that it doesn't recognize date above 1999. I would like to fix the problem but the file is un-listable and in a hidden directory.
I don't want to spend too much time on this project but is there a way to list a unlistable file to fix the program?
Attached is the file if anyone is curious.
thanks, HLO

Attached Files

Timewise (Atari) -basic.atr 90.02K 11 downloads

Game loader idea...

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 01:22:44 +0000

I was just thinking about all the different game menus and file compressors out there and wondered how well the two could be combined. What if a short loader-DOS with sector decompression were written so that the games could be written to the disk in a compressed format that the included mini-DOS could expand on the fly, giving increased capacity without the need to include a de-packer (and its delays) with each file. A utility could be used (either on the Atari, or PC) to add files to and extract files from the disk image. The only tricky part I can think of is making room for the buffers needed without breaking too many games.

Assembly Language programming books

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 23:27:48 +0000

I have started to make some - a little! - progress in Atari Assembler.

Most books which purport to teach ASM for Atari beginners usually focus exclusively on X=USR(...) routines in BASIC. The single title I have found that doesn't, instead required you to type in their own assembly language editor and debugger - in BASIC!

I was wondering if anyone knew of any titles other than 'The Atari Assembler - Don Inman & Kurt Inman' that focus primarily on programming with the Atari Assembler/Editor cart? I would ideally like something with a lot of listings that I can type-in and learn from - but again I would really like to find something with raw ASM and not just poking and peeking from BASIC. A screen-friendly PDF would be the icing on the cake!

Alternately I wonder if there are any internet-archived magazine that offer plenty of ASM code?

infocom text adventure engine

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 03:28:01 +0000

does anyone have a copy of the infocom text adventure engine i could USE

you know the one they made Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy with?

Is the tutorial source code broken?

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:10:13 +0000

I've said this once before but I cannot thank Andrew enough, because out of all the guides I've read this is the first one I can actually understand. It feels beyond awesome to say that I'm in the process of programming my first Atari game!

Unfortunately I ran into a problem, and have no idea where it lies. I'm currently using Z26 as my emulator. Here's the link to the "Our First Kernel" section, where the source code in question is listed:

http://www.atariage....r-first-kernel/

According to that post, the end result should have been this:

But the one I get - by merely copying and pasting the code - gives me this:

Now the reason I'm bringing this up is because I'm at a point in the guide where I can't move on without fixing it. Trying the same code in StellaX gives me a completely different end result entirely, so I'm not even going to post it. The worst part is that Andrew's own compiled code does the same thing (kernel1.zip attachment), so I know it's not a copy and paste error.

What Z26 looks like it's doing is drawing the last line of the background color (or possibly the second to last one), filling 30 or so lines of overscan, then copying/finishing the last line of color which carries back over the top. So using my newfound knowledge I tried clearing these lines in different sections, but for some reason none of them seem to have any effect. I'm really stuck, and I don't know if it's a problem with the code, or if the emulator got updated since the guide was made that changed the way the chips handle certain things... But unless it's just me, I'd like to fix this not only so I may continue, but so no one else runs into this problem.

Please help, and thanks in advance
-TM

ghosts of quabbin atari version development thread 2

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:43:43 +0000

Posted Yesterday, 11:20 PM
Here is the first segment of source code of the game...
I would like some help developing the title screen (lines 12960 - 12969)
If any one would like to comment on this code, and help develop the title screen and music please add...

1 REM GHOSTS OF QUABBIN
2 PRINT "CODED BY KERNAL, ATARI VERSION 1.0 RECODED FEB 2012"
3 GR. 10 : SETCOLOR 3,2,1
4 REM © 2012 TALON/CSMP3 PROGRAMMING
5 A = 0 :B =0 :C=0:D=0:E=0:F=0:G=0:H=0:I=0:J=0:K=0:L=0
09 PRINT " THE YEAR IS 1938, YOU ARE A REPORTER FOR THE BOSTON NEWSPAPER, INVESTIGATING REPORTS OF STRANGE EVENTS HAPPENING"
11 PRINT " IN THE RECENTLY ABANDONED SWIFT RIVER VALLEY, WHERE THE QUABBIN RESIVOUR IS BEING BUILT"
12 PRINT " PEOPLE LEAVING THE VALLEY REPORT THAT PEOPLE HAVE BEEN SCARED OUT OF THE VALLEY BY THESE GHOSTS"
13 PRINT " YOUR OBJECTIVE IS TO INVESTIGATE WHAT IS GOING ON.. BUT BECAREFUL SOME GHOSTS ARE FRIENDLY AND SOME ARE EVIL"
14 PRINT " FRIENDLY GHOSTS WILL HELP YOU AND GUIDE YOU THRU YOUR JOURNEY, WHILE EVIL GHOSTS WILL HURT YOU AND MISLEAD YOU"
15 PRINT "PRESS 1 TO CONTINUE" : INPUT NULL : GOTO 20
20 SETCOLOR 3,2,1
30 GOTO 12960
50 PRINT "LOADING.............."
51 GRAPHICS 10
52 PRINT "YOU ARE STANDING IN FRONT OF ASA SNOWS CABIN"
53 PRINT "YOU SEE HIS GLASS COFFIN, HIS CABIN AND A PIG"
54 PRINT "WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO?"
55 PRINT "1.) ENTER CABIN"
56 PRINT "2.) OPEN COFFIN"
57 PRINT "3.) TAKE PIG"
58 PRINT "4.) HEAD DOWN DANA ROAD"
59 INPUT A
60 IF A=1 THEN GOTO 70
61 IF A=2 THEN GOTO 80
62 IF A=3 THEN GOTO 90
63 IF A=4 THEN GOTO 100
64 GOTO 52
65 PRINT "ERROR"
70 PRINT "YOU ENTER THE CABIN, YOU SEE A PILE OF STONES AND A KEY"
71 PRINT "PRESS 1 TO TAKE THE KEY, OTHER WISE PRESS 0 TO LEAVE CABIN"
72 INPUT B
73 IF B = 1 THEN KEY = 1 : IF B = 3 STONES = 1 : GOTO 52
74 IF B = 0 THEN GOTO 52
75 GOTO 70
80 PRINT "YOU OPEN THE COFFIN AND A NOTE READS ON ASA'S CORPSE 'PEOPLE SHOULD SEARCH FOR THE GOLDMINE IN THE GREENWICH VILLAGE'"
81 PRINT " 'TAKE THE PIG TO ENTER SECRET AREAS'"
82 PRINT " PRESS 1 TO TAKE THE NOTE, 2 TO POKE ASA, OR 0 TO CLOSE THE COFFIN "
83 INPUT C
84 IF C = 1 THEN NOTE = 1: GOTO 80
85 IF C = 2 THEN ASA = 1: GOTO 80
86 IF C = 0 THEN GOTO 52
87 GOTO 80
88 PRINT "ERROR: GAME HALTED": END
90 PRINT "YOU HAVE TAKEN THE PIG, HE IS DRESSED IN A DRESS"
91 PIG = 1 : PRINT "HIS PRESENCE WILL ALLOW YOU TO ENTER FORBIDDEN AREAS"
92 GOTO 52
100 GR.10 : PRINT "YOU BEGIN WALKING DOWN THE LONG ROAD TO DANA, THE SKY IS DARK AND THERE IS A FOG"
101 PRINT " THE ROAD IS LINED BY 100 YEAR OAK TREES AND COLONIAL STONE WALLS"
102 PRINT " YOU HEAR A QUIET VOICE CALLING OUT TO YOU TO THE LEFT"
103 PRINT " PRESS 1.)TO LISTEN TO THE VOICE"
104 PRINT " PRESS 2.)TO CONTINUE DOWN THE ROAD"
105 INPUT D
106 IF D = 1 THEN GOTO 110
107 IF D = 2 THEN GOTO 130
108 GOTO 100
109 PRINT "ERROR:GAME HALTED":END
110 GR.0 : PRINT " YOU STOP AND LISTEN TO VOICE, AN IMAGE OF A WOMAN ABOUT 27 YEARS OLD EMERGES FROM THE FOG"
111 PRINT "SHE SAYS 'HI MY NAME IS COURTNEY, I HAVE LIVED IN THIS VALLEY ALL MY LIFE AND THE PEOPLE FROM BOSTON'
112 PRINT "'NEED WATER TO DRINK, BUT MY VALLEY IS BEING FLOODED SO THEY CAN DRINK THE WATERS OF THE SWIFT RIVER'"
113 PRINT "'ALL THE PLACES I GREW UP AND PLAYED IN WHEN I WAS YOUNG IS BEING FLOODED OVER; AND MY FATHER WORKED'"
114 PRINT "'IN A GOLDMINE ON THE GREENWICH/PRESCOTT TOWN BORDER. I LIVED IN A HOUSE IN DANA UP THE ROAD AT THE COMMON'"
115 PRINT "'IF YOU WANT ILL SHOW YOU AROUND THE TOWN AND HELP YOU AT LEAST UNTIL DANA"
116 PRINT ""
117 PRINT "DO YOU WANT COURTNEY TO JOIN YOU ON YOUR JOURNEY?"
118 PRINT "PRESS 1.) IF YOU WANT COURTNEY TO JOIN YOU IN THE JOURNEY"
119 PRINT "PRESS 2.) IF YOU ARE TO SCARED OF A GHOST TO ACCEPT HER HELP"
120 INPUT E
121 IF E = 1 THEN COURTNEY = 1 : GOTO 130
122 IF E = 2 THEN PRINT "YOU CONTINUE ON YOUR JOURNEY" : GOTO 130
123 GOTO 117
124 PRINT "ERROR GAME HALTED":END

12959 PRINT "GAME HALTED":END
12960 GRAPHICS 2:POKE 710,0:PRINT #6," GHOSTS OF QUABBIN"
12961 POKE 752,1:PRINT "©2012 TALON/CSMP3 PROGRAMMING"
12962 GOTO 50

#2 Kernal ONLINE

Chopper Commander

public/style_extra/team_icons/rank_joysticks_3.gif
185 posts
Joined:29-August 09

Posted Yesterday, 11:30 PM
oops some errors in this code.... replace line 12962 with
12962 input null : goto 50

i would really like to have access to the infocom text adventure engine to really develop this game in the style of hitchhikers guide to the galaxy
and of course the 3d pc version is being developed at
https://sourceforge....fquabbin/files/

Planet of the Grapes

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 22:35:46 +0000

Or, My first Atari 2600 game.

Well, I made an Atari 2600 game using Visual Batari Basic. Great program, I recommend it for Newbies.

The game I made is called Planet of the Grapes,The story (Yeah, story in an ATARI GAME!) is that You're Dr. Setra, and he's after crashing his ship on the Planet of the Grapes. You must fight off the army of Master Grapist. (Which consists of 20 grape things.)

The controls are simply Joystick Left and Right to move, and Fire to shoot lazors.

I generated a cover too. I did the terrible artwork in tribute to Mega Man on NES

I attached both the cover and .BIN to the post.

I know it's quite crappy, but it's my first so be sure to provide feedback.

It's tested and works fine with the Stella emulator.

Thanks, atariAge. You've helped a lot already.

Attached Thumbnails

Attached Files

Planet of the Grapes.bin 4K 22 downloads

New Project: Edris's Advenure

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:34:34 +0000

I started my newest Project on January 1, 2012. I will post updates here on it. so far I have done:

colors
sprites
gameplay planning
controlled randomness
storyline

what needs to be done:
"Scripting" of the Player1 sprite to move around freely
using Assembly language to do a graphics Hack.

Attached Files

default.bas 2.76K 1 downloads
default.bas.bin 4K 1 downloads

Testet the old "newcc65" latest version 2.1.3 from sage

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:26:58 +0000

I testet the new Version from the BLL CC65 that sage cleans up and distributes a new compiled version.

I must say som bugs and problems i had with integration of the alpine-Mod module are solved.

Thanks to sage

Music you listen to while programming

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 03:31:17 +0000

For me, it's Anime and video game soundtracks, Eurobeat, Devo, Weird Al, and some random rock albums.

Do any of you listen to music while programming, and what songs do you listen to?

What system should I program my next game for?

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:10:55 +0000

I've had a game idea for a while now, and I need a break from Atari 2600 programming.

Which of these 3, or any others, should I program my next game for? I don't know much about programming them, but I would be interested in learning how to, and I have a rough idea of their capabilities.

(I would put Odyssey2 on the list, but it won't be able to handle my game idea quite right.)

Music-generation code strategies

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:25:52 +0000

Hello!

I've written TIA music before, and it's always a pain for me to get started.
There are so many variables, and I always bang my head against a wall before I start writing music.

Here's why.

Let's say the simplest algorithm for music generation is:
set channels once, never set again.
Read frequencies from a list at certain intervals-- if that frequency is $FF then change volume for that channel to zero, else turn the volume to a pre-specified amount (say, 6).

The above is a very simple practice, but there is so much more that people do with the 2600's sound capabilities.
I can see that some people may want to keep a table for volume toggling, and some may want a table for sound channel swapping.

If you take those into consideration, you may have more thatn 255 bytes of notes to deal with, since you have to do things in-between notes, and this could take up a lot of space (by this, I mean you may be toggling notes every 10 frames, but volume every frame). Plus, if you want to "fake out" that you have more sound channels, you may want to have AUDC switch between frames to 2 different sounds. It may sound a little funny, but this may allow you to feel like you put more sound into the mix.

And, to add one final headache to the mix, let's say that you have actual sounds in a game, and you want the "second track" of music to go quiet while a sound plays on screen-- you can see this happen in Pitfall 2; the music doesn't stop, but one channel seamlessly mutes whenever you get a gold bar.

Of course, all of this comes at a price, and I was wondering what some of the best coding algorithms are that people use to make their msuic better than the simplest method of "just notes, and no volume tweaks". Any recommendations?

Thanks!
-John

Assembly question

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 02:17:21 +0000

How does one do "if a>#07eh" in assembly? Right now I've got this:

    movx a,@r0
    add a,#07eh        ; check right boundary
    jnz loop_2b

Which I'm guessing only checks to see if the sprite is at (and only at) #07eh, but I'd like to check for greater numbers than #07eh as the game progresses and the sprites move faster.

Atari 2600 demo archive: where?

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 03:21:12 +0000

Hi everybody,
sorry if this question was already in this forum on other threads: is there a public site/archive with all Atari 2600 demos (in binary format) from demoscene competitions?

Or a site including the links to the demo programmer group sites, where the demos can be downloaded?

Thanks!
dg67

Game Catcher 2600

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 18:27:18 +0000

Here's my next project. Stepping it up a bit. It's called Game Catcher 2600.

Back in 2004, I made a game for the computer called Game Catcher. It involved the player collecting games that were flying around, and they had to collect 100 games before the picky customers, while avoiding running out of cash. It's an original game of mine, and I decided I'd try and port it to the 2600.

High-Res Title Screen:

Working 1P/2P Menu:

Gameplay with smooth, colorful graphics:

In case you're curious, this is the original game: http://megatoxic.com...e%20Catcher.exe
I think this could be very faithful to my original game.

Updates - 2/5:

Alright, time for a nice juicy update. :3

Finally got pretty much all the bugs worked out of the game, and programmed all the music and sound effects in there. Right now, the game is considered to be in a late beta form, and the last step of the development cycle will be suggestions/comments/critiques/any kind of feedback about the game. If there's something you'd like me to try and improve or put in, let me know. Even with everything I've got in there now, I've still a considerable amount of ROM space left in the 32 KB. ^^

So, let the feedback phase begin!

To-do List: (Items in green are complete! ^-^)

- Implement bank-switching to work with playerscore minikernel (this is essential in order to add much else)
- Add ~~logo screen and~~ titlescreen
- Add 1P/2P mode menu
- Add 2P mode (what game shouldn't have this?)
- Add SFX
- Add alternating music tracks! THIS will be fun! 8D
- Suggestions

Let me know what you guys think.

Attached Files

game_catcher_betabuild_020312.bas.bin 32K 5 downloads

Problem with Player Scores minikernel

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 16:47:40 +0000

So I'm doing a pretty big project, and I'm using the playerscores minikernel to display some extra information at the bottom of the screen. However, I've got my game set to be a 16k rom, because this is one huge game. For some reason, the minikernel doesn't like that setup.

I did everything the instructions told me to do, which was to put the "inline" directive for the kernel at the end of my code in bank 4, separated from the rest of the code. In bank 1, that's where the entire game is stored as of now. I use functions that the minikernel gives me to add up the player score information. But when I play the game, every time the player scores used by the minikernel try to add up, the game flashes and restarts.

I was able to narrow the problem down to it being a bankswitching issue, but I can't see anything I did wrong in my code.

I also looked at the small demo file that comes with the minikernel, and modified it to be a 16k rom, which resulted in it doing the same thing: flashing and restarting. But when the romsize isn't set and bankswitching isn't used, it works fine.

Anyone know what's going on here?

Thanks. ^^

12-Color Tile/Character mode?

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 12:58:12 +0000

Hi Guys:

I wanted to start on a game with more colors in the background so I was thinking about 160B (12-color mode), but quickly realized that you cannot fill the screen with this mode... The bit setting in the control register is either one or two bytes for each character read, which would not be enough for a tile in 160B mode (you would need 4).

Am I correct in assuming that I have to use 160A for background/tile/character mode and can only use 160B for sprites? Or am I missing something?

Thanks for the help,
Bob