88 replies to this topic

[pboland]

Space Harrier happens to be my favorite game. I have the game for my SMS (which use to be my favorite 8-bit port of this game). When I saw that video of SH for the atari, my jaw hit the floor. I think you got the play mechanics down better than the SMS version. I also think the graphics are perfect considering you did it on an atari computer! I would love to buy a cartridge for my XEGS of this game. I can wait to see if this game inspires more atari 8-bit programmers to make more new games! Fantastic!

(I just wish I knew how to program )

[emkay]

pboland, on Sat Mar 22, 2008 10:09 PM, said:

Space Harrier happens to be my favorite game. I have the game for my SMS (which use to be my favorite 8-bit port of this game). When I saw that video of SH for the atari, my jaw hit the floor. I think you got the play mechanics down better than the SMS version. I also think the graphics are perfect considering you did it on an atari computer! I would love to buy a cartridge for my XEGS of this game. I can wait to see if this game inspires more atari 8-bit programmers to make more new games! Fantastic!

(I just wish I knew how to program )

Yes... after all the "full scene action" with big free zooming objects and crystal clear digi sound, the game is the "real" Space Harrier when it comes to the game mechanics...> it plays same. The Game is an unbelievable production.
Well, I know some other 8 bit versions that play horrrrible and they are even worse in graphics...

Edited by emkay, Sat Mar 22, 2008 6:51 PM.

[Heaven/TQA]

Sheddy, on your first Demo of Space Harrier, where can I found the sample data to mess around? I mean the ATR of your 2002 demo...

[Heaven/TQA]

i think $5caa is the place to look for... I guess in the early demo you haven't used timers? but you have your own IRQ running as at $33xx you run your own routines which writes values to $d205 as well and reads vars from the sample player at $5caa...

hmm... so still not get it 100% why i would need 2 routines synced? i mean i can play back samples in a simple loop as well?

Edited by Heaven/TQA, Sun Mar 23, 2008 2:54 AM.

[Sheddy]

CharlieChaplin, on Sat Mar 22, 2008 8:27 PM, said:

Hmm,
does Atari 800 emulate the Max-flash cart scheme right now ?!? Or is the game working -as is- on the emulator ?!? I am asking, because a) I never used this emulator and b) I don`t think that thousands of Atarians will buy a Maxflash cart to play SH. And it would be very sad if all your impressive work could be enjoyed only by "a few" Maxflash cart owners...

And err, does SH require the full 8Mbit (a full one megabyte) of the Maxflash cart ?!? If not, maybe Fandal could do a nice 320k file version, like he already did with many XEGS carts... Otherwise said: It`s great to see such a wonderful game for the A8 - but it would be very sad if only very few Atarians could really play it in the end... -Andreas Koch.

Atari800 based emulators have supported MaxFlash for a couple of years now Not the flashing of the cartridge yet, but only a few things take advantage of that.

I don't intend to sell anything (for various reasons), and anything other than a cart would need too much RAM, so MaxFlash seemed the best bet, as people can put it on a MaxFlash if they want to and use it on a normal XL/XE machine

My current estimate is that it will use at least 3/4 of the 8Mbit!

Edited by Sheddy, Sun Mar 23, 2008 4:03 AM.

[Sheddy]

Heaven/TQA, on Sun Mar 23, 2008 8:09 AM, said:

i think $5caa is the place to look for... I guess in the early demo you haven't used timers? but you have your own IRQ running as at $33xx you run your own routines which writes values to $d205 as well and reads vars from the sample player at $5caa...

hmm... so still not get it 100% why i would need 2 routines synced? i mean i can play back samples in a simple loop as well?

I wouldn't look at the early demo code, because as you rightly say, there are no timers used. the samples in there are good for ripping of course, but the code is messy and limited to drawing PM graphics and sample playing in a loop. It can't do anything else at the same time which is why I moved on to IRQ's.

try the example code which sets up an IRQ first! just think of them as DLI's and you won't go far wrong - except you must reset the timer to stop it being called again as soon as you return, and also set it again to run more than once.

Edited by Sheddy, Sun Mar 23, 2008 5:25 AM.

[Heaven/TQA]

ok. then it is simply setting a pokey timer to 4khz which plays back each time when called the 4bit sample...

but again my question...why should i do that with pokey timers... f.e. in space harrier you could simply do a loop playing back the sample when dying? as the main code still gets interrupted by the onscreen dlis and the vbl... or does the sound get distorted?

Sheddy, on Sun Mar 23, 2008 9:41 AM, said:

Heaven/TQA, on Sun Mar 23, 2008 8:09 AM, said:

i think $5caa is the place to look for... I guess in the early demo you haven't used timers? but you have your own IRQ running as at $33xx you run your own routines which writes values to $d205 as well and reads vars from the sample player at $5caa...

hmm... so still not get it 100% why i would need 2 routines synced? i mean i can play back samples in a simple loop as well?

I wouldn't look at the early demo code, because as you rightly say, there are no timers used. the samples in there are good for ripping of course, but the code is messy and limited to drawing PM graphics and sample playing in a loop. It can't do anything else at the same time which is why I moved on to IRQ's.

try the example code which sets up an IRQ first! just think of them as DLI's and you won't go far wrong - except you must reset the timer to stop it being called again as soon as you return, and also set it again to run more than once.

[Rybags]

The problem with playing in a standard loop is that the onscreen movement would stop.

Retaining movement, e.g. doing it all in VBI, would then mean that a sound loop would only get executed for a portion of the display.

Doing it in DLIs, or using timers, gives you assurance that the samples are played in a timely fashion, while still allowing on-screen action to continue.

Think of it as a kind of pre-emptive multitasking.

[Heaven/TQA]

but in SH the motion stops? or at least in the 2002 demo?

[Rybags]

But not in the one in the YouTube link.

That's why I was full of praise earlier on - virtually nothing on 8-bit computers that plays digitized voices etc does so without everything else grinding to a halt.

[Tezz]

Rybags, on Sun Mar 23, 2008 1:31 PM, said:

... virtually nothing on 8-bit computers that plays digitized voices etc does so without everything else grinding to a halt.

Yes I don't remember anything before achieving that either, it's really brilliantly executed.

[_The Doctor__]

http://sheddyshack.co.uk/

We are all loosing our minds with this one, it is so great and so seemingly near completion. On knees pleading Sheddy please Please PLEASE...... please?

I have loved playing the individual levels and demo! This is better than most released games!

Space Harrier on the XE rules

Edited by _The Doctor__, Fri Feb 20, 2009 8:01 PM.

[emkay]

_The Doctor__, on Sat Feb 21, 2009 3:00 AM, said:

http://sheddyshack.co.uk/

We are all loosing our minds with this one, it is so great and so seemingly near completion. On knees pleading Sheddy please Please PLEASE...... please?

I have loved playing the individual levels and demo! This is better than most released games!

Space Harrier on the XE rules

Sure. It does.


It shows where the A8 can go by using the faster CPU and ANTIC's features in a direction leading way. The game doesn't even significantly drop its framerate when the clear notizeable samples beeing played.
I wonder if it is possible to exchange the gen "E" and "C" basses with some digitized ones during gameplay...
The music would fit to the rest of the game then.

[Rybags]

If you had one channel that you just permanently reserved for digi-fx - the most efficient way might just be to have constantly running Timer or DLIs to play it.

A short service routine could be used - and just point it to null data when it's sound isn't wanted.

[carmel_andrews]

Perhaps xxl, who seems to have carved himself out a niche as being a whizzo at Sinclair speccy port overs, could port over either the speccy or amstrad version of turrican to the a8

I did see the yootoob vid it looks o k ish, just the scrolling seemed to be off, as well as the static sprites

[Sheddy]

_The Doctor__, on Sat Feb 21, 2009 2:00 AM, said:

http://sheddyshack.co.uk/

We are all loosing our minds with this one, it is so great and so seemingly near completion. On knees pleading Sheddy please Please PLEASE...... please?

I have loved playing the individual levels and demo! This is better than most released games!

Space Harrier on the XE rules

Thanks! if it's any consolation, I'm losing my mind too about getting this done with.

This is a weird coincidence - I post an update on my site after almost a year, and this thread gets resurrected just a few hours before that.

The graphics and patterns take a while to do, but I'm doing my best to get things finished. Things should progress better soon as the graphics and patterns get reused a lot throughout the game.

Edited by Sheddy, Sat Feb 21, 2009 6:22 PM.

[Tezz]

Sheddy, on Sun Feb 22, 2009 12:10 AM, said:

This is a weird coincidence - I post an update on my site after almost a year, and this thread gets resurrected just a few hours before that.

The graphics and patterns take a while to do, but I'm doing my best to get things finished. Things should progress better soon as the graphics and patterns get reused a lot throughout the game.

I've just been checking out the updates. It's great news to see it coming together. Love the title screen conversion and the high score table. It's such an outstanding piece of work. The dedication and time spent shows in everything that's been achieved. Fantastic.

Edited by Tezz, Sat Feb 21, 2009 10:27 PM.

[Heaven/TQA]

Sheddy...

stage 6,7 ROCK!!! don't loose the faith and your pation... and don't get attacked by other people...they can be so demanding...

let see who is faster in finishing... me with Beyond Evil or you...

[ThomSW]

carmel_andrews, on Sat Feb 21, 2009 9:48 PM, said:

Perhaps xxl, who seems to have...<blah blah blah>

Perhaps you, mr. do'little (or rather do'nothing).

Just talking here doesn't seem to change the situation above...

[miker]

@Thom: carmel isn't here to do anything (just FYI).

@Sheddy: Great news. Is it known the date (at least rough one) of finishing the game?

[carmel_andrews]

ThomSw/Miker...please tell me, since when were you(s) made a mod here, are you saying i am not allowed express an opinion on things

Perhaps in future if i want to compliment a partuclar coder/programmer on the a8, i best keep that opinion to myself so as to not upsetting you(s) in anyway

[Allan]

When I watch this I can't believe this is being done on the Atari 8-bit. Amazing.

Allan

[Sheddy]

Heaven/TQA, on Sun Feb 22, 2009 8:26 AM, said:

Sheddy...

stage 6,7 ROCK!!! don't loose the faith and your pation... and don't get attacked by other people...they can be so demanding...

let see who is faster in finishing... me with Beyond Evil or you...

I like what you're doing with Beyond Evil But I think a race to finish first will not be so interesting - No tortoise and hare, but tortoise and tortoise

@Miker, I haven't clear finish date, but I want to finally finish it this year

[ThomSW]

carmel_andrews, on Sun Feb 22, 2009 8:06 PM, said:

...please tell me, since when were you(s) made a mod here, are you saying i am not allowed express an opinion on things
Perhaps in future if i want to compliment a partuclar coder/programmer on the a8, i best keep that opinion to myself so as to not upsetting you(s) in anyway

oh c'mon... Upsetting? hehe, LOL.

Just be more productive in other way except just talking. Is it THAT hard?

[miker]

OK, ThomSW, be good and go shut your mouth...

@Sheddy: Just watched both arcade and your versions of SH, and i must say that it's storming!

Can't wait to see final version. Also thanks to kjmann for recreating ingame soundtrack!