104 replies to this topic

[GroovyBee]

After being inspired by PeteD's efforts in converting BBC micro (the Beeb to us Brits) games to the A8 I decided to have a go myself. To be honest, I thought it wouldn't be my thing but I had a go anyway .

Instead of the A8 range I opted for the good ole 7800 (obviously! ) with a fraction of the RAM and no bitmap display to play with (I like a challenge).

Out of all the Beeb games to convert I chose Tempest as the first one. The original BBC Micro version developed by Superior Software in 1985 was officially sanctioned by Atari so in my mind it was a natural choice. I like to think that Tempest is just coming home .

It was a very interesting exercise in x-porting/adapting from one machine to another. The original game code is pretty much intact. A few things to note :-

1) Its a wire frame game. So that's a big to all the nay-sayers that said the old girl couldn't do it .
2) Its full screen in 8 colours.
3) The drawing routines aren't the best but will do as a first attempt.
4) There are a few bugs e.g. random lines drawn, random deaths (parts of the core game are still not working), wrong colours the first time through, maybe others I haven't found.
5) It doesn't work in the ProSystem 1.3e emulator. However it does play on my PAL 7800. I haven't tried it on my NTSC machine. (Fixed in version 1.03 and later.)
6) The display needs moving around because the Beeb is 256 vertical lines and I've only got 192 to play with.

ProSystem emulator screenshots (from version 1.03 of the game) :-



CC2 owners will need the following information :-

78SC_R16 78BIOS

Anyways... Enough teasing, so here's the game :-

 beebx.a78   128.13K   179 downloads
 beebx.bin   128K   122 downloads

And the screenshots from my portable TV :-



Enjoy!

EDIT: To update the text and screenshots.
EDIT: To add ProSystem emulator configuration link.
EDIT: To add ProSystem emulator screenshots and text updates.

[nonner242]

It sorta runs on my PS emu...
I love it anyways

[King_Salamon]

So this is the project you were talking about... interesting! Glad to see a wire frame game get attempted on the 7800.

And it's good to know that it works (albeit with issues) on the stock system and not the other way around. I'll keep an eye out to see the soon to be posted screen shots!!

[GroovyBee]

King_Salamon, on Sun Mar 14, 2010 8:20 PM, said:

So this is the project you were talking about... interesting! Glad to see a wire frame game get attempted on the 7800.

Yep! Its been a busy 7800 filled week . Just to clarify, its not my game but an existing game that used to run on the BBC Micro that has been adapted to run on the 7800.

Quote

And it's good to know that it works (albeit with issues) on the stock system and not the other way around.

It does work in the emulator its just that for some reason there aren't any baddies .

[Corby]

[Allan]

Wow. It looks great so far. It draws crazy random diagonal lines sometimes on the real hardware. I can't wait to see this finished.

Allan

[King_Salamon]

GroovyBee, on Sun Mar 14, 2010 8:26 PM, said:

King_Salamon, on Sun Mar 14, 2010 8:20 PM, said:

So this is the project you were talking about... interesting! Glad to see a wire frame game get attempted on the 7800.

Yep! Its been a busy 7800 filled week . Just to clarify, its not my game but an existing game that used to run on the BBC Micro that has been adapted to run on the 7800.

Quote

And it's good to know that it works (albeit with issues) on the stock system and not the other way around.

It does work in the emulator its just that for some reason there aren't any baddies .

I can dream of Star Wars Arcade (if it was ever released for the Beeb) or perhaps the more notable title - Elite. Regardless, this is sounding rather promising! Keep up the good work!

[GroovyBee]

Allan, on Sun Mar 14, 2010 8:53 PM, said:

Wow. It looks great so far. It draws crazy random diagonal lines sometimes on the real hardware. I can't wait to see this finished.

Thanks for the compliment and for testing on NTSC hardware too . I also get random lines on my PAL system. Hopefully it'll be an easy bug to fix.

[TrekMD]

Worked fine with ProSystem. Looks good...can't wait to see more!

[the.golden.ax]

Groovy!

[sh3-rg]

Bee!

Can't wait to get home from work & find out what it is

[GroovyBee]

King_Salamon, on Sun Mar 14, 2010 8:55 PM, said:

I can dream of Star Wars Arcade (if it was ever released for the Beeb)

Star Wars was done for the Beeb. Its a monochrome game. I'll have to see what resolution it works at because the Beeb could do a 640 pixel wide mode. There's no chance of the 7800 doing that mode unfortunately.

Quote

or perhaps the more notable title - Elite.

A port was started for the A8s last year by Wrathchild.

Quote

Regardless, this is sounding rather promising! Keep up the good work!

Hopefully it'll be the first game in a series of cross ports .

[GroovyBee]

TrekMD, on Sun Mar 14, 2010 9:31 PM, said:

Worked fine with ProSystem. Looks good...can't wait to see more!

I can't see the baddies in my version . What version are you using?

[GroovyBee]

Updated the first post with more text and images.

[accousticguitar]

Is this a joystick game? I just can't bring myself to play Tempest with a joystick.

[GroovyBee]

accousticguitar, on Mon Mar 15, 2010 12:16 PM, said:

Is this a joystick game? I just can't bring myself to play Tempest with a joystick.

This used to be a BBC micro only game up until a week ago. You had the choice of keyboard or analogue joysticks back in the day.

[Allan]

I just have to say that this is going to be an amazing game. A big thank you for taking this on. Very cool.

Allan

[TrekMD]

Maybe this game can have driving controller support? That will make it even more fun to play!

[Corby]

You've got my money!!!

[unhuman]

April fools is only 2 weeks away....

[GroovyBee]

unhuman, on Mon Mar 15, 2010 1:04 PM, said:

April fools is only 2 weeks away....

Anybody with a CC2 want to comment on that?

[Cebus Capucinis]

Monkey dollars are guaranteed to head your way!!!

[GroovyBee]

Allan, on Mon Mar 15, 2010 12:30 PM, said:

I just have to say that this is going to be an amazing game. A big thank you for taking this on. Very cool.

Thanks for the compliment. Its supposed to be a good home conversion. I'm hoping that the bugs left will be easy to fix.

TrekMD, on Mon Mar 15, 2010 12:36 PM, said:

Maybe this game can have driving controller support? That will make it even more fun to play!

Unfortunately I don't have a driving controller to test it on. There are quite a few other things that need looking at before the control methods.

[TrekMD]

GroovyBee, on Mon Mar 15, 2010 2:44 PM, said:

Unfortunately I don't have a driving controller to test it on. There are quite a few other things that need looking at before the control methods.

If you think it is doable and you are willing to test it out, I am willing to lend you one of my driving controllers.

[GroovyBee]

TrekMD, on Mon Mar 15, 2010 3:45 PM, said:

If you think it is doable and you are willing to test it out, I am willing to lend you one of my driving controllers.

Its probably easier to buy one in the UK than have you send one over. Thanks for the offer though.