114 replies to this topic

[Ksarul]

I like the second style better--it brings more of the game flair with it. . .

[ti99userclub]

Ksarul, on Sat Jun 18, 2011 3:35 PM, said:

I like the second style better--it brings more of the game flair with it. . .

thankyou for answer... well, i agree too... the second version of the manual is more egyptian , just i ask myself if will be good create all pages with this style or just someone of them.

[retroclouds]

Here's the lates video of my Tutankham project.

I'm currently going in a new direction. The idea is that my version will be a "prequel" to the existing Tutankham game as seen on colecovison and on the TI-99/4A.
Hey you never know, perhaps someday the original ROMS are released to the public domain after all.

The idea is to raise the bar with this one. I'm planning on animating the title screen, adding some cut scenes and including more and difficult levels.
Also the graphics will be completely redone (the new background graphics are in for the first level). The sprite (our hero) is still to be redone.

This could be my last game for the TI-99/4A, as it just takes too much development time. But you never know.
When will it be finished? Dunno, perhaps sometime in 2012, but might be later.

Well anyway, here's the video



EDIT: Don't you just love the power of TMS9900 assembly language

[OLD CS1]

retroclouds, on Sun Oct 9, 2011 1:10 PM, said:

Here's the lates video of my Tutankham project.

I'm currently going in a new direction. The idea is that my version will be a "prequel" to the existing Tutankham game as seen on colecovison and on the TI-99/4A.
Hey you never know, perhaps someday the original ROMS are released to the public domain after all.

The idea is to raise the bar with this one. I'm planning on animating the title screen, adding some cut scenes and including more and difficult levels.
Also the graphics will be completely redone (the new background graphics are in for the first level). The sprite (our hero) is still to be redone.

This could be my last game for the TI-99/4A, as it just takes too much development time. But you never know.
When will it be finished? Dunno, perhaps sometime in 2012, but might be later.

I will certainly be obtaining a cartridge copy when it is ready. It looks less like a TI-99 game and more like a Commodore 64 game. (I dream of "Trolls and Tribulations.") It is too bad we did not have very many talented programmers around back then.

[sometimes99er]

Looking good. And I like the direction you're taking it. Am I right in assuming that it looks more like the arcade version now ?

OLD CS1, on Sun Oct 9, 2011 3:28 PM, said:

It is too bad we did not have very many talented programmers around back then.

I think a lot of programmers moved to cheaper, easier and more accessible systems. Generally Basic had its speed limitations. As a TI programmer you would realize you could not release a machine code program on cassette without requiring the buyer to have at least Mini Memory (not common) or more (also not common).

[retroclouds]

sometimes99er, on Mon Oct 10, 2011 12:39 AM, said:

Looking good. And I like the direction you're taking it. Am I right in assuming that it looks more like the arcade version now ?

OLD CS1, on Sun Oct 9, 2011 3:28 PM, said:

It is too bad we did not have very many talented programmers around back then.

I think a lot of programmers moved to cheaper, easier and more accessible systems. Generally Basic had its speed limitations. As a TI programmer you would realize you could not release a machine code program on cassette without requiring the buyer to have at least Mini Memory (not common) or more (also not common).

Yes, it will resemble the arcade version more than the colecovision version. Doing multicoloured sprites is kinda difficult without running into a flicker fest.
I'm considering setting up 1 colour as a background tile. That would allow 3 colours for the hero and 2 colours for the enemies (snakes, dragons, etc).
The flickering should then be as in the colecovision version (which has 2 colours for the hero and 1 colour for the enemies)
Implementing something like that will take a considerable amount of time and I have to be sure that I don't run in a dead end there.

I do think its doable without causing a high CPU load. In Time Pilot I had part of the rotating plane and the bullets implemented as soft sprites.

[rocky007]

retroclouds, on Sun Oct 9, 2011 1:10 PM, said:

This could be my last game for the TI-99/4A, as it just takes too much development time. But you never know.
When will it be finished? Dunno, perhaps sometime in 2012, but might be later.

it's the second worst news this month after Steve Job

[Vorticon]

rocky007, on Mon Oct 10, 2011 11:20 AM, said:

retroclouds, on Sun Oct 9, 2011 1:10 PM, said:

This could be my last game for the TI-99/4A, as it just takes too much development time. But you never know.
When will it be finished? Dunno, perhaps sometime in 2012, but might be later.

it's the second worst news this month after Steve Job

I concur, although the sad reality is that most of us have day jobs and other interests that make the creation of new games, especially in assembly, quite laborious. My Ultimate Planet game is still dragging on, mostly because it is competing with my many other hobbies, so I have given up on a "delivery date" and will just work at it whenever I can. I'm sure many other TIers out there share the same dilemma...

[OLD CS1]

Vorticon, on Mon Oct 10, 2011 1:03 PM, said:

rocky007, on Mon Oct 10, 2011 11:20 AM, said:

retroclouds, on Sun Oct 9, 2011 1:10 PM, said:

This could be my last game for the TI-99/4A, as it just takes too much development time. But you never know.
When will it be finished? Dunno, perhaps sometime in 2012, but might be later.

it's the second worst news this month after Steve Job

I concur, although the sad reality is that most of us have day jobs and other interests that make the creation of new games, especially in assembly, quite laborious. My Ultimate Planet game is still dragging on, mostly because it is competing with my many other hobbies, so I have given up on a "delivery date" and will just work at it whenever I can. I'm sure many other TIers out there share the same dilemma...

Though, in all honestly and not at all meant to start a flame war, I lament more the passing of Dennis Ritchie than that of Steve Jobs.

[OLD CS1]

I just noticed on the manual pages the selection for having a speech synthesizer. I recall there is a location you can query which contains a value if the synthesizer is attached. From XB, -31905 or -39105 seem to ring a bell, though that may have been to enable/disable QUIT. Anyone know for certain?

[retroclouds]

OLD CS1, on Sun Oct 16, 2011 8:10 PM, said:

I just noticed on the manual pages the selection for having a speech synthesizer. I recall there is a location you can query which contains a value if the synthesizer is attached. From XB, -31905 or -39105 seem to ring a bell, though that may have been to enable/disable QUIT. Anyone know for certain?

Tutankham is using the spectra² and the speech synth is automatically detected. The manual is not made by me.
A while ago I requested the creator to stop working on the manual. Most likely I'll be writing one myself, once the game is finished.

Edited by retroclouds, Mon Oct 17, 2011 4:26 AM.

[atari2atari]

retroclouds, on Sun Oct 9, 2011 1:10 PM, said:

Here's the lates video of my Tutankham project.

I'm currently going in a new direction. The idea is that my version will be a "prequel" to the existing Tutankham game as seen on colecovison and on the TI-99/4A.
Hey you never know, perhaps someday the original ROMS are released to the public domain after all.

The idea is to raise the bar with this one. I'm planning on animating the title screen, adding some cut scenes and including more and difficult levels.
Also the graphics will be completely redone (the new background graphics are in for the first level). The sprite (our hero) is still to be redone.

This could be my last game for the TI-99/4A, as it just takes too much development time. But you never know.
When will it be finished? Dunno, perhaps sometime in 2012, but might be later.

So much excellence . . . !

Sign me up for a cart and manual when this is released! As someone else pointed out in another thread, this really does feel like an age of "Golden Revival" for the TI-99!

-a2a

[Willsy]

Okay, this kicks so much ass it's just not funny!

[retroclouds]

I'm currently doing some changes to the VDP layout. Below is what I'm thinking of implementing.

Reason for the change in layout is to get more continious space, also for sound data. I'm going for the "ISR" style basic soundplayer.
So I'll need some space for the sound data (which I still not really have in this layout.)

The idea is to reduce the bankswitching to a minimum. If a tune needs to be played, I'll probably jump to another bank.
Copy the sound data into the VDP and return to the calling bank. Then the tune can be played from VDP memory.
You'll notice I have 2 PNT tables. I wanna have that for doing scrolling without frame-tearing.
I'll basically be copying data from VSCREEN to one of the 2 PNTS in an alternating fashion.
In other words, I'm showing the 1st PNT while copying to the 2nd PNT.
Once donce copying I switch VDP register 2 to the 2nd PNT, and so on.

Currently the game runs from bank2 and I don't wanna waste any space there with any kind of data, be it sound data or graphics data.

; VDP usage
; =========
;
;
; PNT (VDP register 2)
; ---------------------
; Register 2 tells the VDP where the starting address of the Name Table is located in VRAM. The
; range of its contents is from O-F. The contents of the register form the upper four bits of
; the 14-bit VDP address, therefore making the location of the Name Table in VRAM equal to
; (Register 2) * 400 (Hex)
;
;
; CT (VDP register 3)
; -------------------
; Register 3 tells the VDP where the starting address of the Color Table is located in VRAM. The
; range of its contents is from O-FF. The contents of the register form the upper eight bits of
; the 14-bit VDP address, therefore making the. location of the Color Table in VRAM equal to
; (Register 3) * 40 (Hex) <--- Applies to graphics mode 1 only
;
;
; PDT (VDP register 4)
; --------------------
; Register 4 tells the VDP where the starting address of the Pattern Table is located in VRAM.
; The range of its contents is from 0-7. The contents of the register form the upper three bits of
; the 14 bit VDP address, therefore making the location of the Pattern Table in VRAM equal to
; (Register 4) * 800 (Hex).
;
;
; SAT (VDP register 5)
; --------------------
; Register 5 tells the VDP where the starting address of the Sprite Attribute Table is located in
; VRAM. The range of its contents is from 0-7F. The contents of the register form the upper
; seven bits of the 14 bit VDP address, therefore making the location of the Sprite Attribute
; Table in VRAM equal to (Register 5) * 80 (Hex).
; 
; 
; SDT (VDP register 6)
; --------------------
; Register 6 tells the VDP where the starting address of the Sprite Pattern Table is located in
; VRAM. The range of its contents is from 0-7. The contents of the register form the upper
; three bits of the 14 bit VDP address, therefore making the location of the Sprite Pattern Table
; in VRAM equal to (Register 6) * 800 (Hex).
;
;
; VRAM usage in Tutankham
; =======================
; 
; Usage   Memory           Description                 Size          Remarks
; =====   ==============   ======================      ==========    ============================
; SDT     >0000 - >079F    Sprite Pattern Table        2048 bytes    -
; PNT     >0800 - >0AFF    1st screen PNT (32*24)       768 bytes    Active when FLAG2{WBIT3} = 0
; SAT     >0B00 - >0B7F    Sprite Attribute table       128 bytes    -
; FREE    >0B80 - >0BFF    ***RESERVED***               128 bytes    In case we need a second SAT
; PNT     >0C00 - >0EFF    2nd screen PNT (32*24)       768 bytes    Active when FLAG2{WBIT3} = 1
; CT      >0F00 - >0F19    Screen color table            32 bytes    -
; FREE    >0F20 - >0FFF    ***FREE***                   196 bytes    Free for future use
; PDT     >1000 - >27FF    Pattern descriptor table    6144 bytes    The screen pattern descriptor table
; FREE    >2800 - >29FF    ***RESERVED***               512 bytes    This is where our sound data will go
; VSCREEN >3000 - >3FFF    Magellan screen map         4096 bytes    The curent level as exported by Magellan

[kl99]

Hi retroclouds,
love your new youtube video. looks really really nice.
Wish you best "elan" for the upcoming programming nights.
Klaus