+batari Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 I've decided to post the latest build of bB. It's (very) beta at this stage, but basic elements of a new kernel are in place. This new kernel takes advantage of the advanced hardware available with Harmony/Melody. http://www.atariage.com/forums/blog/134/entry-7832-batari-basic-11-beta-with-dpc-kernel/ 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Philsan Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 10 multicolor sprites+missiles+ball? Multicolored any resolution asymmetric playfields? That's not fair! Every bB game now needs to be enhanced! If I am not wrong this kernel works with melody boards sold by AtariAge, isn't it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abaudrand Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 AAARRRRRRGGGHHHH NEED TO REPROGRAM ALL MY GAME !!!! :_D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Random Terrain Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 Six sprites (one exclusive, five multiplexed, will be increased to 10) All sprites have twice the vertical resolution as other bB kernels All sprites can be multicolored Asymmetric playfield, any resolution Multicolored playfield Playfield allows independent resolution control for each 8-pixel column Both missiles and ball available and may be any height Each sprite allows its REFPx and NUSIZx set independently Automatic flickering Thanks. Now we won't have to move on to other programs like Multimedia Fusion 2 for PC and online games if we want to have more multicolored sprites and a higher resolution playfield. After we get those 10 multicolored sprites, the adventure game I've been wanting to make should look a heck of a lot better than it would have. And it looks like I'll finally be able to make a pinball game. I was wondering if some people wouldn't accept these games because they might think it's 'cheating' or unnatural, but people have been playing Atari 2600 games with more memory in them for more than 25 years. There should be no problem. I wonder if any bB users will ever go back to the old ways once they get addicted to this new stuff? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diogoandrei Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 Oh my, this is something! Multisprite, all colored, missiles, ball, independent REFPx and NUSIZx... sweet! I was wondering if some people wouldn't accept these games because they might think it's 'cheating' or unnatural, but people have been playing Atari 2600 games with more memory in them for more than 25 years. There should be no problem. I wonder if any bB users will ever go back to the old ways once they get addicted to this new stuff? If some may think this is or isn't cheating... well, maybe some do, who knows. I am pretty sure, though, that this will be a ball for those who already love bB! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevEng Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 Wow! This is a game changer... literally and figuratively! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrok Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 Wow, this is very cool! Thank you Fred! Is there a separate beta thread you want us to post bug reports to, or should we just use the regular pinned thread? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Gemintronic Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 (edited) Multi-colored playfield but still one color per row? Wasn't vertical resolution already big but horizontal width was only 8 pixels wide? The example doesn't use bank switching.. is that possible with this beta? We should get six 4K banks right? Are we stuck with a-z for variables with this beta or does superchip still work? What is this "dim rand1=$DA"? Is it a special DPC+ memory address for a random number generator? Edited January 31, 2011 by theloon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abaudrand Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 Beg your pardon, but is 32Ko still the maximum size available for making a game? I didn't install the beta version as I m afraid it will ruin my previous install of Bb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+batari Posted January 31, 2011 Author Share Posted January 31, 2011 If I am not wrong this kernel works with melody boards sold by AtariAge, isn't it? Yes, it works with Melody boards. Wow, this is very cool! Thank you Fred! Is there a separate beta thread you want us to post bug reports to, or should we just use the regular pinned thread? Let's not clog up the bug report thread, so post here. Multi-colored playfield but still one color per row? Wasn't vertical resolution already big but horizontal width was only 8 pixels wide? The example doesn't use bank switching.. is that possible with this beta? We should get six 4K banks right? Are we stuck with a-z for variables with this beta or does superchip still work? What is this "dim rand1=$DA"? Is it a special DPC+ memory address for a random number generator? DPC+ has a 32-bit random number generator by default and doesn't need the "dim rand1" anywhere. If that dim rand1 is still in there, it's because I forgot to take it out. For now, a-z. Later you will get access to more RAM, indirectly. Beg your pardon, but is 32Ko still the maximum size available for making a game? I didn't install the beta version as I m afraid it will ruin my previous install of Bb. Yeah, don't install over your existing bB yet. For now, you have about 26k of space. Later that limit will be removed when I add support for the onboard EEPROM chip in Harmony or one that can be added to Melody (which will add up to 256k.) Note, however, that this extra 256k can only be used for data. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abaudrand Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 Thanks for the quick reply, it will avoid me a blank night. I will slow down my programming to see if I can gradually go on this new promising version. Regards and great job (once again). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevEng Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 I took the sample and started working it into a game. It's amazing being able to use single-height players. I ran into a few issues, which I expect you're already aware of batari... It looks like player0colors has some glitching on some lines. I checked it on real hardware as well, with the same results. Its pretty obvious in the attached binary. The scanline counts are off. ...I'm very excited to see the DPC kernel in development! ghosttown.bas.bin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+batari Posted February 1, 2011 Author Share Posted February 1, 2011 (edited) The scanline problem will go away as the kernel setup gets translated into ARM code. As for the player 0 color, you had me nervous there, but it looks like it's simple. In DPCplus_kernel.asm: lda #<DF0DATA ;73 STX COLUP0 ; 0 The STX should be STA. Edited February 1, 2011 by batari Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevEng Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 Excellent - it's perfectly clean now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yuppicide Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 (edited) Am I allowed to curse here? OH MY FUCKIN GOD! I wonder how cycles and stuff works in this one? Maybe I can finally get my "Blocked In" game to not have scanline problem. Edited February 1, 2011 by yuppicide Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Random Terrain Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 Am I allowed to curse here? OH MY FUCKIN GOD! Nope, that's not allowed, but you can expose yourself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeaGtGruff Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 I installed 1.1 beta in a new directory to keep things clean, and ran into "sed not found" when I compiled. I copied sed.exe to the new directory from the previous version, but you might want to include sed.exe in the 1.1 zip. I'm looking forward to playing with this. Thank you! Michael Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Byte Knight Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 Wow, the mere thought of this is giving me a chubby! I haven't tried it out yet, so I have a couple of questions: Does it still have the horizontal scan lines on the playfield? Can we use the full horizontal resolution of the playfield or is it still limited? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yuppicide Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 I predict RT has a bunch of work ahead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevEng Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 Does it still have the horizontal scan lines on the playfield? Nope. Can we use the full horizontal resolution of the playfield or is it still limited? Presently its the usual 32 across. batari might surprise me here, but I'm expecting that's the way it will remain. There's just a heck of a lot going on here for a single line kernel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Philsan Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 I haven't undertood immediately than now players can have single line resolution. Not only games must be reprogrammed but also graphics must be redesigned. PAC-MAN-RED! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+batari Posted February 1, 2011 Author Share Posted February 1, 2011 Does it still have the horizontal scan lines on the playfield? Nope. Can we use the full horizontal resolution of the playfield or is it still limited? Presently its the usual 32 across. batari might surprise me here, but I'm expecting that's the way it will remain. There's just a heck of a lot going on here for a single line kernel. The first kernel I wrote was full width, but sprite repositioning was too simple and would require around 13 lines between sprites or they would flicker. This kernel only needs around 4 lines but there wasn't enough time for the full playfield. I figured you all would have more use for flicker-free sprites than a 40-wide playfield. I don't know if this kernel will have "kernel options" as mostly it doesn't need them, but if it ever does, the 40-wide playfield could be added as an option but you'd have to sacrifice the missiles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Random Terrain Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 After everything gets figured out and the dust settles, will the info about it go in its own section on the bB page or will it need a separate page? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevEng Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 Minor bug uncovered... the positioning routine seems to be off in 2 places near the right hand side of the screen. I've attached a modified version of the sample program where its easy to see this... the sample program increments each object's x position, and zeros it when x>152. sample.bas.bin sample.bas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeaGtGruff Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 After everything gets figured out and the dust settles, will the info about it go in its own section on the bB page or will it need a separate page? I would vote for updating the appropriate sections of the current page, rather than creating a separate page-- although you might want to keep a copy of the original current page for people who are still stubbornly using version 1.0! I work in the software industry, and believe me, trying to support multiple versions is a real hassle. You almost *have* to keep supporting the most recent previous version, at least during the period of time when some users are still on the older version. But at some point you have to bite the bullet and drop support of the previous version(s), otherwise you go insane. (I know-- I'm already there! Whee!) For example, no reasonable person should expect you to create separate versions of your bB reference page that are specific to versions 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.35, or 0.99, because (presumably) no one is still using them. On the other hand, it would be cool to have installation files and documentation for all those previous versions, strictly from an archaeological viewpoint. Michael Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.