11 replies to this topic

[Jess Ragan]

Boy, I really HAVE been gone for a while. What is this DPC+, and what can it do?

[SpiceWare]

http://www.atariage....pc-programming/

http://www.atariage....0-frantic-2600/

[Random Terrain]

One thing I'm happy about is that we'll get 10 multicolored single-height sprites. That's 10 sprites on a non-mirrored multicolored playfield. The single-height part means that we'll finally be able to have sprites that are as detailed as the sprites made by Imagic and Activision. Until DPC+, bB sprites had double-thick rows, so they weren't as pretty as the sprites that assembly language programmers could use.

• Support for 10 multicolored sprites (player0-player9)
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• Asymmetric multicolored playfield, any resolution.
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• Simultaneous single line background and foreground colors.
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• Playfield allows independent resolution control for each 8-pixel column.
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• Use of extra RAM in DPC+ (extra 256k can only be used for data).

Related Links:

www.atariage.com/forums/blog/134/entry-7832-batari-basic-11-beta-with-dpc-kernel/

www.atariage.com/forums/blog/134/entry-7932-bb-11-beta-build-release-b/

www.atariage.com/forums/topic/176401-next-version-of-bb/page__st__225__p__2336862#entry2336862

Edited by Random Terrain, Tue Aug 30, 2011 12:59 PM.

[disjaukifa]

In short, it's a major game changer for those of us how can't seem to wrap their heads around the assembly language, which includes me, and continue to use Batari Basic to make new and fun games in an easier to learn language.

[ScumSoft]

DPC+ is magic, that's all you'll ever need to know.

[Jess Ragan]

Is there a trick to installing this properly? Will this work with Visual Batari BASIC? I've tried running this with VBB, but it just creates junk BIN files.

[Random Terrain]

Jess Ragan, on Wed Aug 31, 2011 2:22 PM, said:

Is there a trick to installing this properly? Will this work with Visual batari BASIC? I've tried running this with VbB, but it just creates junk BIN files.

Hopefully jwierer will pop in later today and give you a link the the most up-to-date version of VbB.

[jwierer]

Jess Ragan, on Wed Aug 31, 2011 2:22 PM, said:

Is there a trick to installing this properly? Will this work with Visual Batari BASIC? I've tried running this with VBB, but it just creates junk BIN files.

Unless you're using one of the work in progress builds of vbB (here) you're not going to have the tools to create a playfield or sprite. That doesn't affect compilation though. Compiling into junk bins is probably either you don't have the lastest bB DPC+ compiler or you're using an older emulator that doesn't recognize DPC+. I am using Stella 3.4 which includes support. Prior to that I think you had to get a hacked up version off batari's blog.

-Jeff

[Jess Ragan]

This is a great start! Thanks! However, some files seem to be missing from the Visual BASIC Build 562 ZIP, including VisualBb.exe and ImgtoCode.exe. Any chance you could re-upload it?

[jwierer]

Jess Ragan, on Wed Aug 31, 2011 7:04 PM, said:

This is a great start! Thanks! However, some files seem to be missing from the Visual BASIC Build 562 ZIP, including VisualBb.exe and ImgtoCode.exe. Any chance you could re-upload it?

Just looked and they are in there already.

-Jeff

[Jess Ragan]

You sure about that? It tells me "Error: No Files Found" every time I try to extract either of those files. Some of the other files work, but those two do not.

EDIT: Hm, it might be my compression software. I opened it with another program and it seems to work fine that way. My bad!

Edited by Jess Ragan, Thu Sep 1, 2011 1:04 AM.

[theloon]

ScumSoft posted a template to work around current issues here:
http://www.atariage....ost__p__2353011