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SpiceWare

Member Since 19 Feb 2003
ONLINE Last Active Today, 9:45 AM

Topics I've Started

I've joined Club Coleco!

Mon Jan 30, 2012 2:13 PM

Never had a ColecoVision back in the day, though I did get to play one over at a friend's house. I also used to maintain the OS/2 port of ColEm(click to see animated GIF).
Attached File  colemslideshow.gif   65.03K   10 downloads

A couple weeks ago I saw the.golden.ax's system sale and decided to get one. After a USPS detour to Atlanta(!?!?), it finally arrived today! I also got the steering wheel, trackball and 7 additional cartridges from him. I stopped in the Houston Game Over last week for their Chip TuNesday event and picked up the 5 games they had that I wasn't already getting from TGA.
Attached File  ColecoVision.jpg   432.46K   14 downloads

Centipede
Cosmic Avenger
Donkey Kong
Frogger
Ken Uston Blackjack/Poker
Ladybug
Looping
Q*Bert
Slither
Smurf Rescue
Turbo
Venture
Victory


I was surprised at how good the picture is using RF.

Attached File  CV_Ladybug.jpg   80.51K   18 downloads

Attached File  CV_Looping.jpg   50.56K   16 downloads

though I'll probably want to mod it for better video out. Can I get S-Video and stereo like my 2600, or is composite and/or mono the most I can get out?

I also forgot about how annoying the startup delay was, I used to rag my friend about it back in the day :lolblue:

3 new iCade products!

Mon Jan 9, 2012 10:23 AM

iCade Core = iCade w/out the cabinet.

iCade Jr = iCade cabinet sized for iPhone/iPod Touch

iCade Moble = iCade for on the go (check the video - I love how it supports landscape and portrait)

http://www.macrumors...and-icade-core/

new iOS game pad

Fri Dec 30, 2011 6:43 PM

The 60beat® GamePad plugs into headphone jack, no batteries required. Only a couple games support it at the moment, I suspect that will change.


iMAME

Wed Dec 21, 2011 5:24 PM

Who knows how long this will be available
http://itunes.apple....d485639079?mt=8

Using iExplorer you can add other games to it.
http://www.macroplant.com/iexplorer/

more info here
http://www.macrumors...-store-for-now/

Attached File  iMAME Berzerk.jpg   144.69K   14 downloads

double or quad up a bit pattern?

Fri Sep 9, 2011 2:00 PM

I've been working on Frantic, an updated version of Berzerk/Frenzy, for the 2600. It's using the Harmony's ARM processor for the game logic and a slick display kernel that lets me multiplex the Atari's 2 players (sprites) quite effectively to draw all the objects on screen with minimal flicker.

I'm now in the process of planning out the Frenzy variation, which has special rooms* every so often. To show the special objects I'm planning to use a 2x or 4x player (I've already reviewed the kernel and while I don't have time to resize of Player 0, I do have time for Player 1).

Due to the flicker routines, I have to use software driven collision detection as 2 colliding objects might never be drawn on the same video frame. As such, I'll need to double up a 2x player's bit pattern so that the bits 76543210 become 7766554433221100. For example, if 1 line of the sprite looks like this:
_X__X_X_

I need to make it look like this:
__XX____XX__XX__

I can do this using a loop and shifting bits, but thought somebody might know a way to do it better.
int DoubleBits(unsigned char bits)
{
    int i;
    int mask;
    int result;
    
    mask = 0x80;
    result = 0;
    for(i=0;i<8;i++)
    {
        result = (result << 2) + ((bits & mask) ? 3 : 0);
        mask >>= 1;
    }
    return result;
}

To make that a QuadBits function I'd just change 1 line:
        result = (result << 4) + ((bits & mask) ? 15 : 0);
* This video shows 3 of them, though it's stretched widescreen for some reason:
3:15 Big Otto
5:17 Power Plant
8:01 Central Computer



It's missing the Robot Factory. This video shows the ColecoVision version of Frenzy:
1:18 Big Otto
2:00 Power Plant
3:18 Central Computer
4:01 Robot Factory

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