Omegamatrix

A few years ago I wrote a 7 byte score display for a game I was working on. Time went by and the game got forgotten, but recent thoughts on using TIM1T as a storage container reminded me of where I first used the trick. I decided to strip score display out of my game and make it available to everyone.


The motivation behind the display is that I always wanted to have a score go from 0 to 9,999,999 on the Atari. I wanted to have no flicker in the score, any background color, and regular sized digits. This routine accomplishes all these things, and has a small library of different fonts you can choose from for the digits. You can also custom build your own fonts and add them to the library with an included excel sheet.


The program uses a lot of rom because it doesn't loop... It could easily be made to loop with DPC+, but I don't have the time to take that on. Looping would cause some incompatibilities with a couple of the fonts in the library (two for digit 2, and one for digit 7). Still DPC+ would be good for handling this routine.


Please feel free to use code in any shape or form, modify it, make it better, and so forth. I hope you enjoy my little demo!

Cheers,
Jeff



 SevenFullSizedDigits.png   4.04K   20 downloads

 SevenFullSizedDigits.zip   41.86K   13 downloads

I wrote a test program for RSYNC after reading about how the aliens and human in Extra Terrestrials was being positioned wrong in the Stella Emulator. More on Extra Terrestrials here:

http://www.atariage....e/#entry2513742


There is a PAL rom and a NTSC rom. These need to be tested on real hardware to determine how Stella should handle RSYNC. There are instructions on how to use the rom and what it does in the assembly file. My own trial was on late model Jr, and I know the TIA is not good at positioning things on it. It screws up the score in Thunderground for example. Anyhow here are instructions directly from the assembly file, an a screen shot to hopefully generate interest and get people to try it out!

 Test Rsync.png   7.32K   9 downloads

 Test Rsync.zip   10.26K   12 downloads


;---------------------------------------
; HOW TO PLAY THIS PROGRAM
;---------------------------------------

The top green bar is an object that is positioned after a write to RSYNC. The bottom bar
is the same object, but positioned mid kernel after a write to WSYNC. The idea is to visually
compare the two to see how the Atari is handling RSYNC.

When the Atari is powered on this program starts in an automated mode going through every single
machine cycle combination of RSYNC and RESxx. In automated mode pressing the joytick up will
slow the speed at which the combinations are updated. Press the joystick down to speed it up again.

If the fire button is pressed manual mode is entered. In manual mode use the joystick to move back
and forth between the RSYNC and RESxx cycle numbers. Pressing up or down will adjust the cycle as desired.
Changes are instantly reflected on the screen. Press the firebutton again to return to automated mode.

In either automated or manual mode, use the select switch to change the objects on screen between
P0, P1, M0, M1, and the Ball.

Finally, "Reset" resets the program (no surpises there ha ha!)

Am I blind? Where did it go?

In my game I just needed to enable/disable a missile, and position an object with a cycle 73 or cycle 74 hmove all in 1 scanline. Playing around with how to do this I came up with some fairly economical code. I then made the demo posted below showing the yellow object positioned by a cycle 74 hmove, and the green object positioned by a traditional hmove.

If you are wondering cycle 73 or 74 hmoves hide the black "comb" lines on in an Atari game. The consequence of using cycle 73 or 74 hmoves is that you can only fine position the object leftward.


 hmove74.zip   3.02K   34 downloads