Fast scrolling game howto, anyone?

Want to talks about games you like, would like to see developed on the Oric, it's here.
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Symoon
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Re: Fast scrolling game howto, anyone?

Post by Symoon »

This almost looks like an Atari ST game.
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barnsey123
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Re: Fast scrolling game howto, anyone?

Post by barnsey123 »

Symoon wrote:This almost looks like an Atari ST game.
It's not THAT bad... :lol: (ex-Amiga owner...)
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Chema
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Re: Fast scrolling game howto, anyone?

Post by Chema »

Thanks guys. Just thought I should pop up here just to tell that I've been too busy lately to work much on this, but this does not mean the project is stopped.

I've been planning and doing some tests, mainly with the way to destroy the mother ship, and I am quite happy with the results.

I need to find some free time to work on in-game screens, title, texts between levels, scores... And other details such as missing sfx, so the next video shows some major advances...
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Re: Fast scrolling game howto, anyone?

Post by ibisum »

Just wanted to let you know, Chema, that I'm monitoring your progress very, very closely, because I simply can't wait to see this game on my Atmos some day. Just know you've got fans!
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barnsey123
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Re: Fast scrolling game howto, anyone?

Post by barnsey123 »

ibisum wrote:Just wanted to let you know, Chema, that I'm monitoring your progress very, very closely, because I simply can't wait to see this game on my Atmos some day. Just know you've got fans!
+1
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Chema
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Re: Fast scrolling game howto, anyone?

Post by Chema »

Three hours! Three hours which could have been spent in improving this game lost hunting a hideous and stupid bug. :evil:

Everything worked perfectly when running the program from tape, but I wanted to test it in my Oric, so I produced a dsk for my cumulus. Loaded it and found that the explosion sfx was not sounding correctly.

Tried on an emulator and the result was the same. I looked at the code that handless the access to the AY, read information about the microdisc, trying to find out what could be wrong.

Only to notice three hours later that, inside the code that handles the NOISE related commands, I was issuing an eor $ff, instead of an eor #$ff

And this is NOT the first time I make a similar mistake. As the first code loads the value from a zero page address, go and figure the result and what situation may change that content.

ARGH!
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Symoon
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Re: Fast scrolling game howto, anyone?

Post by Symoon »

Argh, sorry for you!
Remember O-Thrust having a different behaviour according to the emulator I used? It ended it used a value in page 0 which was not initialized.
Maybe that's a rule we should write in big golden letters: when the programs behaves differently on different machines, check all that could look like an access to page 0.
A easy way (though not 100% effective) to test it is with Euphoric, changing the RamPattern and see if the behaviour changes.
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Re: Fast scrolling game howto, anyone?

Post by Godzil »

I didn't read the last 3 pages until now, wow you project have greatly progressed!

I'm impressed by what an oric is able to do :)

You use the text mode with redefined character right?
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Re: Fast scrolling game howto, anyone?

Post by Chema »

@symoon yeah. I went through it before and yet I got trapped in the same mistake again. The ram pattern is a very good idea.
Godzil wrote:I didn't read the last 3 pages until now, wow you project have greatly progressed!

I'm impressed by what an oric is able to do :)

You use the text mode with redefined character right?
Thanks for the comment :)

The project is progressing very slowly, really. Much slower than I'd like it to, but I don't have much free time, and I also have to play a bit with my cumulus....

And yes, it is using text mode, with some mad tricks to have enough redefinable characters, masked sprites and avoid tearing and other nasty graphical glitches.

I think it is the only way to have it running that fast.
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barnsey123
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Re: Fast scrolling game howto, anyone?

Post by barnsey123 »

Chema...I feel your pain... :D
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Re: Fast scrolling game howto, anyone?

Post by Chema »

@ barnsey123 :lol:

Just wanted to let you know that I included a Redefine Keys screen to this, and it is fully working. This way nobody should complain about the key configuration begin difficult to use.

:)
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Chema
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Re: Fast scrolling game howto, anyone?

Post by Chema »

And also I just added the save code (or password). At the end of each level you are given a 16 letter password.

You can load the game at any time later and enter this code through the menu item and you will get to where you left the game. Score, level, energy... everything is as it was without the need of saving to cassette/disk

It seems to work nicely and it avoids random guessing and mangling quite well.

What am I doing focusing on these things, when there are so many game details yet to be done??? :?
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barnsey123
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Re: Fast scrolling game howto, anyone?

Post by barnsey123 »

16 letter password? Yikes...might that get a bit annoying?

To save frustration (you might get to the final level but write down the code wrong...a self-induced epic fail!) could you do something like save a file called "player name" or something that - when played from disk - just auto saves the last level? Maybe have the option of starting afresh or restarting any completed level etc
What am I doing focusing on these things, when there are so many game details yet to be done???
It ALL has to be done but once a feature pops into you head it's difficult to put the genie back in the bottle...do the stuff that you are thinking of at the time, the other stuff can wait. :wink:
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Chema
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Re: Fast scrolling game howto, anyone?

Post by Chema »

If there is ever to be a disk version, you will have full save/restore options, like in 1337, even auto save, of course.

But for now this is just a tape based game. A password is ok, I think. Even less annoying than saving/loading saved games to tapes...
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Re: Fast scrolling game howto, anyone?

Post by Godzil »

Be careful to foolproof your password system, especially add a CRC or something approaching, don't do the same as the Rock'n'Roll Racing game password system where you can crash the game with an incorrect password :D (cf: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_n%27 ... #Passwords )
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