Hi Folks,

I've just finished a new game that you can pick up from here:
http://www.stardot.org.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5111

I'd like to say thanks for all the help I've got from you guys here - I've had real problems with memory and speed, and because of the speed problems I had to resort to doing a lot of things directly to the hardware which was even harder to program! I've found all the code examples and development diarys here really useful as well.

I that vein I'm adding my own development diary here:
http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/wiki/index.php/NyanSID

It's unfinished at this moment but I'll fill all the details in shortly.

- PJ

Haha, nice

(clocked it on my first go )

Hi,
this game looks great. It's so colourful and jolly! Looking forward to the finished game. Well impressed with the size of the cat sprite and the scrolling.

Enjoyed the dev diary too and also look forward to seeing more.

The SID version of the tune (at least on B-em as I don't have a real BeebSID) doesn't have the sound I associate with C64 music. Do you plan to change the timbre or are you happy with it as is?

Are you planning on releasing the envelope testing s/w .. I'd love to have a go at tinkering with generating BeebSID sounds myself!

jbnbeeb

Thanks for the response


Ha! ha! That's all you're getting!
I think one of the prime rules of making a game is knowing when to call it a day.


Yeah - I've really enjoyed all the other dev diarys here as well - I just finished mine earlier.


My thoughts exactly - I think I just scratched the surface with using the filters and envelopes. (It sounds better with the original 6581 chip by the way - you can select it in B-em) I'm just not sure how SID tunes sound like they do. I suspect rather than using the hardware ADSR envelopes sid tunes are blasting the volume and frequency registers with changes every frame - that way you would sort of be emulating sample replaying like MOD players. If anyone can explain to me how they do it I'd love to know so I can make better tunes.



No but I did release the BBC envelope program here:
http://www.stardot.org.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4802&hilit=+envelope
I've got lots of utility programs - it would just take too much of my spare time to polish them up into a state suitable for releasing. I think you can tell from my diary I'm a big fan of tools - anything to make iteration a little faster...

-PJ

Enjoyed reading your completed dev diary. Great read with great screenshots. I'm most impressed by your self made dev tools.

Also intrigued by your 80 byte collision table. How is that laid out? I was trying to work it out. The "fat" pixels = 2x2 pixels.. thus an effective "pixel resolution" of 80*128... hence the 80 bytes..?

Fair enough on the game being complete.. I just wonder if it could be tweaked to make it harder? i.e. it isn't tough to actually have the score wrap around. Please don't take this comment the wrong way.. your game is really good fun and puts a smile on my face !

The 80 byte table refers to the 80 'wide' pixels in the 'x' direction.

You could think about these as 'bins' so in theory you only need to check two and then do the proper collision code in the 'y' direction - so it's a lot faster.

If you did it in 2D you'd have to check 4 bins and have more bins.

Actually when I re-vamped the collision towards the end of the project I junked the whole bin idea and tested the cat against all eight stars every frame - the problem was the cat was a so large it spanned several bins anyway.

I agree about the difficulty (as well as the SID tune) - I was determined to finish it - I just had to draw a line in the sand and post it. I try to set myself targets - like complete it before the end of the month, and obviously I have more free time at the weekends so if it doesn't happen then it normally won't happen for another week. Originally I honestly figured it would take a couple of weeks - ha! ha! to that.

I've spent years making half finished projects so I've been pretty pleased over the last few years using this 'technique'.

As the Buddha would say:



(unless you're making a bicycle that is )

- PJ

Hah hah good screenshot ..yes I know what you mean re completion. I want to get my Snake game wrapped up soon.

Is that the actual end message of Way of the Exploding Fist? I loved that game as a kid.. was envious of my friend with is C64 for that. Played it to death on his machine before it was out on Beeb.. then got it for Beeb and did same. It was a great implementation, but not the same without the SID tunes and sound effects.

Tee Hee - that's a paint shop pro mockup!