There's so many variations of each station (pods intact/destroyed, various state of center) that it's not practical to have each version in ROM. Instead, an intact image is in ROM for each orientation. Once per frame a RAM copy of the image would be made for each station, then it would be manipulated to remove destroyed pods and update the center. The RAM images are used for collision detection as well as display purposes.
While reviewing the code I realized that the open/close logic for the
Shrank the menu font from 8 rows to 7:
In order to make space for a new option:
Applied 72 bytes of optimizations from Chris
Revised Idle Time Condition Red, 15 seconds was too brief for Hard * 80 seconds Kids * 60 seconds Easy * 40 seconds Normal * 20 seconds Hard
While help from Chris, we freed up about 3 scanlines worth of 6507 time to give over to the ARM code
New continue feature isn't fully implemented. While it works, things like the Timers used for Formations, Spy Ships, e
Done
Keeping track of 16 High Scores for the 16 QUADRANT & LEVEL combinations (only for games staring at SECTOR 1)
Additional optimizations from Chris saved 172 bytes
Spy Ship changed to appear after a set number of formations have launched. * 3 formations for sectors 1 & 2 * 2 formations for sectors 3 & 4 * 1 formation for sectors 5 & 6 * 0 formations for sectors 7+
Condition Red triggered if player is avoiding the stations. * 60 seconds kids * 45 seconds easy * 30 seco
A little over 8 years ago I'd picked up an Acer Aspire One netbook to replace an old Thinkpad T22. I set it up with Ubuntu and it worked quite well, though the battery had worn out over the years and needed to be plugged in all the time. At the start of September I'd moved it, then gently tossed the barrel plug of the power adaptor towards the back of the open Netbook. The cord hit just wrong, wrapped around from behind, and pinged the front of the screen: So I checked the deals at Frys a
Done:
Bonus Lives at 20,000 then every 70,000
Jingle added to AtariAge Splash Screen
Disabled collision routines if player is dead as Nathan twice saw the mysterious destruction of station during player's death sequence
Revised formation appearances * Sector 1 = I-Type only * Sector 2 = 50% I-Type, 50% P-Type * Sector 3+ = 37.5% I-Type, 37.5% P-Type, 25% E-Type
Fixed condition where Red Alert sound effect would repeat in the menu
Slowed down explosion sequences
Shifted 64 bytes o
Done:
reduced chattiness ("Alert! Alert!" said less frequently)
new gamma level
tightened up formations
don't spawn spy ship, formations, or say "Alert! Alert!" if player is dead (was causing issues when returning to main menu after game over)
Station explosions are now deadly to enemy ships
Revisions to Difficulty Ramp Up
Updates to address screen jitter * Revised how work is spread over multiple frames * Gave 5 ticks of TIM64T from Vertical Blank to Overscan (this shifts screen i
additional optimizations by cd-w, saved 600 bytes
Revised P and I type usage: Kids = max 1 P-Type at a time, zero I-type Easy = max 1 of each at a time Normal = max 2 of each at a time Hard = max 3 of each at a time
Reduced max sprites from 171 to 159, should speed up a number of routines & help reduce the chance of jitter
Revised spy ship routines
play tune & flash high score in menu if you made the high score
Implemented Sample Priority - need to always hear Spy Ship Sighted
applied optimizations from cd-w, which freed up 596 bytes
rewrote enemy spawn routines to use timers instead of random chance. Still need to work out what the min-max times should be.
Currently at 972 bytes free in the ROM. For Harmony or Stella (requires Stella 5.0.2 or newer) draconian_20170916.bin Source draconian_20170916.zip
applied Reposition Kernel optimizations from Omegamatrix which freed up 105 bytes
created a sector editor for user submitted Delta levels.
revised the pause screen to show the blinking starfield instead of a black screen with text
At the moment there's 408 bytes free of ROM. I'd originally planned to try to write the Sector Editor as a web app and put it up on my site. Harvey put me a bit behind schedule, and since I've not written a web app like this before I decided a command line
Things are getting back to normal after Harvey. I still need to put my office back together, but decided that can wait until after PRGE if need be.
bunch of optimizations to free up ROM space (about 500 bytes)
cd-w made a slight revision to the CDF driver's 2600/7800 detection logic
added PAUSE support, toggle TV TYPE (2600) or hit PAUSE (7800). Same to unpause (or press & release FIRE).
Updated sound effects
"Alert!" sample added. The game repeats it for "Alert! Alert!" in order
I'd hoped to get a few more things in place for this build, but my neighborhood's now in the voluntary evacuation zone:
so I thought it best to make an offsite backup of the current source.
revised logo
menu font revisions
vertical core graphic revised
score luma reduced
For Harmony or Stella (requires Stella 5.0.2 or newer) draconian_20170828.bin Source draconian_20170828.zip
To free up some space for the samples, the logo's been reverted back to a 48 pixel image. Replacing the image alone freed up 876 bytes. The logic and kernel to show 96 pixels was removed for another 714, for a total of 1590 bytes. I also ran the image data through Thomas' DOOD for a savings of 313 bytes. Besides saving some ROM, this freed up vertical space on the menu to add the much requested Last Score display as well as a High Score. If you change an option, other than TV-TYPE, these wi
Early support for the spy ship. When it appears "Spy" will be said (I need to free up some space!). Spy ship will make a number of passes; if it's not destroyed by you, or by something else, the Red-Alert Scenario will be triggered and both I and P type missiles will swarm after your ship. The number of passes is based on the difficulty level:
4 - Kids
3 - Easy
2 - Normal
1 - Hard
For Harmony or Stella (requires Stella 5.0.2 or newer) draconian_20170820.bin Source draconian_201
cd-w was able to fix the CDF compatibility issue with my evil 7800, however this required a significant revision to the CDF driver which broke compatibility with Stella's CDF support so this build of Draconian does not work in Stella. I have submitted an update, so once the next release of Stella is available you'll be able to run this on your computer. Until then, use a Harmony Cart. Update: Stella 5.0.2 has been released. Besides the new CDF driver, this build also has a number of sound e
Revised station open/close core logic. Stations will now launch E-Type missiles on later levels (never on Kids, which always has the core open). There are 2 open/close speeds.
Revised Γ (gamma) Levels
Revised Level Data to use less ROM (saved 608 bytes!)
Cores now animated at 60fps (used to be 30)
Holding down fire at end of game would result in a new game starting up right away. You must now release fire before you can start a new game.
For the open/close core logic I use secto
and a bug fix too!
new samples from iesposta for Blast Off and Battlestations
new start of game tune from iesposta
fixed a bug where you could destroy a station by hitting a closed station core.
revised the SECTOR # display logic
The bug with destroying the station was caused because the hit energy core test was always being run. As such, if you hit the red pixels in this image the station would be destroyed. The test now only runs if the core is open.
Last time, as mentioned i
Revised how the enemy formation will scatter if the leader is destroyed
minor update to Bonus Points for better alignment with the explosion it replaces.
Formation ships are now destroyed if they collide with asteroids or mines
Sound effect volume is lowered when speech is active
SECTOR # is now displayed while the player's ship ramps up to full speed
removed unused font graphics (saved 200+ bytes)
various program optimizations to free up memory
Due to removing most of the fon
Formations will now randomly launch from an offscreen station.
"Battlestations" will be said when formation is launched.
Formation Leader targets the player
Formation scatters if leader destroyed (this needs more work)
Revised enemy ship spawning and station firing logic to use less CPU time.
New image graphics in place for bonus points
Bonus points will be earned if all ships in the formation are destroyed
For Harmony or Stella (requires Stella 5.0.0-pre8 or newer) draconian
Nathan's revised the cores to be more solid and uniform between the horizontal and vertical stations. We've also changed it so the core will color cycle (provided it's being drawn by the ball). I've revised the enemy missiles. Each level (kids, easy, etc) starts at a different speed, and they speed up as you progress through the sectors. Additionally, they don't turn as fast as before. Cosmo mine explosions now take out enemy missiles.
For Harmony or Stella (requires Stella 5.0.0-pre8 or
The I-Type and P-Type missiles are in play. The I-Type will try to intercept you while the P-Type are just out on patrol.
For a real challenge, try Sector 256! For Harmony or Stella (requires Stella 5.0.0-pre8 or newer) draconian_20170621.bin
Reworked the stations to fire from the 2 closest pods. For that I revised the closest pod to player tests from before, it now shows the 2 pods it'll fire from as well as the targeting line from the closest pod: draconian_20170619_closest_2_pods.bin Additionally I finally tracked down a bug where you could shoot a station pod that you shouldn't be able to. For that I built another test build (though I forgot to save a copy of the bin, sorry) which would show the last pod destroyed, and the s
In the prior builds the stations would randomly shoot in 1 of 8 directions. I've revised the routines to do the following:
station shots can travel in 32 different directions
identify the pod closest to player
randomly decide to shoot from that pod, as well as the 2 adjacent to it (the chance of firing is tied to the difficulty level and the sector you're in)
each pod now has a unique cool down timer before it can shoot again (before it was 1 timer for the station as a whole). Cool dow
In order to finish writing Draconian, I need to figure out the Rules of the Game. Information gathered from StrategyWiki, Gaming History and by playing in MAME. Sometimes StrategyWiki differs from what I see in MAME, most likely due to how the dip switches are set.
If you spot something that's incorrect, can fill in any blank spots, or answer any questions, please do so in the comments below!
Anything in green has been implemented in Draconian.
Anything in strikeout will not be done
Got quite a bit done the past few days!
AtariAge logo in place. Not tune yet, so it's blink and you'll miss it
fixed the screen roll issue on B-8. It was due to left over code from this build, which took 6+ scanlines of time to set the positions of the objects during vertical blank. This was no longer needed as object positions are now set during the first 5 scanlines of the game screen.
fixed the graphic glitch at bottom-right of gameplay area. The repositioning of the players to dra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9JihWhN4zk Quite a few updates in this one! There's all new graphics and color sequences for the explosions. To support this the existing explosion routine had to be rewritten from scratch. In fact, a number of routines have undergone revisions so let me know if you spot something odd. While play testing I discovered something about the destroyed station pods that we didn't get quite right for the vertical station. For the horizontal station, after d
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