Atari Moria native 40-column version
Entry posted by Shawn Jefferson
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I've started on the conversion to native 40 column mode.
Memory configuration was the first thing I had to tackle. I was able to carve up the data structures that are currently being held in VBXE memory and banked into $4000-9FFF, to fit in the extended banking window of $4000-7FFF instead. I was able to keep all monsters and items, and keep the total size of the map the same as in the VBXE version, although with a slightly different horizontal and vertical size (88x66 in the 40-column version, 22x22 visible on screen, versus 132x44 in the 80-column version, 66x22 visible on screen.) The game will still require an Atarimax 8Mb flashcart, and an XL/XE computer since I'm using RAM under the OS.
There are still some major issues to work out, mainly regarding trying to squeeze onto the screen the information that Moria normally presents in 80-columns. I'm going to have to make decisions around some things, and I hope to keep the changes to a minimum.
I'm currently working on getting everything working correctly with the new screen sizes and memory layout. Some functions will need to be rewritten, and some object names may need to be shortened, for instance the "Holy Book of Prayers [beginner's Handbook]" is over 40 characters, and there are a few other examples like that. I hope to have a demo/beta version soon!
This game was never designed to be run in 40-columns, that's for sure! But then again, it was never designed to run on a 6502 with 64k either. 
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