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Shawn Jefferson

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  1. Shawn Jefferson
    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.


  2. Shawn Jefferson
    Milestone 1 reached! All Init and Create Character code is complete and (presumed) working. The attachment is still an Atarimax 1Mbit flashcart and requires VBXE. Check it out in Altirra.
     
    Left to do:
     
    1. Make this into an 8Mbit cart-easy to do with cc65 linker config.
    2. Port Generate cave code
    3. Port Dungeon code
    4. Write new character save/restore code
    5. polish
     
    I should be able to add music playing in the VBI, and possibly joystick control once I get the main code ported to work with all the bank switching that has to occur.
  3. Shawn Jefferson

    Beta1 !

    By Shawn Jefferson,

    Atari Moria 5.5 Beta1.
     
    Requires VBXE.
    Atarimax 8Mb cartridge image (old style banking)
    Uses RAM under the OS.
     
    All gameplay features of Moria v5.5 have now been ported, including monster memory. As you continue to play the game, you learn more about the monsters you are fighting and that memory is cumulative over multiple games/characters. You can recall those details when looking ('x' examine surroundings) and when the identify a character command is used ('/').
     
    Please report any bugs! I haven't ported one wizard command ('@') which allows you to create objects. It's a really low level command that without knowing the structures and values is pretty useless anyway.
     
    Equipment display and dungeon with new characters in background. All "popup" windows now have the line underneath.

     
    Looking around. Interesting items are highlighted in blue when using 'x', examine surroundings command.

     
    The monster memory recall.

     
    Another in-game shot, looking at an item. Turned out to be a Wand of Heal Monster.

     
    Download:
    AtariMoria_55beta1.bin
  4. Shawn Jefferson
    I've taken a small break from porting and started doing a bit of optimizing, mainly by using lookup tables when writing into VBXE memory, and for lookups of the Cave structure, which eliminates the multiplication. Game play is bearable at standard Atari speeds now. There's still a few other places I'd like to optimize, but for now, back to porting.
     
    I've also found and fixed a few other bugs:
    - created custom cgetc, as the cc65 version was writing into the screen (I'm not using the Atari screen memory, only VBXE)
    - fixed the door placement code, now doors can be stuck or broken and will have to be bashed down.
    - fixed the Eat code... now eating something increments your food counter properly.
    - other miscellaneous optimization of the cave generation code, caves are generated on average around 30 seconds.
    - re-implemented the map screen (command 'M')
     
  5. Shawn Jefferson
    Has it really been a year since I updated this Blog? Wow.
     
    I've been continuing to port Moria over to the Atari 8-bit, equipped with VBXE and an Atarimax 8-Mbit (1024K) cartridge. I've just gotten all the bugs out of the store_maint procedure, which runs during the generation of the town. This populates all the stores with items, and also rotates the items periodically. It was quite a hassle to get ported over properly, since all the data being used is in overlapping banks of RAM that is being banked by VBXE at $4000-BFFF. Most of the code is in the cartridge bank at $A000.
     
    Next on the list is to get the store display functions ported over, which should be easy, and then onto the main dungeon code. I guess we could consider this milestone 2 of this project, given that this was the high-level overview of the steps to completion:
     
    1. Make this into an 8Mbit cart-easy to do with cc65 linker config. -DONE
    2. Port Generate cave code. -DONE
    3. Port Dungeon code.
    4. Write new character save/restore code for flashcart.
    5. polish/optimize.
     
    Attached is an Atarimax 8-Mbit (1MB) cartridge (old style bank 127 activate on boot). You need VBXE to run this. Try it in Altirra with Warp Speed on. After selecting your character, it will generate dungeon levels from 0 to 50, pausing for a key press between each one. There's still a lot of debugging messages on the screen, and no real optimization has been done yet, other than refactoring the code to work a bit better with cc65.
  7. Shawn Jefferson

    Store Display

    By Shawn Jefferson,

    About a year ago was the last time I touched the source of Moria, and at that time there was a nasty bug in some of the store code that I thought was causing the store items to be corrupted. After familiarizing myself again with the banking spaghetti that is my port to the Atari, I found the problem is only in the store_display code. A couple of debugging sessions later, I narrowed it down to the object description code. Moria builds the object descriptions sort of "on the fly" displaying the same object's description in different ways depending on various factors like if you are in the store, whether you've identified the item in the past, etc.... Short story, I fixed the display_store code and it appears to be working now.
     

     
    I've also begun working on porting ALL of the store code, which equals to almost 3 cartridge banks (~24k).
     
    Attached is an Atarimax 8-mbit cartridge image you can run in Altirra that shows the progress on the store_display code. This is an older style (bank 127 startup) cartridge. It also requires VBXE for 80 column mode and also the extra memory. After rolling your character, the town is generated. Press a key and you will be taken to the store display. Each store (6 in total), is displayed in order. Pressing "b" allows you to browse the store's items if there is more than one page (you'll see -cont- displayed if so). ESC, goes to the next store. After the 6 stores are displayed, the store_maint code runs and turns over some of the items in the stores. Which you can look at again in an endless loop (try Altirra in Warp speed, no real optimization has been done yet.)
  8. Shawn Jefferson
    Another small update, purchase works in the stores now. Load this in Altirra as a AtariMax 8Mb flashcart (old bank127 startup version).
     
    It will run through the player creation code, generate and draw the town, and then drop you straight into the store display, starting with the first store (6 stores in total). ESC goes to the next store, 'b' browses the next page of items if there are more, and 'p' will let you haggle to purchase an item.
     
    Once you press ESC on the last store, the code to turn over the items in the stores runs and you can view all six stores again in an endless loop.
     
    moria.bin
     
    I'm working on the item selling code now, and after that will tackle the player inventory display code (some of it is required for store sell anyway.) I'll post another update when that's complete and debugged.
     
     
  9. Shawn Jefferson
    I've been continuing work on porting this, and have sell haggling done and quite a bit of the inventory code too. I was thinking tonight about the possibility of a non-VBXE port. I'm using VBXE for the 80 column display and the ability to bank in lots of memory. It's possible, if I can get the port done, that I could create a non-VBXE port using an Atarimax 8Mb cartridge, and at least a 256k memory expansion. I would have to drop some of the items probably (there are actually quite a few that are almost duplicates), and deal with the cave structure differently (maybe breaking it up into multiple expanded memory banks.) There is also of course, the 40 character screen, requiring quite a bit of re-coding. But there is also the possibility of using graphics instead, maybe antic mode 4.
     
    That's a long ways off however, I'll get the VBXE text version done first, optimize it to an acceptable/playable level, maybe add some music, maybe some enhanced VBXE graphics and then go down the non-VBXE port road.
     
    I guess you could ask why I don't just forget the whole VBXE port and just attempt the non-VBXE port right now? The answer is I'm not even sure the VBXE port is possible... About half-way into this, I think it is possible, but you never know, I may run out of memory. While there is lots of cartridge space left, and VBXE memory is fine too, there is serious lack of low memory needed for banking the cartridge and VBXE memory windows. Already I have had to do some basic optimization to free up some of the low memory.
     
    Currently, my low memory (memory below $4000) looks like this:
    Name Start End Size Align----------------------------------------------------ZEROPAGE 000082 0000A4 000023 00001CODE 000400 0018A6 0014A7 00001RODATA 0018A7 0019F0 00014A 00001DATA 0019F1 001AFC 00010C 00001BSS 001AFD 002941 000E45 00001BCODE 002A00 0032A4 0008A5 00001
    I haven't used much zeropage yet, but will probably end up filling that up when it comes time to optimize. BCODE is where my banking code lives, and the C stack is at $3800, so you can see things are getting tight. Those other segments are filled with C runtime, misc functions that I need in main memory all the time, and some game data and structures that make sense to keep there too (player stats, random functions, etc...) I haven't jettisoned the OS yet either, that could be done at some later time to gain more memory, but also then makes this XL/XE only (did VBXE ever get created for an 800?)
     
     
  10. Shawn Jefferson
    I've completed porting the store code and inventory code, so all actions can be done in the stores now. I have attached a demo of the progress so far. It's an Atarimax 8Mb cart like usual, old style bank 127 and requires VBXE. Run it in Altirra with Warp Speed on as it is un-optimized still.
     
    You can roll your character and then you will be presented with a choice 1 for Town, 2 for random dungeon. Pressing 1 will show you the generated town, and then will proceed to show you the inventories of all six stores. You can purchase, sell, equip and check your inventory from these screens. Pressing ESC goes to the next store. You can insult the storekeeper by giving him poor offers, and the next time around that store won't be accessible (you will notice it isn't displayed.) In the game, the message "the doors are locked" is displayed.
     
    Pressing 2 will display a random dungeon and scroll the screen around showing you the entire level. Pressing any key exits the scroll and starts the demo over (your items that you bought or equipped in the store screens will be kept.) The store inventories are turned over, so you will notice new items in the stores.
     
    PS. There are a few bugs in the code... you will notice some screen glitches after the random dungeon is generated. I'll track these down soon.
     
     
  11. Shawn Jefferson
    I've been working hard on porting the dungeon code, and have four 8k banks ported over so far, which is the main dungeon, character move, light routines and some miscellaneous dungeon routines (go_up_stairs, go_down_stairs, etc...) I should have another demo soon that will let you walk around Moria on the Atari 8-bit. I also have fixed a few more bugs and have done some basic optimization by creating some lookup tables. There's still quite a bit of optimization to be done of course.
     
    Almost all the code is in cartridge banks of an Atarimax 8Mb cartridge, so all banked in at $A000-BFFF. That's pretty straight-forward. The crazy thing is that I'm using the ability of the VBXE to bank in memory at $4000 as well. Moria has many data structures, the cave, treasure list, monster list, spell lists, store structures, assorted player structures. All these are banked in at $4000, and only one can be in at a time. Moria was coded for a machine with a lot more memory, so the code assumes that all these structures are available in memory at once.
     
    For instance, code to look up an item in the treasure list from the cave looks something like this:
    c = t_list[cave[y][x].tptr].tchar;
    I have to change this code something like this:
    vbxe_bank(VBXE_CAVBANK);tptr = cave[y][x].tptr; vbxe_bank(VBXE_OBJBANK);c = t_list[tptr].tchar;
    This code is looking up the treasure item from the cave in the treasure list and returning the character to display. Those are in two different memory banks, so this type of code needs to be refactored for the Atari 8-bit. There's quite a bit of this kind of thing, and keeping straight in my head what is in memory, and what needs to be in memory can be frustrating sometimes. Still, it seems to be coming together and it seems more possible that this port will be completed every day.
     
    I thought I would also talk a little bit about what I've changed, or even taken out:

    made the cave size slightly smaller (132 x 44), which equates to almost 24k since each cave location is 4 bytes. This was necessary to get it to fit between $4000 and $9FFF (it currently ends at $9AC0.)
    shrunk the previous message storage down to 10 old messages (saves some precious memory. Hopefully 10 saved messages is enough!
    modified the inventory displays from right justified to left justified using the entire line (this saved quite a bit of memory since to right justify the inventory display you need to store every line so you can get the layout correct.)
    monster memories are currently not implemented... they were taking tons of memory, I may implement them near the end however, since they are pretty cool.
    all the unix-isms are gone (like signals, opening a shell, etc..., but this probably won't be noticed by players anyway.)
    there is no cursor. I don't think a cursor is necessary, but I may implement something if players are confused that they need to enter input

    Of course, I've added color, but plan on adding a few other things too, like loading screens, joystick control (maybe?), music if possible, enhanced graphics (maybe!).
     
     
  12. Shawn Jefferson
    Here's a the second Atari 8-bit Moria demo. Like all the others, this cartridge image is an Atarimax 8mbit cartridge, old style 127 bank cartridge. Try it in Altirra with Warp Speed to speed up the cave generation (no optimization of this was been attempted yet!) Requires VBXE!
     
    In this demo, you can create your character, and walk around the Town and Dungeons. "rogue-like" commands are being used. It's possible to pick up, wear, equip and drop items. Although there are no monsters yet, it's still possible to die by stepping on traps or starving.
     
    Currently implemented:
     
    Movement commands:
    h - left
    l - right
    j - down
    k - up
    y - up left diagonal
    u - up right diagonal
    n - down left diagonal
    m - down right diagonal
     
    Use Shift with those commands to Run.
    Use Ctrl with those commands to Tunnel.
     
    PS. you can also use the Ctrl-Arrows to move your character up/down/left/right (but not run or tunnel at the moment.)
     
    Other commands:
    c - close a door
    d - drop an item
    e - equipment list
    f - force/bash a door
    i - inventory list
    o - open a door
    s - search
    w - wear/wield
    C - display character/change name
    E - Eat
    F - Fill lamp with oil
    Q - quit the game
    R - rest
    S - spike a door
    T - take off item
    X - exchange item
    < - go up a staircase
    > - go down a staircase
     
    CTRL-P - previous message(s)
     
    Full Moria command list for reference:
    c ~ Close a door. | C Character player description. d Drop an item. | @ D ~ Disarm a trap/chest. e Equipment list. | E Eat some food.@ f ~ Force (bash) item or mons.| F Fill lamp with oil. i Inventory list. | G Gain new magic spells. m magic spell casting. | M Map, show reduced size.@ o ~ Open a door/chest. | P Peruse a book. p Pray. | Q Quit the game. q Quaff a potion. | @ R Rest (Count or *=restore). r Read a scroll. | @ S ~ Spike a door.@ s Search for traps or doors.| T Take off an item. t Throw an item. | V View scores. v Version info | W Where: locate self. w Wear/Wield an item. | X Exchange weapon. x ~ Examine surroundings | Z Zap a staff. z Zap a wand. | # Search Mode. = Set options. | < Go up an up-staircase. / Identify a character. | > Go down a down-staircase.@ CTRL-P Previous message review | { Inscribe an object.@ - ~ Move without pickup. | ? Type this page.@ CTRL ~ Tunnel in a direction. | CTRL-X Save character and exit.@ SHIFT ~ Run in direction. | @ ~ For movement.Directions: y k u h . l [. is stay] b j nTo give a count to a command, type the number in digits, then the command.A count of 0 defaults to a count of 99. Counts only work with some commands,and will be terminated by the same things that end a rest or a run. Inparticular, typing any character during the execution of a counted commandwill terminate the command. Counted searches or tunnels will terminate onsuccess, or if you are attacked. A count with control-P will specify thenumber of previous messages to display.Control-R will redraw the screen whenever it is input, not only at commandlevel. Control commands may be entered with a single key stroke, or with twokey strokes by typing ^ and then a letter.Type ESCAPE to abort the look command at any point.Some commands will prompt for a spell, or an inventory item. Selection isby an alphabetic character - entering a capital causes a desription to beprinted, and the selection may be aborted.Typing `R*' will make you rest until both your mana and your hp reach theirmaximum values.Using repeat counts with the tunnel left command does not work well, becausetunnel left is the backspace character, and will delete the number you havejust typed in. To avoid this, you can either enter ^H as two characters(^ and then H), or you can type ' ' (i.e. the space character) after thenumber at which point you will get a command prompt and backspace willwork correctly.
    You may notice a few small bugs...
     
     
     
  13. Shawn Jefferson
    The code to generate caves is now ported over, and appears to be working. I had to track down some nasty bug in the normalized random number code (not the original, but changes I had made to be more "cc65" friendly). It's a bit slow, but overall not too bad. The first goal is to port the code "as-is" and then make any improvements that might be made. There's also a bug where items will get placed in the "rock" and not in open spaces... need to figure that out still.
     
    Attached is an Atarimax 8Mb flashcart image. This requires VBXE, but otherwise doesn't require any special configuration. You can select your character, roll for attributes, etc.. and then it will generate a random level from 0-57 or something like that. Press any key to generate another level once the map is drawn (this is only the top corner of the map being drawn at the moment.)
  14. Shawn Jefferson

    More progress

    By Shawn Jefferson,

    Made some more small progress: throwing objects, disarming traps, maps and help screens, and identify character functions are ported.
     
    The next big chunk of porting is the creature/monster code.
  15. Shawn Jefferson

    Here be Dragons

    By Shawn Jefferson,

    And kobolds, slimes and snakes.
     
    Got the basic Moria monster code running on the 8-bit. Monsters can move and attack you, and you can attack back and kill them gaining experience (and levels). You might want to wear your armor and wield your weapons and avoid Battle Scarred Veterans on the town level.
     
    Besides the monsters, these functions added since last beta/demo:
     
    ? - brings up the help screens
    M - Map has been rewritten and fixed
    W - Where am I (map feature)
    P - Peruse books (you can look at the contents of magic books, just can't learn the spells yet!)
    T - throwing items, including arrows/pebbles from slings, flaming oil
    Q - Quaffing potions (beware of drinking strange substances in the dungeon!)
    / - Identify character
     
    All commands are shown in the help screen, try whatever you like, those that are not ported yet will do nothing. Tombstones are drawn when you die and you can view your character and equipment.
     
    Change $1A3B just before going down a staircase, and you'll go to dungeon level $1A3B + 1. Don't go too much further than your character level, the monsters get quite a bit stronger.
     
    These bugs I'm aware of:
    - sometimes a treasure is displayed as " (1d3)". You can pick it up, but doing inventory commands with it usually results in a crash.
    - almost always a crash around generating a dungeon level around 5-7.
    - "you hear a muffled scream"... creatures are being spawned in rock, most likely corrupted
    - picking up gold seems to pause for a significant amount of time (could just be all the 32-bit values being worked with in that function.... or some bug I introduced.)
    - occasionally invisible monsters that you can kill and gain experience but they don't get deleted from the level, so you can keep killing them over and over.
    - some more I can't remember off the top of my head.
     
    All bugs introduced by my efforts to port, usually due to bank switching errors, and not from the original code!
     
    On the coding front, I thought I had ran out of memory, but I found some data in low memory that should have been in cartridge banks, so freed up enough to keep going! Mainly the issue is around the banking code to allow functions to call each other inter-bank.
  16. Shawn Jefferson
    After adding the functions to write saved game and highscores, which have to sit in main memory, I'm officially out of memory.
     
    I will have to disable the OS and use the memory under the OS to complete porting the game. The good news is that I believe there will be enough memory and that it is possible to port the (almost; minus recall monster memories) complete Moria to the Atari with VBXE and Maxflash cart.
     
    Attached is the last version that works without using memory under the OS. Some things that have been added since the last playable demo: saving of highscores and game save (Ctrl-X). If using Altirra, remember to save the cartridge (Save Firmware in the File menu) to save the cartridge memory after your session. Also, some monsters can multiply (gets a little slow with a lot of monsters on the screen). You can gain spells now (can't cast them yet though!)
     
    A few of the bugs have been found and quashed, but some still remain.
     
     
     
     
     
  17. Shawn Jefferson
    Released Atari Moria 5.5 alpha3 for testing... please let me know any bugs.
     
    Atarimax 8mbit cartridge image, old style banking, cartridge type 42
    Requires VBXE
    Uses RAM under the OS (XL/XE only)
     
    Moria is almost 100% ported over... only the look command and maybe monster memory recall (currently I'm not planning on implementing it due to how much memory it needs, but I may change my mind.) Dungeon generation is on average 2-3 seconds due to swapping out the 32-bit random number generator doing 32 bit divides, with a 16-bit one optimized for 6502. Also fixed several bugs and did some polishing (message if VBXE is not detected for instance, and cart bypass if OPTION is held down so on real hardware you can reflash your cart easily.)
     
    See if you can destroy the Balrog... and let me know how it works and any bugs you find.
     
     
  18. Shawn Jefferson

    Beta2!

    By Shawn Jefferson,

    Atari Moria v55 beta2:

    - added joystick control (joystick is only read if at least two vblanks have passed, which seems to provide the right feel.) Joystick button can be used for most any key prompts. Joystick button and direction digs a tunnel.
    - fixed a few bugs, many are probably still there (report them if you see any!)
    - added a pause at startup to get better randomization.
    - added creating items to wizard mode (you'll need the source, or some of the information on Moria websites to do this properly.)
    - added a player structure display to wizard mode (Ctrl-C), to aid in debugging.
    - added the rest '*' command to rest until healed and mana restored

    The game is playable and should even be able to be completed in the state it's in. It seems to work well with CPU accelerators (in Altirra anyway!)

    Game Requirements:
    - VBXE
    - AtariMax 8mb flashcart (currently old style banking, bank 127 active at boot.)
    - 64k (uses RAM under the OS)

    AtariMoria_55beta2.bin
  19. Shawn Jefferson
    So I couldn't leave well enough alone, and decided to add some features to the base Moria game. Of course you can still play the classic Moria without these additions.

    The Tavern (building 7):

    The local townsfolk often gather in the Tavern, at any time of the day. The Tavern's name and atmosphere are randomly generated each game, and will be the same throughout that game. This doesn't have any effect on the game itself other than add color. Inside the Tavern, you can (currently) Buy a Drink, Tip the Barkeep, or Buy a Round. Prices are effected by Charisma like all prices in Moria. It's also possible to rise in the estimation of the townsfolk via interactions in the Tavern (ie. you can raise your Charisma, via the implementation of a fractional Charisma system-the townsfolk like someone who buys them free drinks!) In the future I plan on adding a simple quest engine that you will access mainly through the Tavern.

    There's a chance you will gain some useful knowledge about the creatures that inhabit the mines... each of the options gives a lesser or greater chance to hear gossip about the mines. (This information is from the "Monster Memory/Recall" system... specifics about a creature's attacks, defenses, special abilities or lack there-of, etc...) If you stick around long enough in the Tavern, you may even hear (read) some songs by a travelling bard.

    The Guild (building 8 ):

    The guild only accepts characters of level 3 or greater (why waste time on someone likely to die in the Mines?), and the cost of membership is 1000 gold. Once a member you can access Guild services, such as Healing, Curing Poison, Identifying items, Recharging Staffs/Wands, and Training. Training can be in Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity or Constitution only, and the base cost is 1000 gold plus/minus your Charisma factor. All the other prices in the Guild are similar to prices in the shops for equivalent scrolls and potions. I'm hoping that the Guild doesn't affect the game balance too much, but adds some additional gameplay dynamics (and maybe make the game slightly easier.)

    Other things new in Beta3:
    - intro screen (pretty basic for now, but allows you to select Classic or playing with the new buildings.)
    - exit screen (credits and a message that it's ok to turn off the computer, ie. flashing is done!)
    - a few more minor bug fixes

    There are likely still some small bugs left, but the game should be completely playable.

    Future Plans:
    Quest Engine (simple quests such as killing a specific creature, reaching a level of the mine, finding an item.)
    40 column, native Atari video version (involves some modifications to the game/layout.)
    Fix build process to allow cart to work with either old or new AtariMax 8Mb banking scheme
    Other things?

    Requirements
    AtariMax 8Mb Flashcart (old banking, cart type 42 in Altirra)
    Atari XL/XE (64k required)
    VBXE

    AtariMoria v55beta3.bin


  20. Shawn Jefferson

    Atari 8-bit Moria

    By Shawn Jefferson,

    I installed a VBXE board in one of my Atari 8-bit computers recently, and I was batting around ideas of what to do with it. One of the ideas I had involved the 80 column text support. There are many text based games for other 80-column machines, and my favorite from years past was Moria. It's written in C, and since the Atari 8-bit has a great 8-bit cross compiler in cc65, I thought it might be possible. One issue is the fact that the data and code of Moria will not remotely fit into 64k, which mean bank switching. VBXE has 512k that you can bank switch into any 4k page boundary. What I came up with was a combination of using the VBXE's RAM for the screen, various data structures and the main cave array itself. That leaves little room for code, so the majority of code goes into an Atarimax flashcart-it became apparent that I would need the 8Mbit cart.
     
    Here's a screenshot of where I am so far. This represents all the data being copied and banked into VBXE ram, all the init code running from cartridge, and about half the create character code running. You can roll up characters all day long, but when you press ESC it will go into an endless loop (since I haven't progressed further yet.) It may not be possible to finish this, but so far it looks promising.
     
    The attached .bin file is an Atarimax 1Mbit cartridge. You can run it in Altirra with VBXE support to check it out.
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