Shawn Jefferson

That would be the game designer's decision (is that you? Sorry, I didn't really follow where this came from exactly), but there is something satisfying about hearing the thing you just shot blow up, even when it's in simulated space.

VBXE *is* that drop in, pin compatible replacement, yes. It's the 80 column upgrade that everyone wished they had BITD, not to mention the other features. In my Atari Moria port, I turned off DMA, since I'm not using any of the built-in Atari's graphics features, as you mention. I think the issue is that it is too good. It gives the Atari features that are too modern for some folks. In my opinion though, it's just another fun addition to the hobby, and it's still an Atari computer in essence. You program for 6502 still. You still have only 64k to work with, without banking. That said, there are people doing things with it. Maybe not enough, or not the right kind of things to get more people excited about it. FJC has done quite a lot, Rygar, the folks behind SpartaDos 4.4x to name a few.

I don't know, seems totally in character to me. He saw an opportunity to deride someone's idea/post and went for it.

I had some thoughts about the cartridge shell situation, maybe these ideas are crazy, or have already been tried. 1. Have someone like Albert contact Steve Tucker, and try to convince him that providing his cartridge shell connection would be a very nice thing to do for the Atari community. Maybe Albert could sell them in lots of 10/20/50/100/etc, in his store. Perhaps if someone else were to approach Steve who more represents the community, the results may be better? Of course, if Steve has reasons of his own not to sell the cartridge shells (competitive advantage, although I really don't buy this as a great reason), or perhaps "issues" with some of the people reselling or making copies of the Atarimax stuff (kjmann? others?) this may not fly. 2. The community could bankroll (and thus own) the injections molds to a new cartridge shell. 100 people putting $50 in gets you the $5000, or 250 people putting in $20 each. Of course, I believe that someone trust-worthy would need to "control" the molds and subsequent use, maybe Albert? Maybe someone "elected". Either way, the shells should be able to be used by anyone in the community for any project, possibly with some requirements (see below.) I also think the for the community to get the maximum benefit, and the return on investment, perhaps other conditions would have to be put on the "license" to use these cartridges. Off the top of my head these possibilities come to mind: - ROMs must be released to the community or pay per download options must be provided (perhaps after a set amount of time/units sold.) - If hardware only designs, maybe the full plans/schematics would have to be released to the public after a certain amount of time and/or units have been sold. - small mark-up put on each cartridge and profits given back to investors (I don't think this is a great way to do this from a community point of view.)

In another thread we were talking about reality versus game play and I think "sounds in space" is definitely one of those things where game play should be chosen over realistic simulation.

Here's beta3... a few small bugs fixed and I decided to add some things to the game (don't worry, classic mode still available.) At this point I have added the Tavern and the Guild to the town level. More detail here: http://atariage.com/forums/blog/18/entry-12569-beta3-added-two-buildings-to-the-town/ I wonder especially how the Guild might affect game play. Currently you have to be level 3 or higher to join, and it also costs 1000 gold, although a character less than level 3 is unlikely to have enough gold to join anyhow, so maybe that's an artificial constraint that doesn't add anything. Still requires VBXE... haven't started the 40-column conversion, still planning what needs to be changed. AtariMoria v55beta3.bin

Off topc: I have one of those first things he made in the video, it's called the Game Gripper, a gaming keyboard overlay for the Nokia N900. Works great.

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

With cc65, you need to remember that there are only 6 bytes of register variables (really zeropage locations that are saved and restored depending on which ones your functions use-and this adds overhead to your function too!), but since you are using static local variables, the others that don't get fit as register are in BSS (ie. given a static location, and not on the C stack), which usually makes the code faster and smaller. In Ilmenit's code anyway. In any project that isn't trivial, you will optimize your function variables appropriately, using register where appropriate and also just allocating your own zeropage variables also. Also, as you've pointed out, printf family of functions are quite large... for obvious reasons I think (compatibility, portability, flexibility, etc...) Also, file I/O is also quite large with cc65 and is sometimes better to roll your own unless you are looking for portability, IMO.

In another thread Curt Vendel was talking about making a "top half" case for the 1200XL. I imagine a system like: 1200XL bottom and top case (essentially a white rectangle in XL style), with either a repurposed 600XL as the keyboard and maybe even joystick ports, or a PC keyboard in XL styling (where to find something like that?) with a Transkey-II or similar interface. That would be sweet. Lots of room for upgrades in the 1200XL case.

Release the utility?

TV out would have been a good thing back then, but a flashable multicart, probably not since it's arguably only use would be piracy (then, not now.)

Oh I see what you mean by that. Thanks!

4 directional, or actually 8?

I just remembered Heart of Africa. I ways wondered why that didn't make it to the atari when seven cities of gold seemed like such a good fit. Economics I guess.

Ultima?

That looks a lot better than any of my attempts. I'm thinking this picture is not really suitable to the Atari. Too bad, I was hoping to have a "title" screen for my Moria project.

Altirra supports CA65 debug symbols too.

Emkay cares, he's always speaking about how people aren't using these techniques, how no music creation tool is capable of doing it, how the tunes being created with the existing tools don't sound "correct." The techniques may be interesting, no doubt (I just don't know enough about Pokey to say one way or another.) But when you are trying to convince others to use these techniques but you can't seem to make them work to make music.... well, you see the issue there? PS. I also have been around long enough to know that it's probably futile to argue about any of this. Emkay's writing comes across as his methods are the only way to make music on the Atari sound good, and the majority here can't hear what he does I guess.

First off, I'm not a musician either. This has been going on for quite some time. Emkay makes comments like: Unfortunately, the term "correct" is difficult to reconcile with the evidence that we hear. The tunes being done by others in RMT and other tools, sound pretty good to my ears. If someone asked me if they were music I would say yes. The tunes that have been done by emkay are almost always, with some notable exceptions, not what I would call music. Now, if you are trying to use and demonstrate new techniques, that's fine, but it's going to be a tough sell to get other people to use those techniques if they (apparently) aren't useful in making "music." Probably a lot of the issues are communication and language. Using terms like "correct" melodic parts and then pointing to a tune as the solution that is very obviously not what most would call music is definitely part of the issue, in my opinion. I suspect (and hope) that is mostly down to a communication problem.

I'd be tempted to brute force it. I was typing out a long explanation... but basically, I'd just run two loops checking one list against the other... if the lists aren't two large it might not be too slow. If they are large, you would need to start optimizing by pre-sorting, removing duplicates, etc...

I've been attempting to convert this picture. Without much luck, mostly the results are pretty bad. Anyone else want to take a shot at it?

Why don't you forget about how many copies you will sell and do games you enjoy programming.

I can vouch for Farb. I just sent him a bunch of disks and got them back on good order. However I don't see how he could guarantee anything with 30 year old media.

double post