Opry99er Posted February 19, 2010 Author Share Posted February 19, 2010 This version has NO bug whatsoever... except a pesky CALL KEY thing that isn't working properly. It's acting as if there's a key pressed all the time... because it is skipping right past my CALL KEYs to hold the screen (like at the beginning of the UFO stage--- it displays instructions and you are supposed to read them and then press a key) Anyway, there's no music in these... sound FX, but no music. I got to level 11 a minute ago and over 12000 points. Woooohooooo!! Owen LOAD.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sometimes99er Posted February 19, 2010 Share Posted February 19, 2010 That was actually good fun. Amazing good arcade quality feel there ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted February 19, 2010 Author Share Posted February 19, 2010 (edited) Karsten, did you play the version with the background music or the second upload? =) I posted two back to back. One with music, one without. I was curious to hear what you thought of my music for the main screen a well as the boss stage. =) Ahhh... now I see. Nobody has yet downloaded the version with the music. It plays great for a few minutes then crashes. It's a memory allocation thing for sure... just gotta get that right. =) DL the other one (post 150) on this thread... give it a shot. =) Edited February 19, 2010 by Opry99er Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sometimes99er Posted February 19, 2010 Share Posted February 19, 2010 Karsten, did you play the version with the background music or the second upload? All the individual downloads in a thread are available at the front page clicking the little attachment icon. Oh, that is indeed a very nice and jolly good tune you’ve got there. How did you compose it ? Was it on guitar or piano ? Did you write down the music or how ? Last year I did some work on a sound program. The idea was that you would load in a MIDI file, and it would then auto discard anything not valid (like more than 3 tones at once). It would play you the result (4A style), and you would have to go back to a dedicated music application to correct the MIDI file to get “better” results. I might also do a TI-99/4A machine code player, with more separate “channel” control, programmable ADSR and sweeps. The footprint is going to be small (less than 1K and minimal CPU). You will be able to have music and game effects at the same time. Drums might be included in a phase two. I never considered XB support - until this moment that is. Also I’m trying to think of something simple like “Patterns” for making “ordinary” (ISR) sound lists. Destroyer might even soon depend on this happening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted February 19, 2010 Author Share Posted February 19, 2010 (edited) Well, there are actually two pieces of music... One for the main gamescreen, and another darker one for the UFO stage. I composed on guitar initially, and then just sat with my XB manual and my laptop and hammered out the CALL SOUNDs.... Then I had to get them into assembly, so I wrote a converter (with the help of Tursi) an BOOM!! Done. Actually, the UFO stage music was not ever actually composed. I had the math in my head for a minor key progression/melody (b3) and just coded it in having never played it. It was an exercise in math... Nothing more. . Check out my newest converter upload... I think it's current. As we speak, Mark Wills and I are adding some automation for it... Filip, I think, is going to add it to his SPECTRA library when it's done. Edited February 19, 2010 by Opry99er Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Codex Posted February 19, 2010 Share Posted February 19, 2010 This version has NO bug whatsoever... How can you have a game about bees without any bugs in it? Will try these out soon mate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted February 19, 2010 Author Share Posted February 19, 2010 Hahaha!!! No bugs. You clever bugger!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted February 19, 2010 Author Share Posted February 19, 2010 The "no bug" one can run independent of any other programs... The LOAD file is just for fun... I always liked putting in a 5.25 and having it load up by itself. Anyway, the music has to be in there, really.... It's part of the game--every bit a part as the bees themselves. I just have to figure out the memory allocation for my CALL LOADs. Tursi has been instrumental in figuring out how to make it work, and I am hoping to have the bug-free playable version with music soon. But for now, enjoy the "demo.". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Codex Posted February 20, 2010 Share Posted February 20, 2010 Sweet, got the time to play it at last and it runs like a dream! Excellent job man, it's a cool game and those UFOs are some tough bastiches. The whole thing is very jolly and has the feel of actual game released back in the day. Well done! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted February 20, 2010 Author Share Posted February 20, 2010 Thanks a ton man... . Means alot to have the positive feedback! One thing-- did you get the chance to read the pre-UFO stage instructions before you played that stage or did it just display it for a split second and then bounce straight to the stage? There's a bug somewhere---it's not in my code. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Codex Posted February 20, 2010 Share Posted February 20, 2010 The text stayed up until I pressed a key, so it worked fine for me. The UFOs got my bee before I could get very far, but that's down to user error. Great graphics by the way. They all come together well and feel just right for the game motif. And the music is the icing on the cake, kudos on that especially. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted February 20, 2010 Author Share Posted February 20, 2010 You know--- there is a pattern to those UFOs, that's all I'll say. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted February 20, 2010 Author Share Posted February 20, 2010 Man-- again, thanks a million. If you can "save the bee" by collecting all 5 Queenbee tokens, you get a thousand extra points and another bee. . You'll figure that pattern out, I'm sure. If you play through for several minutes, unfortunately the game will crash.... That's just the reality of the VDP overload caused by my music. But that's why I posted the non-musical version. All the sound FX are still there, but the background music isn't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sometimes99er Posted February 20, 2010 Share Posted February 20, 2010 If you play through for several minutes, unfortunately the game will crash.... Might be XB hitting the music and creating turmoil for XB or (and) the assembly. It might also be the XB garbage collection kicking in. Back in the day I was annoyed to discover that every 5 minute or so my smooth sprites animation would halt (or have a big hiccup) because of this so called garbage collection. Well, it doesn’t happen in assembler. Think you have to allocate properly the area in VDP which holds the music. It should be “easy” to extend the assembly program to hook on the interrupt and play the music it self from EXP RAM (it’s just a matter of pushing some bytes every now and then). The area in EXP RAM should of course also be allocated (or something) to be out of XBs reach. Well, just some thoughts ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted February 20, 2010 Author Share Posted February 20, 2010 Thanks man... Im almost out of ideas on how to make it work... Tursi has given it a whirl, Matthew has been kind enough to help in determining the best way to load the data into VDP RAM.... Same result. I might have to move on from the dream of having game music in the background--- it's a shame, and VERY disheartening. Today is my birthday. . It would be a great birthday present if somehow I flipped open my EA manual to find an EQU > or something that fixed this problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sometimes99er Posted February 20, 2010 Share Posted February 20, 2010 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted February 20, 2010 Author Share Posted February 20, 2010 . Hahaha!!! Thank you brother!!! 27 today. . Maybe there's a VDP fix in that cake. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+retroclouds Posted February 20, 2010 Share Posted February 20, 2010 Thanks man... Im almost out of ideas on how to make it work... Tursi has given it a whirl, Matthew has been kind enough to help in determining the best way to load the data into VDP RAM.... Same result. I might have to move on from the dream of having game music in the background--- it's a shame, and VERY disheartening. Today is my birthday. . It would be a great birthday present if somehow I flipped open my EA manual to find an EQU > or something that fixed this problem. Owen, don't forget we are gonna do a pure assembly version of Honeycomb Rapture. We won't have any garbage collection issues there Hey, happy birthday man! It's good to have you in the TI community Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted February 20, 2010 Author Share Posted February 20, 2010 (edited) Thanks Filip, and NO SIR I haven't forgotten. It's something I look forward to every day. . I even had a dream about my cartridge release last night. Is that weird? . I have a logo/label degisned and printed for the disk version already. See the "Oprysoftware" section or the New Game development section of my site for a pic of the labels I already have printed up. . I absolutely cannot wait to get started on that project, man... Truly Edited February 20, 2010 by Opry99er Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted February 20, 2010 Author Share Posted February 20, 2010 Hey Filip, knowing the size of the XB version of this game, how large do you think the assembly version will be? Will we need to worry about bank switching or do you think it will fit into an 8k cart? One thing to keep in mind is that the title screen will be much more elaborate... I will start working up the graphics for it, but I want a teeebranch with a honeycomb hanging from it--- and the "font" for the words "Honeycomb Rapture" will be very different. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sometimes99er Posted February 20, 2010 Share Posted February 20, 2010 Hey Filip, knowing the size of the XB version of this game, how large do you think the assembly version will be? Will we need to worry about bank switching or do you think it will fit into an 8k cart? One thing to keep in mind is that the title screen will be much more elaborate... I will start working up the graphics for it, but I want a teeebranch with a honeycomb hanging from it--- and the "font" for the words "Honeycomb Rapture" will be very different. I'll estimate 5K tops. No kidding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+retroclouds Posted February 20, 2010 Share Posted February 20, 2010 (edited) Hey Filip, knowing the size of the XB version of this game, how large do you think the assembly version will be? Will we need to worry about bank switching or do you think it will fit into an 8k cart? One thing to keep in mind is that the title screen will be much more elaborate... I will start working up the graphics for it, but I want a teeebranch with a honeycomb hanging from it--- and the "font" for the words "Honeycomb Rapture" will be very different. Owen I guess that depends if we would be adding some kind of RLE compression on the graphics. However with todays' possibilities I would go for a 16K ROM image: 1 bank for game code 1 bank for graphics and sound Bank switching is not that hard, nor evil The problem I had while doing Pitfall revision B was that I had to add bank-switching to an existing assembly source. We won't have that issue when working on HR. We can write the code with bank-switching and 256 scratch-pad memory limit in mind starting from day 1. Have you considered getting some new cartridge PCB's from Jon ? You will be needing some and don't know if they will still be around after the group buy Edited February 20, 2010 by retroclouds Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted February 20, 2010 Author Share Posted February 20, 2010 Wow! . Well, that will make for a fun time then!!! If there's no bank switching to worry about, then this should be a relatively painless process, yea? At least everything except me learning assembly. I've learned alot in the past couple months, but nowhere near enough to do a whole game. I'm thankful Filip is offering to work on this project... I can't wait to learn all I can. . Hell, Honeycomb wouldn't even be near completion without Filips contest. . Deadlines are a brilliant motivator. So is the possibility of winning a Pitfall cart, and maybe a XBII+ one. . Honestly, I'd rather have Pitfall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted February 20, 2010 Author Share Posted February 20, 2010 (edited) I had thought about it--- but I am completely broke right now. I don't even have the cash to buy the Multicart I ordered from Jon. . It will probably have to wait til I get back from the road at the end of March. Which brings up an interesting question... Once we get entrenched in the "conversion", what kind of timeframe are we looking at for completion of the assembly version? I could certainly "find" the money (get someone to front it to me) if I started a cartridge pre-order list and had a timeframe... It's a terrible way to go about this process, but having no cash, it is really a serious concern of mine. Edited February 20, 2010 by Opry99er Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+retroclouds Posted February 20, 2010 Share Posted February 20, 2010 I had thought about it--- but I am completely broke right now. I don't even have the cash to buy the Multicart I ordered from Jon. . It will probably have to wait til I get back from the road at the end of March. Which brings up an interesting question... Once we get entrenched in the "conversion", what kind of timeframe are we looking at for completion of the assembly version? I could certainly "find" the money (get someone to front it to me) if I started a cartridge pre-order list and had a timeframe... It's a terrible way to go about this process, but having no cash, it is really a serious concern of mine. Yeah, it would be great to be able to buy cartridge PCB's when you need them. But I'm already very glad that Jon is organizing a group buy. Unfortunatly he hasn't found anyone yet who is willing to handle shipping/payment. The TI community definitly is in need for a publisher. I'd say that the game should be fully ready by the end of August. Debugging and testing does take a considerable amount of time. Unfortunatly for me its also hard to give a reliable target date estimation. Work is keeping me busy and as it pays all my bills it has to be my top-priority I wish I could spend more time on game development. Anyway, enough serious stuff now. I do am looking forward doing this conversion and we'll manage it somehow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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