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Hi. Although we two are 'enemys' on the contest I really have to admit and fair-play that I really like your game.

Based on Popmilo PAL Blending, then Xuel tries and my tries of getting a Xenon like with some little blending I had an idea for these Modes: it can be 1:1 or 2:1 blending with GR.9 4:1.

I have some ideas for the next year ABBUC's Software Games Contest and of course I would like to same as this year work with Xuel (and with another guy that sadly didn't got time to finish the game in time...) but because you already have the code and the editor for these gfxs blending mixing modes then if you want and have time during the year then send me a message because maybe we can get another type of game 'never seen on A8' ;) !...

:)

When you say 'PAL system only', do you mean the code checks for PAL GTIA or will this run on an NTSC machine with a PAL ANTIC swap?

 

Well, xeen should answer that question, but AFAIK there is no code checks for PAL GTIA.

We were concentrated on fully-working PAL version, we don't have NTSC machines. The game doesn't work on emulator in NTSC mode, but we didn't have time to analyse it, sorry.

 

Well, xeen should answer that question, but AFAIK there is no code checks for PAL GTIA.

We were concentrated on fully-working PAL version, we don't have NTSC machines. The game doesn't work on emulator in NTSC mode, but we didn't have time to analyse it, sorry.

 

Well, I look forward to trying it, and I'll report back. Thanks.

"Assembloids XE" is the first game in the history of 8-bit Atari which uses a combination of low resolution graphics mode (16 luminances in pixel ratio 4x1) and high resolution mode. Graphics mode is changed every second line.

Looking really good!

How is changing graphics modes done ?

Is all the cpu time on visible part of screen used for it or did you manage to squeeze something else in between register changes ?

It would likely be a Mode F screen or possibly Mode 2 - all that's needed is GPRIOR toggled between a GTIA and normal graphics mode per scanline, only 1 register store.

 

So long as colour changes aren't required, fairly cheap. The game appears to be in Narrow mode so a DLI per scanline could leave spare cycles, even in Normal mode a single register change could probably leave some cycles.

Of course this is assuming bitmap mode where DLIs can occur per scanline.

 

Option 2 might be to use Timer IRQ as Project M (Wolf3D clone/demo) does - since the timer can be synced to whatever cycle we wish on a scanline, for single register changes it can be a much cheaper method than DLIs since NOP or WSYNC delays can usually be dispensed with.

 

Option 3 of course is just use a kernal and waste the spare cycles - given it seems a fairly simple game with not too much demand, this "easy" method would be totally valid.

  • Like 1

All screen scanlines with always the same PFs (PF1 and PF2 as colour0 dark and light are used on 1:1 scanlines) and BAK set to [00] Black.

It uses GR.11 in the 4:1 scanlines so it's only one change per scanline by 'poking' 623,255 to enable on the 4:1 scanlines and disable on the 1:1 scanlines. There isn't a single colour register changing in any of the screen scanlines.

 

Do you think that this could work for a vertical scrolling game (maybe have the two modes scanlines fixed and vertically scrolled two scanlines each frame)?

Does VScrolling (like HScrolling has for how many pixels we want to scroll each time) also has different values to get other than one scanline scroll per frame?

 

P.s.- Sorry to this 'Out of Topic'. I promise that it's my last question.

Edited by José Pereira

So we have finished on the second place in the ABBUC contest - the difference was only 6 points... I think I should join the club next year and vote :)

 

You can find the links to the games on AtariOnLine.pl (including "Assembloids XE").

Edited by +Adam+
  • Like 5

Thank you!

 

Just had a go at this on my 800, and I love it! Well worth the months-long wait.

The graphics technique looked cool on the YouTube teaser, and is amazing on real hardware.

 

It does get fast, quickly... wish there was an adjustable difficulty setting, but otherwise perfect. I'd buy this on a cart.

Option 3 of course is just use a kernal and waste the spare cycles - given it seems a fairly simple game with not too much demand, this "easy" method would be totally valid.

Yeah, easy does it ;)

 

Simple register changes and wsyncing...

 

I keep telling myself: "Keep it simple stupid" :)

Here's an unofficial, quick and dirty, use-at-your-own-risk, probably broken hack to get Assembloids XE to not crash on NTSC but it ruins the lower part of the screen and some of the top too:

 

asem-ntsc-hack.xex

 

The last six bytes of the official version are just replaced with the following:

    org $2884
    jsr $2000
kern1 equ $150A
kern2 equ $1A30
    org $2000
    mva #$4C kern1
    mwa #$180D kern1+1
    mva #$4C kern2
    mwa #$1D90 kern2+1
    jmp $9700
    run $2840
Edited by Xuel
  • Like 1
  • 1 month later...

A couple of family members have played Assembloids XE they enjoyed the game but found it way too hard (fast). Please can we have a difficulty option or perhaps another version with a longer timer?

:)

I do not have that problem but I still am convinced that there is a (small) bug in the difficulty progression.

 

Sometimes (without completing a full face in one color) the game slows down.

Sometimes out of the sudden the games is unplayable fast (the timer goes from top to bottom within less than a second)

And sometimes completing a full face in one color does not lead at all into slowing down.

 

So: the speed of the game does not behave as described or as could be expected.

 

But: even with this in mind I find this a brilliant game which might be very hard for novice players, but it is really challenging for die hard joystick breakers :)

Sometimes (without completing a full face in one color) the game slows down.

 

The "temperature" of the thermometer rises with the number of faces collected (but can be reduced by FULL FACES when "mercury column" is not low).
BUT the speed of the game depends also on the number of tiles currently visible on screen - sorry that I didn't make it clear.
That's why sometimes the speed decreases after collecting "normal" FACE.

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