sometimes99er Posted August 19, 2014 Share Posted August 19, 2014 (edited) I haven’t run much MSX in emulation, nor Colecovision or the early Sega stuff, all of which share the 9918A. One thing though for sure, the MSX Basic seems quite powerful, at least much more powerful compared with TI Basic, - at least with speed and direct resource access. Floating point accuracy seems a bit irrelevant, but there you go. Did MSX Basic directly support integer based variables for extra speed ? As I remember it, or as I think I encountered it, I had access to near arcade quality stuff with my TI-99/4A and later with my Amiga. When Texas Instruments abandoned the home computer, I had already touched on the VIC-20 (and a friend had the ZX Spectrum ), was very interested in the Memotech and MSX, but indeed had to look at what was becoming popular and went for the C64. The original problems with the CPU for the TI-99 and later the sale of the 9918A for use in other systems, led, as I heard, some TI employees to explore how it interfaced with the Z80. Instead of going for the TI-99/8, maybe a solution with both 9900 and Z80A and perhaps even compatibility with MSX specs might have been a way to go. Even right out MSX only specs with a new TI-80/5A could maybe have saved the day, or at least made it possible to hang on just a few more years. Anyway, enough speculations, on to your game. The tunnel effect is more colorful than the ones I made up, but for 3D effect, I think yours a bit uninteresting, bordering on dull. Of course the 6, 7 or 8 frames put a limit to what can be done, but honestly, your game should have something more stunning. The asteroids seems rather “squared”. Not the common asteroid you run into. Is it ? Blasteroids had better “rock” feel to it. As for the “main ship”. It looks like it’s going to have 3 colors (black, white and gray) ? Also it seems as if it would have a flip effect when turning on the vertical axis ? I think there’s much too much emphasis on the rocket nozzles, which should (with the emphasis) be accompanied with some gas/exhaust. Did you pull/get inspired from any other game ? Hope you take this as constructive criticism. Better to get something done than not doing anything. Edited August 20, 2014 by sometimes99er Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artrag Posted August 19, 2014 Share Posted August 19, 2014 (edited) Hi, thanks for the feedback I haven’t run much MSX in emulation, nor Colecovision or the early Sega stuff, all of which share the 9918A. One thing though for sure, the MSX Basic seems quite powerful, at least much more powerful compared with TI Basic, - at least with speed and direct resource access. Floating point accuracy seems a bit irrelevant, but there you go. Did MSX Basic directly support integer based variables for extra speed ? As I remember it, or as I think I encountered it, I had access to near arcade quality stuff with my TI-99/4A and later with my Amiga. When Texas Instruments abandoned the home computer, I had already touched on the VIC-20 (and a friend had the ZX Spectrum ), was very interested in the Memotech and MSX, but indeed had to look at what was becoming popular and went for the C64. The original problems with the CPU for the TI-99 and later the sale of the 9918A for use in other systems, led, as I heard, some TI employees to explore how it interfaced with the Z80. Instead of going for the TI-99/8, maybe a solution with both 9900 and Z80A and perhaps even compatibility with MSX specs might have been a way to go. Even right out MSX only specs with a new TI-80/5A could maybe have saved the day, or at least made it possible to hang on just a few more years. I cannot tell about the comparison with TI basic, anyway mxs basic supports also integers and single precision variables (I% is a int, I! is single precision, i# is float double precision) and has a good number of functions for accessing video, floppy disk and audio. From what I've seen the TMS9900 wasn't bad by itself, the problem was the architecture chosen by TI for the TI-99/8 with only 128 words and access to the VRAM for the rest (a pain also on msx). The tunnel effect is more colorful than the ones I made up, but for 3D effect, I think yours a bit uninteresting, bordering on dull. Of course the 6, 7 or 8 frames puts a limit to what can be done, but honestly, your game should have something more stunning. The asteroids seems rather “squared”. Not the common asteroid you run into. Is it ? Blasteroids had better “rock” feel to it. As for the “main ship”. It looks like it’s going to have 3 colors (black, white and gray) ? Also it seems as if it would have a flip effect when turning on the vertical axis ? I think there’s much too much emphasis on the rocket nozzles, which should (with the emphasis) be accompanied with some gas/exhaust. Did you pull/get inspired from any other game ? About the tunnel, it was a test to see what can be done in multicolor mode, willing to go for something more interesting one should go for a different solution. Cutting down the colors probably one could also go for in screen 1 (graphic mode) storing in VRAM 7 tile banks for 7 frames, but in that case you will need to update the pnt (extra 768 bytes) each time you change tile bank. As sprite definitions for rolling rocks and main ship have to be updated by brute force by the CPU, I'm not sure the TI would be able to cope with this solution (at least not updating everything in the same frame, but actually it is not a problem, one could update sprite in odd frames and tiles in even frames...) About the graphic I just ripped a couple of pictures from internet and converted them, consider them placeholders. What I wanted to have is a spinning rock to zoom according to distance and a ship seen from the right angles . Edited August 19, 2014 by artrag 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artrag Posted August 20, 2014 Share Posted August 20, 2014 (edited) Some experiments on zoomed asteroids and less dithering for tunnel (disk included) tunnel.dsk Edited August 20, 2014 by artrag 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sometimes99er Posted August 20, 2014 Share Posted August 20, 2014 Finally got the asteroid animation. Had to skip the first 250 frames, and yet, with all the data, it turns fluidly but then steps in the 3D perspective. Anyway, nice try. The 3D tunnel effect is, well, no offense, but the extra color seems almost like random distortion and things are maybe too "fixed" - not fluid. I think my "quick and dirty" is still better for effect, yet I'm expecting something more cool can be done. Can't promise I'll find time to look into some. Sorry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMole Posted August 20, 2014 Share Posted August 20, 2014 I actually think the tunnel looks rather good, at least as far as visibility of the effect is concerned. You might want to play with the chosen colors a little bit, I figure it might look better if you stick to a specific "base color", if you know what I mean. We have three shades of green, for instance. That combined with black might allow for some interesting Matrix alike effects. I agree with sometimes99er though, the asteroid animation could do with a re-distribution of depth changes. Now it looks like you have then linearly distributed along the Z-axis, while it would probably work better if you afforded more different sizes to the closer-by version of the sprite, letting the further-away version rely on less different sprite definitions. Having said all that, this looks like an awesome project you're working on, and I'm very happy that you're cross-posting this on atariage here! I think we should have more of these discussions with the larger "9918" community, especially now that with things like C compilers and PC tools cross-platform development becomes a real possibility and it should help boost homebrew output for both communities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artrag Posted August 20, 2014 Share Posted August 20, 2014 thanks for the feedback 1) I was thinking to develop in C the project (I use HiTech cross compiler for z80) this could allow an easier reuse for TI development 2) I will add intermediate scales for the asteroid for closer range 3) I will try a gradient of green or blue bands 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMole Posted August 20, 2014 Share Posted August 20, 2014 1) I was thinking to develop in C the project (I use HiTech cross compiler for z80) this could allow an easier reuse for TI development Awesome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artrag Posted August 20, 2014 Share Posted August 20, 2014 Some more tunnel tests using sometimes99er's gifs (msx) disks included tunnel _stardust2.dsk tunnel _stardust1.dsk 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sometimes99er Posted August 21, 2014 Share Posted August 21, 2014 Looking good. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. As I said the animations were just quick and dirty as in raw and experimental.It seems as if you're quite capable of color reduction yourself. Maybe the 6 Stardust frames is a way to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asmusr Posted August 21, 2014 Author Share Posted August 21, 2014 I like the white and grey one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artrag Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 (edited) This is the best conversion I had after some attempts with different color schemes and different resizing methods in matlab. Using up/down arrows you can also change the speed of the tunnel (data files are in the msx disk). I did also another experiment (test4) tunnel _stardust3.dsk tunnel _stardust4.dsk Edited September 1, 2014 by artrag 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artrag Posted October 11, 2014 Share Posted October 11, 2014 A similar (low) resolution used in demos on ZX Spectrum 128K Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
am1933 Posted October 11, 2014 Share Posted October 11, 2014 A similar (low) resolution used in demos on ZX Spectrum 128K I assume that this demo was done on a Spectrum with a ULAplus, there seems to be too much in the way of Colour and shades for a stock Spectrum 128? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artrag Posted October 11, 2014 Share Posted October 11, 2014 (edited) Not very expert on ZX, but IIRC ulaplus has 64 colors shown 16 at time Edited October 11, 2014 by artrag Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RXB Posted October 11, 2014 Share Posted October 11, 2014 That Not very expert on ZX, but IIRC ulaplus has 64 colors shown 16 at time This is exactly line Quinton's game Bachsteine and even has a editor to make your own maps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted October 11, 2014 Share Posted October 11, 2014 Not very expert on ZX, but IIRC ulaplus has 64 colors shown 16 at time I claimed dibs on this one, already Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+hloberg Posted October 11, 2014 Share Posted October 11, 2014 speaking of Bachsteine, anyone got a copy? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willsy Posted October 11, 2014 Share Posted October 11, 2014 speaking of Bachsteine, anyone got a copy? It's here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page, then scroll up about 4 games. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+hloberg Posted October 11, 2014 Share Posted October 11, 2014 Doa! Just looked at that site, can't believe i missed it, thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RXB Posted October 12, 2014 Share Posted October 12, 2014 DSK1.zip speaking of Bachsteine, anyone got a copy? This is a copy or all Quinton's games I run from RXB and Classic99 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+hloberg Posted October 12, 2014 Share Posted October 12, 2014 (edited) DSK1.zip This is a copy or all Quinton's games I run from RXB and Classic99 Thanks. Now match them up to docs, except Warzone. I'm beginning to think no docs were ever made for Warzone 1 & 2. Edited October 12, 2014 by hloberg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RXB Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 Thanks. Now match them up to docs, except Warzone. I'm beginning to think no docs were ever made for Warzone 1 & 2. Naw I have a copy of that too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+hloberg Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 Naw I have a copy of that too. You mean you have a copy of Warzone I & II booklets? If so could you scan them (that is if it won't damage the books). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RXB Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 You mean you have a copy of Warzone I & II booklets? If so could you scan them (that is if it won't damage the books). No just WarZone II never had a copy of WarZone (1) they are still in the plastic bag with the 5 1/4 disk too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 You mean you have a copy of Warzone I & II booklets? If so could you scan them (that is if it won't damage the books). No just WarZone II never had a copy of WarZone (1) they are still in the plastic bag with the 5 1/4 disk too. Don't tease us Rich, post that puppy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.