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AGD Atari Game Designer development


popmilo

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I'm trying to think of a sane color palette for something like Pengo.

Pengo sure looks like an good candidate for testing the framework. Simple gameplay, not many sprites moving at the same time...

Did you see one of modern remakes by Tomaz Kac (Tomcat, made batman remake, new commando on c64 etc...).

http://retrospec.sgn.net/games/penguins/download.htm

 

 

Fortunately I know Tomaz so I'll ask him for original graphics files...

Think it could look good with some kind of automatic conversion, although pixel ratio is different...

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There are two-three more in the process all the time, just hope that coming winter and baby getting older is going to mean more time for coding :)

Good to hear :thumbsup: I understand the juggling of free time between everything for the fun of coding :D

Pengo would be nice btw :)

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Thanks Tezz!

 

I've started work on routine for drawing text. Thought we need it anyways and it's good for debugging code as you can print any kind of information on screen directly without a need to look in debugger.

 

First I thought it's simple. One bit per font pixel, somehow expand it and draw it... Turns out it's complicated :)

 

If it were simple 0-1 fonts it would be simpler, but I want routine that would look like this: draw_text(x,y,color,"some text") where color is 0-8.

 

I have my routine that is ugly and slow in my opinion, and I bet there is a better way.

So... If anyone has suggestion on how to keep font in memory, how to expand its pixels to 4bits, pack them in bytes, mask them on screen and put them in correct color, please let me know ;)

 

ps. Here is font I want to use:

post-14652-0-81057100-1448720275.png

 

pps. I have font in bits and bytes format and can rearrange it in any way needed ...

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Thanks Karolj!

As you suggested it's more important to make it work in one color than to spend couple days making it work in any color :)
We'll leave it for next version...

Till then this is how it looks now:

lda (AD2),y ;read character byte (4 pixels)
tax ;save it in X to use later

lda (AD3),y ;read screen byte
and tab_char_mask_left,x ;clear bits
ora tab_char_ora_left,x  ;Ora color 8 (white)
sta (AD3),y

iny
lda (AD3),y ;read screen byte
and tab_char_mask_right,x ;clear bits
ora tab_char_ora_right,x
sta (AD3),y

mask tables contain $00,$0F,$F0 and $FF.

ora tables contain $00,$08,$80 and $88

 

Drawing one character works. Now just to make drawing multiple chars and new demo will be uploaded.

 

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Here is text drawing in white color.

Routine needs address of text ($FF means end of text line), x and y coordinates on screen (x 0-38, y 0-111).

Each char is two bytes wide (4 pixels) and 5 pixels high. There are 64 characters as shown on image in one of previous posts.

 

 

Each frame everything is redrawn, tiles, sprites and text on top. I've added faster tile drawing (that's for those green tiles in background).

agd.xex

 

ps. Joystick up/down controls number of sprites as before.

 

Next: who knows :)

 

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I don't know if this helps ...

 

There was a trick I used to do in TurboBASIC, with the TEXT command, to get 4-color text to print to a Graphics 15 screen. You would do a POKE 87,8 to fool the OS into thinking it's in Graphics 8, then do the TEXT command with color 1. This basically outputs the current font to the screen, but orders it like a 4-color Antic 4 font.

 

It also works similarly, if you do this in Graphics 9, and POKE 87, 15. You get 20 char wide text, in 4 colors.

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The text font vaguely reminds me of the Intellivision. This font is rounder, but it's the size and blockiness that calls to mind the INTV system font.

Don't know about that, I guess there's not lot of ways 3x5 font can look like and still be readable ;)

 

Font is directly copied from Pico 8 fantasy console project. Original looks much better with 1x1 pixel aspect ratio. Gtia pixels make it look 'fat'.

 

Good for what I need it to do. Debug scripting language and different values from memory at runtime.

There's no real debugging without print! ;)

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Never mind that and thanks for font it will be usefull somwhere else for sure!

 

In the mean time I'm working on Pc part of game maker. So far I have main application running with same 80x112 pixel sized main area. It will be windowed at start with option to go fullscreen by pressing "F". I'm thinking to make sprite editor first as I need it for experiments.

 

Having 9 colors turned out to be great - I'll make it so that you put pixels in sprite editor using keys 1-9 :)

Don't know about others habits but I grew up with C128 and used its sprite editor with similar key use (1-4 for colors in multi color mode). Strange how those habits still kick in immediately after ~30 years, feels so natural :)

 

Other idea is to make pc-gui have three parts:

- script editor

- Graphics editor

- "engine emulator"

 

Thinking about starting emulator every time you want to recompile script made me think about how to make it faster. I'm not sure right now, but looks like writing a simple runtime to emulate executing script and gtia display could be done and worth the effort. We don't need to emulate Atari 100%, just parts of it...

 

It's just an idea, let's do gfx editor first, get some sprites running on screen and make something cool for NYD 2016 ;)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Couple shots from working gui sprite editor:

post-14652-0-86204900-1450735830_thumb.png

post-14652-0-85468800-1450735929_thumb.png

 

In background you can see 'inspirational' screenshot from Atari 7800 Galaga, and in front you can see 8x16 sprite editor with purple as transparent color.

Keyboard arrows control cursor position and pressing numbers from 0-9 plots 9+transparent colored pixel.

 

It's work in progress, plenty more to finish. Hope to release something for your own experiments before New Year :)

Good night!

 

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Couple shots from working gui sprite editor:

attachicon.gifScreenshot from 2015-12-21 22-15-14.png

attachicon.gifScreenshot from 2015-12-21 22-28-21.png

 

In background you can see 'inspirational' screenshot from Atari 7800 Galaga, and in front you can see 8x16 sprite editor with purple as transparent color.

Keyboard arrows control cursor position and pressing numbers from 0-9 plots 9+transparent colored pixel.

 

It's work in progress, plenty more to finish. Hope to release something for your own experiments before New Year :)

Good night!

 

Looks amazing - can you get 10 sprites per row with room for them to "pulse" like Galaga does? I'd think you'd have to try to get these down to 6 pixels wide?

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Looks amazing - can you get 10 sprites per row with room for them to "pulse" like Galaga does? I'd think you'd have to try to get these down to 6 pixels wide?

I've used Galaga as example just because it had small sprites with couple colors and 2x1 pixel ratio :)

I'll leave making Galaga clone to one of you when game maker is usable ;)

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  • 11 months later...

Yes, but last post from 1 year ago :(

Yeah, sorry about that :-o

 

Been busy with RL (baby in the house and stuff like that ;) ). Did think about doing AGD as my Abbuc entry but chosen Monk instead just to increase chances of actually finishing one project :)

 

Was thinking about AGD all this time, have an idea to make it as a native A8 version instead of planned cross-platform desktop PC application.

 

What do you guys think ? Does native A8 version sound like a good idea ?

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Was thinking about AGD all this time, have an idea to make it as a native A8 version instead of planned cross-platform desktop PC application.

 

What do you guys think ? Does native A8 version sound like a good idea ?

 

I think a PC application is better, no? As long as it outputs something that can be run on an Atari 8-bit, I would think that for most people that's a superior way to develop.

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Yeah, sorry about that :-o

 

Been busy with RL (baby in the house and stuff like that ;) ). Did think about doing AGD as my Abbuc entry but chosen Monk instead just to increase chances of actually finishing one project :)

 

Was thinking about AGD all this time, have an idea to make it as a native A8 version instead of planned cross-platform desktop PC application.

 

What do you guys think ? Does native A8 version sound like a good idea ?

 

Yes, yes it does.

 

I love doing more things with my A8!

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Hmmm.... After writing that question yesterday, I remembered posting a poll here with that same topic :)

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/245163-what-type-of-game-maker-would-you-like-for-your-atari/

 

People voted in favor of PC version, although it wasn't a landslide victory... I'll continue making PC version first as it's easier to test stuff in it and work on A8 version when I find out how much memory it would need once graphics and music requirements are "set in stone".

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Personally I'd much, much prefer a PC version.

 

OK, just a personal view here:

 

The Atari is what I remember for old games that I played when I was young.

 

The PC is great for productivity.

 

Considering also that you've started the PC version, this seems the better option. Plus you aren't constrained by any limits of the Atari, you can just keep on adding features as time goes by. I'd hate it that we lose out on features for games, because the editor had to be restricted due to A8 limitations.

 

It will also be easier to link it up with other tools, no one tool is perfect on its own.

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Agreed, will work on a pc version. I'm making it with Python and Qt so it should work on Linux, Windows and Mac.

As I'm working on an NYD contribution now, Agd will have to wait till New Year for further progress ... When I make first functional sprite editor I'll post it here for you guys to test.

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Personally I'd much, much prefer a PC version.

 

OK, just a personal view here:

 

The Atari is what I remember for old games that I played when I was young.

 

The PC is great for productivity.

 

Considering also that you've started the PC version, this seems the better option. Plus you aren't constrained by any limits of the Atari, you can just keep on adding features as time goes by. I'd hate it that we lose out on features for games, because the editor had to be restricted due to A8 limitations.

 

It will also be easier to link it up with other tools, no one tool is perfect on its own.

 

 

From 1984 to 1990 my Atari was my main productivity and game playing machine. To get back and make it productive again (besides word processing with The Last Word) would be really cool. I'm playing around with Action! right now, hoping to make something. I could cross-compile, but I want to work on the A8.

 

That being said, I would be first in line for the AGD no matter what system!

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