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Mockup of what MR. TURTLE might look like on intellivision


digress

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It's nice. I still miss line numbers :(

 

So enable them in your text editor :)

 

The only reason line numbers existed was that we didn't have good ways of moving up and down in files back then. So it was easier to just be able to type 500 PRINT"HI" and hit RETURN, instead of using some clunky, tedious interface.

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I have one for EditPlus. I believe I also have one for TextMate for the Mac.

It might be a good idea if they were added to the contrib folder, with a note in the manual about using a real editor with these style configs. Or as a section added to the first post of the pinned IntyBASIC thread.

 

I had a quick look at the features of EditPlus, but does it allow you to map a key combo to launch a batch file with a parameter (say current file name?)

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In the SDK thread there was some mention of editor extentions. Whether those belong as contribs in the SDK distribution or in the main IntyBASIC distro, it is up to respective maintainers. I can upload my most recent version of intybasic-mode.el at a later point, although I feel I'm in great minority when it comes to choice of editor.

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-o21 I'll try that. And deliberately split up the tiles before hand.

 

I'm not quite sure of the limits yet.

 

What is the max cart rom size? Is the full limit available to intybasic. I found someone mentiontioned 48KB.

 

Intellivoice... if I added intellivoice sfx would it still run if someone did not have the intellivoice hooked up.

 

 

 

 

You'll have to park many of your favorite ColecoVision techniques at the door but you'll enjoy yourself doing it thanks to IntyBASIC.

 

Another trick you'll want to learn is used by Worm Womper for the many moving critters...they aren't MOBs, but pre-shifted GRAM cards.

 

[Click to animate]

attachicon.gifrocks.gif

This is from a long time ago so isn't optimized by any means, but shows the MOBless technique.

attachicon.gifRocksgrid.png

 

You can also mass change/animate large areas by DEFINE/DEFINE ALTERNATE a gram card or two like the waterfalls in the ZYX video I posted last weekend.

 

Another trick is plan ahead and break up your 64 cards into logical sets of stuff

For Example:

0-9 mob characters for player (and the effectiveness can be extended by redefining cards on the fly, say walking animation vs falling, only one animation set needs to be in the GRAM at a time)

11-20 visible enemies (same trick as above)

21-63-background cards.

 

In this case, limit your screens drawn in a paint program to 40ish unique cards.

Using IntyColor, you can make a bunch of different backgrounds, each with different card sets for slots 21-63, use the parameter -o21 when generating the screens so you won't have worry about interfering with the first 20 cards reserved for player and critters.

 

 

 

 

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-o21 I'll try that. And deliberately split up the tiles before hand.

 

I'm not quite sure of the limits yet.

 

What is the max cart rom size? Is the full limit available to intybasic. I found someone mentiontioned 48KB.

 

Intellivoice... if I added intellivoice sfx would it still run if someone did not have the intellivoice hooked up.

 

 

 

 

 

Without using bankswitching, I believe the supported memory map reaches 42K.

 

However, those "K"s are "Kilo-DECLEs," not "Kilo-Bytes." A "DECLE" is the conventional unit of Intellivision system memory, which in the old days was a 10-bit word (and hence the name), but nowadays cartridge ROM uses 16-bit words.

 

Therefore, in the Intellivision community, when people mention "K"s, they are referring to thousands of 16-bit words.

 

So, 42K is equivalent to a roomy 84KB.

 

As for using the Intellivoice, like most older systems, Intellivision hardware devices are mapped to the memory model, so accessing the Intellivoice is done my reading and writing to specific memory locations.

 

Obviously, if those locations are unamapped, you won't get the results you expect when accessing them. Most of the time this can be done without consequence (e.g., writing to an Intellivoice register when the unit is not plugged in will just do mostly nothing). However, it is typical to detect the device first and skip processing when it's not there.

 

I think IntyBASIC takes care of that for you.

 

dZ.

Edited by DZ-Jay
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-o21 I'll try that. And deliberately split up the tiles before hand.

 

I'm not quite sure of the limits yet.

 

What is the max cart rom size? Is the full limit available to intybasic. I found someone mentiontioned 48KB.

 

Intellivoice... if I added intellivoice sfx would it still run if someone did not have the intellivoice hooked up.

 

 

 

 

Oscars Intellivoice code is smart enough to detect and fail silently and gracefully if the device is missing.

 

I wouldn't use the Intellivoice for this game.

Current support is only for robotic Allophone based speech even tho the device supports custom samples.

You might be better off looking at the thread "Speech without Intellivoice" it works without the Intellivoice and works best with higher pitches and cartoony speech, perfect for a cartoon Turtle.

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I added a smoother video to the first post now with more MOB's

 

I'm temporarily borrowing the intv demo music til I get around to making some music to go in.

 

Not sure what i'm going to do with the score yet. I seen someone else scroll it along and let it wrap around or maybe the more sensible choice would be to leave it off the screen til you die...or win.

 

Air gauge though would have to still be there so I'll have to figure out something sensible there. Perhaps the animated tiles would be best here.

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I never cared about the score on the ColecoVision version, not showing it all the time wouldn't be a problem, as you said, show it on death or level change.

Air is more important, and that you should be able to hold in place despite scrolling with some effort.

Super Cobra for the Intellivision handles Score/Fuel in an interesting way that embraces the limitations of the hardware scrolling implementation:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qybwmut6gBY

 

On the other hand, the coleco version doesn't scroll, you might make it easier on yourself if you flick-screen, you might even make the game bigger and add levels/enemies and zones not in the Coleco version, I don't think a strict port is necessary, it would be nice if the two versions were similar but different.

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Yeah that's the scrolling scoreboard i seen. Air is the only essential indication. Could be done with color coding mr turtle though. He's getting blue then purple. This might be a better idea.

 

Yeah if I go any further it won't be a straight port. I think the scrolling would ensure that actually even though flick-screen would be easier.

 

I was thinking of a combination of flick-screen & scrolling. So basically an elongated room which is one or 2 rooms styles attached with the same tile set so you can scroll through it but say after 3-4 repeats max you can exit the room on the top/bottom left or right then flick screen to a new area.

 

I would have to enable scrolling to the left as well in case you wanted to come back later. perhaps with a key or something

 

 

I never cared about the score on the ColecoVision version, not showing it all the time wouldn't be a problem, as you said, show it on death or level change.

Air is more important, and that you should be able to hold in place despite scrolling with some effort.

Super Cobra for the Intellivision handles Score/Fuel in an interesting way that embraces the limitations of the hardware scrolling implementation:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qybwmut6gBY

 

On the other hand, the coleco version doesn't scroll, you might make it easier on yourself if you flick-screen, you might even make the game bigger and add levels/enemies and zones not in the Coleco version, I don't think a strict port is necessary, it would be nice if the two versions were similar but different.

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If you avoid putting text and can get away with horizontal bar gauges, then you should be able to counteract the scrolling by cycling and shifting the cards in the opposite direction.

 

The GROM provides an assortment of lines and partially obscured blocks that can serve this purpose so you don't have to rely on GRAM and thus avoid putting yourself in the critical path of the vertical blanking interrupt.

 

dZ.

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  • 3 weeks later...

So I got the scrolling figured out including updating the sprites & other moving tiles that are affected by it. The square in the upper left is just a test of what the bubbles are about to collide with. I havn't programmed the bubbles to avoid the land yet.

 

I've added some bubbles coming from Mr Turtle but I'm having a hard time figuring out how to get them to print on the same blue bg

 

I'm using:

Print at SCREENPOS(bubble_x(i),bubble_y(i)) color $1003,"\318"

 

I've tried $0003,$2003,$3003 etc and other methods and I can get it on a red bg or a black bg

 

here is my mode statement:

MODE 0,1,5,6,7

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

I added a few new things:

 

can now duck into turtle shell to protect yourself

rep[laced tile pitchforks with sprite pitchfork

can now kill the shark or bird

can now swim up when underwater

rocks & landscape elements are now solid and your can't walk through them anymore

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TV1jWJjKodw&feature=youtu.be

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It's looking very good. I think some of the graphics could use a little refinement (and some are very charming!), and perhaps make the animation smoother by adding more frames; but it's looking nice. :)

 

Great work so far. I look forward to the continued progress of this game.

 

dZ.

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Are you talking about the floor detail or lack there of? Open to suggestions. I have been somewhat limited in what I can achieve compared to what I want as I'm still getting familiar with what the limits are. I need to get better music too.

 

I want to make these short scenes as playable as possible then add some new elements and areas depending on room.

 

I noticed a few annoying things such as when jumping he jumped the bubbles all the way up to the top of the screen. I need it to ignore the bubbles which I have a routine to do it with for the predfined tiles but the bubbles are being redrawn in each frame of animation so I need to check for all four tile variations to ignore.

 

 

It's looking very good. I think some of the graphics could use a little refinement (and some are very charming!), and perhaps make the animation smoother by adding more frames; but it's looking nice. :)

Great work so far. I look forward to the continued progress of this game.

dZ.

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Looking good. Just a few tips. I would recommend have the camera continue to pan after the character stop, and then stop panning when the camera is orientated properly so you can see ahead and not outpace the screen. Number Jumble have that issue. I would recommend put 'wait' in the main game loop to keep the game consistently at 60 fps and keep it from going too fast. It's like delay(1) for Colecovision programming.

 

The game is shaping up nicely. Keep up the good work.

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Yeah, good notice. Originally I had him scrolling along at the exact same speed as the screen. I found he could get stuck too easiily if he missed a platform so I left it so he could go back left a little to correct the missed jump

 

Later I made it so he moves twice as fast as the screen scroll up until he reaches I think 100 pixels then can go no further til the screen moves. So essentially can now only move 1 pixel instead of 2 if you go too far to the right.

 

So this made a wired problem where as I can easily jump the lava pit normally but if you are too far to the right you can't make that jump til the screen scroll catches up.

 

So i'll try to deal with that for sure. Maybe I'll fix him in the 1/3 of the way over and allow scrolling in both directions. Or maybe just scroll twice as fast when he reaches the far right.

 

 

Looking good. Just a few tips. I would recommend have the camera continue to pan after the character stop, and then stop panning when the camera is orientated properly so you can see ahead and not outpace the screen. Number Jumble have that issue. I would recommend put 'wait' in the main game loop to keep the game consistently at 60 fps and keep it from going too fast. It's like delay(1) for Colecovision programming.

 

The game is shaping up nicely. Keep up the good work.

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