Mad Studio

[Gury]

Good find, funkheld! I will include the fix in next update. That happens when not all code is tested

[funkheld]

hello, is ok.

 

greeting

[Gury]

Hi all,

 

New version 0.6 (click here to download):

 

- Display list editor (experimental)

- Missile support

- All 4 players and missiles supported

 

Display list editor is really in experimental stage, currently supporting text mode 0, text mode 1, graphics mode 3 and 8 - blank scan lines. You select mode by clicking one of the options on top of the editor. Any selected mode is shown on the left side bar of the editor. By mouse right-click you can put some text on the screen or set line as 8-blank scan lines. Source code generator helps you make your own display lists for Atari BASIC / Turbo BASIC XL, Mad Pascal and Action! language.

 

Player/missile editor now supports all four players and missiles. Source code generator helps you make your first attempts in using player/missile graphics for languages listed above.

 

skr, when you can, please test windows overlapping and report if there are any changes.

 

 

P.S.:

You are free to comment on the program, report any glitches (also in source code generator), make suggestions...

 

Greetings

 

[+skr]

Great! Overlapping is correct now, new windows pop up in the front. Wonderful.

[peteym5]

I managed to download and test this thing. I had some trouble to getting to run in Windows 10. Is it a direct executable or needs to run from the command prompt? I had to bring up command prompt and type in madstudio to make it run, created a batch file to do it.

 

I have started looking for alternatives for making future game cartridges as I am currently doing everything in assembly with some assistance with some tools like Envision to make the fonts, p/m graphics, etc. I am considering MADS PASCAL to help set up levels, keep score, title splash screens, display texts. Use fast assembly language for the game core VBI in fast and decoding special data.

 

When MADS PASCAL is compiled, does it include a large amount of machine language procedures it has to JSR? I see it calls OS procedures and need to look into what zero page locations my games will be able to use. Currently I do not use much of the OS beyond jump addresses.

Edited April 3, 2017 by peteym5

[Gury]

Hi,

 

program should work like any ordinary Win32 application, run from any file manager. Of course, you can also run it through command prompt, no batches needed.

 

One of supported languages is also Mad Pascal, which is what can be downloaded from here. You can ask the author of Mad Pascal, Tebe, for anything special you want to know about the language.

 

Greetings

[funkheld]

Text mode 1, 2 editor :

 

proc main() >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> is missing with ACTION!

 

 

 

; Print character codes to the screen
 
proc main()            >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>     is missing with ACTION!
 
DEFINE P="PUTD(6,"
 
GRAPHICS(1+16)
 
P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) 
P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) 
P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) 
P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) 
P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) 
P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) 
P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) 
P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) 
P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) 
P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) 
P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) 
P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) 
P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) 
P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) 
P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) 
P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) 
P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) 
P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) 
P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) 
P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) 
P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) 
P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) 
P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) P 32) 
 
DO OD
 
RETURN

[peteym5]

I experimented around with Mad Studio and looks great so far. Many people know that I make games and release them on cartridge that are done in assembler and review suggestions for future games. They also want to get involved with making games also. The issue I run into with assembler is these things take time to program, test, and debug. I have to make sure they are perfect before being burned into an EPROM. A few months ago, I started to look at alternatives, and one day I was looking through the programming section and seen this thing called Mad Pascal. What's that? I know Pascal is an old programming language that's been around since the 70s.

 

I have a few people who would like to make games on the Atari, but do not want to put up with trying to do everything in assembler. Trying to debug a 10,000+ assembler program is difficult. I see how people react when I release a cartridge game, and find even a minor glitch like the screen blinking funny during a transition to another screen. Because It sets DMA + NMI to 0 immediately instead of wait for next frame start. I am satisfied a program runs without crashing. This Mad Pascal/Studio is a good because the programs will be much shorter and easier to track down bugs. It makes it easier for others to become involved.

 

I made a short simple game splash title routine in Pascal back in May, that can keep track of high scores. It gave me an ideal of how easy it will be to use this language and show others what it can do.

Edited July 10, 2017 by peteym5

[Gury]

I am glad you and others are still motivated for doing new games. Atari scene delivers many tools to make things easier, especially on PC platform. Of course, Mad Studio will still be developed. I hope to make more time for new features, especially for game development and other things.

 

Current high priority is IDE support for cross-compilers (command prompt langauges like Mad Pascal, TBXL parser, CC65 - which is waiting for anybody to helping me out with more information), missing graphics mode editors and so on.

Edited July 11, 2017 by Gury

[+skr]

I would love to have the possibility to edit Missiles separately, so that one can create a fifth player out of missiles by having them displayed in connected windows.

[Gury]

Hi skr,

 

Sure, this is useful alternative, the option for making separate missiles and creating fifth player at will (with full source code examples, of course). But then i am not sure if it is useful to have this feature in player editor, too, as it is in current version. What do you think?

[Gury]

Hi, here is new version, which supports creating fifth player (player 4) out of four missiles available. Player/missile editor now includes new tab for editing all four missiles and fifth player in the same time. You draw on separate missile drawing areas to create missiles and see results for fifth player on the right. Drawing area for this player currently does not support direct drawing, which will be available in later release.

 

Source code generator now supports fifth player, with new layout changes. Source code example types now include listing for generating data for fifth player and also full-featured example listing showing 5 players on the screen in the same time.

 

 

Greetings to all Atari fellows!

 

[+skr]

Awesome! Thank you, this is very useful.

[+JAC!]

Hi Gury,

tried it for the first time today. No matter what I do it ends with this, even though compilation to OBX actually works.

Seems it looks for the output in the wrong folder.

 

[Gury]

Hmm, I see. Can you please type your full path name where you generated and compiled the program? To make sure everything goes well, try to compile in examples directory of Mad studio. Please report any changes, thanks.

[Gury]

Hi JAC!

 

Does error continue to show up? Did you try to compile programs in other modules? It seems that output log file fails in some cases, I will investigate.

 

Next version will include option to allow disabling creation of output file.

[+JAC!]

Hi JAC!

 

Does error continue to show up? Did you try to compile programs in other modules? It seems that output log file fails in some cases, I will investigate.

 

Next version will include option to allow disabling creation of output file.

Actually the creation of the output file works fine as you can see in the lower part of the screen shot in the directory where the .pas file is.

But the Studio assumes it's in the installation dir of the Studio (path in the error message box).

[Gury]

Hmm, you are right. But normally it should work in program root directory (tested on Windows 7 env). It seem that Windows 10 can cause some unexpected troubles. I have Windows 10 setup only on work, so I will test it there.

 

In any case, I will change it to create output log file where compiled program is.

[Gury]

New version 0.8

 

Some highlights:

- Support for multiple color players (0 - 1, 2 - 3)

- Player coordinate locator

- Antic mode 5 editor added (same editor as for Antic mode 4)

 

Support for multiple color players (0 - 1, 2 - 3)

 

Now you can join two players to gain one more color by checking Multiple color player (player 0 and 1) / Multiple color player (player 2 and 3). Currently the editor doesn't show the correct color as shown in emulator or real machine. I have to figure out how ORing the colors actually works between two players.

 

When generating code, you must check source code listing type for showing multiple color players. Also, you should manually enter X position of player 1 to the same position of player 0 to get desired results. I included some player data in examples directory (pmc00.spr - pmc03.spr) you can experiment with or make your own.

 

 

Player coordinate locator

 

Third tab of player/missile editor includes player coordinate locator for easy locating the player in playground area. This feature is not yet 100% accurate, but helps anyway.

 

 

Also, Yaron came with the idea for manual entering of value for specific line of player area and seeing results afterwards. I added this feature, so you just click on decimal value on the right side of the player line area and enter the value of your choice.

Greetings

Edited August 28, 2017 by Gury

[Yaron Nir]

Thanks for applying my suggested feature gury!

Looks great. Keep up the excellent work.

Cheers

[Yaron Nir]

there is an access violation. step to reproduce:

1. open mad studio

2. choose graphics editor

3. hold the mouse start drawing and drag the mouse beyond windows boundaries.....

result: access violation

[Gury]

Good find, this is a bug! I will look at it. It probably happens in other editors too.

 

Thanks for other suggestions you listed in mail. Currently player multicolor feature works in the way Atari supports it using priority register. I will check your suggestions about mixing all players together.

[walktari]

Hi Gury,

 

thanks for your great MAD Studio. It is a pleasure to work with it, especially with MAD PASCAL . Here are a few nice to have suggestions you might consider in one of the next versions:

 

- what about "Compile&Start" which allows to start Altirra (or any other emulator) right after the OBX was created?

- what about autosave editor changes before compiling?

- would be nice to have line and column indicators within the editor.

 

 

Cheers

Edited September 6, 2017 by walktari

[Gury]

Hi walktari. I am glad you make some use of it. Great ideas... I added your suggestions on To do list for next releases.

 

I am aware that current text editor is simply simplest editor of all, but I will add new features in time. Current version includes Find text, Replace text, line numbers and some functions not listed in menu operations (which have to be called by key shortcuts), for example undo and copy/paste.

[Gury]

Hi, here is new version of Mad Studio (0.8.1)

 

Brief list of new features:

- Multi-color player editor (sugested by Yaron Nir)

- Added support for missing graphics modes (80 x 48, 160 x 96 and 160 x 192 in 2 colors)

- Line and column indicators in source code editor (suggested by walktari)

- New version of Mad Pascal, Mad Assembler and TurboBasic XL Parser Tool included

- All changes can be found in Main menu Help / Release notes

 

Program is compiled with Lazarus 1.8.0 and Free Pascal Compiler 3.0.4

 

Player editor now includes extra page with two tabs, Normal mode and Multicolor player mode, which allows editing of player pairs (P0 - P1, P2 - P3) simultaneously in one line. Third color may be off in some instances, but it will be fixed in some later release. To use your new players you can use Generate source code button and check multiple color player option, which generates code for you to try and test.

 

All comments and ideas are welcome.

 

Greetings