Tempest Elite coming soon to Atari 8-bit

[peteym5]

Here is my Blitter Routine, I do not see anything that will cause sprites not to be drawn here. I am working on a program that can re-flash specific banks on an AtariMax cartridge. The VBXE routines, and blitter are all inside one AtariMax Bank. It will be a lot faster than trying to re-flash whole cartridges.

DO_BLIT_OBJECTS
      LDA #$00
      STA VBXE_BL_ADR0+00
      LDA #$08
      STA VBXE_BL_ADR0+01
      LDA #$00
      STA VBXE_BL_ADR0+02
     
      LDX #27
NEXT_VBXE_SPRITE                
      LDA Enemy_Type,X
      BPL DO_DRAWSPRITE
SKIP_OTHER_SPRITES        
      JMP NO_DRAWSPRITE
DO_DRAWSPRITE        
      LDA #$00
      STA $CB
      LDA Enemy_Sprite_Number,X
      ASL @
      ROL $CB
      ASL @
      ROL $CB
      STA $CA
      LDA $CB
      CLC
      ADC #$7B
      STA $CB
      LDY #0
      LDA ($CA),Y
      INY        
      STA SPRITEBLITTER+BLT_SOURCELO
      LDA ($CA),Y        
      STA SPRITEBLITTER+BLT_SOURCEMI
      INY
      LDA ($CA),Y
      BMI SETHOZREV
      LDA #1
      BPL SETSTEPX
SETHOZREV
      LDA #255
SETSTEPX
      STA SPRITEBLITTER+BLT_SOURCESX                         
      LDA ($CA),Y
      AND #$3F                
      STA SPRITEBLITTER+BLT_WIDTH_LO
      AND #254
      STA M1                                
      INY        
      LDA ($CA),Y
      STA SPRITEBLITTER+BLT_HEIGHT
      LSR
      LSR
      STA M0                                                  
      LDA EPCOL,X      
      SEC
      SBC M0
      ASL
      STA SPRITEBLITTER+BLT_DESTINLO
      STA DELETESPRITELO,X
      LDA #24  ;##26
      ADC #$00
      STA $C7
      LDA #$00
      STA $C8
      LSR M1
      LDA EVMID,X
      SEC
      SBC M1          
      ASL @
      ROL $C8
      CLC
      ADC $C7                  
      STA SPRITEBLITTER+BLT_DESTINMI
      STA DELETESPRITEMI,X
      LDA $C8
      ADC #0
      STA SPRITEBLITTER+BLT_DESTINHI
      STA DELETESPRITEHI,X
HOLDFORSPRITE
       LDA VBXE_BLITTER_START
       BNE HOLDFORSPRITE
       LDA #$01        
       STA VBXE_BLITTER_START        
NO_DRAWSPRITE
       DEX
       BMI VBXE_SPRITE_DONE
       JMP NEXT_VBXE_SPRITE
VBXE_SPRITE_DONE
	RTS

BLT_CONTROL_BLOCK ; 00
	dta 0x80,0x80,0x03     ; source address
	dta 0x00,0x01          ; source step y
	dta 0x01               ; source step x
	dta 0xF0,0x20,0x00     ; destination address
	dta 0x00,0x02          ; destination step y
	dta 0x01               ; destination step x
	dta 0x0F,0x00          ; width
	dta 0x0F               ; height
	dta 0xFF               ; and mask
	dta 0x00               ; xor mask
	dta 0x00               ; collision and mask
	dta 0x00               ; zoom
	dta 0x00               ; pattern feature
  	dta 0x01               ; control

Edited August 12, 2017 by peteym5

[+remowilliams]

Tempest Elite yet and want to use it for their Atari with VBXE

Officially we only support games that run on stock Atari 8-bit hardware

 

Err.. what?

[peteym5]

What is going on is my 130XE with VBXE started having issues and had not got around getting replacement parts. Also something is going on in my personal life so it may not be repaired until things get settled. So I have to rely on the emulator. I do not see how something can work great on the emulator and not work on real hardware, I cannot be doing something that drastic or there should not be that big of a difference with the emulator. The monitor in Altirra is a great tool that it easy to see what is going on. I only do periodic updates for game images to test on real hardware as it takes time to copy or re-flash, etc.

 

Video61 only wants to support as far as Stock Atari 8-bit machines and not support anything beyond that. Different people have machines configured differently. I want to make this work because future VBXE games are at stake. Has anyone looked into doing Gauntlet or Galaga yet? Those are two games suited for VBXE. I have considered a Secretum Labyrinth game that supports VBXE instead of relying on SuperIRG and Multicolor Player/Missile sprites showing in alternate frames.

[Aking]

What is going on is my 130XE with VBXE started having issues and had not got around getting replacement parts. Also something is going on in my personal life so it may not be repaired until things get settled. So I have to rely on the emulator. I do not see how something can work great on the emulator and not work on real hardware, I cannot be doing something that drastic or there should not be that big of a difference with the emulator. The monitor in Altirra is a great tool that it easy to see what is going on. I only do periodic updates for game images to test on real hardware as it takes time to copy or re-flash, etc.

 

Video61 only wants to support as far as Stock Atari 8-bit machines and not support anything beyond that. Different people have machines configured differently. I want to make this work because future VBXE games are at stake. Has anyone looked into doing Gauntlet or Galaga yet? Those are two games suited for VBXE. I have considered a Secretum Labyrinth game that supports VBXE instead of relying on SuperIRG and Multicolor Player/Missile sprites showing in alternate frames.

i would buy galaga vbxe in a snap !

[peteym5]

Did anybody do a Galaga similar game for the 8-bit?

[tep392]

What is going on is my 130XE with VBXE started having issues and had not got around getting replacement parts. Also something is going on in my personal life so it may not be repaired until things get settled. So I have to rely on the emulator. I do not see how something can work great on the emulator and not work on real hardware, I cannot be doing something that drastic or there should not be that big of a difference with the emulator. The monitor in Altirra is a great tool that it easy to see what is going on. I only do periodic updates for game images to test on real hardware as it takes time to copy or re-flash, etc.

 

Video61 only wants to support as far as Stock Atari 8-bit machines and not support anything beyond that. Different people have machines configured differently. I want to make this work because future VBXE games are at stake. Has anyone looked into doing Gauntlet or Galaga yet? Those are two games suited for VBXE. I have considered a Secretum Labyrinth game that supports VBXE instead of relying on SuperIRG and Multicolor Player/Missile sprites showing in alternate frames.

No questions the advantages of doing primary development on a modern computer using emulation. But the testing in hardware is critical because emulators still have imperfections. They can be subtle, but will still bite you from time to time.

[Jouster]

What is going on is my 130XE with VBXE started having issues and had not got around getting replacement parts. Also something is going on in my personal life so it may not be repaired until things get settled. So I have to rely on the emulator. I do not see how something can work great on the emulator and not work on real hardware, I cannot be doing something that drastic or there should not be that big of a difference with the emulator. The monitor in Altirra is a great tool that it easy to see what is going on. I only do periodic updates for game images to test on real hardware as it takes time to copy or re-flash, etc.

 

Video61 only wants to support as far as Stock Atari 8-bit machines and not support anything beyond that. Different people have machines configured differently. I want to make this work because future VBXE games are at stake. Has anyone looked into doing Gauntlet or Galaga yet? Those are two games suited for VBXE. I have considered a Secretum Labyrinth game that supports VBXE instead of relying on SuperIRG and Multicolor Player/Missile sprites showing in alternate frames.

 

I have never got my VBXE to work reliably

It sometimes boots with a black screen, tried fixing it (unsuccessfully).

I just live with it now, it is just a small annoyance...

[Aking]

Did anybody do a Galaga similar game for the 8-bit?

similar LOTS

 

Galaga can't be done on stock A8

[peteym5]

I had a few people privately try a few things. First thing I did is went through and made sure there was no stray bank switching with PORTB. I added a write to the D080 to D0FF area. that is suppose to reset VBXE. I added a XDLC_END instruction as part of the XDL. Finally rewrote some of the code that sets up the blitter. Still reporting same result with no VBXE sprites. I am not going to post any copies of the ROMS, or any of the source code. I am going to see if I can extract the VBXE section, assemble, and provide tests on a smaller VBXE demo sample program.

 

If someone can make a video of the game playing running in VBXE, maybe I can see something, and what is going on. Does anybody have a turbo freezer and be able to check the registers, memory locations, etc?

[Bryan]

Galaga can't be done on stock A8

 

That's awfully pessimistic. I bet it can be done better than people think. If it weren't a commercial game I'd make a fundraising page and spend the next few months figuring it out.

[Kyle22]

Is Galaga more complicated than Atari Blast?

[Rybags]

I've had a think about Galaga numerous times.

 

It's fair to compare to Galaxian since the mechanics are similar and it's the sequel of that game.

But there's a lot more going on - to be faithful to the original just doing the swelling and contraction of the formation would be a fair amount of work, though my solution to that is to do it a few at a time and use extra inserted lines into a dynamic DList for the vertical component.

 

Then there's the amount of active enemies and bullets, and the colour requirements. And docked player ships and 2 sets of bullets.

 

By taking away from any of those things makes the game less worthy of the original. For a benchmark of what to hope for on old home systems, the NES version is the standard.

[peteym5]

If someone was to use a custom graphics modes to increase on screen colors, it will need to be something that does not hog the CPU. Something that just changes a few Antic/GTIA registers in each from or with a few DLI instruction. Galaga has a lot of animation going on, I thought about using something like Super-IRG Antic 4 with multi-color player/missile graphics multiplexing. Use redefined characters with each pixel shift to make the formation expand and contract. For the stuff moving around, switch them to a player sprite. That will be my standard graphics approach to Galaga or Gauntlet.

 

Stuff like APAC, or mixing in those GTIA modes really hog the CPU and not very practical for games that has a lot of movement like Galaga or Gauntlet. I thought about making something up with APAC that will be a game with a picture that is all shifted around and you need to put everything back in place, Only moving a pointer on the screen.

Edited August 13, 2017 by peteym5

[emkay]

Is Galaga more complicated than Atari Blast?

As long as people adopt the game to a platform in a type it can be handled.

Gyruss is even more complicated than Galaga... and it works very well on the Atari.

[peteym5]

AS OF NOW. I am stopping all public technical and through private messaging support for Tempest Elite reguarding this VBXE issue. I am suspecting some people claiming to have issues with Tempest Elite do not have the original cartridge purchased through Atarisales.com. Tempest Elite will not run correctly from other cartridge types such as The!Cart or Megacart. I am hear by requested anyone with these issues contact Lance at video61@tcq.net for further technical support. He has records of the purchases and we will continue support through email only.

Edited August 13, 2017 by peteym5

[Aking]

paranoid again...

 

you should double check before making such accusations

Edited August 13, 2017 by Aking

[flashjazzcat]

This was a complete waste of time.

[+remowilliams]

This was a complete waste of time.

 

Bright side, for me at least it was money well not spent.

[peteym5]

We will still support people who own Tempest Elite and I will try to resolve this VBXE issue. I will privately work with owners of the game through email and if we figure out what has gone wrong, I will post the solution. If someone has an ideal of something else I can try, let me know.

[Irgendwer]

If someone has an ideal of something else I can try, let me know.

 

Why?

[peteym5]

 

Why?

 

Do the owners of the game want this VBXE issue resolved as quickly as possible?

 

Are there any samples using multiple things going on with the XDL, like VBXE sprites + color map going on at the same time. I am going to start looking into that being a possible cause of the problem this week.

Edited August 13, 2017 by peteym5

[Irgendwer]

 

Do the owners of the game want this VBXE issue resolved as quickly as possible?

 

A Man in a Balloon

A man in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a man below. He descended a bit more and shouted,

"Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."

The man below replied, "You are in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You are between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude."

"You must be an engineer," said the balloonist.

"I am," replied the man, "How did you know?"

"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I am still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help so far."

The man below responded, "You must be a manager."

"I am," replied the balloonist, "but how did you know."

"Well," said the man, "you don't know where you are or where you are going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise that you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. The fact is, you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it's my fault."

[+CyranoJ]

 

Do the owners of the game want this VBXE issue resolved as quickly as possible?

 

 

 

If you actually gave a crap about that you'd have posted a binary and had someone test and fix it overnight. What would be the worst case? A bugged binary in the wild?

[Mclaneinc]

This blame the punters ideal just stinks, its why I can't really deal with Petey, he's a carbon copy of his pal Sal, absolutely paranoid about his work being pirated yet there's no Piracy scene on the Atari 8 bit and has not been for a LOOOOONG time and as always I repeat that the Atari fans are most loyal to their devs, the nearest I think we came was me posting a released demo of one of Teps games for which I have repeatedly apologised for but it wasn't a malicious thing, it was a demo released on an ABBC disk and I didn't realise at the time it was from there and posted it to show the game demo off.

 

And as far as I know that is as near as anyone has come to piracy on here and to be fair that isn't very near, we respect the devs and I've not seen peteys stuff as files and there's no pirate sites but once again petey accuses people of playing pirate copies with ZERO proof and with draws tech support unless you prove you own it....Jebus, how trusting is that.

 

You are your own worst enemy, to be honest your attitude could make it more likely the games get dumped and I make it clear I 1. don't have the skills needed to remove any protection or 2. don't want to get involved in any Atari piracy spreading, my past is still my past, I've got no wants to return to it.. I own one of Peteys games, Venture and that's it, I have no others games in any form be it cart or file of his..FACT.

 

[tep392]

, the nearest I think we came was me posting a released demo of one of Teps games for which I have repeatedly apologised for but it wasn't a malicious thing, it was a demo released on an ABBC disk and I didn't realise at the time it was from there and posted it to show the game demo off.

 

 

 

I totally forgot about this. It was an honest mistake so no worries. I've posted the full binary since then so people are free to make their own carts if they want to.