CV C programming in 2020

[+5-11under]

I've got a few programs from years ago that I'd like to work on again. They were programmed for Hi-Tech C, compiled using CCI, and using Getput1, with the wonderful programming guide from Newcoleco. Life was good. Unfortunately, none of these old files work now, with my Windows 10/64 machine. I even fired up our really old laptop, and it's bloody slow, but is also Windows 10/64.

 

I've tried the instructions from the Mowleco development page, and also an old one from Newcoleco here, with no success (even trying to compile/link Newcoleco's simple programs).

 

Compiling with CCI2 seems to work, but the linking fails, looking for crtcv.ihx and then crtcv.lnk.

Compiling with CCI3 seems to fail, depending on the file, sometimes getting a memory error.

 

So, is there a dummies guide or defacto standard guide anywhere to get the programming environment 100% working again?

[digress]

Hi ,

 

This should work still:

\

 

I personally use SDCC with the coleco libs but I use it with the cygwin64 terminal

 

https://www.cygwin.com/

 

then you can install the gnu make and you can just use the cygwin command line to compile the programs

[Kiwi]

7 hours ago, digress said:

I personally use SDCC with the coleco libs but I use it with the cygwin64 terminal

 

https://www.cygwin.com/

 

then you can install the gnu make and you can just use the cygwin command line to compile the programs

Cygwin is great.  I copy and paste the command into my source code as comments so I don't have to type it into it again.  Pretty much necessary to me if I need to make a game bigger than 32KB along cvmkcart.exe from Alek Maul.  Oh yeah, you'll need to install Java to run CCI3 and the Graphic Toolkit.

The other reason I can think of is the strict Window 10 permission thingy.  I'm still on Window 7.  This laptop is way to old for Window 10 and I'm pretty sure it'll kill it. One day in the future, I'm going to try to get it working on a new Window 10 computer. 

[youki]

I'm still using old newcoleco's devkit on windows 10  based on SDCC.

 

3 years, i have converted the Ghost'n Zombie source that was done with Hi-Tech C to SDCC in order to make Knight'n More.

 

Conversion did not require lot of changes but however few. (the main ones were just to add some "Const" in front of some declaration ) ,  The rom generated was smaller with SDCC than Hitech-C , but performance in code execution was better with Hitech-C.

 

I'd just suggest, you put hand on a newcoleco devkit based on SDCC , and convert your C sources.  The environment will be the same. 

 

Or you can take another devkit ,  AlekMaul created a devkit recently , you should find the link somewhere in this forums.

 

[alekmaul]

yeah, i did an update of newcoleco kit to create a brand new one, addind extra features, examples, complete makefile compilation toolchain & tools (with ple, rle and dan1 compression). It comes also with Phoenix features too.

You can find everything here : https://github.com/alekmaul/pvcollib

And in the thread dedicated to the lib

Edited March 10, 2020 by alekmaul

[+5-11under]

6 hours ago, alekmaul said:

yeah, i did an update of newcoleco kit to create a brand new one, addind extra features, examples, complete makefile compilation toolchain & tools (with ple, rle and dan1 compression). It comes also with Phoenix features too.

You can find everything here : https://github.com/alekmaul/pvcollib

And in the thread dedicated to the lib

I've downloaded it, but I'm not sure what to do next... how to compile, link?

[digress]

https://github.com/alekmaul/pvcollib/wiki/Installation-and-helloworld-example

 

3 hours ago, 5-11under said:

I've downloaded it, but I'm not sure what to do next... how to compile, link?

 

[+bhall408]

Is there a "ready To Go" Mac Coleco toolchain available/posted anywhere?

[+5-11under]

Okay, I've downloaded pvcollib.

When I run the build_pvcollib.bat file, I get what's shown in the picture below.

If it worked, I'm still not sure how to compile/link the helloworld program.

[digress]

i got the libraries to work fine. I compiled and tested several of the samples.

 

I would suggest you put it at c:\colecodev      so it lessons the chance of any part of the setup failing.

 

then add 

c:\colecodev\bin

&

c:\colecodev\

to your path in windows 

 

then you can go to the directory of say hello.c and using a command prompt and type "make" and it should compile without needing anything else.

 

I usually drop in a simple batch file into each project I work on (so drop go.bat into hello.c directory and double click it whenever you want to compile) once the paths have been added so i can run it from windows by double clicking it. go.bat just opens a command prompt, runs make, pauses so you can read the results, hit enter and it'll close and the built files will now be there in the directory.

 

go.bat

Edited March 11, 2020 by digress

[Kiwi]

4 hours ago, 5-11under said:

Okay, I've downloaded pvcollib.

When I run the build_pvcollib.bat file, I get what's shown in the picture below.

If it worked, I'm still not sure how to compile/link the helloworld program.

I noticed that the C:/path/ are slash and not backslash \
Possibly, C:\Users\Dell\Desktop\CV-Prog\bin\make -f Makelib clean will work with the backslash.  I could be wrong.

 

[alekmaul]

yeah, strange, will investigate this issue ...

and yes, as digress said, i tested it with a directory without space, no more than 8 char, colecodev ..., strange that col_rules can't be find

 

 

Edited March 11, 2020 by alekmaul

[+5-11under]

I was able to compile and run a few of the samples, using c:\colecodev (and adding the \bin also to the path).

Thanks all!

 

[+5-11under]

I'm noticing now that none of my commands work, such as:

• delay(12);
• update_sprites(1,0x1B00);
• print_at(xx,yy,str(aa));

I guess these all have to be converted to the format required by console.h, sprite.h, etc.?

 

[Kiwi]

Put these in C:\Program Files (x86)\SDCC\include folder.

In source code on the top,

#include <coleco.h>
#include <getput1.h>

The generated program start with the screen turned off.  Make sure have screen_on(); to turn screen on.

coleco.h getput1.h

[+5-11under]

21 hours ago, Kiwi said:

Put these in C:\Program Files (x86)\SDCC\include folder.

In source code on the top,

#include <coleco.h>
#include <getput1.h>

The generated program start with the screen turned off.  Make sure have screen_on(); to turn screen on.

coleco.h 7.08 kB · 1 download getput1.h 6.21 kB · 1 download

I tried some version of that, and massaging all the "byte"s to "u8"s, and some more work, but to no avail. I think at this point I'm treating PVCollib as a great solution for new programs, but for updating and working on old programs, I'm going to us an old computer that I've got - some kind of Pentium with Windows 98 (my parallel port machine).

[Kiwi]

Maybe place the .h files at the same place as your source code.  I may try to see if I can get it working on the Window 10 laptop out of curiosity.  Window 10 have more strict permission setting for program files, so check the sdcc folder permission settings.  Window 98 will work, it'll take a bit longer to compile and require more RAM to more complicated the source code gets.  Mean Santa now near 30KB takes 4-5 minutes to finish compiling.  ChEnemies.c enemy behavior from Challenger source code takes around 20-30 minutes on this machine, while the main source takes 3-4 minutes. It's a i3-2370M CPU at 2.40 Ghz with 4GB of RAM computer.