Trebor Posted May 16, 2020 Share Posted May 16, 2020 18 hours ago, bizarrostormy said: To be clear, the 7800’s display resolution is either 160x192 or 320x192. The 192 figure is more of a safe area recommendation rather than a technical limit. It is a throw back to 2600 programming under much older displays in which the cut off area was much greater, and visible area much smaller, than newer CRTs of the time during the 7800's heyday. For the NTSC 7800, entire raw output is either 160x240 or 320x240. How many of those 240 lines can been seen on a (CRT) display or actually put into use, even more so, practical use, is a different matter. Dependent on the needs and programming code, enough 'MARIA' cycles have to be available for it. Like its contemporary consoles (And even those of the 16-bit generation), 224 is typically the average number of scanlines that are visible under a NTSC CRT. In harmony with that, there is a great thread on CRT testing via the 2600 console in which the majority of displays in the test averaged 224.2 vertical lines. There are real world examples of well beyond 192 vertical lines being utilized under the 7800. A couple of examples are the original retail games from Froggo. Both Water Ski and Tank Command are 160x224. Regarding homebrew titles, Donkey Kong PK/XM is 160x216. Froggie offers players the choose of a 'compatible' video mode that plays at 320x216 and a 'full' mode which displays at 320x224. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Pat Brady Posted May 16, 2020 Author Share Posted May 16, 2020 Thanks! I knew there were more than 192 non-VBLANK lines but didn’t know — and had wondered — what real CRTs would show. I may use that after I declare extra RAM. I like the idea of allowing players to choose. In my case it may even be feasible to let them choose an exact number (within some range) of lines. For christo930, I don’t think this stuff fundamentally affects the answers to your questions about cartridge RAM. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fultonbot Posted May 18, 2020 Share Posted May 18, 2020 Very impressive!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jase Posted May 19, 2020 Share Posted May 19, 2020 This is awesome!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Pat Brady Posted May 20, 2020 Author Share Posted May 20, 2020 Thanks everybody for the encouragement (and patience). I found more flaws in my fill algorithms but hopefully have addressed them now. I’m hopefully ready to begin that phase of coding. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Pat Brady Posted June 2, 2020 Author Share Posted June 2, 2020 Development update: I had hoped to finish fill this past weekend. I had it working except in the last, most complicated case, which doesn’t do much unique but combines steps from a bunch of other situations. As I was doing that I realized that something I thought was clever is actually not. So, I am now in the process of undoing my not-so-cleverness, then I’ll fix that last case. The new code will do most of the same fundamental things, just in a different order and with different parameters. I am pleased with the fill performance. The current code has some major inefficiencies but is already in the ballpark of the 5200 version, and much faster than the 400/800 version. I’ll eventually make it faster but this is fast enough for an alpha release. I am still avoiding any schedule promises but getting closer to having something to share. 17 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sramirez2008 Posted June 2, 2020 Share Posted June 2, 2020 21 minutes ago, bizarrostormy said: I am still avoiding any schedule promises but getting closer to having something to share. Looking good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaden (JRH) Posted June 2, 2020 Share Posted June 2, 2020 Looks fantastic so far! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlidellMan Posted June 2, 2020 Share Posted June 2, 2020 That really looks slick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mksmith Posted June 2, 2020 Share Posted June 2, 2020 Great job - well done so far! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sanny Posted June 26, 2020 Share Posted June 26, 2020 Cool Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Pat Brady Posted June 26, 2020 Author Share Posted June 26, 2020 (edited) I have renamed the project to 7ix. The 7 is pronounced “K.” First checkpoint attached. It’s not really a game yet: no scoring, no lives, no level completion. But drawing and filling works and there is a rudimentary main enemy. List of remaining tasks: 1. Fix sporadic post-fill display glitch. 2. Missing gameplay features. Life counter, scoring, level completion and advancing. 7ix as lines instead of dots. Better 7ix motion. Collision detection between segments? Sparx and fuse. Double 7ix. Title screen / menu. Pause support. Birth & death animations. 3. Sound. 4. Higher resolution. Possibly configurable if it gets >192 vertical pixels. 5. Proper handling of one-button controller, Genesis controller compatibility if possible. 6. Faster filling. 7. Drawing mode. 8. Color selection. 9. HSC/SaveKey/AtariVox support including color choices. EDIT: All of my testing has been in a7800. EDIT: This version starts when you press the left button. The next release will start on either button. EDIT: This version does not work on hardware. Hopefully the next snapshot will. 7ix-2020-06-25-A.bin 7ix-2020-06-25-A.a78 Edited July 14, 2020 by bizarrostormy 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaden (JRH) Posted June 26, 2020 Share Posted June 26, 2020 Great work on this so far! I'm really excited to see this one get finished. The only problem I have is that if you press up after moving left, the cursor moves a little more to the left for some reason. But that's probably not too hard to fix. Overall, really nice job on this demo. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Pat Brady Posted June 26, 2020 Author Share Posted June 26, 2020 9 minutes ago, Jaden (JRH) said: Great work on this so far! I'm really excited to see this one get finished. The only problem I have is that if you press up after moving left, the cursor moves a little more to the left for some reason. But that's probably not too hard to fix. Overall, really nice job on this demo. Thanks! You can only draw lines on alternating columns and rows. So when you’re on an odd-numbered column and move vertically, or on an odd-numbered row and move horizontally, you will first move one pixel in your previous direction. Both the arcade version and the 5200 port do the same thing. The arcade version’s resolution is high enough that it’s barely noticeable. I initially hoped to avoid this restriction, and had worked on some algorithms to do it, but eventually discovered a wall configuration that can trap you. I didn’t want that so I adopted the restriction. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted June 26, 2020 Share Posted June 26, 2020 (edited) 4 hours ago, bizarrostormy said: I have renamed the project to 7ix. The 7 is pronounced “K.” Very nice!! Plays very well so far, looking forward to future builds! - James Edited June 26, 2020 by ZeroPage Homebrew 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mksmith Posted June 26, 2020 Share Posted June 26, 2020 Brilliant stuff - really well done so far!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaden (JRH) Posted June 26, 2020 Share Posted June 26, 2020 7 hours ago, bizarrostormy said: Thanks! You can only draw lines on alternating columns and rows. So when you’re on an odd-numbered column and move vertically, or on an odd-numbered row and move horizontally, you will first move one pixel in your previous direction. Both the arcade version and the 5200 port do the same thing. The arcade version’s resolution is high enough that it’s barely noticeable. I initially hoped to avoid this restriction, and had worked on some algorithms to do it, but eventually discovered a wall configuration that can trap you. I didn’t want that so I adopted the restriction. Ah, okay. See, I wasn't sure if this was something the arcade version did as well. I couldn't remember. But that makes sense. Still a really nice job! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Karl G Posted June 26, 2020 Share Posted June 26, 2020 Impressive! I'm looking forward to seeing this one develop. ? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Muddyfunster Posted June 26, 2020 Share Posted June 26, 2020 Very nice ? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gambler172 Posted June 27, 2020 Share Posted June 27, 2020 To be honest....QUIX is not my favourite game,but you do a good job and i support every new game for the 7800. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrekMD Posted June 27, 2020 Share Posted June 27, 2020 I'm liking what I see. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted June 28, 2020 Share Posted June 28, 2020 Took this for a spin. Interesting how the only collision detection is the dots and not between them. A couple of times the 7ix went completely through the line I was drawing. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Pat Brady Posted June 30, 2020 Author Share Posted June 30, 2020 19 hours ago, atari2600land said: Took this for a spin. Interesting how the only collision detection is the dots and not between them. A couple of times the 7ix went completely through the line I was drawing. Good find. Currently 7ix cannot cross your line, but your line can go between 7ix segments after they are drawn. I will resolve that discrepancy eventually. I have not decided which way to go. My initial thought was that it should detect collisions in empty space between segments. Now I’m thinking maybe not. One way or the other it needs to be consistent. It will be much less of an issue once the 7ix segments are lines instead of dots and its motion is more random, a la the arcade version. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Pat Brady Posted July 9, 2020 Author Share Posted July 9, 2020 If anyone out there has a CC2 or Concerto and is willing to run some prototypes with it, please send me a PM. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+groundtrooper Posted July 13, 2020 Share Posted July 13, 2020 On 7/9/2020 at 1:04 AM, bizarrostormy said: If anyone out there has a CC2 or Concerto and is willing to run some prototypes with it, please send me a PM. PM Sent 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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