F18A Zaxxon demo

[+Ksarul]

45 minutes ago, dhe said:

Is there an F18A manual that's the equivalent of TI's TMS9918A manual?

Not exactly, but there is a huge thread here on AtariAge on programming the F18A. There is more data in that thread than any manual would give. . .

[+Vorticon]

On 6/4/2021 at 5:56 PM, Ksarul said:

Not exactly, but there is a huge thread here on AtariAge on programming the F18A. There is more data in that thread than any manual would give. . .

It's not the same as a properly structured manual though with an index. Hunting for information in a multi-page thread is not ideal. But hey I'll take that over nothing ?

[Asmusr]

Getting closer. Basic sound support added using Tursi's vgmcomp2 library (demo sounds taken from my version of Flying Shark). The intermediate space stage now has the scaled sprites, but leaves much to be improved. All sprites on the second platform have now been added, including the boss, which also needs to be improved.

 

 

 

[ti99iuc]

Oh my gosh... I am touched to see this progress
It's incredible

Edited June 25, 2021 by ti99iuc

[Asmusr]

I forgot to attach the cart image, so here we go. 

zaxxon8.bin

[Tursi]

That's insane.

 

[Asmusr]

20 minutes ago, Tursi said:

That's insane.

Thanks Tursi.

[+TheBF]

5 hours ago, Tursi said:

That's insane.

 

What he said. 

 

Truly outstanding.

[RickyDean]

Wow!!!, this will be fun.

[Retrospect]

I've just played the latest update.  It's great.  

[Asmusr]

 

Added intro and high score.

zaxxon8.bin

[matthew180]

Very nice work, as usual.  I never could play that game, I always ran into everything. But I love the graphics and the way is looks.

[matthew180]

On 6/4/2021 at 6:09 PM, dhe said:

Is there an F18A manual that's the equivalent of TI's TMS9918A manual?

 

On 6/4/2021 at 6:56 PM, Ksarul said:

Not exactly, but there is a huge thread here on AtariAge on programming the F18A. There is more data in that thread than any manual would give. . .

 

On 6/5/2021 at 9:12 PM, Vorticon said:

It's not the same as a properly structured manual though with an index. Hunting for information in a multi-page thread is not ideal. But hey I'll take that over nothing ?

 

Yeah, that is my fault I suppose, there never seems to be any time for writing documentation.  However, if you know how to program the 9918A, then you know how to program the F18A, mostly.  The "register use" spread sheet shows the extended registers (i.e. the ones over VR7), and for the most part they tend to be obvious as to what they do (maybe I'm too close to the trees though, and it is not really that clear?)  For example, the scroll registers do pixel scrolling, etc..  Proper documentation will have to wait until the MK2 is done.

 

For now, the best I can recommend is to search the forums and ask questions.

 

Note: this is off-topic for this thread, so further questions about F18A specific programming, please post to the F18A specific threads.

 

[Asmusr]

In this version I added a game over screen, level completed screen, better fuel handling, lives display, extra life, and bug fixes. It's quite playable and perhaps the last version to be labelled 'demo'. However, if you know the original there's still some way to go before the game will feel like a clone. Because I'm not very experienced in the original I keep discovering new things like the cross hairs in the deep space sequence, which is the part that's the longest way from from being complete. The interaction with the boss at the end also leaves a lot to be desired. And the music/sound is also only at the proof of concept stage, probably there will be no music in the final version.

 

zaxxon8.bin

[+OLD CS1]

40 minutes ago, Asmusr said:

probably there will be no music in the final version.

While the music is a nice touch, the original did not have music and the tune from Flying Shark does not feel very Zaxxony.

[Asmusr]

5 minutes ago, OLD CS1 said:

While the music is a nice touch, the original did not have music and the tune from Flying Shark does not feel very Zaxxony.

No it's only a proof of concept.

[Asmusr]

On 7/13/2021 at 11:47 PM, Asmusr said:

No it's only a proof of concept.

I have decided to drop the music and postpone using Tursi's new sound player until a later game. Instead I will use my own player that I used in "Bouncy's obstacle course". This has the advantage that you can define simple sound effects in 4-6 bytes directly in the code instead of going through several conversion steps starting from VGM format, which in itself is a bit elaborate to produce. Idea: a parser for a simple sound effect language that could produce output in various formats including Tursi's Sound Block Format, sound list format, and XB code.  

Edited July 15, 2021 by Asmusr
Typo

[Tursi]

The whole point of Tursi's toolchain is to be able to work with various formats. Why not just write your bytes directly in the text file format? The entire reason I made it a text-based format was so people could work with it in a simple manner -- not so people could write binary VGM files. VGM is just one import format. 

 

That said, you aren't going to get much benefit trying to compress sound effects only 4-6 bytes long anyway.

 

[Asmusr]

11 minutes ago, Tursi said:

The whole point of Tursi's toolchain is to be able to work with various formats. Why not just write your bytes directly in the text file format? The entire reason I made it a text-based format was so people could work with it in a simple manner -- not so people could write binary VGM files. VGM is just one import format. 

 

That said, you aren't going to get much benefit trying to compress sound effects only 4-6 bytes long anyway.

The 4-6 bytes consist of duration and start and step for frequency and volume. The point is not having to hand code the intermediate values.

[Tursi]

39 minutes ago, Asmusr said:

The 4-6 bytes consist of duration and start and step for frequency and volume. The point is not having to hand code the intermediate values.

That's fair. That's the difference between generating sounds and playing back sounds, which I've always maintained is valid.

 

I'm just clarifying that at no point does my toolchain require conversion to VGM... that's unfair. 

 

[Asmusr]

20 hours ago, Tursi said:

I'm just clarifying that at no point does my toolchain require conversion to VGM... that's unfair.

The reason I would have used VGM is because it's a format that the tracker I'm using (Mod2PSG2) can produce and your toolchain can convert. I haven't looked into whether there is a easier way to produce sound effects using your toolchain.

[Tursi]

Yeah... maybe I'll do a long video that goes into more detail on it. It's hard to be motivated, since the only two people likely to use it are you and me, and you can create your own stuff  Maybe Digress, I think he used the old one for some Coleco stuff.

 

VGM is just an import format, though.. the native processing format is just a text file with one line per 60hz tick.. so simpler stuff not originating from a tracker is better to just write to the text file than create an intermediate binary. To be honest, too, for simple sound effects I'd generate them too, nothing says you can't use the player for music and simpler code for sound effects.  The player is /supposed/ to leave unused channels alone, and you can also force it by setting the mute flags.

 

Anyway, not meaning to derail your Zaxxon project. Let the drooling re-commence!