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19 minutes ago, SlidellMan said:

Hmm...that version of BASIC isn't bad, and I'd say that it must have been inspired by the cancelled BASIC cart for the 7800.

There was a planned BASIC cart for the 7800? It was really only inspired by the idea of BASIC Programming for the 2600, and me wondering what a 7800 version might have looked like.

An excerpt from atarimuseum.com (courtesy of the wayback machine)...

Quote

The 7800 keyboard package would also include two software titles.    Most likely those two titles would have been Atari 7800 PRO System BASIC and Atari 7800 PRO System VideoWriter.

And another one from Curt, from the forums here...

Quote

Steve [Golson] and I fired up a lot of equipment and even got the original prototype computer enhancement running, I got OSS/Atari 7800 Basic running, VideoWriter and some Atarilab modules running,

 

  • Like 4
  • 1 month later...

So, I will hopefully be releasing an early demo of what I've done with my BASIC interpreter in order to gauge interest and get feedback on the interface. Before I do that, I want to see if I can get ideas on a working name for the project. I'm not necessarily best known in this community for my clever project names. Some of the ideas I have considered are:

  • SE BASIC: The SE was supposed to stand for Seventy Eight. But apparently there is already a SE BASIC.
  • KG BASIC: A vanity name, but I'd only do it if I could think of a plausible (if retrofitted) meaning for the K and G, and I've got nothing.
  • P.S. BASIC: PS standing for ProSystem. This one I think is kind of cute, but I realized it might sound too much like it was a BASIC for the PlayStation.

Any thoughts on the above, or other clever ideas, perchance? 

  • Like 3

I think some Graphics commands like Atari BASIC wouldn't be amiss.  Same with TIA and POKEY.  Possibly even put in a 4 line text window, called using GRAPHICS 0  through 6 (for all the native modes) and add a +8 to turn off the text window.  0 being of course the default 320A.  other bit flags can be used to toggle double wide mode maybe.

  • Like 2

KG BASIC could be...

  • Keyboard Game BASIC
  • Keyboard Graphical BASIC
  • Keyboard Generated BASIC
  • KGBASIC Game BASIC (recursive)

Just a note that KG BASIC would no doubt be shortened by some users as "KGB". That could be funny or unfortunate, depending on your disposition.

 

Some other ideas...

  • BASIC78
  • 780 BASIC
  • 78 Console BASIC
  • GOTO 7800
  • Thanks 1
9 hours ago, Synthpopalooza said:

I think some Graphics commands like Atari BASIC wouldn't be amiss.  Same with TIA and POKEY.  Possibly even put in a 4 line text window, called using GRAPHICS 0  through 6 (for all the native modes) and add a +8 to turn off the text window.  0 being of course the default 320A.  other bit flags can be used to toggle double wide mode maybe.

Probably most of those ideas are beyond the scope of what I'm likely to create, honestly. Right now I have a sound command that uses a 16-bit channel (distortion 10), and that should be suitable for the kinds of BASIC programs I'm picturing. I also have text foreground and background colors. If I add in any kind of graphics mode, it will be much later, and be something that would be relatively low on video RAM usage (since I only have ~16K to work with).

1 hour ago, RevEng said:

Keyboard Generated BASIC

Thanks! I'm leaning towards this one now. It's amusing since it really won't be, though (unless I find a way to produce my minikeyboard concept). The idea that it could be shortened to KGB only adds to my amusement.  ? 

  • Like 1
1 hour ago, RevEng said:

 

Just a note that KG BASIC would no doubt be shortened by some users as "KGB". That could be funny or unfortunate, depending on your disposition.

 

 

"What are you up to today?"

 

"Oh I'm just having some fun with the KGB" 

 

?

 

(love that suggestion).

 

  • Haha 4
1 hour ago, RevEng said:

The jokes... they write themselves.

 

"Hmmm, there seems to be a concealed microphone and transmitter inside of my KGB cart!"

 

"Oh... that's just a bug"

 

 

"Yeah, he used the cartridge a couple of times and then just disappeared.  Black Volgas are still parked out front of his house.  We don't talk about it."

  • Haha 3
  • 10 months later...

I've been thinking of trying to do something similar to the old platform game "Downland" for the TRS-80 Color Computer. I'm having lots of trouble with the walk cycle despite looking at a good example for reference.

 

Can anyone recommend any tweaks to the frames for this walk cycle? I'm trying to improve my pixel art skills, but I seem to really struggle with walk cycles.

 

walk-cycle.png.b626a539e9187f8cfad99182dc6b3268.png

 

A small demo to show it in action:

 

walkcycle.a78

 

JS7800 Link

 

 

  • Like 3
50 minutes ago, Karl G said:

I've been thinking of trying to do something similar to the old platform game "Downland" for the TRS-80 Color Computer.

 

Very cool and challenging looking platformer, I've never heard of it before! I find it funny that the extra lives are copies of what you're doing at any given moment.

 

Reminds me of a great mix of Sammy Lightfoot and Conan with a little bit of Donkey Kong Jr. thrown in.

 

- James

Just now, ZeroPage Homebrew said:

 

Very cool and challenging looking platformer, I've never heard of it before! I find it funny that the extra lives are copies of what you're doing at any given moment.

 

Reminds me of a great mix of Sammy Lightfoot and Conan.

 

- James

Yes! The lives animation was indeed part of the charm of the game. It makes me wonder if it was intentional, or some side effect of how it was programmed that the developer decided to keep.  🙂 

  • Like 1
1 hour ago, Karl G said:

I've been thinking of trying to do something similar to the old platform game "Downland" for the TRS-80 Color Computer. I'm having lots of trouble with the walk cycle despite looking at a good example for reference.

 

Can anyone recommend any tweaks to the frames for this walk cycle? I'm trying to improve my pixel art skills, but I seem to really struggle with walk cycles.

 

walk-cycle.png.b626a539e9187f8cfad99182dc6b3268.png

 

A small demo to show it in action:

 

walkcycle.a78 48.13 kB · 7 downloads

 

JS7800 Link

 

 

Try swapping the "front leg" (leg on right side of image) position between the first two frames... that should help counter the weird sliding forward motion.

  • Like 2
  • Thanks 1
25 minutes ago, splendidnut said:

Try swapping the "front leg" (leg on right side of image) position between the first two frames... that should help counter the weird sliding forward motion.

That does indeed seem to help! Thank you!

 

Here also are the source images in case anyone else has any other suggestions for tweaks.

 

walk.zip

 

walkcycle.a78

New JS7800 Link

 

Edit: Tweaked the speed, and it looks better yet.

  • Like 1
On 3/3/2021 at 12:11 PM, Karl G said:

I like @Muddyfunster's idea of having a topic to aggregate demos and game ideas that may or may not be developed into full projects eventually. No need to add anything here to the list of 7800 works-in-progress.

 

Anyway, as I own both a QuadTari and a 7800, and knew that they should work together, I wanted to make a proof in concept game demo to see if it worked. The result is the 4-player game "Raindrops" below:

 

Raindrops Instructions:

 

You are a magical flying umbrella. Like all magical, flying umbrellas, you want to avoid raindrops, and catch flying rainbows. Collect 9 rainbows before your fellow magical flying umbrellas do the same. Getting the rainbow will get you one point, whereas colliding with a raindrop will kock you back to your starting position.

 

 

Developer Notes:

 

I know RevEng plans to add QuadTari support to 7800Basic, but I was impatient and wanted to take a stab at it myself. ? I set the active controllers in a topscreenroutine based on a bit set in the program. Pressing a joystick button to restart the game does not seem to work, but otherwise everything seems to work fine on hardware. Currently, there is no emulator support for the QuadTari, so it will only work properly on real hardware.

 

raindrops.thumb.png.031f11924009fc0fb291788351009933.png

Version 3 (corrects scoring issue):

 

raindrops.78b.a78 32.13 kB · 113 downloads

 

raindrops.78b.bin 32 kB · 76 downloads

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hey, I was wondering:

 

For the Conner Blast Special Demo (Leaks!) I had an idea:

Alterbate between 2 charsets every frame to produce transparency AND more colors!

Is this viable?

 

I call it 160BI- allows 160B via 160A.

 

When I get on my computer, I’ll post a demo for you.

46 minutes ago, Ecernosoft said:

Hey, I was wondering:

 

For the Conner Blast Special Demo (Leaks!) I had an idea:

Alterbate between 2 charsets every frame to produce transparency AND more colors!

Is this viable?

 

I call it 160BI- allows 160B via 160A.

 

When I get on my computer, I’ll post a demo for you.

I don't have a need for it, but thank you anyway. I have this topic as a place to post my own experiments without making new topics for each one of them, not knowing how they will pan out in the end, so as not to annoy other forum users. Perhaps such a topic (just one) might be useful to you to post experiential stuff like that, too?

  • Like 4
30 minutes ago, Karl G said:

I don't have a need for it, but thank you anyway. I have this topic as a place to post my own experiments without making new topics for each one of them, not knowing how they will pan out in the end, so as not to annoy other forum users. Perhaps such a topic (just one) might be useful to you to post experiential stuff like that, too?

Oh- ok. Sorry, I have a habit of posting without reading what it really is. 
Abd yes, it is. I’d PM this instead but the person who I would’ve sent it to has me on Ignore, for….

some reason. I’m not going to alienate said person, so whatever. That’s why I posted here- thought it would be ok to say something.

Edited by Ecernosoft
  • 3 weeks later...
On 3/3/2021 at 7:55 PM, Karl G said:

Updated raindrops in the first post to add sounds borrowed from @RevEng's handy dandy sample sound collection. It's amazing how much just adding two different sound effects can change a game.  ? 

Link?

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