rsiddall Posted April 27, 2022 Share Posted April 27, 2022 I wouldn't use this as a real screensaver but it think it's fine in short viewings (use at your own risk). My take on the C64 program written in the standard kernel with 4K. Rooms will randomly appear as you character wanders throughout the house. He'll go up stairs and through doors to reach the different stories. I've included a couple of surprises, so you'll have to watch as your little guy discovers the secrets. Pressing the fire button will allow you to "tap" the glass and say hello to your new friend. Colors are done in the emulator, so they won't look really good on real hardware. Enjoy! Little_ATARI_People.bin 9 Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/335020-little-computer-people-largely-passivescreensaver/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Gemintronic Posted April 27, 2022 Share Posted April 27, 2022 Very cool! How does the little guy pathfind to his preferred activity? You set a goalx and goaly and have him lean towards pushing in that direction? 1 Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/335020-little-computer-people-largely-passivescreensaver/#findComment-5049205 Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsiddall Posted April 27, 2022 Author Share Posted April 27, 2022 (edited) @Gemintronic Thanks! I'd love to have you believe he's actually going towards a specific room, but it's more simple than that... I've got a variable set for movement along the x-axis only and another random variable for changing direction. If he "wanders" into a specific location, i.e. the stairs, he'll only go up and to the next floor. I don't know if this causes some anxiety, because a lot of times he'll be right up on one of the rooms and then turn and walk away. So, anyone wanting to see everything will probably have to invest at least 4 minutes of their time. ? Edited April 27, 2022 by rsiddall 1 Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/335020-little-computer-people-largely-passivescreensaver/#findComment-5049215 Share on other sites More sharing options...
PixRuss Posted April 28, 2022 Share Posted April 28, 2022 Super cute! 1 Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/335020-little-computer-people-largely-passivescreensaver/#findComment-5049535 Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Gemintronic Posted April 28, 2022 Share Posted April 28, 2022 One idea is to use a supercounter to keep track of a day/night cycle. main counter = counter + 1 : if counter = 255 then supercounter = supercounter + 1 Say, if the supercounter reaches 127 then it's nighttime. It doesn't have to be accurate in real time to be functional. 1 Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/335020-little-computer-people-largely-passivescreensaver/#findComment-5049587 Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsiddall Posted April 28, 2022 Author Share Posted April 28, 2022 (edited) 8 hours ago, PixRuss said: Super cute! Appreciate it! It's given me a few moments of enjoyment. I keep it running on a second screen at work. ? Edited April 28, 2022 by rsiddall 1 Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/335020-little-computer-people-largely-passivescreensaver/#findComment-5049636 Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsiddall Posted April 28, 2022 Author Share Posted April 28, 2022 3 hours ago, Gemintronic said: One idea is to use a supercounter to keep track of a day/night cycle. main counter = counter + 1 : if counter = 255 then supercounter = supercounter + 1 Say, if the supercounter reaches 127 then it's nighttime. It doesn't have to be accurate in real time to be functional. Cool! I was considering doing something like that but it will push me into a larger rom (8k). I think your idea along with the background kernel option would make this possible. Was also looking at being able to choose your skin color - maybe 'Select' switch or "up/down" on the joystick. 1 Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/335020-little-computer-people-largely-passivescreensaver/#findComment-5049638 Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsiddall Posted April 28, 2022 Author Share Posted April 28, 2022 (edited) 9 hours ago, Gemintronic said: One idea is to use a supercounter to keep track of a day/night cycle. main counter = counter + 1 : if counter = 255 then supercounter = supercounter + 1 Say, if the supercounter reaches 127 then it's nighttime. It doesn't have to be accurate in real time to be functional. @Gemintronic Well, the day/night suggestion does work but I have to lose my green yard (I'm using the "SC_Back" mini-kernel to turn the score line into an extra playfield line). The two do not get along well...as in, the background color will not change if the SC_Back is in my code. I've basically divided each of the floors into 3 playfield heights - which is why the top doesn't have a complete roof. The green yard is me fudging an extra line. ? I have, however, turned the rom into 8K and added a few different skin tones. You will need to use the "Select" switch to cycle through the colors. Little_ATARI_People2.bin Edited April 28, 2022 by rsiddall 4 Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/335020-little-computer-people-largely-passivescreensaver/#findComment-5049828 Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Gemintronic Posted April 28, 2022 Share Posted April 28, 2022 In R.T.s batari command reference he has a snippet of code that puts a background color on the score area. Maybe instead of black you could change that to green. That would give you a "lawn": below the house. https://www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-batari-basic-commands.html#kernop_background Black in this case is that #$00 Change that to, say #$C8 This code need to be at the end of all your other code. In effect it's a mini kernel inside your code instead of in a file in your project folder. ;*************************************************************** ; ; Puts the color black behind the score. ; asm minikernel sta WSYNC lda #$00 sta COLUBK rts end 1 Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/335020-little-computer-people-largely-passivescreensaver/#findComment-5049906 Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsiddall Posted April 28, 2022 Author Share Posted April 28, 2022 (edited) On 4/28/2022 at 4:50 PM, Gemintronic said: In R.T.s batari command reference he has a snippet of code that puts a background color on the score area. Maybe instead of black you could change that to green. That would give you a "lawn": below the house. https://www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-batari-basic-commands.html#kernop_background Black in this case is that #$00 Change that to, say #$C8 This code need to be at the end of all your other code. In effect it's a mini kernel inside your code instead of in a file in your project folder. ;*************************************************************** ; ; Puts the color black behind the score. ; asm minikernel sta WSYNC lda #$00 sta COLUBK rts end That's what I'm using. ? Unfortunately, it's what stops the colors from cycling using your counter code. If I remove the minikernel, night and day happen minus the pretty green lawn. @Gemintronic Edited April 30, 2022 by rsiddall 1 Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/335020-little-computer-people-largely-passivescreensaver/#findComment-5049918 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fort Apocalypse Posted April 30, 2022 Share Posted April 30, 2022 Very cool! 1 Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/335020-little-computer-people-largely-passivescreensaver/#findComment-5050672 Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsiddall Posted April 30, 2022 Author Share Posted April 30, 2022 Thank you! ? Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/335020-little-computer-people-largely-passivescreensaver/#findComment-5050711 Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsiddall Posted May 1, 2022 Author Share Posted May 1, 2022 Small update to 8k. Fixed skin colors when tapping the glass. Little_People-8k.bin 1 Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/335020-little-computer-people-largely-passivescreensaver/#findComment-5051013 Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsiddall Posted May 8, 2022 Author Share Posted May 8, 2022 Messing around with DPC+...not a fan of the flicker. I have phosphor at 60% in Stella and turned on in other emulators to help.LC_DPC.bin Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/335020-little-computer-people-largely-passivescreensaver/#findComment-5055256 Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsiddall Posted May 9, 2022 Author Share Posted May 9, 2022 11 hours ago, rsiddall said: Messing around with DPC+...not a fan of the flicker. I have phosphor at 60% in Stella and turned on in other emulators to help.LC_DPC.bin Added a few more things... LC_DPC.bas.bin 4 Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/335020-little-computer-people-largely-passivescreensaver/#findComment-5055536 Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Gemintronic Posted May 9, 2022 Share Posted May 9, 2022 You could display the furniture for only the current room the computer person is in. Also, in some rooms you could split furnishings up so that one room has floor level and another has above the player regions. That way you could have two rooms that never cause eachother to flicker because their sprites are never on the same horizontal plane. Think of virtual sprites like a totem pole. It's all one real sprite but drawn in separate horizontal bands. The reason there's flicker is that when two virtual sprites are on the same horizontal band they must timeshare: show one then the other next frame. 1 Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/335020-little-computer-people-largely-passivescreensaver/#findComment-5055623 Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsiddall Posted May 9, 2022 Author Share Posted May 9, 2022 (edited) It doesn't flicker too terribly on the real hardware...just have to deal with my poor color choices. On some of the emulators, the phosphor option (2600.emu) really handles the flicker well with no motion trail on the moving sprites. Anyhoo...I appreciate the suggestions. Will continue to tweak things. ? Edited May 9, 2022 by rsiddall 1 Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/335020-little-computer-people-largely-passivescreensaver/#findComment-5055747 Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted May 10, 2022 Share Posted May 10, 2022 On 5/8/2022 at 8:44 PM, rsiddall said: Added a few more things... Looking good, love the addition of the dog! You could almost turn this into a Tamagotchi type game where you have to keep your character alive & happy with them eating, sleeping, cleaning etc.. and it could even go meta where your character has to keep the DOG alive and happy with food and walks! 20 hours ago, Gemintronic said: You could display the furniture for only the current room the computer person is in. That would be good to reduce the flickering and it would also make logical sense too. That way it's like the computer person is going into the room and turning the light on to see what's in there every time they go in. - James 2 Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/335020-little-computer-people-largely-passivescreensaver/#findComment-5056178 Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsiddall Posted May 10, 2022 Author Share Posted May 10, 2022 (edited) 10 hours ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said: Looking good, love the addition of the dog! You could almost turn this into a Tamagotchi type game where you have to keep your character alive & happy with them eating, sleeping, cleaning etc.. and it could even go meta where your character has to keep the DOG alive and happy with food and walks! That would be good to reduce the flickering and it would also make logical sense too. That way it's like the computer person is going into the room and turning the light on to see what's in there every time they go in. - James Thanks James! Kind of headed in that direction (at least with the dog eating). ? I'm a little bummed since the whole point of moving over to DPC was to have everything visible. Here's a small update. Dog has a bowl and will eat if he's nearby. You can select from a small set of skin colors and interact with your new friend by hitting fire button to say "Hi". Furniture has been updated, too. LC_DPC-2.bin Edited May 10, 2022 by rsiddall 1 Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/335020-little-computer-people-largely-passivescreensaver/#findComment-5056304 Share on other sites More sharing options...
neotokeo2001 Posted May 10, 2022 Share Posted May 10, 2022 2 Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/335020-little-computer-people-largely-passivescreensaver/#findComment-5056318 Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsiddall Posted May 10, 2022 Author Share Posted May 10, 2022 Thanks! I don't always think about posting screen shots... 1 Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/335020-little-computer-people-largely-passivescreensaver/#findComment-5056350 Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted May 10, 2022 Share Posted May 10, 2022 7 hours ago, rsiddall said: Furniture has been updated, too. Nice update! It looks like if you move the clock up a touch and the shelf down you can fit it all in without flicker. Check out the photoshopped screenshot below. - James 1 Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/335020-little-computer-people-largely-passivescreensaver/#findComment-5056508 Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsiddall Posted May 11, 2022 Author Share Posted May 11, 2022 (edited) 5 hours ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said: It looks like if you move the clock up a touch and the shelf down you can fit it all in without flicker. Check out the photoshopped screenshot below. I tried your suggestion but it didn't seem to make a difference? Flicker continued even when the clock and shelf were moved to keep from "overlapping". I'll continue to tweak as I populate the rest of the rooms. Here's another small update. Dog has been adjusted to eat more when closer to bowl. I did notice that the flicker is less pronounced on my 60Hz monitor. And again, not noticeable on real hardware (or very slight). So I may continue in the hope of this just running on an Atari vs. emulation. I'd still have to tweak colors to look their best. Few other things have been added...enjoy! LC_DPC-3.bin Edited May 11, 2022 by rsiddall Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/335020-little-computer-people-largely-passivescreensaver/#findComment-5056615 Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsiddall Posted May 12, 2022 Author Share Posted May 12, 2022 Another update. All rooms are populated. Clock is gone (I'm bummed) to keep flicker down. I have tried to keep no more than 2 background on each floor (not including your avatar and dog). Will now start working on animating the backgrounds. I've dropped my LG monitor resolution from 75Hz to 60Hz to minimize the flicker (feels more like it's vibrating). I tried 50Hz to see if that helped, but it's actually worse than the 75Hz. Again, looks good on real hardware and my Samsung LED tv. LC_DPC-4.bin 1 Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/335020-little-computer-people-largely-passivescreensaver/#findComment-5057384 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fort Apocalypse Posted May 14, 2022 Share Posted May 14, 2022 That's super awesome! Wow!!! 1 Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/335020-little-computer-people-largely-passivescreensaver/#findComment-5058156 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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