Re: Nyan Cat
On 23 April 2012 21:34, Thomas Harte tomh.retros...@gmail.com wrote: If it's for some sort of quick attempt at multipart megademo (albeit with all the parts being extremely similar), would it be safe to assume that someone [else] is working on the music? I'd love to be able to contribute but music is completely beyond me. I'm loathe to put myself forward for this, but what the hell. I'll convert the music :-)
Re: Nyan Cat
My conversion of original graphics is already finished, so I look forward to your music. :-) I wanted to ask for help the people who did music for some other 8bit conversion(s). Aley From: David Sanders Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2012 10:59 AM To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: Re: Nyan Cat On 23 April 2012 21:34, Thomas Harte tomh.retros...@gmail.com wrote: If it's for some sort of quick attempt at multipart megademo (albeit with all the parts being extremely similar), would it be safe to assume that someone [else] is working on the music? I'd love to be able to contribute but music is completely beyond me. I'm loathe to put myself forward for this, but what the hell. I'll convert the music :-) - Mgr. Aleš Keprt, Ph.D. private: a...@keprt.cz, www.keprt.cz office: Moravian College / Moravská vysoká škola Olomouc, ales.ke...@mvso.cz
Re: Nyan Cat
I had a brief look at it; given that the originals are 400x400 (and, as you noted, not actually simply an upscaling of a smaller size, despite consciously adopting that look), I assume you repainted by hand? On 24 April 2012 11:13, Aleš Keprt a...@keprt.cz wrote: My conversion of original graphics is already finished, so I look forward to your music. :-) I wanted to ask for help the people who did music for some other 8bit conversion(s). Aley From: David Sanders Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2012 10:59 AM To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: Re: Nyan Cat On 23 April 2012 21:34, Thomas Harte tomh.retros...@gmail.com wrote: If it's for some sort of quick attempt at multipart megademo (albeit with all the parts being extremely similar), would it be safe to assume that someone [else] is working on the music? I'd love to be able to contribute but music is completely beyond me. I'm loathe to put myself forward for this, but what the hell. I'll convert the music :-) - Mgr. Aleš Keprt, Ph.D. private: a...@keprt.cz, www.keprt.cz office: Moravian College / Moravská vysoká škola Olomouc, ales.ke...@mvso.cz
Re: Nyan Cat
On 23 Apr 2012, at 21:35, James R Curry wrote: Just port the original. I've had a quick look and there are oodles of unrolled code blocks and fixed delay loops for display timing. Getting most of it running probably wouldn't take very long, but getting the timing right could be a challenge. It might be worth a try, if I find the time, and if someone else hasn't already done it by then. It'd still be nice to have a native SAM version to add to the official list, but it sounds like others on the list have that covered :) Si
Re: Nyan Cat
Oh yes, I repainted it a bit to let it fit to Sam's screen and still look 99% like original. Or as much as possible. I would rather stop this discussion until it is published. Aley -Původní zpráva- From: Thomas Harte Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2012 8:56 PM To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: Re: Nyan Cat I had a brief look at it; given that the originals are 400x400 (and, as you noted, not actually simply an upscaling of a smaller size, despite consciously adopting that look), I assume you repainted by hand? On 24 April 2012 11:13, Aleš Keprt a...@keprt.cz wrote: My conversion of original graphics is already finished, so I look forward to your music. :-) I wanted to ask for help the people who did music for some other 8bit conversion(s). Aley From: David Sanders Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2012 10:59 AM To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: Re: Nyan Cat On 23 April 2012 21:34, Thomas Harte tomh.retros...@gmail.com wrote: If it's for some sort of quick attempt at multipart megademo (albeit with all the parts being extremely similar), would it be safe to assume that someone [else] is working on the music? I'd love to be able to contribute but music is completely beyond me. I'm loathe to put myself forward for this, but what the hell. I'll convert the music :-) - Mgr. Aleš Keprt, Ph.D. private: a...@keprt.cz, www.keprt.cz office: Moravian College / Moravská vysoká škola Olomouc, ales.ke...@mvso.cz - Mgr. Aleš Keprt, Ph.D. private: a...@keprt.cz, www.keprt.cz office: Moravian College / Moravská vysoká škola Olomouc, ales.ke...@mvso.cz
Re: Nyan Cat
The strangest decision regarding Mode 2 is keeping the BRIGHT and FLASH attributes. Without those, the Ink and Paper colours could each be any of the sixteen colours. As it is, the select colours have to both be in the range 0-7 or 8-15, not one in each range. Incidentally, has anyone thought about clever use of Mode 2 and attributes to create a game that runs at a super low resolution, like 64 x 96 (using 4x2 pixel blocks)? It could run at a high frame rate... it might be an interesting experiment
Re: Nyan Cat
I guess it was easy to put in something like an optional shift right by three to compose scan line number and column number when fetching attributes, hence to allow Mode 1 and 2, but would have been harder to have alternative attribute interpretation logic? I'm unsure why they decided to go bright + flash in the Spectrum, to be honest. Was flashing a must have feature of the 1982 computer market? I think I'm right to say the American Timex machines have the equivalent of Mode 2? A pretend 64x96 mode could allow for some neat effects. I'll wager you could do Wolfenstein in it, based on the CPC seemingly being to cope in its 64-bytes-for-128-pixels mode, per YouTube. Following that line of logic through, anything on the CPC that isn't using a hardware scroll should be an option. 2012/4/24 James R Curry 8...@itdoesntsuck.com: The strangest decision regarding Mode 2 is keeping the BRIGHT and FLASH attributes. Without those, the Ink and Paper colours could each be any of the sixteen colours. As it is, the select colours have to both be in the range 0-7 or 8-15, not one in each range. Incidentally, has anyone thought about clever use of Mode 2 and attributes to create a game that runs at a super low resolution, like 64 x 96 (using 4x2 pixel blocks)? It could run at a high frame rate... it might be an interesting experiment
Re: Nyan Cat
Oh, you are right. I forgot this. Bright and Flash. The only thing I regularly used mode 2 for were text scrollers, because it is very easy to make a slow 1 pixel per frame scroller in mode 2, and it is a bit more harder in mode 4 because it's slow. (I switched to mode 2 only part of the screen to show to text and then switched back to mode 4.) Aley -Původní zpráva- From: James R Curry Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2012 12:33 AM To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: Re: Nyan Cat The strangest decision regarding Mode 2 is keeping the BRIGHT and FLASH attributes. Without those, the Ink and Paper colours could each be any of the sixteen colours. As it is, the select colours have to both be in the range 0-7 or 8-15, not one in each range. Incidentally, has anyone thought about clever use of Mode 2 and attributes to create a game that runs at a super low resolution, like 64 x 96 (using 4x2 pixel blocks)? It could run at a high frame rate... it might be an interesting experiment= - Mgr. Aleš Keprt, Ph.D. private: a...@keprt.cz, www.keprt.cz office: Moravian College / Moravská vysoká škola Olomouc, ales.ke...@mvso.cz
Re: Nyan Cat
On Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 04:16:28PM -0700, Thomas Harte wrote: I'm unsure why they decided to go bright + flash in the Spectrum, to be honest. Was flashing a must have feature of the 1982 computer market? No but you forget one thing... the cursor. :-) imc
Re: Nyan Cat
Agreed on James' comments re:Wolfenstein; from here in 2012, I'm much more able to suspend by disbelief for Elite, though I think Wolfenstein's problems go far beyond merely the style of graphics. I'd also forgotten the Manic Miner loading screen! Thank goodness for the flash attribute! On 24 April 2012 16:41, Ian Collier ian.coll...@cs.ox.ac.uk wrote: On Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 04:16:28PM -0700, Thomas Harte wrote: I'm unsure why they decided to go bright + flash in the Spectrum, to be honest. Was flashing a must have feature of the 1982 computer market? No but you forget one thing... the cursor. :-) imc
Re: Nyan Cat
Quoting Thomas Harte tomh.retros...@gmail.com: I'd also forgotten the Manic Miner loading screen! Thank goodness for the flash attribute! Wish we could have done a MODE 2 version of that with the SAM Version! :)
Re: Nyan Cat
Given that, at least going from my memory, there was space to spare in the original ZX Spectrum ROM, the flashing cursor in Spectrum BASIC could have quite easily been implemented with interrupts and each character square could have had complete freedom to pick any two of sixteen colours. But what do they say about hindsight? On Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 6:41 PM, Ian Collier ian.coll...@cs.ox.ac.ukwrote: On Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 04:16:28PM -0700, Thomas Harte wrote: I'm unsure why they decided to go bright + flash in the Spectrum, to be honest. Was flashing a must have feature of the 1982 computer market? No but you forget one thing... the cursor. :-) imc -- James R Curry 8...@itdoesntsuck.com
Re: Nyan Cat
Per The Register's extended article celebrating the Spectrum's birthday yesterday, there was more than a kilobyte of spare space in the ROM but they intended to put the Microdrive stuff in there before shipping. In the event it wasn't ready in time and the machine sold too well for the intended free ROM upgrade to make economic sense. So, with hindsight: • no flash attribute (ideally starting on the Spectrum, but at least in Mode 2); • a graphics mode that uses the Mode 2 amount of data for 128 non-attributed pixels per line; • hardware scrolling. Hooray for hindsight! On 24 April 2012 16:45, James R Curry 8...@itdoesntsuck.com wrote: Given that, at least going from my memory, there was space to spare in the original ZX Spectrum ROM, the flashing cursor in Spectrum BASIC could have quite easily been implemented with interrupts and each character square could have had complete freedom to pick any two of sixteen colours. But what do they say about hindsight? On Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 6:41 PM, Ian Collier ian.coll...@cs.ox.ac.uk wrote: On Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 04:16:28PM -0700, Thomas Harte wrote: I'm unsure why they decided to go bright + flash in the Spectrum, to be honest. Was flashing a must have feature of the 1982 computer market? No but you forget one thing... the cursor. :-) imc -- James R Curry 8...@itdoesntsuck.com
XOR now completed!
Hello everybody I'm proud to present my conversion of the 1987 Spectrum game XOR. I finally kept my promise to my teenage self to finish a SAM game! You can download it for free from the revived http://cookingcircle.co.uk I hope you enjoy it (and yell in frustration). It's 25 years old and still as rock-hard as I remember. Any feedback/initial bugs found would be greatly appreciated. :D Cheers Howard
Re: XOR now completed!
I played it for five minutes and it all looked very impressive. That being said, I don't actually know the original game so I was quite lost. Looking at the incredibly sparse World of Spectrum inlay scan though, I think I'm meant to work things out for myself? On 24 April 2012 18:00, Balor Price toberm...@cookingcircle.co.uk wrote: Hello everybody I'm proud to present my conversion of the 1987 Spectrum game XOR. I finally kept my promise to my teenage self to finish a SAM game! You can download it for free from the revived http://cookingcircle.co.uk I hope you enjoy it (and yell in frustration). It's 25 years old and still as rock-hard as I remember. Any feedback/initial bugs found would be greatly appreciated. :D Cheers Howard
Re: XOR now completed!
I remember ordering the original from one of those ZX Spectrum mail order places. They were never able to deliver it, for some reason, and offered me the choice of another game, instead. No idea what I wound up buying. Now I can finally play it. Looks good! Is it in Mode 4? On Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 8:21 PM, Thomas Harte tomh.retros...@gmail.comwrote: I played it for five minutes and it all looked very impressive. That being said, I don't actually know the original game so I was quite lost. Looking at the incredibly sparse World of Spectrum inlay scan though, I think I'm meant to work things out for myself? On 24 April 2012 18:00, Balor Price toberm...@cookingcircle.co.uk wrote: Hello everybody I'm proud to present my conversion of the 1987 Spectrum game XOR. I finally kept my promise to my teenage self to finish a SAM game! You can download it for free from the revived http://cookingcircle.co.uk I hope you enjoy it (and yell in frustration). It's 25 years old and still as rock-hard as I remember. Any feedback/initial bugs found would be greatly appreciated. :D Cheers Howard -- James R Curry 8...@itdoesntsuck.com