Re: about that planned elite conversion
-Original Message- From: stu [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: 07 December 1998 21:46 Subject: about that planned elite conversion Hi everyone, I remember a little while back, plans to do a conversion of Elite for the SAM. Is this any further down the road? Would you need the original source code for such a task? A wimp might need the original source!! ;-))
Re: Christmas Present from Sad Snail Productions.reply
-Original Message- From: Smith, Gavin [IRE07:8939:EXCH] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: 22 December 1998 15:05 Subject: RE: Christmas Present from Sad Snail Productions.reply Aw no Chris, tell me you're winding me up! And if not, patch it, please! I love games that save the high score table. Sorry... It's true. :-( The game's on a protected disk, which means I'd have to do a lot of effing about (like telling the user to switch disks, Etc) to include high-score saving... You'll just have to keep a notepad handy!!! ;-) I'll be buying it anyway, cos I love Defender (the best version I've played is actually on the Acorn Electron so far, so I'm hoping the Coupe can beat it). You might be in for a surprise! ;-))
Re: New URLs
On Mon, 4 Jan 1999 19:52:01 - Tue, 5 Jan 99 22:52:27 GMT, David Ledbury [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: AFAIK he is Use a bit of netiquette mate! There's nothing wrong in using common 'net abbreviations... If you don't already know, AFAIK simply means 'As Far As I Know'...
Re: New URLs
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: 08 January 1999 19:08 Subject: Re: New URLs IKWYM, I've been on the net for quite a while. I meant the ridiculous amount of quoting. I don't know if it bothers other people, but replies that have either one line responses (especially at the top) really piss me off. ;-)) Yes, I must admit, having a single line response at the top of some massive section of 'thread' is a quite a pain!! Judging from recent posts it seems a lot of it is down to the e-mail client you are using... I don't know, I leave all that boring stuff to people like Microsoft...!!! ;-)
TEST, PLEASE IGNORE...
This is a test to see if I've entered the SAM group address in my address book correctly...
Re: Games Ahoy! - Dyzonium query
Re: The Defenders game disk: Does the disk's version of Dyzonium have the cheat mode in it? It's an excellent game, but too hard for the likes of me. The version of Dyzonium (written by me old mate Balor Knight) on the Defender disk does have the cheat mode... However; I'm not going to 'spill the beans' regarding the method(s) of invoking it ;-) Chris.
Re: Games Ahoy! - Dyzonium query
I'm glad to hear that the games disk features the 'cheat' version of Dyzonium. A cheque will be sent before too long (Don't worry, I remember how to invoke the cheat routine!) I'm not too sure if Balor changed the cheat invocation in the final release!! Knowing how his mind works he probably did ;-) Besides buying the pre-release copy of Dyzonium, I also bought Astroball. Both are cracking good games (as Wallace might say) and Balor Knight deserves credit for writing such good games for SAM. Balor received due credit (but sadly hardly any money!!) for Astroball as this was the game that impressed Probe Software to give him a job!!! He's currently working for them writing PC games now, the latest being a full reflective 3D texture-mapped beast to be called 'Revolt'... It's a car racing game with a difference and it looks amazing!!! So, Balor owes the humble SAM a small debt of gratitude, as it's this very machine that elevated him from 'Life on the Dole' to where he is now!!! ;-) Chris.
Re: Games Ahoy! - Dyzonium query
I've played demos of both the Sam and Speccy versions of Astroball, though I never actually bought either. I liked the game, but I was mightily disappointed when someone said that the Space Invaders but wasn't in the Sam version... I did buy Dyzonium, though, and consider it to be one of the Sam's best games (not hard, considering it's competition as a shoot-'em-up). You haven't seen DEFENDER yet then ;-) It's nice to see that good work on a (dare I say it) defunct machine can get you a fairly good job. Didn't Balor also work on the Playstation 'Fantastic Four' game, though..? Somewhat...less-than-Fantastic... but I won't begrudge him that. Yes, he was the lead programmer on that one... I'm sure he won't mind you saying it was less than fantastic as he hated it!!! He also worked on the PC version of FORSAKEN, or 'Foreskin' as it was nicknamed 'in-house' Chris.
Re: Games Ahoy! - Dyzonium query
-Original Message- From: Chris White [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: 24 January 1999 19:34 Subject: Re: Games Ahoy! - Dyzonium query Yes they do. And I (as a Console Proggrammer ) only do the titles I want to write and have as much input as time allows?? I think it probably depends on your producer/publisher and if you're doing an official license or film-licensed game. All of Balor's console games have been either one or the other. I know when Balor did 'Batman Forever' he and Probe didn't have as much input as Warner Bros..!!! Same with 'Daffy Duck' (Warner again) and 'The Pagemaster' (20th Century Fox) I remember Balor telling me about Warner and 'Fox executives throwing ideas around that the poor old 8-bitters wouldn't have had a snowballs chance of pulling off!!! ;-) At least anyone writing stuff on the SAM nowadays isn't restricted by such chronic red-tape!! ;-) Chris.
Re: Games Ahoy! - Dyzonium query
-Original Message- From: Gordon Wallis [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: INTERNET:[EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: 24 January 1999 20:49 Subject: Re: Games Ahoy! - Dyzonium query Hated it as in 'the project', 'the end result' or 'the Fantastic Four in general'? Yes!!! All of the above!!! ;-) And dare I ask WHY 'foreskin'? You dared!!! I don't know, probably because the spelling is similar or maybe it's the fact that (Climbs into flame-proof suit!!!) most game programmers are still children at heart!!! ;-) Chris.
Re: Sam newsgroup
...urr... who is this person with the nose btw?... ive never heard of him... sure his nose is wonderful though speaking of which... did the sam robot have a nose?... not an important q, but ya know... Karl Malden was in 'The Streets Of San Francisco', amongst other things!! Quite why anyone would want to talk about his nose is beyond me!! ;-) Chris...
Malcolm Mackenzie.
I was shocked and more than a little saddened to hear of the tragic death of Malcolm Mackenzie. I'd like to offer my condolences to his family and close friends. Although I never met Malcolm, I did speak with him several times on the telephone. He struck me as an honest chap with immense enthusiasm towards the SAM and its community. Malcolm also had a personality which allowed forgiveness, a willingness to offer a 'second chance'... An attribute so rare in today's world... R.I.P. Malcolm. You will be missed.
Re: SAM FAQ Version 2
-Original Message- From: Ian Collier [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: 19 February 1999 16:38 Subject: Re: SAM FAQ Version 2 Chris Pile (oh, and I don't think you mentioned ProDos either) He didn't! Nor DEFENDER, which I'm sure my old mate Balor Knight (who has move on from the Master System BTW) and perhaps those who've seen it running on a *real* SAM might say 'blows away' (pun intended!) Dyzonium in the shoot-em-up stakes...
Re: SAM FAQ Version 2
-Original Message- From: Simon Cooke [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: 20 February 1999 00:27 Subject: Re: SAM FAQ Version 2 Heck, I've not seen it running on ANY SAM, never mind a *REAL* one. Any chance you can put out a demo version, Chris? Time limited to 10 seconds or something? PRETTY PLEASE?!?!?!?! The game is actually finished and complete. I *would* put out a demo but the trouble is that it doesn't run on SimCoupe... Well, that's not strictly true. It runs, but *very* poorly (terribly jerky and jumpy) due to my unorthodox frame syncing code. Plus, Defender just isn't Defender when it hasn't got sound or running at a smooth 50-fps, which it does on a *real* SAM of course! ;-) I've got some static screen-shots of the game in action if anyone wants 'em? Chris.
Unorthodox Frame Sync
-Original Message- From: Simon Cooke [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: 21 February 1999 07:38 Subject: Re: SAM FAQ Version 2 Unorthodox frame sync code? Pray tell! I can only think of a couple of ways of doing it... OK. Apologies to everyone because this is a quite long. Also, advanced apologies if it's 'egg sucking' territory to anyone. God, that sounds patronising... Sorry. :-) Anyway, deep breath! Here we go: First, a little description of how SAM Defender works will later highlight my need to use unorthodox frame sync code. Defenders' internals are almost exclusively 'stack based'. All of the graphic routines use the stack for dumping/erasing. The main sprite dumpers are all hard-coded and use an interleaved format. This format removes the need for an ADD 128 or SUB 128 to the screen address when moving to the next screen line, reducing it to a simple INC or DEC of the high-byte with the ADD or SUB required only when switching the dump direction at the top of the sprite. All of the main data structures inside the program are again manipulated using the stack. One of the main reasons for this is the fact that all of the movement within the game is fractional, using 16-bit fixed-point allows easy programming of inertia and gravity effects. Also, the width of the 'world' is some 2048 pixels, so 8-bit just doesn't cut it! These 16-bit data lists are much faster to manipulate using the stack, especially when all of the usual registers are tied up leaving only the fat and lethargic IX or IY pairs, which are to be avoided if performance is the key factor. To simplify, the stack is used almost exclusively because it's so efficient and fast at shunting around word-sized chunks of data. There's an *awful* amount of this being shunted around, especially when you have to dump/erase a 256-pixel wide landscape, manipulate the data lists for as many as 40 sprites, dump/erase any of these sprites that happen to be on the 'window' into the 2048-pixel wide world... All this must happen at a constant (or as close as) 50-fps for the game to be anywhere near the quality of the arcade original. So, the good old stack gives a much needed boost in performance. Note the use of 'as close as' above? This becomes important later. Because data lists are manipulated using the stack, and these lists contain data that is used continuously by the program, any corruption would spell disaster. Corruption would occur if an interrupt occurred, for example. SAM Defender runs with the interrupts in a permanently disabled state to prevent such potential corruption. From a performance point of view it wouldn't be economical to DI, EI all over the place because stack manipulation is occurring almost continuously during the game. So, back to the question of frame syncing. Usually you can frame sync on machines like SAM by having a HALT instruction at the top of your main loop. Trouble is, HALT requires the interrupts to be on. Defender runs in a permanent DI state, as mentioned. OK, so I could have EI, HALT but that would have meant setting up an ISR that simply RETs. Not worth the bother. I'm not complicating the issue here with the potential for other types of interrupt to occur... Originally I was frame syncing by reading the FRAME INT bit on port 249 at the top of the main loop. This worked fine, until the game 'missed' a frame, at which time the main loop will actually catch the next frame, causing a drop down to 25-fps. Everything switching to half-speed for a time, including the sound, then back to full-speed is just plain ugly! If you watch the arcade original you'll notice that it misses frames too. In fact, it misses more frames than my SAM version does! But, there's one crucial difference. It doesn't drop to half-speed but rather jumps/jerks a bit, with very little slowdown. How? I concluded that the programmer was able to detect the fact that the game had missed a frame and simply didn't bother waiting for it when the program got back to the top of the main loop. He simply allowed the program to continue as if it *had* caught the last frame, which technically it did but was a little late! SAM Defender can never miss any more than *one* frame in a given cycle of the main loop. So, knowing you've missed a frame, you can simply continue processing as if you *had* waited for it. In other words, on a missed frame remove the frame wait at the top of the main loop. The benefit here is that the program is allowed to run *full belt* for the next cycle, and for any cycles after that where a frame is missed, until everything falls back in sync. The on-screen effect is identical to the arcade original, a slight jumpiness and a very small slowdown which is proportional to the amount of 'extra' work, beyond a normal frame, that the program has to do. No more 50% speed drop in game motion, and no audio quality loss. Much more pleasing! It also let me allow the
Re: Unorthodox Frame Sync
-Original Message- From: Dave Hooper [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: 22 February 1999 15:54 Subject: Re: Unorthodox Frame Sync call me mental, but that doesn't seem very unorthodox at all (it's the way i've always done it, anyway). It's a shame if this doesn't work under simcoupe (maybe the HPEN update code is buggy?) It's not the use of HPEN to do the actual frame-sync that's unorthodox, but the way I'm calculating 'missed frames' without resorting to LINE INT's. Or perhaps it's not? Who knows! It works, anyway! ;-) I'm not sure about Simcoupe though. I get sporadic bursts of 'flat out' motion, equal to no frame-sync wait. This is especially noticeable in calmer moments, when you've lost all the humans and are 'out in space' for example. It seems to think a frame has been missed, when in fact it hasn't. It looks like Simcoupe's HPEN update timing is probably a little out? Could be the actual amount of time HPEN stays in the border area with regards to a real SAM? Chris.
Simcoupe
Hi All, Regarding Simcoupe. What I'd like to see implemented is the 'screen off' BIT on port 254. Programs that turn the screen off to switch modes, or use screen area as a workspace, look so messy when the screen *isn't* being turned off. Flashes of crap look terrible!! Wouldn't it be possible to point the emulators screen to some blank black dummy screen when this bit is set? I don't think the extra 'speed up' is that important, just the prevention of messy mode changes Etc. Still on Simcoupe. Alan, you say the PIC's won't program correctly under Win32? Well, I don't know about NT but my Asteroids emulator uses a re-programmed PIC timer to force 60Hz refreshes when users' monitors are refreshing higher. It seems to work fine... If anyone's interested the source is available: http://members.tripod.com/~asteroids Also, I've seen some 80x86 code that'll throw the VGA into a 50Hz 320x240 Mode-X mode. Obviously you need a monitor that will sync too. It works on my system, with a dead cheap monitor and under Win 95 too. Would make Simcoupe very nice if it could refresh at the proper rate... Chris.
Re: SimCoupe
-Original Message- From: Simon Cooke (Exchange) [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: 'sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no' sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Date: 24 February 1999 21:27 Subject: SimCoupe Would make Simcoupe very nice if it could refresh at the proper rate... I'm willing to go for 60Hz refresh, if the PC can make sure the emulation runs a 50Hz frame's worth of processing in that time. Trouble is, things still won't look smooth... This is the main reason I don't allow Defender to run under Simcoupe. I've nothing against Simcoupe, in fact I think emulators are great! It's just that Defender looks so bad 'jumping' along, when I know that it's dead smooth on a real SAM... It's an ego thing really, I don't want people to think that I couldn't get the game to run at 50Hz!! ;-) As for the emulator running with Direct-X, yes please!! It'd be nice not to have to resort to a DOS box. Please, please, please go for sound emulation too. I feel this is a crucial point that's lacking at the moment. Personally I feel it's more important than super accurate 'Disk Chip' emulation. Chris.
Re: SimCoupe
-Original Message- From: Andrew Collier [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: 24 February 1999 22:37 Subject: Re: SimCoupe I think what Simon was saying, was that the Sam's 50Hz refresh would be speeded up to 60Hz and kept in time with the refresh rate of the monitor (rather than update the image at 50Hz on a screen refreshing at some other value. That's what my TV card does at the moment, actually. As well as munging adjacent horizontal lines, and ignoring every second field it gets, sigh). Ahhh, got you. Sounds like a reasonable idea. So a game refreshing at a perfect 50Hz on a Sam, would refresh at a perfect 60Hz on the emulator. Everything would still look smooth, but 20% too fast. That could be enough to make some games unplayably difficult, and would surely make music and sound effects sound very strange... especially sampled sounds! Defender would probably be one such unplayable game! I agree with your '50hz option' idea for those with the nessesary hardware. That would be very nice. Chris.
Re: SimCoupe
-Original Message- From: Dave Hooper [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: 25 February 1999 14:20 Subject: Re: SimCoupe I've emulated the saa1099 in software - i just need to collaborate with someone (anyone) so i can send the output to the soundcard... pretty accurate emulation (sample-based, so it supports SAM samples, full envelope control, noise, PROPER noise/tone mixing, even emulates the SOUND 28,2 resynchronise command) This is excellent news!!! It's what Simcoupe is crying out for... I know absolutely nothing about Windows programming or 'C', else I'd have been up for it!! Someone hurry and include Dave's code into Simcoupe!! ;-)
Re: SimCoupe protected disks
Some softyware of mine Simons ECopy , which does copy ALL disks and could be used as a test etc Before Malcolm's untimely death he informed me that E-Copy (version 3 I think) failed to copy the protection I created for Defender... I tried *all* the PC copiers I could find and they failed too. Perhaps reading 'real' SAM disks in emulation might be more trouble than it's worth??? I would certainly put quality sound emulation at the top of my wish list. Chris.
Re: SimCoupe protected disks
Before Malcolm's untimely death he informed me that E-Copy (version 3 I think) failed to copy the protection I created for Defender... I tried *all* the PC copiers I could find and they failed too. Have you tried Cyclone (using the cart) on an Amiga then? :-) Dave I haven't. I'm not familiar with Cyclone but if it's a hardware device then it would probably manage to copy it!! It (my protection) isn't that complex!! ;-) Chris.
Re: Putting the whole boring argumet simply
Funnily enough, that's EXACTLY what I've been wanting to do lately. I've got so many things I want to do for the SAM, but developing them on the SAM itself, as I find, is so bloody time-consuming! [cycle begin] boot up Pro-DOS. edit assembler/C program in text editer (ZDE) assemble (ZAS) / compile (Hitech C) program reset SAM boot up working development disk load up CP/M to SAM file converter (prosam) copy binary file over run program debug program (TurboMon) reset SAM [cycle end - repeat] Ouch! I developed Defender on the PC using the following tools: Editor: Borlands' BRIEF. Which is great as it uses the hard-disk as virtual RAM, so your source can be almost any length. Assembler: AS80. A great freeware Z80 macro assembler that can produce linkable code or a simple (ROM-like) runable binary. That's it. Write code on the PC, copy binary to floppy and use the SAM MS-DOS reader to get it into the SAM for testing. It's quite painless. Defender had to be done this way for timing reasons, but I have since written a small PC program that takes the binary produced by AS80 and blits it into a Simcoupe .DSK image. A simple .BAT file runs AS80, blits the binary to the .DSK and runs Simcoupe for testing. Pressing F10 in Simcoupe drops back into the .BAT and it then kicks BRIEF back into action to continue editing where you left off. This is even more painless!! However, because of the few idiosyncrasies within Simcoupe you still need to test certain things on a real SAM. Sound being the obvious one! When Si completes his Windows port (complete with sound and accurate timing!!!) developing for SAM under Simcoupe on the PC will be a breeze... ...and forget all about our lovealbe little bluer footed soldier. Hey.. Mine's black-footed!! You unpolitically-correct person, you! :) So's mine! :-) Chris.
Re: Help with : Writing my first (decent) SAM program . . .
If I page out the ROM can I use the lower 32k for the screen and the higher 32k for program . . . Yes. Andrew's already mentioned IM-1 interrupts, but you'll also need to stick your screen (assuming a mode-4 screen) in the top 32k if you want to retain use of the NMI button. If you're not worried about NMI and are planning on using IM-2 (or running DI) then it's faster to calculate screen pixel addresses for a mode-4 screen based at address zero. Chris.
SAM mouse SimCoupe
Can anyone tell me the accuracy of SimCoupe's mouse emulation with regards to a *real* SAM mouse? Chris.
Re: Persona
Has anyone had any dealings with Persona in the last couple of months? I ordered some software 6 weeks ago and still haven't received anything. I've also tried mailing [EMAIL PROTECTED], but haven't heard anything back from there either. Try [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED] One of these (usually the first one) should reach him... Chris.
Is my mail getting through?
Is my mail reaching other SAM users? Chris.
Re: Is my mail getting through?
I, Justin Skists, hereby starts the flood of yes emails. Thanks!!
Re: td0 files
-Original Message- From: Dan Doore [EMAIL PROTECTED] How do i transfer 'tdo' files downloaded from the net unto sam disks? You desire the evil Teledisk 2.12 for DOS, search for TELED212.ZIP on your favoured FTP search engine such as http://ftpsearch.lycos.com/ Be warned, it's been known to mis-behave on many, many machines. This program crashes my machine totally. However, I found that if I turn off my CPU cache it'll run fine... So, if you have trouble with Teledisk try turning your CPU cache off before running it. Most PC's allow this, just go to your BIOS set-up options. Chris.
Re: SAM Downloads
-Original Message- From: Si Owen [EMAIL PROTECTED] Hopefully Persona will be back up and running at some point so I can re-order the items (including Defender :-)), but I've been waiting for a message from David before I do anything. It's a shame that so many items are stuck until Persona's back, but I understand the sensitive situation so am prepared to wait a bit. No written contract was ever drawn up with Persona regarding the rights to Defender, so technically I still own all rights to it... However, the game was written to be marketed by Persona and a sort of 'verbal agreement' was made between myself and Malcolm. Personally I have no objections about releasing Defender into the PD, and I've mentioned this to David L. on several occasions. After all, the game was never going to make any money and it seems a shame for it to remain hidden forever... However, it would be morally wrong of me to release it without his 'permission' as he seems to be the only tangible link to Persona. So far he's been rather vague about the whole thing, which is not his fault as I think he's as 'in the dark' as the rest of us. Chris.
Re: SAM Downloads
-Original Message- From: Andrew Collier [EMAIL PROTECTED] But I agree with Si - Defender is still quite new and I don't think it has had a chance to sell to its entire market yet. Has it ever been for sale at a Gloucester show, for example? I'm not sure. I think it was demoed at the last NSSS Malcolm attended, as for other outlets I can't say. I did produce a playable demo for the next issue of Blitz but I don't know if it will be included. Assuming there will be a next issue of Blitz that is!! (I often tried to buy software at shows rather than by mail, partly because you can only be sure a product is released when you've got a copy in your hand...) Agreed. However, I can assure you Defender is complete. In fact it was finished back in February. Sadly, now getting hold of a copy is a different story... Chris.
Re: SAM Downloads
-Original Message- From: Andrew Collier [EMAIL PROTECTED] Don't forget that Astroball and Dyzonium are also bundled with Defender... both superb games too, IMHO (they each got Game Of The Month! in Second Opinion - see http://mnemotech.ucam.org/zodiac.html for reviews). Check out the 3d racing game RE-VOLT, due out on the PC shortly. This was written by Balor Knight (who know works at Acclaim), the author of both Astroball Dyzonium... That's *almost* on topic! ;-)
SAM DEFENDER
Hi All, Some of you may know about SAM DEFENDER and my reluctance to release it because of the moral issues surrounding Persona, even thought I own all rights to the program. Basically I was waiting for David Ledbury's instructions with regards to Persona. Now David has left the SAM scene, and the Persona website doesn't appear to exist any more, I decided to e-mail him. Before anyone asks, I don't know why David decided to pull the plug, nor do I know anything about Persona or David's future. I don't want to know... That's their business. After e-mailing David with my intentions, to which he didn't object, I am releasing SAM DEFENDER into the public domain. I've produced the game image in three flavours: .DSK, .TD0 and .BIN so you can take your pick. Sadly the game doesn't run under Simcoupé. You need a real SAM to play this one! ;-) The game images plus some general background information can be found here: http://homepages.enterprise.net/pegasus/defender Anyone who runs a SAM website please feel free to link to this page. My apologies to the *real* web authors/designers! I'm am not a web author, and I hate all there is to hate about producing web pages! Anyway, I hope those of you who download the game enjoy it. Sorry to those who actually bought it from Persona, but you did get Astroball and Dyzonium too! Chris.
Re: SAM DEFENDER
-Original Message- From: Simon Cooke [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Date: 26 August 1999 02:08 Subject: Re: SAM DEFENDER Ok... so what did you do to it that breaks SimCoupe? :) A seasoned 'hacker' like yourself will have no trouble cracking it! ;-) I warn you though, the end result (on Simcoupé) isn't pretty. :-( Chris.
Re: SAM DEFENDER
Original Message- From: Andrew Collier [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Sam Users Group sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Date: 26 August 1999 09:41 Subject: Re: SAM DEFENDER Not that I want to be unnecessarily picky, but on the site you say: LEGAL JARGON: I'm releasing SAM DEFENDER into the public domain. The copyright remains mine and the game must not be sold for profit or gain. This is actually a contradiction - since you want to retain copyright you shouldn't be calling it Public Domain (Public Domain is a well-defined term, legally speaking, which precludes copyright ownership by any individual). You should probably term it freeware. HTH. Fair enough, thanks for pointing it out!! Consider it changed... Chris.
Re: SAM DEFENDER
-Original Message- From: Thomas Harte [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Date: 27 August 1999 00:38 Subject: Re: SAM DEFENDER The game images plus some general background information can be found here: Since no-one else seemed to have, I'll just say : thanks for this! Since all my other commercial games are long dead, this will be about the only thing I have that actually works correctly all of the time on my SAM. And that also holds true for the power supply unit. Of course, if it requires 512kb memory, then forget the above sentiment entirely! Thanks for the thanks!! Oh, and it runs fine on a 256k!! Chris.
Defender Source Code
For those interested I have made the Defender source code available. http://homepages.enterprise.net/pegasus/defender Follow the link on the 'Downloads' page. Chris.
Re: Defender Source Code
This is no problem: check out: ftp://ftp.nvg.ntnu.no/pub/sam-coupe/utils/misc/comet2a.pak ftp://ftp.nvg.ntnu.no/pub/sam-coupe/utils/misc/comet2a.td0 ftp://ftp.nvg.ntnu.no/pub/sam-coupe/utils/misc/comet2a.txt Nice one!!! Providing you have Comet that is! I don't. Plus, the PC is a far superior dev-platform due to the fact that my SAM keyboard row SHIFT to B is knackered. ;-) Chris.
Re: Defender on SimCoupe (Was: Defender Source Code)
-Original Message- From: Si Owen [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Date: 13 September 1999 13:34 Subject: Defender on SimCoupe (Was: Defender Source Code) I've only just got around to playing this - it's a superb port! I think a few of us will pay you back in beer or something :-) ;-) Thanks, I'm glad you like it! The difficulty is very authentic too as I've yet to get past the 2nd wave! We're you one of those people that could spend hours playing a single game?? Er, 'fraid not! I was pretty hopeless at the arcade original. I wasn't too bad at that other classic '80's William's shooter... The masterpiece that is Robotron 2084! Yes, I've already thought about a port!! Trouble is, the original had a blitter and I don't think the SAM has nearly enough horespower to pull a decent version of this one off. I think I've tracked down some of the problems with it running under SimCoupe... I experienced the same running fast and slow when down to the last few landers. That's horrible, isn't it! Seems to be to do with instruction timing, as after I added an approximate form of memory contention(*) and it seems to be fine now. I'm guessing it normally runs at 25fps, so the uncontended timings meant it could manage a frame in under 1/50th when there wasn't so much to do. Ah, you might have a problem here as it normally runs at 1/50th on a real SAM... 25fps would have been sacrilege to the original. ;-) The struggle to keep the game at a constant 50fps was one of the main reasons for the strange 'have I missed a frame' code. If only I could stop myself getting distracted by minor (but worthwhile, I suppose) details I might even get the Win32 to a releasable state. I seem to have a bad habit of chipping away at lots of bits instead of concentrating on each one and finishing them off. *sigh* I'll be great when you finish it, hopefully with decent sound and a VSync option!! :-) Chris.
Re: Source going up
-Original Message- From: Simon Cooke [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: samusers sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Date: 16 September 1999 00:07 Subject: Source going up I'm putting a whole chunk of source code online... Questions: Anyone object to the following going up? PRODOS 1st May 1992 source code Simon, do you have the Pro-DOS original source? The last one I wrote before other people started hacking it? If so, could you send me a plain ASCII version of it please? If not, then no problem. Personally I don't object to the source going up. However, I think Brian Gaff still owns the rights to it... Chris.
SAM Community
Gavin, Could you e-mail me your address please as I wish to subscribe to SAM Community. I would have sent you an e-mail direct, but Outlook Express decided *not* to add your e-mail address to my address book the last time I mailed you, even though it's set to do so! Cheers, Chris.
What The Hell Is Going On?
Can someone please tell me what's going on? I've just had to wait while 115, yes *115* messages downloded and they're nearly all the bloody same... Is some server set in an infinite loop re-sending the same messages to SAM Users? I don't fancy loggin on in a few hours only to have to download *thousands* of versions of the same message... Chris.
RE: Greetz
the second issue of Sam Community newsletter, Chris White has released Sam Defender into the public domain and there are more people on the sam-users list than I've seen in years. Chris White *didn't* release SAM Defender... I did!!! ;-) It's still available here: http://homepages.enterprise.net/pegasus/defender/ Please note: The e-mail address on this page is no longer valid. Chris.
RE: Greetz
Chris - I am *so* sorry, I wrote this before my second coffee of the morning. No problem! I haven't had my first yet, so I'm a little ratty! ;-) It's still available here: http://homepages.enterprise.net/pegasus/defender/ And a bloody fine game it is - go get it - get it now! Is that enough unsolicited praise to let me off? :-) Yep, you're forgiven!! Chris.
RE: New WinCoupe alpha test version (Was: Re: Defender)
Aw, go on then, as long as you promise the GPL goblins won't come and get me! I've uploaded a new alpha test version to: http://www.obobo.demon.co.uk/WinCoupe.zip It's brilliant!
RE: Sam Coupe Scrapbook Updates / FAQ / WinCoupe
Tim, Was Amalthea *really* written by Balor Knight?? I can safely say that it wasn't!! Done. I knew there was at least one group forgotten. At least one person and game forgotten too, namely me!! I was the 'other half' of Digital Reality with Balor Knight. I was the programmer of ProDOS, and also the recent game Defender. Defender is available here: http://homepages.enterprise.net/pegasus/defender Please feel free to link to it. The e-mail address on this page is invalid, but I can be contacted at: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cheers!! Chris.
RE: Sam Coupe Scrapbook Updates / FAQ / WinCoupe
At least one person and game forgotten too, namely me!! Done. Cheers Tim! I agree with everyone else, the new colourful format is far more pleasing!
RE: SAAEmu 0.61
-Original Message- From: Dave Hooper [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] I'm a bit disappointed in Aley's SAAEmu 0.61. 1. Credit on the main screen (as requested!). Preferably immediately below the line that says Z80 emulator by FMS Aley Keprt, libraries by (c) FMS 1996. If possible, credit should say SAA-1099 emulator (c)1999 Dave Hooper Agreed 100%. Credit should be given where it's due I say...
RE: samdsk: thanks.
-Original Message- From: Justin Skists [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 26 November 1999 10:01 To: 'sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no' Subject: samdsk: thanks. Oh, And Chris Pile's Defender. Wow! If you haven't played it, play it now! (Or was I the last one to do so?) But did he have to make it so damn difficult :) Thanks, I'm lad you like it!! Hard? Well I did try to get it as close to the original as I could!! ;-) Chris.
RE: defender (was: samdsk: thanks.)
-Original Message- From: Justin Skists [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 26 November 1999 10:45 To: 'sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no' Subject: defender (was: samdsk: thanks.) I loved playing the Defender clones, when I was a kid, on the speccy. Perhaps it is difficult because I'm out of practice... :) Could be!! But you did have to be a bit of a contortionist in the finger department to play the original!! Especially if you were 'unlucky' enough to find one with buttons for up/down, rather than a joystick!! Imagine trying to mimic the original twin-joystick control of Robotron-2084 on a SAM keyboard!! ;) Chris.
RE: defender (was: samdsk: thanks.)
-Original Message- From: Justin Skists [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 26 November 1999 10:56 To: 'sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no' Subject: RE: defender (was: samdsk: thanks.) How did you manage to get the SAM conversion as close to the original as possible? Do you actually have a Defender arcade machine in your bedroom, or something? :) I'll reply off-list, as it's likely to become wildly off-topic!!
RE: defender (was: samdsk: thanks.)
-Original Message- From: Dan Dooré [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 26 November 1999 10:53 To: 'sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no' Subject: RE: defender (was: samdsk: thanks.) It could be yours for a mere UKP1500 http://www.emuunlim.com/Arcadewarehouse/defender.html with the buttons or http://www.emuunlim.com/Arcadewarehouse/defender-cocktail.html for the table top version with the stick :-) Oh, to dream!!! Mm, I wonder if I could live without rent/food bills this month!! ;-)
RE: Re[3]: Christmas Greetings, etc.
-Original Message- From: Si Owen [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 21 December 1999 07:52 To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: Re[3]: Christmas Greetings, etc. Frode Tenneboe wrote: Ditto. Me too! Seconded, thirded, forthded... Etc!! ;-)
RE: SAM Community iss 2
-Original Message- From: Ian Collier [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 09 March 2000 12:01 To: 'sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no' Subject: Re: SAM Community iss 2 Lucky Ladders IIRC :-) Aye, that's the one. Used to have a great 70's perm too! ;-)
RE: Where are YOU now?
Here Here!!! I didn't have the bottle to post that! ;-)
-Original Message-
From: Johnna Teare [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Thursday, January 25, 2001 5:22 PM
To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no
Subject: RE: Where are YOU now?
yawn yawn yawn - any chance of playing this out in private folks?
{ -Original Message-
{ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
{ [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Aley Keprt
{ Sent: 25 January 2001 10:32
{ To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no
{ Subject: Re: Where are YOU now?
{
{
{
{
{ On Thu, 25 Jan 2001 08:45:44 +0100 Aley Keprt
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
{ wrote:
{
{ You shouldn't rely on disk error = all data lost.
{ I had a disk error, and I lost only one sector in one
logical drive.
{ It depends on what kind of disk error you encounter.
{
{ Disk error != disk crash.
{
{ As I wrote, if whole disk goes away at once, it can be
{ repaired without
{ data
{ loss, since it's only in electronics.
{
{ Please, Aley!
{
{ How many enterprise disk systems have you encountered? How
many hard
{ drives
{ have you handled from SOL to EOL?
{
{ A disk crash does not always depend on electronics. You may
{ have a failure
{ in
{ one arm which tears the entire disk apart, oil spills from
the spindle,
{ failure
{ of the spindle and even failure of the file system (at
least two times
{ this has happened with NT).
{
{ And even if you send it away for a data extraction - do you
{ have any idea
{ what this costs?
{
{ Depends on who does it...
{
{
{ -Frode
{
{
{
RE: SimCoupé/Win32 updated to 0.81
Thanks for a great emulator! :) -Original Message- From: Simon Owen [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, February 27, 2001 12:59 AM To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: SimCoupé/Win32 updated to 0.81 Yes indeed, believe you eyes, from our grip, at last you prise... a new Win32 version of SimCoupé!!! To stop yourself from feeling blue, and go check out the features new: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/simon.owen/simcoupe/changes.txt then throw the old one in the skip, and grab yourself a brand new zip: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/simon.owen/simcoupe/simcoupe.zip Share and enjoy...
RE: Possibly New Keyboard membranes
I need one, but would probably buy a couple providing they're not too pricey... -Original Message- From: Frans van Egmond [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2001 10:14 PM To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: Re: Possibly New Keyboard membranes I'm in the process of talking to a company to have them create new SAM keyboard membranes, I'm sending them one to look at... Before I complete an order with them I have to have some sort of idea how many I should order and how much people would be willing to spend on a membrane (excluding postage from the Netherlands to you)... My idea is if they'll do it to get them to make 100 which may keep the price low enough to be interesting... So guys, please tell me I will not be stuck with 100 membranes myself (I only need 3) ? Cheers, Frans This e-mail may contain confidential and/or privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient (or have received this e-mail in error) please notify the sender immediately and destroy this e-mail. Any unauthorised copying, disclosure or distribution of the material in this e-mail is strictly forbidden.
Re: A couple of questions
Hi Stewart, SAM DEFENDER is freeware and you're welcome to include it on your website. It's available in several file formats. Feel free to include the files on your site, or link to its homepage. It has moved from its current home to: http://homepages.tesco.net/~chris.pile/index.htm If any of you are currently linking to it please update the URL, thanks! Unlike the old DOS simcoupe it is now fully compatible with Simon Owen's fantastic windows based SAM emulator. I've updated the information on the homepage to reflect this. Cheers, Chris. - Original Message - From: Stewart Skardon [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: SAM Users sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Sent: 07 April 2001 14:26 Subject: A couple of questions Also, while I think of it, can anyone tell me what the current copyright status is on many of the SAMs games, as I would like to try and contacting individuals about including some of them on my website. Thanks in advance, Stewart
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Re:
Evenin' Nev! Things are fine, thanks for asking!! ;-) - Original Message - From: Nev Young [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Sent: 12 April 2001 07:41 Subject: Re: On Wed, 11 Apr 2001 23:54:38 +0100, Chris Pile [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: who Good morning Chris. Howz things with you? -- Nev - no longer at [EMAIL PROTECTED] and getting no spam at all (yet) Webpage under construction at www,nfy53,demon,co,uk also hiding on ICQ
Re: ASCD 0.90
From your homepage: SimCoupé is terribly badly written program, that was originally ... [snip] Ouch But it (SimCoupé) runs Defender, so it gets my vote!!! ;-) Oh, and Aley get rid of those God-awful pop-up's on your site. There are few things more annoying than squillions of pop-up's opening on entering a site...
Re: ASCD 0.90
Sam Defender is nice. But I can't play it since I can't start it. Please tell me what hidden combination of keys do it need to? 1. Get to redefine keys menu. 2. Start it. M, not too sure what you mean here??? From anywhere during the attract sequence you can press '1' to start a one-player game and '2' to start a two-player game. 'K' will take you to the key redefine section, as you already know. This only works if the program actually gets past the 'Digital Reality' logo screen. If it halts on this page then you've got emulation timing problems!! ;-) ASCD 0.90 does run Defender but you'll see some corruption during screen switching through the initial start-up screens. I think the original (Alan's) DOS emu suffered this problem too. If you're not emulating the 'screen-off' function then this'll be why... Good to see the sound emulation on ASCD 0.90 has much improved. POP-UP: THAT'S WINDOW OF MY PROVIDER. IF I REMOVE IT, THEY WILL REMOVE ME COMPLETELY!!! ;-) I understand... It's just a pet hate of mine! (New download page http://aleyu.borec.cz does have banners instead of pop-up's. It is better? Only got a '404' error when trying this page... However, banners are preferable to pop-ups!!! :) Chris.
Re: ASCD 0.90
Of course, Mr.Holmes, it should read http://aley.borec.cz Yep, definitely better without pop-ups!! ;-) Chris.
Defender Update!
Hi All, Perhaps some of you would like to know that SAM Defender has been updated. The update fixes a couple of obscure/rare bugs and also improves the 'close to the original' accuracy. These items have been nagging at me for a few years, so it was time to fix 'em! ;-) The following changes have been made: BUG FIXES: Fixed a problem that would sometimes leave the screen in a 'non-black' state. This was often seen when 'Game Over' occurred just as the planet exploded. The 'Game Over' screen and the following 'Hall Of Fame' screen would have a random background colour. Fixed a similar problem on level completion. If you issued a Smart Bomb during the final few frames of a level you would sometimes see the 'Level Complete' screen displayed on a white (instead of black) background. The above bugs were pretty trivial and didn't really affect the program. Just dirty and annoying!! There was a major bug - but thankfully quite rare - that has also been squashed. This involved the '500' bonus sprite when catching a human. If a human had fallen enough to die on landscape impact but you flew into it at the exact time it hit the landscape you would not see the '500' bonus. Actually the human should be dead but instead remained alive!! The '500' bonus was being dumped off-screen, often in critical data areas. This was a potential crash-bug. Now fixed. Also fixed a potential crash-bug, again related to dropping humans, where the human could get dumped below the visible screen area for one frame. ACCURACY CHANGES: The following were omitted from SAM Defender but are present in the arcade original: 1 ... A 1.5 second breathing space at the start of each level. 2 ... Scanner dots remain visible in the scanner area when player ship is exploding. The first one was an oversight on my part, I just didn't notice it in the original!!! The updated SAM Defender now includes this breathing time. The second was more tricky due to the way I originally programmed the scanner routines. In fact this error has bugged me since SAM Defender's initial release! It's now fixed in the update. When you die the scanner will still retain its display. I've also removed the 'anti-emulator' code. With the accuracy of the current emulators this code was pretty much redundant! ;-) The updated version can be downloaded from: http://www.btinternet.com/~c.pile/index.htm where you'll find Binary, DSK and TeleDisk versions. I've changed the colour of the spinning 'Digital Reality' logo when the game boots. This latest version has a green DR logo. The old - original release - has a red logo. This makes it simple to check if you're playing the (hopefully) bug-free and more accurate version instead of the original release. If you carry the .DSK or .BIN of this game on your site please update with this latest release. Hopefully I haven't introduced any new bugs with these changes. Please inform me of any problems you find. Thanks! Chris.
Re: SimCoupe 1.0 released
After downloading the latest SimCoupé I felt I had to register here and say what a superb emulator it has evolved into. A quality piece of work, and many thanks to Simon and his team for the hours of work which undoubtedly went into it. SimCoupé has to be one of the best and most complete 8-bit home computer emulators currently available. It's feature-list, performance and compatibility with SAM software is stunning. Chris.
Re: SimCoupe 1.0 released
Simon Owen wrote: Simon Cooke wrote: Interesting... Defender uses HPEN/LPEN... any idea how it uses it? It uses HPEN monitoring to track whether it's running late with the current frame. I believe it still expects to be over the main screen area after completing certain tasks, and if it's into the border it runs straight into the next frame without waiting for the frame interrupt to be signalled in the status port. The game uses the stack for lots of the drawing code/lists, so runs with interrupts disabled at all times [you can confirm that in the SimCoupe debugger by pressing U for 'execute until', and entering 'ei' for the expression - the breakpoint will trigger next time interrupts are enabled, which never happens]. Simon's explanation is correct. I will expand (from memory!) why I used this method: As we all know, the SAM is *seriously* underpowered. To ensure Defender ran at a constant (99.9% of the time!) 50-fps, all available horsepower needed to be squeezed from the old Z80! Often the fastest way to shunt data around is via the stack, so I used the stack to dump/erase sprites and also used a stack-based linked list for the world entities. The landscape also uses a stack-based dumper, this pops off a value which is added to the current landscape pixel position, moving the position either up, down or up/right, down/right. The mini-landscape used in the scanner is processed in a similar way. Even the 16 background stars are processed using a stack-based routine! Couple this with plenty of code unrolling, in-lining of graphics data and also screen-line interleaving of sprite dumping the game holds on to the magic 50-fps. With so much stack activity occurring, often in crucial data areas, any unexpected interrupts would be a disaster. So Defender runs a constant DI state. This is fine, but introduces the problem of frame-syncing via the v-blank interrupt. Because of the DI state it is not possible for Defender to trap the v-blank interrupt. Instead, a simple polling loop on the status port has to be used. Again, this is fine if you can complete all in-game processing before the next v-blank. Defender does (just!) for 99.9% of the time. This is where the problem lies. If you miss the v-blank, but you still wait in the status polling loop after all in-game processing, you effectively see the next v-blank and not the one you really wanted to see, because you missed it! This has the effect of dropping the game to 25-fps visually, and halves the speed of all sound effects. This is so very obvious to both eye and ear!!! Unacceptable! As Defender only just misses the frame v-blank when things are hectic on-screen it was totally unforgivable to allow the game to stutter to half its speed, ruining both the game and its playability. The solution was not to wait if we had missed a v-blank, but simply continue processing the next game-loop as if we had just seen a v-blank. This is simple if you can set a flag on a v-blank interrupt. In Defender's case this is not possible, so an alternative method for detecting missed v-blanks was used. Enter HPEN! Put simply, I read the HPEN value after processing approximately 50% of the in-game functions (50% *never* misses v-blank) and then read it again after all in-game processing is done. Then a few calculations determine if we missed the last v-blank. If so, then don't wait for a v-blank and simply blast into the next game loop. The effect is a slight visual stutter on missed frames, and no real change in the sound effects. 100% preferable to the 25-fps visual drop and audible slowdown of all effects! In fact, the visual stutter is almost exactly the same as the real Defender machine when it, too, misses frames. The exception being that SAM Defender doesn't bother hyperspacing entities off-screen on missed frames, which the real Defender does when it trys to claw back some precious CPU time!! ;-) Job done! :-) Chris.
SAM Dallas module
Hi Folks, I tried emailing Edwin about this, but all email addresses I found for him simply bounced. So I'm posting here instead... Does anyone have programming information for Edwin's SAM Dallas clock module? Particularly the port addresses and how to read/write to the Dallas 114-bytes of scratch-ram? Also, does Simcoupé save the Dallas module's RAM contents on exit - thus emulating the persistent qualities of the Dallas scratch-ram? Cheers, Chris.
Re: SAM Dallas module
Hi Si, Chris Pile wrote: I tried emailing Edwin about this, but all email addresses I found for him simply bounced. So I'm posting here instead... The last one he used on the list is edwin.blink at home dot nl - if he doesn't spot this I'll check when he's next on MSN. No problem. I won't need to bother Edwin now, as all I wanted was the port address for the Dallas chip. You kindly supplied that in your reply! I had recollectrions of the address / data accessing of the chip from way back - when I played around with PC CMOS stuff. Ports 112 (address) and 113 (data) sprang to mind! Strange the silly things people tend to remember! :-) Chris Pile wrote: Also, does Simcoupé save the Dallas module's RAM contents on exit - thus emulating the persistent qualities of the Dallas scratch-ram? Not currently, as I didn't realise that worked with the original device. I can implement that tonight if you want something to play with. :-) :-) That would be great. No rush though, as I can't really start playing until the weekend. Cheers, Chris.
Re: SAM Dallas module
Hi Wayne, Chris.. Hope you are all well. Steve Parry-Thomas is more likely than most to know how to contact Edwin. You were quite right! Steve emailed me Edwin's address. However, I won't need to bother him now, as all I wanted was the chip's port address. Which I now have! :-) Cheers, Chris. P.S. I'll email you properly soon... Or should that be soon-ISH. You know what I'm like for that... ;-)
SAM Defender - Updated and Improved!
Hi SAMsters, I've updated SAM Defender! Why? Well, basically I did all of the things I *should* have done back in '98. Things that have been annoying me for years! Below are a list of the things changed, plus any new features and also a link to where you can get this - finally (probably!) final - version! = List of things changed to match the arcade coin-op: * Hyperspace is now a 25% chance of death on re-entry - was 50% before. * Homing enemies do not home to the hyperspace re-entry position - they did before! * Landers appear in groups of five, as they always have. When you shoot the last Lander in the current world state, the next available group is warped in immediately. Before, you could have an empty world while the counters for the next group timed-out. So, now its never an empty world! :-) * Climbing Landers that once carried a humanoid (which you've now shot!) that reach the top of the screen will now warp in at a random world X position. Before, they would warp in at the same world X position they disappeared at. * Hunting Landers will now pick a new humanoid target if their current target gets captured or destroyed. Before, if their target vanished they would hunt blindly over potential victims and *never* pick them up... Total pants! * Humanoids are now scattered randomly over the planet surface. Before, they were put at a uniformed distance apart - depending on the number of humanoids in the world. * Enemy shots now have a little randomness to their ultimate destination. Before, every shot was deadly accurate to the player's ship. * Swarmers - their logic has received a major overhaul. Before, they fired in any direction using the same shot-logic as the rest of the enemies. They also flew around the player like a swarm of bees. This was bollocks - nowhere near the same as the coin-op original, and something that's annoyed me for years! The coin-op Swarmers will *only* fire when they are flying *toward* the player - they also use a different shot style and sound. This means you can let Swarmers fly past you, quickly turn and chase them in the knowledge that they won't fire at you - providing you keep close to them. They only change direction when they go beyond a certain distance from the player. In SAM Defender it wasn't possible to use this chasing trick... But it is now - as Swarmers now mimic the coin-op. :-) * Upon player death all screen contents are preserved - including any warping enemies and explosion fragments. Before, all fragments and warpers were erased due to the way their engines worked. Not good - and not like the coin-op! Fixed! :-) * Baiters and Mutants now mimic the coin-op more closely - slight changes to their logic. * Background stars now twinkle faster - a closer match to the coin-op's twinkle speed. * Some sound priorities rearranged, to closer match the coin-op. Even though the sound is still shite! ;-) = List of (internal) things changed from the last version: * Faster and more random random number generator. * Faster processing of the linked-list used to handle the world entities. * Optimisations of the sprite engines and scanner dots engine. * Cleaner final stage to the merging Defender logo on the attract mode. No empty block! * Coin-op timing for the appearance/disappearance of the 500 sprite during attract mode. * General removal of redundant code - such as... * Removal of light-pen detection code. I doubt this was needed - how many had a light pen! * High-score table is now 8-slots, and contains the same initials and scores as the coin-op. = List of things removed from the last version: * Initial Persona logo. * Rotating Digital Reality logo As both of these were seen once only - at initial game boot-up - their code and data have been removed, saving around 8k on the final program size! = List of things added to this version: * Coin-op style rug test-pattern during initial game boot-up! As per coin-op power on! * Coin-op style INITIAL TESTS INDICATE UNIT OK message! As per coin-op power on! * An ALL TIME GREATEST high-score table! As per coin-op. * Saving of the ALL TIME GREATEST scores to non-volatile RAM if you have Edwin Blink's Dallas real-time clock interface. The coin-op saved the ALL TIME scores to NVRAM. * Saving of your control key choices to NVRAM too. See the readme.txt file in the Defender .ZIP for information about SAM Defender's NVRAM saving capabilities. = So, there you go! Some improvements and changes I've been meaning to do for years! If you carry an image of SAM Defender on your website, or if you bundle it in any compilations Etc., then please replace the current version with the one found here: http://www.yz.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/kf/defender.zip Please note,
Re: SAM Defender - Updated and Improved!
Hi Wolfgang! lol - yes, you may have seen the NVRAM stuff as I sent Edwin a test copy to make sure the NVRAM save/load code worked on Edwin's actual Dallas interface! It wasn't really a secret - just a test version! ;-) Chris. - Original Message - From: Wolfgang [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 9:42 AM Subject: Re: SAM Defender - Updated and Improved! Hi Chris. Great work! Now I know what I saw on the Bunnik new years party what Edwin wouldn´t tell me. Was a secret?! Keep on good work. Wolfgang Chris Pile schrieb: Hi SAMsters, I've updated SAM Defender! Why? Well, basically I did all of the things I *should* have done back in '98. Things that have been annoying me for years! Below are a list of the things changed, plus any new features and also a link to where you can get this - finally (probably!) final - version! =
Re: SAM Defender - Updated and Improved!
Hi Edwin, Hi Chris, Exellent job ! Maybe now I have a better change on getting a real high score ;-) lol - me too! I was always hopeless at the game! :-) you had me fooled with the crash effect. I though the diskimage was corruped until I saw the initial test message :-) Edwin :-) That's supposed to be a simulation of the RAM test the real coin-op does on start-up! Have a look at the real coin-op version (under MAME) to see what I was trying to achieve. I took on-board what you said about the older Dallas modules only having 64-bytes. Now I do my initial is there a Dallas module there test in address-space than 64-bytes. So it should reject older modules (and resort to defaults) but on the later modules you should have data persistence across Defender boot-ups! Thanks again, Edwin, for testing my initial code! :-) Chris.
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Re:
Ooops! :-) Wrong email address! Wanted to check if my old email address was gone off the list. It is.
Re: SAM Defender - Updated and Improved!
snipped huge list Awesome! I'm amazed you found so many things to improve upon, as I don't remember any real differences from the arcade version. There are still one or two areas left which I could tweak - but I probably won't as they are pretty trivial. Well, until the mood takes me again! ;-) The Williams startup screen was a nice touch too - couldn't help but laugh at that :-) It had to be done! ;-)) I was tempted to add a virtual coin input too - complete with a CREDITS X message along the screen bottom during the attract sequences, like the arcade version. But that would have been taking things a little too far!! * Saving of the ALL TIME GREATEST scores to non-volatile RAM if you have Edwin Blink's Dallas real-time clock interface. I have support for the NVRAM saving in SimCoupe now, but the emulator is still in pieces after a rash of tweaks and enhancements. I'll get you an updated version once it's suitably back together and tidied up, but that might be a little while yet... No problem! I notice you bundle Defender with SimCoupé - which is great! If you could bundle the latest version with future SimCoupé updates that'd be brill... :-) Chris.
Re: Car game
CA - Original Message - CA From: Calvin Allett [EMAIL PROTECTED] CA To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no CA Sent: Sunday, May 20, 2007 10:41 AM CA Subject: RE: Car game CA ... Surprised more MC`ers don`t have a dabble with Basic more often tbh :D Well you know what they say - when you've driven a *Ferrari you really don't want to go back to a Morris Minor! ;-) *Not that I've ever driven a Ferrari - but you get the idea! ;-) Chris.
Re: Wish List - Software
Pro-Dos uses the same floppy-disk format as Amstrad's PCW 8256 - and it will read original PCW disks. Of course, they need to be 3.5 disks rather than Amstrad's 3 format. ;-) Steve is correct in saying that Pro-Dos simply soaks up all available SAM RAM for its RAM-disk. If I remember, the internal RAM-disk is also in PCW format, rather than some proprietary technique. This allowed the program core to use its main floppy-disk code to also access the RAM-disk, with only trivial alterations... *Probably :-) Chris. * it's been over 15-years since I looked at the Pro-Dos source-code - which I no longer have. - Original Message - From: Steve Parry-Thomas [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Sent: Saturday, June 02, 2007 5:39 PM Subject: RE: Wish List - Software The Pro-dos RAM code just soaks up any spare RAM and sets it up as a RAMdisk, - Drive C on a two disk Sam. No MasterDos or MasterBasic is used , in fact they were not about when Chris was writing Pro-Dos. CP/M disks have a different format than SamDos / MasterDos. I'm hoping Chris will read this.? @ Calvin you never talk cr*p - this is where ideas come from and you just might give someone else the idea and try something new! :-) Steve(spt) steve [AT] parry-thomas.co.uk _ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Calvin Allett Sent: 02 June 2007 16:09 To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: Re: Wish List - Software That`s a pity, I thought at least something extra would be able with RAM Disk :( I knew I was talking crap again :) Colin Piggot [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Steve is the Prodos expert, and of course Chris who wrote it, but from what I can see Prodos uses it's own Ram disk system (i.e. not via MasterDOS) and also the discs are in cp/m format. Colin. == Quazar : Hardware, Software, Spares and Repairs for the Sam Coupe 1995-2007 - Celebrating 12 Years of developing for the Sam Coupe Website: http://www.samcoupe.com/ - Original Message - From: Calvin Allett To: Sent: Saturday, June 02, 2007 3:49 PM Subject: Re: Wish List - Software I had a few brief dabbles when you first started up your archive, got a few simple games running, wouldn`t mind having a good look at it properly, if you can run the software that Id`ve used on PCW`s at school. Good luck getting something sorted regarding Atom support :) For now, would it be possible/helpful to knock up in MasterBasic a front end and file requester, to allow you to select certain files, or images and put them in RAM Drive. This might help going through them, browsing? Are Prodos disks on normal SAMDos format? or in a CP/M format, as you could even build up virtual disks (from many) then bang em in the RAM, before launching Prodos, which could be beneficial? Let me know if I`m talking bollocks again :) _ Copy addresses and emails from any email account to Yahoo! Mail - quick, easy and free. Do http://us.rd.yahoo.com/mail/uk/taglines/default/trueswitch/*http:/uk.docs.y ahoo.com/trueswitch2.html it now...
Re: Which assembler?
I do all my SAM development on the PC, using a cross-assembler. For SAM development I chose the AS80 PC cross-assembler... Works a treat! It's free, and you can grab it here: http://www.kingswood-consulting.co.uk/assemblers/ My editor of choice is StarBase's CodeWright 6.5 - which is great. It's not free though, and is a little tricky to find these days. For my initial foray into developing for the SAM - back in 1990(ish) - I used the SCAssembler, which can be found here: http://www.worldofsam.org/node/536 Then, when Edwin released his superb Comet assembler, I moved all my source over to that. Today - I would stick with developing on the PC though - it's much faster, and coupled with SimCoupé makes developing for the SAM a piece of cake! Chris.
Re: SAM Coupé - software request!
Hi Ron, Sorry I can't help you in your search, but I'd be interested in seeing your Quix remakes - but can't find them on NVG. I started writing a version of QIX back around 1998 - the plan was to make it as arcade perfect as I could. Sadly, the combination of me being a lazy git - and having one or two other projects on the go, meant I never got around to finishing it! Come to think of it - I never finished any of the other projects either! I'm pretty sure I don't even have the sourcecode any more. :-( Knowing now that there was a version of QIX for the SAM I'd love to see what my competition would have been!! ;-) Cheers, Chris. - Original Message - From: Ron Stirling [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Sent: Saturday, November 17, 2007 6:08 AM Subject: SAM Coupé - software request! Hi friends, my name is Ron Stirling, I used to program software and games for the SAM Coupé in the early nineties. My better known work was the SAM MegaDisk; which contained five games; Quix, Quix II, Manic Mazes, Math! and Le Box. I also created 5 issues of my fan magazine, Review, under the title of Vertex Software. I recently discovered the SimCoupé emulator program, and also the NVG ftp website, where I have located some of my work. It has been an absolute joy to play games that I wrote over fifteen years ago (and I haven't seen them since!), and I now wish to track down all my other work. I am still looking for all five issues of Review magazine, plus any games, graphics, programs or images that I may have created for other companies (like the Gold SAM Coupé logo for SamPaint). If you, or anyone you know, might be able to help me out, please do get back to me! Many thanks for your help! Ron Stirling Visit my website; www.ronstirling.co.uk, watch my films; www.youtube.com/ronstirling
Re: SAM Coupé - software request!
Hi Ron, Sorry I can't help you in your search, but I'd be interested in seeing your Quix remakes - but can't find them on NVG. I started writing a version of QIX back around 1998 - the plan was to make it as arcade perfect as I could. Sadly, the combination of me being a lazy git - and having one or two other projects on the go, meant I never got around to finishing it! Come to think of it - I never finished any of the other projects either! I'm pretty sure I don't even have the sourcecode any more. :-( Knowing now that there was a version of QIX for the SAM I'd love to see what my competition would have been!! ;-) Cheers, Chris. - Original Message - From: Ron Stirling [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Sent: Saturday, November 17, 2007 6:08 AM Subject: SAM Coupé - software request! Hi friends, my name is Ron Stirling, I used to program software and games for the SAM Coupé in the early nineties. My better known work was the SAM MegaDisk; which contained five games; Quix, Quix II, Manic Mazes, Math! and Le Box. I also created 5 issues of my fan magazine, Review, under the title of Vertex Software. I recently discovered the SimCoupé emulator program, and also the NVG ftp website, where I have located some of my work. It has been an absolute joy to play games that I wrote over fifteen years ago (and I haven't seen them since!), and I now wish to track down all my other work. I am still looking for all five issues of Review magazine, plus any games, graphics, programs or images that I may have created for other companies (like the Gold SAM Coupé logo for SamPaint). If you, or anyone you know, might be able to help me out, please do get back to me! Many thanks for your help! Ron Stirling Visit my website; www.ronstirling.co.uk, watch my films; www.youtube.com/ronstirling
Re: SAM Coupé - software request!
Hi Ron, Many thanks for that - Wolfgang sent a link to your software - thanks Wolfgang! Your game Quix is a very different beast to the arcade game Qix - in fact, only the name is similar! Apparently the arcade version is pronounced kicks - but I always pronounce it quicks ;-) Your game is quite a challenge to play - in some ways it feels like a beefed-up Tetris! It's pretty amazing to see what you can do in standard Sam BASIC. The SAM really was too much too late... Sad really, as it really was a lovely machine to write code for... :-( Cheers, Chris.
Re: In pursuit of Dead Wild Cat
Re: code, I really don't think that cycle pinching is the main problem — I think it's algorithmic. I'm going to need to think about that a bit more. At the minute I'm a bit indoctrinated as to how I think a 3d pipeline should go, and I may need to rethink that. Sometimes you have to take the unconventional route when optimising for old-skool hardware! Textbook methods are fine if you have the horsepower - if not, then you're going to have to look at pulling out all the tricks you can. :-)
Re: Grabbing floppy images
OT - slightly! It's great to see all the recent activity on the list and in the SAM scene - both in programming and hardware! It's *almost* enough to make you want to crack open a copy of CodeWright and start knocking out some Z80! Seriously, well done chaps it's great to see the little SAM is still able to bring out the creative side in people! Chris. - Original Message - From: Adrian Brown [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, June 16, 2008 4:54 PM Subject: RE: Grabbing floppy images Yer real life and work does get in the way - don't suppose there is a mutli-millionare on the list who wants to cough up about 3 grand to employ me for a month to work on sam stuff? ;) -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Colin Piggot Sent: 16 June 2008 16:31 To: Adrian Subject: Re: Grabbing floppy images Adrian wrote: Is that a little hint hint at hte bottom of your email ;) Nah, not trying to hint, I'd just send a message saying chop chop if I wanted to be blatent about it! ;) Besides you know I've been excited about seeing the stack going from when you first said you would be looking at porting it across to the SAM, and for all of us 'Real Life' and 'Work' have to take priority over SAM stuff. Good news is all of the main UIp is converted, just writing a test app :D Then i need to finalise how best to allow access to it for features for other coders. Fantastic! Colin = Quazar : Hardware, Software, Spares and Repairs for the SAM Coupe 1995-2008 - Celebrating 14 Years of developing for the SAM Coupe Website: http://www.samcoupe.com/ APB Computer Services Ltd. Registered Address: 3 Springfield, Trevadlock, Congdons Shop, Launceston, Cornwall, PL15 7PW. Registration Number: 4942193. V.A.T. No: 826 0005 70 This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please notify the sender immediately by e-mail if you have received this e-mail by mistake and delete this e-mail from your system. If you are not the intended recipient you are notified that disclosing, copying, distributing or taking any action in reliance on the contents of this information is strictly prohibited.
{Spam?} Re: New projects Byte-Back 2009
- Original Message - From: Thomas Harte [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2008 7:25 PM Subject: Re: New projects Byte-Back 2009 TH Obviously this leaves a whole bunch of massive holes in what I can TH show; is anybody able to loan copies of Prince of Persia, Lemmings, TH Defender and anything else particularly worth showing? I no longer have an original Defender disk - however, you can grab the latest version from World Of Sam. Direct link below: http://www.worldofsam.org/files/active/0/DefenderArcadeConversionUpdated.zip Doesn't require anything special - just bung it on a floppy! Please use the Updated version (as linked to above) - as this is closer to the coin-op than previous versions. Chris...
SAM's 20th Birthday
Hi folks... There was a thread a while ago mentioning the SAM's 20th birthday. When exactly is the 20th anniversary of the machine? Chris...
Re: SAM's 20th Birthday
Hi Wayne! Yep - seems like it was early if it was around December time... Memory isn't too good these days! ;-)) I have a couple of projects I started 10+ years ago, but never finished. It would be nice to complete one of these in time for the SAM's birthday. I've just been made redundant - so I've probably got the time. Now I just need to get the enthusiasm to actually make a start... Oh, and to try and remember how to write Z80 too!!! It's been a while! ;-)) Chris... - Original Message - From: Wayne Weedon wa...@fdos-design.com To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Sent: Sunday, August 02, 2009 12:10 PM Subject: Re: SAM's 20th Birthday Hiya Chris If it was December then we certainly got ours fairly early? I do recall having to collect mine from the couriers Southampton depot on a very rainy Christmas Eve as I was still at work when they'd tried to deliver. There was no way I was going to leave it there over the holiday was there! Hope you're well anyway! Wayne
Re: Hello to the Sam community!
Blimey, this list's getting busier!! THE_WUB WROTE: As for my coding antics, as a newbie I doubt there is much I can provide except for laughs :) But I can definitely write a little about the system I've come up with for arranging my data, maybe with a view to someone more experienced pointing out exactly how badly I've done things... Someone once said that if you give ten programmers a task you're likely to end up with ten different ways to achieve the same result! ;-)) This is especially true with assembly language, where there is rarely any hand holding or libraries available. It's just you and the CPU!! It's also worth mentioning that in assembler there is often no right way of doing things. In fact, to get the very best out of a machine like the SAM it's often advantageous to do things in ways which would be frowned upon by textbook programmers. Again, that's the beauty of assembler, you have a totally free hand to do as you please!! So, don't underestimate your code! If it does the job you intended, and it does it well, then who says it's a bad way of doing things? Sure, perhaps your code could be a little neater? Or maybe it could be a little more optimised? But most people will never see the code, so does any of that really matter? It's what they see on-screen that counts!! Carry on coding... You know it makes sense! ;-)) Chris...
Re: SAM's 20th Birthday
- Original Message - From: da...@p.ard.co.uk I've a copy of the Rodney Zak's book going for a reasonable price soon :) Lol - I've still got a copy of that book lying about somewhere! But I don't think the old memory has gone that far... Yet!! ;-) I think I can still remember how to write Z80... Just!!! Providing I stick to the simple things! :-)) Chris...
Re: Good to see some activity
- Original Message - From: Andrew Park alp...@..com Sent: Friday, August 07, 2009 12:06 PM AP Hello All, AP AP Good to see some activity on here. AP AP It would be interesting to know what projects people are working on I have a AP Hunchback game in progress ... I'd like to see a version of Hunchback! That was always a favourite of mine back in the arcades of the early '80s! :-)) Oh to find a *real* arcade these days, instead of all those fruit machines! :-( As for my projects? Well, I started three different projects - the earliest being sometime back in '98. All of them got to various stages of completion, and all of them are scattered about on various floppy disks and/or in various .ZIP files. I think the last time I looked at any of the code must be around 10 years ago... I'm sure you'll know what it's like looking at decade-old code, it probably won't make a lot of sense these days! Although I comment my code quite well, it's the little tricks used at the time which you tend to forget! Especially the how or why you did something in a particular way! ;-) Projects were: QIX - A version of the Taito classic. Got as far as the layout, player code and section fill routine. CHESS - As the title says! Gordon Wallis (HEXdidn't...) drew some fantastic graphics for this, which really should see the light of day. Engine was all but complete, but I wasn't satisfied with the playing strength. Needs plenty of tuning I feel, to stop it making the occasional stupid move! BATTLEZONE - A version of the Atari classic. This was going to be my follow up to Defender, and the earliest of the three projects. The plan was to make it as arcade perfect as possible. Got as far as the basic 3D stuff, and line blitting code. With the advent of Thomas Harte's ultra-complete/complex 3D engine any game in that genre (including this project) is now pretty much redundant. So, there are (were!) my projects - all in various states of completion! Whether any of them get finished is another matter! It's been so long since I looked at any of the code it would probably be quicker to do a re-write rather than try to understand the jumbled code I wrote all those years ago!! ;-) MISSILE COMMAND and CENTIPEDE were on the cards, too. Although neither of these were ever started. Chris...
Re: unsubscribe
Leaving the SAM scene? - Original Message - From: da...@properbastard.co.uk To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Sent: Monday, August 10, 2009 12:24 AM Subject: unsubscribe please can some one unsubscribe me. thanks ps: good deal on a sam in a can - and a pile of software - please speak to colin. Thanks
RE: SAMOnline... TCP/IP Stack Update
Great achievement with the TCP/IP stuff!! Now who's going to be the first to post a tweet on Twitter using a real SAM!! It's already been done on the Speccy, and I imagine the Twitter protocol is quite trivial... Would be good to see! Chris...
Re: Getting back into z80 programming (code included)
Just a quick glimps of the code shows you can save 8-clocks every itteration of your plotloop by getting rid of the SET 7,D instructions and putting a SCF before a RR D instruction. Replacing the SRL D's with RR D's. But as you're not likely to be using this particular plotloop in the final article it probably doesn't matter too much! That said, using SCF / RR D instead of SRL D / SET 7,D is something worth remembering for later! Better still, keep your screens at address 0 and do away with the SCF's altogether. Rearranging your registers so that you don't need to keep calculating the screen address is always a good optimisation... But I take it you're going to use the stack to shove the scanlines on-screen? Which is even better!! I've always been a big fan of using the stack!! :-)) Chris. @plotloop: ; left pixel ld a, (hl) inc h ; right pixel ld c, (hl) inc l dec h ld d, l ld e, a srl d rr e jr nc, @+rpx ld a, 0x0f jr @+pxd @rpx: ld a, 0xf0 @pxd: set 7, d ld (de), a ld d, l ld e, c srl d rr e jr nc, @+rpx ld a, 0x0e jr @+pxd @rpx: ld a, 0xe0 @pxd: set 7, d ld (de), a djnz @-plotloop
Re: Porting spectrum games...
Dizzy... Arrggh!! I loathe those games! :-)) Rob, if I were you I would be inclined to write your own code rather than try to disassemble the originals. The complexity and/or limit pushing of the original game will have a direct bearing on whether the original code is likely to be understandable in a pure disassembled form. Remember, none of the original source-code comments or labels will be available. Not to mention that areas of data and code will not be immediately obvious. If the original used unorthodox coding tricks, or the original coder wrote in an unorthodox style, it will be far simpler and quicker to write your own engine to do the tasks you require for your chosen game. Disassembling other programs is good when you're learning Z80, and can help you learn some tips and little tricks in code and so on. But a full-blown disassembly of a complete program to a stage where it becomes fully understandable and can be re-assembled on a different system is not something for the faint hearted!! Don't let that put you off though... If you feel the need then go for it! Regarding Spectrum ports... Why this road? I would have though that the SAM's 16-colour display would be more suited to many of the original (early/mid 80s) old-skool coin-op arcade games. These games offer far more potential than colourising old Speccy titles! Coin-op conversions... You know it makes sense!! ;-)) Chris. - Original Message - From: the_wub ! the...@gmail.com To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Sent: Sunday, July 18, 2010 12:53 PM Subject: Re: Porting spectrum games... That's great news, I'm sorry for suggesting that CM would not be up for it. I should have done some research first! I'd be very happy to lend a hand with graphics and sound for a Dizzy port/re-write if that would be useful to you and the same goes to Stefan with Pang. :) I'd like to learn what is involved in disassembling a spectrum program and getting the source into Comet. I realise there are modern tools on the PC but I'd rather use the real h/w if it can be done?
Contention and JR instruction timing.
Just a quick question regarding memory contention on the SAM and its effect on JP and the *unconditional* JR instruction. Z80 timing lists state that JP takes 10 T-States whereas an *unconditional* JR takes some 12 T-States. However, does the SAM's memory contention make all *unconditional* JRs faster (or as fast) as the JP due to the JP needing another memory access? Just a simple Yes, always use JR over JP in unconditional cases - or - No, stick with JP as it's faster! please guys, as my head explodes reading too much hardware-based theory! Cheers... Chris.
Re: Contention and JR instruction timing.
Hi Si, In a word... Wow! I hadn't realised there was such a performance hit using JP over JR! A 24T JP is painful! I've always used JP - assuming (naively) that it was faster based on Z80 T-state lists. So all these years I've been crippling my code with JPs when I should have used JRs! Doh! Still, it's only taken me 21-years to realise this! I've always been a bit on the slow side! In short, then, I guess I should ignore what Zaks is telling me regarding T-states and simply try to use single/double byte instructions wherever and whenever possible? Thanks for the info Si. It's quite an eye opener! Chris...
Re: Contention and JR instruction timing.
Hi Si, Yep - clear as mud! :-) Seriously, many thanks for the explanation - even my hardware-limited brain managed to understand all that! I take my hat off to hardware designers, it's certainly a black art! I've always tried to keep as much as I can in registers, so I've always been on the right tracks - even if I'm always pretty close to derailing! As for IX and IY - useful though they are - they've always been dogs even using official Z80 timings. So I've always tried to avoid using them in anything remotely time-critical. A potential 48Ts... Ouch! As for using SimCoupe's built in debugger - I certainly do! It's a very useful feature. :-) Thanks again, Chris...
Re: Contention and JR instruction timing.
Mmmm, not sure I would have like hardware scrolling to be honest. It would probably have meant a glut of scrolling marioesque platform games. Which - for me - is a whole lot less desirable than infinite ball demos! Some sort of blitter to chuck large blocks of data around at high speed would have been a *very* nice addition. That 24k screen really is too much for the old Z80 to cope with! Oh - and I'll take Salt-n-Vinegar please! :-) Chris... - Original Message - From: Geoff Winkless sam-us...@geoff.dj To: sam-users sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2011 10:25 AM Subject: Re: Contention and JR instruction timing. For me the real mistake, though, was the lack of capability to set the display address counter for instant free hardware scrolling (and for not much electronics, unless I'm missing something) - even the BBC Micro had that in 1982. Apologies, I'm hijacking the thread again. Erm, Hula-hoops: beef or salt-n-vinegar? G
Re: Contention and JR instruction timing.
I'm not sure having only a basic ability to shift the screen around would have been much use without additional hardware support. Such as sprites for example. Having to render lots of software sprites over nothing more than a shiftable 24k lump of RAM would get very messy code wise. Especially with the need for double-buffering to avoid glitching/flicker, Etc. Not to mention the poor old Z80 would still have a shedload of work to do shunting the required data around. Any scrolling game running at less than 50-fps with only half-a-dozen or so on-screen entities really wouldn't be worth the effort! Fast shoot-em-ups are awful at anything less than TV frame-rates. Even slow Z80-based systems such as the Master System managed to do full-colour, full-screen 50-fps scrolling with full-colour sprites (albeit in limited numbers) over the top. But then it did have a tile-based system for the background which, although (for the most part) it is more limiting than a true bitmap, it did mean the Z80 had very little work to do to maintain a nice scrolling backdrop. Besides, there's something *pure* about having a chunk of RAM and a CPU - and not much else! Chris.
Re: who wants some then ?
You keep spamming on about a PUSH proportional print routine - why don't you write your own? It really isn't that difficult you know. And why have you got it in your head that PUSH is the way to go with this??? Sure, PUSH can dramatically speed up certain graphic-dumping operations - but don't assume that it is a panacea for *everything*! There is a trade-off between the ease of something like LDI and the complications of manipulating the stack to do any PUSH operations - not to mention the potential interrupt headaches when playing with the stack pointer. Work out exactly what you want from your routine, then write code to fit the bill... Don't just look for a proportional print routine - or assume someone else will write or give you one - be it stack-based or not! *Write Your Own!* Who knows, you might learn something and - more importantly - you won't keep annoying everyone by constantly spamming *everywhere* asking for one... - Original Message - From: Roger Jowett rogerjow...@gmail.com To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Sent: Monday, June 06, 2011 8:05 AM Subject: Re: who wants some then ? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmwW_6kUdHw reveal myself? what are you talking about? stone circles yes surrounded by loads more than you! dunno what to say i have scads it has proportional font but the manual doesnt explain how to alter the width of letters so i dont really get it too much was really looking for a push print routine soemthing that might be compatibel with tasword+2 the 128 version of tasword 2 which was converted for the +d using tascon+d from indug format but all that is water under the bridge now apparently... did you enjoy the vid it took me ten years in the making!
Re: New Game - Dave Invaders
Have to send a me too post - really impressed. Love the graphics. That's two good new SAM games in the last year (Rob's Garden Centre Of The Universe game being the other one) - what's going on?! I agree 100%! It's quite worrying... But inspiring all the same. Maybe it's time for us old dogs to dust off our assemblers and get coding!! :-) Chris...
