Tempest is possible

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CunningFellow
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Location: Brisbane, Australia

Re: Tempest is possible

Post by CunningFellow »

uze6666 wrote:
I am going to be cutting it fine on flash. I think I will only have 4 or 6 K free
That's good news. It's looking fine, I'm pretty sure I'll be able to fit mind's eye in under 2K. I'm assuming you haven't removed the default waves via the makefile. They are taking about 2.3k and I would replace a few with percussions, etc.
This weekend I will try get a firm number on how much space I have left.

I have not written all the PC based software to help me with the webs, but I'll make up data structures and fill them with dummy data just so I know how much space I have left.
CunningFellow
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Joined: Mon Feb 11, 2013 8:08 am
Location: Brisbane, Australia

Re: Tempest is possible

Post by CunningFellow »

I think I am going to have about 8K spare.

I might have a look at the audio ASM to see if we can't squeeze and extra channel or something as well.

Here is what I am up to now.

It's not very different from previous from the outside.

It should have fixed the garbage on the left side of the screen on some SD cards.

Most interestingly though is that I have done a split screen mode. The first 16 pixel-rows are 2 line of what will be a ROM-tile mode. In the background of these 16 rows of pixels I accomplish the SD cards

Stop_Transmission
Read_Multi_Sector
and
Get_Token

That saves about 5000 clock cycles from the user-code time. At the moment I am just cycling colours. I do have 24 spare clocks per 8 pixels so it's an easy ask to do a 1BPP ROM-Tile in that.

So in those top 2 text rows on the screen I will have Lives/Score/Level and save a lot of RAM-Tiles for the action.

I still need to squeeze "clear screen" into the 200ish free clock cycles per scan line. Thats another few thousand clock cycles saved from user-space.
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tempest.zip
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PitfallJones
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Joined: Mon Aug 16, 2010 12:01 am

Re: Tempest is possible

Post by PitfallJones »

Hi,
How do I run this in the emulator?
I'm using v1.19.1 but all I get is a blank screen.
Emu from here->http://uzebox.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=187
Thanks
- PJ
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uze6666
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Re: Tempest is possible

Post by uze6666 »

PitfallJones wrote:Hi,
How do I run this in the emulator?
I'm using v1.19.1 but all I get is a blank screen.
Emu from here->http://uzebox.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=187
Thanks
- PJ
Same for me here, latest HEX doesn't work in the emulator. It works for the hardware with a microSD but seems you may off a couple cycles in you top section. Severe distortions with a regular SD card, the image in the bottom section in a total mess.
CunningFellow
Posts: 1445
Joined: Mon Feb 11, 2013 8:08 am
Location: Brisbane, Australia

Re: Tempest is possible

Post by CunningFellow »

Runs fine in the emulator for me.

BUT I did first try by dumping the HEX and LVL file into my temp directory.

It had more than 32 files and the code only searches the first directory cluster for the UTEMPEST.LVL file

It just gives a blank screen then.

I will change it so it searches more clusters and ALSO gives a warning "can't find file" or something if the file is just not there.

Uze - the regular SD card problem is a worry. I don't know why that is. Could you make a video so I can see what the "distortions" look like.

Maybe the regular SD card needs more than 256 0xFF before it returns a token or needs more than 900 clocks between CMD12 and CMD18

I'll make a couple of test HEXs for you to try on your different SD cards. The few cards I have here all work.
CunningFellow
Posts: 1445
Joined: Mon Feb 11, 2013 8:08 am
Location: Brisbane, Australia

Re: Tempest is possible

Post by CunningFellow »

Here is most likely culprit.

When changing the code so all the SD card setup was done in the first 16 video lines, the gap between CMD12 and CMD18 was reduced to 900 clock cycles.

It worked fine on my uSD card here (Kingston 2GB) so I just assumed it was OK.

If this one works fine, I just have to move CMD12 to the last video line. That only costs 144 cycles so no big loss

As usual save the (dot)LVL file to an unfragmented SD card.
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SD_Test_Long_GAP_CMD12_to_CMD_18.zip
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PitfallJones
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Re: Tempest is possible

Post by PitfallJones »

It works for me now - I copied the two files into the same directory as the emulator - and now dragging the hex onto the emulator runs!

Boo Hoo - it just cycles thru the levels - I can't play it!@

Could I have a .uze file to try on a real Uzebox?

There's an excellent Atari800 version called Tempest Xtreem:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbpN4cMnQrw

Great Music!

- PJ
CunningFellow
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Location: Brisbane, Australia

Re: Tempest is possible

Post by CunningFellow »

PitfallJones,

Sorry. All the work I am doing to date is one the video mode to be able to even begin a playable game.

I should by the end of this week have all the background work done and next weekend have something you can at least move the claw left/right in.

Probably no aliens or shooting things yet, but a step in that direction.

I saw Jeff Minter review many different version of Tempest including Tempest Xtreem. It is what made me change my mind about having music in the game and trying to do particle effects.

I am fairy confident I can come up with something that goes at least as well as that version. In fact there will be a little surprise treat when I eventually get a release you can move the claw in.
CunningFellow
Posts: 1445
Joined: Mon Feb 11, 2013 8:08 am
Location: Brisbane, Australia

Re: Tempest is possible

Post by CunningFellow »

PFJ,

I'm not sure if you have followed by rambling thread or not. If not you probably don't realise why I am excited by these non-playable demos.

The backround webs it cycles through are not just tile maps made with the tile map converter tool. They are actually 1Bpp BMPs being played of the SD card straight to the screen. Over the top of these I am able to draw a 2Bpp vector mode (like mode 6 but 1/2 as many tiles)

Getting this far has been a lot of hours of effort, and most of the time I only had the emulator to work with.

Then the week before last I built some physical hardware to test on so am now certain that I can finish the work and get a playable game.

The actual game of Tempest will be quite trivial to do once the back ground work is done. Maybe a few days (excluding music/SFx)

Any ways - I thought I would post the ASM code I have done so far so people can have a look at it.

I suspect Uze, D3thadd3r and jhhoward would all be interested in seeing it at least.

It still has the rainbow pixels in section one as the real version is in a state of flux and has terrible/misleading comments.


Ask any questions you like if it don't make sense. I am going to do a full write up of how it works with diagrams and stuff to make it easier to understand also.
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insanity.zip
It is quite insane
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PitfallJones
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Joined: Mon Aug 16, 2010 12:01 am

Re: Tempest is possible

Post by PitfallJones »

Hi Mr.Fellow,

Terrific stuff! - thanks for posting that but it will take me many hours I think to decipher it!

Here's the mod (actually .xm) file for Tempest2000s best track.

One of the best players is here:
http://www.modplug.com/

Viva la Amiga!

- PJ
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tempest2000.zip
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