Columns: Uzenet Edition

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D3thAdd3r
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Joined: Wed Apr 29, 2009 10:00 am
Location: Minneapolis, United States

Columns: Uzenet Edition

Post by D3thAdd3r »

No demo yet, still in the chopping phases from the original game and haven't managed anything worth showing. The SPIRamMusicDemo and PCM demos are more illustrative of the goal so far, just with a game on top. I'm going to finish this one(well...75% chance haha), so this topic will keep me honest. So I've always liked Columns, and I feel the existing version is a reasonable balance of techniques from the era it was made(~2013). What I'm planning on making is the same gameplay, but with new modern tricks I feel haven't been shown in a game so far. Hopefully it will work, and people can see how to add such features to their own projects.

In the original game PCM sound effects were the bulk of flash use, and I would do it again this way because they add so much to the feel. The rest of the game was built around decompressing graphics into RAM tiles(reason for M3 versus M1) due to this. The game was also wrapped around the CPU player, where gameplay basically happened on the side(CPU is quite heavy). This meant it was a 30Hz game logically, which was a good compromise IMO. In the new version I plan to:

*Remove the CPU player, and the flash/RAM/cycle cost involved with that.
*Remove all flash based music and PCM(huge gain), in fact, it wont use the stock sound system at all.

*Use a "lockstep padstate + adjustable lag frames" concept like emulators do for easy networking
*Use M3 extended resolution for less cramped playfields(another nail in the coffin for the argument I should have used Mode 1!)
*Use a custom inline mixer that only has a single 15.7Khz channel, and no Wave/noise channels(RAM/flash gain)
*Mix full length PCM music from SPI RAM into the PCM buffer, along with PCM sound effects overlaid.(slow, but this game will remain 30Hz)
*Buffer full PCM music from the SD card, into SPI RAM at the end of every frame until the kernel takes over, to keep up with demand
*If necessary, stall to retain PCM buffer. Do everything possible to avoid this stall(possible, demonstrated in previous demos)
*Have something like 8 extended track remixes from the original games
*Improve Title screen and transitions using the "RAM Tile Movies" concept from the never completed Lolo "FMV"
*Fix some gameplay issues(original version almost never triggered the "curses", which were actually neat)
*Implement the CPU player as an always available opponent on a central Uzenet server(better skill due to more resources)


Basically get rid of a bunch of stuff. Add lots of PCM, and use the new found space for improvements. I will release a demo when I have something to show. I am looking at how to get PCM data. Not that I don't appreciate higher level MIDI remixes rendered with better instruments in PCM, but I want something a bit beyond that. So far I see promising sources, which hopefully I can contact and gain approval to use. Otherwise, the ability for users to specify their own sound track and a tool to grab arbitrary PCM sound track data from...whatever media they have legal rights to.

Anyway awesome music is inspiring me, and should be able to do a pretty good sounding downsample:



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