| Posted By
Broad, Darron M.
on 2007-06-20
13:21:21
|  archive of stuff
hi guys
i am creating a c16 archive of some old materials that i contrived at
http://dev.kewl.org/C16+4/
you are welcome to sniff around and complain to me here or elsewhere
for either lack of docs or bad language (honestly some label names are
not for the timid).
There is some more stuff to add sometime later, but this is work in progress.
if by any chance anyone finds a use for any of it and are confused, then
please ask me for more details and i will explain as best i can.
for example, for the dedicated few who are able, it is feasable to recreate
tomcat c16 from source and even add new graphics/levels alternatively
it may be a handy place to start for a remake as the original graphics have
been converted to gifs.
cya
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Posted By
Gaia
on 2007-06-25
14:48:36
| Re: archive of stuff
I can't believe you're back Darron! Wow... it's been so many years. This is some excellent old stuff, very good , so keep up the spirit.
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Posted By
Degauss
on 2007-06-25
16:38:24
| Re: archive of stuff
oh boy, don't tell me you really developed those games (which are brilliant) by assembling them to disc/tape..... phew, BIG respect! how long did it take you to develop them?!
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Posted By
Broad, Darron M.
on 2007-06-25
17:38:21
| Re: archive of stuff
Hi there  nice to hear from you, thanks.
gala. yes i have been busy lots of other stuff but lately doing machine code on some PIC micros
and this reminded me of the old days, hence I dug up of the old stuff which wasn't properly
archived before. I did want to do more before, but this around I have some more time to look
at these things.
drdeath: those two players games they were coded in around 10 weeks total.
I developed them on a +4 and using my tools mostly i assembled to memory, but with
tomcat there was some complications as i needed to code to low memory,
tomcat c16 actually uses all 16K of ram. there is none left over.
it's possible with the code on my site to recreate a c16 tape version of tomcat, but
not feasable to create a disc version because of the above. This is why there are
no disc versions available comprise both levels, the kernal memory is used for code.
I have this week document the tomcat c16 source code and renamed all the labels
for anyone who would wish to take a peek. it will be up tomorrow at the same place.
It assembles with the acme 6502 assembler on my linux box.
what i can do next is assemble a special edition version which loads both levels
into RAM from a .prg, however, this won't be compatible with a 16KB machine, so
i don't know if i should do it? what do you think?
thanks, darron
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Posted By
Luca
on 2007-06-25
17:44:08
 | Re: archive of stuff
I wait for a +4 only Tomcat 2007 Special Edition like a Miracle on the Earth!!
Go on Darron!
o/
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Posted By
Broad, Darron M.
on 2007-06-25
18:20:00
| Re: archive of stuff
i am on the case right now, let's see how things work out, but the special edition should be here soon.
btw, maybe it's because i am older (or is that old) but i can't get far in tomcat, i remember at least
getting to level 2 but it's so hard to play. i will think about a tomcat OAP edition as well...
for work in progress and tidied up source code please refer to:
http://dev.kewl.org/C16+4/Tomcat/acme/
cheers, darron
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Posted By
Luca
on 2007-06-26
02:26:57
| Re: archive of stuff
I remember clearly when I bought Tomcat in my prefer shop in Salerno, Italy (a very nice shop close to the seashore):"Hey but that airplane is a real sprite!". I was a bit disappointed, because it was quite easy to finish and there were 2 levels only.
In Italy, there was no stable laws to protect new media copyrights, and we used to buy certain hacked collection sold in the newsstands. But for stuff deserving it, like that, I would prefer to buy an original copy.
Nowadays I see the graphics had been taken from the C64 version, but with a single palette which has to work for all the level, and forcing blue and brown let the game visual loose the nice metallic look of the c64 one.
I was wondering: mh, that intro screen with hiscore does nothing in particular, what about a little TEDsound 80's yankee-ish jingle? :)
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Posted By
Broad, Darron M.
on 2007-06-26
04:16:09
| Re: archive of stuff
hi!
as you have noticed i created the special edition complete with fake level loading for
the perfectionists, as yet i don't know if it works past level 1 as i haven't managed
to get to the end
i am glad you enjoyed it back then, and it's nice to hear that it travelled to much
more exotic places than it originated i do understand the disappointment though,
although it could have had more levels it didn't, this was a time constraint, plus on
the duplication machines there was some trouble initially with the turbo loader which
had to be slowed down (their duplicators ran at 16X playback speed, so you can
imagine there was little room for error), this also wasted some time.
Yes, the graphics were based on the c64 version, i copied them by eye from
memory, you can see some differences, also the c16 game has less variation
than the c64 due to moving bitmaps eating away at the graphic characters map.
i did try to make the game as like the c64 demo i was given, it was clearly
impossible but i tried
for this commemorative edition we can surely add a tune, perhaps someone has
a ted melody just waiting for a home?
cya!
darron
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Posted By
Luca
on 2007-06-26
06:53:18
| Re: archive of stuff
I just had a trip into your folders: how much cool stuff! C16Plot is quite interesting, and the bigchars'scrolling text with F1/F2/F3/F4 keys options is nice too. You coded a very versatile gfx editor (especially because you can choose the element's size and copy that whereever), and avery curious tedsound player/recorder too
(Apropos, in C16PLOT.D64 file, better should be if you rename INTRO and INSTR with the .TXT addon because the reader program searches for that ;-) )
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Posted By
Broad, Darron M.
on 2007-06-26
14:50:41
| Re: archive of stuff
drdeath: you were right, tomcat did assemble to disc and then i used my loader to load it into ram, it was a chore. even though i mentioned that in my log i seem to have stricken the memory from my mind as perhaps it was too painful to wish to remember
luca, that plot stuff was published someplace, although i never got a response from the magazine i sent it to i saw a photocopy of the article. i was living in spain at the time and got it by way of a tomcat fan who kept me up to date with all c16 related news. come to think of it, he may still have my 6502 bible by ZAKS! and 1551 disc drive....
the scroller was written for my dad's shop, however, due to a number of crazy locals he decided to not have a TV running in the shop window as he thought they'd be tempted to break in. personally i just thought the local crazies were mesmerised by the scrolling text
the graphics editor was very handy, in fact it may be still useful for retro coders today. i will happily update it with missing features like color setting, character base address setting, and draw direction (currently up/down) if there is a demand.
thanks for the advice regarding the filenames, i will fix that later. I have bought on ebay a c1541 although i have one already to see if i can read the bad sectors on the plot disc, if not, then the source code seems to be gone forever.
thx, darron
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Posted By
Degauss
on 2007-06-26
17:28:53
| Re: archive of stuff
since you estimated ten weeks of development time i guess the net-time to code that game was about 30 minutes. the rest was "assembling-to-disk" 
just kidding. i have biggest respect for that kind of work.
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Posted By
Luca
on 2007-06-26
17:49:17
| Re: archive of stuff
darron: I'm "remastering" to the c16/+4 format the original Tomcat pic on c64, deleting the bottomleft stuff with the developer team name and the Players tag in the bottom right corner (because I guess the software house does exist no longer). Don't expect too much, that's something quite simple, but you can use that pic the way you decide to.
I'm going to write "darron broad's TOMCAT [subtitle]".
Which subtitle did you choose? Would you keep "©Players" word somewhere? Do you just suspect where to put in the memory this 9.81K load?
Then we'll see for the intro music
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Posted By
Broad, Darron M.
on 2007-06-26
18:18:46
| Re: archive of stuff
drdeath: tomcat took about 4 weeks to code then probably 1 week more to master it was often agony, thanks for the reminder to be honest, although development was slow, computing was leisurely pastime in general. where i studied they had a mainframe dual cpu monster that ran at 7 (seven!) megahertz serving 128 terminals, that was just as slow if not slower, the plus4 wasn't so bad.
luca: i assume you are referring to the +4 special edition here? if we are going to name it something then it can be simply "+4 world special edition", you needn't mention my name anywhere, but it would be nice to
respect the albeit long gone, original copyright owners players software.
BTW, in 2001 i went to bologna and firenze and i notice you live there, for others, you ought to visit, it such a beatiful place, i specifically remember climbing a steep hill to view the city from a memorial/church garden
what a great view..
thanks for you efforts, as for the tune, i very much look forward to hearing something, but don't distract your attention from anything more important.
bye
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Posted By
Broad, Darron M.
on 2007-06-26
18:37:06
| Re: archive of stuff
BTW, before i return tommorrow i ought to just say i spotted a bug in the special edition which means it can't ever detect end of level one and probably flies into 2 with unpredictable results, probably worth seeing if i could get that far... i will fix it tomorrow.
also, i just want to explain that i very grateful for all the feedback here, i wish you all a good night or day, take care. darron
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Posted By
Luca
on 2007-06-27
08:01:34
| Re: archive of stuff
darron: ok, I did. Where to send it now? Can I use the weird email address on your Darron Broad's page?
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Posted By
Broad, Darron M.
on 2007-06-27
08:06:50
| Re: archive of stuff
yes, the kewl email address is still working fine thx
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Posted By
Luca
on 2007-06-27
09:02:45
| Re: archive of stuff
Ok, sent. Feel free to ask for any additional feature.
About a TED tune: well, it would be an intro tune, so I guess there will be no screentime problem if I'll use a 2x or 3x tune (2x should waste about $20 in max rastertime).
A short yankee-ish martial jingle...
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Posted By
Broad, Darron M.
on 2007-06-27
09:22:49
| Re: archive of stuff
hi there, thanks for this.
i will look into it a bit later when i get on my dev machine.
with the intro tune, do you see it as being on the "press space.." page or directly before the action starts such as pause in scrolling, tune, get firing.
with regard to the image you have prepared, what i will do is alternative it with the old "press space" page, is that what you visualised? maybe a 3 second flip between the two.
thx
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Posted By
Luca
on 2007-06-27
09:39:38
| Re: archive of stuff
Uh....beg your pardon, now I see I didn't send a .gif of the pic to show it directly, lemme send it... Nonetheless, you can simply load the .prg file as Multi Botticelli file into the emulator.
The two flipping screens solution seems to be a neat one. About the tune, must admit I didn't understand your point of view overall Anyway, I only would know how much screentime I'm allowed to waste with it.
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Posted By
Broad, Darron M.
on 2007-06-27
09:50:43
| Re: archive of stuff
hi
from what you are saying you wish to create an in-game melody, is that correct? i got confused as i thought you initially meant a title screen melody. i have no idea how much cycle time is spare for something in game as it was critically coded to alternate paths to even the load with the screen scolling. there may be some time in one path, but not the other. i used to insert a border change to see what's happening time wise, it could be done again. i think this would need to be tested on a real +4 though and not an emulator. an I do intend to run this on a real machine
i will look at this some time later. i don't have a setup to squirt data into real +4 but i at least have two drives now.
cheers, cya
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Posted By
Broad, Darron M.
on 2007-06-27
09:56:26
| Re: archive of stuff
hi. thanks for the gif. the title image looks great, it will make an excellent addition.
i don't think it needs my name there though, but leave it for now, i will get it working 1st.
thanks!
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Posted By
Luca
on 2007-06-27
10:06:51
| Re: archive of stuff
Hey that's your game, and in 2007, away from the copyrights priorities, it's time to say to everybody who did it!
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Posted By
Broad, Darron M.
on 2007-06-27
10:17:23
| Re: archive of stuff
OK then if you do a tune then it must be mentioned also!
i will be AFK for some hours but will return much later with title screen progress,
cya!
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Posted By
Broad, Darron M.
on 2007-06-27
18:43:52
| Re: archive of stuff
the acme build has the new loading screen.thanks, it looks good.
BUT, there is no doubt some tearing on screen flip which can be
looked at later.
thx bye
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Posted By
Luca
on 2007-06-28
02:48:44
| Re: archive of stuff
...and what about additional levels?
Anyway, time to think about the music...
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Posted By
Broad, Darron M.
on 2007-06-28
12:04:47
| Re: archive of stuff
a new comment in the source code refers to the missing level 3
the level editor works great but will need updating slightly, all that is
needed is imagination.
cya
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Posted By
Luca
on 2007-06-28
12:28:20
| Re: archive of stuff
the level editor works great but will need updating slightly, all that is
needed is imagination...
...and do you feel like have that or do you need help?
Because of beer love girls and fists (and don't lemme say more plz) I didn't start with music yet, but I'll do that.
Atm, if you die in the 2nd level, nobody will take you to the first one. A cuirosity: why the enemy planes had 2 trajectories only?
Ah, maybe the best choice is to show FIRST the pic, then the title screen...
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Posted By
Broad, Darron M.
on 2007-06-28
13:53:44
| Re: archive of stuff
hi there
i will fix the level stuff once i see where to give myself infinite lives, expect it working later.
The enemy planes only go in two directions because the directions are generated from
a function and not a table. the function isn't something i remember, i will look and see.
yes, the image can come first but i put it second due to the way the level code (broken)
initialises the title screen. it will need changing to jump to image without a momentary
blue flicker, so it will need a code change to stop that.
there is no rush for a tune, girls and beer is more imporant, not sure about fists if they involve
punching, but take is easy anyhow.
I have to setup opencbm on linux to get code onto floppy and then into the real machine
for testing that available irq time anyhow, this will take a bit of time.
bye
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Posted By
Luca
on 2007-06-28
14:08:01
| Re: archive of stuff
Anyway, feel free to ask me about real machine testing, you can also use chat clients like icq msn or skype to have a quick answer about, I'm there (oh, the fantastic +4world messagery too of course ).
Ok, must heal my black eye  then music tomorrow...
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Posted By
Broad, Darron M.
on 2007-06-28
14:08:28
| Re: archive of stuff
i overlooked the level stuff...
it won't be hard to add a new level once I list the key combinations needed
to generate a specific block.
There is the opportunity for someone else to design it once they know the
rules about how many tank train things and turret eye things can exist
at a time. if anyone wants to volunteer speak in this thread, if no one is
interested i may have a go, but no promises.
bye
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Posted By
Broad, Darron M.
on 2007-06-28
14:10:37
| Re: archive of stuff
i went into the ircnet plus4 channel a few times lately, it's always dead. i can go there when on the computer. i will go now...
cya
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Posted By
Broad, Darron M.
on 2007-06-28
17:01:35
| Re: archive of stuff
you can now return to level 1, yet it would eventually do so before
probably after a few days
there should have been two different delay functions, you discovered
it was using the wrong almost infinite one.
i will see about title screen later. bye
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Posted By
Luca
on 2007-08-21
17:38:35
| Re: archive of stuff
Hey Darron, are you on vacation? Time to finish the Tomcat reprise, do you?
I also would ask you if I could upload here your unfinished game's early stages.
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Posted By
Broad, Darron M.
on 2007-08-31
13:38:47
| Re: archive of stuff
the tomcat rebuild works ok i believe. it will do for the time being
with the unfinished game, there is a partially working version somewhere
but it was never really completed. I will investigate once i some other
things been dealt with.
cya!
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Posted By
Luca
on 2007-08-31
13:53:20
| Re: archive of stuff
darron:well, I'd found THAT working stuff into your public folder, there are sprites and a couple of ready screens... could be interesting, I'm going to upload it as we did for Prince of Persia unfinished game
Ok, I will slowly compose a little TED tune for the intro, stay tuned!
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Posted By
Luca
on 2008-04-10
15:47:35
| Re: archive of stuff
Darron! Where did you go? Still there? We have a re-edition to accomplish!
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