Posted By
Csabo
on 2025-10-30
20:15:26
|  USSAS
I'm working on an (U)ntitled (S)ide (S)crolling (A)ction (S)tabber. I'll try to post daily updates for a while, see how it goes. I'll keep it all in this one thread.
#1 (YouTube)
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Posted By
Mad
on 2025-10-31
03:33:49
| Re: USSAS
Just seen it, nice. Seems it will be more some sort of a real arcade game. Good work.
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Posted By
Luca
on 2025-10-31
06:11:57
 | Re: USSAS
Some backgrounds are recognisable under any workstage 
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Posted By
gerliczer
on 2025-10-31
08:41:17
| Re: USSAS
That's the good stuff! Moar pleez!
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Posted By
Epy
on 2025-10-31
10:35:44
| Re: USSAS
Really good idea to avoid color clash is using char color as backcolor. Same technic in Pets Rescue and Mad Pod Race as I know. KiCHY is good at this kind of graphics. I'm looking forward the progress of the development 
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Posted By
Csabo
on 2025-10-31
10:57:41
| Re: USSAS
Yeah, KiCHY is insanely good. I only used his old mockups from here. The thing is, I would only want to involve him (or anyone else) if the project actually looks fully viable. We'll see!
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Posted By
Csabo
on 2025-11-01
19:55:59
| Re: USSAS
#3 (YouTube): Move... but not scroll :-/
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Posted By
KiCHY
on 2025-11-02
06:12:49
| Re: USSAS
I like these kinds of videos! Keep coming
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Posted By
Crown
on 2025-11-02
12:19:43
| Re: USSAS
Let me throw in an idea here. You're targeting a 2 frame game cycle, and I assume you'd like to support both PAL and NTSC, so 30 FPS on NTSC and 25 FPS on PAL.
Instead I'd recommend implementing PAL60 on PAL, which would get you 30 FPS in PAL as well, and the available number of cycles would be pretty much the same on both, minus the small interrupt code which generates PAL60.
PAL60 is widely supported by TVs and monitors, so it would be fairly compatible on the hardware level. On emulation level, it needs to be checked, but it's not a very complex thing to add support for it. Technically it's very simple to generate PAL60, you basically have to increase the $ff1d value by 50 (0x32) on the bottom border area, preferably right after the last displayed section. Obviously the frame is going to be 50 lines shorter, but if you are targeting NTSC as well, you don't loose anything, because you've already been forced to fit the NTSC cycle budget.
There is a huge difference in playing a game in 60FPS vs 50FPS, and the same is true for 30FPS vs 25FPS.
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Posted By
gerliczer
on 2025-11-02
12:23:07
| Re: USSAS
@KiCHY: Should he? Or you do?  
I'm sorry. I'm so ashamed of myself. 
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Posted By
cobbpg
on 2025-11-02
16:25:22
| Re: USSAS
Are you using pre-shifted sprites, or is all shifting done on the fly?
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Posted By
Csabo
on 2025-11-02
16:52:25
| Re: USSAS
I think I mentioned it in one of the video; they are pre-shifted. I would not be able to hit 25FPS otherwise, and that's one of the overall goals that for me is a must.
Edit: #4 (YouTube) Scroll + move, and (somehow) Skoro.
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Posted By
Verona
on 2025-11-02
20:04:06
| Re: USSAS
Epy I used that idea too. More colors in the background, if you cut on char color.
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Posted By
Csabo
on 2025-11-02
20:07:32
| Re: USSAS
Yep, yep, that is exactly what I tried to explain in my first video (apparently not very well ).
The three fixed colors that are the same throughout the screen will be black, skin-tone and white. The sprites can only use these three, and then the per-character color will be for the background graphics. This approach is good for a couple of reasons: one, I don't have to worry about writing anything into the color memory, I can display the sprites only by displaying the characters, and also this guarantees that there will be no color clash.
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Posted By
Andras
on 2025-11-02
23:49:17
| Re: USSAS
@Csabo Can we expect Hungarian subtitles for the videos?
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Posted By
gerliczer
on 2025-11-03
02:16:49
| Re: USSAS
@Crown: Would it be really that easy? Wouldn't it move the active screen area down? Wouldn't that look ugly? And how would monitors like my 1901 react to such a modified signal?
@Andras: Turn on auto-generated English subtitles, then turn on Auto-translate to Hungarian.
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Posted By
Crown
on 2025-11-03
03:51:08
| Re: USSAS
Yeah you right, have to split it into two interrupts, remove like 24 lines on the top border area, and remove 26 lines on the bottom area. Essentially you have to replicate te border splits of a standard NTSC layout.
Commodore monitors have a very high tolerance on v-sync, I remember you can add around a 100+ lines to normal PAL screen on a 1084 monitor, before it falls out of phase and starts rolling.
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