Re: New game
Thanks Chris, you know what, I'd forgotten it was the SAM's 25th birthday this year, I feel quite ashamed, hehe I'll post a video soon, meant to tonight but gotta get some more gfx done first just to set the mood :) I'd be honoured to get it on Sam Revival. It'd bring back some of those treasured memories of FRED, Outlet in the early days. Simon was kind enough to do a 4 * speed version of SimCoupe some years ago, largely to help with some other projects for Mayhem. I've thought for years that a Mayhem would be slightly faster than this, and in one project especially an extra 10% over what the emulator already does would make a substantial difference to a game (Slip 'n Slide) But even at current speed, it looks like even in Basic a fair range of scrolling games could be done at 25fps in a window, which is exciting :D Anyways, thanks again and I better get cracking... Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android
Re: Capacitor fix for comms interface
Sorry to stray from topic but I seem to remember you saying that it would be possible to use networking from basic (well hopefully MasterBasic), would it be feasible to set up a server and have time to send perhaps even 6 - 8 bytes of data for multiplayer games, or would it slow down a real time game too much? (have a new game project that would benefit from two player :) ) --- On Sat, 4/8/12, Colin Piggot qua...@clara.net wrote: From: Colin Piggot qua...@clara.net Subject: Re: Capacitor fix for comms interface To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Date: Saturday, 4 August, 2012, 11:43 David wrote: Trinity may be a better interface to go to - as it could make life a bit easier to work with. Well, not quite yet, but it's getting there! Still some work to be done on the TCP/IP stack but Adrian's been making advances with the main stack code, Simon finalised his ethernet drive ages ago and I've been tinkering a bit to get it in a semi-useable state and actually doing things - I did pop up a demo on YouTube a few months back: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jg2vPgTRkg I'm aiming to have an Alpha test version of my 'SAMonline' client out soon-ish - to test out the code for the text/image viewier, downloading SCREEN$ and downloading a game or two. Early dev screenshots: http://www.samcoupe.com/news2009/so1.jpg Colin = Quazar : Hardware, Software, Spares and Repairs for the SAM Coupé 1995-2012 - Celebrating 18 Years of developing for the SAM Coupé Website: http://www.samcoupe.com/ Twitter: @QuazarSamCoupe
SAM's 20th Birthday
Hey guys :) sorry I've not been around lately with my useless thoughts but just been thinking again about how SAM's gonna be 20 this year and wondering if anyone has plans for what we should do to celebrate and also worrying that for projects we only really got 6 months or so... Personally I've wondered for a few years now if a coding/game competition might lure some of the Spectrum crew over and increase the SAM's library, even going so far in my mind ramblings of offering a first prize of a couple hundred quid or my Golden ASIC as incentives (I'm aware that monetary incentives can come across as vulgar, but there's a lot of people without jobs that perhaps this could intice that otherwise might not?, so thoughts on this would be welcome :) ) and would like to know if anyone thinks this might be a good idea, and also for your blessing or objections (if even one person doesn't think this would be a sensible idea then I wouldn't do it out of respect or someone with a working brain could perhaps run a competition?) . anyway, hope you are all well, and I realise that I've always been somewhat on the periphery of the SAM scene, so just take this as me drunk and wondering about stuff ;) Cal
Re: I've been a bit quiet...
Thought you'd been a bit quiet, hope ya enjoying the new job :) Seem to have fallen a few issue's behind with SAM Revival, looking forward to catching up !!! Colin Piggot [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi folks, Apologies for being so quiet recently. Having started a new job a couple of months ago I saw a rather drastic decrease in the time I had for the SAM, but as things get straightened out I'm back busy with SAM stuff and playing catchup! I spent yesterday slaving over a hot soldering iron so if you had ordered hardware over the last couple of weeks then you'll be reassured to know that it'll be winging it's way to you in the post tommorrow. SAM Revival issue 22 has been rather delayed with all this, I've one article to finish off for it before it's ready for printing and that shouldn't take too long. The coverdisk with 22 features the full commercial game 'Burglar Bob' from Jupiter Software and a 3D wireframe demo from Thomas Harte. The magazine itself has a roundup of a lot of SAM news, while the feature articles include a look at what happened to the proposed sequel of Manic Miner on the SAM - 'The Lower Caverns' was to have new graphics, new levels and new music. The Developer Diary features a second article from Thomas Harte about his work on a 3D engine for the SAM. The magazine is available to preorder - PayPal 'Buy It Now' buttons are now up on my website. All the best, 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/
Re: Speed issue's with POINT (x,y)
Thanks Thomas :) Well I'm pleased some people like the look of it so far, nearly ditched it when it started slowing down... I'm hoping it'll be my first decent game for SAM, hehe ... I spent a good 6 hours on it yesterday, managed to get rid of 3 of the point checks, without drastically changing how it trials, and with some other changes managed to speed it up about 30 - 40 % when your in the air (which is most of the time), so it's back to the speed I wanted... Now to add in portals and a rope to finish off the 'trialing' mechanics before enemies and anims... Probs be back to ask for help with the rope, ;) I'd love to try and draw some rotated cogs for a level and watch them pick up the ball and carry it between them, animated chains to working like conveyor belts... but not sure best way to draw them yet. Animated scenery has always been the main point of this game, and ahm still stuck with static scenery :( (I did hoy in some earthquake code earlier though, like two lines of code, hehe)... P.S. Now down to 5 main POINT checks per frame, so getting excited about trying to knock 4 of those down to 1 check, and that should make a really fast engine for static levels, whereby loads of cpu time left for a few enemies... and polish the current engine for animated and/or rotating levels, whereby only one enemy will be possible probably, so will have to switch tiles occasionally to form hazards :) Cal... Thomas Harte [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I agree with Simon; I especially like the way the ball crushes itself to go through short spaces. On Sat, Sep 27, 2008 at 1:52 PM, Calvin Allett wrote: another vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14m21hySxG8 Older versions, one faster, one slower:- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0ksam2anMI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8s4yb8zMMQ Cal... Calvin Allett wrote: Thanks Simon :) Of course it's for the 20Mhz SAM, so I really should have it running a lot faster, even in basic... Simon Cooke wrote: That's looking pretty solid dude J Si From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Calvin Allett Sent: Friday, September 26, 2008 1:29 PM To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: Re: Speed issue's with POINT (x,y) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RenBQ5GD24 That's nearly half the speed that the engine was just 4 weeks ago eek, hehe P.S. I put a video up on my YouTube page, but it hasn't gone live yet, will post when it does !
RE: Speed issue's with POINT (x,y)
Thanks Simon :) Of course it's for the 20Mhz SAM, so I really should have it running a lot faster, even in basic... Simon Cooke [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:Thats looking pretty solid dude J Si From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Calvin Allett Sent: Friday, September 26, 2008 1:29 PM To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: Re: Speed issue's with POINT (x,y) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RenBQ5GD24 That's nearly half the speed that the engine was just 4 weeks ago eek, hehe P.S. I put a video up on my YouTube page, but it hasn't gone live yet, will post when it does !
Re: Speed issue's with POINT (x,y)
-So for each position on the screen that the ball can be, you make nine -decisions (currently based on testing the result of nine POINT -statement), each one to determine to whether the graphic below a -certain pixel is either: - - transparent; - solid; or - deadly? - -Am I right to think that, taking an overview, you need to know whether -each tested pixel is transparent or solid for bouncing, but only -whether any of them at all is deadly? i.e. for the purposes of life or -death, all you care about is whether any of the pixels at all is -deadly, you don't care how many or which? Yes, that's perfectly the situation :) Will need to use an 11th for bouncy stuff, and could use a 12th to check another pixel above the ball which would refine movement sometimes :) -In that case you can say that when the ball is at position (x, y) then -you care work out how to react from ten Boolean values. The first nine -are whether or not there is something solid underneath the -corresponding pixel. The tenth is whether any of the nine pixels are -deadly. - -If you do any subsequent processing to reduce the amount of -information (e.g. just deciding between 16 types of bounce and whether -death results) then you can simplify things further. But I daren't -assume. I just check all the value's and push or bounce the ball away from them :) -You can package the ten Booleans into 10 binary digits. In Mode 4, -each pixel is represented in memory by 4 bits. So you can store the 10 -as 2.5 Sam pixels (so, practically speaking, 3). So you could loop -through every pixel of your level before the player starts, work out -the values of the ten values, combine them into 3 Sam pixels then plot -them to screens that the player will never see. When the player is -actually playing, do 3 POINTs based on the position of the centre of -the ball to pull back the 3 pixels, then decode them to get the values -you're actually interested in. Now that I actually get this I like the idea, and it makes sense for the 'static' levels, will have to do new code for moving enemies, as they wouldn't be picked up by the new checking as I was using the POINTS to also find them, but without speeding the engine up I wouldn't be able to throw any in anyhow ;) - -For example (the exact syntax may be a bit scratchy, it's been quite a -few years for me): - -10 LET PCOL = 0 -20 IF POINT(X, Y) 0 THEN LET PCOL = PCOL+1 -30 IF POINT(X+1, Y) 0 THEN LET PCOL = PCOL+2 -40 IF POINT(X-1, Y) 0 THEN LET PCOL = PCOL+4 -50 IF POINT(X, Y-1) 0 THEN LET PCOL = PCOL+8 -60 SCREEN : PLOT (X, Y, PCOL) - -then, later... - -70 SCREEN : LET PCOL = POINT(X, y) -80 IF PCOL BAND 1 THEN PRINT POINT (X,Y) is 0 -90 IF PCOL BAND 2 THEN PRINT POINT (X+1,Y) is 0 -100 IF PCOL BAND 4 THEN PRINT POINT (X-1,Y) is 0 -110 IF PCOL BAND 8 THEN PRINT POINT (X,Y-1) is 0 - -So, you at least reduce 9 POINTs to 3. Of course, there is only a -benefit if BAND is cheaper than POINT, which it probably will be. Thank you for providing example source code :D I will try and change the game engine tomorrow and see how it works :) This could very well be just the idea I was needing ;) (I took out just 4 of the POINT checks before just to see the speed gain, and it was VERY noticeable :D ) I will have to keep the current engine for certain levels however, as I want some of them to do full screen rotations (prerotating them on PC, and flipping through screens on SAM), and these ones will need the engine that checks the 'current' POINTs in real time. Quite excited hoping I can grab some speed back once I've tried this, so thanks again for your input ! Cal... P.S. I put a video up on my YouTube page, but it hasn't gone live yet, will post when it does !
Re: Speed issue's with POINT (x,y)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RenBQ5GD24 That's nearly half the speed that the engine was just 4 weeks ago eek, hehe P.S. I put a video up on my YouTube page, but it hasn't gone live yet, will post when it does !
Re: iChat/AIM users
What's the best one to use nowadays? I used to love ICQ about 8 years ago, but not tried out any of the other's. Is there anything that logs onto them all, someone mentioned something a while back about some prog. [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Quoting Gavin Smith : Perhaps you guys are all on Bebo or FaceBook or whatever today's fashionable social site is, but if any of you are on iChat or AIM and fancy a SAM chat now and then, feel free to add me - my address is [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cheers! I don't use msn - For ideas on reducing your carbon footprint visit Yahoo! For Good this month.
Re: iChat/AIM users
Cheer's, it was Trillian I'd been told about :) Everybody seems to have MSN (if that's the hotmail one), it does seem to be very popular. [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Quoting Calvin Allett : What's the best one to use nowadays? I used to love ICQ about 8 years ago, but not tried out any of the other's. Is there anything that logs onto them all, someone mentioned something a while back about some prog. MSN's probably the more standard - but not nesc the best. Trillian, GAIM (now renamed - not sure what) - are good alternatives. They all have logging - but MSNPlus (an addon for MSN) has better logging :-) - Yahoo! Answers - Get better answers from someone who knows. Tryit now.
Rotating gfx
Can anybody recommend a good way of rotating some Mode 4 graphics at different angles other than 90? I only use Flash, and have nothing on PC... I think that SAM Paint let's you do it but it`s protected needing a word from the manual :( I'm not sure if the B-dos version is protected or not? Anyways, if anybody has a version they'd like to sell with manual, or GamesMaster with manual then I'm really really needing these :) If anyone has a spare power supply unit they'd like to sell too then I'd love to get my real machine working. - Yahoo! Answers - Get better answers from someone who knows. Tryit now.
Re: WOS spam
Woah, looks like he`s trying to spam every single article/topic Been spamming every few mins/ every hour for over 26 hours :( Gavin Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: WOSam is currently getting spammed like crazy by a user called brianbaker. Andrew or Dan can you guys delete his account? Is there an easy way to delete all his comments? Gavin - Yahoo! Answers - Get better answers from someone who knows. Tryit now.
Basic keyboard scanning with IN
Could anyone tell me the address's to read using IN (or should that be ports) for groups of SAM keys? I need more than one keypress, and would like to use the following keys (or groups).. O, and P - Z and M and space should be needed. 64509 seems to be keys Q,W,E,R,T and from FRED issue 11A, Axe`s Last Stand I see 63486 is 1,2,3,4,5 and 61438 is 6,7,8,9 and 0 i have looked (in fact for over half an hour before) also, any tips on BAND would be an asset, although I shouldn't be needing that I for this, as the keys I need are in different groups. not needed too urgently, but any help or links appreciated :) Cal... - Yahoo! Mail is the world's favourite email. Don't settle for less, sign up for your freeaccount today.
SPAM on the SAM Coupe wiki
Just to say that there`s a link to http://www.catering-machines.com/ been added to the links section, under the banner robot coupe (which got me excited)... I don`t know how to remove it, or even if anyone just can.. but just noticed it. - Yahoo! Mail is the world's favourite email. Don't settle for less, sign up for your freeaccount today.
Re: Basic keyboard scanning with IN
Just realised the port address's are seperated by 256 bytes, so should be able to find the ones I need. I hadn't known that :) Calvin Allett [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Could anyone tell me the address's to read using IN (or should that be ports) for groups of SAM keys? I need more than one keypress, and would like to use the following keys (or groups).. O, and P - Z and M and space should be needed. 64509 seems to be keys Q,W,E,R,T and from FRED issue 11A, Axe`s Last Stand I see 63486 is 1,2,3,4,5 and 61438 is 6,7,8,9 and 0 i have looked (in fact for over half an hour before) also, any tips on BAND would be an asset, although I shouldn't be needing that I for this, as the keys I need are in different groups. not needed too urgently, but any help or links appreciated :) Cal... - Yahoo! Mail is the world's favourite email. Don't settle for less, sign up for your free account today. - Yahoo! Answers - Get better answers from someone who knows. Tryit now.
Re: Basic keyboard scanning with IN
Thanks a lot lads, I`d got them by stepping up or down
by 256`s from the ones I already knew, although I notice
that when I didn`t have the exact right addresses then
other (groups of) keys can affect the value`s (of other groups)...
Just going with using the straight addresses of
what I need and the value for the key I need, i.e.
30,29,27,23 or 15, so no BAND yet... although it`s cool
to realise it`s only using first 5 bits, and what last
3 can be used for... It`s working a treat, although
I`ll have to do it the way suggested if I allow
redefining of keys, and build a table or something?
But for now, it`s working great, nice not to have to use
the joystick keys :)
Nice to finally get these written down in a notebook *_+
Also interesting to find out why the cursor (right cursor
from memory) used to move the mouse down
and to the left on Ease. always wondered :)
Andrew Collier [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi,
That's the right track, lots of things work in 256s (the high and low
bytes of a 16 bit number).
In the case of the keyboard, the lower byte is always 254 (I think
your number for QEWRT is suspect) and the upper byte is one of the
eight numbers which have 7 binary digits set and one clear.
In other words:
upper lower IN number
byte byte (decimal) keys
0xfe fe 65278 VCXZ(shift)
0xfd fe 65022 GFDSA
0xfb fe 64510 TREWQ
0xf7 fe 63486 54321
0xef fe 61438 67890
0xdf fe 57342 YUIOP
0xbf fe 41950 HJKL(return)
0x7f fe 32766 BNM(sym)(space)
These are all the same keys the Spectrum has. You can read the Sam's
other keys if you use the same upper bytes and change the lower byte
to 0xf9 and use the top three bits of the result. There's also the
cursor keys on IN 65534, but I would avoid that in basic because
you'll get into a lot of trouble with the mouse interface which
shares that address (kinda).
HTH,
Andrew
On 8 Aug 2007, at 00:25, Calvin Allett wrote:
Just realised the port address's are seperated by 256 bytes, so
should be able to find the ones I need. I hadn't known that :)
Calvin Allett wrote: Could anyone tell
me the address's to read using IN (or should that
be ports) for groups of SAM keys?
I need more than one keypress, and would like to use the
following keys (or groups)..
O, and P -
Z
and M
and space should be needed.
64509 seems to be keys Q,W,E,R,T
and from FRED issue 11A, Axe`s Last Stand
I see
63486 is 1,2,3,4,5 and
61438 is 6,7,8,9 and 0
i have looked (in fact for over half an hour before)
also, any tips on BAND would be an asset, although I shouldn't
be needing that I for this, as the keys I need are in different
groups.
not needed too urgently, but any help or links appreciated :)
Cal...
Yahoo! Mail is the world's favourite email. Don't settle for less,
sign up for your free account today.
Yahoo! Answers - Get better answers from someone who knows. Try it
now.
--
--- Andrew Collier
http://www.intensity.org.uk/ ---
--
-
Yahoo! Answers - Get better answers from someone who knows. Tryit now.
Re: Basic keyboard scanning with IN
I see how the keys on the left/right hand side of the keyboard have the bits reversed... I am (currrently), was gonna just go with tested values (15,23,27,29,30 or reversed) but cheers for the Basic example of how to use BAND, and what it is I can`t believe I had forgot about/never used it... so it`ll probably come in handy getting familiar with it, as I could mess about with other ports hopefully :D Colin Piggot [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The manual for Simon's excellent Turbomon has the keyboard port map (http://simonowen.com/sam/turbomon/TurboMON.pdf) Quickly looking at the PDF myself the ports you need are: O - IN 57342 - (bit 1) P - IN 57342 - (bit 0) Z - IN 65278 - (bit 1) M - IN 32766 - (bit 2) SPACE - IN 32766 (bit 0) The first five bits of each port is used for keys, so BAND is an excellent way to strip off the unwanted bits to check, and the bits will be LOW if the key is pressed, so to test bit 0, do BAND 1, bit1 - do BAND 2, bit 2 - BAND 4 ... E.g. test for say, O, in BASIC IF NOT ((IN 57342) BAND 2) THEN . 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/ - Yahoo! Answers - Get better answers from someone who knows. Tryit now.
Re: Basic keyboard scanning with IN
I see (hadn`t thought) that I`m being stupid again, gonna use BAND testing, as using value`s will still not work if two keys in the same group are held down.. I wasn`t liking Z for charge instead of N, so used N, and M, for charge and Jump, and neither worked if held down together, as neither value 23 or 27 was true (well obviously, but I still wasn`t thinking about that) :) cheers again. Great when you can get help after midnight, hehe Calvin Allett [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I see how the keys on the left/right hand side of the keyboard have the bits reversed... I am (currrently), was gonna just go with tested values (15,23,27,29,30 or reversed) but cheers for the Basic example of how to use BAND, and what it is I can`t believe I had forgot about/never used it... so it`ll probably come in handy getting familiar with it, as I could mess about with other ports hopefully :D Colin Piggot [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The manual for Simon's excellent Turbomon has the keyboard port map (http://simonowen.com/sam/turbomon/TurboMON.pdf) Quickly looking at the PDF myself the ports you need are: O - IN 57342 - (bit 1) P - IN 57342 - (bit 0) Z - IN 65278 - (bit 1) M - IN 32766 - (bit 2) SPACE - IN 32766 (bit 0) The first five bits of each port is used for keys, so BAND is an excellent way to strip off the unwanted bits to check, and the bits will be LOW if the key is pressed, so to test bit 0, do BAND 1, bit1 - do BAND 2, bit 2 - BAND 4 ... E.g. test for say, O, in BASIC IF NOT ((IN 57342) BAND 2) THEN . 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/ - Yahoo! Answers - Get better answers from someone who knows. Try it now. - Yahoo! Answers - Get better answers from someone who knows. Tryit now.
Slip n Slide video demo.
Hiya, just a quickie to say I`ve posted a video of a game I`ve just started working on for the SAM with Mayhem accelerator. It`s only a couple of days work, but I`m quite pleased with the character control and collision detection so far, so thought I`d post :) You can see the demo at :- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f16tOeSzc3c It`d be faster, but having to use the Point command a few times per frame for collision etc, and must say, it`s got to be one of the slowest commands I`ve encountered in SAM Basic. any comments, ideas, welcome Cal... *_+ - Yahoo! Mail is the world's favourite email. Don't settle for less, sign up for your freeaccount today.
Which assembler?
What Assembler would anybody reccomend me having a go with, i.e. preferably the most easy to use :) Feature`s don`t neccesarily top my needs, as I won`t be doing any games in MC, just wanting to learn the language, and be able to try a few small routines. - Yahoo! Answers - Get better answers from someone who knows. Tryit now.
Re: Which assembler?
Thanks Edwin :) I like the online manual, and disk contents with descriptions, will be very handy :D I`ll ask some questions if (oops, I mean when, hehe) I get stuck ! Right, I`m off to raid the WoSpec archive for books, any reccomendations? Edwin Blink [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi Calvin, For SAM I recommend Comet http://home.orange.nl/edwin.blink/samcoupe/software/comet/comet.htm it's got fullscreen editor, syntax checking on entering a line and errors are inserted in the source just above the line containing the error. Just great to get started. For PC I recommend TASM and your favorite editor. Edwin - Original Message - From:Calvin Allett To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Sent: Wednesday, July 04, 2007 7:05PM Subject: Which assembler? What Assembler would anybody reccomend me having a go with,i.e. preferably the most easy to use :) Feature`s don`t neccesarilytop my needs, as I won`t be doing any games in MC, just wanting to learnthe language, and be able to try a few small routines. - Yahoo! Answers - Get better answers from someone who knows. Tryit now. - Yahoo! Mail is the world's favourite email. Don't settle for less, sign up for your freeaccount today.
Re: Car game
Yeah, I suppose I know what you mean :) I just meant with the pace of development with Basic, however with the amount of time it takes to actually get something running fast/smooth on the SAM in Basic, I`m starting to think the gap may not be so large, i.e. it might be faster development wise to just do stuff in MC, as wouldn`t need such `polishing` for months :) anyway, just wanted to apologise for not putting a demo of the car game up yet, started working on a new level for Tomato Antics, and not got round to it yet. I will try knock up a couple of test engines soon and post them up :) Chris Pile [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: CA - Original Message - CA From: Calvin Allett CA To: 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. - Yahoo! Answers - Get better answers from someone who knows. Tryit now.
Balor Knight
CaffeineKid`s asking on WoS if anyone knows how to contact Balor Knight, as he would like to ask permission before doing a remake of Astroball, just thought I`d ask on here as a lot of you guys seem to be still pretty hooked up with where people are/ what their doing etc etc - Yahoo! Answers - Get better answers from someone who knows. Tryit now.
What genre`s are we missing
as titles, I know we don`t have a beat`em`up on the SAM (should we be pleased with that, lol, it is a nice friendly computer after all, hehe), I don`t recall hearing of any car games, is their any other genre`s you can think of that we need? or specific games within a genre, galaxians/galaga for example? and just wondering, how much of a head fcuk would Mode 2 be for a MC coder, as compared to Mode 4. Personally think that Sphera looked pretty damn fine, and someone once had a brilliant demo on FRED, where there was both a side scrolling shootemup, and also a side scrolling platformer (you didn`t get to control the guy on the platformer sadly). I was amazed anyway, when I seen the scrolls with what were pretty OKish graphics, had to be Mode 2 ? - Yahoo! Mail is the world's favourite email. Don't settle for less, sign up for your freeaccount today.
RE: Sam Revival issue 18 out now...
I`ve been missing out, apart from a few issue`s rounabouts 8-10, don`t normally get out during day to get postal order`s, but my Sister`s gonna let me use her credit card. I for one seriously have been knowing what I`m missing out on, it`s a brilliant treat :) Nice to see you bringing them out frequently Colin, looking forward to reading the latest one`s :D Adrian Brown [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Arrived this morning, Another fine issue, Rebelstar screenies are looking great. Hat off to Simon Owen, don't know where you find the time :) Anyone on the list not getting SR, your missing out, what more can you ask for, a top mag, in colour with a coverdisk, get to see lots of things that otherwise you would miss. Nice on Colin :) -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Colin Piggot Sent: 30 May 2007 11:00 To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Subject: Sam Revival issue 18 out now... Issue 18 of Sam Revival is now out, and it's a jam packed issue! Let's kick off with what's on the disk. First up are the three brand new emulators from Simon Owen which are truly stunning! He's been busy and has completed his Galaksija and Orao emulators which were announced in the previous issue. The Galaksija is a Z80 based computer from Yugoslavia, while the Orao is a 6502 based Croation system so that's using Simon's latest 6502 CPU emulator core. Both are now fully emulated on the Sam and there's a pile of games on the disk for each system. To finish off his hat trick Simon has also released an Apple 1 emulator too! It doesn't stop there! Also on the coverdisk is the latest version of Chris Pile's Sam Defender, and also Captain Comic - a classic platformer by Lars Perrson which was first released back in 1994 and was a remake of a freeware PC game. Wrapping up the coverdisk there's also a demo I've coded up to copy an old school effect from the Amiga and includes the source code. Onto the paper side. 40 pages jam packed with news and articles. The Developer Diary is bursting at the seams with information from Simon about all three of his new emulators, and there's also the first screenshots of ISAAC - the port of Rebelstar that's being developed by Stuart Brady and Warren Lee. This issue also sees the start of a new programming column. I've looking at recreating some demo effects from the Amiga on the Sam, and tackle a two layer tile based scroller.The issue wraps up with the compulsory sprinkling of Sam Snippets with bits of trivia from the Sam world. Hope you enjoy the issue! This issue of Sam Revival costs £3.99 for the UK, or £4.79 for EU including Airmail postage. You can also subscribe for three issues at a discounted price of £10.99 (UK) or £13.49 (EU) and save yourself some pennies! It's easy to order - for PayPal payments (or Credit/Debit card through the PayPal checkout if you dont have a PayPal account) just click on the Buy Now buttons on the website. Or for cheque and postal orders email me directly and i'll be happy to pass on my postal details. Subscribers copies went out in the post earlier this morning, so should be with you in a day or two. All the best, 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/ 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. - Yahoo! Answers - Got a question? Someone out there knows the answer. Tryit now.
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 :) Steve Parry-Thomas [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi All, My wish list would be that Pro-Dos 1.9 could be patched to work with Atom/ Atom Lite. At the moment Pro-Dos works fine with Atom and Atom Lite with an A drive as Floppy and RAM as RAM Drive B. But it would be great if the CP/M emulation in Pro-Dos could see the Atom as another drive and access Atom Records. I do not have the skills to do this, someone out there might have is there any chance of this? Or if some is will to *point me* in the right direction I might try over the next year! I'm I the only person that uses Pro-Dos? ;-) Steve(spt) - Yahoo! Mail is the world's favourite email. Don't settle for less, sign up for your freeaccount today.
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 it now...
RE: Car game
Just a quick message, as I`m a bit/loads hungover after three days on the cider :( hehe Sorry you had so much trouble posting Adrian, I didn`t mean to ask so much, or to go into so much detail about what I had been envisioning possible with Basic, so thanks again for replying so fully, I appreciate it :) I`ll just say for now that I like your idea`s about how to control the computer controlled car`s, I`ve never written a car game, even on the Amiga, so it`s something that I`m coming to completely anew, and even with the main player control, I`m pretty certain that things can become complicated (or rather not complicated, but need a lot of code, so slow) and so I`ve been thinking perhaps along the wrong road (sorry, very droll :) ) I love the idea of splitting the map into sections, and having that section `tell` the CPU cars what to do with regards to speediing up, slowing down etc, I hadn`t thought of that, and think that would be a very good (and quick) way of achieving a good compromise. I`ll honestly try and get some temporary graphics knocked up later, and something of a test engine by tonight, just so this is going somewhere, and not just idle chat :) Reply fully later as there`s points I want to ask about/ comment on ! Oh, and thanks for including your example in Basic, it`s lovely to have an example `handed to you on a plate` so to speak, as when MC examples are used, it`s nice to see another bit of code to try and understand, but when your not familar etc etc... Surprised more MC`ers don`t have a dabble with Basic more often tbh :D anyways, must SLEEP *_+ Calvin... Adrian Brown [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Yer - but not the message i sent before - hang on ill try in plain text at the bottom of this. This was a reply to Calvin Ok, 1st thing, the advantage of using 2 screens is it doesnât matter how long it takes to redraw the screen you will never see any flickering / shearing etc as its not being displayed until its ready, so even if the game runs in a frame, i would still use 2 screens, it saves alot of headaches ï Black track would mean clearing the sprites was quicker and you wouldnât need to store a mask, but then you wouldnât be able to go near the edges of the track either. Afraid the black below the cars (well if the cars have 8 rotation angles â it would need to be aaround them) would work, if you had 2 cars near each other one would rub out hte other. Id have to check my timings again, im not sure if unrolling sprites is quicker than compiled sprites. The disadvantage with compiled sprites is clipping them to the edge of screens. (BTW â Did anyone come up with good ways of doing this? I had ways to easily clip to either left/right or top/bottom, depending on which way i stored the sprites, but all 4 was a nightmare). From memory though, compiled sprites are quickest, but use the most memory. You can have a generic sprite drawer for specific sized sprites and make it faster than any size. Loading them all wouldnât be that much of a problem, even a basic sam has 256k which can easily store uncompressed sprites. A slow part of a car game is the computer drivers, there are various ways to make them move around the track, i wrote a system where i split the screen up into areas and each area told the AI what direction and speed it was ment to be going. That way i could store a table of direction / speed and then, say i split the screen up into 16x16 pixel areas, i would take the AI car x and y, divide by 16 and read the speed, direction from the table 1000 Let CarAI1X = 100, CarAI1Y = 100; 1010 Let Dir = Peek(DirTableStart + (CarAI1X / 16) + ((CarAI1Y / 16) * (256/16)) 1020 Let Speed = Peek(SpeedTableStart + (CarAI1X / 16) + ((CarAI1Y / 16) * (256/16)) Then you can just move the direction and speed towards those values. If you want them to take into account other cars then its alittle harder. (The *256/16) is because for each Y step down the table we have a 256/16 X values to skip over. Collision is always a pain, i would probably just do some sort of box collision, then its a case of checking if car1X+CarWidth car2X and car1X car2X+CarWidth (and a similar check of Y) you have a collision, although to be kind you would reduce the size of the cars so they could overlap a little, especially if you have rotating cars. There are lots of other ways though. Ive just been digging up some articles i wrote years ago for a friend on learning to program the Z80, ill dust them off and check them over then hopefully Mr Colin âMayhemâ Piggot will print them up into Sam Revival. Hes just sent me a backup of the code i had started in there, so ill get that finished off as well. Anyway, hope that gives you some help. Adrian 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
What games
Just a quick thought, What games could be accomplished on the ol` SAM, everybody always says about how underpowered the SAM is in Mode 4, but when I`m playing more Spectrum games recently, I`m getting a certain shock as to how many games ran at perhaps lower than 8 fps, and yet it doesn`t matter, perhaps I should have asked what games could be done. Could Avenger be done at a similar framerate, for example? - Yahoo! Answers - Got a question? Someone out there knows the answer. Tryit now.
Re: Atom-Lite on you tube
Looks great to see a real SAM on teh Tube :D The card looks interesting too, great the way it just slots in. Edwin Blink [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Here are some movies on the Atom-Lite. http://www.youtube.com/v/xKIsEr660HA http://www.youtube.com/v/QBVsGCV4sPA Sorry for the poor quallity. but it's a you tube thing. I don't have some place to store the original 40Mb and 20Mb versions Edwin - Inbox full of unwanted email? Get leading protection and 1GB storage with All New Yahoo! Mail.
RE: MC Interrupts
What`s the difference between a JP and a JR, I don`t even mean in T-States, but what varies between the way they work. If you`s don`t mind me asking ? Cal... `Geoff Winkless [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:`Geoff Winkless wrote: Anyway, something like: [snip] Sorry, it's been a while and I was tired (!!), those local JP's should all (of course) be JR's! Geoff __ This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email __ - New Yahoo! Mail is the ultimate force in competitive emailing. Find out more at the Yahoo! Mail Championships. Plus: play games and win prizes.
RE: MC Interrupts
the sprites in the new position Update your game logic, move cars etc Put the contents of grab buffer 1 back in the old position for each sprite Grab the area under each sprite into their grab buffer 1, remember the position for redrawing Use the MC sprite routine to draw the sprites on page 1 in the positions Repeat This is a little more tricky as you have to keep 2 copies of the grab buffer (one for each screen, apparently some people say you can do it with one buffer but ive not had much luck with that). It depends on the MC routine, some do know about the Screen/display commands, some dont, its not always that hard to alter. The grabbing is a similar MC routine. Adrian From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Calvin Allett Sent: 16 May 2007 02:46 To: Adrian Subject: RE: MC Interrupts `Did someone call? ;) Yes it was the early issues, it was issues 1-5 i think, ` i was only talking to colin this evening about that, now ive moved i ` really need to get on with finishing it, although i lost all my code ` when i lost the sam harddrive. Ive now got a sam in a can and have ` some new flash cards on order so ill get back to it and finish the ` little game, maybe some articles on learning mc can be arranged. A S-I-A-Can Lucky Bas... erm... I mean sweet :D I haven`t got the articles in question, but meaning to get those issue`s, so if you`ll be hopefully doing more then that`s brilliant. `To use something like that from basic, you could just do the following ` (this is off the top of my head after a bottle of wine, so it maybe ` wrong ;) ) But each frame you could do the following (its basically ` a double buffer system but from basic). When i say page 1, page 2 ` i dont mean physical memory pages, but any particular page, again ` from memory it might have been the screen command that allowed you ` to open up and use different screens. If you dont know then ill ` try and dig up the info tomorrow. Yeah, your right, it`s the Screen command, with also the Display command for the flipping.. :) Would a MC routine, know which area in RAM to draw too, if Basic was flipping screens though, just thought. OR could a copy of a routine be used to either draw to screen 1 or 2, so from Basic call the correct one? I`m never sure if you can have a small MC routine, and a copy, because if they both need to be paged in or whatever... `IN BASIC: ` `Set the display to page 1` ` `Update your game logic, move the cars etc` ` `Use the MC sprite routine to draw the sprites on page 2 in the positions` ` `Set the display to page 2, showing the sprites in the new position` ` ` Update your game logic, move cars etc ` `Use the MC sprite routine to draw the sprites on page 1 in the positions ` ` ` ` Repeat ;) ` ` ` `You still need to either A) handle storing what was under the sprites ` and putting it back, or B) just redraw the entire screen before you ` draw the sprites. B) is the easiest to start with but can be slow, ` but the key is to get things working then speed them up. Doing this ` you are only actually updating when you want to, you dont need interrupts, ` you dont need anything clever in MC to do checking etc. I`ve tried drawing the complete (well 2/3rd`s of the screen) using double buffering in `Jimf `n Oobs` and it knocks it to about 4 fps, so been thinking of for a car game, defining area`s where cars may be, since the tracks will only be about 24 pixels high or wide and drawing that if a car/s is in that region, this shouldn`t be much of a problem... I`ll try and knock up a demo of what I have in mind over the next few days, and you can hopefully see whether or not you think a MC routine would be possible/beneficial :) `I might be completely off track here, so let me know J `Adrian. Your not ;) Oh, and `off track` very good, is that a pun :) Cal... - The all-new Yahoo! Mail goes wherever you go - free your email address from your Internet provider. - 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
Re: MC Interrupts
Ah sweet :) soz for delay, just spent 45 mins typing another reply ! Handy command then JR Colin Piggot [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: What`s the difference between a JP and a JR, I don`t even mean in T-States, but what varies between the way they work. If you`s don`t mind me asking ? JP reads in two bytes more to use as an address to jump to. JR reads in only one more byte, to use as an offset from the current address to jump to. 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/ - Yahoo! Answers - Got a question? Someone out there knows the answer. Tryit now.
RE: MC Interrupts
I meant to say, using a script, so that there`s not extra Let X=X+2 commands
needed and other stuff... I forgot to put the word not in :)
If a Basic prog was looked at once coded, could the MC be able
to read the Car1X, Car1Y variables straight to memory, rather than
having to use basic to poke these variables into somewhere for the
MC to know where to place them? Once it was know where all the
different variables are in memory?
Calvin Allett [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Thanks for the detailed reply :)
Can`t wait to be able to afford a Mayhem, hopefully sometime after
Christmas :) I`ve got loads of ideas, but it`s hard coding for it
on emulator in some ways.
anywayz,
If I had a black track instead of textured then there could even be no
need to mask the sprites,
or switch between two screens,
could just have some black below them etc
to rub the car out itself? That 8*8 pixel machine code (on a Flex disk I think)
has got me thinking that the smaller the graphics the better. And I presume
it would be quicker for the/a MC sprite routine if all Sprite`s were a fixed
size... Could I just ask please if it`s much of an inconvenience, if you wanted
to
write say three different small (or unrolled) graphics routines, for different
sized graphics, and load them all and use them all? How practible would this be?
The Basic part could be speeded up a lot, by Gosubing a script, that would
place the Computer cars at certain places, so they`d be quite dumb like a
skaletrix, but would be able to randomly (or not so randomly) switch between
about 5 tracks and stuff to get in the way etc. Just so that there`s Let
Car1X=Car1X+2 and other code etc needed.
something like
1000 Def Proc Lev1
1010 Gosub Car1 : Gosub Car2 : Gosub Car3
1020 Car1Switch :Car2Switch : Car3Switch : procs would only be 3 or 4 lines
1030 if Inkey$=L$ or Inkey$= l$ then SwitchToL :rem Code to switch tracks or
ram car
1040 If Inkey$=R$ or inkey$=r$ then SwitchToR
1050 If (Code to test Shift Key) then Let Speed=Speed+1 AND Speed6
1060 If Inkey$=firesaysthepirate and Arrrgg=0 then then Gosub FireInit:Let
arrrgg=1
1065 If Arrrgg=1 then gosub MovBullit
1070 If Inkey$=Oil$ and Oils0 then Gosub Oils: Let Oils=Oils-1
1080 GoSub Tim : Another script like thing to do other extras and place pickups
1090 Call Cars (Machine Code Routine)
1095 GoTo 1010: End Proc
`
`
2000 Car1 Script
2010 Let Car1X=200,Car1Y=55 : Let Car1=Car1+10 : Return
2020 Let Car1X=204,Car1Y=55 : Let Car1=Car1+10 : Return
etc etc, with a once per loop jump to a Line that randomly speeds the car
up, or slows it down, by adding or taking away 5 or 7 etc to
the variable Car1 or switches it Track, by affecting Car1Y
2030 Let Car1X=208,Car1Y=55 : Let Car1=Car1+10 : Return
2035 Let Car1x=208,Car1Y=58 : Let Car1=Car1+10 : Return
2040 Let Car1X=212,Car1Y=55 : Let Car1=Car1+10 : Return
2045 Let Car1X=212,Car1Y=58 : Let Car1=Car1+10 : etc etc, or diff line for X
speed
2050 Let Car1X=216,Car1Y=55 : Let Car1=Car1+10: Return
The code for collisions could hopefully be handled by a look up
table, or some fancy Def FN`s, but I`m afraid I`d need some
help possibly,as never really done that before, or possibly
the code could be initially handled by comparing the Car1 gosub variables,
Car2 etc with player and each other initially, as it`d know there basic position
quickly and know if there at other ends of track, anyhow that`s the only real
thing making me worry... Collision detections gonna be the biggest amount of
code
needs doing, and I`m not sure if Basics gonna be fast enough to show
the MC code off reasonably if I just call it after each loop.
I was thinking the main Player would work much the same, way
but have more lanes perhaps, so you could give more of a nice,
feel and not make the controls too fiddly if you instantly switch
three lanes by mistake, or you could perhaps slide out dureing corner`s...
What do you think, would it be worth tackling it in this way, I`m not
sure how much speed could be got from some MC in there verses
Put, but SAMs basic is quite slow once you start giving it
a lot of commands to process, some MC could hopefully give more time back
to run more of a complicated game engine, so I just hope it could be more
advanced than another glorified LCD type game, but with quick graphics :)
The one thing tuff about doing it this way, is all the lines of Gosub code
needed to place each car, it`d be a sqeeze getting it under 64K, and
Basic startes crashing, locking up then :(
I`m truly sorry for my stoned ramble, but it`s nice talking
about programming ;)
Cal...
Adrian Brown [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:v\:*
{behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:*
{behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
Dont worry about the speed, just order a mayhem accelerator ;) But
yes, redrawing the entire screen can be very slow. Ideally what you do is more
like:
Clear
Re: MC Interrupts
Thanks :) I`ve been reading the 1995 posts to the mailing list these
past few days, and it`s amazing how much I`m picking up from
those old old posts, so I`ve seen it mentioned that they run at around
the same speed on SAM, am I remembering right that it depends
where in screen the raster is when the code is run?
Andrew Collier [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
On 17 May 2007, at 22:17, Calvin Allett wrote:
What`s the difference between a JP and a JR, I don`t even mean
in T-States, but what varies between the way they work. If you`s
don`t mind me asking ?
A JR takes less space, two bytes compared to a JP instruction which
takes 3. In a JR, you take your current address and add a one-byte
offset to it, so you can only jump approximately 128 bytes in either
direction (generally, the assembler will do this calculation for
you). In a JP instruction you specify an the whole two-byte
destination address and you jump exactly there.
Because of the Sam's memory timings, using JR is usually as fast (or
slightly faster than) using JP. That may change with Mayhem accelerator!
Andrew
--
--- Andrew Collier
http://www.intensity.org.uk/ ---
--
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RE: Testing new routines - shiddy Tomato Antics
Thank you, I`ve wasted far faar too much time on it, but it`s been enjoyable
and I`ve learnt a few tricks :) It`s just a pity that the game is such a non
game at the moment, but it will serve to show other`s hopefully if we can get
more Speccy Basic coder`s on the machine... there`s still a few I know wanting
to get
stuck in :)
Adrian Brown [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:v\:*
{behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:*
{behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
Thats really nice J some nice attention to detail.
Adrian
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Calvin Allett
Sent: 16 May 2007 03:01
To: Adrian
Subject: Testing new routines - shiddy Tomato Antics
Just to say I`ve put a demo of level one up of Tomato Antics. Still not really
a proper game yet, but spent a lot of time trying to get it to as fast a speed
as I can, so that I can start adding in game elements.
It`s more of a reintroduction to SAM Basic and a test to see what can
be got out of the language.
anyway, it`s far too easy at the mo, and there`s a cheat enabled for a 1000
lives,
but if you persist through the boredom for about 5 minutes, till it`s rained
and
stopped then I`d like your opinions on the new way of using the Put routines
(there severely
limiting for game design though :( )
I`m thinking that using something like this, it should be fairly feasable to do
the Skeet shooting level of Hypersports at a similar speed, and other
similar simple games.
link is :-
http://www.4shared.com/file/16034007/a826cff5/SAMs_Antics_-_April_2007.html
Oh, redefining keys or selecting Sinclair won`t work, as there`s temporarily
two copies of the game, so keys are:-
O - Left, P- Right, and M to jump higher if you hold it down, five superjumps
Thanks, Cal...
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Registered Address: 3 Springfield, Trevadlock, Congdons Shop, Launceston,
Cornwall, PL15 7PW.
Registration Number: 4942193. V.A.T. No: 826 0005 70
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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
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Re: MC Interrupts
So the SAMs z80 really is actually slowed down quite considerably, I hadn`t
realised how much :(
Thanks for the details :)
Andrew Collier [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On 17 May 2007, at 23:24, Calvin
Allett wrote:
Andrew Collier wrote:
Because of the Sam's memory timings, using JR is usually as fast (or
slightly faster than) using JP. That may change with Mayhem
accelerator!
Thanks :) I`ve been reading the 1995 posts to the mailing list these
past few days, and it`s amazing how much I`m picking up from
those old old posts, so I`ve seen it mentioned that they run at around
the same speed on SAM, am I remembering right that it depends
where in screen the raster is when the code is run?
Yes. The Sam's ASIC deals with memory in blocks of 4 cycles at a
time, and also steals four cycles out of every eight while drawing
the screen (and also in some parts of the border, in MODE 1). In
general, this means that Sam cycle timings are usually the Z80's own
timings rounded up to a multiple of four, and then doubled if the
screen is on.
But a few instructions don't obey this rule, because they don't need
to read memory at the time ASIC reads it. So when the screen is on,
they escape part of the time doubling. JR is one of these
instructions, but JP is not.
On a raw Z80, on in a Sam running from external memory, and probably
in the Mayhem accelerator; JP takes 10 cycles, and JR takes 12 (or 7
for a conditional jump not taken).
In a Sam during the border, or if the screen is off, JP takes 12
cycles and also JR takes 12 cycles (a conditional jump which is not
taken, only takes 8 cycles).
When the screen is on, JP takes 24 cycles, but JR only takes 16 (a
conditional JR is 16 cycles whether taken or not).
HTH,
Andrew
--
--- Andrew Collier
http://www.intensity.org.uk/ ---
--
-
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MC Interrupts
I`ve come across a little routine on an old disk magazine that provides four 8*8 pixel masked `sprites` via a MC interrupt routine, it seems pretty fast, and am wondering about trying to use it, however I`m wondering if it`s possible to alter an interrupt routine so that it only runs the code every 2nd or third frame? I know the routine would be called every frame, but what I mean is, it slows Basic down by about 20 %, and there`s no way basic is gonna run a loop at 50 fps to alter the coords of the `sprites`, so would it seem feasable to be able to alter the routine with a flag, so that it jumps straight back every other frame and only draws the other frames? I`ve been wondering this before, in relation to the Mayhem accelerator, as if wanting to write a game to run at 20Mhz (about four times normal speed with uncontended RAM?) then if I`d be able to run an intterupt music player, but have the player altered to only play the music every 4th frame, to keep tune at correct speed approx? I`m not sure how the timing would work for MC coder`s when running a faster machine, so I`m probably talking crap here :) Oh, and while I`m rambling, does anybody know if there exists an interrupt player for AY music, or just players to incorporate into MC? Thanks. Calvin... - What kind of emailer are you? Find out today - get a free analysis of your email personality. Take the quiz at the Yahoo! Mail Championship.
RE: MC Interrupts
Calvin Allett wrote: so would it seem feasable to be able to alter the routine with a flag, so that it jumps straight back every other frame and only draws the other frames? `Assuming you don't need to worry about redrawing them if they haven't `moved `you could simply add your own interrupt handler to check whether the `positions are the same and don't call the sprite routine if they are. ` `If your BASIC program _is_ changing the display then you will have to `call `them every frame anyway, since the masks will go horribly wrong `otherwise `(in fact, won't they anyway?) The game I`m thinking is a simplistic Super Sprint type game, and they`d be travelling over road graphics that wouldn`t be changing, so that`s not a problem, but I see what you mean. i hadn`t thought of actually adding in anything to the routine, apart from wondering if it could be slowed down to not run as often, and give more speed to Basic, but your idea sounds even better, checking the coords and only changing/drawing if they change :) that sounds to be the best. -- `I'm confused why you'd want to fake hardware sprites with interrupts `anyway, `why not just write some MC to blat the sprite and call it from your `BASIC `routine? That gives much more fine-grained control. I don`t know :D I`m loving the extra speed of the Put command in MasterBasic, and just wanting/needing more speed than the generic routine offers, and coming across this little 4 `sprite` routine just got me excited (even if it`s only 8*8 graphics)... It would actually be better to use a routine that I could Call when required, and not waste time though... never been a fan of interrupts in Basic, as they slow it down terribly :) `Anyway, something like: ` `MyInt: ` PUSH HL ` PUSH BC `Sprite1: `LD BC, `LD HL, (SpritePos1) `SBC HL, BC `JP Z, GoSprites `Sprite2: `LD BC, `LD HL, (SpritePos2) `SBC HL, BC `JP NZ, GoSprites `Sprite3: `LD BC, `LD HL, (SpritePos3) `SBC HL, BC `JP NZ, GoSprites `Sprite4: `LD BC, `LD HL, (SpritePos4) `SBC HL, BC `JP NZ, GoSprites ` POP BC ` POP HL `reti `GoSprites: `LD HL, (SpritePos1) `LD (Sprite1+1), HL `LD HL, (SpritePos2) `LD (Sprite2+1), HL `LD HL, (SpritePos3) `LD (Sprite3+1), HL `LD HL, (SpritePos4) `LD (Sprite4+1), HL ` POP BC ` POP HL `JP OldHandler ` `It's not exactly optimal but it's fairly obvious what it does. ` hehe, cheers for the example Geoff, but I`m afraid I`m still to learn MC, I can understand the LD commands, and i think I`ve got the general idea of what POPs and JP`s do, but as soon as I start to think about having to have graphics in special formats etc it puts me off learning MC... I have dl`d some MC books from WoSpec recently though *_+ thanks again :) Cal... - Yahoo! Answers - Got a question? Someone out there knows the answer. Tryit now.
Re: MC Interrupts
Calvin Allett wrote: I`ve been wondering this before, in relation to the Mayhem accelerator, as if wanting to write a game to run at 20Mhz (about four times normal speed with uncontended RAM?) then if I`d be able to run an intterupt music player, but have the player altered to only play the music every 4th frame, to keep tune at correct speed approx? `Interrupts aren't affected by the speed of the machine. ` `The ASIC generates the frame interrupt every 50th of a second, it's all `tied `right into the video timings. So things like music players, or any `frame `interrupt (or line interrupt) routines don't need to be changed at all. I knew that I was possibly talking crap :D I should have realised actually, so that`s really cool, so you still get your 50 interrupts, but just more you can do between them. Oh, and while I`m rambling, does anybody know if there exists an interrupt player for AY music, or just players to incorporate into MC? `I don't recall seeing any standalone interrupt players to play AY `music, `although Cookie and Stefan have in the past written patches into the `various `128K demos they both converted to play the music through the SAA1099 so `they've done the main bit of work of converting AY register data into `the `nearest equivalent for the SAA. ` I used to love these demo`s, and the converted games, as I still usually prefer AY music over The Sound Machine, or E-tracker, although some SAM tunes blow the AY away :) I was thinking it might be easier to get someone to do a tune or two for games, if I needed an AY tune over an SAA as the scenes bigger. --- ` `Could be a bit more tricky if you are meaning to play .AY files, which `are `essentially the speccy machine code player and the data that would `need `the machine code part (which I guess is specific to the tune and the `programmer who wrote the player) to be patched to play through the SAA `etc. Damn, really didn`t know this, I thought that the .AY files were just data for the soundchip, although having heard 48K beeper and 128K AY in the format, I should have realised it included the player :( Thanks for info Colin, I`d misunderstood both things, erm ;) Cal... - What kind of emailer are you? Find out today - get a free analysis of your email personality. Take the quiz at the Yahoo! Mail Championship.
Re: MC Interrupts
I still need to catch up on the later issue`s, and the earlier ones... I`d forgot there was such an article, but I`d heard, one of the early ones I think :) [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Quoting Calvin Allett : I`ve come across a little routine on an old disk magazine that provides four 8*8 pixel masked `sprites` via a MC interrupt routine, it seems pretty fast, and am wondering about trying to use it, however I`m wondering if it`s possible to alter an interrupt routine so that it only runs the code every 2nd or third frame? I also seem to recall a pretty decent Sprite article in SAM Revival... can't recall the issue - but it was from that clever chap Adrian (Brown, I think?) - Yahoo! Mail is the world's favourite email. Don't settle for less, sign up for your freeaccount today.
Acadia Disk Mag
I was supposed to upload Issue 4 and 6 of Arcadia last year, and never got round to it, well I`ve found issue 6, and upped it to :- http://www.4shared.com/file/16014910/5a4803f8/ARCADIA_6.html Can`t find issue 4 at the mo, but I`m sure I had it, so will see if there`s any disks I forgot to rip... also noticed that I couldn`t find any issue`s of SCPDU on nvg, so have upped issue 5 to :- http://www.4shared.com/file/16014949/5ee34f19/SCPDU5.html i can`t remember what else I was supposed to upload, so will have a look and see what`s missing :) Also, sorry Dan, as I think it was you whom I said I`d mail them too AGES ago :) Cal... - All New Yahoo! Mail Tired of unwanted email come-ons? Let our SpamGuard protect you.
Palette Line`s
I`m working on a few things at the moment that use 4 - 8 palette lines, doesn`t slow basic down noticeably, but when changing them there`s a very slight delay, as there are 8 changes/commands that need to be made at once... I was wondering if anybody could help me out with the following. Does the SAM store the palette lines in the same memory area as the current screen bitmap, and if so, how much space in bytes do they occupy, and where are they... I`d ideally like to change the lines, grab the Mem$ of the correct area, and then when required in game, be able to poke the string$ into the correct area, so as to be able to change them all with one command... this would also allow the ability hopefully to restore the background paper palette lines, to having no palette lines, once the sky is all blue, or black... would be slightly quicker then.. Thanks :) Cal... - Yahoo! Answers - Got a question? Someone out there knows the answer. Tryit now.
Re: Palette Line`s
Thank you so much Colin :D So that`sMem$(22016 to 22527) ... I tried to convert it with the character and got a - number, lol, I take it the char is to denote Hex.. I did try and find it myself a few times in the tech manual, but couldn`t... right, I can see if it`s faster now *_+ Colin Piggot [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I`d ideally like to change the lines, grab the Mem$ of the correct area, MEM$(5600 TO 57ff) is what you want for the BASIC line interrupt table :) Colin = Quazar : Hardware, Software, Spares and Repairs for the Sam Coupe 1995-2007 - Celebrating 12 Years of developing for the Sam Coupe Website: http://www.samcoupe.com/ - Yahoo! Mail is the world's favourite email. Don't settle for less, sign up for your freeaccount today.
Re: Palette Line`s
cheers *_+ That`s even better if you can use hex in Mem$, that`s another thing learnt :) I normally hate it when every MCoder use`s Hex all the time, but I suppose I should get used to it if ever I`m to learn MC :) Colin Piggot [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Thank you so much Colin :D So that`s Mem$(22016 to 22527) ... I tried to convert it with the character and got a - number, lol, I take it the char is to denote Hex.. Yes denotes hex in BASIC. You can use that in the MEM$ command as I put - no need to convert to decimal. I did try and find it myself a few times in the tech manual, but couldn`t... Page 27 :) 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/ - What kind of emailer are you? Find out today - get a free analysis of your email personality. Take the quiz at the Yahoo! Mail Championship.
Re: Acadia Disk Mag
Cheers Dan for nvg`ing for me, I`ll learn how to upload to the incoming soon :) Just been trying out the SCPDU5 disk, and if you boot samdos 2 from another disk the disk seems to work fine, and there`s some interesting stuff on it... I do seem to remember that one (or two) progs didn`t work, so I`ll see if I can get a disk put together with normal dos, for now, so it`s not too fiddly. I originally ripped that disk on a 98 box with some dos prog, but noticed when I re-ripped some other disks under XP with Simons SamDisk, that disk that originally didn`t rip well (i.e. sector errors etc) ripped perfectly, so I`ll re-rip it if it has any errors... Dan Dooré [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Calvin Allett wrote: http://www.4shared.com/file/16014910/5a4803f8/ARCADIA_6.html Verified and pushed to incoming/ on NVG Can`t find issue 4 at the mo, but I`m sure I had it, so will see if there`s any disks I forgot to rip... also noticed that I couldn`t find any issue`s of SCPDU on nvg, so have upped issue 5 to :- http://www.4shared.com/file/16014949/5ee34f19/SCPDU5.html Ooh, not good this one - it's one of Cookies Maxidos+ disks with the extra tracks so DSK format won't do the do. Si - does SamDisk write EDSK's yet - I had a looksey at http://simonowen.com/sam/samdisk/ but it's not changed :-( Also, sorry Dan, as I think it was you whom I said I`d mail them too AGES ago :) Probably, but being old and addled I've forgotton :-) Dan. - Yahoo! Mail is the world's favourite email. Don't settle for less, sign up for your freeaccount today.
Re: MC Interrupts
no probs mate, I`m not exactly gonna be able to do anything with any MC code yet anyhow, and I know your busy :) I do love looking through the issue`s I have, it always eggs me on to do more coding, but I need to get the early issue`s especially for the (sounding great) articles :D [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Quoting Calvin Allett : I still need to catch up on the later issue`s, and the earlier ones... I`d forgot there was such an article, but I`d heard, one of the early ones I think :) I've got a site to work on tonight, otherwise I'd be dipping in my issues to look for you :( - To help you stay safe and secure online, we've developed the all new Yahoo! Security Centre.
RE: MC Interrupts
`Did someone call? ;) Yes it was the early issues, it was issues 1-5 i think, ` i was only talking to colin this evening about that, now ive moved i ` really need to get on with finishing it, although i lost all my code ` when i lost the sam harddrive. Ive now got a sam in a can and have ` some new flash cards on order so ill get back to it and finish the ` little game, maybe some articles on learning mc can be arranged. A S-I-A-Can Lucky Bas... erm... I mean sweet :D I haven`t got the articles in question, but meaning to get those issue`s, so if you`ll be hopefully doing more then that`s brilliant. `To use something like that from basic, you could just do the following ` (this is off the top of my head after a bottle of wine, so it maybe ` wrong ;) ) But each frame you could do the following (its basically ` a double buffer system but from basic). When i say page 1, page 2 ` i dont mean physical memory pages, but any particular page, again ` from memory it might have been the screen command that allowed you ` to open up and use different screens. If you dont know then ill ` try and dig up the info tomorrow. Yeah, your right, it`s the Screen command, with also the Display command for the flipping.. :) Would a MC routine, know which area in RAM to draw too, if Basic was flipping screens though, just thought. OR could a copy of a routine be used to either draw to screen 1 or 2, so from Basic call the correct one? I`m never sure if you can have a small MC routine, and a copy, because if they both need to be paged in or whatever... `IN BASIC: ` `Set the display to page 1` ` `Update your game logic, move the cars etc` ` `Use the MC sprite routine to draw the sprites on page 2 in the positions` ` `Set the display to page 2, showing the sprites in the new position` ` ` Update your game logic, move cars etc ` `Use the MC sprite routine to draw the sprites on page 1 in the positions ` ` ` ` Repeat ;) ` ` ` `You still need to either A) handle storing what was under the sprites ` and putting it back, or B) just redraw the entire screen before you ` draw the sprites. B) is the easiest to start with but can be slow, ` but the key is to get things working then speed them up. Doing this ` you are only actually updating when you want to, you dont need interrupts, ` you dont need anything clever in MC to do checking etc. I`ve tried drawing the complete (well 2/3rd`s of the screen) using double buffering in `Jimf `n Oobs` and it knocks it to about 4 fps, so been thinking of for a car game, defining area`s where cars may be, since the tracks will only be about 24 pixels high or wide and drawing that if a car/s is in that region, this shouldn`t be much of a problem... I`ll try and knock up a demo of what I have in mind over the next few days, and you can hopefully see whether or not you think a MC routine would be possible/beneficial :) `I might be completely off track here, so let me know J `Adrian. Your not ;) Oh, and `off track` very good, is that a pun :) Cal... - The all-new Yahoo! Mail goes wherever you go - free your email address from your Internet provider.
Testing new routines - shiddy Tomato Antics
Just to say I`ve put a demo of level one up of Tomato Antics. Still not really a proper game yet, but spent a lot of time trying to get it to as fast a speed as I can, so that I can start adding in game elements. It`s more of a reintroduction to SAM Basic and a test to see what can be got out of the language. anyway, it`s far too easy at the mo, and there`s a cheat enabled for a 1000 lives, but if you persist through the boredom for about 5 minutes, till it`s rained and stopped then I`d like your opinions on the new way of using the Put routines (there severely limiting for game design though :( ) I`m thinking that using something like this, it should be fairly feasable to do the Skeet shooting level of Hypersports at a similar speed, and other similar simple games. link is :- http://www.4shared.com/file/16034007/a826cff5/SAMs_Antics_-_April_2007.html Oh, redefining keys or selecting Sinclair won`t work, as there`s temporarily two copies of the game, so keys are:- O - Left, P- Right, and M to jump higher if you hold it down, five superjumps Thanks, Cal... - The all-new Yahoo! Mail goes wherever you go - free your email address from your Internet provider.
Re: Manic Miner scores
1874 here :) Played it the other night then just spent 10 mins now. don`t know if I can cut anything off time wise. will youtube a version. Simon Owen [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Just a daft question/challenge really, and one I know has been done for the Speccy version. What's the highest possible score for Central Cavern? I've played through it countless times during SimCoupe testing, and noticed I got around the same score most runs. A good run gives me 1875, though that's still without pixel-perfect jumps. Next time you've got time to kill, give it a try! Si - The all-new Yahoo! Mail goes wherever you go - free your email address from your Internet provider.
Re: Happy New Year
Thanks, I`ll check what it was that I couldn`t load, but I`m not sure if I ever got anywhere with B-Dos, still never used it. So it`s possible to just take a standard file from WoS and load it directly into emulator? Colin Piggot [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Which emulator on SAM do you guy`s use? I only ask as I`d like to take 48K snaps from say WoS and play them on SimCoupe and never managed it due to different format snaps. I use Martijn Groen's ZX Spectrum Emulator v4.0, the one that's on the B-DOS disk images, as that can handle .SNA, .Z80 (48K), and .TAP files. Very nifty! Colin = Quazar : Hardware, Software, Spares and Repairs for the Sam Coupe April 1995-2006 - Celebrating 11 Years of developing for the Sam Coupe Website: http://www.samcoupe.com/ Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
Re: Happy New Year
Nice one, I`d love to play Rentakill Rita, Bosconian 87 and a few others on SAM, just for the different aspect ratio. Could you post a link to your site please :) Martijn Groen [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Colin Piggot wrote: Which emulator on SAM do you guy`s use? I only ask as I`d like to take 48K snaps from say WoS and play them on SimCoupe and never managed it due to different format snaps. I use Martijn Groen's ZX Spectrum Emulator v4.0, the one that's on the B-DOS disk images, as that can handle .SNA, .Z80 (48K), and .TAP files. Very nifty! Colin = Quazar : Hardware, Software, Spares and Repairs for the Sam Coupe April 1995-2006 - Celebrating 11 Years of developing for the Sam Coupe Website: http://www.samcoupe.com/ A happy new year to everyone! I will be uploading ZX Spectrum Emulator v5.0 to my website asap and the last version of my ZX81 Emulator which includes the hi-ress graphics routines made by Johan Koelman. Greetz, Martijn Groen Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
Re: Happy New Year
:D Happy New Year ! Been playing on E.S.I.`s Ice Chicken earlier :) Got up to level 5, it`s a lot easier than I`d remembered. Which emulator on SAM do you guy`s use? I only ask as I`d like to take 48K snaps from say WoS and play them on SimCoupe and never managed it due to different format snaps. Gavin Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hey Sammers, happy new year chaps. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/R-B-I-Baseball-2-SPECTRUM-SAM-COUPE- boxed_W0QQitemZ280065591817QQihZ018QQ Seeing as I've never heard of this title on the SAM, I'm 99.99% sure that when it says SAM Coupe compatible on the box, that it actually means might play on the SAM if you've a decent emulator - right? Gavin Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
Re: Sophistry
david [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: You're probably right.It was a waste of my time anyway.Project abandoned. I think this is a bit of a shame :( I`m sincerely sure that this isn`t/wasn`t a waste of your time David... I know for one that I`ve been looking forward to your site and have checked whenever I could get online... I remeber talks/discussions on here with others (me included) asking if others could contirbute and you giving a yes, and whatever you have so far would be appreciated by us other SAM users.. I`m sure with such a small SAM hardcore userbase that not only is there room for a few of us to do archive sites, but further that the idea of more than one or two is possatively exciting... I remember when I first had internet access back in` `99 trawling the web for SAM stuff, people, info etc etc and the thought of what `could be` makes me both surprised and joyfully tearful that the SAM is not only surviving but is in a relatively healthy position. :) --- Andrew Collier wrote: On 10 Dec 2005, at 19:31, david wrote: (Blah - sounds like a load of excuses doesnt it? Happens to be true, but still sounds like it :() Anyway - I hope to get something sorted soon ... No offence, but the way you say that makes me even more convinced that I should start doing it myself... Andrew ----- Andrew Collier http://www.intensity.org.uk/ --- To help you stay safe and secure online, we've developed the all new Yahoo! Security Centre.
Re: manic miner
david [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Can't remember to be honest... but theres 2 parts toit...4 keys during the scrolly message - and CLF (CopyrightLiberation Front aka KLF - as Matthew was a bigfan!) during the game... You could always use the NMI button if you want ;) Nice one :)I`ll give the NMI a go... To help you stay safe and secure online, we've developed the all new Yahoo! Security Centre.
Re: Missing Disks?
Dave [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Sat, 12 Nov 2005 15:15:28 + (GMT), david wrote:--- Calvin Allett wrote: I think that`s the name, I know he managed to get I think there must be a few crossed wires about Derek Morgan. He livesin Skelmersdale, Lancs, and he had a PD library and F9 Software. I'veyet to see Derek on the net. If he did eventually get connected thenhe mustn't be able to find us. That's surprising really because he wasDave W Oops, my bad... I`ve always had that name in my head, but wasn`t sure... done some checking and it was someone called Alec Carswell...Thanks for clearing that up :) Cal Win a Yahoo! Vespa NEW - Yahoo! Cars has 3 Vespa LX125s to be won Enter Now!
Re: test
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Just a remark - if my last post came to you broken (like only 3 sentences), then ignore it, please. I wrote quite a long one, but it was cutted down and I don't know the reason.Sorry for inconvienence!ellvisYeah, it was only three lines... it seems to say enough though :)Nice to see SAM in one of the well known Party`s *_+Cal...--- To help you stay safe and secure online, we've developed the all new Yahoo! Security Centre.
Re: What be classed as the standard nowadays?
--- Ian Spencer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: - Original Message - From: Calvin Allett [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no Sent: Tuesday, November 08, 2005 2:36 AM Subject: What be classed as the standard nowadays? I don`t mean so much hardware (yet also), but what Dos is standard? is it all B-Dos? and what is the relation with B-Dos and Basic, can MasterBasic be run with BDos to effect a 30 percent Put speedup? Never got anywhere with Bdos, but interested... Yes, it is possible to get B-Dos to work with Masterbasic I use it all the time. Ian Cheers :) I thought the manual looked a bit `fiddly` so haven`t got into it yet, but found a few tips in SAM Revival... Cal *_+ ___ Yahoo! Model Search 2005 - Find the next catwalk superstars - http://uk.news.yahoo.com/hot/model-search/
Re: What be classed as the standard nowadays?
--- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: My Sam system/set up is Sam 512, 1 floppy, Atom with CF card 256 and slave Harddrive Maxtor 7 gig an old PC spare drive. (slave drive when in use powers from an old PC psu) with a small switch fitting to switch the CF card to master or slave , normally set to master. Comms interface with PC serial mouse [thanks to Edwin] PC keyboard interface [ thanks to Colin] Boot Rom V2 [thanks to Edwin] BDos 1.7n Steve(spt) got anywhere with Bdos, but interested... Wow !!! thats one hell of a setup :) I think the CF card route is the way I`ll go when I finally get back to using a real machine... sorry for more questions, but is the boot rom something like the ones Steve Nutting was doing back in the day, i.e. to fix disk corruption, or is it (hopefully) to possibly boot up with extra code for newer stuff? Cal *_+ P.S. Once again thank you so much for the scanning of the MasterBasic manual in particular, but also MasterDos... (not here enough so need to get these thanks in, hehe)... there`s a fair few folk like Arjun, monty.mole and Sadako over at WoS dying (time permitting of course) to get into SAM Basic and needing specifics of tips and tricks so these come in really handy :) ___ To help you stay safe and secure online, we've developed the all new Yahoo! Security Centre. http://uk.security.yahoo.com
Re: What be classed as the standard nowadays?
--- david [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- Calvin Allett [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I don`t mean so much hardware (yet also), but what Dos is standard? is it all B-Dos? and what is the relation with B-Dos and Basic, can MasterBasic be run with BDos to effect a 30 percent Put speedup? Never got anywhere with Bdos, but interested... I'm sure that someone managed to get Masterbasic and B-Dos running together... B-Dos is definately the one to use if you consider using an atom or cf interface :) Cheers, ... yes, the CF card route is sounding soo soo tempting :) David, did you ever remember what the cheat was for Manic Miner ? I seem to rember you saying something about a combination of two things/sets of key presses at different times and a clue like Ice cream or summit I was pretty drunk all last year so I could indeed have imagined even the conversation let alone the clues, lol, but I`d love to see all the screens on SAM version.. Maybe could be a tip/cheat in SAM Revival or ZX-Shed if you can shed (haha, dips head in shame) any light on it... Cal *_+ ___ How much free photo storage do you get? Store your holiday snaps for FREE with Yahoo! Photos http://uk.photos.yahoo.com
Re: Hi Dudes *_+ Full message
--- Colin Piggot [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Calvin Allett wrote: from my quick lookabout (and on pay per minute so very quick) I`d like to say nice one to Colin, jeez you do a lot for the scene, the new games are looking cool, especially Harlequin which I somehow missed out on on older systems... be great to see this on SAM... There are certainly a few great classics from the Gremlin lot, Harlequin is certainly my favourites. I've done a bit more work on it as well as Thing on a Spring. I was getting back into ST`s and in particular under emulation a few months ago, and I think the one game I didn`t download was Harlequin, as I`m looking forward to it so much(due to it being scrolling, and obviously the first professional accelerated game)... I`ll check the original versions after I`ve discovered it on SAM :) Have you had any articles in past SAM Revival`s regarding any tools/environments you use when developing games? For instance do you have a generic mapper, or do you knock something up for each game? I`ve been putting off doing one but recently decided to get all those tools done which have needed doing (hence dabblings with Flash). also, if you have one... which route did you decide on, is it 16*16 ala Amiga or 8*8 tiles? Oh, and yes, Gremlin have an amazing catalogue, Avenger would be beautiful on SAM... but that is just a dream (like also Great Escape in colour,hehe) :) But I am also concentrating on the revamp of Conquest and some of the other unreleased games from Hydrasoft that I now own. There'll be a development update on both software and hardware in the next issue of Sam Revival showing how I am getting on with things. lol, :) scrub questions above, I see these things are best for inclusion in the mag... Who was Hydrosoft? I don`t think I`ve heard their name before? Can I just ask if it would be a good rough estimate of about 4.5 times original speed for the finished version of Mayhem... I mean under emulation in meantime for dev, I`ve spent the last four weeks working on graphics for a new accelerated game called `Jimf and Oobs go Whack` and not sure quite what can be pulled from uncompiled Basic turbo`d, but some practice and a profiler have quite astounded me with what can be done with MasterBasic`s faster commands... (p.s.) the 4.5 times comes from the fact you say memory will be uncontended... good luck with the project as well :) Cal *_+ ___ Yahoo! Messenger - NEW crystal clear PC to PC calling worldwide with voicemail http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
Re: What be classed as the standard nowadays?
--- Colin Piggot [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Calvin Allett wrote: sorry for more questions, but is the boot rom something like the ones Steve Nutting was doing back in the day, i.e. to fix disk corruption, or is it (hopefully) to possibly boot up with extra code for newer stuff? I think the bootrom Steve was refering too is the Atom Bootrom - which was written by Edwin - which will boot from the Hard Drive or CF when the Sam is powered up. Sweet, sounds cool... Floppy disk corruption on reset is fixed by having an alternate 8MHz clock signal going to the WD1772 disk controllers. I seem to remember this, is it a Mod that all you guys have had done (possibly 10+ years ago), is it a Mod you provide service for (as Im not alowed near electronics, hehe) :) I suppose it`s not as relevant nowadays what with all the HD`s and CF cards... I remember people (or rather magazines and web based `accounts` of SAM) always made it a big deal, but at the time I ALWAYS used to eject disks, it became habit very quickly... apart from unexpected crashes of software/machine and the quick hurry to eject, lol ___ Yahoo! Messenger - NEW crystal clear PC to PC calling worldwide with voicemail http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
Re: What be classed as the standard nowadays?
--- Colin Piggot [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Calvin Allett wrote David, did you ever remember what the cheat was for Manic Miner ? I seem to rember you saying something about a combination of two things/sets of key presses at different times and a clue like Ice cream or summit I was pretty drunk all last year so I could indeed have imagined even the conversation let alone the clues, lol, but I`d love to see all the screens on SAM version.. David wrote an excellent six part series on Manic Miner for Sam Revival (appears is issues 3 to 8) looking at all sixty of the Manic Miner screens in detail, with hints and tips, some scans of the original drawings for a few of the levels too as well as behind the scenes gossip and anecdotes from when the game was being developed back in the early 90's. A very interesting read overall. Manic Miner also features on the Im looking forward to getting those issues :) coverdisk with issue 9 of Sam Revival should anyone out there not have this classic! Don`t forget Money Bags Special Edition with a thumping soundtrack is on the same disk/issue *_+ New Website now up: http://www.samcoupe.com/ ___ Yahoo! Model Search 2005 - Find the next catwalk superstars - http://uk.news.yahoo.com/hot/model-search/
Re: What be classed as the standard nowadays?
--- Dan Dooré [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Calvin Allett wrote: I don`t mean so much hardware (yet also), but what Dos is standard? is it all B-Dos? and what is the relation with B-Dos and Basic, can MasterBasic be run with BDos to effect a 30 percent Put speedup? From http://home.wanadoo.nl/edwin.blink/samcoupe/software/bdos/bdosinfo.htm Thanks, always lose web addresses :) I think theres stuff in there not in the .pdf = COMPATIBILITY NOTES = Programs which POKE or CALL directly into SAMDOS will not work correctly with B-DOS. S`ok , never really did know much about messing with Dos anyway in those ways... Dan. Cal *_+ ___ Yahoo! Messenger - NEW crystal clear PC to PC calling worldwide with voicemail http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
Re: What be classed as the standard nowadays?
--- Colin Piggot [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Calvin Allett wrote: is it a Mod you provide service for (as Im not alowed near electronics, hehe) :) If it's something you want done, then yes, I can easily do it for you. Thinking about it, it probably would be as even after (hopefully) when I get my SAM sorted and CF card and reader I think I`ll be heavily tempted to start using old workdisks :) I LOVE SimCoupe, but you can`t beat a real machine ! Colin = Quazar : Hardware, Software, Spares and Repairs for the Sam Coupe April 1995-2005 - Celebrating 10 Years of developing for the Sam Coupe New Website now up: http://www.samcoupe.com/ ___ Yahoo! Model Search 2005 - Find the next catwalk superstars - http://uk.news.yahoo.com/hot/model-search/
Re: Missing Disks?
--- Dan Dooré [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Calvin Allett wrote: What are the most important disks which you remember which are missing? I think most stuff is now up on NVG apart from these: I have a list somewhere on real SAM Coupe disk from Pat Spencer, who used to trade a lot (and whom I expect everyone here used to know :) ) I can`t remember a lot of the names of certain more obscure disk mags and other software, but I`m sure there`s a good fifth perhaps of early SAM software missing. it was nice to see Metempsychosis stuff up on there finally. I`ll try to find it, but have imaged most of my disks and haven`t found it yet, also it might be interesting to check the SCPDSA catalogues from the early days to see how things correspond? I`ve still got my copies which given a month or two I could hunt out if they would be useful... These are the files that could not be unpacked as part of the achive re-org project. There are stored here as DSK files with the offending code inside, if you have a copy of these then please upload a DSK version to /pub/sam-coupe/incoming. , Dan Doore 04/01/05 Files and original locations in the tree ./adult/net_23.TDO - cannot read TDO file ./disks/misc/treaty - cannot unpack ./disks/music/etracker/modules/MikeAJTrackerModules 1 and 2 - cannot unpack ./disks/music/etracker/etrackerdemo - cannot unpack ./disks/utils/disk/old/lib30a - cannot unpack ./disks/utils/disk/lib30b - cannot unpack ./disks/utils/Prntfx - cannot unpack ./disks/utils/TIFF LCB - cannot unpack ./disks/utils/terminal-emulation/commix - cannot unpack There was a stack of stuff by Daton that isn't up but I can't remember a lot else. It`s mainly stuff from Ron Stirling which I`m after at the mo - he had a very nice (at the time) ceefaxt type menu system on one disk (Review? perhaps, don`t know how many issues he pulled off), but as you say, from memory it is hard to remember :) edit: Oops, and sorry I don`t have have of the above but surely that treaty is David Gommerons little demo/game? which could be resolved from FRED etc? probs wrong, again ! There seems to be some disk magazines missing, plus there was some Australian software for SAM distributed over here in 93-95 that seems to be not preserved, ColonySoft? That`s the one :) couldn`t remember the name I can only say that someone from Scotland who`s name I forget (Derek something ?) seemewd to be organising it as Shareware... Derek Morgan - Sam PD? I think that`s the name, I know he managed to get either GAC or PAW onto SAM, or at least to get permission from author around 93/94 If that tallies with the name then that`s the dude... I tried emailing him multiple times last year with no reply, due to him buying distribution rights from me for BitaByte issues 1-5 plus more or less anything I ever wrote... major :( ... I`d be very pleased if I could get in contact with him if you know or anybody knows his current email. (he was running a small dance studio in Scotland a few years ago, if indeed the name is right) SCPSDU etc, ... Justin Ash? Bingo Dan. Cheers for help Dan.. Cal *_+ ___ Yahoo! Model Search 2005 - Find the next catwalk superstars - http://uk.news.yahoo.com/hot/model-search/
Re: Hi Dudes *_+ Full message
--- Dan Dooré [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Calvin Allett wrote: The version I have is early but will upload it hopefully in next few days... also, who did the hack to allow Mouse control? It was the copy on the disc that came with the Sam Mouse so I think it was someone within or at least for SamCo at the time - Colin MacD may know something about that because I think he was working at SamCo at the time - mind you, it was a while ago so I may be talking complete bobbins. Cheers for info... I`ve just realised that there`s a bug in the mouse version whereby the text feature no longer works, I`ll merge the Basic with old version.. does anybody really need mouse abilites from Flash, personally the great joy for me is to use keys to move around pixel by pixel (keep in mind I`ve never seen or used SAM Paint yet :) , though spent 3 hours trying to hack it :( ) also, I been checking and seem to have some Arcadia Disk Mags which are missing and some other stuff. Who would it be best to send these to? Sent them to me and I'll furtle them and push them up to NVG - if the muchkin gives me enough time of an evening to do it :-) Dan. Thanks very much Dan *_+ I thought there were 2 or 3 Arcadia`s missing from archive but it seems that only issue 6 is missing, I also have some other disks, though still need to make images (Simon`s NT software has helped a lot, as even with Win98 I`d always had disk errors with Dos progs :( ) Do you ever still dabble with SAM or MasterBasic ? I realise that time is short and seem to remember you getting into C back in the day but you know what I mean... :) Cal ___ To help you stay safe and secure online, we've developed the all new Yahoo! Security Centre. http://uk.security.yahoo.com
Re: Hi Dudes *_+
Sorry to hear you`ve been ill... must say that I`m looking forward to the site, even though the SAM scene is as much a niche as you you can get there`s still a lot of people (lot meaning some, :), hehe ) ask about SAM in variuous places (even in 1 or 2 obscure Amiga forums)... It`s such a shame... I think I`ve missed some discussions but I hope you can make some provisions for a proper forum, I know i`ve never been into/able to be at the various shows but after 14 years of owning a SAM I`d dearly like to be able to post sh*tloads of posts without fear of anooying people within their email accounts :)... Cal *_+ --- david [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Just to let everyone know - i've not forgotten about the site, just been very ill recently - and am mid-moving, so havent really been able to do much. But - I haven't forgotten about the site... it will be sorted soon (perhaps not as polished as i'd like - but it'll be able to be updated by anyone who wants to help :)) I'd like to thank those kind people who've passed me stuff, and others who've offered to help when its finally sorted. Very appreciated! BTW - while i'm at it - as i've not posted on the list for a couple of weeks... great latest issue Colin! --- Calvin Allett [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Just wanted to hi to you guys (pity I can`t say and gals, hehe) Lost my internet connection few months ago so normally I`d have to say hope I ain`t missed anything, but in a scene as small as ours (or yours seen as I`m not a ragular) I hope I`ve missed loads. from my quick lookabout (and on pay per minute so very quick) I`d like to say to nice one to Colin, jeez you do a lot for the scene, the new games are looking cool, especially Harlequin which I somehow missed out on on older systems... be great to see this on SAM... - What happened to Gavin (hope I`ve the name right) and his site? David, any update on your site? would there be any chance of us others adding to it? -- Is anyone still interested in Basic games? I`ve a demo (very early) ___ To help you stay safe and secure online, we've developed the all new Yahoo! Security Centre. http://uk.security.yahoo.com ___ Yahoo! Messenger - NEW crystal clear PC to PC calling worldwide with voicemail http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
Missing Disks?
What are the most important disks which you remember which are missing? i`m sure I seen one issue of Review by Ron Stirling on nvg, and i only had two issues,, one of which is now knackered, but I wouldn`t mind a look at his menuing sytem in Basic Code... There seems to be some disk magazines missing, plus there was some Australian software for SAM distributed over here in 93-95 that seems to be not preserved, I can only say that someone from Scotland who`s name I forget (Derek something ?) seemewd to be organising it as Shareware... SCPSDU etc, ... ___ To help you stay safe and secure online, we've developed the all new Yahoo! Security Centre. http://uk.security.yahoo.com
What be classed as the standard nowadays?
I don`t mean so much hardware (yet also), but what Dos is standard? is it all B-Dos? and what is the relation with B-Dos and Basic, can MasterBasic be run with BDos to effect a 30 percent Put speedup? Never got anywhere with Bdos, but interested... ___ Yahoo! Messenger - NEW crystal clear PC to PC calling worldwide with voicemail http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
Hi Dudes *_+
Just wanted to hi to you guys (pity I can`t say and gals, hehe) Lost my internet connection few months ago so normally I`d have to say hope I ain`t missed anything, but in a scene as small as ours (or yours seen as I`m not a ragular) I hope I`ve missed loads. from my quick lookabout (and on pay per minute so very quick) I`d like to say to nice one to Colin, jeez you do a lot for the scene, the new games are looking cool, especially Harlequin which I somehow missed out on on older systems... be great to see this on SAM... - What happened to Gavin (hope I`ve the name right) and his site? David, any update on your site? would there be any chance of us others adding to it? -- Is anyone still interested in Basic games? I`ve a demo (very early) ___ To help you stay safe and secure online, we've developed the all new Yahoo! Security Centre. http://uk.security.yahoo.com
Hi Dudes *_+ Full message
Just wanted to say hi to you guys (pity I can`t say and gals, hehe) Lost my internet connection few months ago so normally I`d have to say hope I ain`t missed anything, but in a scene as small as ours (or yours seen as I`m not a regular) I hope I`ve missed loads. from my quick lookabout (and on pay per minute so very quick) I`d like to say nice one to Colin, jeez you do a lot for the scene, the new games are looking cool, especially Harlequin which I somehow missed out on on older systems... be great to see this on SAM... - What happened to Gavin (hope I`ve the name right) and his site? David, any update on your site? would there be any chance of us others adding to it? -- Is anyone still interested in Basic games? I`ve a demo (very early) of Tomato Antics game on my site but since then written a profiler (with help from that thread on WoS) and managed to shift it from 10-12 fps to about 35-45 still uncompiled... the game itself is simplified and thus can cut down on code, but still the smoothest game I seen in Basic on SAM... also hacked the MC of Flash to change the Erase menu option to an Extra menu so I can run Basic code, and added a better animation feature, sprite grabber and saver plus ability to scroll an area one pixel to left, which for basic is essential if it`s at an odd pixel. The version I have is early but will upload it hopefully in next few days... also, who did the hack to allow Mouse control? I`ve called my version (as I intend to add some other features/improvements) Flash Pro v1.0 but would like to credit the author of the Mouse code. Plus also, even though this name is for my personal version, does anyone have any objections to me calling it thus? - anyways, this message has already been sent whilst halfway through (noob, hehe) so have to end here. Hope everyone is fine.. :) Cal *_+ -- P.S. Steve, I was pleased to see you were able to take over on ZX Shed when I let them down, nice job, what I had was half written.. also, I been checking and seem to have some Arcadia Disk Mags which are missing and some other stuff. Who would it be best to send these to? Regards Calvin *_+ ___ How much free photo storage do you get? Store your holiday snaps for FREE with Yahoo! Photos http://uk.photos.yahoo.com
Re: Lemmings
--- Chris White [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hiya everyone Quicky , I been emailed n asked if anyone has a full boxed version of lemmings for sam they wanna sell , if so email me with price etc and go from there O n happy Halloween Cw Sadly I was unable to buy it at the time... seen it since, lovely version... well done, an archimedes nut friend even thinks it`s a nice version :) ___ To help you stay safe and secure online, we've developed the all new Yahoo! Security Centre. http://uk.security.yahoo.com
Re: SAM Coupe Keyboard Relay for Linux
--- Stuart Brady [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi all, I've written a few programs and a Linux kernel module that allow a SAM Coupe to be used as a keyboard under Linux. To use this, you'll need the SAM Comms interface and its driver disk, and a serial cable. For the programs, and information on how to use them, see: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/wholehog/stuart/samkbd/index.html It's very slow at the moment (but good enough for me to write this email). I will try to write a faster version in machine code. BTW, it uses the standard PC layout. If you want to use the SAM's layout, it's best to create a new keymap and load it with loadkeys. Questions and feedback are welcome! Cheers, -- Stuart Brady Wow ! seriously..., nice one... haven`t stopped smiling yet since I read this and I don`t even run Linux :) (ahem, yet ) ___ How much free photo storage do you get? Store your holiday snaps for FREE with Yahoo! Photos http://uk.photos.yahoo.com
Biggest Risk to SAM?
Sorry for the blatent rip off of a thread I seen on WoS but what do you guys reckon` is the biggest risk for SAMs longterm survival/rememberance? To me it`s userbase... There`s possibly a smaller user base than any machine, yet actual more web presence than some of the older VERY early 80`s computers, there`s mebeez (and probably) more people with those machines that remember and might come into the `scene`, even as casual users for those but with us there is such a small community that despite all exciting stuff I feel worried sometimes :) I know you guys do your things still with the machine, give it the time it deserves and hardware wise and some of the software in past 3 years has been immense but is there anybody even here who isn`t a developer? It makes me sad but I simply can`t believe that a machine with all the character and appeal of the SAM is essentially `ignored` by soo soo many Spectrum owners that I know would be excited/amazed (especially the Basic Programmers of them *_+ ) by it... Have a linux nut friend who`s totally C64/Risc/PC oriented and yet loves the machine and thinks of it as (his words) - a kinda alterbntive/flavoured PC, he thinks the Spectrum is lame, being a C64 nut but for him having been `forced` to view SAM stuff by me he gives it respect, and even Personal Computer World called it once the 8-bit Archimedes, even if we all begrudge the fact that we undrstand the speed/ahem/issues with SAM (Mayehem accelorator, woohoo , :)) I remember in the early dying days of Amiga Format 94-96 , or rather perhaps Amiga Computing there were some quite intensive 6-8 page conference like `meetings` between those in the magazine writer stable and the `names` of the coding scene about the future and direction of the Amiga, I keep thinking that the Spectrum scene needs something like this and yet we all know the Spectrum will be around in fourty-fifty years, can the same be said of the SAM? Sorry for ramble :( Just interested in what everybody perceives to be SAM / `our` fate regarding the SAM Coupe :) Cal *_+ ___ Yahoo! Messenger - NEW crystal clear PC to PC calling worldwide with voicemail http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
Who`s missing?
From memory alone who`s missing from posting here? To not still be typing in five minutes, I`ll only mention a few but just a couple I`m amazed haven`t found their way here being Colin MacDonald, though I get the impression he`s doing well... and Ian Slavin (Axe), would be cool too if Steve Taylor or M.o.Magic etc could be here :) Ohh, and Stefan Drissen, I know most/half members here were regulars at the UK meetings or had connections with SAMCo, but who amongst the scene do you wish was contributing or talking about SAM Still? ___ How much free photo storage do you get? Store your holiday snaps for FREE with Yahoo! Photos http://uk.photos.yahoo.com
Re: Who`s missing?
--- david [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Theres a few faces i've not seen here often :( :( / :) hehe I just got a bit realisation kick in there, I never mentioned Bruce or Gordon, naughty naughty, hehe... Should have mentioned them straight away, OH and also of course Dr Andy Wright, author of my favourite Cmp language :) Who were you thinking of Dave? ___ How much free photo storage do you get? Store your holiday snaps for FREE with Yahoo! Photos http://uk.photos.yahoo.com
Re: 10th Anniversary!
Congratulations Colin :) Well done on sticking it out, oo-err *_+ Great news on the new software, the Gremlin games especially being amazing to hear, I remember seeing pictures of Harliquin back in the day and thinking it looked brilliant, and whilst not being able to picture Thing on a Spring, I can at least remember the name. Haven`t been able to get issue 11 of SAM Revival yet, but dying to hear all that music :), and the Invasion II game on issue 10 blew me away, such nice animation and sprites, brilliant game, Warren did a great job, I enjoy it faar more than flashback which I could never get anywhere with (a bold statement I realise) Good luck with finding the time with these projects, and I`m dying to know more about the Mahem accelerator (serves me right for not keeping up with SAM stuff). - Just also like to say well done to Steve, Dan and everyone else who`s been busy doing stuff for the new SAM archive -- --- Colin Piggot [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Well yesterday was a special day the 10th Anniversary of Quazar! For it was on the 29th April 1995 when I had a stand at the third Gloucester show, where I unveiled the (2nd) prototype of the Quazar Surround soundcard, marking the start of Quazar! And that was just the beginning of what has really taken up a heck of a lot of my time since then! As you may be aware a few new products are in the pipeline such as the Mayhem Accelerator, and issue 12 of Sam Revival is nearing completion and will be being sent out shortly. And here's some juicy tidbits of news taken from the next issue of Sam Revival to wet your appetites about a few other things I am working on when ever I get a few free minutes... Hydrasoft Games --- I have recently bought the rights to several old Sam games, and a pile of unreleased stuff from Pete King, formerly going by the name Hydrasoft. Pete had two games released back in 1996 and 1997 - Conquest and Mage Fire, which were published to a limited extent by Zedd-Soft (run by Michael Stocks / Zodiac Magazine). I was also involved with the two titles way back then by adding support for the Quazar Surround soundcard to both of the games. I had previously secured permission from Pete to use Conquest and Mage Fire on the Sam Revival coverdisks (and you'll find Mage Fire on the coverdisk with Sam Revival 12) but now with owning the titles I can go further with them and I am already planning a revamp of Conquest to update all the graphics and sounds. What I have to do now is go through a massive pile of disks to look at all the unreleased games. Expect more news soon! Gremlin Graphics Games -- I have received permission from Andy Davis of Alchemist Research to use old Gremlin Graphics games on the Sam. Now instead of just adapting the ZX Spectrum versions to run on the Sam under emulation (as was done on the old Blitz diskzine back in the late 1990's) it is my aim to create full Sam versions of some of the classic games for inclusion on the Sam Revival coverdisks. The first game I am looking at is 'Thing on a Spring', originally released back in 1984 for the Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC only. Thing on a Spring is a bouncy and fast platformer and with some carefully planned scroll routines it should make the transition to the Sam with few problems. Now the music for any game is very important for me, and I am planning to feature the original SID based music (for use with the SID interface) as well as a new rendition of the tune for the normal Sam SAA1099 soundchip. I' m pleased to say that initial work on the game remake is underway, and the SAA1099 version of the music is already complete! The SAA1099 music track was carefully composed by David Suzuki-Sanders (who also composed the 'About as SID as its going to get' SAA1099 track on the audio CD with the last issue of Sam Revival.) The second game I am looking at converting is 'Harlequin', one of the first games I ever played on an Amiga, and one that immediately impressed me with its graphics, music and playability. Harlequin is another scrolling platform game, based in a fantasy dreamworld with very colourful graphics and a thumping soundtrack, and was released only for the 16 bit machines in 1992 - the Atari ST and the Amiga. So why should the Sam be left out of such a great game? No reason I think! So far I have converted over the graphics for the first level from the Atari ST (easier to capture via an emulator than the Amiga version), and for the main scenery and characters only 12 colours were used so this conversion was quite straight forward. My aim is to convert across the whole of the first level as a test, to see how well I can get the game engine to work. However as this game does involve full screen scrolling and some quite large sprites I will be
Re: How to install SAMDOS?
--- Simon Cooke [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi folks.. Embarassing question here... *cough* Anyone got any idea how to install SAMDOS on a new disk? I tried copying onto a new SimCoupe disk, but for some reason that didn't work. I've got a christmas pressie for you if you can figure it out :) Thanks, Simon I know it`s not exactly the `proper` solution you wanted Simon, but I always just pick a disk with Samdos on (i.e. a Fred issue) , copy/paste it and delete everything on the copy bar the dos :) or pick a disk with not much on, as it`s easier/quicker deleting everything.. Calvin... ___ ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - all new features - even more fun! http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
Re: How to install SAMDOS?
--- Simon Cooke [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi folks.. Embarassing question here... *cough* Anyone got any idea how to install SAMDOS on a new disk? I tried copying onto a new SimCoupe disk, but for some reason that didn't work. I've got a christmas pressie for you if you can figure it out :) Thanks, Simon I know it`s not exactly the `proper` solution you wanted Simon, but I always just pick a disk with Samdos on (i.e. a Fred issue) , copy/paste it and delete everything on the copy bar the dos :) or pick a disk with not much on, as it`s easier/quicker deleting everything.. Calvin... ___ ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - all new features - even more fun! http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
Re: Beta testers wanted
--- Will McGugan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi folks, This is kind of off topic. My hobby project this year is a retro-style game for the PC inspired by the classic (IMHO) Speccy game - 'A Whole New Ball Game' by Pete Cooke. Im sure most of you have played it. My version is called 'Ping Ball' and Im looking for some beta testers to play it, find bugs and maybe make a few suggestions. Sam fans should be ideal since most of you are techies, and appreciate retro games ;) I'm really interested in finding out the minimum spec, so if you have any old machines please give it a try. I reckon it should be playable on a P2 400 with 16bit display, but thats just a guess. Beta testers get a mention in the credits and a free copy of the game. Here's the installer... http://www.willmcgugan.com/pingballsetup.exe There are a few old screenshots here.. http://www.pingball.com Regards, Will McGugan aka Mork back in the day You may remember me from such games as Ore Warz and Ore Warz II :) Looks nice William, download it the other day, but haven`t had time to check it out.. Merry Christmas :) Calvin ___ ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - all new features - even more fun! http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
Re: Beta testers wanted
--- Will McGugan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi folks, This is kind of off topic. My hobby project this year is a retro-style game for the PC inspired by the classic (IMHO) Speccy game - 'A Whole New Ball Game' by Pete Cooke. Im sure most of you have played it. My version is called 'Ping Ball' and Im looking for some beta testers to play it, find bugs and maybe make a few suggestions. Sam fans should be ideal since most of you are techies, and appreciate retro games ;) I'm really interested in finding out the minimum spec, so if you have any old machines please give it a try. I reckon it should be playable on a P2 400 with 16bit display, but thats just a guess. Beta testers get a mention in the credits and a free copy of the game. Here's the installer... http://www.willmcgugan.com/pingballsetup.exe There are a few old screenshots here.. http://www.pingball.com Regards, Will McGugan aka Mork back in the day You may remember me from such games as Ore Warz and Ore Warz II :) Looks nice William, download it the other day, but haven`t had time to check it out.. Merry Christmas :) Calvin ___ ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - all new features - even more fun! http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
Merry Christmas ! ! !
Merry Christmas everyone :) Have a great time... Calvin *_+ ___ ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - all new features - even more fun! http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
Merry Christmas ! ! !
Merry Christmas everyone :) Have a great time... Calvin *_+ ___ ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - all new features - even more fun! http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
RE: SDI a nef diskimage format ?
--- Z80 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi, is there a format for SimCoupe similar to Sinclair Spectrum Z80/Sna format ? Regards, Dumitru Florin Gabriel ( Zecut0r ). Not that I`ve seen... if there was it`d have to be either 256K or in a lot of cases 512K big, plus seen as most software was disk based you`d have to have a copy of whatever disk was in drive 1 too (780K) (in case of extra loading) so snaps could/would be up to nearly 1.3 Megabytes each... Might have it`s uses though, occasionally :) (CKay) in fact mosta the time you probably wouldn`t need a copy of the disk also (but you might not know which software will reload data, or load new data, or need to write to disk...) :) It would be nice... ___ Win a castle for NYE with your mates and Yahoo! Messenger http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
Re: Sam User Guide PDF version 1
--- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hello folks, Here is weeks of work and the result version 1 of the users manual as a full pdf. There may be errors some text formatting may not be 100% - Yet , but its a start. If someone can tell where to dump it to the new sam archive site so I can upload it. Its 10.50 meg if you want to check it out now its on the Pro-Dos site _http://www.samcoupe-pro-dos.co.uk/sammanual.html_ (http://www.samcoupe-pro-dos.co.uk/sammanual.html) [ next pdf will be MasterDos ] regards to all, Steve(spt) Nice one Steve, I already downloaded it when half finished, and it looks soo clean and well done... great job, I`ll certainly get the new version. I found one on a european site as well the week later, (two busses at once?) and that one was (not to be impolite) wonky, blurry etc etc... not at all as nice :) Cal ___ Win a castle for NYE with your mates and Yahoo! Messenger http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
Yaaaayyyy - Sam's 15th Birthday!
--- Adrian Brown [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I had to live for 6 months with no computer to get the sam :( Phoo, that`s harsh... I had to save for 18 months to get mine, luckily I suppose as by Feb `91 the drives were all sorted... although I did try the tapes... didn`t Flash take like 20 minutes (literally) to load... jeeez, haha I think New Computer Express said it best when they were giving a SAM away as a prize, and they described it as the 8 bit Archimedes... true then, and still now. Happy Birthday to you Happy Birthday to you Happy BthDy DEEEAAARRR S`AAA Happy Biirthdaaay to you... ahem :) 15, before you know it he`ll be dating, haha ___ Win a castle for NYE with your mates and Yahoo! Messenger http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
Re: SAM Software Archive
--- Gavin Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I've been thinking a lot about this software archive idea we've been talking about, so thought I'd write up a little summary of what my thoughts are. Proposal: A World Of Spectrum style semi-official archive for SAM software, housed on the web and built by the members of sam-users. Nice one :) It`s about time the SAM was given a decent archive... I too think the best would be samcoupe.org Calvin *_+ ___ Moving house? Beach bar in Thailand? New Wardrobe? Win £10k with Yahoo! Mail to make your dream a reality. Get Yahoo! Mail www.yahoo.co.uk/10k
Re: Sam for sale
--- Gaz Wilson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Alas the time to sell my retro collection has come, and this too means getting rid of my SAM - owned from new in 1989 this had brought me much pleasure over the years, but now it's time for someone else to benefit from a near mint SAM. SAM, and other stuff (more to go on over the coming weeks) can be seen at http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/dragon-lord2/ Thanks GW Hey Gary :) Cheers for letting me know about your SAM sale... unfortunately I can`t join ebay, so can`t bid :( I`ve mentioned it on WoS though for you, even though you already had a few bidders, and posted a link... as if I can`t get it, then I may as well help you get a good price *_+ It`s a pity you hadn`tr just mailed, and not put it up on ebay, as I would have negotiated a price with you, as I do actually want another SAM, as I need mine fixed (just the power pack)... anywayz, best of luck with the auction, and if you have any SAM software (Masterbasic, Masterdos etc etc) don`t hesitate to contact me first. Later, Cal *_+ ___ ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - all new features - even more fun! http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
Re: Sam for sale
--- Gaz Wilson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Alas the time to sell my retro collection has come, and this too means getting rid of my SAM - owned from new in 1989 this had brought me much pleasure over the years, but now it's time for someone else to benefit from a near mint SAM. SAM, and other stuff (more to go on over the coming weeks) can be seen at http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/dragon-lord2/ Thanks GW Ooops, I thought this had been a private email, rather than from mailing list. I got a helluva shock when I got an email from myself. Sorry... (Don`t smoke and mail peeps *_+ ) ___ Moving house? Beach bar in Thailand? New Wardrobe? Win £10k with Yahoo! Mail to make your dream a reality. Get Yahoo! Mail www.yahoo.co.uk/10k
Re: Sam for sale
--- david [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Always interested in software also - i've lost so many over the years :( I think it`s a crying shame how little there is to buy for the SAM, but then again, we all know the quantity`s that were produced in the first place of software. Im really really needing M-DoS/M-Basic, just so I can get the instructions, and everytime there`s a SAM on ebay, including these it winds me up, cos ebay is innacessable to me :( ___ ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - all new features - even more fun! http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
Re: Re[2]: What is this interface?
--- Colin Piggot [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Having been after one for years for my own collection, I think that the 103 pounds I paid out for that one earlier was a bargain... I just need to find a suitable spot to hang it now! I bought one for 80 quid at the time, and STUPIDILY about 5 years ago, I tooks the chip out the case, ripping/tearing some of the cardboard backing, I carried the chip around with me in a briefcase for a few years, and then put it back in the case, it`s back up on my wall, but doesn`t look as nice, if you get close. :( Note... don`t let an idiot have anything special, or expensive. ___ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - all new features - even more fun! http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
Re: Re[2]: Email
--- Andrew Collier [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Oct 24, 2004, at 1:44 pm, Calvin Allett wrote: I wonder if he understands the fact that there is, and never really was any money in the SAM, that it was a machine supported by us, and his father as an act of love... and that his father would not want him to act in such a manner? I think he might consider it a bit arrogant if someone writes to him to say we knew his father better than he did himself. Andrew -- --- Andrew Collier http://www.intensity.org.uk/ --- -- Have you lost your Marbles? http://www.marillion.com/ I never meant it in a bad way, or to infer that, I personally never knew him, being hospitable bound for many years I never got to any show, or have indeed to this day EVER met anyone else who owns a SAM Coupe... I just meant, as we all know, that it`s a machine of love, much like the 1978-1985 type machines and we`d all like it to be around for years... and with a nice atmosphere. Cal :) ___ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - all new features - even more fun! http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
RE: Re[2]: Email
--- Dan Doore [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I'm personally saddened by the tone of Duncan's email. If he owns the rights to something, then I'm sure no-one has any objections to him exercising those rights. I think that was the thing that upset me the most, I too had many conversations with Malcolm and his passion for the Sam was something we could all relate to because we felt the same way. With regard to Defender (which will be why he sent me the mail I presume) from all the information I have Chris still owns this and not Persona and he released it as non-profit freeware (Dec 20th 2001 http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.btinternet.com/~c.pile/) - the only reason I have it on my site is that Chris' website was shut down and I put together a page to keep it 'active' on the web as a service to the community *sigh* I have removed he download for the time being and if Duncan can prove that he has the rights then I will happily remove it (and send a copy of his rights assertion to Midway Games :-) - if he can't then it will go right back up again where it belongs - in the public domain. I also wonder if this means that anyone owed royalties will be able to claim them back, with compound interest :-) Dan. I wonder if he understands the fact that there is, and never really was any money in the SAM, that it was a machine supported by us, and his father as an act of love... and that his father would not want him to act in such a manner? Perhaps Dan, you should send him a message, as a .dsk file with one of your smoth basic scrollers :) ___ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - all new features - even more fun! http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
Re: Shows... Driver abilities
I don`t know, hadn`t even heard of Driver version two `til Colin mentioned it to me... What`s Steve up to now?\ I kinda left the SAM scene in `94, but been actively loving SimCoupe for 3 yeas or so :)DAVID LEDBURY [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- Calvin Allett <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote: Good luck with the shows :) Can anybody tell me if Driver could run two programs at once, both two progs onscreen at once, running.. and also, with one task able to be not drawn but running.. NIce to see all the old names, and that people are still doing stuff. Cal *_+I dont think it could, but it wouldnt surprise me ifthe planned Driver2 could do it how far did thatever get?(Remembers Steve Taylor chatting about it with a loadof us SAM owners on a train from a show the onewith the Entropy T-Shirt fun IIR :)) ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - all new features - even more fun!
Re: Shows... Driver abilities
SAM mines was cool, I remember it :) and just loaded up issue 57, and had a go with the Mouse (which I couldn`t do back then )... even better... I seem to remember you have different sized levels too... You mention Driver programming, do you mean coding in MC, for it, as hacks, addons.. or do you mean with it`s own language, or API, scripting some? I was told this was in the pipeline for Driver V2 Sounds like it was promising *_+Andrew Collier [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Aug 31, 2004, at 9:51 pm, Calvin Allett wrote: Good luck with the shows :) Can anybody tell me if Driver could run two programs at once, both two progs onscreen at once, running.. and also, with one task able to be not drawn but running..You could have multiple programs resident, but only one would be able to get access to the screen at a time. Not sure if the others got any CPU time even - although there may have been tricks you could pull with interrupts. But it's a long time since I did any DRiVER programming...FWIW, SamMines (eventually on Fred 57) was in fact originally going to be a driver application, although for various reasons I ended up making it stand-alone (and coding half a WIMP system in the process).Andrew-- --- Andrew Collier http://www.intensity.org.uk/ -Have you lost your Marbles? http://www.marillion.com/ ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - all new features - even more fun!
Re: Shows... Driver abilities
MMMmm... all very mysterious... I thought Bob was outa the scene (if you can call it that) now... I`ll drop it :)Andrew Collier [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Aug 31, 2004, at 11:01 pm, Calvin Allett wrote: I don`t know, hadn`t even heard of Driver version two `til Colin mentioned it to me...The first rule about version two, is that you do not talk about version two. The second rule of version two is that you do not talk about version two, especially if Bob is in earshot.Andrew-- --- Andrew Collier http://www.intensity.org.uk/ -Have you lost your Marbles? http://www.marillion.com/ ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - all new features - even more fun!
SAM Lives
My SAM is dead (boo hoo) :( Thank God for SimCoupe (which is running 18 hours a day) :) Ian Spencer wrote: Just a test as I haven't had anything from the list since the 16th July.. Sams in hibernation, everyones on the beach Ian ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - all new features - even more fun!
