Re: XOR now completed!

[Balor Price]

Ha!  That's a relief!  Note to self - next game is going to be easier to 
get into.  You don't get this kind of UX failure with Nyan Cat


Howard


On 29/04/2012 21:08, Tommo H wrote:
Oh! And all I had to do was let the title screen sit there for a bit 
and it would have told me for itself! I must be a very infuriating 
user. I'll cough to having made the Wikipedia changes if it'll go any 
way to paying you back.


On 29 Apr 2012, at 10:05, Balor Price > wrote:


Thanks Rob!  And thanks to whoever updated the Wikipedia pages to 
mention my little conversion.


Well, the UK2 DDOS seems to have been sorted now, so I've put the URL 
back to www.cookingcircle.co.uk now.


The graphics were first copied pixel for pixel from the speccy 
version and then souped up a little, but it was just Flash I used.  
Both fonts are variable width to the pixel (not byte), which is nice 
to look at but not very impressive when you see I just saved the 
fonts twice, one version scrolled one px to the right!  :D


You're right, the map algorithm mirrors the  speccy one - ie if you 
haven't collected any pieces of map, you just get a blank screen when 
you try to view it. *Thomas, *Cursor Up should toggle the map/play 
view.  It works on Sim Coupé bnut I haven't got access to a real SAM 
to check it on.



Thanks for the feedback Thomas - I think I'll revisit the front end 
to make it clearer.  Originally there was even less help than I put, 
but times change.


Howard

*
*On 29/04/2012 17:02, the wub wrote:

Seems to work fine for me, not come across any bugs yet...  The map
screen only has something to see if you've collected map pieces
otherwise it's just a blank screen, maybe this was the problem?

It's still as frustratingly brain twisting as ever and the
presentation is way better than the speccy version!  I'd be interested
to know if that's all your own work or have you based this on a 16-bit
version?

All in all, this is definitely going to be booted up every time the
Sam comes out to play!

Thanks again!

Rob.

Re: XOR now completed!

[Andrew Gillen]

Hi Howard

This is excellent, I'm not familiar with the original and I must admit when 
I read XOR thought it might be a shoot-em-up (X-Out maybe haha ;)) It is a 
really well presented and smooth experience, but REALLY mind bending! I love 
the transitions and slidey text :)


Managed the first level after a few goes, nice gentle start, thought the 
next might be just a bit harder, but jeeps that's a jump in difficulty. I 
doubt I'll get much further in this but I'll certainly try!


Cracking stuff though, many congrats on completing the project.

Cheers

Andrew

--
From: "Balor Price" 
Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2012 2:00 AM
To: 
Subject: XOR now completed!


Hello everybody

I'm proud to present my conversion of the 1987 Spectrum game XOR.  I 
finally kept my promise to my teenage self to finish a SAM game!


You can download it for free from the revived http://cookingcircle.co.uk

I hope you enjoy it (and yell in frustration).  It's 25 years old and 
still as rock-hard as I remember.


Any feedback/initial bugs found would be greatly appreciated.  :D

Cheers
Howard 

Re: XOR now completed!

[Tommo H]

Oh! And all I had to do was let the title screen sit there for a bit and it
would have told me for itself! I must be a very infuriating user. I'll
cough to having made the Wikipedia changes if it'll go any way to paying
you back.

On 29 Apr 2012, at 10:05, Balor Price  wrote:

 Thanks Rob!  And thanks to whoever updated the Wikipedia pages to mention
my little conversion.

Well, the UK2 DDOS seems to have been sorted now, so I've put the URL back
to www.cookingcircle.co.uk now.

The graphics were first copied pixel for pixel from the speccy version and
then souped up a little, but it was just Flash I used.  Both fonts are
variable width to the pixel (not byte), which is nice to look at but not
very impressive when you see I just saved the fonts twice, one version
scrolled one px to the right!  :D

You're right, the map algorithm mirrors the  speccy one - ie if you haven't
collected any pieces of map, you just get a blank screen when you try to
view it.  *Thomas, *Cursor Up should toggle the map/play view.  It works on
Sim Coupé bnut I haven't got access to a real SAM to check it on.


Thanks for the feedback Thomas - I think I'll revisit the front end to make
it clearer.  Originally there was even less help than I put, but times
change.

Howard

*
*On 29/04/2012 17:02, the wub wrote:

Seems to work fine for me, not come across any bugs yet...  The map
screen only has something to see if you've collected map pieces
otherwise it's just a blank screen, maybe this was the problem?

It's still as frustratingly brain twisting as ever and the
presentation is way better than the speccy version!  I'd be interested
to know if that's all your own work or have you based this on a 16-bit
version?

All in all, this is definitely going to be booted up every time the
Sam comes out to play!

Thanks again!

Rob.

Re: XOR now completed!

[Chris Pile]

It's very nice!  I haven't got a clue what I'm supposed to do - but it's
very nice all the same!  ;-)

Good to see fresh data still being created on the SAM.

Chris...

Re: XOR now completed!

[Balor Price]

Thanks Rob!  And thanks to whoever updated the Wikipedia pages to 
mention my little conversion.


Well, the UK2 DDOS seems to have been sorted now, so I've put the URL 
back to www.cookingcircle.co.uk now.


The graphics were first copied pixel for pixel from the speccy version 
and then souped up a little, but it was just Flash I used.  Both fonts 
are variable width to the pixel (not byte), which is nice to look at but 
not very impressive when you see I just saved the fonts twice, one 
version scrolled one px to the right!  :D


You're right, the map algorithm mirrors the  speccy one - ie if you 
haven't collected any pieces of map, you just get a blank screen when 
you try to view it. *Thomas, *Cursor Up should toggle the map/play 
view.  It works on Sim Coupé bnut I haven't got access to a real SAM to 
check it on.



Thanks for the feedback Thomas - I think I'll revisit the front end to 
make it clearer.  Originally there was even less help than I put, but 
times change.


Howard

*
*On 29/04/2012 17:02, the wub wrote:

Seems to work fine for me, not come across any bugs yet...  The map
screen only has something to see if you've collected map pieces
otherwise it's just a blank screen, maybe this was the problem?

It's still as frustratingly brain twisting as ever and the
presentation is way better than the speccy version!  I'd be interested
to know if that's all your own work or have you based this on a 16-bit
version?

All in all, this is definitely going to be booted up every time the
Sam comes out to play!

Thanks again!

Rob.

Re: XOR now completed!

[Tommo H]

I can't get any screen to come up at all, map pieces or no. What key
am I meant to be pressing?

On 29 Apr 2012, at 09:02, the wub  wrote:

> Seems to work fine for me, not come across any bugs yet...  The map
> screen only has something to see if you've collected map pieces
> otherwise it's just a blank screen, maybe this was the problem?
>
> It's still as frustratingly brain twisting as ever and the
> presentation is way better than the speccy version!  I'd be interested
> to know if that's all your own work or have you based this on a 16-bit
> version?
>
> All in all, this is definitely going to be booted up every time the
> Sam comes out to play!
>
> Thanks again!
>
> Rob.

Re: XOR now completed!

[the wub]

This might(possibly) help!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XOR_(video_game)

Re: XOR now completed!

[the wub]

Seems to work fine for me, not come across any bugs yet...  The map
screen only has something to see if you've collected map pieces
otherwise it's just a blank screen, maybe this was the problem?

It's still as frustratingly brain twisting as ever and the
presentation is way better than the speccy version!  I'd be interested
to know if that's all your own work or have you based this on a 16-bit
version?

All in all, this is definitely going to be booted up every time the
Sam comes out to play!

Thanks again!

Rob.

Re: XOR now completed!

[Tommo H]

The way I see it, it's a little bit like Repton without even its
limited action elements and it gains a bunch of possibilities from
having two player characters. Though they appear to have exactly the
same characteristics, at least so far.

On 29 Apr 2012, at 02:13, "Aleš Keprt"  wrote:

> Don't cry, I don't understand the game at all. ;-)
> Aley
>
> -Původní zpráva-
> From: Thomas Harte
> Sent: Sunday, April 29, 2012 12:39 AM
> To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no
> Subject: Re: XOR now completed!
>
> I'm not sure I understand the game correctly.
>
> * either the replay function doesn't work correctly, or it doesn't do
> what I think it's meant to. Having just failed miserably to complete
> the first level I let it give me a replay but if you believe that then
> I never switched shield, spent a lot of time just pressing 'up' and
> 'down' and apparently figured out the key to view the map. Which, try
> as I might, I can't. Once it was showing me the map there then
> appeared to be no way out short of resetting the machine.
> * completing the first level appears just to take me back to the title
> screen, at which point pressing space takes me back to the first
> level.
>
> I'm forced to conclude that I'm being a dunce somehow. Any tips?
>
> On 26 April 2012 03:14, Simon Owen  wrote:
>> On 25 Apr 2012, at 21:29, Aleš Keprt wrote:
>>
>> It says: Domain http://cookingcircle.co.uk/ not found.
>>
>>
>> It was working yesterday morning but it's now broken for me too.  I wonder
>> whether it's was caught up in the UK2.net issues from yesterday, due to
>> the
>> DDOS.
>>
>> This should work in the meantime: http://cookingcircle.tumblr.com/
>>
>> Si
>>
>
> -
> Mgr. Aleš Keprt, Ph.D.
> private: a...@keprt.cz, www.keprt.cz
> office: Moravian College / Moravská vysoká škola Olomouc, ales.ke...@mvso.cz
>

Re: XOR now completed!

[Aleš Keprt]

Don't cry, I don't understand the game at all. ;-)
Aley

-Původní zpráva- 
From: Thomas Harte

Sent: Sunday, April 29, 2012 12:39 AM
To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no
Subject: Re: XOR now completed!

I'm not sure I understand the game correctly.

• either the replay function doesn't work correctly, or it doesn't do
what I think it's meant to. Having just failed miserably to complete
the first level I let it give me a replay but if you believe that then
I never switched shield, spent a lot of time just pressing 'up' and
'down' and apparently figured out the key to view the map. Which, try
as I might, I can't. Once it was showing me the map there then
appeared to be no way out short of resetting the machine.
• completing the first level appears just to take me back to the title
screen, at which point pressing space takes me back to the first
level.

I'm forced to conclude that I'm being a dunce somehow. Any tips?

On 26 April 2012 03:14, Simon Owen  wrote:

On 25 Apr 2012, at 21:29, Aleš Keprt wrote:

It says: Domain http://cookingcircle.co.uk/ not found.


It was working yesterday morning but it's now broken for me too.  I wonder
whether it's was caught up in the UK2.net issues from yesterday, due to 
the

DDOS.

This should work in the meantime: http://cookingcircle.tumblr.com/

Si



-
Mgr. Aleš Keprt, Ph.D.
private: a...@keprt.cz, www.keprt.cz
office: Moravian College / Moravská vysoká škola Olomouc, ales.ke...@mvso.cz 

Re: XOR now completed!

[Thomas Harte]

I'm unable to reproduce immediately, at least on short runs; I'm not
sure if maybe my random hitting of keys (looking for that map key that
I know must be somewhere) and inconsistency of choice between QAOP and
6789 may have been a factor. On the occasion in question I'd also
played right the way out to 2000 moves.

On 28 April 2012 15:50, Balor Price  wrote:
> Thanks for the feedback Thomas.
>
> I'm gonna take responsibility for the replay function - that sounds like my
> bug somewhere.  Something similar happened when I was playtesting but I
> couldn't replicate the error.
>
> The 'level' system is a bit different from most other games - because there
> are no 'lives' perse, when you finish a level it fills in a letter (or blank
> sometimes) in the level table.  Press up/down to select a different level to
> play - they can be done in any order.
>
> Howard
>
>
>
> On 28/04/2012 23:39, Thomas Harte wrote:
>>
>> I'm not sure I understand the game correctly.
>>
>> • either the replay function doesn't work correctly, or it doesn't do
>> what I think it's meant to. Having just failed miserably to complete
>> the first level I let it give me a replay but if you believe that then
>> I never switched shield, spent a lot of time just pressing 'up' and
>> 'down' and apparently figured out the key to view the map. Which, try
>> as I might, I can't. Once it was showing me the map there then
>> appeared to be no way out short of resetting the machine.
>> • completing the first level appears just to take me back to the title
>> screen, at which point pressing space takes me back to the first
>> level.
>>
>> I'm forced to conclude that I'm being a dunce somehow. Any tips?
>>
>> On 26 April 2012 03:14, Simon Owen  wrote:
>>>
>>> On 25 Apr 2012, at 21:29, Aleš Keprt wrote:
>>>
>>> It says: Domain http://cookingcircle.co.uk/ not found.
>>>
>>>
>>> It was working yesterday morning but it's now broken for me too.  I
>>> wonder
>>> whether it's was caught up in the UK2.net issues from yesterday, due to
>>> the
>>> DDOS.
>>>
>>> This should work in the meantime: http://cookingcircle.tumblr.com/
>>>
>>> Si
>>>
>

Re: XOR now completed!

[Balor Price]

Thanks for the feedback Thomas.

I'm gonna take responsibility for the replay function - that sounds like 
my bug somewhere.  Something similar happened when I was playtesting but 
I couldn't replicate the error.


The 'level' system is a bit different from most other games - because 
there are no 'lives' perse, when you finish a level it fills in a letter 
(or blank sometimes) in the level table.  Press up/down to select a 
different level to play - they can be done in any order.


Howard


On 28/04/2012 23:39, Thomas Harte wrote:

I'm not sure I understand the game correctly.

• either the replay function doesn't work correctly, or it doesn't do
what I think it's meant to. Having just failed miserably to complete
the first level I let it give me a replay but if you believe that then
I never switched shield, spent a lot of time just pressing 'up' and
'down' and apparently figured out the key to view the map. Which, try
as I might, I can't. Once it was showing me the map there then
appeared to be no way out short of resetting the machine.
• completing the first level appears just to take me back to the title
screen, at which point pressing space takes me back to the first
level.

I'm forced to conclude that I'm being a dunce somehow. Any tips?

On 26 April 2012 03:14, Simon Owen  wrote:

On 25 Apr 2012, at 21:29, Aleš Keprt wrote:

It says: Domain http://cookingcircle.co.uk/ not found.


It was working yesterday morning but it's now broken for me too.  I wonder
whether it's was caught up in the UK2.net issues from yesterday, due to the
DDOS.

This should work in the meantime: http://cookingcircle.tumblr.com/

Si

Re: XOR now completed!

[Thomas Harte]

I'm not sure I understand the game correctly.

• either the replay function doesn't work correctly, or it doesn't do
what I think it's meant to. Having just failed miserably to complete
the first level I let it give me a replay but if you believe that then
I never switched shield, spent a lot of time just pressing 'up' and
'down' and apparently figured out the key to view the map. Which, try
as I might, I can't. Once it was showing me the map there then
appeared to be no way out short of resetting the machine.
• completing the first level appears just to take me back to the title
screen, at which point pressing space takes me back to the first
level.

I'm forced to conclude that I'm being a dunce somehow. Any tips?

On 26 April 2012 03:14, Simon Owen  wrote:
> On 25 Apr 2012, at 21:29, Aleš Keprt wrote:
>
> It says: Domain http://cookingcircle.co.uk/ not found.
>
>
> It was working yesterday morning but it's now broken for me too.  I wonder
> whether it's was caught up in the UK2.net issues from yesterday, due to the
> DDOS.
>
> This should work in the meantime: http://cookingcircle.tumblr.com/
>
> Si
>

Re: XOR now completed!

[Simon Owen]

On 25 Apr 2012, at 21:29, Aleš Keprt wrote:
> It says: Domain http://cookingcircle.co.uk/ not found.

It was working yesterday morning but it's now broken for me too.  I wonder 
whether it's was caught up in the UK2.net issues from yesterday, due to the 
DDOS.

This should work in the meantime: http://cookingcircle.tumblr.com/

Si

Re: XOR now completed!

[Aleš Keprt]

It says: Domain http://cookingcircle.co.uk/ not found.
Aley

-Původní zpráva- 
From: Balor Price

Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2012 3:00 AM
To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no
Subject: XOR now completed!

Hello everybody

I'm proud to present my conversion of the 1987 Spectrum game XOR.  I
finally kept my promise to my teenage self to finish a SAM game!

You can download it for free from the revived http://cookingcircle.co.uk

I hope you enjoy it (and yell in frustration).  It's 25 years old and
still as rock-hard as I remember.

Any feedback/initial bugs found would be greatly appreciated.  :D

Cheers
Howard

-
Mgr. Aleš Keprt, Ph.D.
private: a...@keprt.cz, www.keprt.cz
office: Moravian College / Moravská vysoká škola Olomouc, ales.ke...@mvso.cz 

Re: XOR now completed!

[Balor Price]

On 25/04/2012 15:48, da...@properbastard.co.uk wrote:

Quoting Balor Price :

Thanks for the feedback chaps!  I had LOADS of fun making it and will 
probably do another in a few months.  Take that, Lana del Rey!


Nice work Tobermory ... :)

Nice to see this done - great work!

You know what this reminds me of slightly as well Maziacs :)



Marvellous, it reminded me of it too a bit.

I'm certain Tumblr has decided not to forward to my cookingcircle.co.uk 
domain name, so the alternative is


cookingcircle.tumblr.com

Typical.  Maybe in another 10 years it'll be easy to make a website - so 
far I'm regretting not just hacking together a few kb of HTML :)

Re: XOR now completed!

[david]

Quoting Balor Price :

Thanks for the feedback chaps!  I had LOADS of fun making it and  
will probably do another in a few months.  Take that, Lana del Rey!


Nice work Tobermory ... :)

Nice to see this done - great work!

You know what this reminds me of slightly as well Maziacs :)

Re: XOR now completed!

[Balor Price]

Thanks for the feedback chaps!  I had LOADS of fun making it and will 
probably do another in a few months.  Take that, Lana del Rey!


Yes it was one of those 'work it out as you go along' games back in the 
day.  I have found and tweaked the original inlay, it can be found on 
cookingcircle.co.uk now.  It stayed rigidly in Mode 4, despite the 8*8 
blocks of the circle algorithm.  Most of the front end hits a smooth 
50fps and the 'full-screen' scrolling usually manages 17fps.  I actually 
had to slow it down with simple mazes when it suddenly jumped to 25fps.


Dying seems to be inevitable in this game, which is why there are 
infinite lives and no 'reset' button.  Also... if anybody takes a look 
at the code... let's just say it gets pretty ugly in there.  I just 
wanted to complete something for a change. :D



As for the Wolfenstein attempt, years ago I managed to get a bunch of 
bitmap vertical walls running at about 12.5fps, it didn't seem that 
sluggish compared to Freescape or something.  Ashamed to admit I lost 
the original, but that's what happens when you insist on using very old 
computers all the time...


Howard



On 25/04/2012 07:18, war...@wdlee.co.uk wrote:
Just been having a quick play!! Love that it works so fast. :-) very 
cool to see another new SAM game. How many is that now, in the last 
few months? Dave Invaders, Garden Centre of the Universe and now 
XOR... :-) What next??? :-D Those making them, should see about 
getting them mentioned in Retro Gamer magazine. They've got a section 
in the magazine about new games for all the old machines, with 
mini-reviews etc. Definitely worth a bit of free promotion and seeing 
your game in print on the shop shelves. :-)



Quoting James R Curry <8...@itdoesntsuck.com>:

I remember ordering the original from one of those ZX Spectrum mail 
order
places.  They were never able to deliver it, for some reason, and 
offered

me the choice of another game, instead.

No idea what I wound up buying.

Now I can finally play it.  Looks good!  Is it in Mode 4?

On Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 8:21 PM, Thomas Harte 
wrote:



I played it for five minutes and it all looked very impressive. That
being said, I don't actually know the original game so I was quite
lost. Looking at the incredibly sparse World of Spectrum inlay scan
though, I think I'm meant to work things out for myself?

On 24 April 2012 18:00, Balor Price  
wrote:

> Hello everybody
>
> I'm proud to present my conversion of the 1987 Spectrum game XOR.  I
finally
> kept my promise to my teenage self to finish a SAM game!
>
> You can download it for free from the revived 
http://cookingcircle.co.uk

>
> I hope you enjoy it (and yell in frustration).  It's 25 years old and
still
> as rock-hard as I remember.
>
> Any feedback/initial bugs found would be greatly appreciated.  :D
>
> Cheers
> Howard





--
James R Curry
8...@itdoesntsuck.com

Re: XOR now completed!

[warren]

*Watches as stuff flies over my head* Oooh, purdy colours!!! :-D

I could do graphics and level design for it lol! Very cool to hear how  
you'd go about it... Wouldn't it be a wonderful big finger to all the  
naysayers who always said the SAM couldn't compete? ;-)


Warren

Quoting Thomas Harte :


Being one of my favourite topics... the Wolfenstein algorithm is
actually incredibly inefficient. It's a linear search for every column
and then a couple of multiplies, an add and a divide to get scale.

If you instead used a combination forward/backward renderer with
portals and convex sectors, you could do significantly better for any
sort of geometry you'd expect on that level of device.

Assuming I've thought this through, costs Wolfenstein doesn't incur
would be: per visible sector you'd end up at a quadrant test, a divide
and a small table lookup per vertex, a divide, two multiplies and
three adds per visible wall. But you'd then be looking at (much the
same) two multiplies and an add every 8 or 16 columns and just two
adds per column. So you're spending a little on setup to save a lot
per column.

You'd draw front to back, zero overdraw for the world. Sprites would
be sorted per sector and I guess you'd want to walk back to the front
in sector order to paint them in, making it a stack-type thing rather
than merely a queue.

Walls could be any angle, and costs would increase as geometry
complexity increased, whereas in Wolfenstein they increase as your
rooms get larger. But freely angle walls would probably allow you to
keep the geometry simple.

Disadvantages would be indeterminate, and usually larger, level data
sizes, and the need to create a proper editor rather than just editing
in TextEdit or Notepad or whatever.

So, yes, I'm good at bluster.

On 24 April 2012 23:18,   wrote:

Just been having a quick play!! Love that it works so fast. :-) very cool to
see another new SAM game. How many is that now, in the last few months? Dave
Invaders, Garden Centre of the Universe and now XOR... :-) What next??? :-D
Those making them, should see about getting them mentioned in Retro Gamer
magazine. They've got a section in the magazine about new games for all the
old machines, with mini-reviews etc. Definitely worth a bit of free
promotion and seeing your game in print on the shop shelves. :-)

I agree with the discussion that we all concentrated on emulating the 16bit
machines too much instead of working within the limitations to create other
stuff, but such is the way of things. We all wanted to do what the big-boys
could. Then again, that pushed a lot of the games further than a lot of
people expected anyway. I suppose that's another area where the SAM was like
the Spectrum. It wasn't technically as advanced as say the c64 in many ways,
but competed by sheer versatility and creativity. Such was the SAM to the
Amigas and STs. I think over the years the SAM has certainly proved it could
do great stuff, when pushed to its limits. Who originally thought Lemmings
would work? It's a shame we didn't see more games that weren't as limited by
speed, like Dizzy/Flashback types.


I'd love to see a basic test of a wolfenstein game running! :-) It'd really
be a nice show-piece. Having said that, if someone managed to get it
working, once the pseudo 3D engine of that was running, why not create the
SAM's own first FPS? (Like Colin was planning with Chrome) No need to use
the existing Wolfenstein graphics and such, when we can create our own for
the SAM, and our own level designs, story, creatures, etc?

Warren




Quoting James R Curry <8...@itdoesntsuck.com>:


I remember ordering the original from one of those ZX Spectrum mail order
places.  They were never able to deliver it, for some reason, and offered
me the choice of another game, instead.

No idea what I wound up buying.

Now I can finally play it.  Looks good!  Is it in Mode 4?

On Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 8:21 PM, Thomas Harte
wrote:


I played it for five minutes and it all looked very impressive. That
being said, I don't actually know the original game so I was quite
lost. Looking at the incredibly sparse World of Spectrum inlay scan
though, I think I'm meant to work things out for myself?

On 24 April 2012 18:00, Balor Price 
wrote:
> Hello everybody
>
> I'm proud to present my conversion of the 1987 Spectrum game XOR.  I
finally
> kept my promise to my teenage self to finish a SAM game!
>
> You can download it for free from the revived
> http://cookingcircle.co.uk
>
> I hope you enjoy it (and yell in frustration).  It's 25 years old and
still
> as rock-hard as I remember.
>
> Any feedback/initial bugs found would be greatly appreciated.  :D
>
> Cheers
> Howard





--
James R Curry
8...@itdoesntsuck.com

Re: XOR now completed!

[Thomas Harte]

Being one of my favourite topics... the Wolfenstein algorithm is
actually incredibly inefficient. It's a linear search for every column
and then a couple of multiplies, an add and a divide to get scale.

If you instead used a combination forward/backward renderer with
portals and convex sectors, you could do significantly better for any
sort of geometry you'd expect on that level of device.

Assuming I've thought this through, costs Wolfenstein doesn't incur
would be: per visible sector you'd end up at a quadrant test, a divide
and a small table lookup per vertex, a divide, two multiplies and
three adds per visible wall. But you'd then be looking at (much the
same) two multiplies and an add every 8 or 16 columns and just two
adds per column. So you're spending a little on setup to save a lot
per column.

You'd draw front to back, zero overdraw for the world. Sprites would
be sorted per sector and I guess you'd want to walk back to the front
in sector order to paint them in, making it a stack-type thing rather
than merely a queue.

Walls could be any angle, and costs would increase as geometry
complexity increased, whereas in Wolfenstein they increase as your
rooms get larger. But freely angle walls would probably allow you to
keep the geometry simple.

Disadvantages would be indeterminate, and usually larger, level data
sizes, and the need to create a proper editor rather than just editing
in TextEdit or Notepad or whatever.

So, yes, I'm good at bluster.

On 24 April 2012 23:18,   wrote:
> Just been having a quick play!! Love that it works so fast. :-) very cool to
> see another new SAM game. How many is that now, in the last few months? Dave
> Invaders, Garden Centre of the Universe and now XOR... :-) What next??? :-D
> Those making them, should see about getting them mentioned in Retro Gamer
> magazine. They've got a section in the magazine about new games for all the
> old machines, with mini-reviews etc. Definitely worth a bit of free
> promotion and seeing your game in print on the shop shelves. :-)
>
> I agree with the discussion that we all concentrated on emulating the 16bit
> machines too much instead of working within the limitations to create other
> stuff, but such is the way of things. We all wanted to do what the big-boys
> could. Then again, that pushed a lot of the games further than a lot of
> people expected anyway. I suppose that's another area where the SAM was like
> the Spectrum. It wasn't technically as advanced as say the c64 in many ways,
> but competed by sheer versatility and creativity. Such was the SAM to the
> Amigas and STs. I think over the years the SAM has certainly proved it could
> do great stuff, when pushed to its limits. Who originally thought Lemmings
> would work? It's a shame we didn't see more games that weren't as limited by
> speed, like Dizzy/Flashback types.
>
>
> I'd love to see a basic test of a wolfenstein game running! :-) It'd really
> be a nice show-piece. Having said that, if someone managed to get it
> working, once the pseudo 3D engine of that was running, why not create the
> SAM's own first FPS? (Like Colin was planning with Chrome) No need to use
> the existing Wolfenstein graphics and such, when we can create our own for
> the SAM, and our own level designs, story, creatures, etc?
>
> Warren
>
>
>
>
> Quoting James R Curry <8...@itdoesntsuck.com>:
>
>> I remember ordering the original from one of those ZX Spectrum mail order
>> places.  They were never able to deliver it, for some reason, and offered
>> me the choice of another game, instead.
>>
>> No idea what I wound up buying.
>>
>> Now I can finally play it.  Looks good!  Is it in Mode 4?
>>
>> On Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 8:21 PM, Thomas Harte
>> wrote:
>>
>>> I played it for five minutes and it all looked very impressive. That
>>> being said, I don't actually know the original game so I was quite
>>> lost. Looking at the incredibly sparse World of Spectrum inlay scan
>>> though, I think I'm meant to work things out for myself?
>>>
>>> On 24 April 2012 18:00, Balor Price 
>>> wrote:
>>> > Hello everybody
>>> >
>>> > I'm proud to present my conversion of the 1987 Spectrum game XOR.  I
>>> finally
>>> > kept my promise to my teenage self to finish a SAM game!
>>> >
>>> > You can download it for free from the revived
>>> > http://cookingcircle.co.uk
>>> >
>>> > I hope you enjoy it (and yell in frustration).  It's 25 years old and
>>> still
>>> > as rock-hard as I remember.
>>> >
>>> > Any feedback/initial bugs found would be greatly appreciated.  :D
>>> >
>>> > Cheers
>>> > Howard
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> James R Curry
>> 8...@itdoesntsuck.com
>>
>
>
>

Re: XOR now completed!

[warren]

Just been having a quick play!! Love that it works so fast. :-) very  
cool to see another new SAM game. How many is that now, in the last  
few months? Dave Invaders, Garden Centre of the Universe and now  
XOR... :-) What next??? :-D Those making them, should see about  
getting them mentioned in Retro Gamer magazine. They've got a section  
in the magazine about new games for all the old machines, with  
mini-reviews etc. Definitely worth a bit of free promotion and seeing  
your game in print on the shop shelves. :-)


I agree with the discussion that we all concentrated on emulating the  
16bit machines too much instead of working within the limitations to  
create other stuff, but such is the way of things. We all wanted to do  
what the big-boys could. Then again, that pushed a lot of the games  
further than a lot of people expected anyway. I suppose that's another  
area where the SAM was like the Spectrum. It wasn't technically as  
advanced as say the c64 in many ways, but competed by sheer  
versatility and creativity. Such was the SAM to the Amigas and STs. I  
think over the years the SAM has certainly proved it could do great  
stuff, when pushed to its limits. Who originally thought Lemmings  
would work? It's a shame we didn't see more games that weren't as  
limited by speed, like Dizzy/Flashback types.



I'd love to see a basic test of a wolfenstein game running! :-) It'd  
really be a nice show-piece. Having said that, if someone managed to  
get it working, once the pseudo 3D engine of that was running, why not  
create the SAM's own first FPS? (Like Colin was planning with Chrome)  
No need to use the existing Wolfenstein graphics and such, when we can  
create our own for the SAM, and our own level designs, story,  
creatures, etc?


Warren



Quoting James R Curry <8...@itdoesntsuck.com>:


I remember ordering the original from one of those ZX Spectrum mail order
places.  They were never able to deliver it, for some reason, and offered
me the choice of another game, instead.

No idea what I wound up buying.

Now I can finally play it.  Looks good!  Is it in Mode 4?

On Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 8:21 PM, Thomas Harte  
wrote:



I played it for five minutes and it all looked very impressive. That
being said, I don't actually know the original game so I was quite
lost. Looking at the incredibly sparse World of Spectrum inlay scan
though, I think I'm meant to work things out for myself?

On 24 April 2012 18:00, Balor Price  wrote:
> Hello everybody
>
> I'm proud to present my conversion of the 1987 Spectrum game XOR.  I
finally
> kept my promise to my teenage self to finish a SAM game!
>
> You can download it for free from the revived http://cookingcircle.co.uk
>
> I hope you enjoy it (and yell in frustration).  It's 25 years old and
still
> as rock-hard as I remember.
>
> Any feedback/initial bugs found would be greatly appreciated.  :D
>
> Cheers
> Howard





--
James R Curry
8...@itdoesntsuck.com

Re: XOR now completed!

[James R Curry]

I remember ordering the original from one of those ZX Spectrum mail order
places.  They were never able to deliver it, for some reason, and offered
me the choice of another game, instead.

No idea what I wound up buying.

Now I can finally play it.  Looks good!  Is it in Mode 4?

On Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 8:21 PM, Thomas Harte wrote:

> I played it for five minutes and it all looked very impressive. That
> being said, I don't actually know the original game so I was quite
> lost. Looking at the incredibly sparse World of Spectrum inlay scan
> though, I think I'm meant to work things out for myself?
>
> On 24 April 2012 18:00, Balor Price  wrote:
> > Hello everybody
> >
> > I'm proud to present my conversion of the 1987 Spectrum game XOR.  I
> finally
> > kept my promise to my teenage self to finish a SAM game!
> >
> > You can download it for free from the revived http://cookingcircle.co.uk
> >
> > I hope you enjoy it (and yell in frustration).  It's 25 years old and
> still
> > as rock-hard as I remember.
> >
> > Any feedback/initial bugs found would be greatly appreciated.  :D
> >
> > Cheers
> > Howard
>



-- 
James R Curry
8...@itdoesntsuck.com

Re: XOR now completed!

[Thomas Harte]

I played it for five minutes and it all looked very impressive. That
being said, I don't actually know the original game so I was quite
lost. Looking at the incredibly sparse World of Spectrum inlay scan
though, I think I'm meant to work things out for myself?

On 24 April 2012 18:00, Balor Price  wrote:
> Hello everybody
>
> I'm proud to present my conversion of the 1987 Spectrum game XOR.  I finally
> kept my promise to my teenage self to finish a SAM game!
>
> You can download it for free from the revived http://cookingcircle.co.uk
>
> I hope you enjoy it (and yell in frustration).  It's 25 years old and still
> as rock-hard as I remember.
>
> Any feedback/initial bugs found would be greatly appreciated.  :D
>
> Cheers
> Howard