forum.defence-force.org

Dbug wrote:Actually I fixed it, just that for some reason it crashed in Oricutron 0.6
Working fine in Euphoric

Great, though i would have hoped just one reply from this forum thread just to say it didn't work, then i'd have fixed it soon enough.

Dbug wrote:Twilighte: I suggest that you make an Atmos/Oric 1 compatible version by using the values stored in FFFE/FFFF to find the location of the irq handler. You can just use the room you used for the hidden text messages

Excellent idea, will do :p

Dbug wrote:I compared the two version with a diff program, and you changed the two values at the offset 6839 and 683E from 45/46 to 29/29.

Well actually all i did was in the #defines at the start of stormlord source i have..
Which as u can see i changed. I reckon its another naff XA problem. Seems with big projects it starts to really mess up with the simplest of things.
In IM the other day i found i had to replace a word in quotes with its ascii values because the same word was used as a #define at the start and it compiled replacing the word in quotes with the #define value grrrr.

Anyway going back to Stormlord, the code then does this.. or at least should do this..
But something obviously upset it

Chema wrote:It does! At least on oricutron 0.7!

Well done Dbug!

Great work!
Now the Oric1 versione work fine with Euphoric!
I suppose it work into real Oric1 but I'll check it out in a real machine tomorrow...

Thanks for all your service to the Oric community, I really love your work!

GRAZIE!
Ciao
Cristian

Hi Cristian, i have done as Dbug suggested and tested the next version on euphoric with oric-1 and atmos configs and both are working now.
I'm emailing it to Dbug so he can upload to site.
Watch this space for update

For those techies out there, my brain is not at full momentum tonight, so my change was not very efficient, maybe Chema or Dbug would let me know how i might optimise this bit (though game works fine)..


Immense thanks to Dbug and Cristian for finding and fixing this one.

Twilighte wrote: Immense thanks to Dbug and Cristian for finding and fixing this one.

Thanks to you Twilighte for your Oric programming effort and for give new life to my favorite 8Bit micro-computer!

Here some pics of StormLordwhile is running in real Oric1








In case you want StormLord+Oric always with you



Grazie
Ciao
Cristian

@Twilighte: check Your inbox, i send You a message two weeks ago...

nice game. why this kind of game didn't appear when the oric was in sold?

Game development in general across all the 8 bits wasn't quite this advanced during the Oric lifespan. Stormlord was released in 1989 for the C64, several years after the Oric had left store shelves. Its a shame that our hardware never really got to shine during its day as its proved to be quite capable, more so than most of its old games would have us believe. There's the occasional gem that starts to show the power of the Oric (Defence Force, Mr Wimpy and Hunchback being particular favourites of mine), but most games just scratch the surface. Its not necessarily that they couldn't be better, its partly that they didn't need to be. When everyone's expectations of games were so low, the hardware didn't need to be pushed too hard. Look at the Atari VCS, Spectrum or C64 for example. The first couple of years knocks out playable but unspectacular games (at least with regard to their library as a whole), but a few years into development and the programmers have learned all sort of tricks and odd ways to get more from the hardware. In a way its self fulfilling, as each programmer tries to outdo the others with their new game. If you compare games that were released across other formats, the Oric version usually holds up pretty well (see Hunchback and Mr Wimpy again for example).

Bravo Antiriad!
I agree completely but people will always feel that these games should have appeared when the oric was at its height. It could never be so, beit time shifted material such as Stormlord in '89 and Oric's height in '85 or basically the amount of time its taken to realise the technique used in IM, Stormlord and recent games.
Yes, theoretically i might have discovered the technique earlier but i'm not sure...

I'm not a graphic artist par se, only have become an Oric graphician through my unending pursuits of Oric graphic perfection. I think of myself as a perfectionist. Perfectionists can only ever work alone as Dbug and others have realised over the years. Joint projects have turned to ruin simply because my vision of what is required is never met by others, only realised by me.

In the early days i dwelt on maximising existing graphics with the Oric constraints as did all other programmers. This meant taking Text mode and trying (as hard as it was) to maximise colours and control such as in the infamous games Gulp and Squeek.
Movement was horrible, moving your sprite 3 characters at a time. Squeek slightly improved the scheme by scrolling the game area. The big advantage was that each 2x2 block could be individually coloured.

Now move forward a few years and the development of Times of Lore. Still in Text mode, this heavily used shadows to hide attribute colour changes. I was now trying to push the boundaries by dynamically colouring graphics. Sprites remained the colour of the background so changed to yellow when over the dessert or green when over the grass.

Sometimes i would relapse and just go for black and white such as Zebulon and Magnetix (the latter pushing the graphic boundaries by providing parralax scrolling) or 4 colour inverse screens such as in ZipnZap.
Remember all those Spectrum games that did the same thing to completely avoid attribute clash.

From 1984 to 2001 i was relying on colour attribute placing.

It was only when i started toying with Pulsoids did i hone the new abstract colour technique.
I must have played with attributes in HIDE for many weeks before it finally dawned on me.
Using inverse could provide 2 alternative colours. However vertically if the colours differed then combining these colours vertically could produce even more colours.

It was then many years later that i returned to look again at the Pulsoids colouring technique only to discover it could be taken one step further to create vibrant 6 colours freely or at least alot more free than before!

One could store a block graphic and hold all the colour information within it using inverse, etc. Previously one would have to use further bytes to hold this information.
One could then pick any block and place it anywhere in the grid and it would reflect the same colours it was stored with.

But as always this has been a massive learning curve. Massive as in over 20 years!
It has allowed me to fulfil my dream of recreating Stormlord and Impossible Mission. I still hold many dreams of many other games, more original than before that utilise this same technique including OTYPE, etc.

But unfortunately i must now face my own health issues. For many years now i have suffered Mycosis Fungoides. A rare form of skin cancer. There is a cure in the form of Stem Cell transplant and due to recent events i have been forced into going through with it. It is high risk, about 20-40% mortality rate but sometimes we must throw that dice.
If all goes to plan it will begin in 8 weeks time and i'll be recovered by July or August.

I wish that you wipe out the illness as the way you have solved the problems of graphics: with success !

Same wishes from me Twilighte... I am sure you will succeed with this.

Best of lucks.

Twilighte, we all wish you the very very best of luck. Hope all goes well.

Twilighte wrote:Perfectionists can only ever work alone as Dbug and others have realised over the years. Joint projects have turned to ruin simply because my vision of what is required is never met by others, only realised by me.

Well I consider Space:1999 as a joint project and certainly not a ruin

Chema wrote:

Twilighte wrote:Perfectionists can only ever work alone as Dbug and others have realised over the years. Joint projects have turned to ruin simply because my vision of what is required is never met by others, only realised by me.

Well I consider Space:1999 as a joint project and certainly not a ruin

I don't agree with the first statement.
Both Space:1999 and 1337 are YOUR projects, you made most of the important design choices, but then you got help from other people later on.
It's like my Atari STE Demo (Save The Earth) I got a logo from somebody and the audio from somebody else but the core of the demo was designed by me. It's not "designed by committee".

What I call joint projects are really things where there is a number of people who each participated in significant parts of the actual definition of "what" the project is, and these tend to fail indeed or be much harder to do in order to accommodate everybody's requests.

Twilighte: I wish you all the best for a speedy recovery. We Oric'ians definitely have gained a lot of ground over the years as a result of your hard work, and I am very grateful for your discoveries - and releases to the public of much interesting stuff! Please let us know how things progress with your therapy, its a personal journey you have to take but you do have friends out here in the big wide universe, who you've never met and probably don't know too well, who will nevertheless be very happy to hear of your personal recovery and progress.

I'd really love to do a Pulsoids-like game for the Oric myself, one day - a shooter, though. I have to admit though that in my old age (40, pftt!) I'm finding less and less time for the Oric world while I endeavour in other realms (mobile development, mostly using the MOAI framework: http://getmoai.com/ in case anyone is interested).

Anyway, I love having this scene and this group - I am continually amazed that we exist and are prospering here in the 21st century, long after the Oric died an ignoble death in the 80's .. only to return as a powerful force of fun and adventure for those willing to seek this group. Long live the Oric! Hail King Atmos!

@Twilighte

I'm sure all will go well for you!
Thanks for your big commitments in this small Orician world.
Take care!
Kamel