Doomsday Lost Echoes - Released and now with Physical Edition

[dodogildo]

Well that's true, but the important part is actually reading the text, isn't it?

Agreed, readability must be the most important criteria here.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[||C|-|E||]

At the moment, I am using font 6 . It is nice, maybe a bit far from the style I originally envisioned but it is quite readable and definitely much better than the standard Mode 1 . Good news is that it can be very easily changed if we find something better. Actually, the font has nothing to do with the game, is just a patch for CP/M, the game uses whatever font the operating system has loaded in that moment .

[Puresox]

Can you make it a selectable option , within game?

[||C|-|E||]

No, no within the game... actually, the game uses a particular CP/M version that is modified with the font of our choice and cannot be changed without a specific tool. It could be possible, however, to include this tool and create a menu in CP/M that allows you to change the font before the game loads. However, doing this every time you want to play seems quite boring and time consuming for the player...

[FloppySoftware]

How and where is stored the font in CPC CP/M?

[MiguelSky]

It's included in the .EMS file of your CP/M. You can edit it with the SetFont tool, as is told in the fonts thread Fonts for CP/M

[||C|-|E||]

Yes... and then that modified CP/M uses the font you chose as default for all the programs, including our adventure  .

[FloppySoftware]

Yes, thanks, but I mean... it's stored in RAM and is it accessible like in the PCW or not?

I mean... is it necessary to patch the EMS file? Or we can patch the memory instead?

Because we can do it on the fly in the last case, and we won't be limited to one font only.

[||C|-|E||]

I think that it is actually stored in RAM (in the first bank in the case of CP/M Plus, that only runs in the 6128). As far as I understand, CP/M resides in this bank once is loaded and the 61KB that can be allocated for the programs are all from the second bank. However, I do not know if the font is accessible without a specific application. What I do know is that SetFont can change it in real time when you load it and type the proper command, that is for sure  . So, I guess that it could be possible to change the font overwriting that region of the memory. It should even be possible to do this from PAWS and implement it as a command, since the parser has a function to call an external ASM routine. However, this is waaaay beyond my skills  .

[FloppySoftware]

Ok, thanks.

I know how to do it in the PCW under CP/M Plus, and I think it would be very similar in the CPC.

What about a program that give the user the choice of select the font, and then execute your game with the CP/M Plus BDOS function CHAIN?

No more code or RAM is required from your side.

[||C|-|E||]

That would be awesome, although my knowledge of CP/M Plus is limited and I would certainly need help with that. So, the way I am loading the game is as follows: the adventure has two discs, the first contains a BASIC loader, the core of CP/M Plus and a few tools required to run the game, the second disc is the game itself. When you type RUN"DISC from BASIC, the loader loads the classical Mode 0 screen (it is just a colorful graphic) and then it executes the |CPM command. Once in CP/M, there is a very simple PROFILE.SUB with the following lines inside:

ramdos+ D1
b:
doomsday

as you can see, the only thing it does is to load ramdos, configure the unit b:, switch to the unit b: and load the adventure . It is not necessary to change the font because the CP/M version I am using is already patched. I do not know how to do BDOS system calls, to be honest... 

[FloppySoftware]

That would be awesome, although my knowledge of CP/M Plus is limited and I would certainly need help with that. So, the way I am loading the game is as follows: the adventure has two discs, the first contains a BASIC loader, the core of CP/M Plus and a few tools required to run the game, the second disc is the game itself. When you type RUN"DISC from BASIC, the loader loads the classical Mode 0 screen (it is just a colorful graphic) and then it executes the |CPM command. Once in CP/M, there is a very simple PROFILE.SUB with the following lines inside:

ramdos+ D1
b:
doomsday

as you can see, the only thing it does is to load ramdos, configure the unit b:, switch to the unit b: and load the adventure . It is not necessary to change the font because the CP/M version I am using is already patched. I do not know how to do BDOS system calls, to be honest... 

Easy. Just change the last profile.sub line for the appropiate command to execute the font selector, and it will execute doomsday by itselft, using the CHAIN BDOS function.
Another option would be simply inserting the line with the font selector before doomsday.
I would like to help to you in the font selector if you agree.
I only would need to know the exact details to change the CPC Font (I think I could manage this by myself, but any help would be very appreciated), and the remaining free space on both disks.

[||C|-|E||]

Sure, I can give you all the info and the DSKs if you need them as soon as I go home at night . To change the font I simply execute Setfont from CP/M. This opens the program and a new prompt (it is a command line application). Once inside Setfont, you just need to type the proper command and the application reads the file from the disc and changes the font for you, either in a temporal or in a permanent way  .

[||C|-|E||]

So, here are the files of SetFont plus the manual, that is in PDF format  . It runs in the CPC, PCW+ and Speccy +3. Moreover, I am just writing a private message to you because I think that it will be easier to explain the details that way.

[TFM]

Cool to see the progress here :-)

[||C|-|E||]

Yes! It seems that maybe the player will be able to choose the font of the game after all!  Thx FloppySoftware! 

[FloppySoftware]

Yes! It seems that maybe the player will be able to choose the font of the game after all!  Thx FloppySoftware! 

It's seems we have a prototype for the font selector. 
PM sent!

[||C|-|E||]

Since it is Christmas, seems fitting to update the status of the project and show some new graphs for you to see! 

- So, the code is basically done now and I am just checking for bugs here and there. I was adding some more details during the last weekend but I decided to keep free the last 8KB of RAM in case the people testing the game notice something that needs to be modified. For example, it could be that they find difficult to guess some of the words or sentences, in that case I will just add all the synonyms and different logical sentences they suggest to be sure that nobody has problems playing the game. If we still have RAM after testing, I will try to add some more features.

- Dani hopes to finish all the graphics by next week. There can be changes, of course, but no more blank screens when the beta is released.

- The instruction manual is almost ready. Gryzor went through it and all his changes have been already added. Dthrone is having a look as well  .

- It seems that we will be able to choose the font after all! FloppySoftware is coding a menu that will let you choose between different fonts the first time you load the adventure. Your decision will be saved in the disc and the next time you load the game it will not be necessary to select it again. Of course, you will be able to change it anytime. This font selector works in the CPC and the PCW, something great because the idea is to have versions of the game for both computers.

And finally, these are some graphs for the intro I would like to show you. They are spoiler free and we hope you will like them! IMHO, Dani is doing an awesome work here 







Thank you to all of you for the support and the involvement in the project!!

[robcfg]

Woooooo! Impressive! Looking forward to play it

[dodogildo]

I'll keep suggesting some special boxed edition version for anybody who are willing to chip in

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[||C|-|E||]

Glad you like it, guys!!!

Sure, if we feel like doing it, we could make a boxed edition, hehe 

[dodogildo]

Let's do it, other retro scenes will get so jealous.

[Munchausen]

Just popping in to say I've only just read this thread and it looks like a great game. I really love the art work. Looking forward to playing it!

[Puresox]

Looks great and very atmospheric. Thanks for the effort gone into this, as always appreciate all who make games for the system ,which I'm sure goes without saying .

[||C|-|E||]

So, another little update 

- FloppySoftware already finished the font selector and it is already integrated  . So, no more discussion about the game fonts anymore. Now, the user can select between two very readable fonts, the sci-fi one or the standard Amstrad font. Once the player chooses one, the selection is saved and used next the time the game is loaded. I am very happy about the font selector, it is just great 

[attachimg=1]

- Dani has finished the graphics! It took several months but we are finally there.

- I added some more minor details.

So, it seems that the beta will be ready quite soon  . I am going to Spain for 15 days today, but I will keep on working as soon as I come back and it should not take very long to have something more or less ready for the testers.

Merry Christmas and thank you for your support guys!!