I've finally finished my second demo: Xmas 2010 Demo. You can download it from the wiki page for the demo (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Xmas_2010_Demo).
It's Plus only and I've tested it with WinAPE and my 6128 Plus... I stayed up late last night to get it finished so there's a few slack routines in there but hopefully there's no bugs in it!!
It's only a little production made for a bit of fun at Xmas, but I hope you all enjoy it and would of course welcome feedback. :)
Runs well in MESS, also. ;)
Nice demo!
Thankyou for sharing!
Now also a demo for old CPC's? 8)
Checked it quickly on Winape and like this nice little demo , i'll check it more on my + this evening (with snow outside and tangerine inside ;D )
Btw.: Fano: Nice Avatar :D
Is it your little sister? 8)
(reverse imagesearch for this: link (http://www.tineye.com/search/?pluginver=firefox-1.0&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcpcwiki.eu%2Fforum%2Findex.php%3Faction%3Ddlattach%3Battach%3D958%3Btype%3Davatar)
(May contain nudity!)
Quote from: fano on 12:54, 15 December 10
i'll check it more on my + this evening
When you check it out, can you let me know if when it starts the first few characters (which should be blank before the scroll text properly starts) have random artifacts in them please?
They do on my Plus for some reason, but not in any emulators I've tried. I think the problem is actually with my Plus (I've seen this bug elsewhere on other stuff), but want to be sure.
Quote from: redbox on 13:28, 15 December 10
When you check it out, can you let me know if when it starts the first few characters (which should be blank before the scroll text properly starts) have random artifacts in them please?
They do on my Plus for some reason, but not in any emulators I've tried. I think the problem is actually with my Plus (I've seen this bug elsewhere on other stuff), but want to be sure.
do you clear the sprite ram?
it may just be that the emulators don't initialise the sprite ram to random data which perhaps they should.
Just tested it on my 6128+
Indeed: The scrolltext makes problems here:
First start - "Welcome to the" is shown in artifacted , empty sprites.
Then the part of this text repeats and can be read.
Then, after switching the CPC off and on, i ran it again.
There the "Welcome..." was better readable but still with artifacts (I think, the sprite buffer was not cleared fully)
So, the first 13-14 letters are shown bad, then they repeat and the scroller is readable.
Funny bug....
More fun:
I started the game "Burning Rubber" then I caused a soft-reset and ran the demo again...
The first sprites still contain Burning Rubber data!!!!
Quote from: arnoldemu on 13:36, 15 December 10
do you clear the sprite ram?
it may just be that the emulators don't initialise the sprite ram to random data which perhaps they should.
No, I didn't clear them :(
Thanks for testing guys, I will patch it now and upload an update.
Okay, I've uploaded a patched version to the wiki page (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Xmas_2010_Demo) - I would be grateful if anyone who can would test it again...
It's working okay on my real 6128 Plus :) And at least I've found something out about the Plus I didn't know (and it means that part of my 6128 isn't knackered!) 8)
Now it works fine!
Merry Xmas to everyone ! :police:
Quote from: redbox on 13:28, 15 December 10
When you check it out, can you let me know if when it starts the first few characters (which should be blank before the scroll text properly starts) have random artifacts in them please?
Confirmed , you did not initialise sprites but you fixed it for the second version.
Quote from: redbox on 11:42, 15 December 10It's only a little production made for a bit of fun at Xmas, but I hope you all enjoy it and would of course welcome feedback.
I live at 150kms from Paris but you're welcome , R-Type released or not ;)
Just a little thing , that seems some snow pixels take the electron beam during the first 1/3 of the screen so some shake a bit , how do you synchronise pixel rendering ?
Another thing i am thinking , how do you check machine type as program resets when Winape is on CPC type but on my 'real' CPC type 1 , it crashes with severals pixies drawed on the screen and musics started and blocked.
Quote from: Devilmarkus on 13:08, 15 December 10
Btw.: Fano: Nice Avatar :D
Is it your little sister?
No , my little sisters are more beautifull than that.I wanted to use Santas Claus but it is too classic so i wanted use his wife but the result is not good (here but you've been warned (http://www.blog-logiciel-btp.com/medias/AEC/dec-2009/mere-noel.jpg)) so i used his daughter ;D
Yes, nice, but the scroller is wrong. Octoate and Nilquader emulated the ACID for hours successfully, not Nocash.
Quote from: fano on 21:12, 15 December 10
I live at 150kms from Paris but you're welcome , R-Type released or not ;)
I mean I nearly came to the Retro Gaming Convention in Crégy-lès-Meaux to see the R-Type preview, but couldn't remember this place name and know it's near Paris so said this instead! :)
Quote from: fano on 21:12, 15 December 10
Just a little thing , that seems some snow pixels take the electron beam during the first 1/3 of the screen so some shake a bit , how do you synchronise pixel rendering ?
Yes, the snow routine takes up the first third of the frame and it's not double buffered so it flickers a little. The snow is only synced to the frame refresh and runs at 50hz (thanks to Axelay helping optimise it using the stack). I didn't worry too much about this because I was out of time (as I had to finish the demo this week) and it only affected the snow. Originally the snow routine was later in the frame and you couldn't see it so much, but for some weird reason this meant there was a bit of tearing in the hardware sprites so I moved it at the last minute.
Quote from: fano on 21:12, 15 December 10
Another thing i am thinking , how do you check machine type as program resets when Winape is on CPC type but on my 'real' CPC type 1 , it crashes with severals pixies drawed on the screen and musics started and blocked.
I don't try and detect the machine type :) I did have a small routine but read on Grim's website that my method (which Longshot talked about in one of his articles!) was lame and unreliable and I didn't have time to write anything better this time.
The reason it gets this far on a real CPC is due to the order I initialise the routines. The normal CPC will just ignore the ASIC page-ins until this the point where it tries to copy some hardware sprite data to the ASIC RAM, and this copied data will overwrite the music (located at &4000) and it is probably here that it is crashing.
Quote from: TFM/FS on 22:07, 15 December 10
Yes, nice, but the scroller is wrong. Octoate and Nilquader emulated the ACID for hours successfully, not Nocash.
Nocash cracked the ACID and released the code (http://cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php/topic,410.60.html) - and that's what I said in the scroller...?
That's not a crack. Using an Oscilloscope and to rebuildt the ACID are very different things. But Redbox, you are right and I have my peace 8)
Quote from: TFM/FS on 22:12, 15 December 10
That's not a crack
'Cracked' as in 'decoded'. Doesn't matter if he was the first or not - I do not proclaim this anyway, I simply congratulate him for doing so. Why don't you actually read the text?
Thanks for changing the wiki page (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Xmas_2010_Demo) to make your little statement. Totally pointless.
Quote from: redbox on 22:15, 15 December 10
Thanks for changing the wiki page (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Xmas_2010_Demo) to make your little statement. Totally pointless.
No problem mate, we all do our best to make things better and to provide deeper informations.
Quote from: TFM/FS on 22:17, 15 December 10
No problem mate, we all do our best to make things better and to provide deeper informations.
Except you mis-read the scroll. Maybe your English isn't as good as you think?
Maybe you should update the wiki article again to "make things better", i.e. remove what you wrote? But thanks for sharing anyway, mate.
In 2011 there will be peace and harmony in the CPC world.... and I think lots of great cpc games and demos from almost all the "CPC countries" (I read about productions which will be ready in 2011 from France, Germany, Spain, Denmark and UK)......
A bit short , Nocash made a bit more than using an oscilloscope , he was the first to reverse it.
Octoate and Nilquader made a great job too as they made an implementation of the ACID.
After , you can give the definition for "hack" you want (yes , doing some reverse engineering could be said as hack and creating a chip from scratch (nearly) can be seen as a hack).
The fact are theses three guys made a great work to help us to progress in Amstrad+ future prods.
To be honnest , i do not understand well the modifications you made to the wiki.
Quote from: arnoldemu on 22:30, 15 December 10
In 2011 there will be peace and harmony in the CPC world.... and I think lots of great cpc games and demos from almost all the "CPC countries" (I read about productions which will be ready in 2011 from France, Germany, Spain, Denmark and UK)......
This was the whole point of me making the demo, to celebrate the great year we've had and looking forward to next year :)
Oh well, silliness aside, I'm glad that people enjoyed the demo.
Quote from: redbox on 22:08, 15 December 10Yes, the snow routine takes up the first third of the frame and it's not double buffered so it flickers a little. The snow is only synced to the frame refresh and runs at 50hz (thanks to Axelay helping optimise it using the stack). I didn't worry too much about this because I was out of time (as I had to finish the demo this week) and it only affected the snow. Originally the snow routine was later in the frame and you couldn't see it so much, but for some weird reason this meant there was a bit of tearing in the hardware sprites so I moved it at the last minute.
I understand , PRI offers a great solution for synchronising rendering on + and to avoid theses types of artefact.
Quote from: redbox on 22:08, 15 December 10I don't try and detect the machine type :) I did have a small routine but read on Grim's website that my method (which Longshot talked about in one of his articles!) was lame and unreliable and I didn't have time to write anything better this time.
lol i understand well now.I am using the PPI detection bug and afaik it is a correct method (what method did you use ? (IM2 or some awfull floating bus))
Offensive posts deleted.
TFM, quit it, you're being offensive, for no reason whatsoever and especially when someone is actually offering something really nice.
As a "living legend" (erm....) you should know better.
Redbox mate, this little thing made my morning. It made me wish I had a shop so I could set up a Plus on the window and play it, for some reason :)
Thanks so much, this is really heart-warming...
Quote from: Gryzor on 07:09, 16 December 10
Offensive posts deleted.
Thank you for moderating, it's much appreciated.
Quote from: Gryzor on 07:30, 16 December 10
It made me wish I had a shop so I could set up a Plus on the window and play it, for some reason :)
Good to hear you enjoyed it - there is a washing machine shop that is near me and he has a PC in the window showing a Linux demonstration (for some weird reason) and I often think he should have some CPC stuff on it instead!
Quote from: fano on 22:41, 15 December 10
I understand , PRI offers a great solution for synchronising rendering on + and to avoid theses types of artefact.
I read about this on CPC Rulez but didn't understand it fully - if the rendering is being done across the whole screen then when would you time the PRI to occur?
Quote from: fano on 22:41, 15 December 10
lol i understand well now.I am using the PPI detection bug and afaik it is a correct method (what method did you use ? (IM2 or some awfull floating bus))
I was just using the high impedence reading on &7Fxx but, as Grim says on his website, this is a poor way of doing things. I will look into the PPI stuff, thanks for the pointer.
Quote from: redbox on 09:11, 16 December 10
I read about this on CPC Rulez but didn't understand it fully - if the rendering is being done across the whole screen then when would you time the PRI to occur?
For example, if you have a software effect rendering from line 0 to 180 and a sprite scroll that finishes at 100 , you can use PRI at line 179 to do your software effect from line 180 and at line 100 (and you can change it dynamicaly) to start to feed your scroll after it has been drawn on screen so you'll always be sure to avoid artifacts.It is not an obligation to have an isr to do , juste use a ei:ret in mode 1 and halt to synchronise.
Quote from: redbox on 09:11, 16 December 10I was just using the high impedence reading on &7Fxx but, as Grim says on his website, this is a poor way of doing things. I will look into the PPI stuff, thanks for the pointer.
You can find CRTC tests here (http://quasar.cpcscene.com/doku.php?id=coding:test_crtc) , the text is in french but there is a program with tests , the PPI test is in this program.
Quote from: fano on 12:38, 16 December 10
For example, if you have a software effect rendering from line 0 to 180 and a sprite scroll that finishes at 100 , you can use PRI at line 179 to do your software effect from line 180 and at line 100 (and you can change it dynamicaly) to start to feed your scroll after it has been drawn on screen so you'll always be sure to avoid artifacts.
Thanks Fano - that's really good and very interesting for me as I find double buffering a real pain in the arse (more so if you are using the ASIC), so if developing for the Plus I can use this technique instead.
Quote from: fano on 12:38, 16 December 10
You can find CRTC tests here (http://quasar.cpcscene.com/doku.php?id=coding:test_crtc) , the text is in french but there is a program with tests , the PPI test is in this program.
Ah Quasar, some good code there but I find this French hard to understand sometimes (in one article he talks about the 'boffin' all the time - the blonde boy with glasses?!), but I will work through the code myself to understand what is going on (which always the best way I think anyway).
Nice demo! :)
Is the more substantial release you mention going to be that platformer you demoed previously?
Quote from: fano on 12:38, 16 December 10
You can find CRTC tests here (http://quasar.cpcscene.com/doku.php?id=coding:test_crtc) , the text is in french but there is a program with tests , the PPI test is in this program.
Thanks for highlighting that part, I'd seen that before when looking for a plus test, but not knowing to look for the PPI test or having had a chance to try and babel fish the comments, I still hadnt got around to isolating the part I needed, and now I dont have to. :)
Quote from: Axelay on 13:43, 16 December 10
Nice demo! :)
Is the more substantial release you mention going to be that platformer you demoed previously?
Thanks for highlighting that part, I'd seen that before when looking for a plus test, but not knowing to look for the PPI test or having had a chance to try and babel fish the comments, I still hadnt got around to isolating the part I needed, and now I dont have to. :)
Does that mean Sub Hunter may have some extras for the +?
Quote from: TFM/FS on 22:07, 15 December 10
Yes, nice, but the scroller is wrong. Octoate and Nilquader emulated the ACID for hours successfully, not Nocash.
Indeed, these 2 guys 'emulated' the ACID. But without Nocash's hacks and knowledge it wouldnt be possible for them.
Edit:
Quote from: XMAS2010 demo scrollerNOCASH - AMAZING WORK CRACKING THE ACID! CAN'T WAIT FOR SOMEONE TO PUT YOUR CODE ONTO A CUSTOM CHIP...
redbox is absolutely right here.
Quote from: Axelay on 13:43, 16 December 10
Nice demo! :)
Is the more substantial release you mention going to be that platformer you demoed previously?
Thanks Axelay (and again for the help in getting it working).
Yes, I plan on doing a game - the platformer demo was just 'proof of concept' for the scrolling and I have a lot more to do. But I would rather get all the routines working really well and do them one by one (scrolling, sprites, tiles, collision etc) before I put something finally together :)
Quote from: Devilmarkus on 13:50, 16 December 10
Indeed, these 2 guys 'emulated' the ACID. But without Nocash's hacks and knowledge it wouldnt be possible for them.
That's not correct. During the examination we have also found our own way to hack the ACID protection, which is much simpler, but has a small quirk. To prevent that, the needed hardware would be slightly more expensive than the CPLD solution.
Quote from: arnoldemu on 13:45, 16 December 10
Does that mean Sub Hunter may have some extras for the +?
No, I'm afraid not. It's just that I read a little while ago on Pushnpop that the 300hz interrupts apparently dont occur on the plus at the exactly the same time as the CPC, and because there are some things set to interrupts in the (still incomplete) intro sequence I thought it best to get hold of something just in case. Not that I havent thought about plus hardware applied to sub hunter (or my two previous releases for that matter), but it keeps turning into something that requires an all new ground up game engine ::)
Quote from: Octoate on 14:44, 16 December 10
That's not correct. During the examination we have also found our own way to hack the ACID protection, which is much simpler, but has a small quirk. To prevent that, the needed hardware would be slightly more expensive than the CPLD solution.
Huh... I did not know that.
But fact is: Nocash also hacked the ACID ;) Maybe in another way but he made a good effort in hacking it.
Quote from: Devilmarkus on 15:52, 16 December 10
But fact is: Nocash also hacked the ACID ;) Maybe in another way but he made a good effort in hacking it.
Absolutely and his work is very important because it is better to reproduce the ACID in hardware instead of using a hack :) (especially if it wouldn't be cheaper to use the hack).
Off-topic: Markus' signature image simply rocks.
@Octoate: Thanks that you made things clear.
@Gryzor: You can delete all my posts, but the truth is out there. 8)
Quote from: Gryzor on 16:57, 16 December 10
Off-topic: Markus' signature image simply rocks.
Off-topic: *lol*
Quote from: TFM/FS on 18:54, 16 December 10
@Gryzor: You can delete all my posts, but the truth is out there. 8)
Yes. The matter is not the truth, but your manners, though.
Quote from: Axelay on 13:43, 16 December 10Thanks for highlighting that part, I'd seen that before when looking for a plus test, but not knowing to look for the PPI test or having had a chance to try and babel fish the comments, I still hadnt got around to isolating the part I needed, and now I dont have to.
look at TestRAZPPI and TestPortBPPI labels , if you are in pain to understand coments , i can try to translate them.
This whole discussion about ACID cracking sucks, really...
Off-Topic : yes , your dithering rocks Markus !
Quote from: fano on 19:33, 16 December 10
look at TestRAZPPI and TestPortBPPI labels , if you are in pain to understand coments , i can try to translate them.
I will take a look at this too, thanks Fano.
Quote from: fano on 19:33, 16 December 10
This whole discussion about ACID cracking sucks, really...
Just ignore him. Actually, is there any way we can have an 'ignore user' choice in our profile?
Quote from: fano on 19:33, 16 December 10
This whole discussion about ACID cracking sucks, really...
Polly wants a cracker?
Quote from: Devilmarkus on 20:45, 16 December 10
Polly wants a cracker?
Hahaha, classic.
I think she wants some water, to put out the blow torch. ;)
Quote from: redbox on 22:24, 16 December 10
I think she wants some water, to put out the blow torch. ;)
Well, never forget: You need 2 things when you go to bed:
- A stone
- A matchbox!
Why?
Simple:
First throw the light out with the stone,
Then use a match to look if you hit the light!