XEO3 Project for the CPC

[ZilogMonkey]

Hi Gryzor

The XEO3 project for the CPC+ is very much alive...

Do you mind if I make a new category in the CPCWIKI, where i can put sourcecode and graphics (and other stuff) related to this project.

Cheers,
/ZilogMonkey

[Gryzor]

Wow! Is it really alive?

I guess you mean a XEO3 category to link all the resources? I don't think it's really necessary - probably a single page holding everything together would be enough, but if you feel it'd be better (in terms of usability) then why not try it?

Wow... can we see some gfx?

[ZilogMonkey]

Hi Gryzor

Yes.. There will soon be screenshots and a video on youtube!

Most vital parts of  the main program is working..

Scrolling, background animation, spritemovement, collision detection...

What is lacking is sound (original sound is for the C64 SID chip - There is also a Spectrum version in progress, will wait implementing sound until I see what the Speccy guy is up to)

And also lacking is converting the +4 graphics into the CPC friendly format, I have problems getting hold of the +4 programmers - Because I dint want to convert from crappy screenshots, if they have already have the graphics in raw format.

But the preview will demonstrate the game concept and the powers of the CPC+

/ZilogMonkey

[Gryzor]

Ooh, can't wait to beta test it... if you need any help with that I'll be here! And, if you need any help with the wiki please do let me know...

[ukmarkh]

Looking forward to this game... are there anymore screenshots or vids for this game, its been a while since the vid was posted on youtube???

[Gryzor]

There's a bit more news, you can follow the progress at CPCZone's forum

[ZilogMonkey]

Hi..

Thanks for the intrest.

XEO3 is progressing .. please be patient .. a "playable" demo version where the playership can be controlled is very close to being ready for release! Will probably be released during the Xmas holidays.

Regards,
ZilogMonkey

[Gryzor]

That would be nice as a Xmas present

[ukmarkh]

Woo-hoo... can't wait!

[ukmarkh]

Any newz on this project??? An update would be nice 

[fano]

For sure, and more that would be challenging 

[Gryzor]

Oh dear, this was being discussed before Xmas... Indeed, any news?

[CPCLER]

The XEO3 project for the CPC plus is very much alive.

Progress has been slower than expected though.

We are now three guys working on the project. Ygdrazil recently being attached to the project. Project members are now ZilogMonkey, Ygdrazil and myself, but since we are not teenagers anymore (but sometimes behaving like we were) we cannot devote all our time to this project (or at least the time we really want to).

Also failing to make an official port of XEO3 the name of the game will probably change a bit. Failing to become 'official porters' has also slowed down the developing speed as we need to reverse engineer much of the graphics, levels and the game logic. Here Ygdrazil has been of great help, as he has been able to make some java programming that converts gifs into level maps and tile graphics (and much more). We are developing in strictly modular manner to simplify melting the different parts of the game logic together.

Also using the CPC plus features has been a bit of challenge, as only ZilogMonkey had any experience in using the plus features. But this barrier has been overcome, with a positive side effect that many routines also run on a plain CPC. Opening the possibility for a version of XEO3 for the old gen CPC - in a distint future! Also we can now test the code outside Winape on Ygdrazils CPC6128 plus.

Sound is a major issue though, as none of us can program the AY (or make anything worthy using a tracker). ZilogMonkey has the idea to use the Drumkit for sound effects, and the AY for the tune. He even scavenged a C64 for the SID chip, and interfaced it to the CPC, with the help of a diagram for the speccy! But success is very limited in the sound department all we get is noise. Literally speaking. We hope that the Spectrum version of XEO3 will feature a tune we can borrow! Or use the upcoming French CPC plus sound tracker(cannot remember the link). ... Well sound is problem!!

Anyway we expect to be releasing a playable preview of level one, without sound in the near future.

As we are from the same town we have held regular developing meetings at the local pub. Discussing XEO3 and CPC world domination. Needles to say we have had great fun and nasty hangovers.

XEO3 for CPC plus not dead!!

/CPCLER
 

Oh dear, this was being discussed before Xmas... Indeed, any news?

[ukmarkh]

Thank goodness... any problems getting it to scroll smoothly???

keep up the good work guys and if I can help in any way just drop me a note.

[Executioner]

Also failing to make an official port of XEO3 the name of the game will probably change a bit. Failing to become 'official porters' has also slowed down the developing speed as we need to reverse engineer much of the graphics, levels and the game logic.

Hi CPCLER, why didn't they let you become official porters?

[Gryzor]

I second that question, what was the problem?

Also, I appreciate the problems, but to me they show much promise... You should have a blog or something to keep us posed

[fano]

XEO3 for CPC plus not dead!!

This is a great news, i was afraid about that project that look great and it is a source of motivation for my own project 
I am working too on a 6128+ shmup project and wrote a dev tool to improve sprites speed/size and to build levels in conjunction with Tile Studio, i can share it if you need one.

But what about official port ? what failed ?

[CPCLER]

Maybe ZilogMonkey should elaborate on why XEO3 on the CPC plus is not an official port! As he had the contact with the developers of the official XEO3.

But I will give it a try ....

We started work on XEO3 for the CPC plus in the autumn of '08. We had talked about making a game for the CPC plus for a while. After seeing a preview of XEO3 for the Commodore Plus/4 we thought that XEO3 for would be relative simple and ideal candidate for a remake on the CPC plus, many of the game features is nicely supported by the hardware features of the CPC plus (Lacking on the plus/4, eg. no hardware sprites, scrolling etc.). Also one of our favorite game generes of the 80s is the vertical shooter, and this genere is missing completely on the CPC plus, even though the CPC plus seemingly is a natural born vertical shooter machine - so this contributed to our motivation.

Much of the graphics seemed easy to port to the CPC plus, so we could concentrate on programming. Secondly there is a Spectrum version in progress. So we hoped it would be easy to port the scripting engine. http://www.javalemmings.com/wiki/index.php?title=XeO3_Scripting_Documentation The scripting engine is responsible for movement of baddies etc (the most complex part of the game logic)

After we programmed the basic stuff (Prof of concept) and converted a few sprites and was sure that it could be done on the CPC plus ZilogMonkey contacted the original programmers, with a pretty disappointing outcome. Apparently the guys behind XEO3 is professional games programmers, with for us weird design goals. One of their goals is to document how a game is made the ideal way (as I understand it). Also the XEO3 developers is afraid that we will not be able to complete the XEO3 port. Finally (to make the story short) we would probably not be able to show any record of a completed similar project in the Z80 department as we are hobbyists (for a very long time, and proud of it). The reply to ZilogMonkey's mail was actually a list of conditions we had to fullfill, to gain access to sourcecode and graphics.

Supprising since XEO3 to our knowledge has no commercial interest at all, and porting XEO3 to any platform would be a tribute to the original developers.

... So no official port for now, we will try to contact the original developers again when the project reaches a more advanced stage. Right now we are writing our own, admittedly more primitive, scripting engine.

For a month or so we were actually pretty demoralised, but luckily Ygdrazil came to our rescue, offering comfort, moral support, new points of views, offered to debug our code, and write the collision detection routines. So we are confident that a preview will be released in the near future.

/CPCLER

But what about official port ? what failed ?

[CPCLER]

No, everything is running smooth. Frame/pixel accurate - thanks to the hardware features of the CPC plus. About 20% of the frame time is reserved for sound playing....

A possible plain CPC port is different question.

/CPCLER

any problems getting it to scroll smoothly???

[fano]

Weird story, professional guys working on retro-programming project 
But this is their project so they can do what they want with it after all...
So don't care about official or not and keep up the good job 

[AugustoRuiz]

The XEO3 project for the CPC plus is very much alive.

...
Sound is a major issue though, as none of us can program the AY (or make anything worthy using a tracker). ZilogMonkey has the idea to use the Drumkit for sound effects, and the AY for the tune. He even scavenged a C64 for the SID chip, and interfaced it to the CPC, with the help of a diagram for the speccy! But success is very limited in the sound department all we get is noise. Literally speaking. We hope that the Spectrum version of XEO3 will feature a tune we can borrow! Or use the upcoming French CPC plus sound tracker(cannot remember the link). ... Well sound is problem!!
...

Great news!!!

I'm developing something "similar" to XEO3 for CPC 6128 (not Plus), using hardware scroll
For the sound part, maybe you can ask WYZ (at CEZ forums, no problem if you write in english) if you can use his AY player (has a small memory footprint). The songs can be composed using WYZTracker, which is available at the CPCWiki...

Cheers!

EDIT: I hope this is not considered spam... By the way, I'm pretty sure WYZ will be glad to let you use his player, which, by the way, is included in Artaburu's CPC library (also in this wiki)...

[Gryzor]

Really weird...

Three cheers for Ygdrazil

[Metalbrain]

(has a small memory footprint).

AFAIK the WYZPlayer has a small CPU footprint, but it needs a bit more memory than PT3 players such as Vortex.

[AugustoRuiz]

AFAIK the WYZPlayer has a small CPU footprint, but it needs a bit more memory than PT3 players such as Vortex.

Yup! My mistake... 

[Ygdrazil]

Hi AugustoRuiz

I don't think the footprint is the big problem! Its more how much frametime it takes for the player to do it's thing. 

Right now a test tune (a ripped tune from a game) is player while testing..

/Ygdrazil

Yup! My mistake...