Eternal Light project

[Gryzor]

Haven't had much time (been renovating an apartment, sigh...), but I've been dipping in and out and I have to say, except for the issues I mentioned, it's a top-class little game... Congrats again!

@Psychris Well, you could always do it on the PC but with CPC-style gfx, as we've seen before! That's be sweeeet!

[mr_lou]

I thought Arnold would be updating the dsk image as I made changes last night. Otherwise, I would have expected a read-only error message. When I exited the emulator, it offered to save and I accepted. However, the dsk image wasn't modified at all so all my changes were lost.

Yea, it seems to be a Linux issue. The same happens when using Caprice.
I already informed the author of Arnold about this, and I believe it's on his Look-Into list.

Eternal Light has inspired me to make my own game which is pretty cool. I haven't decided which platform yet or what form it'll take. I do know that all the crazy memory juggling on the CPC makes me nervous 

That's great! What languages do you know? For CPC development, if you know a little C and/or Assembly, you should take a look at z88dk.org and CPCRSLIB to go with it. Building it in C makes it relative easier to port to another platform later.
What platforms are interesting for you? Mobile phones? Gamepark? Flash? Java?
Make a new thread about your development when you get started.

Homebrew rocks. I'm looking forward to spending some evenings with Eternal Light. Morri, you could write to Retro Gamer Mag at retrogamer AT imagine-publishing DOT co DOT uk (e-mail address to write to for suggesting homebrew projects for them to review). Someone must have written them, because surprisingly they reviewed our game Sort'em in issue 61 on page 105. That was neat!

[psychris]

That's great! What languages do you know? For CPC development, if you know a little C and/or Assembly, you should take a look at z88dk.org and CPCRSLIB to go with it. Building it in C makes it relative easier to port to another platform later.

Hmmm... Not sure. A modern alternative to Sprites Alive for the Mac would be ideal.

[Axelay]

Nice work Morri, and Mr_Lou! 

@psychris:  What version of Arnold are you using?  The previous version had a bug where you couldn't save to disk images, but this was fixed late last year ( v1.7.8 ).  Also, crazy memory juggling is fun! 

[mr_lou]

If Eternal Light is to be ported to e.g. the Gamepark, then here's a MOD version of the main theme ready. It sounds about 94% like the CPC version.

[Gryzor]

If Eternal Light is to be ported to e.g. the Gamepark, then here's a MOD version of the main theme ready. It sounds about 94% like the CPC version.

Heh, lovely mod... made me all cheerful

[psychris]

@psychris:  What version of Arnold are you using?  The previous version had a bug where you couldn't save to disk images, but this was fixed late last year ( v1.7.8 ).

Yep, using version 1.7.8, downloaded yesterday. I think the problem was caused because I ran Arnold directly from the DMG file. I didn't extract the application in my excitement to play Eternal Light. Anyway, now I'm running Arnold properly, it's updating the disk image fine so I'm guessing it's something to do with security.

[Targhan]

Hi,
Did someone actually managed to play this game on a real CPC ? I tried both DSKs :
- On the first one, I couldn't run the story, but the game ran *almost* fine (with a buggy music, far too slow, and some artifacts on the screen).
- The second one, the story works fine, but the game crashed when initialising the levels (artifacts on the screen, then freeze). I thought it was because of the Ramcard or the CPCBooster, so I disconnected everything, but it still doesn't work.
Is there a third version available ?
Thanks,
Targhan/Arkos.

[Gryzor]

Hm, interesting, I think I'll try it tomorrow... What machine did you run it on?

[Targhan]

CPC 6128.

[voXfReaX]

CPC 6128.

Same as Targhan here... I tested in 2 CPCs 6128 (crtc type 0 and type 1). Game displays the intro-screen and when it tries to load the whole game in memory, it just crashes... 

[TomEtJerry]

Hello,

I have tried the game on my CPC Plus, and, like other players, it crashes.

You should not initialize the Sprite routines before putting datas in extended memory (file EXTERNEL.BAS), Sprite Alive seems not to like it :-).
So, to correct the bug, put your CALL &7000 in the line 16. Doing that, the game loads correctly and seems to be ok.

T&J/GPA

[Morri]

thanx for the feedback on the real CPC's. I haven't had a machine for over 15 years   so I never could've tested for that little bug without your help. New version 1.02 below with a few changes in the intro screen because of what the call 7000 did.

[Gryzor]

No real CPC? Oh man, you need to change that...

[TomEtJerry]

Hello,

The game seems now to be ok. I say "seems" because I have experienced several crashes in the menu, but this time, I have no "software" explanation. The problem seems to stop when my Hacker is physically unplugged...

So, I managed to play the game and finish it. You have made a good job for a first game : nice graphics, nice music, the only big lake is the animation (damned Sprite Alive) that is too slow and not very smooth. Anyway, thanks for this good time on my cpc. Hope to see in a near future another production from you :-).

T&J/GPA

[mr_lou]

thanx for the feedback on the real CPC's. I haven't had a machine for over 15 years    so I never could've tested for that little bug without your help. New version 1.02 below with a few changes in the intro screen because of what the call 7000 did.

So I finally tried it on my real CPC, but I can't get it working neither on my CPC6128 or my CPC464 with 64k expansion.

On the CPC6128 it crashes/resets just as the menu music begins. By deleting line 80, it doesn't crash - until I press fire. It doesn't reset though. The screen just freeze with different colors.

The CPC464 will never run it, due to CPC6128-only commands, like CLEAR INPUT and such. The very first |draw,"sprites" doesn't work on the 464 either for some reason. But never mind the CPC464. It could be neat, but not insanely important.

Why doesn't it work on my CPC6128?

[MiguelSky]

Hi there Great game, morri, but I have the same problem as Mr_Lou in CPC6128, the game hangs in the main menu when music starts to sound. Some corrupt lines appear too.

[Ygdrazil]

Yes great game!

Runs in emulator! But not when transfered to old faithfull  6128

/Ygdrazil

Hi there Great game, morri, but I have the same problem as Mr_Lou in CPC6128, the game hangs in the main menu when music starts to sound. Some corrupt lines appear too.

[Morri]

Hmmm, I am sorry the game doesn't seem to work on real machines. I don't have a real cpc so i could never test the game to work out all the bugs. I really have no idea  . It may have to stay as it is unless someone is willing to look at it and make their own changes to make it go...

[mr_lou]

Hey, when is someone going to fix this game so it's playable on a real CPC?
 
  Anyway, I've made a MIDI version of the theme, so now it's ready for a JavaME port.     (Note: Not all soundcards support the chip-sound emulation).
  I also have a MOD version for a Smartphone port.
 
  Get to work coders! 

[Axelay]

Just recently got a 3 1/2 drive on my 6128, so thought I'd have a bit of a look at this.  I'm afraid it looks like Sprites Alive itself is the issue, as my 6128 will crash with just this part of the loader, followed by what I presume would be necessary to begin playing the music if it were loaded:

memory &5b00
load"sprite.1",&7000
call &7000
memory &3fff
out &7f00,&c5

Just doesnt like that memory being banked, though all appears well when I try this in Winape set to a 6128.

[arnoldemu]

Just recently got a 3 1/2 drive on my 6128, so thought I'd have a bit of a look at this.  I'm afraid it looks like Sprites Alive itself is the issue, as my 6128 will crash with just this part of the loader, followed by what I presume would be necessary to begin playing the music if it were loaded:

memory &5b00
load"sprite.1",&7000
call &7000
memory &3fff
out &7f00,&c5

Just doesnt like that memory being banked, though all appears well when I try this in Winape set to a 6128.

Hmmm.. good work to find this. Maybe "sprites alive" is using interrupts?
Maybe it is possible to move the initialisation of the music and then setup a new function to call the music.

[AMSDOS]

I'm a bit confused, I've seen a few versions of this game floating around. I downloaded Eternal102.DSK from here, though I also had a Modified Disc from CPC-Power with a slightly altered game which made it possible to collect 9 of the 10 Lanterns without getting help from the Lady, though I got to the endgame bit and it was buggy.


Anyhow I made a 464 Compatible Version (it still needs 128k), wasn't sure how the issue with the Real Amstrads was settled (looked like it was), though I'm not sure if I've just used an old Emulator compatible version of the program. Of course I don't have a Real 464 to test it on.    It's just annoying the endgame bit isn't working.

[mr_lou]

I didn't even know the game has been fixed to work on the real machines. I'd love to play this game, but never have because it initially only worked on emulators. I've tried it on the CPC464, CPC6128 and my new CPCplus, and it doesn't run on any of those machines. Are you telling me it does now? If so, please gimme a link or two.

[AMSDOS]

I didn't even know the game has been fixed to work on the real machines. I'd love to play this game, but never have because it initially only worked on emulators. I've tried it on the CPC464, CPC6128 and my new CPCplus, and it doesn't run on any of those machines. Are you telling me it does now? If so, please gimme a link or two.

I'm sorry, I'm not sure, I was reading [user]TomEtJerry[/user] response and got the impression the program was fixed to work on a Real Amstrad. I downloaded "ETERNAL102.DSK" which I thought was the fix, now I'm not sure. That Disk Image though is different from the one on CPC-Power, I downloaded the Modified Disk Image which presented me with a File which asked me if I wanted to Read the Story & Allow Infinite Lives. It was that Disk Image I used to run on a 464 in Winape, though like the author don't have any way of testing it on a real 464. Obviously the 464 Still needs 128k, I've only made the program BASIC 1.0 Compatible.


I guess if programs like this are exposing flaws which don't normally work on a Real Amstrad, then I guess they will have to start simulating these sorts of bugs - dare I say, that sounds difficult.