Sorcery plus - New/Old Plus remake

[Trebmint]

Oh and backspace is Pause... and then Fire to unpause.

[Devilmarkus]

Nice progress!
Looks really good.

Just a thing:
Is it possible, that you don't initialise the sprites well?

(A real CPC+ has random pixels in the sprites, so you have to clear them fully, before you define them new)

My (crappy) CPC+ emulator does the same: On reset it fills the sprites with random bytes.

So, I see this: (Rest of screen is not visible, because it's my sprites debugger window)

The "bad" pixels appear different after each reset...

[Trebmint]

If you mean those random pixels they're not sprite relics. They are issues where the line splits... problem is because the black part of the screen above it is actually a repeat of the screen below with the palette turned black... but the + takes two scanelines to reset the colours to the next palette so you get what are seemingly randon pixels. This will be fixed by setting the initial screen to a point where the visible lines are blank

[Trebmint]

Actually ignore me. I will reset the sprites properly... just trying to save on memory

[Devilmarkus]

We will see...
Perhaps my emulator is inaccurate somewhere...

I transferred your CPR to BIN and then back to CPR...

Hopefully this works ok now in Arnold:

[TFM]

Hi Trebmint,


Well, I know how much comments on own productions suxx! First your recent pictures are amazing! Great work. But there is one thing, that could IMHO improved. The "Sorcery" logo hast huge pixels, it's resolution is even worse than on a 464 old generation without disc drive  . So don't take it offensive please, but IMHO you really should alter that. I assume you are using sprites for that, and therefore the giant square pixels. Well you could just divide X and Y by 2 and everything would look just great. Give it a try.
Anything else, just wonderful! 

[andycadley]

We will see...
Perhaps my emulator is inaccurate somewhere...

Well by default the CPC+ sprites are full of "random" values, so your emulator is probably doing (roughly) the right thing.

[Trebmint]

Just looked up the price of EPROMS.... so its actually more or less the same price for 64k as 512k. And there was me thinking of compression to keep in the 64k.... nah just gonna stick more graphics on it haha

[redbox]

Just looked up the price of EPROMS.... so its actually more or less the same price for 64k as 512k. And there was me thinking of compression to keep in the 64k.... nah just gonna stick more graphics on it haha

The cheapest I found were the flashable 1mb old BIOS chips on ebay.

They work in any size on the Plus up to 512kb and was only £10 ish for 10 including p&p.

[arnoldemu]

Oh and backspace is Pause... and then Fire to unpause.

Please change so P is pause so that it will work on gx4000

[mr_lou]

We put this little guide together some time back. It's great.
Guidelines for Programming games - CPCWiki
Should be followed by all coders, imho.

[TotO]

The cheapest I found were the flashable 1mb old BIOS chips on ebay.
They work in any size on the Plus up to 512kb and was only £10 ish for 10 including p&p.

I don't understand well. They are 1Mb, so 128KB IC, yes?

[Trebmint]

Please change so P is pause so that it will work on gx4000

Tis now fixed..... Now I have to try and work out a scheme for the chunky logo. People are never satisfied

[redbox]

I don't understand well. They are 1Mb, so 128KB IC, yes?

The flashable ones are M27C1001.

Yes they are 128kb x 8.  You can use them in Plus cartridges as either 128kb, 256kb or 512kb.

As I said, you can get second hand ones on ebay really cheaply and they flash fine in my Willem Programmmer.

[TotO]

OK. It's what I though, but was not sure.

[CanonMan]

Tis now fixed..... Now I have to try and work out a scheme for the chunky logo. People are never satisfied

Get rid, it looks so out of place! IMHO.

[Trebmint]

Well this is my final attempt at making it pretty... though this is a tech mock up as it involves a lot of work with the panel area and its different from the wordy original version. But im keeping a large logo... I like it, but its mode 0 proper not super chunky pixels. The book too will be mode 0 not mode 1 and will slowly replace the image of the spell book with an burned looking version rather than just disappearing. How people like it now

[Kris]

nice update

[ivarf]

Well this is my final attempt at making it pretty... though this is a tech mock up as it involves a lot of work with the panel area and its different from the wordy original version. But im keeping a large logo... I like it, but its mode 0 proper not super chunky pixels. The book too will be mode 0 not mode 1 and will slowly replace the image of the spell book with an burned looking version rather than just disappearing. How people like it now

Really looking forward to this game! Suggestion for naming: Sorcery 2013 or Sorcery++
Is it technically possible to make this game a smooth scroller on the "new hardware"?

Seems like I have to update my avatar soon.

[Trebmint]

Really looking forward to this game! Suggestion for naming: Sorcery 2013 or Sorcery++
Is it technically possible to make this game a smooth scroller on the "new hardware"?

Seems like I have to update my avatar soon.

You mean scroll around the entire map? The answer to that is no. Technically its possible but that would be a different game wouldnt it, and it would need a complete rewrite. Ive taken the original and tried to match the plus hardware to what it already does. For instance the only sprites used in game are for the the sorcerer, and that creates an additional headache at the end where all the normal sorcerers turn into the sprite version... which I've yet to get around too. Other sprites are used for the bottom panel, which in turn allows me to have a big logo on screen. The upgrade really is about making it prettier, more cohesive and graphically rich. It is however still the same game. If anyone can do some better music though I cant write a song using a tracker


Still a longish way to go as I've decided to try and make this as good an upgrade as possible


And the name ++ was the thing that drew me to it cos its a kinda pun.... haha yes Sorcery ++. Technically its Sorcery not Sorcery+ so really its only Sorcery+

[/size]

[TotO]

Here a 16 sprites Plus logo for your top screen... 

[Trebmint]

Here a 16 sprites Plus logo for your top screen... 

I did initially go down the route of making the top logo a sprite. 14 sprites infact, so 2 spare for sorcerer graphics. However that changed and the new logo is Mode 0 and the 16 sprites are used 4 for item you are carrying (replacing the wordy You are Carrying) 4 for the Energy (which replaces the Wordy Energy % thing) and 6 for the Book which becomes 16 colour but Mode 0. And of course 2 for the sorcerer.


Unfortuantely I dont have time to do any sprite swapping during the game as the game runs on an interrupt system, and the memory is full with the existing game (Since its not designed for plus they made no allowance for it). Meaning all the sprite data has to be pulled from ROM and that means the only time I can copy sprite data from Ram to Sprite Ram is during the blank. Else you get bank memory drawn on screen). I will think about it though, but Im worried it will slow the game down. Doing so many palette changes already does have a processor hit dont forget

[Trebmint]

Here a 16 sprites Plus logo for your top screen... 

Oh and the image is 160x40? So that's 16x16 sprites laid out how?

[Sykobee (Briggsy)]

[size=78%] For instance the only sprites used in game are for the the sorcerer, and that creates an additional headache at the end where all the normal sorcerers turn into the sprite version... which I've yet to get around too. O[/size]

I guess that you could hide the energy, item carried and book at this point to reuse these sprites for the multiple sorcerers?


Isn't that a lot of memory to use just for the logo, btw? I guess if it is available then it's no big deal.

[TotO]

Oh and the image is 160x40? So that's 16x16 sprites laid out how?

Damned... My grid was set on 10x10 instead of 8x8 pixels... So does 160x40 instead of 128x32...
I'm sorsorry.