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#1
Applications (CPC and CPC-related) / Re: UniDOS, the new multi-devi...
Last post by zhulien - Today at 02:04I was thinking perhaps with mvram, if you put a small header at the start, you could let the user choose what they want to use it for, e.g. for usifac or for extra ram tracking (reserving blocks), and perhaps other purposes. I could really find it useful to track memory... e.g. have an array of characters in there to indicate which memory to not use (first 128k), which maybe to use for a ramdisc (user specified), which to allow for memory allocations within an application (so it doesn't trash ramdisc or stick data e.g. in first 128k) and other...
Nothing is forced on a user, but they are good options for those who do want nicely behaving software. I'd either have an array of 16kb block reservations or an array of 64kb block reservations depending on granularity either could be used. 1 allows up to 4mb to be tracked, one up to 16mb within 256 bytes.
If mvram allows for that in addition to what you currently use it for, perhaps 256bytes of nvram could be reserved for this purpose?
It means e.g. software like an assembler could be happy to store source and even preserve itself in ram knowing that cpmbplus with 512kb ramdisc might also trash it, so don't use the first 576kb in this example. Hence yo make it user definable. A user (andy?) who doesnt like such a feature won't be affected.
Nothing is forced on a user, but they are good options for those who do want nicely behaving software. I'd either have an array of 16kb block reservations or an array of 64kb block reservations depending on granularity either could be used. 1 allows up to 4mb to be tracked, one up to 16mb within 256 bytes.
If mvram allows for that in addition to what you currently use it for, perhaps 256bytes of nvram could be reserved for this purpose?
It means e.g. software like an assembler could be happy to store source and even preserve itself in ram knowing that cpmbplus with 512kb ramdisc might also trash it, so don't use the first 576kb in this example. Hence yo make it user definable. A user (andy?) who doesnt like such a feature won't be affected.
#2
Quote from: Brundij on Yesterday at 23:16DoneWow, that looks amazing compared to the original crap. Fantastic work, wish we could have an alternative archive of games with proper loading screens.
#3
Atom Smasher.
It was the first game I bought back in the day.
The cassette inlay made it look like a cool asteroids type of game, but it certainly wasn't that!
Still my most hated game to this day.
It was the first game I bought back in the day.
The cassette inlay made it look like a cool asteroids type of game, but it certainly wasn't that!
Still my most hated game to this day.
#4
Nice one.
Lots of cool optimisation ideas in there.
Lots of cool optimisation ideas in there.
#6
K
Amstrad CPC hardware / Re: ANSI Telnet for the M4 Boa...
Last post by kolleykibber - Yesterday at 23:09Quote from: Galatronic on 19:17, 28 April 24Hi everybody, any chance to run it with the USIFAC first version + esp8266 module? I have been tried the attached software used to connect the board to the lan to share files with a PC, I have connected an ESP8266 module with the Juno firmware and I'm able to initialized the modem, connect it to my wireless network, and connect a bbs @ 2400 bps but unluckily the software is not a real terminal so I can receive the pages in ascii mode only. I'm looking for a graphic terminal to connect the USIFAC 1 + esp8266 to the wifi network and browse the bbs' . many thanksHi @Galatronic,
There is a version that runs on the USIFAC in the bundle that ikonsgr published here
(connect_to_bbs.zip): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/4snbw50stbl3e0x7rav03/AM7dlZwgOM3s2secpPRZx5Q?rlkey=w7luj7x1d4j3c9g0ebk2dva9x&e=1&dl=0
It's a bit tricky though. It requires flashing the esp8266 with the ESP-link firmware which sets up a serial tcp link. Then you use a linux instance (I used a raspberry pi or a mac) to bridge telnet over the serial tcp link like this:
stty -icanon && ncat 192.168.1.124 23 -e "/usr/local/bin/telnet amstrad.simulant.uk 464".
#7
Quote from: ervin on 03:57, 06 May 24Wow that's a big difference!
What were the main optimisations that led to the speed-up?
To belatedly answer your question:
- instead of scanning the whole playfield (25 x 17 grid) for tiles that have been marked dirty to redraw, each bolt/enemy etc now just keeps two tiles to redraw directly.
- Precalculate the sprite for each possible cell on the grid (there's only 12 possible variations)
- Remove in/out parameters where possible and replace with globals
- Precalculate as much as possible into static arrays
- Adjust what gets done each game loop, and control that by a frame-counter set in the interrupt.
- Get rid of any divisions, and replace structs inside structs so that a struct never contains anything other than normal types.
#8
Renegade III
Saint Dragon
Super Soccer
Super Gran
Marsport
aand... I quit
Because, thinking again, those games are so bad, it won't be fun to read them over a book at all.
This book may not be a good idea at all
Saint Dragon
Super Soccer
Super Gran
Marsport
aand... I quit
Because, thinking again, those games are so bad, it won't be fun to read them over a book at all.
This book may not be a good idea at all
#9
Count Duckula 2 is the obvious one, and Bridge-It, the game everybody loves to hate. But I have a more personal dislike for Amsoft's 3D Space Invaders. Or the "educational" Animal Vegetable Mineral, which really should have been an example type-in in the BASIC manual, instead masquerading as a full-priced game. What else? Beach Head II was particularly dire. Roland on the Run was also awful.
#10
B
Amstrad CPC hardware / Re: Designing and building the...
Last post by Benedikt - Yesterday at 20:45I have uploaded the keyboard design to GitHub and created a new thread for discussions related to the keyboard.
Quote from: McArti0 on 22:54, 12 May 24@BenediktThe best answer I can give is that if the KC compact can do it, the KCC plus will be able to do it.
and will it be possible to display something like this?
https://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?msg=215472
Quote from: Bread80 on Yesterday at 12:49Using SRAM in an Amstrad is non-straightforward due to timing issues, but it's not hard to fix. I haven't had a chance yet to publish any details of how I did it, but feel free to ask.Hopefully the absence of Amstrad's gate array makes this one aspect slightly easier. We will see. But thank you for pointing it out.
Quote from: Bread80 on Yesterday at 12:49Also, if there's anything in my projects that's of use you're welcome to them. https://github.com/Bread80Sounds interesting. A bunch of them will definitely end up in my bookmarks.
The CPC Modular repository is not up to date but may well be useful. I created the project to break out the CPC into parts which I could work on separately. I now have a functioning backplane which breaks out almost all the standard Amstrad signal lines (or they could be repurposed). I'm planning a new version which fixes some layout issues.