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SWIV-a-like |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #113294, posted by Phlamethrower at 17:13, 9/2/2010 |
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I have a sudden urge to write a fast-paced 2D sidescrolling spaceship shooter. If the sprite plotter was constructed properly (i.e. to avoid overdraw wherever possible) I'd imagine you could get quite an impressive number of sprites on screen at once with modern (RISC OS) hardware (i.e. OMAP). It would also be an interesting test of exactly how powerful the hardware is: I think there's just enough memory bandwidth in a beagleboard to allow a game to both render and display at 720p, 32bpp, 60fps. So it will be interesting to see if that's possible in practice or whether a lower colour depth/smaller screen size will be required.
Of course I'm no artist, so god knows where I'd get several thousand HD-quality sprites from  |
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Simon Inns |
Message #113295, posted by sinns at 18:45, 9/2/2010, in reply to message #113294 |
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There's actually quite a few sites out there that you can get graphics from for creating open source games.
A quick google will get you there in no time, for example: http://gamesprites.wikicomplete.info/
That might not be the best site, but it will give you an idea of what to search for. |
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Xavier Tardy |
Message #113297, posted by Enzo at 19:08, 9/2/2010, in reply to message #113294 |
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Well.
What you describe is exactly what I've written for my verticval scrolling shoot em up.
It works perfectly on an a3010, 50 frames per second, with huge sprites, as if the machine was a neo geo.
The plotting and unplotting routines are just perfect in terms of CPU usage. |
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Dave Moore |
Message #113301, posted by DaveM at 20:20, 9/2/2010, in reply to message #113297 |
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No sh1t? :-O
ref: www.retrosoftware.co.uk, don't suppose you'd consider letting us publish it "properly"? i.e. design promo artwork and offer it on floppy + CD with printed inlays, labels etc?
So far we've released a couple of games for the BBC, but our first Arc release (Bomber Blaster*) is still some way off.
* = the most recent build of which was shown off at the RetroVision show in Oxford last weekend (pics here and here)
(We don't profit from any of this, btw - just doing it purely for the coolness factor of seeing new Acorn games on physical media!) |
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Trevor Johnson |
Message #113302, posted by trevj at 04:51, 10/2/2010, in reply to message #113301 |
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...our first Arc release (Bomber Blaster)... And don't forget this 5-player (IIRC) photo from the ROUGOL 2009 London show too! |
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Xavier Tardy |
Message #113303, posted by Enzo at 09:00, 10/2/2010, in reply to message #113301 |
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Hello.
Although the game is running OK now, I need some real graphics for the background, and to spend some time to design the levels.
I'm working with graphics borrowed from the Net, and I'm not very pleased with it.
So far the 'technical' side is running OK, but it's not enough for me.
If it had to be released, I don't want it to look like an amateur project, I'd like it to look 'pro'.
Everything I did was to demonstrate the great possibilities of the Acorn Archimedes range, and well, to show how poorly programmed were the 2D games for these fantastic machines.
Some original music would be great too.
Some features of the game :
- overscan 416*288, 256 colour playing area
- up to 259 different colours on screen (as I use the 3 colour cursor hardware sprite to plot the score)
Thanks to hardware scrolling (MEMC) and my highly optimised clipped plotting/unplotting routines, dozens of normal sized sprites can move on screen, and several huge (for example 4 80*80 sprites) all this in the VBL.
I'm currently working on a second set of routines to save time when plotting multiple identical sprites on screen.(1 LDMIA for n STMIA).
I'm working slowly as I'm all alone, and each time I appear on the programmer google group I have to face stupid 'university teacher remarks' about hardware usage, asm, and blabla and it makes me puke.
Cheers. |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #113305, posted by Phlamethrower at 10:05, 10/2/2010, in reply to message #113303 |
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Impressive! Do you have any plans to release the source code at all? It would be interesting to see all the little tricks you've used for optimisation.
I'm working slowly as I'm all alone, and each time I appear on the programmer google group I have to face stupid 'university teacher remarks' about hardware usage, asm, and blabla and it makes me puke. You should be safe enough from that here. 2D graphics are simple enough that there's no real harm in writing your own plotter in assembler, especially if your target is a fixed hardware platform and you're trying to squeeze every ounce of performance from it. |
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richard cheng |
Message #113307, posted by richcheng at 11:41, 10/2/2010, in reply to message #113305 |
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Pics or it didn't happen.
Seriously, though. I'd love to see some video of that, even if it's not ready for release as a game yet. |
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Martin Bazley |
Message #113308, posted by swirlythingy at 12:27, 10/2/2010, in reply to message #113303 |
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Some original music would be great too. I could probably help there, if you let me know what you want...
http://www.starfighter.acornarcade.com/mysite/music.html |
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Jason Togneri |
Message #113309, posted by filecore at 14:01, 10/2/2010, in reply to message #113307 |
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Pics or it didn't happen. That's awfully verbose (and grammatically correct). I always thought it was "Pix or stfu".
The TIB version, of course, being  |
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Edward Rogers |
Message #113310, posted by Monty at 15:25, 10/2/2010, in reply to message #113303 |
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@ Enzo;
I'd love to have a go at suplying some home made graphics, should you wish. Not the backgrounds, but depending on the limitations (E.g. is it 4, 8, 24 or 60 frames per sprite?) could do some pretty good animations for you. See pachydermia.com/animation.htm if you're interested in collaborating, therefore no longer being "all alone". |
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vanpeebles |
Message #113311, posted by vanpeebles at 16:29, 10/2/2010, in reply to message #113310 |
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Have you animated any dustbins before? |
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Edward Rogers |
Message #113312, posted by Monty at 16:44, 10/2/2010, in reply to message #113311 |
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In the BSA they used to call me the dustbin king. Though, with hindsight, that may have been a reference to my sleeping arrangements. |
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Edward Rogers |
Message #113313, posted by Monty at 16:47, 10/2/2010, in reply to message #113312 |
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Is Enzo's game a garbage-em-up, or was that just an unrelated question? |
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vanpeebles |
Message #113314, posted by vanpeebles at 18:41, 10/2/2010, in reply to message #113313 |
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Sorry I couldn't help but think of Ted Rogers!  |
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Jason Togneri |
Message #113315, posted by filecore at 20:12, 10/2/2010, in reply to message #113314 |
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Back on vaguely topic-ish, SWIV was a cracking game. I always loved driving round that briefly-experienced corn field in the jeep. I had a friend, once, and we played it together and we were ace and could do it from start to end in a single evening (okay, the pace of the game was locked in any case) and hardly ever died. The forward-facing V-shaped spread of five rockets was the most efficient. Oh, the memories  |
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Blind Moose |
Message #113316, posted by Acornut at 21:24, 10/2/2010, in reply to message #113315 |
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..I had a friend, once,.. Lucky sod! Nobody luvs me. (possibly 'cause I keep going off topic?) |
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Xavier Tardy |
Message #113317, posted by Enzo at 23:32, 10/2/2010, in reply to message #113310 |
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@ Enzo;
I'd love to have a go at suplying some home made graphics, should you wish. Not the backgrounds, but depending on the limitations (E.g. is it 4, 8, 24 or 60 frames per sprite?) could do some pretty good animations for you. See pachydermia.com/animation.htm if you're interested in collaborating, therefore no longer being "all alone". Well Edward yes of course I would be happy to have sbdy behind me pushing me to work more seriously.
The game runs at 50 frames per second so for the animations it's up to you : the animating sequence read can give any type of frequency up to 50 per sec of course.
Animations are great but I'd like the game to work on a 2 Mb machine and not use dozens of disks ...
It's why I've put aside my 1st set of plotting/unplotting routines which were generated code... it's good for a demo, not for a game.
And no I didn't want to include the 'generator/parser' in the game to create the code when needed... I'm not generous enough, now that I know some active people in the community, I prefer keeping my little recipes.
I don't want to show a demo of the game but I've got a demo written in 1992 or 93 using some tricks used in the game.
It was never published (some small bugs) and was my first real attempt at coding on the Archimedes.
If you want to laugh I can send it to sbdy who could host it on his site to make it available for everybody.
Please let me know. |
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Xavier Tardy |
Message #113318, posted by Enzo at 23:40, 10/2/2010, in reply to message #113305 |
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Well Jeffrey.
There is no magic and I'm sure being who you are in less than an hour of active thinking about plotting/unplotting 2D shapes moving in a background you'll draw the same conclusions I did. |
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Xavier Tardy |
Message #113319, posted by Enzo at 07:12, 11/2/2010, in reply to message #113308 |
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Some original music would be great too. I could probably help there, if you let me know what you want...
http://www.starfighter.acornarcade.com/mysite/music.html
Hello.
thanks a lot for your proposal.
I'd be happy to get everything musical from the welcome page to the game levels and well some samples too. I wanted to sample sounds from my DVD collection but it's again a lot of work.
Cheers,
XT |
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Xavier Tardy |
Message #113320, posted by Enzo at 08:56, 11/2/2010, in reply to message #113319 |
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I've just uploaded my demo, aged 18 now, to sbdy who will host it on his site, so you'll all be able to download it.
It's more to check routines than to provide a sophisticated visual experience, and never was released for this reason.
The bugs will help you understand where some of the tricks are (although it's been improved and CPU usage now slashed down to 25% or 50% of what you should notice. Keep your eyes open !) |
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Martin Bazley |
Message #113323, posted by swirlythingy at 12:37, 11/2/2010, in reply to message #113319 |
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I'd be happy to get everything musical from the welcome page to the game levels and well some samples too. I wanted to sample sounds from my DVD collection but it's again a lot of work. Won't be able to help you with samples, unfortunately (try searching the Internet - sampleswap.org seems to be a good one), but I can supply music. Basically, how much music do you want, for what in-game circumstances, in what format, and arranged how? |
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Xavier Tardy |
Message #113324, posted by Enzo at 12:50, 11/2/2010, in reply to message #113323 |
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Well.
I need a 4 channel QTM song for the following :
- levels
- specific end levels with big bosses
- you win and reach the next level
- you miserably lose
I'd be happy to get an 8 channel (or better if QTM handles it as DS does if I'm not wrong) soundtrack for these :
- opening (welcome) title screen
- all of fame
8-)
Lots of work no ?
But interesting.
PS : I intend to use the QTM soundtracker as I believe it's the fastest player available.
PS 2 : What do you mean by 'arranged' ?
PS 3 : if you give me an email I can send you my old demo to show you what I had done at the time.
[Edited by Enzo at 13:32, 11/2/2010] |
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Martin Bazley |
Message #113325, posted by swirlythingy at 16:29, 11/2/2010, in reply to message #113324 |
Posts: 460
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Well.
I need a 4 channel QTM song for the following :
- levels
- specific end levels with big bosses
- you win and reach the next level
- you miserably lose Right. So that's how many tunes altogether? Do you want different tunes for different worlds or bosses?
If so, it would be helpful if you could write down a complete list of the worlds and bosses in the game, and tell me what 'mood' is needed for each one.
I'd be happy to get an 8 channel (or better if QTM handles it as DS does if I'm not wrong) soundtrack for these :
- opening (welcome) title screen
- all of fame This brings me back to my question about formats. My composing software is Digital Symphony, which can output Digital Symphony files (obviously) of up to 8 channels, ArcTracker files of up to 8 channels (but I'd rather not use that one, as the effects are pathetic) and ProTracker files of up to 4 channels. I believe there are one or two ProTracker derivatives (notably StarTrekker) which can have 8 channels, and that QTM can play them, but I can't produce them without writing my own converter (not inconceivable, incidentally - I know all these formats like the back of my hand, and it would probably take me an afternoon or so).
But basically, if you're using QTM (and if this is going to run on an A3010 I'd say you need all the performance you can get) you need ProTracker files, which, in practical terms, means no more than four channels. Sure, I can supply 8 channel tunes, but you won't be able to play them.
PS : I intend to use the QTM soundtracker as I believe it's the fastest player available. Correct.
PS 2 : What do you mean by 'arranged' ? Do you want lots of little files, or one big one (a la Lemmings)?
PS 3 : if you give me an email I can send you my old demo to show you what I had done at the time. It's on the website, but I wouldn't be able to run it anyway (except possibly in A310emu). |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #113326, posted by Phlamethrower at 16:51, 11/2/2010, in reply to message #113325 |
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but I can't produce them without writing my own converter (not inconceivable, incidentally - I know all these formats like the back of my hand, and it would probably take me an afternoon or so). There's a RISC OS program for converting between tracker formats available somewhere; I'll try digging up a link when I get home (even though it might not be particularly helpful in this case if you can just produce ProTracker files directly)
[edit]
In fact, it's here - !TrackConv. Unfortunately it's not 32bit compatible, but I think it should work OK under Aemulor.
[Edited by Phlamethrower at 16:53, 11/2/2010] |
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VinceH |
Message #113327, posted by VincceH at 18:07, 11/2/2010, in reply to message #113326 |
 Lowering the tone since the dawn of time
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In fact, it's here - !TrackConv. Bah. Seeing that reminded me that I still haven't got around to converting my old Coconizer tunes - and looking now, they aren't on this laptop's hard drive anywhere. Probably on one of the RiscPCs in the loft. |
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Martin Bazley |
Message #113328, posted by swirlythingy at 20:04, 11/2/2010, in reply to message #113326 |
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In fact, it's here - !TrackConv. Unfortunately it's not 32bit compatible, but I think it should work OK under Aemulor. I know about !TrackConv, but it won't produce an 8 channel ProTracker file. Ye cannae change the format limitations, ye ken!
That should be 'change', obviously. 
[Edited by swirlythingy at 20:49, 11/2/2010] |
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Xavier Tardy |
Message #113329, posted by Enzo at 06:59, 12/2/2010, in reply to message #113320 |
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Hello everybody.
If you want to see the demo it's here :
http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/xthopacstuarc
I'll soon amend the text as some details are not very clear and more infos should interest you.
Have a nice day. |
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Edward Rogers |
Message #113387, posted by Monty at 23:44, 14/2/2010, in reply to message #113317 |
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Could you e-mail me (monty@umpire.com) with the following;
> What res and colour palette are the sprites?
> How many will you need?
> What theme are you going for? Please include details. I don't mind fussy specifications, as long as its obvious from the get go.
> Do you have a timetable for this game's release?
Cheers. |
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van Engelen Thomas |
Message #113455, posted by highlandcattle at 07:45, 20/2/2010, in reply to message #113294 |
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Ho,
I love a good shooter ,it is my favorite genre. Would 32bitting Shperes of Chaos not be a good test for the Beagle board?
If you are having problems drawing enough enemies, make the focus on the bullets like most japanese games do these days. By having million- kazillion bullets on screen the focus is shifted from destroying enemies to evading bullets. This subgenre is called Bullet Hell. Check out rRootage for a good free game (on almost any platform).
Alternativly you could use digistised LEGO creations instead of sprites. These LEGOS would be easy to make. I don't know about digitising them,sadly.
Last option visit Shmups.com and ask for help.These guys are hardcore fans! |
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