Brainstorming

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eslapion
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Re: Brainstorming

Post by eslapion »

Forgot to mention:

By default, the Behr-Bonz presents the lower half of a window to BLK5 ($A000-$BFFF) and mirrored to BLK2 ($4000-$5FFF) while the upper half is presented to BLK1 ($2000-$3FFF) and mirrored to BLK3 ($6000-$7FFF).

This can be shuffled around very easily.

Added edit:
You set the window you want to access by POKEing it's value to any IO3 address ($9C00-$9FFF) but that too can be changed to IO2 or any of the 3k RAM expansion sections if preferable.
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R'zo
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Re: Brainstorming

Post by R'zo »

eslapion wrote:Forgot to mention:

By default, the Behr-Bonz presents the lower half of a window to BLK5 ($A000-$BFFF) and mirrored to BLK2 ($4000-$5FFF) while the upper half is presented to BLK1 ($2000-$3FFF) and mirrored to BLK3 ($6000-$7FFF).

This can be shuffled around very easily.

Added edit:
You set the window you want to access by POKEing it's value to any IO3 address ($9C00-$9FFF) but that too can be changed to IO2 or any of the 3k RAM expansion sections if preferable.
Out of curiosity, why are the blocks mirrored?
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R'zo
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Re: Brainstorming

Post by R'zo »

I am abbondoning Frankys Quest (as i have named it) for this project. After playing around with the graphics, maps, story, puzzles and ememies for the last month, the idea of this game has just grown way to big for even all the memory i have to work with. I could dumb it down but it is far to great an idea to do that to. So the idea will go temporarily on the shelf and be pulled down later for my first major project in modern code.

I will still be persuing this project, just with a different story and character. I will be using sci-fi themes since it pretty unanimous i including myslelf that there are enough fantasy rpgs.
Aside from that all i will say about it for now is that it will a unique take on the genre and it will combine elments that have rarely if net never been combined in a single game.
More will be said when I am ready to start a wip on it.

As For Franky, his story will be told. This has been a difficult decision for me, I feel the vic deserves franky. I am just not comfident the vic can handle the size of his quest.
I will most likely create franky for the modern pc but as a tribute to the vic. Using the vic to create graphics, music anf sfx for the game. Franky might even have to use a small, well aged computer with a yellowed plastic body, dark brown keys and a small golden label on the top left corner labled vc-20 in order to complete quests in the game.
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eslapion
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Re: Brainstorming

Post by eslapion »

R'zo wrote:Out of curiosity, why are the blocks mirrored?
Because VIC-20 carts followed a specific pattern when it comes to address space usage. This pattern actually made them easier to back-up and clone.

Except for the 5 Scott Adams cartridges, none of the VIC-20 game cartridges that I know of ever used the BLK 2 area.

Here's the pattern as I understood it.
4k games only use BLK5 ($A000-$AFFF)
8k games only use BLK5 ($A000-$BFFF)
16k games use BLK5 then BLK1 OR BLK3 (never both and never BLK2)
Scott Adams games don't autostart and they always use BLK2 and BLK3 ($4000-$7FFF), they never use BLK5 or BLK1.

So, all games use BLK5 or BLK2, never both. Some games use BLK1 or BLK3, never both.

If what you have is a large number of 16k cells to store your games but want to map these cells to the VIC-20 so that all games work, mapping the 1st half of the cell to BLK2 and BLK5 then the 2nd half to BLK1 and BLK3 makes them compatible with all games.

Sidenote: Back in the early 80s, connecting the BLK5 !CS line of a game cart to the BLK2 line of the VIC-20 was an easy method to prevent the game from starting and easily dump it to tape or disk.
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