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Re: WIP: Manic Miner port
Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2018 6:27 am
by beamrider
Just asking for completeness sake, but any reason you haven't done a bit more with the title screen like the speccy version?
Would be easy to knock up with my screen designer for instance.
Re: WIP: Manic Miner port
Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2018 9:00 am
by Kweepa
Bug-Byte vs Software Projects:
- it's the version I remember playing on my friend's Spectrum back in the day
- I kind of prefer the enemies, where they are different
- it's the version analysed at skoolkit.ca, which I used to rip the graphics and for screen layout reference
Title screen:
- I just didn't feel the urge
- not sure I have the space
Re: WIP: Manic Miner port
Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2018 11:41 am
by merman
I like the title screen, gives it a very early 80s feel.
There's only a couple of enemy changes (e.g the Penrose triangles - Software Projects' logo)
Re: WIP: Manic Miner port
Posted: Sat Feb 03, 2018 11:22 am
by Mayhem
- 1. In the Processing Plant, the enemy at the end of the conveyor belt is a bush in the BB version, whereas the SP version resembles a PacMan ghost.
2. In Amoebatrons' Revenge, the original BB amoebatrons look like alien octopuses with tentacles hanging down, whereas the SP amoebatrons resemble the Bug-Byte logo.
3. In The Warehouse, the original game has threshers travelling up and down the vertical slots. The SP version has 'impossible triangle' sprites (the logo) instead.
4. The Bug-Byte cheat code was the numerical sequence "6031769" - based on Matthew Smith's driving licence. In the SP version this was changed to "typewriter". (not that it matters here... or does it?!)
Re: WIP: Manic Miner port
Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2018 11:38 am
by aeb
Very nice! Better than original.
Maybe try call the voice frequency adjust routine 2-16 times more often (set up a timer interrupt) to make the tones stable - it would steal only a few dozen cycles
(If you need stable raster waits, you can always 1) wait for the previous line 2) then temporarily turn off the interrupt 3) then wait for the exact line you need 4) then restore interrupts and the pending tone interrupt will happen - I'm doing this in Dragonwing 2)
Re: WIP: Manic Miner port
Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2018 9:00 am
by Tramor
wow, much Kudos to you Kweepa, this is a fantastic port, I never thought I would see a flawless version of Manic Miner on the Vic-20
I recall how excited I was as a kid when The Perils of Willy came out and whilst I really enjoyed that game at the time, I did lament the fact that it didn't feature the original Manic Miner screens.
I played through all 20 screens of your port (with the aid of snapshots of course) and loved every minute of it, thank you so much for your efforts, much appreciated.
Now all that's left to do is for someone to port Atic Atac and the Vic-20's conquest of the Spectrum will be complete
Re: WIP: Manic Miner port
Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2018 11:43 am
by English Invader
Tramor wrote:
Now all that's left to do is for someone to port Atic Atac and the Vic-20's conquest of the Spectrum will be complete
I'm still holding out for 3D Deathchase
.
Re: WIP: Manic Miner port
Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2018 2:47 am
by beamrider
Tramor wrote:
Now all that's left to do is for someone to port Atic Atac and the Vic-20's conquest of the Spectrum will be complete
.... apart from Sabre Wolf that is
Re: WIP: Manic Miner port
Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2018 8:20 am
by Kweepa
aeb: I'll probably leave the game as-is, unless you don't want your code associated with it in this state...
Tramor: thanks for the kind words and for finishing the game! Good to know it's possible (I did it myself but you never know what can happen during release).
English Invader, beamrider: the list of classic Spectrum titles without VIC ports is much larger than that! Atic Atac, Back to Skool, Chuckie Egg, Dandy, Everyone's A Wally... the list goes on!
Re: WIP: Manic Miner port
Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2018 12:04 pm
by Snarko
I haven't tried it yet, but it looks absolutely amazing! Back in the days I wouldn't imagine this was possible on the vic20. Thank you Kweepa.
Re: WIP: Manic Miner port
Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2018 3:51 am
by mrr19121970
This is great. Thanks kweepa.
I second CHUCKIE EGG too.
Re: WIP: Manic Miner port
Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2018 8:54 am
by Kweepa
Chuckie Egg would be relatively easy as we could just use the maps from the CPC version which has a 20x25 character screen. I think it would fit in an unexpanded VIC:
movement code: 768 bytes
map data: 8 x 64 = 512 bytes
map draw code: 256 bytes
graphics: 512 bytes
sprite drawing: 384 bytes
chicken logic: 256 bytes
duck logic: 256 bytes
misc: 512 bytes
DeathChase would also be relatively easy as the Spectrum effectively used character graphics without having a character mapped screen, so the rendering would be much faster on the VIC.
Jet Set Willy might be tough to squeeze into the VIC, but the movement and sprite code is mostly done (just need to handle slopes and ropes). Maybe using exomizer to compress the rooms and sprites it could fit in 16k.
Re: WIP: Manic Miner port
Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2018 12:11 am
by pixel
You could also make use of the spare colour RAM by swapping 256 bytes. Last time I couldn't make use of it. *sigh*
Code: Select all
color_ram_swap:
ldx #0
l: lda $9400,x
asl
asl
asl
asl
sta tmp
lda $9500,x
and #$0f
ora tmp
tay
lda mem,x
sta $9500,x
lsr
lsr
lsr
lsr
sta $9400,x
sty mem,x
dex
bne -l
rts
Re: WIP: Manic Miner port
Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2018 1:03 pm
by Kweepa
Yep... I like to use the spare color RAM for data that is naturally 4 bit, for example map data (see the Keep or the Manic Miner unexpanded demo).
Re: WIP: Manic Miner port
Posted: Fri Feb 23, 2018 12:52 pm
by Snarko
