TRSE 0.09 - now with native VIC-20 bitmap mode

[leuat]

Hi there!

Today, we released TRSE version 0.09!

Turbo Rascal Syntax Error (TRSE) is a modern and complete IDE, compiler and toolshop for game/demo development on the Commodore 64, VIC-20, NES, PLUS/4, C128, PET, Amiga 500 and now the 8086 AT (with CGA, still in early development). With over 250 tutorials from 40 sample projects spanning 10 systems, an image/level/sprite/resource editor, help text and extensive documentation, a fast compiler and tons of bugfixes / updates, TRSE currently enables extremely rapid prototyping and development of 8 and 16 bit software for the 6502, m68K and x86 line of computers. TRSE also contains fully programmable real-time ray tracer (using LUA) that exports (raw/compressed) image data to C64/Amiga formats. TRSE also contain example projects for demo and game development, both on the C64, the VIC-20 and the NES. One of the major changes from previous versions is the addition of a native VIC-20 bitmap mode (with lots of examples). Try out TRSE today!

Youtube info video :

Get your fresh copy now (win/macos/linux) from http://www.turborascal.com

Join the TRSE development group on facebook : https://www.facebook.com/groups/742955836046459/

TRSE showcase list: https://lemonspawn.com/gallery_/

VIC-20 demo written in TRSE:

[Vic20-Ian]

Fantastic - Well done.

[AndyH]

Brief update, I've been using this to work on a game and as always when you stop writing demo code and start writing real code you find lots of new things you want to change In particular, I've been looking at making the game for cartridge so freeing up main RAM to use was one of those changes. I have created a number of new display modes...

VBM already had 20x24 sized bitmap screen. It can now go down to 18x18 as the smallest size, freeing up a considerable amount of RAM for variables and changeable data.

In turn, the next version of TRSE has new cartridge support for the Vic 20. Tested 8k to 32k cartridges and everything in between.

[Mike]

Of course using only the RAM of an unexpanded VIC-20 leads to a resource conflict between graphics data (especially for a bitmap) and other (game) state data, which can't be ignored.

IMO, shrinking down the graphics window though gives away much of any advantage a bitmapped mode has, when the resulting screen window is clearly smaller than the normal text window (even if it uses user defined characters). The MG screen size (160x192 pixels) was specifically designed to make most of the only memory available for graphics, bitmap-wise. At least you'll add extra conversion steps, and routines optimized for a certain address layout won't become faster when they have to handle several different layouts.

You might consider providing the RAMx area ($0400..$0FFF) to hold variable data for a cartridge game. This setup wouldn't clash with ROM chips mapped into BLK1..3 and BLK5, and it could be realized on cartridge with minimal extra hardware (a 2Kx8 or 8Kx8 SRAM chip and - when there's no spare AND gate for combining RAM1..3 - use two or three Schottky diodes as wired-and with a 4K7 pull-up resistor).

[AndyH]

There’s a lot of flexibility so the programmer can choose the size they need and add ram in block 0 or any block I guess. It was trivial to add this support.

[AndyH]

Leuat recently released 0.10. This contains lots of new features including support for Units and an improved optimiser that removes code / data that is not used and has not been reserved.

It's also got the Vic 20 cartridge support as ready made projects - 8k through to 32k autostart cartridges for regular Vic and 32k autostart set up with VBM.