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Post by thanatos on May 29, 2022 19:02:55 GMT
Newly released at the Moonshine Dragons 2022 gathering is a incredibly nice C128 remake and update of the late 80's Binary Design game, Amaurote. It'll knock your socks off.
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Post by robertb on Jun 10, 2022 1:13:26 GMT
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Post by c128old on Jun 18, 2022 18:48:23 GMT
Took some time to find my socks again, having been knocked off.
I've tried to get the hang of this game, first because of the very nice c128 version.
The VDC version is an achievement indeed!
I've not seen such an artfully tweaked screen mode in use, the VDC output is switching nicely for NTSC and for PAL.
I see a perfect 312 rasters on PAL (my HW is PAL, 50Hz).
The output is stable on one old (2005) LCD TV, and on a small 50Hz CRT, using the ubiquitous SCART connector.
Yet on the display I normally use for the 80 columns (also LCD TV) the output is almost stable.
These TVs use a deinterlace chip to render the output (there are a few versions, Samsung, Philips and Sony use different ones)
One minor criticism: behavior on picky television screens results in a moving picture. This is due to the width of the horizontal blanking.
I don't think there is a fixed setting possible, the one works on one TV, the other on another TV.
It would be neat if one could change the VDC screen horizontal sync position (reg 02) in the game (or in a setup), recognizing the limits of classic TV output!
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ytm
Windows User
Posts: 1
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Post by ytm on Jul 26, 2022 9:25:25 GMT
Took some time to find my socks again, having been knocked off. I've tried to get the hang of this game, first because of the very nice c128 version. The VDC version is an achievement indeed! (...) One minor criticism: behavior on picky television screens results in a moving picture. This is due to the width of the horizontal blanking. I don't think there is a fixed setting possible, the one works on one TV, the other on another TV. It would be neat if one could change the VDC screen horizontal sync position (reg 02) in the game (or in a setup), recognizing the limits of classic TV output! Hi Thanks! I'm the guy who coded C128 port. I must admit this is not really my kind of game (the way how bombs work is just brutal), but pixel art is beautiful and coding was fun. Do you mean here adjustments for horizontal sync for intro picture* or also for gameplay? This could be added via some key combinations, just like color changes while playing. ytm * there are two of them: 8x1 color on 64K VDC and black/green bitmap for 16K VDC and loader |
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Post by robertb on Jul 27, 2022 23:34:30 GMT
Thanks! I'm the guy who coded C128 port. I must admit this is not really my kind of game (the way how bombs work is just brutal), but pixel art is beautiful and coding was fun. Do you mean here adjustments for horizontal sync for intro picture* or also for gameplay? We were never able to get the C128 versions to run on our club NTSC C128.  However, we were able to run the C64 version! Truly, Robert Bernardo Fresno Commodore User Group - www.dickestel.com/fcug.htmSouthern California Commodore & Amiga Network - www.portcommodore.com/sccanCommodore Los Angeles Super Show - www.portcommodore.com/class |
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Post by buzbard on Jul 28, 2022 16:12:26 GMT
Always nice to see new C128 software, or old software even.
I tried it out on my flat NTSC C128 with 1541 Utimate II+ cartridge and it seems to work ok, I didn't play for very long.
I also have RGB2HDMI connected to 80col and the 80col screen flashes on and off constantly, seems to be a sync problem maybe, I don't know.
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Post by robertb on Jul 29, 2022 23:37:10 GMT
I tried it out on my flat NTSC C128 with 1541 Utimate II+ cartridge and it seems to work ok... Oh, we were using a SD2IEC. Maybe that's the problem. We could transfer it to a real floppy disk and try it from there. Truly, Robert Bernardo Fresno Commodore User Group - www.dickestel.com/fcug.htmSouthern California Commodore & Amiga Network - www.portcommodore.com/sccanCommodore Los Angeles Super Show - www.portcommodore.com/class |
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Post by c128old on Aug 1, 2022 18:38:17 GMT
... Do you mean here adjustments for horizontal sync for intro picture* or also for gameplay? This could be added via some key combinations, just like color changes while playing. ... OK, sorry for slow reply. I had to find some time to tweak the picture on the real HW. Reset c128 with picture showing, to c64 mode, then poke the VDC settings back with basic to tweak. (using 2 screen setup ... of course ... it's a c128 after all ;-) The c= key at startup is caught so early that the VDC is nicely left as is (though it did get a reset so its registermap is out)
I'm running the game from a 1571 (well, emulate ultimateII+) on a flat c128, PAL, 16k VDC. The screen-mode is the same throughout the game I believe, on this VDC.
The VDC settings of the game (took them from z64k) in this case would be: 3f 28 37 45 27 00 19 20 00 07 20 07 00 00 07 80 01 5e 00 00 08 00 89 08 00 97 50 00 2f 07 00 8a ff ff 3f 36 00 00
The settings appear quite perfect (320 lines, says z64k) In particular you find the VW/HW register ($03) = $45 (69). The 4 is the nr of vertical sync rasterlines (default=4) and horizontal (nr char+1) set to 5 (default is 9, with slow pixel clock this must be halved and this means rounding up to 5 is a choice)
When I try with a value of $44 or $43, the display on both PAL LCD TVs is fine. Note that on a classic early 90s CRT TV (connected over scart) the VDC output is as fuzzy as one could wish and this screen-mode is stable, thought the last pixel on each line is 'running'.
I would expect that the width of the horizontal blank is something picky, different for TVs and PAL/NTSC. All in all it appears the monitors of back then were quite lenient.
Question to @roberb: would there be a chance to tweak/test the output on the "club NTSC C128"? It would be interesting to learn what mode adjust makes for a stable output on that display!
So...
The "in game keys" you suggest would need to allow me to adjust (at least) the VDC $03 VW/HW value for "HW". For my HW the screen-mode problem applies to all VDC output of the game.
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Post by xahmol on Aug 25, 2022 9:39:15 GMT
ytm: Great achievement, nice! Is by any chance source code for the C128 VDC version available? Very eager to learn from it. And of course, no, no source code available is a perfectly acceptable answer.
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However, we were able to run the C64 version!
