Search found 100 matches

by Hikaru
Tue Jan 09, 2018 9:48 pm
Forum: Website
Topic: Cannot edit older posts.
Replies: 44
Views: 9533

Re: Cannot edit older posts.

Maybe I’m missing something though, why would you want to be able to edit anytime? Personally I'm missing the transition from 'people should be able to edit their own posts anytime' to 'people should not be able to edit their own posts anytime' for the most part, I suppose. As well, a major website...
by Hikaru
Tue Jan 09, 2018 5:49 pm
Forum: Website
Topic: Cannot edit older posts.
Replies: 44
Views: 9533

Cannot edit older posts.

It seems like there's no way to edit older posts. For instance, I see no edit button on this one, which was posted today a few hours ago. While I'm sure this is probably unintentional and caused by some sort of default board settings, I think it's important to not let this become a thing. As well, a...
by Hikaru
Tue Jan 09, 2018 10:47 am
Forum: Programming
Topic: Randomize and rotate left.
Replies: 28
Views: 6286

Re: Randomize and rotate left.

Code: Select all

	ld a,h
	and 3
	cp 3
	adc #57
	ld h,a
But that makes it 'less random' because 2 -> #5A and 3 -> #5A.
by Hikaru
Tue Jan 09, 2018 10:37 am
Forum: Games/Software
Topic: The best classic Speccy game beginning with B: vote
Replies: 29
Views: 6143

Re: The best classic Speccy game beginning with B: vote

Batty is technically OK, but is otherwise largely on the plain side, and is annoying af to play for many, many reasons. I have no idea why it's pinned fairly often as some sort of ultimate Breakout game on the Speccy, which is of course Krakout, by miles, albeit under one very important condition of...
by Hikaru
Fri Jan 05, 2018 6:07 pm
Forum: Programming
Topic: Inverted Y origin
Replies: 9
Views: 2707

Re: Inverted Y origin

I'm sure there's more than one way to skin a cat, mind you. I might revisit that part sometime, but in the end I can only afford that much attention to marginally useful functionality, so it's not a priority at the moment.
by Hikaru
Fri Jan 05, 2018 6:39 am
Forum: Programming
Topic: Inverted Y origin
Replies: 9
Views: 2707

Re: Inverted Y origin

I'm not really sure if you gain anything from it. At least in my own sprite code, I always load the the amount of vertical lines the sprite includes. Clipping vertically is extremely easy, you just have to change were you start in the sprite data, if you clip on top, and/or change sprite total line...
by Hikaru
Thu Jan 04, 2018 12:27 pm
Forum: Programming
Topic: Multi-Loaders, how did they work and how do you write one?
Replies: 11
Views: 4419

Re: Multi-Loaders, how did they work and how do you write one?

I think you might be confusing loaders with ... ... loaders? - I guess it is in fact the same word. >.> Well, let's call them 'loaders' and 'decoders' for the sake of this example. Decoders: as in the exact routines that decode the tape signals into bits and bytes of data and store these in the memo...
by Hikaru
Thu Jan 04, 2018 11:05 am
Forum: Games/Software
Topic: Renegade or Target Renegade?
Replies: 10
Views: 2736

Re: Renegade or Target Renegade?

Renegade for me. It just has more integrity of the two. Everything is where you expect it to be, plays the way you expect, without any unnecessary elements. TR on the other hand feels like an expanded fan remake of sorts, that is, first and foremost, an attempt to imitate. And that ingame tune is ju...
by Hikaru
Thu Jan 04, 2018 10:44 am
Forum: Programming
Topic: Inverted Y origin
Replies: 9
Views: 2707

Re: Inverted Y origin

Cheers. Sounds like it's worth giving it a go then. I forgot about a small issue with it nevertheless, which is that you'll have to store your sprites upside-down in case you're using the stack to read the data, since POP can only move the data pointer forwards. But this probably just amounts to ano...
by Hikaru
Thu Jan 04, 2018 6:09 am
Forum: Programming
Topic: Inverted Y origin
Replies: 9
Views: 2707

Inverted Y origin

Recently, I found it to be convenient to have the Y origin point at the bottom of images (sprites), so that essentially they are drawn starting from the bottom up. This has at least the following advantages: 1) Easy non-intrusive clipping at the top; in your 'next line' procedure, check if your scre...
by Hikaru
Wed Jan 03, 2018 2:02 pm
Forum: Programming
Topic: IY and the interrupt
Replies: 15
Views: 4448

Re: IY and the interrupt

How is the reader of the book supposed to go from "FRAMES-3" to "IY+40"? The word "FRAMES" doesn't appear anywhere else in the book. Regarding the lack of constant/variable list in the book at least, perhaps the 'ROM Disassembly' authors were relying on the fact that t...
by Hikaru
Wed Jan 03, 2018 11:58 am
Forum: Programming
Topic: IY and the interrupt
Replies: 15
Views: 4448

Re: IY and the interrupt

Hello, world! What you're seeing here is the effect of the so-called 'good practices' at work. A small example: 0038 MASK-INT PUSH AF Save the current values held in PUSH HL these registers. LD HL,(FRAMES) The lower two bytes of the INC HL frame counter are incremented LD (FRAMES),HL every 20 ms. (U...
by Hikaru
Wed Jan 03, 2018 9:14 am
Forum: Brand new software!
Topic: My new game: Wunderwaffe
Replies: 17
Views: 5154

Re: My new game: Wunderwaffe

Made it! - No cheating ofc. :p A bit tricky and some memorization required (there are a few insta-kill spots, sometimes depending on which direction you came from) but definitely doable. http://i65.tinypic.com/qz2pl2.png Also, I've confirmed the diagonal jump direction bug, this seems to happen when...
by Hikaru
Tue Jan 02, 2018 6:16 am
Forum: Brand new software!
Topic: My new game: Wunderwaffe
Replies: 17
Views: 5154

Re: My new game: Wunderwaffe

Nice. Apart from the whole moonbase floaty feel, which I'm not too sure about, there's actually a decent and thought-out game to it, with a combat system that leans more towards a strategic/positioning type puzzler. Got to the lower-floor 'mine railway' yesterday, will definitely try again more. I'v...
by Hikaru
Tue Jan 02, 2018 5:53 am
Forum: Programming
Topic: Porting easy/hard of diffrent micro computers.
Replies: 11
Views: 3457

Re: Porting easy/hard of diffrent micro computers.

Just my impression but the easiest one might be Enterprise 128 . It uses a Z80 and what seems to be a very flexible screen configuration system, apparently allowing it to emulate Speccy screen modes to a good extent. Hardest systems I'm sure should include ZX80/ZX81. 1Kb of memory and an explanation...
by Hikaru
Tue Jan 02, 2018 5:39 am
Forum: Programming
Topic: Exomizer 2.0.10
Replies: 11
Views: 3451

Re: Exomizer 2.0.10

Thanks for the heads up. Excellent stuff, although I assume the unclear licensing status for the Z80 decompressors will prevent it from seeing more usage in original projects.
by Hikaru
Sun Dec 31, 2017 4:40 pm
Forum: Programming
Topic: Fastest Divide by 6
Replies: 26
Views: 6593

Re: Fastest Divide by 6

IIRC division by 3 is the same as multiplication by #55. Then you can shift the result right once to get division by 6. Not sure if that helps? Edit: seems like it's actually #55+1 for more accurate rounding, or something. This seems to work: ;In: C = dividend ;Out: H = quotient ld l,c ld h,0 ld b,h...
by Hikaru
Wed Dec 27, 2017 4:31 pm
Forum: Programming
Topic: Walking on steep platforms
Replies: 9
Views: 2611

Re: Walking on steep platforms

Nice, and makes sense in hindsight. :) You can practically do any sort of uneven terrain this way, let alone regular slopes at any angle.
by Hikaru
Tue Dec 26, 2017 7:54 pm
Forum: Programming
Topic: Walking on steep platforms
Replies: 9
Views: 2611

Re: Walking on steep platforms

Well, how about something like this. Let's say your maps are composed of regular 16x16 tiles. Reserve a portion of tile codes for sloped backgrounds. If a tile that is stepped on falls in that range, look up an additional offset to apply to the object's Y coordinate. This should be based on its X co...
by Hikaru
Tue Dec 26, 2017 5:30 pm
Forum: Programming
Topic: Write binary data to TRD from ASM
Replies: 34
Views: 14615

Re: Write binary data to TRD from ASM

Good to know. I've had a similar experience recently trying to figure out the (low-level) +3DOS stuff. Those multi-byte OUTs/INs, madness. :lol:
by Hikaru
Tue Dec 26, 2017 5:16 pm
Forum: Graphics
Topic: Screen switching, does it happen?
Replies: 6
Views: 3079

Re: Screen switching, does it happen?

As people have pointed out, this setup is fairly awkward to work with, and most of the time it's not even really necessary (unfortunately, there are exceptions). Regardless, I think it might be interesting to hear opinions on how to plan out things across the pages etc for such a game. Personally I'...
by Hikaru
Sun Dec 24, 2017 4:39 pm
Forum: Games/Software
Topic: Poll: Raffaele Cecco's Best Game
Replies: 7
Views: 2264

Re: Poll: Raffaele Cecco's Best Game

Exolon for me, not much to say there it's practically Spectrum-defining, and that melody is just like hnnng being back home and all. :)

I also like Solomon's Key a lot, excellent playability, easily a close second.
by Hikaru
Sat Dec 23, 2017 10:44 am
Forum: Emulators
Topic: Emulator with debugger which updates screen on single step
Replies: 8
Views: 2566

Re: Emulator with debugger which updates screen on single step

If you mean like masked sprites and whatnot, you won't be able to see the individual steps of AND and OR that way, since typically each byte is only written back once with the combined result: pop de ld a,(hl) and e or d ld (hl),a inc l ... Think of it like this: masking puts the 'black' parts of th...
by Hikaru
Fri Dec 22, 2017 1:20 pm
Forum: Games/Software
Topic: The best classic Speccy game beginning with A: discussion
Replies: 10
Views: 2986

Re: The best classic Speccy game beginning with A: discussion

Subjectively, one more game that deserves a mention is Ano Gaia. Probably my go-to game starting with 'A'. Illegally blasphemously hackered to make that drill level playable since ages, it just needs a loading screen now. |: Probably will vote ATF though, in large part because I love the somewhat-un...
by Hikaru
Mon Dec 18, 2017 4:14 am
Forum: Games/Software
Topic: The A-Z of the best Speccy games (modern: post-1993)
Replies: 50
Views: 10837

Re: The A-Z of the best Speccy games (modern: post-1993)

T is for Twilight: The Land of Shadows. I'm amazed I even have to spell it out!

Star Heritage was massive in our time, but now I love the Sword of Ianna just as much. :) And yes I don't think it ever got the translation it deserves.