djnzx48 wrote: ↑Sun Jun 09, 2019 5:59 am
The 128K models technically don't have a physical beeper, as the design was modified to output sound through the TV speaker. But the beeper is still available on the standard port along with the new AY chip.
Ahaa, thanks!
djnzx48 wrote: ↑Sun Jun 09, 2019 5:59 am
You can check out
https://zxart.ee/eng/music/ for a large music collection. Or you could find someone willing to write something for you - if you wanted music for a game I could try making a track or two.
Thanks for the link! How kind of you to offer help! Usually I like to do all parts for my games myself, but it's nice to know there's help if I end up in "development hell".
Alessandro wrote: ↑Sun Jun 09, 2019 9:38 am
Hi, it's pretty much the second thing you wrote. More precisely:
- the loading screen is loaded separately from tape;
- the intro screen, key redefinition routine, level management, high score table etc. are all parts of a program specifically written from scratch in Z80 Assembly. In my first attempts I coded the "housekeeping" program in compiled BASIC but then I developed a sort of template in Assembly, much more efficient in terms of speed and RAM usage;
- levels are stored in the Spectrum (128K and later) RAM banks as "games" authored with AGD and compressed with ZX7 in order to fit into each RAM bank, which can hold up to 16 Kb of data.
However, these are advanced techniques; to this day, as far as I know the only ones who employed AGD to make multi-level games are me and Alexei Kashkarov (kas29). I'd suggest you for the time being to create a simple game that can run on a 48K model just to "learn the ropes". We do it to amuse ourselves and other folks who share our pleasure in retrogaming, so there is no hurry to do everything at once. Heck, the
very first game I created was a
Manic Miner clone - hardly something that had not been done before
Thanks for the technical info! "Lost in my Spectrum" looks great in my opinion! What else could you ask from a game! (I'm serious haha). Yeah I guess I should start really small, but the housekeeping part and/or compression is still the goal later. I've done a few small games and tests for other machines before so I'm hungry to expand from mini games to "medium-small games"
the game I'm working on at the moment "Baron Lovejoy Travels in Time" for the C64/Vic-20/Plus4/Lynx is slowly getting to the point of "learn compression and housekeeping or fail"
(On the Lynx I fortunately know how to load in new parts from cartridge).
Here's a two of my latest Lynx minigames if you/someone wants to check them out:
Reiko's Robot Run (Atari Lynx)
https://youtu.be/Yx6iY0BGHac
Sylvester the Lumberjack (Atari Lynx)
https://youtu.be/sNk89-C9haI
And here's my current work in progress game "Baron Lovejoy Travels in Time" for multiple old systems:
BLJ VIC-20
https://youtu.be/0N5QRlkUTjo
BLJ C64 2.1
https://youtu.be/F4sLV00e0wo
I got this megalomanic idea when I saw a developer called "Misfit" from Finland releasing his game "Rodmän" for several old home computers. Since then I've seen a few similar multi platform projects on the web. It's too much fun getting to understand better how some of the classic systems work and how to create games for them.
I forgot to mention that I looove tape loaders / games on cassette, so preferably a "one load"-game would be the ultimate goal, but I might have to set up things in an easier way to start with. Also I'm hoping to add the ZX Spectrum to the list of "ports" of my game (If I don't start a completely new/separate one for the Speccy). I'm so excited about the Speccy, it's unique graphics, its fantastic homebrew scene and wonderful community. But yeah, I should probably start really small anyway at first with a new system.
Actually I noticed yesterday that Manic Pietro is open source and written in C, so that had me starting to reconsider doing my first Spectrum game in C after all, hmm...
Yeah I agree that there can't be a hurry. After a long day after putting the kids to sleep I have to borrow time from sleep to work on my "retro projects of passion" for a little while, so I've put up a five to ten years time budget for "Baron Lovejoy".
Alessandro wrote: ↑Sun Jun 09, 2019 9:38 am
Finally, AGD allows you to place a maximum of 12 sprites per screen at once. You can define a maximum of 254 low resolution blocks, which can hold different properties - solid blocks, platform blocks, empty (i.e. background) blocks etc. There is no limit at the quantity of different blocks that you can place on each screen instead.
Thanks! I wonder what the sprite size is in AGD? The sprites in your games looked big and nice!
I started wondering about software sprites too. In AGD that seems to be taken care of for you, but if I'd code in C that would be another story. I wouldn't mind having the sprites moving one "cell" / 8 pixels at a time and not being transparent in my first game. Then I could be moving on to more advanced software sprites in a later game. However I haven't yet seen any new homebrew game that doesn't do pixel movement and "transparency", so the standards are already set high on the speccy scene!
Does software sprites work about like this simplified: you check where your sprite is -> then copy the data of the background "cells" of that position -> then paste the sprite data (and color data) on top of the bakground data and draw the combined stuff to screen?
Ralf wrote: ↑Sun Jun 09, 2019 11:14 am
Btw. I thought I saw someone write somewhere that there would be some AY music collection that you can use for your games? Has someone heard of something like that?
As people said there is
https://zxart.ee/eng/music/
Or you can also check
https://bulba.untergrund.net/music_e.htm
Personally I used some of them in my own games. I'd have an advice - don't expect that you check out 3 tunes and find a proper one
for your game. You'll probably need to search through over 100 of them as most of them are decent but nothing special and very generic.
So finding something standing out of the crowd requires some effort.
You probably should also consider copyright issues. Personally I didn't try to contact the authors (it could be hard in many cases) but always
included the info about them in the final game. I believe it's an honest approach and it worked for me but I'm generally easygoing
about copyrights as I said in many another threads
Thanks for all the info Ralf! Yes, the copyright was actually what I was thinking of. I was wondering if it was some sort of database where copmposers knowingly would have put their stuff for use. I guess giving credit and/or trying to contact would be OK in most cases since the database is massive.
Alessandro wrote: ↑Sun Jun 09, 2019 12:45 pm
I would only add to what Ralf wrote above that the best solution is always to compose your own tunes for the game. Even if your knowledge of music is rudimentary - as it is my case by the way - it is much more satisfying, suits your needs according to the atmosphere you want to give to your game, and you do not have to ask permissions to anyone.
I'd also like to add that about 3 out of 4 AY tracks you are likely to find in repositories are pseudo-techno stuff which makes my ears bleed after a few minutes. Of course, your mileage may vary
Yeah, usually I like to do all parts for my games myself, but it's nice to know there's a backup plan if needed. Haha, I grew up on mostly european games in the 80s, so I expect all games to have 80s / early 90s "electronic pop music" no matter what the game is about or what would really be fitting ;D