Arcade Game Designer

[Alessandro]

Thanks hikoki. On a side note, it would be much better if some of the members of the AGD facebook group could also post here (and on the AGD forum) examples and code snippets. I really can't stand that downright mess that facebook groups generally are, trying to follow a discussion or to retrieve useful information from any of them is a Sisyphean task to me.

[UltraNarwhal]

Recently discovered that Blimpgeddon & OctuKitty when played on ULAplus hardware has incorrect colours. When making these games the first thing I did was change ULAplus palette to look like standard palette, but the emulator (ZXSpin) I used wasn't really showing me correct colours.

So if you've made a game in AGD and want it to look correct for players using ULAplus use this tool to fix the palette.
https://xor-rox.itch.io/nuagcf

[XoRRoX]

Recently discovered that Blimpgeddon & OctuKitty when played on ULAplus hardware has incorrect colours. When making these games the first thing I did was change ULAplus palette to look like standard palette, but the emulator (ZXSpin) I used wasn't really showing me correct colours.

So if you've made a game in AGD and want it to look correct for players using ULAplus use this tool to fix the palette.
https://xor-rox.itch.io/nuagcf

Thank you for sharing my tool. I'm very glad you're finding it useful
Everyone can read the What, How, Why of almost all AGD games showing strange colours on ULAplus devices including the ZX-HD (500+ sold) and ZX-Uno and how to fix it on the tools page, including a multi-page article with images explaining and illustrate everything.

For testing, SpecEmu, Retro Virtual Machine (with a ZX-Uno virtual machine) and ZEsarUX should give you quite accurate ULAplus colours. I created an overview with (Windows) Spectrum emulators that support ULAplus and how to turn ULAplus on in them.
For the non-Facebook users, I put it here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/p7xq9zxcmg9oc ... 9.pdf?dl=0

For people that do use Facebook: you're more than welcome to join the official ULAplus group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ULAplus

Is there a special section for AGD on this forum, or is it being considered?

[R-Tape]

I think it's bad that ULA+ is automatically installed in the finalised game - it should be a choice. In my last AGD game I forgot, but I usually disable it myself with Poke 32698,201.

Is there a special section for AGD on this forum, or is it being considered?

I think we should stick to this subforum for now (programming), and only consider a new one if we get more AGD specific threads.

[Alessandro]

We do not need a subforum dedicated to AGD, since AGD already has its own forum. A duplicate would be not only unnecessary, but also confusing, because the AGD forum is already full of code snippets, suggestions, downloads etc. and people would have to go back and forth from here to there and vice versa to get everything.

[Ast A. Moore]

We do not need a subforum dedicated to AGD, since AGD already has its own forum.

Seconded.

[XoRRoX]

I think it's bad that ULA+ is automatically installed in the finalised game - it should be a choice. In my last

I totally agree. As you can read in the article, that's one of my suggestions to AGD maintainers.

[Alessandro]

Hi [mention]XoRRoX[/mention], I wrote you an answer on the AGD forum.

[mention]R-Tape[/mention] Thanks for suggesting that "cure". Applying it will require a lot of time and cause major headaches, but at least I am going to get rid of that nasty unwanted colors.

[R-Tape]

@R-Tape Thanks for suggesting that "cure". Applying it will require a lot of time and cause major headaches, but at least I am going to get rid of that nasty unwanted colors.

Dear god—you mean you're going to correct every version, of every AGD game you've done?

[Einar Saukas]

@R-Tape Thanks for suggesting that "cure". Applying it will require a lot of time and cause major headaches, but at least I am going to get rid of that nasty unwanted colors.

Dear god—you mean you're going to correct every version, of every AGD game you've done?

Noooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[R-Tape]

Noooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I should mention in advance that I will be on holiday when this happens.

[ZXDunny]

Recently discovered that Blimpgeddon & OctuKitty when played on ULAplus hardware has incorrect colours. When making these games the first thing I did was change ULAplus palette to look like standard palette, but the emulator (ZXSpin) I used wasn't really showing me correct colours.

So if you've made a game in AGD and want it to look correct for players using ULAplus use this tool to fix the palette.
https://xor-rox.itch.io/nuagcf

Just to be clear - is this an issue with ZXSpin or with AGD games in general?

[R-Tape]

Just to be clear - is this an issue with ZXSpin or with AGD games in general?

It's the latter. AGD automatically OUTs a ULA+ palette whether the author chose one or not. I've seen the same thing happen on the Vega nonplus - unusually coloured AGD games.

Another good reason to choose SPIN 0.666 though.

[Alessandro]

Dear god—you mean you're going to correct every version, of every AGD game you've done?

Noooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stay calm, I won't do that anytime soon, neither will all of my games be corrected at once. Like I wrote, it will take a lot of time, moreover I have other priorities at this time.

[Einar Saukas]

Stay calm, I won't do that anytime soon, neither will all of my games be corrected at once.

Even if you update only one of your games, it still means hundreds of files!!!

[R-Tape]

Hope Einar doesn't mind my sharing, but he sent me this selfie after the third update of Sophia...

[Alessandro]

Stay calm, I won't do that anytime soon, neither will all of my games be corrected at once.

Even if you update only one of your games, it still means hundreds of files!!!

Heh. Think about what does it mean to depack, patch, repack and test each one of them. And all because of a hidden feature that it was not possible to disable and that is actually used by 20 titles or so.

[R-Tape]

Heh. Think about what does it mean to depack, patch, repack and test each one of them. And all because of a hidden feature that it was not possible to disable and that is actually used by 20 titles or so.

I initially thought you could streamline this using ZX-Blockeditor to avoid having to rebuild things, but where you have compressed the data blocks it might not work—and I think that's most of your games.

The POKE is not the same for different versions of AGD btw.

AGD 4.6 games: POKE 32667,201
AGD 4.7 games: POKE 32698,201

For info, if you can use ZX-Blockeditor as a shortcut, you need to find these bytes: 1,59,191, 62,64,237,121, and then replace the first '1' with '201.

Good luck

[Alessandro]

I initially thought you could streamline this using ZX-Blockeditor to avoid having to rebuild things, but where you have compressed the data blocks it might not work—and I think that's most of your games.

That's the case with all of them unfortunately, at least the tape versions. Disk versions usually host the uncompressed files, therefore I can change the relevant first byte with a RET in the ZX-Blockeditor editor (I did that myself for other reasons during the development of later titles).

The POKE is not the same for different versions of AGD btw.

AGD 4.6 games: POKE 32667,201
AGD 4.7 games: POKE 32698,201

For info, if you can use ZX-Blockeditor as a shortcut, you need to find these bytes: 1,59,191, 62,64,237,121, and then replace the first '1' with '201.

Good luck

Thanks. Most if not all of my games, due to more recent revisions, have been authored with either AGD 4.7 or AGDx 4.7, which share the same source basically. I already found the ULA Plus routine starting from that address and in the AGD source code, which is included with MPAGD. For future releases, in order to enhance the compression ratio, the whole space from 32699 to 32733 will be set to 0.

Coming to think of that, I found a new use for .POK files, which some people here probably don't even know what they are Since I have been using custom sound and/or color effects from Lost In My Spectrum 2.0 on, I need to alter the AGD code sometimes. The .POK file allows you to alter several values in memory at once, without having to manually change them in the emulator's debugger window. For example, you can substitute a routine inside the standard AGD code with a custom one, by inserting a JP [address] instruction at the start of such routine.

[XoRRoX]

you need to find these bytes: 1,59,191, 62,64,237,121, and then replace the first '1' with '201

That's basically what I do with my patcher but on a binary-file level. After the 201 I put a value though to compensate for the checksum byte so that doesn't have to be recalculated.

The situation is unfortunate as it creates the impression that ULAplus is a nuisance which it itself is obviously not, the AGD approach actually is.

It would be better if an appropriate default palette would be set and an option to switch it on/off, also in the games' menu.

[Daveysloan]

Recently discovered that Blimpgeddon & OctuKitty when played on ULAplus hardware has incorrect colours. When making these games the first thing I did was change ULAplus palette to look like standard palette, but the emulator (ZXSpin) I used wasn't really showing me correct colours.

So if you've made a game in AGD and want it to look correct for players using ULAplus use this tool to fix the palette.
https://xor-rox.itch.io/nuagcf

This is superb! Thanks for this, wish I'd spotted it months ago, would've saved watching all those online playthroughs on a MiSTer with weird AF colours.

All our wee games have now been updated on itch.

https://sloanysoft.itch.io/