Moving sprites

The place for codemasters or beginners to talk about programming any language for the Spectrum.
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Ast A. Moore
Rick Dangerous
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Re: Moving sprites

Post by Ast A. Moore »

There are plenty of Z80 assemblers to choose from. Some cater to the ZX Spectrum specifically. Some even let you assemble your source online. I think you need to focus on learning the Spectrum’s architecture and Z80 assembly language and worry about the tools later. In fact, you can use any number of assemblers written for the Spectrum itself (i.e. running on it natively).
Every man should plant a tree, build a house, and write a ZX Spectrum game.

Author of A Yankee in Iraq, a 50 fps shoot-’em-up—the first game to utilize the floating bus on the +2A/+3,
and zasm Z80 Assembler syntax highlighter.
Wall_Axe
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Re: Moving sprites

Post by Wall_Axe »

you are using windows?
on linux you can create a 'makefile' which really helps, to get makefiles running on windows is a hassle. I've never learnt how to do bat files on windows.

the makefile basically compiles your game and runs the emulator...only if it compiled successfully..which is very useful

That being said pasmo is a good compiler, it generates the .tap file for you, which is ready to be loaded into the emulator.

if your game isnt that complicated and doesnt need proper sprites you could go for boriel's basic, which also lets you use assembly routines mixed in with basic.

i usually make my own tools to get graphics into spectrum format (which i lost), zx paintbrush is spectrum oriented..but i dont know how to get the picture exported as bytes, which is what you need.
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PeterJ
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Re: Moving sprites

Post by PeterJ »

Hi [mention]MrPixel[/mention] you will find a lot of appropriate answers and tutorials on the threads you started here:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=554

And here:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=559

Regarding graphics, ZX Paintbrush is recommended in the thread you started here:

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=657

I use a mix of Pasmo, and ZX-Spin running in a Windows XP Virtual Machine. As others have said Spin is very dated and not recommended by many, but it is a very good all in one solution for beginners IMHO.

You do need to do a lot of reading (as many others have said) before you starting typing at the keyboard though. If you really want to learn there is no magic wand or overnight solution. Once it starts to click, even at a simple level which is where I am at, the sense of achievement is amazing.
Ralf
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Location: Poland

Re: Moving sprites

Post by Ralf »

is there a good Z80 assembler ... that i can use to start properly making games or, at least graphics
You don't make graphics with assembler, you make them with graphics editor ;) When they are ready you display them with assembler.

What you need is actually some tool to convert graphics into notation acceptable for assembler. I remember from your another post that you didn't want to use standard PC graphic editors but if you changed your mind then Sevenup is a tool for you.

You create some graphics, save them as standard picture (.png, .bmp, .gif etc) and import it to Sevenup. Then you configure your output, do export and get things like .BYTE 1,2,3 You paste it into your assembler code and can use it since that moment in your program.

As for the assembler if you don't want use Zeus then the most popular options are Pasmo and SjasmPlus.
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