Page 1 of 1
Aline and CATS Mint
Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2017 2:32 pm
by Hikaru
Aline: this is a somewhat-new synchronization method that allows to use multicolor for basically anything, with very few restrictions. You can read about it
here.
CATS Mint is a 8x2 multicolor scrolling engine using this technology. You can see a video of it in action
here, or download a TAP
here to check it out. It should work on the real +2A/+3 models as well but this isn't supported by most emulators yet (use SpecEmu or Spectramine). This is one of the rare cases where using a shadow screen is actually worth it and would be very benefical, so I'm planning to rewrite it that way eventually, although it's a bit complicated.
Re: Aline and CATS Mint
Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2017 6:39 pm
by Ralf
Very impressive if you have some understanding of Spectrum limitations
As I understand earlier engines like Nirvana basically allow between frames a replacement of quite limited number of blocks/tiles/sprites. So it was limited to single screen or flip screen games. Now you can have scrolling of all screen.
You didn't say that using 5 or 8 (or arrows in cursor mode) scrolls the screen left and right in the demo.
But unfortunately it sooner or later causes the crash. I don't know if the problem is in engine or in code over the engine, just reporting. I run it in 48kb mode if it matters.
Re: Aline and CATS Mint
Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2017 7:09 pm
by Hikaru
That's right, I forgot the 5/8. About the crash, does this happen when you're moving the camera left from the start (and then back) maybe? Or very far to the right? In these cases it's normal, and happens because there is no limiter to going left/right, so it just goes outside the map into (probably) junk data. Although I've used a map from Cobra, it doesn't actually support looped maps unlike that engine. If it's something else, I'd like to know.
Re: Aline and CATS Mint
Posted: Sun Jun 20, 2021 5:56 am
by register
Hikaru wrote: ↑Mon Nov 13, 2017 2:32 pm
Aline: this is a somewhat-new synchronization method that allows to use multicolor for basically anything, with very few restrictions. You can read about it
here.
CATS Mint is a 8x2 multicolor scrolling engine using this technology. You can see a video of it in action
here, or download a TAP
here to check it out. It should work on the real +2A/+3 models as well but this isn't supported by most emulators yet (use SpecEmu or Spectramine). This is one of the rare cases where using a shadow screen is actually worth it and would be very benefical, so I'm planning to rewrite it that way eventually, although it's a bit complicated.
I have understood how floating bus sync works but really didn't understand this aline technique. Is there a way to explain it with other words?