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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : New game to CMM: Gauntlet port
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MauroXavier Guru Joined: 06/03/2016 Location: BrazilPosts: 303 |
To challenge me to force the full potential of a Colour Maximite and the PSGLib, dealing with the eight color limitation, pure basic and limited sprite architecture, I'm porting one of my favorite games: Gauntlet. I'm starting making all things based on the NES version, which is the one i had the most contact in adolescence and still think it is the most fun and with better maps, wherever, I began to see in more depth the graphics of the version of the Master System and some screens of other versions and so I decided to make a nice mix in this port, where it will have: - Master System version based sprites - Title screen, maps and NES musics (converted to PSG) - Some arcade voices - Good sound effects, voices and openning music even without a sound card (the new PSGLib supports PWM Sound emulating a PSG) - Sprites and screens making the most of the 8 colors, all done in pixel art without rough conversions - Map editor Well, obviously some technical limitations was found, and by now it's too hard to work around, and MAYBE it stays as a "limited features" from this port: - All moves and scroll are in 8x8 pixels blocks - Main character moves in 8 directions but sprites are for only 4 directions (to save RAM). At least the shots have all the 8 directions sprites glory. - Some enemies have all sprites and some are cut in the same way of the main character, based in the NES Gauntlet II port. - Only two frames per angle, instead 3 like the SMS version - Unstable frame rate around 20 fps. Note: It's may seen little, but gives a good result due to the movements every 8 pixels. - FPS can drop severely when the screen fills with enemies - When turn on the music, the performance can be hurt (waiting to the MMBasic 5 and C Functions in the CMM) - Digital sounds directly from SD card, but only in 8 bits, 4Khz. It's almost acceptable, since the arcade voices contribute to the retro atmosphere - After I finish everything... Will I be able to allow at least 2 players without hurting the game speed a lot?? Of course there are many bugs to be fixed and optimizations need to be done, but now the main engine I consider almost ready. Finally, soon the Colour Maximite will have a Gauntlet port (or not too soon enough). Next week I will upload a video in YouTube and publish the alpha source code. |
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Turbo46 Guru Joined: 24/12/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1584 |
Another impressive job Mauro! By the way - you were going to post a schematic of your sound card. A hand drawn sketch would be fine. Bill Keep safe. Live long and prosper. |
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Frank N. Furter Guru Joined: 28/05/2012 Location: GermanyPosts: 813 |
Very impressive! I can't wait for your release! |
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WhiteWizzard Guru Joined: 05/04/2013 Location: United KingdomPosts: 2794 |
BRILLIANT For everything Micromite visit micromite.org Direct Email: whitewizzard@micromite.o |
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MauroXavier Guru Joined: 06/03/2016 Location: BrazilPosts: 303 |
It's not drawed by me, but I believe it's correct: Anyway, inside the PSGLib / Shadow of The Beast Demo has the specifications of the soundcard: https://www.casadosnerds.com.br/maximite/PSGLIB.zip With it you can have some options: - Only one SN76489 (all my softwares support this mode) - 2 SN76489 for stereo - 1 AY-3-8190 or YM2149 (with clock divide support in MStudio software, which I must release soon) You can build it inside the CMM using the Arduino connector in a little board. The bus I made is not necessary (that board that appears in some photos I've posted), I built it just to make my prototypes easier to implement and test. |
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MauroXavier Guru Joined: 06/03/2016 Location: BrazilPosts: 303 |
New map editor (inside the CdN Media Studio): The loading screen was remade with manual dithering and some pixel art changes to better details in low resolution (ex.: Faces, hands etc). |
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MauroXavier Guru Joined: 06/03/2016 Location: BrazilPosts: 303 |
One more update! Game panel like the arcade version, with the advantage of a better scroll speed up using a smaller tile grid. This weekend I will publish the source of CdN Media Studio (to edit maps) and the current alpha development version of Gauntlet. Stay tuned! |
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cosmic frog Senior Member Joined: 09/02/2012 Location: United KingdomPosts: 277 |
This is so cool! |
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MauroXavier Guru Joined: 06/03/2016 Location: BrazilPosts: 303 |
This is the last alpha source: 2019-05-30_123458_GAUNTLET_ALPHA_001.zip Obviously, have a tons of bugs, bad voice quality, slow performance, debug mode on, only three maps etc. Uncompress it in any folder, if don't work, put it in B:/GAMES/GAUNTLET. To play use the gauntlet.bas, to edit a map, listen a music and other things, use the medit.bas, but before run it, make sure you are in mode 1 to clean memory, otherwise will crash your CMM. PS.: To edit a map, use the same name to .map and .spr file. Enjoy it and give me your oppinion. |
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cosmic frog Senior Member Joined: 09/02/2012 Location: United KingdomPosts: 277 |
Hi MauroXavier. Trying to get your game to work but getting this error. In library PSGMINI.LIB [17] Pin(D8)=1: Port(D0,8)=Num: Pin(D8)=0: Pin(D8)=1 Error: Invalid output pin Thanks. Dave. |
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MauroXavier Guru Joined: 06/03/2016 Location: BrazilPosts: 303 |
Hi, Dave! Are you using the last firmware for CMM (4.5c)? This error occurs in previous firmwares. PS.: This reminds me that I must put a firmware verification code. |
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MauroXavier Guru Joined: 06/03/2016 Location: BrazilPosts: 303 |
Here is a alpha 2 version: 2019-06-07_105759_GAUNTLET_ALPHA_002.zip Various bugs fixed, better playability, new tiles and 6 levels. I recommend to use the numeric pad to allow diagonal movement. Please, test it and put some comments, I don't care about criticism, feel free to say something bad about my code or game ;) |
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Cyber Senior Member Joined: 13/01/2019 Location: UkrainePosts: 161 |
It's drawed by me. Under careful guidance of MauroXavier. :) I'm glad it turned out to be useful for others. By the way it is schematic for only one SN76489 (not stereo). And in place of speaker you should put amplifier+speaker or headphones, bacause output signal of SN76489 is very low. Yesterday I assembled this schematic on protoboard, and I confirm it works! |
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MauroXavier Guru Joined: 06/03/2016 Location: BrazilPosts: 303 |
What a beautifull piece of protoboard ;) Here I'm mixing the sound out from Colour Maximite directly in a amplifier. I'm very glad that you are using it, I have so many things to show but was a little dissapointed because doesn't had some feedback from users, with this appears that nobody is interessed in this. But with your perseverance, I'm happy again to continue the project! I will publish soon other videos and more recent codes with heavy optimizations and with a ton of good PSG musics. Thanks a lot by your feedback! |
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matherp Guru Joined: 11/12/2012 Location: United KingdomPosts: 8517 |
I don't think we have a game playing/programming audience I spent quite a lot of time developing a pretty comprehensive sprite capability on the MMX and ported it to the Pi-cromite and Armmite but AFAIK no-one has ever used it. Lot's of feedback when I was developing with ideas that I tried to incorporate but no sign of any actual usage. You are doing amazing things with the CMM but even there I think you are only the second or third developer to use the capabilities Geoff built in. Don't be discouraged but don't expect too much. The last game I played was Chuckie Egg |
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Cyber Senior Member Joined: 13/01/2019 Location: UkrainePosts: 161 |
May be they are just silent or haven't heard about things happening. I noticed quiete an increasing interest in vintage gaming lately here and there. Spectrum? |
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Chopperp Guru Joined: 03/01/2018 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1028 |
I totally agree. Nice & neat. My one & only CMM is tied up full time doing a heap of monitoring so I can't really try out some of the gaming stuff unfortunately. But thinking about it, I may learn a a thing or two if I did delve into some of the games programming done here. Still waiting for any word of updates for the CMM firmware from Geoff. ChopperP |
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Frank N. Furter Guru Joined: 28/05/2012 Location: GermanyPosts: 813 |
@MauroXavier: Please keep on! I'm still waiting for having the time to reflash my CMM to try out your programs! Unfortunately it doesn't work with my current CMM firmware! Frank |
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Cyber Senior Member Joined: 13/01/2019 Location: UkrainePosts: 161 |
I plan to obtain one ore two MiniMM or CGMMSTICK for such tasks. You can do the same. And let ColourMM be your desktop device. |
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Chopperp Guru Joined: 03/01/2018 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1028 |
@Cyber Good suggestions. There are a number of options available. I like the VGA in some respects display. Nice & big. I have put a lot of time & effort into my current setup though but it is due for an upgrade. BTW, welcome to the Forums. ChopperP |
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