Hi all!
First time poster long time lurker.
So, I want to create a game for this awfully cool machine.
Made a 4-pictures-slideshow of some mockups that might get to something.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2DSs8PQ3Sg
I'm going to do one of the three featured games. Just haven't decided on which.
My thoughts:
- For the unexpanded
- 224x272 screen (as full as it gets? For pal, at least)
- Disk only
And finally, any good advice to a newbie on the vic?
Cheers!
My project
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English Invader
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Pedro Lambrini
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Yeah, nice looking mock-ups. I really like the Knight'n'Grail idea. That's one of the best games on the C64 in recent years and a version on the Vic would be truly impressive! Though, I'd recommend lots of RAM for that one! 
Good luck with whichever concept you follow.
Good luck with whichever concept you follow.
"...That of the Eastern tribe being like a multitude of colours as if a rainbow had settled upon its brow..." Daniels 1:3
Great images! I presume those are generated on a VIC-20, at least an emulated one so you haven't drawn pictures based on assumed limitations? It seems you may need a few raster tricks to get all those colours in place, but nothing impossible.
Unexpanded is cool but no longer as much of an requirement as it used to be. Your expanded screen 28x34 would require a screen matrix of 952 bytes, add a custom character set of about 512 bytes and you're down to a little over 2.5K left for game + graphics handling routines. You probably could reuse a big deal of the lower 1K if you have no use for Basic and Kernal calls but it would be tight. Since you already set for disk only, which I assume means the game will load levels on the fly, I'd suggest you consider what +8K expansion memory can do for you.
.. err, I read your details on YouTube. So you limited yourself to 32 custom characters, using 8x16 pixel characters. It means the screen matrix is only 476 bytes but you still need a 512 bytes character set, possibly more if you want to implement software sprites as movement per 16 pixels will be very coarse. It gives you another 0.5K but my suggestion above still stands. I don't know if you think 8x16 will give you any advantage. It is mostly used for simulating bitmaps, scrollers and alike where you need a big area of graphics using few logical characters.
By the way, don't bother with +3K expansion. While most people today can use that memory map, it is a roadblock compared to +8K or more.
Unexpanded is cool but no longer as much of an requirement as it used to be. Your expanded screen 28x34 would require a screen matrix of 952 bytes, add a custom character set of about 512 bytes and you're down to a little over 2.5K left for game + graphics handling routines. You probably could reuse a big deal of the lower 1K if you have no use for Basic and Kernal calls but it would be tight. Since you already set for disk only, which I assume means the game will load levels on the fly, I'd suggest you consider what +8K expansion memory can do for you.
.. err, I read your details on YouTube. So you limited yourself to 32 custom characters, using 8x16 pixel characters. It means the screen matrix is only 476 bytes but you still need a 512 bytes character set, possibly more if you want to implement software sprites as movement per 16 pixels will be very coarse. It gives you another 0.5K but my suggestion above still stands. I don't know if you think 8x16 will give you any advantage. It is mostly used for simulating bitmaps, scrollers and alike where you need a big area of graphics using few logical characters.
By the way, don't bother with +3K expansion. While most people today can use that memory map, it is a roadblock compared to +8K or more.
Anders Carlsson
Thanks all!
It's leaning more and more to a KnG version. But that 'simple' shmup would be cool to pursuit as well.
I kind of like a limitation like the unexpanded. For KnG it would mean lots of short areas instead of a few long ones (as it's in the C64 version).
Well, anyway, I'll keep you posted.
Later!
It's leaning more and more to a KnG version. But that 'simple' shmup would be cool to pursuit as well.
What you see is running in Vice. So, there's no need for any raster tricks to get it working as it is. But if I, for instance, go for the shmup idea I will be splitting the colors every 32 lines, or something (like I did in this test: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irXOTAg7lw8 ).carlsson wrote: It seems you may need a few raster tricks to get all those colours in place
I kind of like a limitation like the unexpanded. For KnG it would mean lots of short areas instead of a few long ones (as it's in the C64 version).
Well, anyway, I'll keep you posted.
Later!
Hey Mix256... if you could manage those graphics in a real vic game, I think we're gonna see the best arcade game ever made on our beloved home computer!!! Impressive, there isn't any other adjective to describe those outstanding mockups!!!
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